Campbell County Historical Society Meetings

Campbell County Historical Society
Our Meetings

The Society meets the fourth Sunday of the months of January, April, July and October. Notice pertaining to location and programs appear in the Newsletter, this webpage and in the local papers the week prior to the meeting date. The January, July and October meetings are held at the Historic Courthouse (unless otherwise stated) in Rustburg at 2:30 p.m. The April meeting is a dinner meeting usually held at New Concord Presbyterian Church in Concord, VA.

JULY MEETING

Our July Membership meeting will be held Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 2:30 PM at Historic Sandusky in Lynchburg, VA.

The program speaker will beMr. Gregory H. Starbuck, Executive Director of the Historic Sandusky Foundation. Greg has been featured in recent newspaper articles, which have detailed his ongoing work as producer of a film project which features Sandusky and Hunter's Raid upon Lynchburg in June 1864.

Greg will present a new PowerPoint program on the history of Sandusky, beginning with its construction in about 1808, by Charles Johnston (1769 - 1833), as the seat of his 1200-acre plantation, on land he had purchased from John Lynch, Thomas Burgess, and James Steptoe. We will hear the origin of the name, "Sandusky," synopses of its successive owners, the Otey, Hutter, and Atkinson families, and Sandusky's connections to notable personages and events, including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, former US Vice President John Breckenridge, and future US Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley. The home was used by Union Major General David "Black Dave" Hunter as his headquarters during the Battle of Lynchburg.

Years of private ownership ended with purchase of the property by the Historic Sandusky Foundation. Sandusky is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Restoration, preservation, and research efforts are ongoing and include recent developments with the adjacent farm manager's house and a new gift shop.

Please join us for a delightful afternoon of fellowship.

Greg Starbuck is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.A. in American History and a B.S. in Business Management. In 1979 he co-founded the Virginia Tech Civil War Roundtable under the guidance of Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr.

Following college he worked at the National Colonial Farm in Accokeek, MD (1984) and Old Fort Jackson in Savannah, GA (1985) as a Historical Interpreter, giving tours and programs to school children and travel groups. From 1988 to 1996 he worked as an Exhibits Technician for the Virginia Marine Science Museum building and maintaining museum exhibits and animal habitats.

In 1996, he was accepted the position of Site Manager of Old Fort Jackson in Savannah, Georgia. During his tenure this historic site was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 2000 he was designated Curator Emeritus of the Coastal Heritage Society. Starbuck supervised the production of a video on the site’s history, and assisted in filming at the fort for the History Channel and C-SPAN.

From 2000-2002 he served as the first Director of Education at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia during which time the museum built and moved into a new 8 million dollar facility. He created the museum’s field trip program and Teacher Resource Packet. In the fall of 2001 he led a teacher re-certification class for Muscogee County school teachers.

In 2002 he became Executive Director of Historic Sandusky, the Lynchburg home used as Headquarters for Union General David Hunter during the 1864 Battle of Lynchburg. Recently he co-coordinated the creation of a Civil War audio driving tour of Lynchburg narrated by James I. Robertson, Jr. Executive Director of the Virginia Center of Civil War Studies located at Virginia Tech and led the committee to establish the Hunter’s Raid Civil War Trail, part of the Civil War Trails system in Virginia.

Starbuck has worked as a contract employee for the Museum of the Confederacy, The Mariner’s Museum, Jamestown National Historic Site, and The National Monitor Marine Sanctuary. He has written and published several articles on Civil War material culture. Over the past 15 years he has participated in numerous historical films and documentaries including working behind the scenes as a Property Assistant on the Turner film Gettysburg. Most recently he advised costume designers on the films Gods & Generals (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003) on the subject of military headgear.

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Last updated July 07, 2009 by

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