Drawing of the Bland County Jail Bland
County
Historical
Society
Picture of the jail

The Bland County Historical Society is located in the "old jail building" on the courthouse square. Volunteers are at the jail each Friday for research and shopping, and on other days by appointment. Phone (276) 688-0088

Can you help us identify the persons in these pictures? We will post pictures here from time to time and need your help in coming up with accurate captions. Below is the first mystery picture. Click on the picture to see full sized.

Rev. Miller and two sinners
Unknown, Alexander Cregger, and the Reverend William Rice Miller

Can you identify the men in this picture?

Garnette Bane from Greenville, SC, relative of the Rev. William Rice Miller (1856 - 1926), son of Dr. Lorenzo and Mrs. Martha Lois Bird Miller, has recently finished her faith-based historical novel about the Rev. Will Rice Miller and Emma Morehead Miller and their family who lived in the Mechanicsburg area of Bland County. She sent the Bland County Historical Society a picture of her relative witnessing to two other men. We know that the man with the Bible is Rev Miller. The 1910 and 1920 U. S. Census lists him as a minister in Mechanicsburg. Garnette would like to know if anyone can identify the other two men? Please send us an email at info@blandcountyhistsoc.org

Many thanks to Nancy Bodmer in Maryland for identifying another of the men in the mystery picture:
The man in the center is Alexander Cregger, Nancy Bodmer's husband's Great, Great Grandfather. He was born in 1846 and died 1913 and is buried near Nebo. He married Margaret Victoria Wetzel who was born in 1849 in Scott Co. They had 7 children, including son Lewis Henley Cregger, Nancy Bodmer's husband's Great Grandfather.

Here's another picture of Mr. Cregger: