Partnerships & Programmatic Support
SFSPT’s descendant-centered preservation and engagement efforts include collaborations connected to historical preservation, genealogy, oral history, storytelling, cultural heritage, and community dialogue rooted in the legacy of Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton, Possum Trot, and the broader extended family network, including, but not limited to the Cathey, Spruce, Hudgins, Adams, etc. families.
Through educational initiatives, preservation conversations, public history engagement, and descendant-centered programming, SFSPT has worked alongside descendants, historians, preservationists, museums, community leaders, storytellers, and mission-aligned organizations dedicated to preserving and elevating historically significant narratives and spaces.
Photo: Members of the Hobson City Council of Hobson City, Alabama, including Freddie Striplin (left), a descendant of D.C. Spruce and Josephine Finley. D.C. Spruce, a descendant of Harper and Kittie Cathey, established a significant political presence within the historically African American town and was also the nephew of Irvin Spruce, husband of Lucy Shelton Spruce.
Also pictured are Mayor Alberta McCrory (center), the late Joanna Striplin (third from right), sister of Freddie Striplin, and Shelton/Cathey descendant Karen Stewart-Ross (second from right), alongside additional city council members and community representatives.
Freddie and Joanna Striplin are the children of the late Honorable Mayor J.R. Striplin and his wife, Julia Spruce Striplin, daughter of D.C. and Josephine Finley Spruce.
Photo Credit: Tanya DeBose, Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA), 2022 Shelton Family Reunion & Historical Marker Unveiling.
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Programmatic & Educational Initiatives - 2026 Gathering
The 2026 Shelton Family Reunion and A Call to Gather ( A Heritage Preservation Experience) includes educational, historical, preservation, and community-centered programming connected to the legacy of Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton, Possum Trot, and related family histories.
Programmatic portions of the gathering, including elements of the heritage preservation event and related preservation initiatives, may be supported through mission-aligned collaborations connected to participating family-led nonprofit organizations - the Shelton Descendants Historical Society and the Shelton Heritage Society of Georgia & Historic Possum Trot - and preservation partners dedicated to historical preservation, education, genealogy, descendant engagement, storytelling, and cultural heritage.
Social and private family reunion activities are coordinated separately from nonprofit-supported programmatic components.
sheltonheritagesociety.org
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Historical Preservation & Community Engagement
SFSPT’s descendant-centered engagement efforts have included participation in preservation dialogue, community engagement, and collaborative conversations and partnerships with entities connected to historic Black towns, settlements, descendant communities, and cultural preservation initiatives, including the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA), as well as representatives associated with Hobson City, Alabama, municipality connected through branches of the family’s broader extended descendant network, as shared previously. Aside from SFSPT’s relationship with the Freemantown community, whose settlement was located near the Shelton family’s settlement, other relationships include, but are not limited to, the Walker County African American Historical and Alumni Association, Inc. of which the president and founder, Beverly Foster, is a descendant of the Spruce and other related families.
In 2022, SFSPT participated in conversations and preservation engagement with HBTSA, including the Black Spaces and Places Conference held at Prairie View A & M in Texas.
These efforts have contributed to broader conversations surrounding descendant memory, migration, preservation, land, kinship, and the ongoing interpretation of historically significant African American communities.
Photo: 2022 - Black Spaces and Places Conference, Prairie View A & M, Houston, Texas - Sponsored by the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA)
Photo Credit: K. Stewart-Ross, HBTSA Conference
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Community engagement efforts connected to SFSPT have included conversations involving descendants, preservation advocates, educators, historians, civic leaders, and community representatives connected to Rome and Floyd County, Georgia.
Participants and featured guests have included, among others, former Rome Mayor Bill Collins and former Rome Mayor Sunday Stevenson, who presented the family with a mayoral proclamation in 2022 recognizing the historical significance and legacy of the Shelton family and Possum Trot. In 2022, the family was provided with a mayoral proclamation at the reunion and historical marker unveiling.
Civic Recognition & Community Dialogue
Photo: Portion of a panel - Representatives and community leaders connected to descendant engagement, historic preservation, and historic Black towns initiatives during the 2022 Shelton Family Reunion & Historical Marker Unveiling. Pictured are an Clemmie Whatley, Chubbtown representative (left), Michelle Robinson of the Spelman College (second from the left), Tonya DeBose of the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA) and Houston community activist (third from left), Mayor Alberta McCrory of Hobson City, Alabama; Freddie Striplin, Hobson City City Council, and Rome Third Ward Commissioner, and former Rome Mayor Bill Collins.
Photo Credit: Deidra Roberson, 2022 Shelton Family Reunion & Historical Marker Unveiling.
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Storytelling, Oral History & Public History Engagement
Photo: March 2023 - Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Descendant Innovation Lab
Photo Credit: SFSPT, Descendant Innovation Lab
SFSPT’s preservation and descendant engagement efforts have also included oral history, documentary storytelling, descendant interviews, and public history initiatives designed to preserve and elevate narratives connected to Possum Trot and the Shelton family legacy.
In 2022, representatives connected to SFSPT were invited to share aspects of the family’s story through Atlanta-based storytelling and public history initiatives, including outreach connected to Kiplyn Primus’ community storytelling platform on WCLK Jazz in Atlanta, Georgia.
That same year, SFSPT facilitated descendant participation in oral history preservation initiatives connected to StoryCorps as part of broader efforts to document intergenerational memory, family history, and community heritage. Later, it began to foster a relationship with the African American Alumni Chapter as well as the Chief Office of Belonging at Berry College and the National Trust for Historic Preservation which invited it to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Descendant Innovation Lab.
Through descendant interviews, storytelling initiatives, preservation dialogue, and documentary efforts, SFSPT continues to support the preservation and sharing of narratives connected to Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton and the broader extended family network.
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Photo: Shelton Exhibit, Rome Area History Museum
Photo Credit: SFSPT, Rome Area History Museum
Museum & Historical Interpretation Initiatives
Since 2022, SFSPT has collaborated with Rome Area History Museum in connection with historical interpretation and exhibit initiatives highlighting aspects of the Shelton family legacy, Possum Trot, and descendant history.
The exhibit has remained connected to the museum’s broader public history and interpretive efforts since its installation and reflects continuing community interest in preserving and elevating descendant narratives connected to the settlement and surrounding family histories.
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Descendant Engagement & Historical Continuity
Descendant-centered preservation, research, storytelling, oral history, and community engagement efforts connected to SFSPT began in 2015 through collaborative family research, preservation dialogue, descendant reconnection efforts, and historical interpretation initiatives.
This site, established in 2021, served as the initial digital framework supporting those ongoing descendant-centered efforts and currently provides information connected to the 2026 reunion and heritage preservation experience.
Following the event, the site will continue its broader focus on descendant engagement, preservation, storytelling, oral history, and historical exploration connected to Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton, Possum Trot, and the broader extended family network.
For ongoing updates, follow our work on Instagram and Facebook at @1874Sheltonfamilysettlement (est. 2021).
Photo: Texas Family Reunion - Descendants of Lee and Fannie Shelton Cathey, July 2025 - Waco, Texas & Owensville Cemetery, Robertson County, Texas
Photo Credit: Kendell Mays, Texas Family Reunion