Notes
Owner: Soil Conservation Service
This photograph of Red Hill is one of a collection taken by the Southside Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in October 1950. They provide documentation of "Miracle Day"—a SCS demonstration project at Red Hill organized to rehabilitate the neglected farmland for the use of the Patrick Henry Boys Plantation. The original photographs were in the care of former SCS official, Eugene Morris.
On September 23, 1950, a committee from the PHMF met at Red Hill and reserved about twenty acres of property, and the rest was to be used as farmland for the boys' home.
On October 18, 1950, "Miracle of Conservation", also known as "Miracle Day", was held at Red Hill to demonstrate farming practices while renovating approximately 250 acres of land, preparing it for use by the Patrick Henry Boys Plantation program. It was sponsored by the United States Soil Conservation Service, Virginia Forest Service, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Extension Service through local county agents, veterans' training classes, and farm equipment and implement dealers in the area. The event was overseen by approximately 5,000 visitors.
The event was publicized on October 12, 1950 in "The Charlotte Gazette" in Drakes Branch, Virginia in Volume 76 – number 49 and also in the "Richmond-Times Dispatch" on September 24, 1950.
The photograph depicts former Virginia Governor William M. Tuck (1896–1983) giving a speech at the podium on the wooden stage at "Miracle Day". He told the audience that he saw no better-fitted memorial to Patrick Henry and his legacy than to use the historic spot as a rehabilitation home for troubled boys.
Behind Tuck and to his right sits James S. Easley (1885–1965), first president of the PHMF. The other men are unidentified.
The podium is adorned with banners with the acronyms "WRVA" and "WSVS". WSVS was a radio station that still broadcasts to the Southside Virginia area to this day. WRVA was a radio station that broadcasts to the Central Virginia area to this day.
The Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation borrowed the original photographs from Mr. Morris and made enlarged prints for its collection in August 2007. The original 3 1/2" x 5" photos were hand delivered back to Eugene Morris on or shortly after August 24, 2007.