West Gadsden Historical Society, Inc. Home Page

West Gadsden Historical Society, Inc. was organized in June 2004, as a non-profit charitable entity exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. The first task at hand was to secure a building to serve as our headquarters. We found the historic James A. Dezell House, 328 East 8th Street, Greensboro, Florida was for sale. With its unusual architecture and its great location on Highway 12, it would satisfy our needs. As of October 15, 2004, West Gadsden Historical Society, Inc. became the proud owner of The Dezell House! This property is the FIRST museum in Gadsden County. Restoration is already underway.

April 22, 2012---West Gadsden Historical Society is proud to host a meeting about Journey Stories. These are the stories that all of us may have in our families’ past. The story that tells why we left one place and came to the place we now call home. This meeting is in connection with the presentation to be held at The Panhandle Pioneer Settlement which will be an exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute Museum on Main Street—Journey Stories showing during the period of July 14-August 25, 2012. An invitation has been extended to West Gadsden Historical Society to have a display about Gadsden County’s own Journey Stories which will be shown during the entire length of this exhibit. To find out more about the exhibit WGHS will prepare and the Smithsonian exhibit please join us at 3:00 p.m. in Gardner Hall, 150 East 11th Street, Greensboro.

May 20, 2012 – Marlene Womack, an historical researcher and author from Panama City, will be the guest speaker. Ms. Womack attended Gulf Coast Community College and Florida State University where she took courses in journalism and creative writing before she began the popular weekly newspaper column “Out of the Past” that has appeared in the Panama City News Herald since 1982. She grew up in New Jersey with a keen interest in local history. After moving to Panama City in 1973 she became interested in the history of Bay County and the surrounding area. Ms. Womack is the author of several books of local interest. She will discuss her book Moonshine Mayhem that features moonshining, a lost way of life. Included in the book are stories about the manufacture of illegal liquor and the life of the moonshiners and the agents who attempted to apprehend them. You will also learn about the Temperance Movement and the failure of Prohibition, as well as recipes for making moonshine, and many other interesting facts.

July 4, 2012 – 8th Annual Open House, 9:00 A.M., Dezell House, 328 E. 8th St., Greensboro

September 23, 2012 – Doyle Connor, Jr. will give an interesting presentation about the history of the long ago days of the Florida Cowboy and cattle drives. Since the early 1800s the cattle industry has certainly been connected with Gadsden County. During the golden age of shade tobacco, most farms also had herds of cattle, producing the much needed fertilizer for the tobacco.