January 20, 2003
Oxford woman honored for efforts to preserve local history
by Lucy Schultze
The Oxford EAGLE
Tricia Young sleeps in her great-great-grandmother's bed, a
soaring four-poster scarred with bullet holes from where her ancestor
was shot by soldiers raiding her home during the Civil War.
On the wall in the bedroom are portraits of her female
forbearers going back to the late 1700s. And in the living room
bookcase are three volumes of genealogical indexes she compiled for
African Americans researching their local roots.
Young's home, like her memory, is rich with connections to
the history of her family and Lafayette County, where her ancestors
settled during the 1830s. Her passion for the past and her work in
preserving local history recently earned her the designation of
Ageless Hero by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi. She will be
honored along with the 23 other winners from across the state at an
awards luncheon next week in Hattiesburg.
As part of this award, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of
Mississippi will donate a total of $21,000 to charities selected by
the 2003 Mississippi Ageless Heroes.
"This award was the furthest thing from my mind," she said,
when she heard that she had been chosen from among more than 400
other nominees. "I was so surprised."
Young, 73, is the northern Mississippi winner in the
community involvement category of the competition, which honors
senior citizens who "show that life after age 65 can be a time of
activity, vitality and accomplishment." She was nominated by her good
friend and fellow preservationist Maralyn Bullion.
"Were it not for Patricia Brown Young, whose roots in
Mississippi go back several generations, much of Oxford's heritage
would not have been preserved," Bullion wrote in the nomination
letter. "Her unequaled love for our town and county is her
motivation, and realizing preservation of our heritage is her reward."
Born and raised in Lafayette County, Young has always been
interested in the history of the county, the stories of its families,
and the structures that have endured over time.
Among her first efforts to preserve that history, Young, her
husband Loren and her brother, Billy Ross Brown, restored an old
cotton warehouse that once stood behind City Hall, wrapping the
exterior in cypress leaving the tin roof exposed from inside. The
interior was outfitted with several shops, one of which served as the
couple's antiques dealership.
The Youngs also moved and restored an old log cabin in which
some of the first settlers in Lafayette County had lived during the
1830s. Tricia continued the project after her husband's death in 1980
and added to it a second cabin from the same era to provide ample
living space for their youngest daughter, Debra.
In 1996, Young became one of four founding members of the
Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation, which has since salvaged
the College Hill Store and supported efforts to establish
preservation districts in Oxford. Members are now planning to restore
the Burns Belfry Church on Jackson Avenue and the L.Q.C. Lamar house
on North 14th Street.
In addition to the foundation, Young also serves on the
governing boards of the Skipwith Historical and Genealogical Society,
the Mississippi Genealogical Society and the Mississippi Historical
Society.
Among her most important contributions, Young compiled a
three-volume index to African-American marriage records in Lafayette
County from 1865 to 1975 - the year white and black records were
first combined into the same books.
"It took me about three years to do, but it was absolutely
the best thing I ever did for my own satisfaction," she said. "I
loved it."
Young said the inspiration for the project came from sermons
by the Right Rev. Duncan Gray, former rector St. Peter's Episcopal
Church, and the Rev. Leroy Wadlington during a joint service with
Second Baptist Church, an African-American congregation.
"It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck to see how
much goodness there is and can be between the races," she said. "I
thought this would be my gift back."
With her broad knowledge of local families and the easy
schedule of retirement, Young figured she was one of few who would be
able and willing undertake such a project. She spent countless hours
searching microfilm records and poring over crumbling old books in
the circuit clerk's office until the project was finally completed in
2001. With the newly published indexes, African Americans can locate
their ancestors' records on the microfilm copies.
Young says she'd also like to do the same for white records
between 1902 to 1975, which are without a published index.
Outside of her preservation and genealogical activities,
Young enjoys knitting, reading and antiquing. She is also frequently
on the road traveling to visit her grandchildren in Montgomery, Ala.,
and Nashville, Tenn.