At one time Blue Ridge was a busy farming community with a school, a store and a church. My mom and grandparents grew up in the Blue Ridge Community; even though I have never lived in there it is the place of my roots. At one time Grannie’s farm was a thriving farm complete with a big farm house. I remember Christmas and other family gatherings at Grannie’s house, spending time with Grannie (Great Grandmother) and Aunt Ruby in that big old farm house, eating homemade chocolate pudding and following my Granddaddy around on the farm. Sadly the house burned in the late 1970’s. I remember attending church services in the Blue Ridge church and summer revivals in the tabernacle. I especially enjoyed when they had 5th Sunday dinner on the grounds. The food was amazing and my grandmother made the best sweet tea. The Big Guy and I were married in the Blue Ridge Church. My grandparents were also married in the church.
Please Note: The top two pictures are not mine.
Only picture I could find of Granny’s house. You can see a better picture of the house here.
Award winning photo taken by Kenneth Miller of the Hamilton Herald-News as the big house burned.
Note: I was informed by Kenneth Miller that he thinks his dad Bob Miller took the picture.
Remains of the windmill.
All that remains of the big farm house is the pump house and one of the barns in the background.
Hidden in the trees is the big barn. Funny it seemed a lot bigger when I was a kid.
This is all that remains of the store.
Front view of the church.
Our wedding picture. Early in the week a skunk crawled under the church near where we are standing. Guess something weird always happens in weddings.
See more ABC Wednesday.
The Dee Zone 
How very sad that the house burned down.
Bear((( )))
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What a difference between pictures! I see the times have really changed.
That fir must have been awesome.
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What a fascinating exploration of the history – excellent post.
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What an interesting post. That took a lot of time and effort to put together, I am sure. It was well worth it! Thanks for a little glimpse into an unfamiliar community.
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Interesting history — thanks for sharing it…
Hope you are having a great A”B”C Wednesday…
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BearNaked: It was a very sad day. The house burned very quickly
RunE: Yes, time does change things.
Gerald: TY, it is also a bit of my heritage.
Kim & Donald: TY.
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This was very interesting to read….thank you for sharing it with us. I’ve always heard about how beautiful the Blue Ridge Mountains are but have not visited there (yet)…
That is such a dramatic photo of the house burning…and kinda sad too.
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Sadly, older homes do have a tendency to burn very quickly đŸ˜¦ This was such a great loss. These photos are great, Dee. I was ROTF when I read about the shunk under the church during your wedding! Oh, my!
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Sara,
Actually the Blue Ridge Community is/was located in Hamilton county Texas. It is the only ridge in the county and from a distance looks blue.
Quinn,
It was very sad when Granny’s house burned. Forunately, no one was living in the house at the time but hundreds of photos and many handmade quilts were lost. Actually, they got the skunk out about 2 days before the wedding but the smell wasn’t quite gone. Think many of the windows were open during the wedding. Which was strange since it was in December & it was raining.
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Always I have fond memories of my pastorate at Blue Ridge Baptist from about 1960-63 I think. We ate at the Vern Crain’s house often, and even stayed some on Saturday nights. Mrs. Crain was a good cook. We stayed also at the Charles Walker’s home, the Alvin Perry’s home, and some at Sam Rayburns. We loved the visiting, the singing, and after I preached my “in-view-of-a-call” sermon before the church, the missionary (Bro. Cheek?) got up and said they might as well vote me in because my sermon indication evidently, I wanted to come awfully badly. The $20.00 salary weekly just about helped us thru seminary, including donated chickens, eggs, meat, milk, etc. The 103 mile journey one-way was a challenge, but we were young and while Millie drove down to Hamilton, I could look over my message. I remember once preaching and I waved my hand and my notes fell to floor in front of the pulpit. I just went on preaching. Some said I should have done without notes all along. I was surprised when I saw Bro. Stribling throwing out the leftover wine cups after communion one Sunday. I thought it so odd until I remembered we didn’t have a kitchen then to dump the leftovers. Our youngest son, Glenn, got loose one Sunday, and crawled under the pews to the front until one of the ladies grabbed him. Once I sang the song, “It Fell On Me”, and Glenn piped up out loud, “What fell on Daddy?” Jane Perry was the accompanist and I thought she would fall off the piano bench. Once at the Perrys, when they were out of the house, I took off their soup can labels, and wrote on the cans such things as “Lizard Soup”; “Roach Soup”; Rhino Soup,” etc. There was always fun at Blue Ridge. It was always good when Ray Weathers was in town so we could hear him sing. He always sang, holding his crutches, to Glenn, “The Big Bad Wolf” or something like that. We took Glenn to visit Elreeta, after her car wreck, was in Harris Hospital in Fort Worth, and he was always the highlight of our time with her. Glenn told her the story of Zaccheus climbing the sycamore tree, but he had some variation of his own and we laughed about that. I’m sorry the church no longer meets but there are still a lot of wonderful Christians around there. George and Millie Dixon
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George & Millie,
Would Bro. Stribling be Uncle Jack? Yes, the song was Big Bad Wolf. He used to sing it to me.
DH
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What a fabulous post Dee. The black and white of the fire is amazing. Good history you logged for yourself and others. Love the wedding photo…
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Ellen,
TY, that photo was taken by a reporter/photographer for the local paper.
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Bravo!!! So nice that someone cares as much about history of our families, etc as I do. Wish more young folks were interested.
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, Leave the rest to God
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That’s so cool! Having the old pictures, then going to the same place and taking pictures of what it looks like now. Its so great how you and your mom hold so much history at your fingertips.
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Britt: My mom has an entire website devoted to the history of Hamilton County.
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looking for history of blue ridge, we bought land right in front of the church, the land to the west of us is a triangle between the church road and county road 406, we believe the school was next to the church and the store next to the school, is this correct? we are looking for who owns the triangle, any ideas?
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Ask Danny Raiborn maybe. He bought by grandparents farm. If you past the triangle shaped his place is there. The sign says Raiborn a Blue Ridge Farm. As for for history of the land look up my Mom’s Hamilton County Gazateer. I think the school was closer to the road. The store was right by the road. It was owned by one of our relatives on the Stribling side. Jane Brown might also know who owns the land. I know that it wasn’t owned by Striblings.
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According to my mom that triangle shaped Land is easement.
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The school was west of the church. However it was not on the church grounds. The store was by the road and there was a rock structure that was leftover from the store.
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