Local events have a lot of history behind them

I’ve heard rave reviews about Lawrenceburg Community Theater’s production of Oklahoma! and the talented people working on and offstage to present it. The musical continues this weekend at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Community Theater celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The venue for this and many of their other productions is the Crockett Theatre, which has been an important part of our identity since 1950.
Other events this weekend and next also stand on their own for entertainment value and have an direct connection to Lawrence County’s history.
County Council Variety Show
Friday, July 19 at 7 p.m. the County Council of Community Clubs hosts its 45th annual Variety Show in the back gym at Rotary Park. It is the group’s primary fundraiser, providing scholarships to 4-H camp and help to families facing long illnesses and disasters like house fires.
Admission is free, but a donation qualifies you for door prizes. Concessions will be available, and cakes made by some of the county’s best cooks will be auctioned. The Hymn Notes will entertain, and a boy and girl will be crowned Little Miss and Mister County Council.
Also, thanks to County Commissioner and Council Vice-President Rick Skillington, another Variety Show tradition is returning: Ms. County Council, a womanless “beauty” revue. A Mr. County Council pageant that features more gender-bending contestants has been added. Speaking as one of three judges, I will tell you I am frightened.
Forty-five years definitely qualifies the Variety Show as a tradition, but today’s Community Clubs have a direct link to the early development of Lawrence County and rural America.
Skillington spent his career in Agriculture Extension and tells me everything began with an 1862 Congressional Act that established land-grant colleges specializing in agriculture and the mechanic arts. An 1887 Act created Experiment Stations, where those colleges and the U.S. Department of Agriculture researched ways to improve farming practices.
A 1914 Act established the Agriculture Extension Service, charged with taking those findings to American farmers. Travel being what it was, Agents had to deliver information in each community and established clubs for that purpose.
Offshoots from Community Clubs educated homemakers and youth. One early Home Demonstration Club project taught women to make cotton mattresses to replace corn shuck-stuffed versions where bedbugs thrived. Youth belonged to clubs named for the subject they studied – Pig Clubs, Corn Clubs – which were the precursors of 4-H.
Several local Community Clubs have come and gone. New Prospect is the oldest active club and will be 100 years old in February 2020. Other current clubs are Copperas Branch, Crawfish Valley, Gandy, Henryville, Mars Hill, West End and West Point. All of them work to support Volunteer Fire Departments and projects that benefit residents in those areas. I’m proud of our Community Clubs and the history behind them.
Vaughan Quartet Festival
Main Street Lawrenceburg will host its annual Vaughan Quartet Festival Wednesday, July 24 through Saturday, July 27 at the Crockett Theatre. Shows begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; and at 6 p.m. Saturday. A free matinee is offered at 1 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The lineup totals 23 groups, including some of the most popular and longest-lived names in the business: the Chuckwagon Gang, Mark Trammell Quartet, Gold City and the Blackwood Brothers. People come from all over the Southeast, and beyond, to attend.
Over the years the event has grown from two nights to four, and ticket sales are up this year. This proves the staying power of Southern Gospel Music - a very old genre that Lawrenceburg music teacher, composer, publisher, songwriter and entrepreneur James D. Vaughan took to the masses.
Vaughan opened his music publishing company on the Square in 1903 and over the next six years published a steady stream of new songbooks and sold an average of 60,000 a month.
Sales were promoted through Vaughan singing schools held in churches throughout the South. Many came to the Vaughan School of Music for vocal and instrumental instruction, and some stayed to work for the company. Vaughan sent traveling quartets – a total of 16 at one point – to perform and teach as far north as Illinois.
He also published a subscription newsletter, the Vaughan Family Visitor, which promoted Southern Gospel and dispensed spiritual advice. Vaughan produced phonograph records for a time, and owned the first commercially-operated radio station in Tennessee, WOAN.
Vaughan’s business has been rightfully called a media empire. To learn more about the man and the music, schedule a visit to the Vaughan Museum by calling 762-4459.
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I encourage you to support these and other community events. Through them, we honor Lawrence County’s rich and unique history.