O Pioneers!

On a day of celebration and history in historic Putnamville, the descendants of the Warren Township community’s pioneer families gather beside the newly-reconstructed Townsend/Layman Museum on the old town green in front of Putnamville United Methodist Church. The honored guests include (front from left) Hazel Miles Barnett, Margie Jones Taylor, Pat Smith Sheldon, Charles Miles, (back) Ann Miles Oldham, Carol Barnett, Jordan Vaughn, Joe Miles and Susan and Robert Hodge. A former summer kitchen and freed slave’s quarters that stood next to the Townsend Inn, the brick building was the focus of a project spearheaded by Lee and Susan Stewart that involved knocking down the old structure, moving the 190-year-old bricks across U.S. 40 and reconstructing the new structure with them. Read more about the effort and the celebration in the Wednesday edition of the Banner Graphic.