Strieby Congregational Church, School, & Cemetery Cultural Heritage Site

08/22/2026

Today! 2:00 pm! See you there!!!

One week from today! We hope to see you there!!!

08/22/2026

It’s tomorrow! 2:00 pm! Come out and share the legacy.

08/15/2026

One week from today! We hope to see you there!!!

07/18/2026

People frequently ask me if I’m familiar with which indigenous community would have called Randolph County and area home. Here is a brief answer to that question.

Long before the Piedmont filled with mill towns and highways, a small nation called the Keyauwee lived in a fortified village near what is now Randolph County. 🌾 When the explorer John Lawson passed through in 1701, he described a tidy town ringed by a palisade and surrounded by carefully tended fields of corn and orchards of peaches.

The Keyauwee were a Siouan speaking people, closely tied to their neighbors the Saponi, Tutelo, and Occaneechi. Life in the Carolina backcountry was growing dangerous, squeezed between colonial expansion and raids from larger nations, and small tribes often survived by joining together. Over time the Keyauwee merged with these allied peoples and moved north seeking safety.

Their name still lingers faintly on the land, in a creek and a few place names, but their palisaded town among the Caraway hills is long gone. 🍃 It is a reminder of how many nations called this land home for centuries before the first colonial map was ever drawn.

07/03/2026

We’re excited to have our official opening of the museum at Strieby, on Saturday, August 22, 2026, ribbon cutting at 2:00 pm, at Strieby Church. Come out and celebrate!!!🎉

Then come back Sunday for more fellowship and a message of inspiration from Rev Paul Medlock. 🙏🏼

06/26/2026

This past Tuesday, 23 June, was Primary Day in Washington, DC. There was a vibrant, spirited campaign for the Democratic nomination. One hundred fifty-six years ago, DC was having a hotly contested election for the mayor. Islay Walden was politically active then. Typically for the time, the Reconstruction years after the Civil War, Islay Walden, like most African Americans, was active in the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln. What we can see in this blogpost I wrote a few years ago, is that Walden was not afraid to speak up even if what he was saying was not popular. This is an interesting window on the past, a time when, like now, emotions were heightened.



https://margoleewilliamsbooks.com/2021/11/05/52-ancestors-voting-the-1870-washington-d-c-mayoral-election-and-islay-walden/

06/20/2026

Juneteenth - Post 7
This is the final post in this series. I was unable to get this posted yesterday on Juneteenth, but celebrations continue today and all weekend, so I consider this still timely.

William Fisher – 1858-1924
William Fisher’s personal history, including parents, is unknown at present. In the 1880 census, he was living in the home of Nathan Winslow and his family, in Concord Township, in Randolph County, but not in 1870. He married Elizabeth Hill, daughter of Bethania “Thanie” Hill, and granddaughter of Ned and Priscilla Hill, about 1885 according to the 1900 census; however, no county marriage record has been identified. Both William and Elizabeth, along with their son Calvin, are buried in Strieby Cemetery. Th'e Fisher's owned two parcels of land abutting Strieby Church property and descendants continue to own them today.



Pitures: Headstone and footstone of William Fisher and Headstone of his son, Calvin Fisher.