Those Places Thursday: Images of ... Woodstock

I am a huge fan of the Images of America series of books by Arcadia Publishers.  If you aren't familiar with this series, it highlights local and regional history, primarily featuring old photographs with informative captions, usually written by someone with local ties.  Their website lists over 8000 titles in this series.

A while back I added to my Images of America collection when I purchased the book about my father's hometown of Woodstock, Georgia.  I thought it would be a nice souvenir of spending some time at the Visitor's Center in Woodstock, but it turned out to be so much more.  

Whitemore, Felicia S.  Woodstock 1860-1970.  Images of America.  Charleston,  SC: Arcadia Publishers, 2009.

For starters, the front cover featured a photo of Dean's Store which was owned by a cousin also pictured on the cover.  Inside the book I found several pictures of the church where my Great Grandfather A. B. Vaughan had been the minister for many years and a shot of the elementary school where my Grandmother Perkinson had taught.  There were also more pictures inside Dean's Store where I remember my Grandfather Perkinson taking me for a Coke during family outings to Woodstock.  Finally I found photographs of the old family home and as well as houses belonging to various cousins.  All places I remembered visiting as a child.  

As I browsed through the book, I started spying names that were scattered on branches of my family tree, so I slowed down and when back to reading every caption.  I found invaluable snippets of information about cousins through the captions.  Later, because the books in this series are not indexed, I made my own index of family names and locations in the book.  This has made it easier to locate information using the index I've tucked into the back of the book.

My favorite moment came as I studied a picture of "Woodstock Residents at President Wilson's Inauguration, March 4, 1913".  There in the backseat of a sightseeing car was my Grandfather Perkinson!  The caption went on to relate how "the driver made a wrong turn and got in front of the presidential inauguration parade and could not turn off the road because of exits filled with spectators.  The four guys from Woodstock and other spectators in the car led the parade unexpectedly."(1)  Love this story!  Plus Google Books just happened to include a picture of page 110 in their preview of the book.

What I thought would be just a souvenir turned out to be a helpful resource in my research.  Sure, I had memories of people and places in Woodstock, Georgia, but this book turned out to be a real gem.  Maybe you will have a similar experience reading one of their books about a town or area that is part of your family's story.

(1) Felicia S. Whitemore. Woodstock 1860-1970. Images of America. (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2009), 110.