Origins: Piney Grove?

Subject: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: Jeep man
Date: 11 Oct 03 - 11:26 PM

I would like to know what or where is "Piney Grove". I is mentioned fairly often in the old Southern Blues. (For instance, Dave Van Ronk in "Dry Land Blues."

Could this indicate a meeting place for lovers or anyone looking for sex? I live in the South and have heard this used mainly by old black men singing the blues. Jim

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 12:13 AM

Wherever there are sandy soils in the south, there are pines.
Look at the African Methodist and Baptist churches in the south and southeast with the name Piney Grove, dating back to the 1860s and perhaps earlier. Virginia, North Carolina (at New Bern, people came to the Piney grove Church, AME, "on foot, by oxen or mule car"), South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama (Piney Grove precinct), Georgia, Texas- Piney Grove (Pine Grove), Texas was settled about the time of the Civil War, and on and on.

Piney Grove thus means something "homey" to many southerners, both black and white. Would lovers have met in the church grounds and cemeteries? Certainly.

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 12:25 AM

Not far from my home in upstate New York was a place called Pine Grove because it was a grove of pine trees. There was also at one a dairy called the Pine Grove Dairy. Now there is a golf course on the site with the name Pine Grove.

All this info has little to do with the thread. But for some reason there is a nagging suspicion that Pine Grove may also be a biblical reference.

Don

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 12:37 AM

Look at the photo of the old road at Piney Grove, Maryland. A bit of nostalgia. Piney Grove MD
There are (and were) many places with that name, including Piney Grove manor in Delaware and Piney grove Landing in North Carolina, Piney Hill in Maryland, Piney Hollow in ...., etc.
Dozens of Piney grove cemeteries.

The name cannot be localized because it is everywhere.

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 12:54 AM

Haven't mentioned Arkansas yet. See map: Piney Grove
Looks like you could almost get lost there.

Piney Grove or Piney Woods is mentioned in the blues because the singer lived there, worshipped there, worked there (at least one plantation with that name) or knew someone from there, went there to hunt and drink and play, buried kinfolk there ....

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: Jeep man
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 05:24 PM

Thanks, much. You have really done your homework. This does help. Thanks again, Jim.

Subject: RE: Origins: Piney Grove?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 03 - 07:04 PM

In East Texas 'Big Piney' can be anything from a large pine wood to the whole eastern part of the state.