FANNIN COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia is located in the historic Baugh House which was honored in 1999 by being put on the National Register of Historical Places. The house was built in 1890 by two master builders Columbus Green Baugh and his brother James W. Baugh. They obtained dirt from the back yard to make the brick for the house. The Baugh house today is the home of the Fannin County Heritage Foundation’s Fannin County Historical Museum which houses Fannin County historical pictures, documents, genealogy, books, textiles, tools, glassware, furnishings and many other antiques to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

The Baugh House on West First Street in Blue Ridge was erected in 1890 by James Walden Baugh as the new home for his bride, Mary Theresa Geisler.

Built of kiln-dried bricks made in the Baugh brickyards located in Mineral Bluff, with much of the clay for the bricks dug from the backyard of the Blue Ridge Baugh lots, the structure was designed in the modified Federal style of architecture. The walls, four bricks thick, were constructed solidly and have withstood time and the elements. The house has two stories, with two main rooms on each floor, and was originally heated upstairs and down with fireplaces north and south. An attached kitchen extends eastward on the north end of the house, and an L-shaped porch joins the kitchen wing with the parlor wing.

The residents of the new Baugh house in Blue Ridge had this lineage. James Walden Baugh, born October 17, 1862, in Mineral Bluff was the son of John Baugh and Catherine Cole Baugh. John Baugh served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Mary Theresa Geisler Baugh’s parents were Andrew and Mary Theresa Amhof Geisler of Ducktown, Tennessee Her father was a master rock mason. John Baugh was a brick mason, master builder, and brickmaker. His kiln in Mineral Bluff fashioned the bricks to erect the Mineral Bluff depot the bank, the Hampton building, the Harness building, the theater, and Mineral Bluff Baptist Church, as well as the John Baugh house in Mineral Bluff, built in 1887. Several buildings in Blue Ridge were likewise constructed from Baugh bricks and with Baugh’s construction expertise.

James and Mary Theresa Baugh moved into their new house in Blue Ridge in 1890 with their new baby, Nona, who had been born in Ducktown, Tennessee. Four other children were born to them in Blue Ridge: Ernest in 1895, Eva Mae in 1897, Elsie Theresa in 1899, and James Lewelyn in 1911.

A garden patch behind their Blue Ridge residence provided vegetables for the Baugh table. Other foodstuffs were grown on the Baugh farm in Mineral Bluff. A cool cellar beneath the house provides a place for storing the food canned and preserved for winter use. The house was a popular gathering place for relatives and visitors.

In 1924, son James, age 13, became quite ill. His parents sent an urgent call to Mary Baugh’s brother, Dr. Francis Geisler of Turtletown and he diagnosed acute appendicitis. He summoned Dr. Fred Kimsey of Ducktown, and together they performed an emergency operation in the kitchen of the house. James recovered, thanks to the expertise of the doctors and the faithful ministrations of Nurse Stanfield who attended James for several weeks following surgery. The last Baugh descendant to live in the house was Miss Eva Mae Baugh (who never married).

On November 25, 1987, the City of Blue Ridge (Taylor Stanley, Mayor) purchased the James Walden Baugh house. The responsibility of establishing the house as a museum was assigned to the Fannin County Heritage Foundation, Inc. Plans were formulated for restoring the house. Repair work began immediately, but it was not until September 1991 that a comprehensive plan for its restoration was drawn up by Ed Howard, president of the Builders Association, assisted by Dale Dyer and Cheryl Fowler Day. A comprehensive Baugh House Museum Development Plan was published in 1992 and prepared for the Historical Foundation by Historic Preservation Services of Macon, Georgia. Grants of $6,000 from the Levi Strauss & Co. LEAP awards and $5,000 from the Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Section, boosted the work, together with much “in-kind” volunteer labor.

Many have done volunteer work on the restoration, with the City of Blue Ridge Council and Mayor Robert Green offering help to offenders who were required to work community service hours for their penalty. Much credit for the restoration is due to the volunteer efforts of Elizabeth Abernathy Simonds who served as chairman of the Baugh House restoration and Lewis Simonds who was the general overseer of the work.

In the textile rooms, second floor, is a loom more than 150 years old originally used by the Hunt family, early settlers in the county.  A handmade quilting frame is typical of those used in pioneer homes in the mountains.

In 1996, a designated gift from their children to the Heritage Foundation honored Dr. Herbert M. Olnick and Praise Long Olnick. The first-floor north room is the Olnick Genealogy Room.

The James Baugh house is a testament to a once thriving business, the Baugh brickyards, and the attention to detail and solid construction of a late nineteenth-century dwelling, a museum house monument to pride in work.

The Fannin County Heritage Foundation, Inc. was founded in 1986 as a non-profit membership corporation. Its main objectives are to work with county and city governments and civic organizations to identify, preserve, and restore historical sites and buildings within Fannin County, to preserve and maintain historical records and documents, and to promote appreciation for the rich heritage of the area.

Since its organization in 1986, the Heritage Foundation has secured and restored the historic Baugh House on West First Street, Blue Ridge, and designated it as a museum. The collection is still in process, but the house is open at designated hours and by appointment or for special occasions.

A collection of genealogy materials is being assembled and will be available for use at the Baugh House. Among these records are: Fannin County Census for the years 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 & 1920; Cherokee Indians of Fannin County; Fannin County Marriage Records, 1854- 1901, 1901-1928, & 1928-1941; Gilmer County Marriages, Volumes 1-8 1833-1960; Union County Marriages, 1833 – 1897; Polk County, Tennessee Marriages, 1894-1936; Early Census Records of Habersham County and Hall County, Georgia; Countless Cousins of Jones, Pack and Burger Families; Facets of Fannin; A History of Fannin County, Georgia, Volume 1 (1989). Other sources to assist with genealogy searches will be added, as funds become available.

In 1990, the Foundation received a $5,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for a survey of historic sites. The survey, completed in March 1991, served as the primary step in developing a preservation plan for historical resources in Fannin County. Also in 1991, efforts were stepped up to restore the Baugh House as a museum.

The driving force and main founder of the Fannin County Heritage Foundation was Louise Stiles a friend and neighbor of the Baugh family in Blue Ridge. Louise Stiles also wrote the history of the Baugh family in our county history book. The original and first officers were Stanley Daves president, Elma Ettman secretary, Louise Stiles treasurer, and Johnnie Kincaid historian. The 1986 charter and first members were Mary Anderson, Reba Carringer, Eva Daves, Stanley Daves, Elma Ettman, Bonnie Green, Geneva Green, Willa Allen Haight, Jack Hall, Janet Hall, Johnnie Kincaid, and Louise Stiles. Also to the list of things in the museum, I would like to add that the donator of the most things in the Baugh House Museum by far is Fedora Lewis Campbell. And the largest donator of books in the museum (by volume) is Viola Holden Jones who donated her life’s works. And the largest donator of books by number to the museum is Danny Mashburn.

Danny Mashburn wrote the history of every school in Fannin County in the Fannin County School History book we sell. And Danny Mashburn wrote the history of every mill in Fannin County in the Fannin Mill book we sale.