How did the Toe River get its name? What retired MIT chemistry professor founded a free lending library in Mitchell County with over 10,000 books in 1885? How many generations of the Woody Family has built chairs in Grassy Creek?
If you were a middle or high school participant in the recent Mitchell County Historical Society’s History Bee, you would have answered “From a Cherokee maiden,” “Charles H. Wing,” and “Seven.”
The Historical Society’s variation on the classic spelling bee had been an annual event for three years prior to the COVID pandemic. After five years of recovery from pandemic and disaster, the fourth History Bee was finally held in the Mitchell Middle School gym on Thursday, with the plan to reestablish it as a yearly competition.
Seventeen Mitchell County middle schoolers competed in their division, while the scheduled six participants in the high school division were whittled down to three due to a transportation issue involving the others.
Each competition within the divisions worked toward a lone student standing after the others were eliminated after two incorrect answers. Dr. Daniel Barron, chair of the Historical Society, played the bee’s host and moderator, giving each student in turn a multiple-choice question.
The questions pertained to Mitchell County’s history and were generated from two source texts that the students were assigned to read: Elizabeth C. Hunter’s “Voices of the Valley” and an in-house publication, “Footsteps to Freedom.” For the audience of approximately 60 people, it was a crash-course in local lore and events.
Mitchell Middle School teacher Ashley Davis was on hand to cheer on her seventh-grade son, Madon, who eventually won the second place prize in the middle school division.
“Madon wasn’t that interested in history until he started taking Jacob Gortney’s classes here at Mitchell,” Davis said. “Jacob is really responsible for these kids’ enthusiasm.”
Gortney, who is also the secretary of the Historical Society, sat on the sidelines like a coach, giving supportive council to his students as they were eliminated from the bee.
Financial support for the History Bee was provided by Gina Phillips and the Quartz Corp, the latter who provided cash prizes to the winners, with first place receiving $500, with $300 and $200 going to the second and third place winners respectively.
After a long, tight round of questioning for the middle school group, sixth-grader Kymli McFarland placed first, followed by Madon Davis, and eighth-grader Kloe Daniell. In the truncated high school division, Mitchell High School 11th-grader Grace Smith won first, followed by Mayland Early College senior Connor Miller and Mitchell High senior Sam Jones.
“What was wonderful to see was how supportive the students were of one another throughout,” Ashley Davis said at the end of the bee. Indeed, the young competitors would often smile and fist-bump their opponents as they scored points.
Dressed in colonial period clothes, Barron was pleased with the evening.
“I’m glad we have this up and running again,” he said.