By Fred and Jo Gibson

Several times a year I go to cemeteries in Chuck Swan State Forest (Central Peninsula in Union County). I’m there mostly to check the conditions of the cemeteries. While there I read some gravestones. One caught my attention. As Bonnie Heiskell Peters has said, “Cemeteries are museums without walls.”

By Veronica Fox

The Union County Museum is the recipient of a uniform worn by James Elbert Miller during the Spanish-American War. This article dives into the story of one such uniform’s journey from battlefield to museum display, examining its donation, restoration and place in our museum.

A Brief History Review

Big Ridge Elementary School opened in 1960-1961 as the consolidated school assigned to receive Pine Grove students. Central View, Hickory Valley, Arevalo, and part of Burkhart were also included in the consolidation.
Arevalo Elementary School opened to students in 1st through 8th grade circa1924. Bonnie Heiskell Peters relates the origins of the name of the Arevalo School in Union County Schoolday Memories.

In the fall of 1986, Wanda Woods Cox (later Byerley), a former teacher at Pine Grove Elementary, a school with grades first through eighth, organized a reunion of former students and teachers.
Since the school was located close to the county line, students attended from Anderson and Union County. Most walked to school. Many of the early students went home for lunch.