Discuss the past

      The Parham family has a long history in Granville County, North Carolina and England. Thus, most of the Parham family in the Granville and Vance County, North Carolina area can trace their ancestry to a family patriarch named James Parham from England. This blog post will explore the ancestry of my own grandfather Thomas Clement Parham Sr. who resided in Granville County, North Carolina and was born there in December 1916. From what can be found in the Granville County archives through the Richard Thornton Public Library, the earliest ancestors of the Parhams in Granville County lived in areas near Sulfolk England around 1600. These ancestors were likely named James and Frances Parham. However, records of when James' descendants immigrated to the New World are less than clear. Researchers believe strongly that the Parham last name is of English descent and has its origins in the Old English 'per' and is a reference to the pear tree, and 'ham' or 'hamm'...

      There are many competing views regarding the reasons for the Great Depression. Two classical competing economic theories regarding the causes of the Great Depression include the Keynesian and monetarist explanations. Most historians and economists either adhere to one of these two theories when examining the causes of the Great Depression. The Keynesian explanation is a demand driven explanation for the Great Depression and the severe economic recession that occurred in the United States just before World War II. The Keynesian theory of the cause of the Great Depression argues that the wide spread loss of economic and financial confidence led to drastically lower investments by Americans as well as lower consumption. Monetarists, on the other hand, argue that the Great Depression was caused by a simple ordinary recession that was accelerated and made worse significantly by poor economic policy decisions. These poor economic decisions, these monetarists argue, especi...

  Christianity in the Early American Republic     Early American religion, of course, was dominated by Christianity in a variety of denominations. Many of the early American colonies were founded for religious motivations including the desire for religious freedom or tolerance. For example, the New England colonies were founded by separatists and Puritans. The middle and Southern colonies were also founded by Christians. The middle and southern colonies, however, were founded by Quakers and Protestants. Maryland, uniquely, was founded as a place of religious toleration for Catholics. Interpretations of the Bible and religious practices generally differed from one colony to the next as well as one congregation to the next in the early Republic. Churches as well as their congregations came in all shapes and sizes as well and reflected the social status and wealth of the people they served. Despite their differences in shape and size, all early American Christian churches pu...

 Henry Ford was born just outside of Detroit Michigan during the Civil War. At the age of sixteen he leaves his family behind to pursue his interests in machinery in Detroit. By no means does Ford strike it rich initially in the postbellum economy. In 1879 he is only earning roughly $2.50 a week shaping brass valves. A true innovator, he spends every waking moment while also growing his young family in a rented house in Detroit, toying with his invention of the quadricycle. His hard work and determination pay off and in 1896 his first automobile creation, the Quadracycle, is driven by him through the streets of Detroit. Just at the turn of the twentieth century, he is able to form his Detroit Automobile Company. His financial backers all grew tired of his attempts to constantly update his automobiles and constant desire to push the market forward through innovation. While his financial backers grew tired of his constant attempts to update his automobiles and make them more innovati...