Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863

     During the Civil War, suffering, violence and deprivation were experiences widely shared by many of the citizens of Spotsylvania County. For those families who remained loyal to the United States, there was the added misery of being feared and hated by suspicious neighbors who viewed allegiance to the United States as a threat to their way of life. This is the story of Absalom McGee and his family, who were divided in their loyalties, and pitted one brother against four. (The McGee name was spelled in several different ways in varying documents--Magee, McGhee, McGehee. Absalom's descendants, whom I knew 50 years ago, spelled the family name McGhee. Absalom signed his name "McGee," so that is the spelling that I will use here.)
     Reuben McGee (1798-1881) and his wife, Margaret Sorrell (1801-1882) lived on a farm on the north side of the Orange Turnpike--modern Route 3--at Lick Run. They raised a large family, several of whom lived nearby after they went out on their own. Absalom McGee, born February 1, 1822 did just that. After marrying Frances Wiley in 1844, he lived near his parents on that section of the Turnpike. By the time of the Civil War, Absalom and Frances were living next to Reuben and Margaret on a 104-acre farm. Absalom and Frances's neighbors to the west were the Chancellors of Chancellorsville. The McGees had eight children who survived to adulthood. Their house was a two-story structure painted white, and included a cellar. In the map detail above, their farm is indicated as "A. Magee" in the middle of the image.
     When the war began in 1861, Absalom and his brothers Robert, Sanford and Ebenezer remained loyal to the United States. Brother Reuben cast his lot with the Confederacy. But the four McGee brothers who remained true to the nation of their birth were not passive patriots. They actively did all within their power to assist the Federal government to put down the rebellion. This cost them all dearly, and one of them made the ultimate sacrifice.
     Absalom McGee remained quietly at home until February 1862, when he was arrested by the Confederates for disloyal behavior and imprisoned in Fredericksburg for eight or nine days. Four days after his release he was arrested a second time and imprisoned in the same place. "I bought my way out on both occasions," he later explained. Absalom then remained quietly at home until April 1862, when General Irvin McDowell's troops arrived in Falmouth and briefly occupied Fredericksburg.  Absalom slipped across the Rappahannock River and traveled to Washington, D.C. where he remained until August. He received a pass from Union General James Wadsworth and returned home, and came under the constant scrutiny of suspicious Confederates. He began a long period of frequently hiding in the woods to avoid arrest, or worse.
     Absalom's brothers Ebenezer, Sanford and Robert became scouts for the Union army and they may have helped during Hooker's invasion of Spotsylvania in May 1863. Absalom did not actively scout himself. Instead, he would secretly meet with Union scouts who came to his house in the dead of night and shared intelligence with them, some of which came from his neighbor, Isaac Silver, another Union loyalist and spy. Although the Union army was grateful for the help they were receiving from the McGees, little could be done to protect them from the holocaust that was about to descend upon them.
     A large and well-equipped Union army commanded by General Joseph Hooker invaded Spotsylvania and occupied Chancellorsville on May 1, 1863. Absalom went to Hooker's headquarters and remained there during the ensuing battle, leaving his wife and children at home. Union troops occupied the McGee home and immediately set about transforming it into a hospital. The house's windows and doors were removed, in order to facilitate bringing the wounded inside. The doors were used to carry the wounded from the ambulances inside the house, where they also did duty as "amputating tables." The stair railing was removed in order to make it easier to transport the wounded upstairs. The windows were left in the yard, where they were crushed by the constant arrival of the ambulances.
     The McGees' clothing, draperies, blankets and sheets were torn into strips to make bandages. Frances and her children remained in the cellar, as United States soldiers plundered the meat house, stole corn and fodder and slaughtered livestock for the army's use. Much of the farm's fencing was taken for firewood. The interior of the house came to resemble a human abattoir, and it would be some time before it could be made habitable again. After the battle, Confederate soldiers came to the farm and stole what little food remained.

Castle Thunder (Wikipedia)

     When Hooker's army retreated across the river, Absalom went with them. He asked to be included with a group of Confederate prisoners in order to disguise the fact that he was actually aiding the Federal army. After spending some time in Washington, he returned home. The next day he was arrested by the Confederates and taken to Castle Thunder in Richmond, where he was confined for a month. His wife and some friends in Fredericksburg worked for his release, and he was finally let go after taking an oath not to bear arms against the Confederacy.

Thomas Frazer Chancellor

John Roberts Alrich

     Absalom remained under constant surveillance, and was the victim of threats and abuse by three of his neighbors who were serving in the 9th Virginia Cavalry: Thomas Frazer Chancellor [1], John Roberts Alrich [2] and James Swithin Mason Harrow [3]. "I was threatened with being hung with a grapevine--was told I would not be permitted to live 30 days." The stress on Frances was unbearable. She later testified about Absalom's arrest and imprisonment: "The rebels took Mr. McGee in the night when I had just given birth to a child.They threatened to kill my husband at the time they took him which so excited me that I came very near dying, and my child died in consequence."
      As would be expected, Absalom's aged parents also suffered during the Battle of Chancellorsville, and for months afterwards. Confederate soldiers who camped on their farm in August 1863 found them in a desperate condition: "At the house where we camped I do not believe the old man had a mouthful to eat and his wife had not been out of bed for six months...Our visit was a godsend to the old man and his wife, for we were able to do much for them." [Noel Harrison]
     

Colonel Ulric Dahlgren (Wikipedia)

     In March 1864, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren led a column of cavalry as part of an unsuccessful  raid on Richmond. Dahlgren's men were ambushed and Dahlgren was killed, and his scout Ebenezer McGee was mortally wounded. Confederates found papers on Dahlgren's body which indicated an intention to assassinate Jefferson Davis and the Confederate cabinet and to burn Richmond. By this time, Ebenezer's brothers Sanford and Robert were also serving in the Union army and remained in uniform until the war's end.

Reuben Henry McGee in old age (Ancestry)

     The other McGee brother, Reuben Henry, enlisted in the 30th Virginia Infantry in July 1861. He served until he was paroled at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. After the war, Reuben farmed and worked as a carpenter in Spotsylvania. In 1892, he lost part of a finger of his right hand in an accident while he was a passenger on the PF&P Railroad:

The Free Lance 16 September 1892

     This injury and the debilitating effects of heart disease made it increasingly difficult for Reuben to work and take care of himself. In 1915 he was admitted to the Robert E. Lee Confederate Soldier's Home in Richmond, where he died on March 1, 1922.

Robert E. Lee Confederate Soldiers Home (Wikipedia)

     Two months after the death of Ebenezer McGee, the Union army invaded Spotsylvania again. This time, 500 troopers of the 5th New York Cavalry, commanded by Colonel John Hammond, spent five or six days encamped at Absalom and Frances's farm. While there, they managed to burn what remained of the McGee's fencing, and their horses ate up all the clover in a 30-acre field.

Colonel John Hammond (New York State Military Museum)

     After the war, Absalom was able to rehabilitate his farm over time and make the house livable. Over the years he bought a great deal of property along the corridor of the Orange County, and he became one of Spotsylvania's more prosperous farmers.
     But there would still be times of adversity. He was seriously hurt in 1871 while hunting wild pigeons. In 1877, his house burned. Absalom rebuilt it.

Fredericksburg Ledger 19 December 1871

     By 1891, Absalom's youngest daughter, Mattie, was teaching school near Chancellorsville:

The Free Lance 6 February 1891

     On November 26, 1891, Mattie married Russell Aylmyr Chewning, a son of Absalom Chewning, who had worked as the chief blacksmith at Catherine Furnace during the Civil War. Mattie and Russell built a house next door to Absalom. Known as "The House of the Seven Gables," the Chewnings raised their five children there. I visited that home site several years ago, and it was still in fairly good shape. I have been told lately that the house is now a ruin.

Russell and Mattie Chewning and family, about 1912

House of the Seven Gables, 2012

     By the end of the 1800's, two of Absalom's daughters--Harriet and Ella--were still living at his home. In August 1897, these two intrepid women captured a rattlesnake  large enough to attract the attention of the local newspaper:

The Free Lance 12 August 1897

     Frances McGee died at home on February9, 1902. She was buried in the family cemetery near the house. Nine months later, on November 18, 80-year-old Absalom McGee married neighbor Cicely Timberlake, who was 47 at the time.

The Daily Star18 November 1902

     Absalom McGee died at home on May 7, 1910. He is buried near Frances in the family graveyard.

The Daily Star 7 May 1910

[1] Thomas Frazer Chancellor was a son of Reverend Melzi Chancellor. Thomas was mortally wounded at Gettysburg, where he died July 15, 1863. A short biography of Thomas can be read here.

[2] John Roberts Alrich came to Spotsylvania from New Castle County, Delaware in the 1850's. He lived at the intersection of Old Plank and Catharpin roads at what was then known as "New Store" but has long been known to locals as Johnson's Corner. John was active in local politics after the war and served for a time as county treasurer.

[3] John Swithin Mason Harrow arrested Richard Wesley Bowling for desertion and was fatally shot on September 26, 1864. Bowling was tried for his murder, but I do not know if he was convicted or served time for that crime.


My primary sources of information for this article were:

Harrison, Noel G., "Chancellorsville Battlefield Sites." H.E. Howard, Inc., Lynchburg, VA: 1990.

NARA M2094. Approved case files of claims submitted to the Commissioner of Claims (known as the Southern Claims Commission) from the state of Virginia, 1871-1880.

    

The Couse house (National Park Service)

     The house at Laurel Hill was built in the late 1700's and was the home of Edward Herndon (1761-1837). The house was a two-story frame building with two brick chimneys, two shed rooms and a stone cellar. In the sketch made by Edwin Forbes [1] in May 1864 shown above, the house can be faintly seen behind what appears to be a former slave cabin or some other farm building. Laurel Hill consisted of 1,420 acres and extended from Gordon Road west to Piney Branch Road and south towards Brock Road. The house was located about a half mile west of Gordon Road. In the map detail below, the Couse property can be seen in the middle of the image.

Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863

     Edward Herndon and Joseph Brock built what would become Piney Branch Baptist Church on the Laurel Hill property. Edward's son, Reverend Jacob W. Herndon, was one of the ministers who served there. During Edward's lifetime his niece, Ann Herndon, married Matthew Fontaine Maury (the "Pathfinder of the Seas") at Laurel Hill in 1834.
     After Edward's death in 1837, ownership of Laurel was assumed by two of his children, Elizabeth Hull and Reverend Jacob Herndon. In 1839, Elizabeth and Jacob sold Laurel Hill to New Jersey native Thomas Teasdale. In 1840, Teasdale sold Laurel Hill to William Couse.
     William Couse and his family came to Spotsylvania from Sussex County, New Jersey. He and his wife, Elizabeth, arrived with their five children--sons Elezar and Peter, and daughters Ann M., Sarah Jane, Cornelia ("Nellie"), Catherine Halsey ("Kate"), and Mary C. Elezar returned to New Jersey not long after the family moved to Virginia. In addition to his farming operations, William Couse also owned a 2,500 horsepower steam saw mill and a bark mill (a bark mill ground up the roots, bark and limbs of trees, making tanbark, which was then sold to tanners). Partnering with William in his mill business was his son-in-law, Pennsylvania native George R. Supplee, who had married Mary Couse. Up until the Civil War, the Supplees lived next door to the Couses.

Alexandria Gazette 21 November 1855

     William Couse died on November 6, 1855. He had made no will, so Peter--now 34 years old--administered his father's estate with the consent of his mother, brother and sisters. Peter assumed management of the family farm, and he operated the saw mill and bark mill until March 1862. The mills did a good business until the start of the Civil War. One of Peter's customers was Peleg Clarke Jr., a former Rhode Island resident who was a carpenter, manufacturer and lumberman in Fredericksburg during the 1850's and 1860's. Peter provided ship timber to Clarke, who had a government contract.
     The stresses in American society, relating primarily to the issues surrounding slavery, states' rights and secession, grew in intensity in the years following William Couse's death. The election of Abraham Lincoln pushed radical southern leaders over the edge. Starting with South Carolina in December 1860, eleven southern states left the Union.
     Southern secessionists were intensely focused on what they perceived to be their rights under the U.S. constitution. And while they constantly spoke out on the defense of their personal liberties, the secessionists at the same time demonstrated a hostile intolerance to any person who remained loyal to the United States. The freedom of speech that was cherished by secessionists was disallowed to Union loyalists. Aggressive and threatening tactics were utilized to stifle dissent in southern society.
     Peter Couse and his family remained profoundly loyal to the government of the United States. Peter made no secret of his political sympathies, and he thereby incurred the wrath of his neighbors. When a vote was taken in Virginia in 1861 to select representatives to the secession convention, Peter voted for the Union candidate. Once the convention voted for secession, Virginia voters were asked to ratify the decision to leave the Union. In Spotsylvania, intense pressure was put on loyalists to vote for secession so that a unanimous mandate could be seen a symbol of solidarity. For Peter Couse and other Unionists, the physical danger posed by a 'no' vote made their opposition too perilous to risk. Instead, Peter abstained from voting.
     Peter's mother died in 1861. As the year progressed, Peter and his unmarried sisters became increasingly isolated from the community. In April 1861 the Supplees moved back to Pennsylvania, and Nellie went north as well. Peter made an attempt to move himself and his three sisters to safety. Shortly before his arrest, Peter was in negotiations with a Dr. Grinnan to exchange Laurel Hill for property out west. But time ran out before this opportunity could be realized.

Reverend Henry Clay Cheatham (Tabernacle United Methodist Church)

     The Couse family were devout Methodists, and were members of Zion Methodist Church near Spotsylvania Courthouse. In 1861, the Methodist Conference appointed Reverend Henry Clay Cheatham to assume responsibility for the Spotsylvania circuit. As Peter later testified: "I was threatened with being arrested and dealt with by the pastor of the church we attended. It was the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Spotsylvania. It was for talking Union."

General Theophilus Hunter Holmes (Wikipedia)

     The right to freedom of speech enjoyed as a citizen of the United States did not exist in the newly-minted Confederacy. Peter and the other Unionists in Spotsylvania were regarded as a genuine threat to the secessionist regime, and one by one they were rounded up and imprisoned. General Theophilus Hunter Holmes, who commanded the Department of Fredericksburg and the Aquia District early in the war, ordered the arrest of Peter Couse. On the night of March 6, 1862 Captain Corbin Crutchfield [2] of Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry oversaw the arrest of Peter, who was hustled down to Richmond and confined in Castle Thunder.

Castle Thunder (Wikipedia)

     Peter was offered his freedom in exchange for taking an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. This he refused to do, and on May 13, 1862 General John H. Winder, who had responsibility for the Confederacy's prisons during the war, ordered that Peter remain imprisoned. Unwilling to renounce his patriotism, even under the harsh conditions he was kept in, he continued to languish in confinement all summer.

Prisoners and hostages, 1862 (Fold3.com)

     Fortunately, Peter's misfortune, and that of the other political prisoners sent to Richmond prisons from Spotsylvania, did not go unnoticed. In August 1862, Union intelligence agent Lafayette Curry Baker [3] drew up a list of Fredericksburg secessionists that he recommended be arrested as hostages in order to guarantee the safety of Peter and his fellow prisoners.  He thought that three secessionists should be seized for each loyal American in prison. Baker's list of potential hostages were in addition to six other prominent men of Fredericksburg who had been arrested earlier that year. Those men sent a petition to George Wythe Randolph, Confederate Secretary of War, pleading that Peter and the others be released so that they could get out of Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. In addition, Peter's sisters and friends in Fredericksburg interceded on his behalf. The wheels of Confederate justice turned slowly. Finally, on September 25, 1862 Peter Couse was released from Castle Thunder after signing a pledge to not take up arms against the Confederacy.

The National Republican 25 September 1862

     After his release, Peter was taken to Washington to Washington, D.C. where he was interviewed by General James Wadsworth, commander of the Military District of Washington. Peter did not return home. It would be three years before he saw Laurel Hill and Sarah, Kate and Ann again.
     Once he was set at liberty, Peter went north. He joined his brother Elezar, who at this time was a merchant in New Jersey. Peter kept abreast of the movements of the Union army in Virginia, hoping that an opportunity to return home would present itself. This did not happen. After several months, he moved to Norristown, Pennsylvania where his brother-in-law George R. Supplee had taken his family the previous year.
   

Peter Couse's enlistment in the Pennsylvania Militia Cavalry

     When lead elements of the Confederate army arrived in Gettysburg on June 26, 1863, 42-year-old Peter Couse enlisted for 90 days in Company B of the 3rd Pennsylvania Militia Company. He furnished his own horse and "horse equipments." He then proceeded to Gettysburg, and then his company was stationed on the Potomac River at Williamsport and remained on picket duty for the remainder of their enlistment. After his discharge, Peter caught up once again with brother-in-law George R. Supplee, this time in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where George was working as a merchant. Peter remained there until the end of the war.
     Meanwhile, Ann, Kate and Sarah Couse did their best to survive at Laurel Hill. This would have been difficult under the best of circumstances, but the suspicion and hostility of their neighbors they had known for more than 20 years complicated their lives in many unforeseen ways. The saw mill had remained idle since Peter's arrest two years previously. The huge stockpile of sawn lumber and slabs were left unsold, since the Couses refused to accept Confederate money as payment. Pilfering of their food stocks by straggling Confederate soldiers and by opportunistic neighbors made their lives stressful in ways difficult for us to imagine today.
     Up to this time, Laurel Hill had managed to avoid some of the worst effects of the war. The fighting during the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville did not reach their house. That would change in May 1864 when Union General Ulysses Grant led a large and well-provisioned army into Spotsylvania. This was the beginning of the Overland Campaign, the ultimately successful effort to capture Richmond and destroy General Lee's army. In Spotsylvania, the violence would be widespread and catastrophic. The Couse sisters would find themselves near the epicenter of some of the worst fighting during the Civil War.
     On May 4, 1864 the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River into Spotsylvania County. The following day, Federal troops collided with lead elements of General Lee's forces. Grant's army pushed forward through the Wilderness, attempting to interpose themselves between the Confederates and Richmond. Thus began a race toward Spotsylvania Courthouse, with the Confederates just barely getting ahead of the Union Army and setting up a blocking force on Brock Road. The fighting along this new front began in earnest on May 8, and General Grant temporarily set up his headquarters at Beechwood, the home of Ann Armstrong and her family across Gordon Road from Laurel Hill.
     Kate, Ann and Sarah fearfully watched as thousands of troops poured into the neighborhood. Kate began to write a letter describing her experiences and added to it almost every day, providing a real-time account of the violence and chaos that occurred literally on the front step of Laurel Hill. Kate's original letter is part of the collection of the Library of the University of Virginia. National Park Service historian Donald Pfanz did an outstanding job of transcribing Kate's writing, and I have relied heavily on his work in the condensed and lightly edited version that appears below. Kate addressed her letter to someone identified by an initial--Mr. and Mrs. [?]. The initial is illegible, but based on the context of the letter, it is my opinion that it is 'M' for Morrison. I think the letter was written to either James M. Morrison and his wife Abigail, or to his brother Thomas Love Morrison and his wife Amanda. Like the Couses, the Morrisons were patriots devoted to the Union cause. During the battles near Spotsylvania Courthouse, the Union army's 2nd, 5th and 6th Corps set up their hospitals at Laurel Hill.

Page 1 of Kate Couse's letter (Library of the University of Virginia)

 "Very Dear Friends Mr and Mrs M--

   "Dilapidation and decay mark the course of everything at old Laurel Hill, both people and place are gradually falling into ruins...An air of suffocating loneliness reigns as the shades of evening come on--the wind has a peculiar howling, as if ghosts and witches were mourning over the sad remains...There is no peace in living in this God forsaken country. It is fearful to see with what impunity all kinds of robbery and roguishness are carried on...Last spring and summer nearly all our fowls were stolen at different times...We raised sweet potatoes and watermelons--but enjoyed none of the benefits. They disappeared as soon as fit for use. Mrs. Tom Chartters [4] continues to live at your place...I could tell you things that would make you laugh or cry. I do not know which.

     "Today, Saturday, the Confederates have been picketing all day in the lane in front of the house. Horses, clanking of sabers and rattling of spurs...Suddenly this afternoon between 3 and 4 o'clock a Confed soldier came dashing up. They all instantly ran for their horses and set off in a hurry--a large Yankee scouting party came in sight from the old mill road...Just then a most terrific cavalry fight commenced on the Court House Road...Old Laurel Hill resounded with the report of firearms...There has been terrible fighting going on on the Court House Road since 3 o'clock. It sounds almost at the house, it is soul sickening to listen to the continual crack of small arms, the the loud resounding cannon, shell whizzing, balls whistling, soldiers yelling and hollowing as they rush on. Oh! God human beings killing each other, this wicked war, will it never come to an end.

     "Wednesday May 4. Went to Mrs A [5] house...Pickets here musketry and see clouds of smoke going up from the artillery..there is skirmishing going on this afternoon...sharp skirmishing on the Court House Road, we heard yells--and the pop and crack of musketry made me feel faint...

     "Friday May 6 1864. Heard the cannon the first thing they jar the house continually...the whole outdoors alive with voices of soldiers, hear waggons and cannon moving, rumbling. Oh! So anxious...We are surrounded--Yankees on one side southern soldiers on the other pickets and vedettes on all sides...

     "Sat 7th. Calmer this morning, we are choked with smoke--from camp fires--and woods fire. Confed scouts and soldiers riding through thick going down in the direction of Piney Branch toward the Yankees...the soldiers told me Gen Longstreet was wounded slightly in the top shoulder yesterday...the place is alive with waggons moving, the field in front of the house is full of waggons moving to and fro.

     "Thursday 12th. The fighting opens early this morning. The Rowe family came down just now, refugees. Old Mrs Long [6] and Mrs Frazer have just come through the rain--coming for protection. I feel sorry for them. Oh! God there is now the most murderous battle raging. The continuous roar of cannons the still more terrific musketry sounds awful indeed. My feelings are intensely awful beyond description. The drums are beating, the bands at intervals--the poor wounded heroes are now coming in ambulances, they stand with stretchers ready to remove them to the tents, on the amputation tables. I can see them lying stretched out ready to be operated on. Mr Forbes the artist sketcher from Frank Leslie called in out of the rain, his right arm is helpless he sketches with left hand, has not the use of all his fingers on that hand. The house is perfectly muddy and hoggish, all tracked up with refugees, children, dogs and soldiers...The refugee children black and white are such nuisances. We are run over with them.
 
     "Sat 14. There were three hospitals on this place the one below towards Piney Branch moved up this morning...Here lay the poor wounded soldiers one mortally dying way from home and family. This war, this war. We took them some tea and bread and butter...True soldiers have died here today, they are nailing up a rough coffin for the poor Lieutenant...

     "Sunday 15th May. See the Rebs in sight again this morning, they are prowling all through took one soldier's hat and purse. Mr. Alrich [7] rode up and asked us where we are staying--he did not recognize the place--everything so changed. Requested me to write to Louisa Frazer to tell her of his wife's death. ..The Reb cavalry are pouring over the hills opposite the house all going up towards the old Piney Branch Church, getting in the rear...Rosser's [8] brigade went up to the old Piney Branch Church. Had a fight and came back. They are rummaging the camps taking everything they can lay their hands on. The whole brigade passed through the field by the spring out up through the corn and on...The old stable is full of wounded...poor suffering mortals. We prepared some coffee, tea and fruit for them it is soul sickening to look at the horrid suffering...Dr. Chambers eats with us and stays in the house nights. He brought in some old whiskey and we all took some.

     "Monday May 16th. I have heard no musketry or cannon today. The first still day in a long time...This afternoon waggons with provisions for the federal wounded came on--there were no rebs around they commenced unloading--but concluded to move the hospital. They brought up a long line of skirmishers and placed them on the hills all around, to keep off the Rebs in case of attack...They left us some sugar, coffee and fresh meat. The commissary promised to send for us each a calico dress. They left us weeping, sad and lonely every thing in an awful situation...They all got off about dusk, then the stillness of death settled around us...It seems as if some great funeral procession had passed through. The funeral of departed hopes...There are graves all around us. How many of the poor soldiers who started out in fine high hope and spirits now sleep the last sleep at old Laurel Hill....

     "Tuesday May 17th. Calmer still this morning. The birds are singing as sweetly as nothing had happened...The Reb soldiers are running through all the time searching through all the buildings. They pulled the lock off the cellar and stole our butter and eggs, some fruit and a lot of ginger cakes we had just baked...They are in everything, so annoying. I hate the sight of them. Cavalry pickets stayed in the yard. There was sharp skirmishing very near after dark.

     "Wednesday May 18. The fighting commences this morn. The cannon jarred me awake--up in the direction of the Brown [9] house it seems to be. It is very close. Little gangs of Rebel soldiers keep coming up inquiring for government stores. They say, they hear we a good Union people and they want all that was left. A couple came up to search looked at the sugar, they are cutting up the devil generally. They said they had orders from General Rosser. We told them we did not believe it, and talked mean to them. They were glad to get out. Soon as they were out of sight 4 more of our Cavaliers came up on the same purpose...told them General Rosser had better come down and settle the marauding parties...Sarah and I walked out over the fields...there were three hospitals at this place one up towards the old orchard--one down towards Piney Branch...We have lately seen some of the horrors of war, the fields are dotted over with graves. Clothing scattered in every direction, dead horses lying around and a general destruction of everything...a soldier told me Rosser's men robbed their own men--wounded--of their possessions...

     "Thursday 19th. Calm this morning. A- and Milly and myself walked to Mrs. Armstrong's, did not know whether we could get through or not when we started. The country looks awful, all cut up, new roads all through the fields. No vestige of a fence...We had a hard time to get there. Yankees left the house last night. Gen. Grant, Meade, Patrick and Burnside were there. Rosser's men came around Mrs. A's. A large body of Reb cavalry just now passed through the cabin lot, going on towards Mrs. Armstrong's--they came down through the old orchard had artillery Rosser's brigade six o'clock--I hear musketry fighting out in that direction soldiers straggling around nearly all the time. There is heavy musketry fighting going on towards Mrs. K's...There is still a heavy battle raging out in the direction of A. The cannon shakes the earth and reverberates through the air. We are afraid it is near Mrs. A. Yesterday a couple of soldiers taunted us with being good Union people. We told them--it did not make any difference to them what we were--and that as long as we treated them well they were bound to treat us in the same manner they said of course and backed off. The shells whiz through the air. The echo sounds as if there was fighting on the opposite side. Gen. Ewell's corps attacked the Feds fighting to capture some of their waggon trains. Infantry and cavalry coming up all the time.

     "Friday May 20th 1864. Soldiers were riding and walking up all night long, rapping at the doors to inquire the the way to their breastworks. I judge they must have been driven back, though they always say they are the driving party...It has been remarkably calm this morning. I have not heard a single gun or cannon. After being in Fed lines I can scarcely tolerate the sight of the grey backs. I hate their rusty uniforms. I am disgusted with the sight of them. Every hour some of them ride or walk up--rummage the whole place. We do not ask them in, have as little to do with them as possible. A surgeon rode up this morn--inquired if there any medical stores left here. We feel harassed and annoyed to death. Mrs. Rowe and Laura came over and took tea with us. It looks strange to see neighbors come in. Miss Apphia [10] still here.

     "Sat. 21st. Very calm--see only an occasional Reb--Late this eve we hear cannon. It sounds more distant. Had a slight shower here this eve. We are tired. We walked out and looked at the graves..."

     Not long after the battles at Spotsylvania Court House, Sarah left Virginia and went north to live with her relatives. It would be years before Laurel Hill was rehabilitated to the point when it would be a working farm again.

Matthew Brady photo of Wenonah on the Pamunkey River, 1860's (Fold3.com)

      Peter continued to work in Pennsylvania with his brother-in-law George Supplee until the spring of 1865. Not long after the surrender of General Lee's army at Appomattox on April 9, Peter made his way to Baltimore. On May 26, he was one of 90 passengers who boarded the paddle steamer Wenonah, commanded by Captain Daws. Once she slipped her moorings at the dock in Baltimore, Wenonah sailed south down the Patapsco River. Once the steamer reached the Chesapeake Bay, its progress was slowed by heavy weather. It finally reached the Fredericksburg wharf on May 28. Gone from Virginia for three years, Peter Couse was home at last.

Fredericksburg Ledger 30 May 1865

     Peter's sister Nellie also returned to Virginia after the war. She, Peter, Kate and Ann settled in Fredericksburg. They lived in a boarding house bought by Peter and managed by Ann. Peter also ran a grocery on Commerce (William) Street. In 1871, one of the local newspapers approvingly noted that Peter had made some improvements there:

Fredericksburg Ledger 17 March 1871

     But the primary focus of Peter Couse in the post-war years would be politics. He became very active in the affairs of the Republican Party, specifically in the Radical wing of that party. In May 1867 he was appointed as one of the registrars of election for Spotsylvania County:

Alexandria Gazette 8 May 1867

     On September 30 of that same year, Peter was among the Radicals calling for candidates to run for seats at the convention for the writing of a new state constitution. As it turned out, Peter was selected as one of the candidates nominated by the Republicans:

Alexandria Gazette 7 October 1867

     Peter lost his bid to serve on the Virginia constitutional convention. The winner was Conservative candidate John L. Marye, Jr., former mayor of Fredericksburg and member of Congress (his name also appeared on the list of possible hostages to guarantee the safety of Peter Couse and others, written by Lafayette Curry Baker in 1862). Peter contested Marye's election, saying that he was not qualified because of his Confederate sympathies during the war. Peter's objections were not successful, however, and Marye was ultimately seated as one of the representatives at the convention.

Alexandria Gazette 17 December 1867

     This action against Marye made Peter a very unpopular figure in Fredericksburg. He was hanged in effigy in October 1867. In April 1868, Peter was appointed to serve on the city council. Two months later, Peter involved himself in the controversial case of a man named Tibbets, which likely did little to increase his popularity:

Fredericksburg Ledger 9 June 1868

     Not long after that, Peter was accused of knowingly buying a stolen pistol. Whether this was a trumped-up charge or if he ever stood trial, I have not been able to determine:

Fredericksburg Ledger 18 August 1868

                     
     Another position held by Peter for several years was that of Deputy Collector of Revenue for the 3rd District.

Fredericksburg Ledger 25 May 1869

Peter Couse, Internal Revenue Gauger, 1875

     In May 1871, Peter's sister Nellie was named to the decoration committee as part of the upcoming celebration of Memorial Day to honor the Union soldiers buried in the National Cemetery.

Fredericksburg Ledger, 12 May 1871

     On November 15, 1871 Peter married New Jersey native Emily Cox in a ceremony held in Deckertown, New Jersey. They made their home in Fredericksburg and had three children together: William James, Mary and Lucille.

Couse-Cox marriage, 1871

     In 1873, Peter Couse--on his own behalf as well as for his brother and sisters--applied to the Commission of Claims for compensation of the losses the family incurred during the occupation of Laurel Hill in May 1864. His loyalty, and that of his family, was investigated and found to be valid. Peter claimed $2,753 in damages to the property at Laurel Hill. The Commission ultimately approved $2,223. Depositions were given by Peter, Kate and Ann Couse, as well as former Union surgeon Enos G. Chase and Spotsylvania Unionists Absalom McGee and Isaac Silver. These depositions of all but Dr. Chase (he submitted his in writing) were taken in Fredericksburg on March 19, 1873 by Isaac P. Baldwin representing the Commission.

Page from Peter Couse's claim for damages

     Peter lost the 1872 election for city council, but he remained a potent force in Republican politics. In October 1873 he was appointed to the committee to nominate candidates to fill Spotsylvania County offices:

Fredericksburg Ledger 14 October 1873

     The following year, Peter's name was put forward as a possible candidate for a seat in the 44th U.S. Congress:

Alexandria Gazette 27 October 1874

     At some point during the mid-1870's, Peter and Emily decided to move to New Jersey. They settled in Farmingdale in Monmouth County. Peter opened another grocery store there. The Couse family became devoted members of Farmingdale Methodist Church.
     Not long after moving to New Jersey, Peter and Emily made one more contribution to their legacy in Spotsylvania. On February 5, 1878 they sold two acres on Piney Branch Road to X.X. Chartters, R.W. Ferneyhough and Nathan Talley, trustees for the Chancellor School District. Two months later, the trustees sold one of these acres for $10 to the trustees of the Piney Branch Colored Church: Claiborne Lewis, John Lewis and William Parker. A school for black children was built on that spot, and remains standing to this day.

Piney Branch School

     Peter Couse died on June 24, 1887. He is buried in the Deckertown Union Cemetery in Wantage, New Jersey. The year of his death carved in his headstone is incorrect.

Couse monument at Deckertown Union Cemetery (Findagrave)

     After his death, Emily continued to run the Couse grocery in Farmingdale. For a time, her son William also worked at the store. Here are two artifacts attesting to Emily's years as a successful merchant:










    
    
     Peter and Emily's son became a successful banker in Asbury Park, New Jersey. In the 1920's he was elected President of the New Jersey Bankers Association.






     Nellie and Kate Couse returned to New Jersey. Sarah and Ann continued to live at Laurel Hill until Ann's death in 1892. She is buried in the Fredericksburg Cemetery.

Headstone of Ann M. Couse (Findagrave)

     Sarah left Virginia and joined Nellie and Kate in Sussex County, New Jersey, where they lived for the rest of their lives. They never married. They died within a few years of each other in the early 1900's and are buried in the Newton Cemetery in Sussex County.
     After Sarah's departure from Virginia, ownership of Laurel Hill passed to Wilfred Smith Embrey. On September 21, 1899 Wilfred and his wife deeded Piney Branch Church to its members for $1.00.
     Wilfred died in 1908. Three years later, Laurel Hill was bought by Ohio farmer William Mergler:

The Free Lance, 18 April 1911

     Laurel Hill was later owned by J.W. McCalley. Some time before 1936, Mr. McCalley tore down the historic old house at Laurel Hill.

     

Footnotes:

[1] Edwin Forbes (1839-1895) was a sketch artist employed during the Civil War by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.

Edwin Forbes (Wikipedia)

[2] Corbin Crutchfield was born in 1839 at "Snow Hill" in Spotsylvania. He attended the Virginia Military Institute for one year, then was dismissed in 1856 for hazing cadets.

[3] Lafayette Curry Baker (1826-1868) was a Union spy in Virginia early in the war. He went on to serve as provost marshal of Washington, D.C., head of the National Detective Bureau and colonel of the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry.

Lafayette Curry Backer (Wikipedia)

[4] Julia Decastro Chancellor Chartters (1825-1904) was the widow of Thomas Rogers Chartters (1821-1862). Julia was a daughter of Sanford Chancellor and Frances Longwill Pound.

Julia Decastro Chancellor Chartters (Ancestry)

[5] Beechwood, the home of Ann Armstrong and her family. The Armstrongs were also Union loyalists, and I have told their story here.

[6] Gabriel and Elizabeth Long. Gabriel died the day after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

[7] John Roberts Alrich (1830-1907) was born in New Castle County, Delaware. He and his wife, Jane Frazier, moved to Spotsylvania in the 1850's. They lived on a farm that was then called New Store, located at the intersection of Old Plank and Catharpin roads. John cast his lot with the Confederates and served with Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Jane Alrich died on April 24, 1864.

[8] Confederate General Thomas Lafayette Rosser (1836-1910) commanded the 7th, 11th, and 12th Virginia Cavalry Regiments and the 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion during the battles near Spotsylvania Courthouse.

Thomas Lafayette Rosser (Wikipedia)

[9] Captain John C. Brown (1783-1867), a veteran of the War of 1812, lived across Gordon Road from Laurel Hill.

[10] Probably Apphia Farmer Sanford, the mother of Joseph Farmer Sanford, owner of the Sanford Inn near Spotsylvania Courthouse. Apphia came to live with her son after the death of her husband in Stafford in 1858. Apphia died a few weeks after Kate Couse wrote her letter.

Sources:

File of Peter Couse's claim for damages with the Commissioners of Claims: https://www.fold3.com/image/34/222378478

Letter of Kate Couse, transcribed by Donald Pfanz February 2004 (the original letter is part of the collection of the Library of the University of Virginia, Accession No. 10441).

John Hennessy: "Echoes from the Bloody Angle: A Real-Time Description from Katherine Couse's Laurel Hill." This article includes the link to Donald Pfanz's transcription: https://npsfrsp.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/echoes-from-the-bloody-angle-a-real-time-description-from-katherine-couses-laurel-hill/

"Confederate Memoranda on Peter Couse:" http://www.confederatevets.com/documents/couse_va_1.shtml

John Hennessy: "Democracy's Dark Day--The May 1861 Secession Vote in Fredericksburg, Part 2":
https://fredericksburghistory.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/democracys-darkest-day-the-may-1861-secession-vote-in-fredericksburg-part-2/

"Piney Branch School:" http://visitspotsy.com/african-american-heritage-trail/piney-branch-school/

Mildred Barnum: "Laurel Hill." Works Progress Administration of Virginia Historical Inventory, November 9, 1936.

Marriage of William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers (Wade Haney)

     Reverend Jeremiah Chandler (1749-1834) was ordained as a Baptist minister at North Pamunkey Baptist Church in Orange County in 1792.  During the course of his long ministry, Reverend Chandler presided at over 250 marriages at that church and at Piney Branch Baptist Church in Spotsylvania. Many of the those original marriage licenses, which were once kept in a saddle bag,  passed down through generations of the Haney family, his descendants. Shown above is one of those licenses, dated December 22, 1813. The following day Reverend Chandler officiated at the wedding of William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers.
     Who exactly William Chartters and Elizabeth Rogers were and where did they come from remains a mystery to me. One researcher suggested that William's parents were from Scotland and that he was born at sea during their voyage to America. But I have not been able to verify that. For now at least, we will be content to know that they were married in Spotsylvania in 1813 and bought a great deal of land on the south side of the Ni River at Catharpin Road.

Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863 (Fold3.com)

     The map detail above shows the location of the Chartters property in 1863. On the north side of the Ni River was the farm of Nancy Young, shown above as "Young F.N" (Free Negro"). Nancy, her husband and their nine children were among Spotsylvania's community of free persons of color prior to the Civil War. Shown just to the east of the Chartters property is Laurel Hill, the home of the Couse family.
     William and Elizabeth Rogers had four sons, only two of whom survived to adulthood: James Petigrew, born January 27, 1816 and Thomas Rogers, born March 27, 1821. There is no known photograph of James. There is one of his brother.

Thomas Rogers Chartters (Ancestry.com)

     Each of the Chartters brothers married a member of the Chancellor family. James Petigrew Chartters married Susan Philips Chancellor on his birthday in 1836. Susan was a daughter of George Edward and Ann Lyon Chancellor of Chancellorsville. James and Susan had three children: Ann Elizabeth (1838-1916), Lucy Park (1841-1928) and Xanthus Xuthus (1844-1893). Xanthus was always referred to as 'X.X.' and that is what we will call him here.
     Thomas Rogers Chartters married Julia Decastro Chancellor,  the daughter of Sanford and Frances "Fannie" Pound Chancellor and also a cousin of Susan Philips Chancellor. Thomas and Julia were married at Forest Hall, the home of Julia's parents near Chancellorsville, on January 29, 1846. Thomas and Julia had five children; William Sanford (1847-1928), Thomas Elmore (1849-1884), Estelle May (1851-1896), Charles James (1853-1931) and John Rogers (1857-1924).

Julia Decastro Chancellor Chartters (Ancestry.com)

     William Chartters died about 1836. His property was passed on to his widow and two sons. After the death of Elizabeth Chartters (date unknown) James and Thomas became the owners of the land along the Ni River.
     By the early 1840's James and Susan and their children were living at Chancellorsville. James was appointed postmaster at that location in June 1845 and held that position until June 1851. The 1850 census shows James to be head of the household at Chancellorsville, where he worked as a farmer and tavern keeper. In addition to the Chartters family there was also living at Chancellorsville in 1850 Susan's mother Ann, her sister Ann Monroe Chancellor and her uncle James Lyon. Also living at Chancellorsville on September 14, 1850 were five guests, the "manager" (which probably meant the overseer of the 17 slaves who lived and worked there) and Vivian Quisenberry [1], the tavern clerk and deputy postmaster. James P. Chartters became the postmaster at nearby Dowdall's Tavern in 1857 and served in that post until that post office was closed in 1859 and its functions moved to Chancellorsville.

Chancellorsville (Robert Knox Sneden)

     Capitalizing on his experience managing the tavern at Chancellorsville, James tried his hand at running the U.S. Hotel in Fredericksburg in the early 1850's. While he was proprietor there it was called the Chartters Hotel.
     During the 1850's James was also a justice of the peace. He and Thomas were active in Democratic Party politics, and were selected to be among the delegates to attend the Democratic State Convention in Richmond in March 1852.

Richmond Enquirer 19 March 1852

      In 1844, Pennsylvania native Samuel King bought a 377-acre tract of land adjacent to the farm of William Couse near the old Piney Branch Baptist Church. This would be Samuel's home for the next 19 years. During that time he became well acquainted with the Couse, Chartters and Young families.
     Ann, the older daughter of James and Susan Chartters, married Samuel King on May 19, 1859. His farm became their new home. This happy state of affairs would not last long, however, as events conspired to turn their lives upside down.
     Ann's sister, Lucy, married New York native Charles B. Guy in a ceremony held in Orange County on February 18, 1860.  Like Samuel King, Charles was also not enthusiastic about the prospect of secession and the Guys would soon have their own problems as well.
     X.X. Chartters was making plans to attend the University of Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union. Instead of completing his education, X.X. enlisted in Company C of the 30th Virginia Infantry on July 3, 1861. In December 1861, he was ordered to report to Captain John B. Burton, quartermaster officer at Brooke's Station in Stafford County. He later returned to his regiment and served ably for the duration of the war. Except for a three month stay at the General Hospital in Charlottesville due to chronic bronchitis, he seems to have avoided any real difficulty during the war. He was among those surrendered by General Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865
     Although they must have been in or near Spotsylvania on the eve of the Civil War, I have not been able to find James and Susan Chartters on the 1860 census. During the war, James worked in a civilian capacity for the Confederate quartermaster department. His work required extensive traveling in Virginia and in North and South Carolina. His earliest assignment that we know of was in Stafford where he was "superintending the repair of the military and public road from Brook Station to Evans Port." This work on the railroad near Aquia Landing was done under the supervision of Captain John B. Burton. It seems likely that James pulled some strings to have his son transferred to the safer realm of the quartermaster department. Shown below is James's receipt from Captain Burton for his work on the railroad, and a sketch of Evansport drawn by Private Samuel Sydney Gause, Jr., of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, Engineer Corps:

Payment for work done at Brooke's Station, December 1861

Railroad at Evansport (Tennessee Virtual Archive)

     James also found work at Brooke's Station for his friend and neighbor, Atwell Young:

Payment to Atwell Young from Captain Burton (Fold3.com)

     In May 1863, James was in charge of the Confederate army supplies at Hanover Court House. Five months later, he wrote a report from Abbeville, South Carolina, in which stated that the enemy "made a raid on Hanover C H Virginia and finding all the stores and property unprotected by any military force, succeeded in burning and destroying everything at the port that they could not carry off." James suffered the additional indignity of having "a bundle of papers consisting of a payroll and letters snatched from me by one of the raiders and consigned to the flames."

J.P. Chartters letter from Abbeville, October 1863 (Fold3.com)

     James was in South Carolina again during the summer of 1864 to oversee the shipment by rail of grain sacks and wagons to Abbeville. Enroute to their destination, the grain sacks were "damaged by fire from engine on road," which I assume means that sparks from the engine landed on the exposed sacks. Susan Chartters was paid $10 to repair the sacks.

Shipment of grain sacks and wagons to Abbeville, August 1864 (Fold3.com)

Susan Chartters repair of grain sacks, September 1864 (Fold3.com)

     Although I can find no record of Thomas Chartters's service in the Confederate army, he apparently served in Comapany E of the 7th Virginia Cavalry and died August 16, 1862. In 1939, Chancellor family member and historian George Harrison Sanford King ordered a headstone for Thomas and had it placed in the Chancellor family cemetery at Fairview.

Thomas Chartters (Dan Janzegers)

George H.S. King application for Thomas Chartters's headstone (Ancestry.com)

     But the Civil War was not done with the Chartters quite yet.
     Samuel and Ann Chartters King, their infant daughter, and the four daughters from Samuel's first marriage were living in Spotsylvania when Virginia seceded from the Union. Prior to the war, Samuel had been coerced into joining the Mercer Cavalry, the militia unit from whose membership Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry was formed. During the first year of the war, Samuel maintained his status in the militia. In the spring of 1862, Samuel and his fellow militia members were mustered into an enclosed space at the Fredericksburg fairgrounds. They were kept there for ten days in order to pressure them to enlist. James Harrow, who served with the artillery before transferring the the 9th Virginia Cavalry, told these men if they were conscripted instead of enlisting voluntarily, things would go hard for them.
     Samuel requested to see Colonel Brockenbrough to find out if he could be detailed to some other duty rather than active military service. He was assigned to gather tanbark for John Hurkamp's tannery in Fredericksburg, and then Samuel was dismissed and sent home.
     Samuel went home, but he did nothing in the way of providing tanbark for Mr. Hurkamp. John Harrow came to see Samuel and ordered him to report to Colonel Brockenbrough "immediately." Samuel disregarded this order, too. On the same day that Peter Couse and other Unionists were arrested by troopers of the 9th Cavalry--March 9, 1862--Samuel was seized and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond, where he stayed for three months. Through the intercession of his father-in-law, James Petigrew Chartters, he was finally released from prison after signing "some sort of oath." As his wife later testified, "When Mr. King came home he was very much emaciated and it was thought he could not live long our Physician said so. And it was three months more before he recovered sufficiently to be able to do anything."
     After the passage of the Conscription Act by the Confederate government in April 1862, Samuel and every other able-bodied man under the age of 45 was subject to being conscripted into the army. For much of 1862, Samuel was not able-bodied, but once he regained his strength, he was kept under surveillance by conscription officers, and he began to hide in the woods to avoid capture.
     One night during the summer of 1863, Samuel saddled his best horse and struck out for the Rappahannock River. He swam his horse across the river and then headed north to federally occupied Alexandria. Confederate cavalry picketing the river spotted him and gave chase, following him until they came dangerously close to Union lines. Samuel made it to Alexandria, but it would be a year before he saw Ann and his children again.
     Samuel spent the next three months at Fortress Monroe in Old Point Comfort, Virginia. He assisted the Union military by making a map of the country from Culpeper Court House to Richmond. After rendering this service to his country, Samuel moved to Baltimore.
     Ann Chartters King and the children carried on at their farm in Spotsylvania. They had the help of their friend and neighbor, Atwell Young. In May 1864, the King farm was very near the epic battles that were occurring at Spotsylvania Court House. Their farm was used by the Union army as a park for its supply wagons and the cavalry which protected them. The fact that the Kings were loyal Americans made no difference to their occupiers, who cited military necessity as justification for seizing their horses, slaughtering their livestock, burning all the fencing for firewood and consuming or carrying away all their food supply.
     After the battles near Spotsylvania Court House were over and the armies had moved on, there was little reason to remain at the King farm. Ann said she "ran the blockade" and joined her husband in Baltimore. Later that year, Atwell Young was conscripted into the Confederate army. His story is well worth reading and can be found at Atwell Young, The Black Confederate.
     In May 1865, Samuel King, along with his neighbor and fellow Unionist Peter Couse and 90 other passengers, boarded the paddle steamer Wenonah in Baltimore and came back to Virginia for the first time in two years. It is not known how long he stayed in the area, but since he had business to attend to in Baltimore, it probably was not for long.

Matthew Brady photograph of Wenonah, 1860's (Fold3.com)

Fredericksburg Ledger 30 May 1865

     The situation regarding Charles and Lucy Guy was a little more ambiguous. Mr. Guy appears to have sold supplies to Confederate quartermasters on several occasions, but by 1864 he was trying to get within the Union lines. He had evidently sought a pass to accomplish this end, and Union General Marsena Patrick gave permission for him to do so, provided he took the oath of allegiance.

Letter of General Patrick, January 1864 (Fold3.com)

Charles B. Guy oath of allegiance (Fold 3.com)

     The Guy family eventually moved to Charles's hometown of Kingsbury, New York, and there they remained.
     The Kings stayed in Baltimore for a few years. Samuel made a go of the insurance business, but did not succeed. The King family then moved to Tennessee and later Illinois and did not fare well at farming at either place. They then moved to the Dakota Territory, where Samuel owned a prosperous wheat farm. Ultimately the Kings settled in Gage County, Nebraska and at last found the success and status they had been looking for. Samuel died in 1892, and Ann passed away in 1916

Nebraska farm of Ann Chartters King (USGennet.org)

     On January 1, 1866 James and Susan Chartters moved to the unsold Spotsylvania farm of Samuel and Ann King. They were joined there by Susan's widowed aunt, Fannie Chancellor, and cousins Mary and Sue [2]. The Chartters and Chancellors lived together for about nine years or so. At some time during the mid-1870's, Samuel King traded his Spotsylvania farm for one of his properties out west. Fannie Chancellor bought "Oak Grove" near Fredericksburg and lived there for the rest of her life. James and Susan Chartters bought "Clifton," a 185-acre farm at the intersection of Old Plank and Catharpin roads. In 1867 James was obliged to declare bankruptcy, but he was able to resolve his financial affairs the following year.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 19 September 1867

     X.X. Chartters returned to Spotsylvania at the end of the Civil War. Shortly thereafter, on December 14, 1865, he married Evelyn Wortley Montague of Essex County. Evelyn was the daughter of Reverend Howard W. and Mildred Montague. Her brother, Andrew Philip Montague, later became a well-known professor and university president.
     For the first ten years or so of their marriage, X.X. and Evelyn made their home with her parents, where X.X. worked as a farm laborer. Their only child, Florence Howard Chartters, was born there in 1868. When X.X.'s parents moved to Clifton in the mid 1870's, X.X. and his family came there and lived with them. It was while living at Clifton that X.X. Chartters came into his own and made a name for himself.
     X.X. joined several fraternal organizations, such as the Good Templars and the International Order of Odd Fellows, and he became active in local politics. For a time he served as deputy treasurer for Spotsylvania, and his signature appears on a number of tax receipts of that era, as well as checks made out to him by my family:

Row family taxes, 1892

Lizzie Row check for taxes, 1890

     But it was in the Grange movement that X.X. found his true calling. The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange, was organized in Washington, D.C. in 1867. Its stated purpose was to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. Today it is the oldest agricultural advocacy organization in the country. X.X. began his career in the Grange by joining the the the Spotswood and and Wilderness Granges in Spotsylvania during the 1870's.

The Virginia Star 26 April 1875

The Virginia Herald 31 January 1876

     In 1884, X.X. established another chapter of the local Grange on his family's farm. He built a meeting hall for the Clifton Grange at the corner of Old Plank and Catharpin roads. By this time, X.X. was moving up the ranks of the Virginia Grange and became its head. Evelyn and Florence were also members of the Grange. X.X. served on the executive board of the National Grange. He and Evelyn traveled around the United States to attend meetings and to promote the affairs of the Grange.
     X.X.'s parents lived long enough to witness much of their son's success. Susan Philips Chancellor Chartters died at Clifton on August 25, 1885. She was buried in the Chancellor cemetery at Fairview. Her obituary shown below is among the papers of George Harrison Sanford King at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center.

Headstone of Susan P. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     James Petigrew Chartters died suddenly and swiftly at Clifton suddenly just six months later. His obituary, also from the archives of the CRHC, was written by Reverend Walker John Decker. A veteran of the Civil War, Reverend Decker served at North Pamunkey Baptist Church in Orange County and at Salem Baptist Church in Spotsylvania. James is buried near Susan in the Chancellor family cemetery at Fairview.

Headstone of James P. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     Florence Chartters married neighbor John Addison Alsop on May 5, 1889. Regrettably, their time together would be short.
     The health of X.X. and Evelyn began to fail before they were 50 years old. X.X. died of tuberculosis at Clifton on February 15, 1893.

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

Headstone of X.X. Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     The passing of X.X. hastened the death of his widow. Evelyn Wortley Montague Chartters died on July 22, 1893. She buried near her husband at Fairview. Her obituary was written by her brother, Professor Andrew Philip Montague.

(Central Rappahannock Heritage Center)

Headstone of Evelyn Wortley Chartters (Beth Valentine)

     Florence Chartters Alsop sold Clifton to Mungo William Thorburn (1857-1940) on April 6, 1896. A Scottish immigrant with brains and ambition, William Thorburn quickly set about improving conditions at Clifton and becoming active in the civic life of Spotsylvania. He was also instrumental in establishing the first telephone service in this section of Spotsylvania. This fascinating part of his family's story can be read at The Fredericksburg & Wilderness Telephone Company. William turned the former Grange Hall built by X.X. Chartters into a school house for both his own children and other youngsters in the neighborhood.

William Thorburn (Ancestry)

Students at Grange Hall School, 1908

     Florence Chartter Alsop's husband, who had been in poor health during most of their marriage, passed away on February 13, 1899. The caption of his obituary incorrectly reads "Mrs."

The Free Lance 15 April 1899

     Florence's uncle became president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina in 1897. While he was there, Florence's mother, Mildred Columbia Montague, would visit him each winter. While at Andrew's house in Greenville in January 1900, Mildred was warming herself at the fireplace when her clothing caught fire. Her cries for help quickly brought the Montague family to her aid and they managed to extinguish the fire, but not before she was badly burned. She died that night and was buried in Springwood Cemetery in Greenville.

Andrew Philip Montague (Ancestry.com)

     Two years later, Florence moved to Greenville to live with her uncle Andrew, who had just retired from the presidency of Furman University. While there, Florence met Greenville business man George Buchanan. They were married on August 4, 1902 and lived in Greenville for the rest of their lives.

Florence and George Buchanan (Findagrave)

    

Greenville News 6 August 1902

     Florence Chartters Alsop Buchanan died in Greenville on May 19, 1942. She is buried in Springwood Cemetery, just 10 miles from my home.


     The Young family owned their farm on the north side of the Ni River at Catharpin Road for over 100 years. At some time after the death of Sam Ford, the grandson of Atwell Young's brother Humphrey, Tom Thorburn bought the Young place and subdivided it for sale as building lots. In 1985, my father bought the first of those lots, which happened to be where the Young house once stood. He built his house there, and he and my mother lived there for the rest of their lives. Today it is the home of my sister.



Footnotes:

[1] Orange County resident Vivian Quisenberry (1832-1888) graduated from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1856. The following year, he married Anne Elizabeth Robinson, whose family owned Robinson's Tavern on what is now Route 20. Her sister Sarah became the mother-in-law of George Washington Estes Row, my great-grandfather, in 1867. During the Civil War, Dr. Quisenberry served as assistant surgeon of the 59th Virginia Infantry. After the war, he and Anne moved to the little town of Butler in Freestone County Texas, where he started a medical practice and ran a drug store. In 1871, George W.E. Row lived for several months with the Quisenberrys while investigating the possibility of buying land in Texas. He worked at his uncle's drug store while he was there.

[2] Many years later, Sue Chancellor wrote a memoir of her experiences during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Her story can be read at "O The Horror of That Day!".


Sources:

Samuel King, Southern Claims Commission case file

Biography of Samuel King

Sketch of Evansport, Virginia

General Thomas Jonathan Jackson

     The Battle of Gettysburg has been referred to as the "high water mark of the Confederacy." I have always thought that the Confederacy's fortunes were at their zenith on the evening of May 2, 1863 as panic-stricken United States soldiers fled from the onslaught of Jackson's men as they rolled up General Hooker's right flank. Only someone as skilled, daring and lucky as Jackson could have pulled off such a stunning triumph. After he was shot a few hours later by soldiers of the 18th North Carolina Infantry, there would literally be no one to take his place, and the Army of Northern Virginia would never again be the same military instrument it had been while Jackson rode Little Sorrel to a string of historic victories. His death struck a serious blow to southern morale.
     That night, Dr. Hunter McGuire, assisted by Dr. Harvey Black and others, amputated Jackson's left arm and treated the gunshot wound in his right hand. He was allowed to rest for a day, and on May 4 he was placed in an ambulance and driven to Fairfield, the home of Thomas Coleman Chandler and his family near Guiney's Station in Caroline County. The previous winter, Jackson had been the guest of the Chandlers for a period of time and had remained friends with them.

Fairfield, late 1800s (National Park Service)

     Shown in the photograph above is the Chandler house, left, and the plantation office, right, with its distinctive double chimneys. Jackson was placed in a bed in the office building, where he would spend the final six days of his life. Shown below are two more photographs of that building from the collection of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society:

"The house where Stonewall Jackson died"

Fairfield office building, 1925

     Despite the best efforts of Dr. McGuire and others, Jackson died of pneumonia on Sunday, May 10. His body was placed in a crude coffin made by soldiers, which was then placed in the front room of the office. It remained there until the following day, when a special train was sent to Guiney's Station from Richmond to bring his remains to the capital.
     The citizens of Richmond had initially been told that the train would arrive at noon. But there were delays and the train carrying Jackson's remains did not pull into the city until 4 p.m. Thousands of people were thronging the streets, and the crowds around the station were particularly dense. "In order to spare Mrs. Jackson the ordeal of facing the multitudes of mourners," the decision was made to stop the train at 4th and Broad Streets. The coffin was lifted off the train, covered with a Confederate flag and placed in a hearse. A military escort accompanied the hearse to the Governor's mansion, slowly making its way through the streets teeming with people. Once at the mansion, the coffin was taken to the reception room, where Jackson's body was embalmed about 11 p.m. His remains were then placed in a metallic coffin fitted with a glass window so his face could be seen by onlookers the next day. An example of such a coffin is shown below:

Metallic coffin with glass panel (Museum of Appalachia)

     Among the many arrangements that had to be accomplished overnight was finding a suitable band to accompany the procession the next day. The logical choice was the regimental band of the 30th Virginia Infantry, conducted by Fredericksburg native Andrew Bowering [1]. At that time, the band was camped at Hamilton's Crossing near Fredericksburg. Andrew was summoned to the headquarters of General George Pickett and was instructed to assemble his band and have them ready to be transported to Richmond at once. In their haste to board the train, Andrew forgot to take the music for the Dead March from Handel's oratorio, "Saul," which he considered to be the most appropriate for the occasion. With the help of two or three of his band mates, he transcribed the music from memory and wrote an arrangement for each band member.
     About 11 a.m. on May 12 , the coffin of Stonewall Jackson was taken from the Governor's mansion and placed in a hearse. A military escort accompanied the hearse to the Capitol building. The hearse was adorned with six black mourning plumes and was drawn by four white horses. Following were President Davis and Vice-President Stephens in a carriage, members of the cabinet and other government officials, Jackson's staff officers, the Governor of Virginia and members of the  city council.
     At the head of this procession was the 30th Virginia Infantry regimental band. Bowering later wrote: "General Pickett in charge raised his sword, the cannon boomed, the command was given and the solemn strains of the Dead March from Saul mingled with the tears and expressions of sorrow of the stricken people...We proceeded on our way through the street, through the throngs that pressed close by... I have played to men standing against the wall awaiting the command that would send them off to eternity and in hospitals. I have done my best to soothe the dying hours of the men of Virginia, but never was I so impressed. The tears rolled down the faces of my men and I knew that I was weeping."
     Upon reaching the Capitol, Jackson's coffin, which had been wrapped in a Confederate flag, was lifted from the hearse and carried into the Capitol and placed in the Hall of Congress. Thousands of people began to slowly file by the coffin for a last glimpse of their fallen hero. "Many of the ladies as they passed, shed tears over the remains, and in deep regard for the memory of the noble chieftain, pressed their lips on the lid of his coffin."
     Jackson lay in state until midnight of May 12. In the early hours of May 13, Jackson's coffin was taken back to the Governor's mansion. At about 7 a.m. it was driven to the depot of the Virginia Central Railroad, where it began it's long journey to Lexington, where Jackson wished to be buried. The train passed through Gordonsville and Charlottesville before arriving in Lynchburg.

The packet Marshall  in 1865 (Warren "H" Shindle)

     In 1863, there was no rail service in Lexington. So Jackson's coffin was taken from the train in Lynchburg and was brought to the wharf by a formal funeral procession and loaded onto the packet Marshall, a 92-foot-long vessel with state rooms, dining room and sleeping compartments and which could accommodate 60 passengers. Marshall then made its way up the North River (now called the Maury River), arriving in Lexington on May 14. There it was met by cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, who formed a military escort and placed the coffin on a caisson and accompanied it to the Institute. There it was placed in Jackson's old classroom, which had been draped in mourning. Cadets stood guard over Jackson's mortal remains that night. After Jackson's arrival in Lexington, the four smooth-bore cannons of the Institute, known as the "Four Apostles," were fired hourly in tribute.
   

Scott Shipp

     At 10 a.m. on the morning of May 15 the funeral procession started from VMI and proceeded to Lexington Presbyterian Church, where Jackson had been a member and had taught a Sunday school class for black children. The military escort was led by Major Scott Shipp, who had succeeded Jackson as commandant of cadets. The escort was composed of:

-The Cadet Battalion
- A battery of four artillery pieces (likely the "Four Apostles")
- A company of the original Stonewall Brigade
- A command of convalescent soldiers
- A squadron of cavalry
- The clergy
- "The Body, enveloped in the Confederate flag and covered with flowers, was borne on a caisson of the Cadet Battery, draped in mourning."

     Little Sorrel, Jackson's favorite mount, was tied to the rear of the caisson.
     Among the pallbearers was William George White, my great grandmother's uncle, who seven years later was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Robert E. Lee.

     After the funeral, Jackson was buried in the Lexington Presbyterian Church Cemetery. It was later renamed in his honor.

     Pictures of Jackson's grave from the 1860s. The first one shows a group of young women at his grave about 1866. Some of the girls are thought to have been students at the Ann Smith Academy, where my great grandmother attended in 1868.

(The Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

(The Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

VMI cadets, 1868 (The Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

     This photograph claims to show the forage cap and handkerchief of Stonewall Jackson, stained with his blood on May 2, 1863:

(The Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

[1] Andrew Benjamin Bowering (1843-1923) was the son of Benjamin Bowering, an English immigrant who owned the Hope Foundry in Fredericksburg. Before the war, Andrew was a music teacher. When he joined the regimental band in 1861, it consisted of 15 members. Andrew, and nine other members of the band, were surrendered by Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. On that morning, he was ordered to blow church recall: "I was called to make the assembly call for services, this being Sunday morning. I gave the call at Appomattox Court House and Walter Moncure [the regimental chaplain] of my regiment...preached to the soldiers. That assembly call was the last note that I played during the war." After the surrender, Andrew returned to Fredericksburg, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was active in the civic life of the town--he was president of the school board, commissioner of revenue for almost 50 years, worked at his father's foundry. As might be expected, Andrew's life continued to be devoted to music. He was the conductor of the Fredericksburg Band and was appointed official Bandmaster of the United Confederate Veterans.

The Fredericksburg Band, about 1920. Andrew Bowering stands in front at far right

My main sources for this article were:

-The Richmond Daily Dispatch May 11-16, 1863
- The Boat that Brought Stonewall Home
- An Account of Jackson's Death and Funeral --Part 1
- The Bands of the Confederacy
- Jackson Funeral News Account

    

Map detail of southwestern Stafford County, 1860s (Fold3.com)

     In addition to the innumerable dead and wounded, one of the major casualties of the Civil War was the suspension of many of the freedoms and legal protections white Americans had enjoyed since the founding of the Republic. In the Confederacy, little tolerance was shown to anyone who was still loyal to the government of the United States, or to those who wavered in unconditional support for slavery. During the administration of Abraham Lincoln, long-cherished ideals such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech and assembly, and the right to a fair and speedy trial were swept aside in the cause of restoring the Union. In both the north and the south, anyone suspected of sympathizing with the "wrong" side could expect a harsh response.
     One person who suffered such a fate was Sarah E. Monroe of Stafford County. By early spring of 1864, she was a young widow with four children and an elderly mother, living in southern Stafford "two and a half miles from the Chancellorsville battlefield." In the Civil War-era map detail above, what I believe to be her home is shown in the upper left of the image, above U.S. Ford. Pinning down precise dates and associations regarding Sarah's life was no easy task, but I believe that her late husband was farmer Frank Monroe, who was a private in the 47th Virginia Infantry. The last entry in his compiled service record shows him to be in the Confederate hospital in Winchester suffering from typhoid fever. He died on November 24, 1862.

Levi C. Turner

     Unfortunately for Sarah, her existence was brought to the attention of Levi C. Turner, associate judge advocate for Washington DC and the surrounding region. It was reported to him that Sarah was disloyal, and had been "harboring rebels--rebel scouts, etc." Furthermore, Turner was of the opinion that "she was a fit person to be sent to the Asylum for Women at Fitchburg, Mass., and I respectfully recommend it. She is evidently a woman of bad character, and her children injured rather than benefited from her presence." The prison in Fitchburg, Massachusetts was where female southerners, suspected of being spies or providing aid and comfort to Confederates, were imprisoned.
     What happened to Sarah after Turner ordered her arrest can best be told in her own words. Below is a letter she wrote to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from Fitchburg in August 1864, followed by my transcription.

(Fold3.com)

(Fold3.com)

"Fitchburg Prison
Aug't 2nd 1864
E.M. Stanton
Sec'y of War

Sir.

I write to you hoping, and wishing when you know my case and present situation that you will give me the justice that I merit and ought to receive at the hands of every just man. I am a widow and lived in Stafford Co. Va. I am a true and loyal woman, having taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. On the 18th of last March, when in my own house, it was entered by members of the 4th Penn. and 10th New York Cavalry who were under the influence of liquor. I was ordered to leave with my old mother, and four little children, one of them at the breast. They then burned my house to the ground, not allowing them or me a change of clothing. In this condition I was taken from them, and only my God knows where they are at this time, for I have not heard a word from them since I parted from them by the burning light of my house. I was then taken to Warrenton, then to Culpeper C.H. from there to Washington City where I remained 11 days, without a trial or any hearing. I was brought to this place Fitchburg Mass on the 23rd of April. The charges brought against me by the drunken arresters, were that I had entertained Rebels, which is as false as midnight darkness. I had taken the oath of allegiance to the U.S. Government and I call my living God to hear me out that I had been true to my faith. I had nursed soldiers in my house, but they were from Company A Penn one man that I attended named John Carpenter could testify to my faith. I was engaged to be married to a man in the 8th Penn. had he not poor fellow been killed by the Rebels, could also speak in my behalf. When I was brought to this place I was led to believe that my confinement would be of short duration, but it is now three months and I have heard nothing of my release, my heart is sick of hope deferred. I hope you will do something for me that might speedily allow me to assure you again that I am innocent of the charge as an angel in heaven. Please let me hear from you.

Yours respectfully

Mrs. Sarah E. Monroe

E.M. Stanton
Sec'y of War"

Velorous Taft (Courtesy of K. Kilbourne)

     During her long stay at Fitchburg Prison, Sarah had made a favorable impression on Velorous Taft, Chairman of the County Commissioners and Inspector of Prisons of Worcester County, Massachusetts. On December 30, 1864 Taft wrote to Secretary Stanton, informing him that "she has conducted herself with great propriety since her imprisonment, and has from first to last declared herself a Union woman, having no sympathy for the Rebels; that of all secession prisoners sent to Fitchburg she is the only one who has so declared, and the only one who has behaved decently...and she should be discharged." In his letter to Secretary Stanton dated January 11, 1865, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt stated: "In view of the slight and unsatisfactory evidence of her guilt possessed by the government, of her constant and continued professions of her loyalty, and her good behavior during her imprisonment, it is recommended that such clemency be extended as the Secretary of War may deem consistent with the public interest."

Joseph Holt (Wikimedia)

     Just four months after writing his letter to Stanton on Sarah's behalf, Judge Advocate General Holt became one of the prosecuting attorneys in the trial of the conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
     On January 26, 1865 the Adjutant General's Office of the War Department directed the Superintendent of Fitchburg Prison to release Sarah Monroe. On February 9 she was provided with "transportation and subsistence" so that she could return to a home that had been needlessly reduced to a heap of ashes. Sarah survived her 11-month ordeal to return home to Stafford, where she lived until her death in 1921.     

La Vista, 1858 (Encyclopedia of Virginia)

     Standing now for almost 165 years on what is now known as Guinea Station Road in eastern Spotsylvania County, La Vista is a living symbol of the Boulware family, who built it and owned it for the first 47 years of its existence. The story of La Vista is in no small measure emblematic of its time and place. Its history includes the themes of antebellum wealth and post-war calamity, slavery and reconstruction . My thanks go to Michele Schiesser, whose generosity and assistance made this article possible.

Gray Boulware

Harriet Terrell Boulware

(The original portraits of Gray and Harriet Boulware are owned by Bob Lang, and were photographed by Robert A. Martin)

     The story of La Vista begins with the man who built it. Gray Boulware (pronounced "Bowler") was born into a large and well-to-do family in Caroline County on May 15, 1792. Little is known of Gray's early life. In Marshall Wingfield's A History of Caroline County, Gray's name appears on the 1813 muster roll of Captain William F. Gray's Company, 30th Virginia Infantry and on the 1814 muster roll of the 16th Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Aylett Waller. It is not known whether Gray saw any fighting during the War of 1812.

Map detail of Caroline County, 1863 (Fold3.com)

     Gray married Susanna Miller in 1818. She died shortly thereafter. In 1820 or 1821, Gray bought Arcadia, a large farm in Caroline County situated between Bowling Green and Port Royal (and now part of Fort A.P. Hill). In the map detail above, Arcadia is noted as "Bowler" near the bottom of the image, just west of the The Trap, a well-known tavern owned at that time by Martha Carter. Gray married his second wife, Harriet Terrell, on January 2, 1821. They made Arcadia their home, where they had six children together between 1821 and 1828. The house at Arcadia was described as a two-story structure with two-story porches on the front and back, and had a basement and attic. It was built on a hillock of earth made by the slaves. Its foundation was made of bricks made in a kiln on the property.

Liberty Baptist Church (TheChaplinKit.com)

     Gray Boulware was a devout Baptist and an important supporter of Liberty Baptist Church, which survives to this day as the post chapel at Fort A.P. Hill. Gray's oldest daughter, Judith Terrell Boulware (1821-1850) became the first wife of Liberty's minister, Reverend Richard Henry Washington Buckner, on February 29, 1848.

Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863

     In May 1839, Gray bought from his nephew, Lee Roy Boulware, a 1,000 acre tract in eastern Spotsylvania County along the road to Guiney's Station. This land had originally belonged to Fielding Lewis, brother-in-law of George Washington. Gray called this farm The Grove. It is likely that he farmed this land, but he did not build his second home there until 1855. The location of The Grove (which Gray's son Jack later renamed La Vista) is shown in the map detail above as "Dr. Boulware."

Richmond Enquirer 6 April 1844

     During the 1840s, Gray appeared to be active in local Democratic politics. In April 1844, his name appeared on a list of Caroline County citizens who were members of the Committee of Vigilance. These committees were politically affiliated, extra-judicial organizations that performed certain law enforcement activities beyond those usually handled by the sheriff.

Alfred Jackson Boulware (Mary Campbell)

     Gray's youngest son, Alfred Jackson Boulware (called "Jack" by his friends and family) was born at Arcadia on November 3, 1828. In an era when there was no public school system in Virginia as we know it today, Jack Boulware would have been educated by private tutors or at one of the many private academies that flourished in the region at that time. Whatever form his early education took, Jack was well prepared for his years at college and medical school.
     Jack first attended Columbian College in Washington, D.C., where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1849. While a student at Columbian, Jack met John Moore McCalla, Jr., with whom he began a romantic relationship in 1848. This was the beginning of their long friendship, which lasted for the rest of Jack's life.

John Moore McCalla, Jr. (Ted Goldsborough)

     Originally from Kentucky, John McCalla came to Washington, D.C. with his family some time during the 1840s. John earned his medical degree from Columbian College in 1853, and began his medical practice in the nation's capital. In 1860, John was selected to act as physician aboard the ship Star of the Union on its voyage to Liberia. The mission of this journey was to transport 383 Africans who had been rescued from the slave ship Bogota and return them to their native continent. During the Civil War, John served as a contract surgeon at three military hospitals in Washington. As an adult John had romantic relationships with both men and women, even after he married Helen Varnum Hill. John described these relationships, including the one with Jack Boulware, in his diaries. John suffered from asthma and was forced to retire from his medical practice in 1877. He died in Washington in 1897 and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.
     After completing his studies at Columbian College, Jack Boulware returned to Arcadia. Shortly before beginning his pre-med work at the University of Virginia, Jack had a violent confrontation in downtown Richmond in the spring of 1851. Two mentions of this incident appeared in the same edition of the Richmond Enquirer.

Richmond Enquirer 27 May 1851

     Jack attended the University of Virginia 1851-1852, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1853. His education now completed, Dr. Boulware was ready to enter upon the next chapter of his life.

Ann Trippe Slaughter (Mary Campbell)

     On November 15, 1853, Jack married Ann Trippe Slaughter at a ceremony held at her parents' home in Rappahannock County (by coincidence, Ann's sister Maria became the second wife of Reverend Richard Henry Washington Buckner that same year). Not long after they were married, Gray began to build his second home at The Grove, his property in Spotsylvania.
     The house at The Grove was finished in 1855, and Gray and Harriet made this their new home. Jack and Ann joined them there. Jack's older brother, Gray, Jr. had married Millie Hudgin in 1852 and they settled at Arcadia. Millie was the daughter of Robert Hudgin, who was clerk of court in Caroline County for decades. During their years at Arcadia, Gray, Jr. and Millie had 11 children together.
     Jack and Ann's first child, Harriet Gray (affectionately known as "Hattie") was born at The Grove on February 23, 1856. Their first son, John McCalla (known as "McCalla") was born May 18, 1858. Frank, the youngest was born in 1860. In the photograph of La Vista that appears at the beginning of this article, Jack Boulware, in his top hat, can be seen sitting on the porch. Standing in the doorway is a black nurse holding McCalla, and Hattie is standing in front of them. To the left of them is likely Ann Boulware. The woman on the porch at far left is unidentified. A young black boy is playing with a dog on the top step, and a black girl stands behind the railing at right. Four enslaved adults, in addition to the nurse, are carefully posed. The identity of the person peering from behind the curtain is not known.

Gray Boulware (Mary Campbell)

                                                               
     In 1852, Gray Boulware bought a plantation account book from the publisher of A Southern Planter, a trade journal for Virginia farmers. On January 1, 1853 the overseer of Arcadia (whose name appears to be J.A. Stephens) listed the names of the 43 slaves at Arcadia, their job descriptions and their monetary values. The two oldest persons on the list, Frank and Edmonia, are identified as foremen. Some of the other jobs listed include hog hand, plougher, field hand, house boy and cook. Nelly and Jacob, both age 9, worked as field hands.

Pages from Gray Boulware's account book (Michele Schiesser)

     Gray raised prize-winning stock, which he advertised for the State Agricultural Fair in Richmond and in The Southern Planter:

Richmond Daily Dispatch 1 October 1854

The Southern Planter, Volume 14, 1854

     In 1856, a Boulware relative from South Carolina visited Arcadia and was presented with a cane with an inscribed silver head which read "Gray Bowlware [sic], Bowling Green Virginia, Nov 3, 1856":

Presentation cane, 1856 (Michele Schiesser)

     On January 15, 1857, just two weeks before he died, Gray Boulware wrote his last will and testament. He bequeathed Arcadia to Gray, Jr. Jack would receive The Grove. His wife Harriet was given a life estate in both of those properties. Gray's will was witnessed by Ann J. Swann and by Richard H. Garrett, whose first wife was a niece of Gray. Eight years after he witnessed Gray's will, Garrett's name would be forever linked to that of John Wilkes Booth, who was killed at his farm in April 1865.

Obituary of Gray Boulware (Mary Campbell)

     Gray's will also stipulated that the slaves at Arcadia and The Grove be equally divided between Jack and Gray, Jr. Shown below are the names of those enslaved people, 83 in all, and the monetary value assigned to each of them:

Slaves of Gray Boulware, 1857 (Michele Schiesser)

     Like his father, Gray, Jr. was well known to the publishers of The Southern Journal. In the July 1860 edition, he is thanked by the editors for sending them a pig, and he is named as one of the judges of the roadster mares and fillies at the 1860 State Agricultural Fair in Richmond:

The Southern Planter, July 1860

     The 1860 census shows that Gray, Jr. had personal and real property totaling almost $66,000, making him a wealthy man for his time. He owned 47 slaves that year. In addition to his farming operations, he also owned a hotel in Bowling Green. Just before the start of the Civil War, life was good for the Boulwares of Arcadia.
     The year 1860 was also a prosperous one for Jack Boulware and his family. About this time Jack changed the name of his plantation to La Vista. The census shows that six white people were living at La Vista--Jack, Ann, their three children and Jack's mother Harriet (Harriet is also shown living at Arcadia that year, which indicates that she divided her time between her two homes). Jack had a combined wealth totaling $62,000 and he owned 39 slaves. In 1860 he owned more horses than any other household in St. George's Parish--22 of them--and he raised 20,000 pounds of tobacco, also more than anyone else in the parish.

Harriet Terrell Boulware (Mary Campbell)

     There is no record that I can find which provides the exact date and circumstances of Harriet's death, but it appears to have occurred about 1861.
     When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, both Jack and Gray, Jr., supported their state's resistance to federal authority, In 1862, Gray, Jr., received a $50 bounty for his one-year enlistment in Company B of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. He also sold goods to Confederate quartermaster officers, primarily fodder. Gray, Jr. applied for a mail contract with the Confederate government. The August 27, 1864 edition of the Richmond Dispatch reported the names of 80-odd black Union soldiers (and the names of their former owners) who had been captured during the Battle of the Crater near Petersburg. Among them was John, who had once belonged to Gray Boulware, Jr.
     Jack Boulware was exempted from military service, but he still aided the Confederate cause by selling tons of fodder to various quartermaster officers, and by providing the use of his wagons, with his slaves serving as teamsters. One of Jack's quartermaster receipts was signed by Elliott Muse Braxton, who in civilian life was an attorney in Fredericksburg and a former state senator.

Quartermaster receipt signed by Major E.M. Braxton 4 August 1863 (Fold3.com)

Elliott Muse Braxton (Wikipedia)

     Jack's first encounter with the Union army occurred in 1862, when soldiers under General McDowell's command stole 110 barrels of corn, among other things. Further depredations took place in May 1864, when the Union army stopped to visit during their march southeast on the road to Guiney's Station. As Jack described in his application for a presidential pardon in May 1865: "I have suffered severely in property by the operations of the war. During 1862, the Federal army took from me, eighteen horses and mules, being all my working teams. The fencing on my farm has been twice destroyed, cropping in a great measure prevented throughout the war. And my household furniture and supplies of food destroyed by military violence." However, one small item was saved from the clutches of marauding United States soldiers. A silver cake tray was hidden under a hen in the chicken coop. The hen was snatched, but the cake tray escaped the notice of the hungry thief. This cake tray was at one time displayed at the National Park Service Visitor Center in Fredericksburg:

Boulware cake tray (Michele Schiesser)

     The long association of the Boulware family with the legacy of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson began in May 1863. Two days after his left arm had been amputated due to his accidental wounding during the Battle of Chancellorsville, an ambulance carrying Jackson and a military escort slowly made its way to Fairfield, the farm of Thomas C. Chandler near Guiney's Station. As this sad entourage passed by La Vista, it is likely to have been seen by the Boulware family.
     In June 1863, John McCalla was incorrectly informed by mutual friend James M. Slaughter that Jack Boulware had died of typhoid fever. While this was untrue, for the next two years John believed that his old friend was dead.
     Although Jack would be more fortunate than many others during the Civil War--he had plenty of food and most of his slaves chose not to run away from La Vista--his life would be ravaged by tragedy and grief. Frank, his younger son, died (the date is unknown). On November 15, 1864, eight-year-old Hattie also died. It is said that Jack, overcome by rage and grief, tore the works out of the upright clock, screaming Hattie's name and exclaiming that the clock should keep time no more.
     During the Victorian Age, spiritualism was taken seriously by many. Spiritualists were people who claimed to have the ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Jack Boulware managed to get a message to a spiritualist in Boston, who published a reply to him in the December 31, 1864 edition of Banner of Light:

"Hattie Boulware
Send to her father, Andrew Trippe Boulware [sic], La Vista, Spottsylvania County
I want my father to give me some one I can speak through. I died at La Vista at nine o'clock in the morning, of inflammation of the lungs and brain, on Nov 15."

     At the time of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, there were still 28 former slaves living at La Vista, including 13 who were too young or otherwise not able to work. Jack continued to provide food and shelter for all of them. He also shared what food he had with his impoverished neighbors. In March 1865, the occupation authority of the federal army named him as commissioner to oversee which families in Spotsylvania County would be eligible to receive government rations.
     On May 8,  Jack applied for a presidential pardon, a necessary step to re-establish his citizenship in the United States and be able to exercise his right to vote. On that same day he took the required oath of allegiance. Gray, Jr. also took the oath of allegiance later that year.

Oath of allegiance of Alfred Jackson Boulware (Fold3.com)

     On May 9, 1865, the day after Jack completed his application for a pardon, John McCalla received a message from him. It was his first communication from Jack since the start of the war, and his first confirmation that Jack was still alive. Eleven months later, Jack, Ann and McCalla booked passage on a packet and made the trip to Washington, where they visited John. Six weeks later, John made arrangements to come to La Vista in order to recuperate from a bout of illness (his wife Helen remained in Washington). He took a steam boat from to Aquia Harbor, then boarded the train from Brooke's Station to Guiney's Station. There he was met by Jack, who was driving a buggy, and eight-year-old McCalla, who was on horseback. John was shocked by the aged appearance of his old friend. The stresses of the war and the deaths of two of his children had taken their toll on Jack.

Alfred Jackson Boulware, 1860s (Mary Campbell)

     On June 16, 1866, John accompanied John and Ann to Spotsylvania Court House in order to attend a meeting to organize the Spotsylvania Ladies' Memorial Association. The goal of the Association was to raise funds to buy land for a cemetery near the court house, to locate the remains of Confederate soldiers at the local battlefields and to transport them to the new cemetery. During the meeting, Ann was elected as first president of the Association. Afterwards, John, the Boulwares and several others, including John Horace Lacy of Ellwood, went to the springs at the nearby farm of Neil McCoull and enjoyed an afternoon picnic.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 18 June 1866

Fredericksburg Ledger 20 November 1866

Richmond Daily Dispatch 20 June 1868

     Two days after the meeting at the court house, John, Jack and Ann rode in an open wagon to Fairfield, the farm of Thomas Chandler, where General Jackson had died three years earlier. Chandler had offered to give the Association the bed in which Jackson had died. The intention was to make the bed available for sale in order to raise money for the cemetery and for the re-internment of the soldiers' remains. John noted in his diary that an adult daughter of Chandler (most likely Mary Chandler) gave the bed to him. When John left for Washington the next day, he gave the bed to the Boulwares and began to seek a buyer for it. In one such early effort, John approached an agent of the museum of Phineas T. Barnum, but a sale was not made. As it turned out, money from the sale of the bed was not needed, and the Boulwares retained ownership of the bed until 1900.
     The losses that they incurred during the Civil War forced both Jack and Gray, Jr. to declare bankruptcy. In 1866, Jack executed a deed of trust to attorney Elliott Muse Braxton, conveying to him all of his property in trust in order to secure his debts. Jack managed to successfully navigate the bankruptcy process, and by 1869 his case was resolved.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 11 August 1869

     Gray, Jr. was not so fortunate. He was forced to sell Arcadia at public auction. The 1870 census shows his occupation as "hotel manager." Several years later, Gray and his family moved west and lived for a time in Chillicothe, Missouri before ultimately settling in Lawrence, Kansas. In 1895 Gray, Jr., was declared insane and was confined in the state asylum in Topeka, where he died three weeks later.

Gray Boulware, Jr. (Mary Campbell)

Topeka State Journal 20 January 1895

Topeka State Journal 15 February 1895

     By 1867, Jack had become active in local politics. In August of that year he was elected as a delegate to the Conservative Party convention in Richmond.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 12 December 1867

     By late winter 1870, Jack's health began to fail. In early March he suffered a bout of jaundice and was ill for several days before he began to seemingly improve. Believing that he was out of danger, Ann made arrangements to travel to Rappahannock County to visit her mother, whom she had not seen for a year and a half. Susan Motley of Caroline County and another woman came to La Vista to stay with Jack during Ann's absence. For several days he seemed to gain strength and was in good spirits. Then he suffered from paralysis and experienced dropsy in his chest. Two days before Ann returned to La Vista, he suffered a violent hemorrhage from his nose and began to fail rapidly. Ann came home on March 18. Jack died on Sunday March 20, 1870. He was buried with his children in the family cemetery near the driveway to the house.
     When Jack died, the deed of trust he had signed in 1866 was still in force. Ann moved quickly to claim her dower rights in La Vista and to secure McCalla's legacy. To that end, she petitioned the court in May 1870 to obtain legal title to the house and one-third of the land at La Vista. Attorney Thomas N. Welch was appointed as guardian ad litem to represent McCalla's legal interests in the remaining two-thirds of the land. Spotsylvania County surveyor John M. Smith was hired to survey La Vista and make a plat of Ann's dower portion of the property.

Plat of La vista, 1870

     At the time of his father's death, McCalla was away at boarding school. He was taught by a gentleman named V.H. Beasley. McCalla's education was of paramount importance to Ann, and she continued to pay for his education after her husband died.

John McCalla Boulware, 1870

     During the course of 1873, the health of 45-year-old Ann Boulware began to decline. She was treated by at least four physicians--Dr. W. Washington, Dr. Andrew M. Glassell of Caroline County, Dr. Holloway and Dr. Adolphus W. Read of Rapphahannock County. In the end, their efforts proved to be unavailing. Ann died on December 22, 1873. W.M. Jones, a laborer at La Vista, built her coffin and case for $30. She is presumed to have been buried with her husband and children in the family burying ground at La Vista.
     Ann's estate was appraised at $1,449 but only $718.19 was realized at her estate sale. Ann had made no will. Her brother, Francis Long Slaughter, was appointed administrator of her estate (Francis by this time was married to Susan Motley, who had cared for Jack Boulware during his final illness). Among the many household items that had been appraised for the sale were a bird cage, a refrigerator, a bathing tub and a $150 piano. At her death, Ann still owed to the law firm of Elliott Muse Braxton and Charles Wistar Wallace the sum of $198.39 for an unpaid bond.
     Since McCalla Boulware was still legally a minor, he was sent to Rappahannock County to live with his Slaughter relatives. While there, McCalla met Ada Johnston Miller, whom he married on October 15, 1879. They moved to La Vista, where they would live for the next 23 years. They had three children together--Darius Jackson (1880-1933), Gideon Brown (1884-1935) and Elizabeth Trippe (1890-1919). The 1880 census, dated June 11-12, shows McCalla and Ada (who was eight months pregnant with Darius), living at La Vista. Also living there were the Green family: adults Adelaide, the cook, and Benjamin, a laborer and children J.E.B., Robert, Lucy Annie and Carey. Soon after returning to Spotsylvania, McCalla sold his share of La Vista, keeping the tract that included the house and 338 acres.
     The bed in which General Jackson had died was still being stored at La Vista. During the 1880s, Rufus B. Merchant, owner of the Virginia Star newspaper in Fredericksburg, started a fund-raising effort to erect a monument to General Jackson at the Chancellorsville battlefield. Once again, the idea of selling his death bed was proposed to help cover the cost of the monument. McCalla loaned the bed to Merchant for that purpose, and the disassembled bed remained at the Star's office for some time. Once again, sufficient funds were raised for the monument and it was not necessary to sell the bed.

The Daily Star 1 March 1900

     Once the bed came back to La Vista, it remained in McCalla's possession until 1900, when he gave it to Dr. Hunter McGuire, the surgeon who had amputated General Jackson's arm in 1863. McCalla wished for the bed to be given to the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Association, which Dr. McGuire helped to establish. The Association, in turn, gave the bed to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. And there it remained in storage until 1927, when it was turned over to the National Park Service. Today the bed is on display in the building where Jackson died, at the newly-renamed Stonewall Jackson death site.

Southern Planter and Farmer, Volume 61, 1900

     In addition to profitably farming at La Vista, McCalla--like his father and grandfather before him--became involved in local politics:

The Daily Star 1 September 1899

     In June 1902 McCalla sold La Vista to Charles Decatur. The Boulwares then moved to Fredericksburg, where McCalla hired A. Mason Garner to build a house on Washington Avenue across the street from Kenmore.

Richmond Times 29 April 1902

Richmond Times 16 September 1902

The Boulware house today (Google)

     McCalla and his older son Darius started a feed and grain business on Commerce (William) Street. Over the years, they partnered in several other businesses as they changed with the times.

The Free Lance 5 May 1903

The Free Lance 14 January 1905

The Daily Star 27 April 1917

The Battlefield 1917

     McCalla's other son, Brown, was one of Fredericksburg's earliest owners of an automobile and he had business plans for its use:

The Daily Star 15 September 1909

     Like his father 55 years earlier, McCalla experienced the anguish of losing his only daughter. Elizabeth was among the many who lost their lives during the influenza epidemic:

The Daily Star 15 February 1919

     John McCalla Boulware died of heart disease on April 24, 1920. His death was front page news. McCalla is buried in the Fredericksburg City Cemetery:

The Daily Star 26 April 1920

John McCalla Boulware (Findagrave)

     After McCalla sold it in 1902, La Vista changed hands many times in the years that followed. During the 1930s and 1940s modern conveniences such as electricity, indoor plumbing and central heating were added to La Vista. At about that same time, the Boulware family cemetery disappeared during farming operations on the property. Eventually, only ten acres out of the original 1,000 acres remained with the house. La Vista was purchased by its current owners, Ed and Michele Schiesser, in 1983.







Sources: 

Boulware, A.T. Virginia Chancery Causes, Index Number 1870-009, Library of Virginia

Boulware, Alfred J. "Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65." National Archives and Records Administration

Boulware, Alfred J. "Case Files from Former Confederates for Presidential Pardons ('Amnesty Papers'), 1865-67." National Archives and Records Administration

Durrett, Virginia Wright, From Generation to Generation: The Confederate Cemetery at Spotsylvania Court House. Durrett, Spotsylvania:Virginia, 1992.

Farmer, Selma, "Arcadia." Works Progress Administration of Virginia Historical Inventory, March 19, 1937.

Herlong, Mark W. "An Incurable Romantic: The Life and Loves of John Moore McCalla, Jr."

"Stonewall" Jackson Death Site

Ross, Helen P. La Vista Registration Form, National Register of Historic Places

Rubey, Ann Todd; Stacy, Isabelle Florence; Collins, Herbert Ridgeway. The Tod(d)s of Caroline County and Their Kin. Aircraft Press, Columbia: Missouri, 1960.



         

Richard Lewis Todd while (Courtesy of Turnley Todd, Jr.)

     Charles M. Todd (1797-c. 1850) married Caroline Matilda Richards (1804-1885) in Spotsylvania County on March 2, 1824. Over a fourteen-year period they had  seven children who survived to adulthood: Esme Smock (b. 1825), Mary Richards (b. 1826), James Thomas (b. 1830), Sarah Ann (b. 1832), Charles Robert (b. 1833), Richard Lewis (b. 1836) and Oscar Beadles (b. 1839).
     Charles M. Todd was a farmer, slave owner and postmaster at Todd's Tavern from February 1838 until March 1850, when he was replaced by William H. Jones. Although I have not found any mention of Charles's death in the written record, the fact that he was replaced as postmaster and that his name does not appear in the 1850 federal census leads me to believe that he died early in 1850. The Todd name will forever be attached the tavern and post office once run by Charles Todd.

Todd's Tavern, April 1866 (Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

     Caroline Todd became head of the household upon Charles's death. Four of her children were still living with her at that time--Mary, Robert, Richard and Oscar. Esme had moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he died in 1852. James Thomas was living in Fredericksburg where he worked as a clerk. Sarah Ann is not listed in her mother's household in the 1850 census, but she is shown living with her mother in 1860. James Thomas Todd married Louisa Brice Stringfellow in 1854. Sometime before 1860 they moved to Montgomery, Alabama where they lived for the rest of their lives. I have told their story in a previous post, which can be read here.

1863 map detail showing location of Caroline Todd's farm

     In 1850, Caroline Todd bought half of "Canwick," including the 18th-century house, that had once been the property of Daniel and Sarah Hyde. To say that the Hydes did not get along would be an understatement. Relations between them became so contentious that a line was drawn through the center hall of the house, down the back steps, through the back yard and out to the spring. Daniel kept to his half of the property, and Sarah stayed on her side. The two halves of Canwick were conveyed seprately to their son Richard after their deaths. Although Caroline bought only half the acreage of Canwick, she did have title to the house itself.
     The three Todd sons remaining at Canwick at the outbreak of the Civil War enlisted in the Confederate army. Richard joined Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry at Camp Potomac in King George County on September 4, 1861. Richard became sick soon after his enlistment but recovered quickly and rejoined his regiment. The record shows that Richard was thereafter marked present on the surviving muster rolls and avoided capture and wounds.
     Oscar was not quite so fortunate as Richard. He joined his brother's company on March 10, 1862. His arm was broken in November 1862 and he did not return to duty until early 1863. He was marked as absent without leave in September 1863, then as absent due to sickness in January 1864. In March 1864 he was listed as "absent wounded," and remained at that status until the last known muster roll dated January 20, 1865.
     Robert Todd enlisted in the Fredericksburg Light Artillery on April 1, 1862. He was killed while fighting at the Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads near Richmond on October 7, 1864.
      After the war, Richard and Oscar returned to their mother's home in Spotsylvania. Oscar married Susan Ellinor Stephens in January 1869. Sarah Ann Todd married Thomas Downer in 1871. Richard, seemingly a confirmed bachelor at the time, remained on his mother's farm.
     At long last, on January 26, 1882, 46-year-old Richard Lewis Todd married 23-year-old Robertine Temple Scott in a ceremony officiated by Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor. They had four children together--James Thomas (1883-1950), William Day (1885-1952), Susie Walton (1888-1926), and Richard Beadles (1894-1918).
     Richard was a lifelong friend and neighbor of my great-grandfather, George Washington Estes Row. During the first year of the Civil War, they served together in the 9th Cavalry. Richard's signature appears on this receipt given to George in 1876.






     After his mother's death in 1885, Richard became the owner of her portion of Canwick, and over time he took steps to reunite both halves of the once divided property. Canwick would remain in the Todd family until 1919, when Robertine sold it to Aubrey Haney. He and his wife Lily Foster would live there for the rest of her lives.
     About 1900 Richard posed with a group of Spotsylvania's leading citizens in a photograph taken at Christ Church near the court house. The caption indicates that Richard is standing fifth from the right:





     In the early 1900s Richard's name appeared in the local newspapers, but the news was not always good:

The Free Lance, 21 December 1905

     Until late in life, Richard remained active in the affairs of Confederate veterans:

The Free Lance, 21 April 1908

The Free Lance, 4 October 1910

     In 1909, Richard was appointed overseer of the poor to finish the unexpired term of the late Anthony Smith:

The Free Lance, 7 Sep 1909

     In 1910, Richard hosted two events at his home which were noted in the newspaper:

The Free Lance, 24 January 1910

The Free Lance, 7 April 1910

     Richard Lewis Todd died at home on May 29, 1911. He is buried at Wilderness Baptist Church. The name of his brother Robert was added to his headstone (Robert died during the war in 1864, not 1865 as shown on the stone).

The Daily Star, 30 May 1911

Headstone at Wilderness Baptist Church (Findagrave)

     The cavalry sabers of Richard and Oscar Todd went missing for a number of years. The mystery of their disappearance was solved by Orene Dickinson Todd, who was married to Richard's grandson, James Turnley Todd. She wrote about this in her book Dear Cousins: An Intimate Visit With Five Generations of Todds:

(Courtesy of Turnley Todd, Jr.)

     Richard's oldest son, James Thomas, moved to Orange County, where for decades he ran a general  store and post office located near the intersection of Routes 3 and 20:

The J.T. Todd store, 1928 (Ancestry)

The bed in which Stonewall Jackson died (National Park Service)

     The story of the bed in which General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died in May 1863 is a convoluted tale, full of unexpected twists and turns. This historical artifact was moved about over the years, from Caroline to Spotsylvania County, to Fredericksburg, back to Spotsylvania, then to Richmond and then back to Caroline County once again. But to begin at the beginning, we must first start at Oakley.

Oakley, 1935 (Frances Benjamin Johnston)

     In 1816, Spotsylvania builder Samuel Alsop, Jr., bought an 849-acre tract of land on Catharpin Road located between the future sites of Todd's Tavern and Shady Grove Methodist Church. About 1826 Samuel built a brick house on this property and gave it to his daughter Clementina and her husband, Thomas Coleman Chandler (1798-1890). This was Oakley.
     In 1839, Thomas Chandler sold Oakley to Enoch Gridley and moved to Fairfield, a large plantation in northwestern Caroline County near the future Guineys' Station. In the 1863 map detail shown below, "Chandler" can be seen just northeast of "Guinea Sta."

Location of Thomas Chandler's home, 1863

Wayside marker depicting Fairfield (National Park Service)

     Before her death in 1844, Clementina had six children with Thomas. A few years after her death, Thomas married Mary Elizabeth Frazer, with whom he had another four children. On the eve of the Civil War, Thomas and Mary were living at Farifield with their children, plus Thomas's youngest two children from his first marriage. Also at Fairfield were 62 enslaved people (an additional six were hired out in Spotsylvania County).

General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

     During the winter of 1862-1863, General Jackson made his headquarters at Fairfield. While there, he and his family became close friends with the Chandlers. Just a few months later, on the evening of May 2, 1863, Jackson was accidentally wounded by a volley of musketry fired by North Carolina troops during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson was taken to the field hospital set up near Wilderness Tavern, where his left arm was amputated by Dr. Hunter McGuire, chief surgeon of the 2nd Corps.

Dr. Hunter McGuire

     Early on May 4, Jackson was placed in an ambulance and, accompanied by a military escort, was driven southeast toward Caroline County. This group traveled down what is now known as Massaponax Church Road and then Guinea Station Road to Fairfield. A bed and some other small comforts were brought out of the Chandler house and placed in the nearby plantation office building. Here it was hoped that Jackson could recover his strength while arrangements were made to send a train from Richmond to take him there to convalesce. Instead, Jackson's health rapidly declined, and he died of pneumonia on May 10, 1863. His body was placed in a rough coffin made by Confederate soldiers, and the following day a train arrived to take him to Richmond for the first of his two funerals.

The building in which Stonewall Jackson died (Confederate Memorial Literary Society)

     In November 1853, Ann Trippe Slaughter (1828-1873) of Rappahannock County married Caroline County native Dr. Alfred Jackson "Jack" Boulware (1828-1870). Jack's father, Gray Boulware, then built a house for himself on Guinea Station Road in eastern Spotsylvania County. When the house was finished in 1855, Jack and Ann also moved to La Vista, as this place came to be known. They had three children together. Only one, McCalla, survived to adulthood. The ambulance that carried General Jackson to Fairfield passed by this house. In the photograph below, Jack and Ann Boulware and their children are seen on the porch of La Vista with several of their slaves.

La Vista, 1858 (Encyclopedia of Virginia)

   

Ann Slaughter Boulware (Michele Schiesser)

Dr. Alfred Jackson Boulware (Michele Schiesser)

     On the eve of the Civil War, Jack Boulware was one of Spotsylvania's wealthier citizens. But he and his family suffered just like most of the regions inhabitants during the war, which ruined Jack financially and likely shortened his life.
     In the months following the collapse of the Confederacy, a determined effort was made to locate the remains of the hundreds of dead Union soldiers which lay scattered on the battlefields of Spotsylvania County. Hundreds of volunteer arrived in Spotsylvania to do this work. The federal government established the National Cemetery in Fredericksburg to receive the Union dead. The mostly destitute citizens of Spotsylvania assumed the burden of providing a fitting burial spot for fallen Confederate soldiers--they would get no help from the national government.

John Moore McCalla (Ted Goldsborough)

     In June 1866, Jack and Ann Boulware were visited by Jack's old friend, Dr. John Moore McCalla, Jr., of Washington, D.C. While he was a student at Columbian College in Washington in the late 1840s, Jack had a romantic relationship with with John McCalla (and later named his son in his honor). Their friendship endured until Jack's death in 1870.
     On June 16, 1866, John accompanied Jack and Ann to Spotsylvania Court House to attend a meeting to organize the Spotsylvania Ladies' Memorial Association. The goals of the Association were to raise funds to buy land for a Confederate Cemetery near the court house, to locate the remains of the Confederate soldiers at the local battlefields and to transport them to the new cemetery. Ann Boulware was elected as the first president of the Association.

Richmond Daily Dispatch 18 June 1866

Fredericksburg Ledger 20 November 1866

Richmond Daily Dispatch 20 June 1866

     Two days after the meeting at the court house, John, Jack and Ann rode in an open wagon to Fairfield, the farm of Thomas Chandler, who had offered to donate the death bed of General Jackson to the Association in order that its sale might help raise money for the cemetery and the re-internment of the soldiers' remains. John noted in his diary that an adult daughter of Thomas (most likely Mary Chandler) gave the bed to him. When John departed for Washington the next day, he left the bed in the care of the Boulwares and began to seek a buyer for it. In one such early effort, John approached an agent of the museum of Phineas T. Barnum, but a sale was not made.
     As it turned out, money from the sale of the bed was not needed by the Association. Joseph Sanford, owner of the landmark inn at Spotsylvania Court House, donated land for the cemetery to the Association. Sufficient money was raised to pay Sanford one dollar for each set of Confederate remains transported to the new Confederate Cemetery. Ultimately, 570 soldiers were buried there, according to Virginia Wright Durrette's book "From Generation to Generation."
     During the 1880s, Rufus Bainbridge Merchant, owner of the Virginia Star newspaper in Fredericksburg, started a fund-raising effort to erect a monument to General Jackson at the Chancellorsville battlefield. Once again, the idea of selling the death bed was proposed to help cover the cost of the monument. McCalla Boulware loaned the bed to Merchant for that purpose, and the disassembled bed remained at the Star's office for some time. Once again, sufficient money was raised for the monument and it was not necessary to sell the bed.

The Daily Star 1 March 1900

     Once the bed came back to La Vista, it remained in McCalla's possession until 1900, when he gave it to Dr. Hunter McGuire, the physician who had amputated General Jackson's left arm in 1863. McCalla wished for the bed to be given to the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Association, which Dr. McGuire had established. The Association, in turn, gave the bed to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, which had been founded by the Confederate Literary Memorial Society a few years previously. The bed remained in storage at the museum until 1927, when it was turned over to the National Park Service. Today the bed is on display in the building where Jackson died, at the recently renamed Stonewall Jackson Death Site.

Southern Planter and Farmer, Volume 61, 1900

     Once Joseph Sanford had finished his task of transporting the bodies of Confederate soldiers to the cemetery near the court house, little is heard about the Spotsylvania Ladies' Memorial Association for many years. On May 31, 1918, the entry gate and monument were dedicated to the Confederate Cemetery in a well-attended ceremony.
     During all the years since the cemetery's inception in 1866, the graves of the soldiers there had been marked with simple wooden posts. In 1930, Congress passed legislation which authorized the United States to make available headstones for Confederate graves upon request. The government would furnish the inscribed stones, made of Vermont marble, and pay transportation costs to the nearest depot.
     In due course, 531 headstones were ordered by the Association and shipped to Fredericksburg. The Association raised money to pay for the transportation of the stones to the cemetery and for their placement at the graves. Once that work was completed, a dedication ceremony was held at the Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery on May 12, 1931--the 67th anniversary of the day of the heaviest fighting during the battles near Spotsylvania Court House.


Many thanks to Michele Schiesser, who generously provided images and background information on the history of La Vista, her home.

My other primary source of information was From Generation to Generation: The Confederate Cemetery at Spotsylvania Court House, written by Virginia Wright Durrette in 1992

    


    

 

     He came from a distinguished family that arrived in Spotsylvania in the early 1840s, and during his long and useful life, William Aquilla Harris made a significant mark in the community in the form of public service. He is best remembered as an excellent physician, and was my family's doctor for decades.

     William was born in Spotsylvania County on December 28, 1877 to Thomas Addison Harris and the former Mary Elizabeth Poole. At the time of William's birth, Thomas was overseer of the poor for Spotsylvania. The county poor house was located off Gordon Road near Old Plank Road. I believe the overseer's house was located on the poor house property. Thomas would later serve as county sheriff for twenty years, and then served the last nine years of his life as clerk of the Spotsylvania court.

           Four years after William's birth, Thomas bought a 260 acre farm that lay along a stretch of Court House Road from Brock Road north. This was the house in which William spent most of his childhood. As a young boy, Thomas had attended Shady Grove Church with his family. But now that he was established at the courthouse, he and his family became members of nearby Zion Methodist Church. In the photograph below, William Harris appears seated in front (#58):

     William appears in another group portrait of that era. The photograph below was taken at Spotsylvania Court House about 1890. Shown are William (#5) and his father, Sheriff Thomas Harris (#13):

 

          William was educated in the public school near the court house until he was 15, then was tutored by a Professor George Jenks, an Englishman. He then studied Under Dr. George Rayland of Johns Hopkins University. In 1898, William entered the Medical College of Virginia, and earned his medical degree in 1901. He was president of his class. 

9126 Court House Road

     Upon his graduation from medical school, Thomas gave his son a portion of the family farm on which to build a house. During that eventful year, on July 3, 1901, William married Dora Crismond, who was the daughter of Spotsylvania clerk of court Joseph Patrick Henry Crismond. They moved into their newly completed house at 9126 Court House Road in 1903. Dr. William Harris ran his medical practice from this house. William and Dora raised a son and two daughters here. This building still stands.

The Free Lance 11 January 1902

          Among Dr. Harris's earliest patients was my grandfather, Horace Row, and Zebulon "Buckshot" Payne, who were injured in a buggy mishap in 1902. Buckshot was seriously hurt. Twenty years later, Dr. Harris made out the death certificate for Mr. Payne, who drank himself to death. In 1939, Dr. Harris made out the death certificate for my grandfather, who died of a heart attack in Sperryville while picking apples.

Mary Houston (1882-1916)

     Three years later, Dr. Harris treated Horace's mother, Elizabeth Houston Row, while she was enjoying a visit from her niece, Mary Houston of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Upon her return home, Mary wrote a highly entertaining letter to her aunt, in which she made reference to William: "When your letter came, I was just starting to write to you. You don't know how sorry I am to know that you are not well again--I think I'll have to go back there and punch that doctor's head--he is too good looking anyway and a black eye would be just the thing for the old guy."

     William Harris was an early adopter of the automobile, and as by 1910 he was making house visits by car. This experience made him an avid and long-time proponent of improving local roads. He served for a number of years on the county's road commission. He was also a member of the Automobile Association of Virginia and the Fredericksburg Motor Club.

     In addition to his medical practice, William was actively involved in the civic life of his community. For a time he served as county coroner and was head of the board of health for Spotsylvania County. He served on the county school board. He was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks. In 1912, he was appointed to the board of visitors of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

     In March 1917, Dr. Harris wrote this letter to my great-grandmother, reassuring her about her health and telling her that she should make the trip to visit her brothers in Rockbridge County. He also comments on the recent marriage of Horace to my grandmother, Fannie Kent. (Eleven years later, Dr. Harris signed my great-grandmother's death certificate).

     During World War I, Dr. Harris volunteered his services with the 304th Sanitary Train, which provided medical support for the 79th Division during its service in France. On June 30, 1918 he departed from Hoboken, New Jersey aboard USS Mongolia as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps. In June the following year he returned to the United States as a lieutenant Colonel in the MRC aboard USS Shoshone.

Member of House of Delegates, 1938

     Dr. Harris served three terms in the House of Delegates, 1936-1942. It was during this time that his wife's health began to fail. Dora Harris died at their home on April 29, 1938 She lies buried in the Confederate Cemetery at Spotsylvania Court House. The following year, on October 19, 1939, William married Mattie Puckett of Russell County Virginia.

     William Aquilla Harris died suddenly at home of coronary thrombosis on May 25, 1944. He is buried near Dora in the Confederate Cemetery. 

 

     After William's passing, Mattie Harris taught at Spotsylvania High School. She died on September 22, 1956. She is also buried in the Confederate Cemetery.

 

Links:

Biography of Thomas Addison Harris: https://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2013/10/thomas-addison-harris.html

Biography of Joseph Patrick Henry Crismond: https://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/11/strange-tale-of-jph-crismond.html

                                                                           John J. Wright

     On November 18, 1863, John Julius Wright was born into slavery in Spotsylvania County at "the Blanton farm" near Massaponax. His mother was Louisa Alsop; his father's name is unknown. His step-father was Woodson Wright. As a free person after emancipation, John attended a nearby one-room school for black children on what is now Route 1. As a young student, John demonstrated intellectual promise and an aptitude for learning.

     

                                 Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (Library of Virginia)

 

     John attended the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute near Petersburg, where he graduated with honors in 1894. The Institute was established by the state legislature in 1882 to educate black scholars who wished to pursue a career in teaching. Over the years, the school's name changed as its mission evolved. In 1902 it became the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1946 it was renamed Virginia State College. And in 1979 it became Virginia State University. 

     His education now complete, John returned to Spotsylvania County where he became a teacher at the one-room school where he had once been a pupil.

     On February 12, 1896, John married Jennie Garnett, who had also attended the Institute. Like her husband, Jennie also had taught school in Spotsylvania. She died shortly after the birth of their daughter Jeanette in November 1898. Jeanette followed in her parents' footsteps as an educator after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. 

     John next married Cora Jackson at Beulah Baptist Church on April 16, 1902. Cora had been a teacher in the Reedy School District of Caroline County. After marrying John, she assisted him in promoting black education in Spotsylvania County. They had one son, Jesse, who was born in 1903. John and Cora also adopted a boy named Randolph Thurston. 

     John J. Wright believed that the path to success for the black race required the ownership of land and a quality education. During the Jim Crow era, white-led school boards paid scant attention to the educational needs of black children. To help remedy that state of affairs, John organized a meeting of representatives of Spotsylvania's historically black churches. This meeting was held at St. Luke's Baptist Church on July 5, 1905, and the Spotsylvania Sunday School Union was established. One of the decisions made that day was to begin a fund raising effort to build a proper school for black students. 

     After several years of raising money for the new school, the SSSU had enough resources to buy a 158-acre tract in Snell for $3 per acre. A deed dated January 3, 1910 conveyed the property to John J. Wright and two other trustees of the SSSU. From 1910-1912, plans were made for the new building which were then approved by the County Board of Education. Master carpenter and contractor Alfred "Allie" Fairchild was chosen to construct the school, which was called the Snell Industrial School (it was also called the Spotsylvania Industrial School).

                                                                         Alfred Fairchild

     In the fall of  1913, the first classroom was completed and classes began for 47 black students in grades 1-7. The first teacher at the school was Sadie Coates Combs, who had been a student of John J. Wright and had earned her degree at the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute at the age of 19.

                                                                    Sadie Coates Combs

     Work continued on the new school, which was completed in 1922 at a cost of $7,500. John J. Wright served as the school's first principal. The building consisted of four classrooms, twelve bedrooms and four rooms in the basement dedicated to feeding the students. Although this school was created to serve black students from throughout Spotsylvania County, no provision was made to provide bus transportation on that scale. If black students could make it to Spotsylvania Court House, the county would then bus them the three miles to the school. For that reason, the Snell Training School was, in part, a boarding school.

                                                                     Snell Training School

     In 1927, the SSSU paid off the remaining indebtedness of the school, and a cornerstone was laid during a well-attended ceremony on October 2. The cornerstone was laid by the Prospect Lodge of Lewiston, assisted by the Prince Hall Lodge of Fredericksburg. In that same year, the building and four acres were leased for 20 years to the County Board of Education.

     By 1930, there were 135 students attending the Snell Training School, with a faculty of four teachers. During the early 1930s two years of high school instruction were added and two more rooms were added to the building, as well as some other improvements. A library was added in 1934, and that same year the school was accredited by the State Department of Education.

     Shortly after 9 p.m. on February 3, 1941, John J. Wright School caught fire. The conflagration apparently was started by an overheated stove in one of the students' bedrooms.

                                                            Free Lance-Star 4 February 1941

                                                            Free Lance-Star 5 February 1941

                                                            Free Lance-Star 6 February 1941

     In the immediate aftermath of the school's destruction, the decision was made to modify the surviving building that had served as an auditorium into classrooms. Over time, other temporary buildings, referred to as "tar paper shacks," were built to accommodate the students. The Spotsylvania County School Board agreed to build a new school and pay the teachers' salaries, In return, the SSSU donated to the county 20 acres of the original school site and turned over the $20,000 insurance settlement.

     A number of obstacles arose in starting construction of the new school in a timely fashion. Not the least of these was the reality of World War II, which made large projects requiring manpower and materials difficult. Delays were also caused by the insurance settlement, the lengthy negotiation  on the size of the new school, the contract bidding and so on. Ultimately, the Literary Fund of Virginia--a state-sponsored program that made available low-interest loans for school construction--provided most of the funds.

                                                             Free Lance-Star 16 October 1950 

     The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new John J. Wright Consolidated School took place on October 16, 1950. The school opened its doors to black students in grades 1-12 in 1952. In April of the following year, the school was officially dedicated

                                                           Free Lance-Star 27 April 1953                              

     Desegregation of Spotsylvania's public schools began in 1963, when 7 girls ages 9-15 from John J. Wright Consolidated School began attending classes at previously all-white schools. The county's public schools were completely integrated in 1968. At that time, John J. Wright became an intermediate school, serving black and white students in grades 6 and 7. When the 8th grade was added in 1978, the school was renamed John J. Wright Middle School, which remained in operation until 2006. Today the building serves as the John J. Wright Education and Cultural Center. 

 

       Welsh immigrants began arriving in America in significant numbers by the end of the 17th century. Many who were attracted by William Penn's creed of religious tolerance came to Pennsylvania. By the mid-nineteenth century, Wales had become one of the world's leading coal producing regions. The burgeoning coal and steel industry in Pennsylvania lured large numbers of Welsh citizens to America. Ultimately, the Scranton area boasted the largest number of the Welsh people outside Wales itself.

      One of these immigrants was William Evan Thomas, born in Swansea, Wales on June 3, 1835. William secured second class passage aboard the sailing ship Centurion when it cast off from Liverpool, England in the summer of 1857. Centurion arrived at the Port of New York on July 23, 1857. The William E. Thomas shown on the ship manifest above was very likely the same person I mention here. 

     William made his way to western Pennsylvania, where he found work in the bustling coal mining and iron industry there. In 1863, he was working as an iron puddler, a worker who turns pig iron into wrought iron by "subjecting it to heat and frequent stirring in the presence of oxidizing substances." Shown above are puddlers at work in the 1920s.

    

     On March 3, 1863, the United States Congress passed the Conscription Act, which required all male citizens between the ages of 20 and 45, and those who had applied for citizenship, to register for the military draft. On June 30 of that year, the name of William E. Thomas, a puddler aged 28, was written on a list of men from Scranton who were subject to the draft. Whether he ever served in the Union army is not known, although I suspect that the decision was made somewhere that his labor in the iron works was of greater benefit to the war effort than toting a musket into battle. 

     Sometime in 1864, William married a young woman from Wales, Amelia Morgan, the daughter of a Welsh coal miner. Their first child, Thomas Evan Thomas, was born in Scranton on March 16, 1865. A daughter, Margaret, was born in 1869. Amelia died shortly after her birth. The 1870 census (in which William is now listed as a "miner") shows that William, Thomas and Margaret were living as boarders in Scranton in the household of Amelia's mother, who herself had also been recently widowed. 

                                                  

     In 1875, William married another Welsh immigrant, Sarah Mills Williams, born in Cardiff in January 1839, the daughter of Jane Mills and Samuel A. Williams, a Congregationalist minister. As seen on the ship manifest above, the Williams family arrived at the Port of New York on the sailing ship Carroll of Carrolton on November 4, 1840. Sarah was not yet two years old. The Williams family settled in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The 1870 census shows that Sarah was living with her parents and working as a "tailoress."

     William and Sarah's first child, Jane "Jennie" Williams Thomas was born on September 19, 1876. By this time, William had laid plans to move his family to Spotsylvania. By a deed dated November 27, 1877, William Evan Thomas bought a 184-acre farm in Spotsylvania from Anthony and Maria Wineschenk. Located about a half mile west of Zoan Baptist Church, the farm "lay on both sides of the old Turnpike Fredericksburg to Orange Court House" [that is, today's Route 3]. William and Sarah's youngest child, Samuel, was born there two years later, on June 5, 1879. 

     In 1884, William bought a 143-acre tract that was part of the estate of the late Reuben McGee (1798-1881). This was located on the Turnpike (today's Route 3) adjacent to the modern location of the Spotsylvania County History Museum. Today what remains of that property is owned by the Battlefield Trust.

     In December 1887, William deeded the former Reuben McGee property to his son Thomas, now 22 years old. Here Thomas would build the house he and his large family would live in for many years.

     On July 30, 1890, Thomas married 32-year-old Ida Kezia Morrison. Their wedding took place at the home of her parents, James T. and Sarah Eastburn Morrison, and was officiated by by Methodist minister Arthur R. Goodchild. Fourteen years later, Ida's younger sister Abbie married Scottish immigrant Mungo William Thorburn, who--like Thomas--would become one of Spotsylvania's leading citizens (William Thorburn is particularly remembered for being instrumental in the founding of The Fredericksburg and Wilderness Telephone Company). During the 21 years they were together, Thomas and Ida became the parents of 12 children, ten of whom survived childhood. In the family portrait above, Thomas and Ida pose with seven of their offspring. (Photo credit: Stephen Huerta on Ancestry.com)

     Thomas was a deeply religious man. He became an ordained minister in the Methodist church, and his family were devoted members of Tabernacle Methodist Church. Over the years, Reverend Thomas conducted services at a number of local churches and officiated at many weddings and funerals. He read from the Bible each morning at breakfast while holding one of his children in his lap. Shown below is Tabernacle Methodist Church as Reverend Thomas knew it.

     In addition to his clerical life, Thomas was for many years actively in the Spotsylvania Republican Party. In 1899, he was elected to the first of several terms as justice of the peace. The following year, he was appointed as one of Spotsylvania's enumerators for the 1900 census. In 1901, he was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Republican convention. 

     The dawn of the twentieth century brought with it the first of a series of tragic evens that would befall the Thomas family. On April 9, 1900, Ida Lady, the 9-month-old daughter of Thomas and Ida, died of whooping cough. She was laid to rest in the cemetery at Salem Baptist Church. 

     Two years later, on May 5, 1902, 67-year-old William Evan Thomas died of heart disease at his home. His funeral was held at his house, officiated by Methodist minister James William Heckman. William lies buried in the cemetery at Salem Baptist Church. His grave is marked by an impressive obelisk with several inscriptions on it. The first is the well-known quote from Matthew 5:8: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It appears first in English, then in Welsh. This is followed by a heartfelt sentiment from his widow, Sarah, which reads in part: "Farewell my dear husband, thy days on earth are over. Thy sufferings to an end have come. Those pains thou shalt feel no more."

     Sarah Williams Thomas outlived her husband by 24 years. After the death of William, Sarah made her home with the family of her daughter, Jennie Ricker, and moved with them to Clarendon in Arlington. She died there on January 14, 1926. She is buried near her husband at Salem Baptist Church, her grave marked by an obelisk of the same design as her husband's:

                                                                        

     The Holiness movement in America had its roots in 19th-century Methodism. The adherents of the Holiness doctrine were Pentecostal and evangelistic. Revival camps sprang up in many places, including Spotsylvania. Methodist minister James William Heckman established the Spotsylvania Holiness Association in 1903. The Association bought a tract of land at the intersection of Brock and Piney Branch roads. By 1906, the camp consisted of "a large and well-ventilated auditorium, eight commodious cottages and a large dining room." Revival meetings would be held at this location for nearly half a century.

     Reverend Thomas was elected as the first president of the Association, and he played a key role in its success in the years to come. The captioned photograph below, taken in August 1907, is the earliest known picture of the SHA camp. Among those shown here are Reverend Thomas (18), Cora Lewis Parker, who would become Thomas's second wife (21), Thomas's daughter Abbie (34), Reverend Heckman (48), and Thomas's son, Thomas Maxwell (50).

      In addition to this image, there are three other known photographs of gatherings at the Holiness camp site which were shared with me by Barbara Faulconer. I have been told that the captions for the first two were prepared by Thomas's youngest child, the late Amy Thomas King.

     In the last photograph, Reverend Thomas can be seen standing at right with his arms folded across his chest:

     As if his activities in the religious and political realms were not enough to occupy his time, Thomas found other constructive outlets for his boundless energy. He had to make a living, of course, and he did this by farming his own land as well as a 243-acre farm he bought near Screamersville called the Appler Tract. He also owned a sawmill operation near the Jackson monument (he generously provided Thanksgiving dinner to his mill employees in 1909, a kindness noted by The Free Lance). For a time he served as school trustee and was postmaster at the general store at Screamersville 1908-1910. The store and post office also served as a stop on the Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont Railroad. Below is a rare photograph of the store taken in the early 1900s (Photo credit: Vickie Neely).

     The house that Thomas had built on Route 3 had to grow as his family grew. These undated photographs show two elevations of his house (pictures courtesy of Carolyn Carmichael):

     Thomas's farm and residence were among the most modern of their era by Spotsylvania's standards. He used a hydraulic ram to pump water up two hills from a stream to his house. He had a carbide lighting system for his house and he also made use of a Delco Light Plant to furnish electric lights for the farm. It is said that his farm was the first to have electric lights before electricity in Spotsylvania was available by transmission lines. Shown below is a representation of the Delco Light Plant:

     The Thomas farm included a milk barn with a concrete vat in which the milk cans were immersed in cold water until they could be transported. There was a silo, a cow barn, woodshed, brooder house, a granary, machinery shed, corn house and a barn for the horses and mules that included a hayloft.

     All of Thomas's thirteen children who lived to be of school age received a good education. In 1911, it was reported that three of his children were attending the Hanover School in Fredericksburg. When Chancellor High School was built in 1912, the Thomas children became students there. This photograph taken about 1920 shows three of his sons standing in front of the school: Thomas Maxwell (16), Adlowe (20), and Rhys (23):

     Thomas was dealt two crushing blows in March 1911. Ida died suddenly at home on March 11. Eight days later, their four-year-old son Edward died of pneumonia after a bout with whooping cough. Mother and son are both buried at Salem Baptist Church. The sad news of their passing was noted in The Daily Star:

     Cora Lewis Parker was born in Spotsylvania County on April 28, 1885. By 1910 she was living with the family of her sister Charlotte in Staunton. Charlotte's husband, Clifton, was a teacher at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Cora also taught there. She gave up her career when she married Thomas Evan Thomas on October 14, 1913. The wedding took place in Washington, DC and was officiated by Reverend Henry B. Hosley, pastor of the Wesleyan Pentecostal Church on D Street. Hosley was closely identified with the Holiness movement and frequently preached at the Spotsylvania Holiness Association (Reverend Hosley also married my grandparents in 1917). Shown below is a likeness of Hosley from one of the Washington newspapers.

     Advocating for the rights of farmers was also part of Thomas's portfolio. In 1890, he was elected as an officer in the Spotsylvania chapter of the Farmers Alliance. He later was active in the Virginia Agricultural Council of Safety and the Virginia Farmers' Educational and Co-Operative Union.

     During World War I, Thomas was the Fredericksburg chairman of the YMCA's effort to maintain the organization's huts at all the army training camps in Virginia. During the war, the YMCA was the principal  provider of services to men in uniform to sustain their morale and to promote their spiritual and physical well-being.

     During the 1920s, Thomas was elected to two terms on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors. He was named chairman of this board in 1926. In late 1928, Thomas fell ill and when it appeared that he was not improving, he sought treatment at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC. It was presumed that he was suffering from cancer of the stomach, and an exploratory surgery was performed on October 26, which revealed that his illness was too advanced to be successfully treated. He died at the hospital on November 5, 1928 at 11:00 p.m. with Cora at his side. His body was brought back to Spotsylvania. His funeral was held at Tabernacle Methodist Church and he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

     Cora Thomas outlived her husband by 48 years. She remained on the farm and taught in the public schools. She was also a long-time Sunday school teacher at Tabernacle. In 1940, she boarded several lodgers at her house, including Gay Broaddus, who was the last principal at the R.E. Lee School at Spotsylvania Court House (the school burned in December 1941). Cora died at the Riverside Nursing Home in Fredericksburg on July 10, 1976. She is buried near Thomas at Oak Hill Cemetery.

My thanks to Carolyn Carmichael, a granddaughter of Thomas Evan Thomas, for her help in writing this article.

    

    

 

     For a number of reasons, not the least of which were the oppressive policies of absentee British landlords, the potato became the main source of sustenance for the rural poor in Ireland by the 1800s. When Ireland's potato crop was blighted by the Phytophthoria infestans mold in 1845, the effect on the country's people was immediate and devastating. During the next ten years, more than one million Irish starved to death, and another two million left Ireland. The engraving of the effects of the famine in Skibbeeren shown above was made by Irish artist James Mahony in 1847.

     Among those who emigrated from Ireland during this period were the McCracken family, who found their way to Spotsylvania County by the 1850s. Thomas and Emma McCracken and their four sons--Patrick, Michael, Bernard ("Barney") and Terence prospered in their adopted country and contributed a great deal the civic and economic life of Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg. Their lives would be noted for both episodes of sublime grace and madness.

     Bernard McCracken, more commonly known as Barney, was born in Ireland in 1836. At the beginning of the Civil War, some say he briefly served the Confederacy in Captain Thornton's Company of Irish Volunteers, which became part of the 19th Battalion of Virginia Heavy Artillery. But by 1863 Barney was working in a liquor shop in Washington, D.C. when he registered for the draft, as seen in the image below. Whether he ever wore a Union uniform is not known, but is doubtful as his name appears in the 1864 edition of the city directory as a "saloon keeper."

     Soon after the Civil War, Barney married Mary F. Bowling and settled in Louisa County, where they had three children together. Barney became active in Republican Party politics and for a time served as tax assessor for Louisa and Orange counties. In 1869, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. The one term he served in that august body was notable for the press coverage devoted to his escapades on the floor of the House. The two articles below--the first from The Daily Dispatch of April 13, 1870 and the second from The Daily State Journal dated March 16, 1871--are examples of a colorful personality, or one that is slightly unhinged:

     Thirty-five-year-old Bernard McCracken died in Fredericksburg on December 17, 1871. He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery there.

     In 1856, Barney's father Thomas bought a 325-acre farm in western Spotsylvania County near Parker's Store, and divided it between himself and his sons Patrick and Michael. Where his youngest son Terence was at that time is not known; he may have been attending school somewhere. In the 1863 map detail of western Spotsylvania, the McCrackens' farm can be seen in the lower left of the image as "McCrackings."

     Patrick McCracken was born in Ireland on December 4, 1826. He married Elizabeth Dickey of Orange County on March 2, 1857 and they made their home at Patrick's farm.They had one son, William, who died young.

     In April 1862, troops of the United States army crossed the Rappahannock River and occupied Fredericksburg, where they remained until August. Some time in July Patrick McCracken drove a wagon load of produce into Fredericksburg to sell. His presence aroused the suspicion of overly vigilant soldiers, who arrested him and sent him to Washington, D.C. where he languished in the Old Capitol Prison for nine weeks. Patrick finally was admitted to the office of General James S. Wadsworth, who was at the time military governor of the Washington district. Wadsworth quickly decided that there was no legal basis to detain him and freed Patrick after he pledged to not support the Confederacy.

     The lives of General Wadsworth and Patrick McCracken were fated to intersect one more time two years later, during the Battle of the Wilderness. On May 6, 1864 Wadsworth was leading his men in the chaotic fighting near the intersection of Brock and Plank roads when he was shot in the back of his head. While his wound was mortal, death was not instantaneous. He was taken to a Confederate field hospital set up on the Pulliam farm. Below is a photograph taken in 1866, showing the place were General Wadsworth was wounded:

     News of Wadsworth's wounding and his presence at the temporary hospital at the Pulliam farm reached Patrick McCracken. Patrick packed up some food and took a bucket of milk with to go to Wadsworth and do what he could for him. Once he got there, he learned from Dr. Zabdiel Adams, who was also a wounded prisoner who had tried to help Wadsworth, that the General was unconscious and unable to eat or drink. Patrick said that the doctor could have the milk and food instead. The next day, Patrick returned to the Pulliam farm with some sweet milk, which he used to moisten Wadsworth's lips. 

     Wadsworth died the following day. When Patrick showed up to care for Wadsworth, he learned that he had died and had been laid aside for burial. Patrick had the General's body transported to his farm, where he made a coffin out of some doors and boards that he painted black. Patrick dug a grave in his family's cemetery and placed Wadsworth in it and covered the coffin with a plank and then dirt. He then fashioned a grave marker and placed it at the head of the grave. 

     Several days later, Union General George Meade sent a letter to General Robert E. Lee, seeking to make arrangements to retrieve the body of General Wadsworth. On May 12, under a flag of truce, Union soldiers came  to the farm of William A. Stephens and learned from the Confederates where the General's body had been taken. An ambulance was dispatched to the McCracken farm, and the mortal remains of James S. Wadsworth began their long journey to his home town in New York.

     The day after Wadsworth died, Patrick wrote this letter to his widow, which was printed in the 1865 edition of the New York State Agricultural Society:

     Mrs. Wadsworth sent a sum of money to Patrick as a token of her appreciation for his kindness. According to McCracken family lore, Patrick and his brother Terence used that money to start their grocery business in Fredericksburg. 

     Within two months of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Patrick opened a grocery store in Fredericksburg on what is now known as William Street. From the June 24, 1865 edition of The Fredericksburg Ledger:

     Not long after, Patrick's brother Terence joined him as a partner in the business. After Patrick's death, Terence would have at least one other partner, but he never changed the name of the business.

     By 1870, Patrick and Elizabeth were living in Fredericksburg. The 1870 census tells us that also living in the McCracken household was Patrick's clerk, 27-year-old George Edward Chancellor. The son of Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor, George was a veteran of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Within a couple of years, George opened his own store at the corner of William and Charles streets (this building still exists and serves as home to Castiglia's Italian Restaurant). Shown below is an 1866 photograph of George Chancellor (seated, wearing striped pants) with his family.

     Elizabeth Dickey McCracken died on October 21, 1873. Patrick followed her to the grave on June 18, 1875. They are both buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg.

     Like his brother Patrick, Michael McCracken also began his adult life as a farmer and slave owner in Spotsylvania near his parents. Also like his older brother, Michael married a woman from Orange County, Martha Jane Almond. They exchanged vows in Orange on December 23, 1856. They had two sons--Melvin, born in 1861 and Thomas, born in 1864.

     Michael enlisted in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry on April 5, 1862. By September he was detailed as an ambulance driver. He remained at this duty until he was dropped from the rolls on June 1, 1863, when he was awarded a mail contract. 

     Michael and his family remained on his farm until after the 1870 census. By 1873, the McCrackens had moved to Fredericksburg, where Michael started out as a saloon keeper. A few years later he and Martha built a hotel on Commerce (modern William) Street. There was also a McCracken Spoke Factory in Fredericksburg, but to which brother or brothers this enterprise belonged is not known. Michael became active in the civic affairs of Fredericksburg. He was a member of the fire department, an officer in the Building and Loan Association, a member of the Rappahannock Boat Club, and he served as town magistrate. 

     By the mid-1880s, the behavior of Michael's son Thomas was already making the news, but not in a positive way. From the December 11, 1885 edition of The Free Lance:

     Martha Almond McCracken died on August 17, 1887. She lies buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg. From The Free Lance:

     Four years later, the McCracken family's name would again appear in the newspapers in a highly unfortunate, indeed tragic, event. On February 20, 1891, Thomas McCracken murdered his father on William Street. The particulars were described in February 22 edition of The Richmond Dispatch:

     In the ensuing trial, Thomas was found not guilty by the jury by reason of insanity. He was committed to the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg. He was furloughed for a few days the following year to visit his family at Christmas. From The Free Lance dated December 30, 1892:

     Thomas was released from the asylum in 1902. The 1910 census shows that he was single and working as a house dealer in Bruton, Virginia. In 1920, Thomas McCracken, employed as secretary-treasurer of a syrup company, was living in Richmond with his wife and children. By 1930 he was living alone in Williamsburg and working as a house painter. After that, I find no mention of him in the public record.

     The youngest of the McCracken brothers, Terence, was born in Ireland on June 21, 1844. He married Margaret Scott on December 26, 1866. By 1876, Margaret and both of their children had died. The following June he married Frances Catherine Doherty at St. Peter's Catholic Cathedral in Richmond. They had two sons, both of whom survived to adulthood. 

     In addition to owning the grocery and dry goods store with his brother Patrick, Terence was a member of the Building Association, the fire department, the grain exchange and the Chamber of Commerce. Beginning in the 1880s he served on the board of directors of the Eastern State Hospital, where his nephew Thomas would be committed in 1891. 

     Terence spent the last weeks of his life as a patient at the Laurel Sanitarium in Laurel Maryland, which treated mental illness and alcoholism. He died there on June 21, 1918. He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg. From his memorial on Findagrave:

My source for the story of Patrick McCracken and James S. Wadsworth is The Ultimate Price at the Battle of the Wilderness

 

 (Photograph of Henry R. Robey from Glen Holmes's compilation of "Robey Family History," Courtesy of R. Brooks Robey.)

     Henry Richard Robey was born in Fredericksburg on July 26, 1810 to Richard Robey and the former Ann Jones. Richard served in the American Revolution and participated in the siege of Yorktown in 1781.

    

 (Page 660 of "Virginia Silversmiths, Jewelers, Watch and Clock Makers,  1697-1860, " by Catherine B. Hollan. Hollan Press, 2010. Courtesy of R. Brooks Robey.)

     Henry was an energetic young man with good business sense, and by the age of 20 he was in the grocery business in Fredericksburg with jeweler James R. Johnson. This enterprise did not last long, as Mr. Johnson moved to Richmond to try his luck there. Next, Henry partnered with William C.C. Abbott. This effort was also short-lived, as Henry's real interest appeared to lie in the cultivation of trees. By 1835, Henry was already advertising trees for sale in two of Fredericksburg's newspapers, The Virginia Herald and The Political Arena. 

(Map detail of Spotsylvania County, 1863.)

     In May 1838, Henry bought from James Ross a 494-acre farm in Spotsylvania named "Hopewell." This place was located on the south side of what is now called Old Plank Road behind Zoan Baptist Church, In the years leading up to the Civil War, Henry added to Hopewell's size. The 1860 census showed his farm to then consist of 701 acres. The nurseries also included a few greenhouses, traces of which could still be seen in the 1930s.

    

(Image courtesy of John Ryland Orrock.)

     Henry married his first wife, Clarissa Taliaferro Brooke, on June 3, 1834. Over the next nine years they would have six children together, only two of whom survived infancy--Charles Henry and William Brooke. Clarissa herself died on January 28, 1843, two weeks after the birth of her last child.

     In November of the following year, Henry married Susan Frances Brownlow. They had two children together, Susan and Henry, Jr., both of whom lived to adulthood.

    Over the years, Henry propagated untold numbers of trees, and he shipped his products to customers across Virginia and to many states in the eastern United States. By the 1850s, Henry was widely considered to be one of Virginia's leading arborists. His name frequently appeared in trade journals and catalogs, a few examples of which are shown here:

(From Eric Mink's article: Landscaping the Rappahannock: Spotsylvania's Hopewell Nurseries)

(From The Southern Cultivator, 1854.)

(From Eric Mink's article: Landscaping the Rappahannock: Spotsylvania's Hopewell Nurseries)

(From The Cultivator, Vol. 1, No. 6, 1844. Courtesy of R. Brooks Robey.)

(From The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, January 1861. Courtesy of R. Brooks Robey.)

     Henry Robey's business was frequently featured in newspaper articles:

(The Fredericksburg News, 6 February 1852.)

(The Alexandria Gazette, 23 September 1850.)

 (Fredericksburg News, 14 May 1858.)

(Richmond Enquirer, 31 August 1860.)

     From the Rumsey Auctions website I learned that one of Henry's customers before the Civil War was William Massie (1795-1862) of Nelson County, Virginia. In 1815, Massie's father gave him a 1500-acre estate named "Pharsalia." This well-diversified farm included a number of money-making enterprises, including large and well tended orchards. Massie had plenty of help to see to all this work; the 1850 census shows that he owned 139 slaves.

(William Massie. From Find-a-Grave).

(Envelope from Hopewell Nurseries addressed to William Massie, Esqr., Massies Mills, Nelson County Va. Dated November 1861. Note the Confederate stamp. From Rumsey Auctions.)

     Henry's two oldest sons served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. William rode with the 9th Virginia Cavalry, Charles enlisted in the 55th Virginia Infantry. William survived the war without being wounded, captured or hospitalized. Charles was not so fortunate. He spent much of the war seriously ill, both at home and at Confederate hospitals. He suffered from a variety of chronic complaints, including hepatitis, neuralgia and diarrhea. On April 3, 1865 he was captured by Union forces while still a patient in one of the hospitals in Richmond. He was first taken to Libby Prison, and from there was transported to Newport News on April 23. There he remained a captive until he took the oath of allegiance to the United States on July 1, 1865. He then returned to Spotsylvania and continued working at Hopewell. 

     Henry had his own troubles during the Civil War. During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hopewell was used as a campsite by Cobb's Legion and the 4th Virginia Cavalry. A field hospital was set up there. Ordnance wagons and troop baggage trains were parked there. "For want of axes" needed to chop firewood, Confederate soldiers instead helped themselves to Henry's fencing in order to build fires. Hundreds of horses grazed freely on his land, eating up half the grass he would have otherwise cut for hay that year. Henry submitted a claim for damages to the Confederate army, which was approved just days before the end of the war. 

     Henry's second wife Susan died on April 12, 1865. It is said she died upon hearing the news of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Nine months later, Henry married his third wife, Ann Lucas. 

     During the 1870s, St. George's Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg underwent a tumultuous period during which two of its pastors resigned from the pulpit. Reverend Magruder Maury, who had been rector at St. George's since December 1864, resigned in 1871 in a dispute over his salary. His replacement, Reverend C. Murdaugh, also had his problems with the parish. He resigned in 1877 in order to form Trinity Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg. About a third of St. George's members followed him there. In 1871, Henry deeded an acre of his land in order build St. George's Chapel. I have not discovered whether there is any connection between St. George's problems in Fredericksburg and Henry's building the chapel, but the timing is interesting. The chapel once stood on what is now called Old Plank Road at the far east corner of Henry's property, probably near the intersection with Ziyad Drive. Services were regularly held there well into the twentieth century. The chapel ultimately fell into disuse and succumbed to decay.

    

     At some time, probably in the early 1870s, Henry Robey--who was active in local politics--ran for justice of the piece, as shown on the election broadside above (which I found among my great-grandfather's papers). I was not able to learn if Henry won.

    

(From The Daily Star, 13 January 1895.)

     Beginning in the early 1850s, construction began what would become the Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont Railroad, a rail line that would connect Fredericksburg with the Town of Orange. Work stopped on the railroad during the Civil War, and resumed shortly thereafter. The railroad passed through Hopewell, and "Robey's" became one of the scheduled stops. The first train to rumble down the tracks left Fredericksburg on February 26, 1877.

(Fredericksburg News, 10 February 1876.)

     Henry Robey did not live to see that day. He died at his home on February 7, 1876. The funeral was held at the chapel near his house, and he was buried in the Fredericksburg Cemetery. His wife Ann followed him to the grave just nine months later.

     After the Civil War, Henry's youngest son, Henry, Jr., moved to Arkansas and lived there until his death in 1909. William Brooke Robey had seven children by two wives. His oldest daughter, Lula, taught in the public schools of Spotsylvania County. In 1898 she married Charles Andrew Orrock. Charles's father, James Orrock, was a Scottish immigrant who worked as a nurseryman for Henry Robey. One of Charles and Lula's daughters, Mollie, was one of my teachers at Chancellor Elementary School.

     Charles Henry Robey worked at Hopewell until his father's death in 1876. In the 1880s, Charles attended the Fredericksburg Normal Institute, and began teaching in the Spotsylvania County schools in the 1890s. Charles was also a journalist and wrote many articles for the local newspapers. His unmistakable literary style was fluent, vivid and highly entertaining. In 1896, he wrote an article describing the violent confrontation between Phenie Tapp's new husband and her long-time lover. If you have not read my article on Phenie before, I think you will find this interesting: The World According to Phenie Tapp. Charles died in the Confederate Home in Richmond in 1903.

My thanks to John Ryland Orrock for providing background information for this article. 

I will mention here again Eric Mink's article on Hopewell. This is well worth your time: Landscaping the Rappahannock: Spotsylvania's Hopewell Nurseries

For those of you who may be interested in the history of St. George's Episcopal Church here is the link to the article I consulted for this post: The Saints Split: Trinity Episcopal is created from St. George's , 1877

 

The ruins of Orange Baptist Church, 1908 (R. Duff Green)

About 5:30 Sunday morning. November 8, 1908.

     While making his customary rounds on the streets of Orange, the town's only policeman noticed a fire in the apartment over the drugstore of Dr. Lawrence Sanford Ricketts on Railroad Avenue.

     The policeman raced to the Baptist church and sounded the alarm on its bells. Within minutes, all able-bodied people within the sound of those bells grabbed pails from their homes and formed a bucket brigade to battle the blaze. Water was drawn from private wells and cisterns while terrified residents did heroic work in battling the flames. Unfortunately, there was a high wind that morning, and in a very short time the main business district was engulfed in flames.

     Shown below is a detail from the December 1905 Sanborn Company fire insurance map showing the section of Main Street and Railroad Avenue affected by the fire. Pink indicates buildings made of brick; yellow means it was a wooden structure. The note next to the Sanborn stamp sums up the inadequacy of Orange's readiness to react to a fire: "Water facilities: Private wells and cisterns. Fire Department: None. The town has two water tanks of 300 gallons each, mounted on wheels and drawn by hand. Hand pump of 40 gallons per minute capacity attached to each tank. Also one hand pump of same capacity used to fill tanks. About 600 feet of 1/2-inch hose. Carts equipped with buckets and axes. Topography mostly level, Streets not graded."

     By 8:00 a.m., it was obvious that the town's resources were inadequate to deal with the emergency. A message was sent to Charlottesville, and the fire department there responded with the urgency the situation demanded. A special train was outfitted with a steam-powered pumper, three horses, a tanker car filled with water and additional fire-fighting equipment. Fourteen trained firefighters were also on board. Within an hour of receiving the alert, the train reached Orange. 

     The unlikely team of townspeople equipped with buckets and professional firefighters from Charlottesville worked together to battle the flames. The Baptist church marked the easternmost extent of the fire, which stopped at Church Street to the south. An estimated $100,000 damage had occurred, only half of which was covered by insurance. Despite those uninsured losses, reconstruction on some of the now emptied lots began shortly after the fire.

     Based on newspaper accounts published in the aftermath of the disaster, I compiled this list of the destroyed properties:

-The Orange Baptist Church, which was valued at $6,000. Soon after the fire, members of the congregation began a subscription to raise the money to rebuild, and $4,000 was contributed right away. A brand new organ (valued from $1,350-$2,000 by the newspapers), obtained by the Lady's Aid Society, had just been installed. It was to be played for the first time on the morning of the fire.

-The drug store of Dr. Lawrence Sanford Ricketts and the two apartments above the store.

-The Ware-Watts Hardware Company.

-The real estate office of Adonirum Judson Harlow, who also owned the undertaking business mentioned below.

-Two vacant stores owned by G.A. Gaines. 

-The building owned by Mrs. J.E. Perry which housed the grocery store of J.D. Morris and the clothing store of Sol Cohen. 

-Emil Levy's dry goods store, "Levy's Busy Corner."

-Waite & Chewning Furniture Company.

-Dwelling owned by J. Martin and occupied by Mrs. Carrie Anderson.

-Dwelling of Mrs. Jane McDonald.

-Building owned by Mrs. Emma Slaughter of Washington, DC, which included an apartment and a bakery owned by Mr. Bushby.

-Business and residence of A.J. Harlow. Mr. W.L. Randolph was the licensed undertaker employed by Mr. Harlow. 

-The Southern Railway telegraph office and interlocking tower. The nearby telephone and telegraph lines were also destroyed.

     The following six photographs, taken the day after the fire, were shared with me by historian Ray Ezell. They are part of the Grymes Collection in the archives of the Orange County Historical Society. The captions for these pictures were written by Mr. Ezell:

     This photo is taken from Church Street, east of where it crosses the railroad tracks, and gives the widest perspective on the damage caused by the fire. The partially standing brick walls of the Orange Baptist Church are visible frame-right and the steeple of the Orange County Courthouse is visible frame-left.

     This view shows the wholesale destruction along Railroad Avenue and the south side of East Main Street. The burnt out walls of the Orange Baptist Church are visible in the background and the ruins of Levy's Busy Corner building are in the foreground. Mayor Perry's distinctive turreted house is also visible in the background obscured by the smoky haze from the smouldering hot spots.

     This view is taken from where Main Street crosses the railroad tracks and looks to the south. Levy's Busy Corner (built earlier in 1908) had been destroyed by the fire, as well as Z.W. Chewning's Furniture Store directly east across the tracks from Levy's. The Southern Railway telegraph station, also destroyed, would have stood directly behind the photographer. Careful interpretation of the photo shows men at the tops of the telegraph poles re-stringing telephone and telegraph lines which were destroyed in the fire.

     This photo is looking northeast from where Main Street crosses the railroad tracks. The ruins of the building on the north side of Main Street are visible as well as the impressive (former) People's Grocery Warehouse which borders the burnt district on the north.

    

     This photo is looking south from the north side of East Main Street through the burnt district. The pile of rubble in the foreground is from the former Z.W. Chewning and Waite Furniture Company, which today is the location of the Orange Railroad Depot building. This shot makes clear the extent of the fire damage to the south along Railroad Avenue and on West Main Street.

 

      This photo is taken from the railroad tracks, probably near the location of the railroad passenger depot. Large crowds are visible that have descended upon the burnt district to survey the damage. Railroad Avenue is at the left of the frame, and the ruins of the Orange Baptist Church is visible at the right of the frame.

     So, what caused the great fire of Orange? [1]

     In the immediate aftermath of the fire, there was some speculation that the cause of the conflagration was a cat that had knocked over lantern. Like the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the Chicago fire of 1871, the cat tale  proved to be apocryphal. It soon became apparent that the unknowing culprit was 77-year-old Towles Terrill, who lived in one of the apartments over Dr. Ricketts's drug store. Towles lived in the most meager of circumstances in his modest quarters. It was said that his bed consisted of a large wooden box filled with crumpled newspapers. While perhaps lighting his pipe that morning, his unextinguished match found its way into the detritus of his room, which then caught fire. Although he did not suffer serious burns from his mishap, by the time he was carried to safety he had lost consciousness from smoke inhalation. He did not regain his senses until Tuesday. He was still in critical condition, however, and it was feared that he might succumb to broncho-pneumonia. He was taken to the hospital in Charlottesville, where he eventually recovered. 

Map detail of Orange County, 1863

     Born on March 20, 1831, Towles Terrill was one of ten children born to Dr. Uriel Terrill (1793-1885) and the former Janet Lovell. The Terrill farm lay along the Orange Turnpike about five miles east of the town of Orange. On the map detail shown above, the Terrill farm can be seen at the right-center of the image. Towles Terrill spent his first 31 years working on this farm. 

     In addition to being a well-respected physician in Orange County, Dr. Terrill was also active in the political life of Virginia. In the 1840s, Dr. Terrill's name appeared in various newspapers because of his activities with the Whig Party. When that party lost its influence ten years later, Dr. Terrill switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party, to which he remained loyal for the last thirty years of his life. 

     On the eve of the Civil War, Dr. Terrill would have been considered a wealthy man. The 1860 census shows that his personal and real estate was valued at $48,460. The high value of his personal estate reflected his investment in the 37 enslaved people he owned. 

     During the Civil War, Dr. Uriel Terrill willingly sold goods and services to various quartermaster officers of the Confederate army. In 1863, he filed a claim for losses incurred when the divisions of Confederate generals Early and Johnson camped on his property. The claim involved the confiscation of a large amount of his fencing, which was then used as firewood. On October 31, 1863, Confederate quartermaster Major Robert H. Turner paid Dr. Terrill $319.20, the full amount of his claim.

     Dr. Terrill remained on his farm for just six more years after the conclusion of the war. In 1871, just one year after the death of his wife, he sold his farm to New Jersey native Henry Mason for $9,000. He moved in with the family of his daughter Mary Julia and lived with them for the rest of his days. 

     Despite the sadness and turbulence of his later years, Dr. Terrill remained active in the political arena, and was elected to the House of Delegates at least once. He was still serving as a legislator at age 90.

     Towles Terrill worked as a laborer on his father's farm until April 17, 1861, when he joined the militia company known as the Montpelier Guards. The following month, the Guards became Company A of the 13th Virginia Infantry. Towles's war record shows that he stood 5'7" tall, had a light complexion, gray eyes and dark hair.

     Except for a bout of illness early in the war, the first two years of Towles's service in the Confederate army seemed to go well. He was marked "present" on the surviving muster roles during that time. But his fortunes took a dramatic turn on May 6, 1864.

     During the Battle of the Wilderness, the 13th Virginia Infantry was part of Pegram's brigade in General Jubal Early's division. During the fighting on May 6, Towles was struck by a bullet in his left leg "just below his knee and fractured the bone somewhat." After a long convalescence, he appeared before a medical examining board on March 21, 1865. The board then issued a certificate of disability, which stated that he was "entirely disabled and cannot perform in any branch of field service." The board recommended that he be reassigned to duty with Major Cornelius Boyle [2], provost marshal at Gordonsville.

Certificate of disability of Towles Terrill

     Towles was greatly troubled by his injury for the rest of his life. In 1884, he applied for aid under the provisions of an act of the General Assembly which entitled soldiers and marines "wounded in the late war" to receive some small compensation. His application included a certification from Dr. William Shepherd Grymes (who served as regimental surgeon of the 13th Virginia Infantry at the beginning of the war) that Towles's wound "required the resection of one of the bones of the leg and is to be presumed that he is more or less disabled for physical labor." For his sacrifice during the war, Towles received $60 on February 12, 1886.

     After the war, Towles returned to his family's farm. Unable to endure the physical rigor of farm labor, he looked for work in another sphere. In 1869, he was hired as a traveling agent for the firm of Miller & Hopkins, land agents. His work carried him to destinations across the state, and he became well known for his outgoing personality and the knack for telling a good story. His popularity and ability to gain the attention of people he wished to impress was documented in an article that appeared in the Alexandria Gazette on May 11, 1887. By then he was known as "Colonel" Terrill, and was turning on the charm during an extended stay at the Metropolitan Hotel in Washington, D.C. Apparently, his reason for being in the nation's capital was to draw attention to the sad condition of the graves of the Madison family at Montpelier. He hoped to convince those in power to provide funding for a suitable monument for the father of the constitution. Such was Towles's eloquence on this subject, reported the Alexandria Gazette, that a New Yorker at this gathering offered to pay Towles's expenses to come back to Washington during the next session of Congress. 

     In his later years, Towles became a teacher in the Orange County schools. The Daily Star reported in October 1899 that Towles was teaching in one of the "colored" schools. When he retired from teaching in 1911 at age 80, he was granted an annual pension of $91.50.

     "Colonel" Terrill seemed to have learned little from his brush with death in November 1908. By 1916 he was living in an apartment on the second floor of the Gaines Building on Railtoad Avenue. On October 30, 1916, a fire broke out in his room. What happened next was reported in the November 3 edition of the Culpeper Exponent:

     The cause of death listed on his death certificate is "suffocated by smoke, caught in a burning building. His undertaker is shown to be A.J. Harlow, who lost his residence and businesses in the 1908 fire. Towles Terrill is buried in Graham Cemetery.

Special thanks to Ray Ezell for his assistance with this article.

[1] While the fire of 1908 is usually thought of as the "great" fire, another blaze struck Railroad Avenue just nine months later on July 20, 1909, as reported in that day's Richmond Times Dispatch:

     The Sanborn Company fire insurance map of September 1909 shows an empty void along Railroad Avenue where the destroyed buildings once stood:

 

 [2] While it is unlikely that Towles spent very much time, or any, with Cornelius Boyle at Gordonsville, I thought it worthwhile to write a little about him. Dr. Cornelius Boyle (1817-1878) was a lifelong resident of Washington, D.C. until the start of the Civil War. He was one of the city's leading physicians, and was well-connected politically and socially. In 1852, Boyle wrote the death certificate of John Payne Todd, the step-son of President James Madison:

Dr. Boyle also treated Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner after he was caned by South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks on the Senate floor in 1856.

Dr. Boyle sympathized with the Southern cause and was part of a network of other influential people in Washington who wished to give aid and comfort to the Confederacy. At he beginning of the Civil War, Boyle and his family left Washington and moved to Virginia. He was selected by Robert E. Lee to act as provost marshal at the critical rail junction at Gordonsville, which was linked to both Richmond and Washington. Intelligence gathered by spies in Washington would be sent to Gordonsville, and from there Boyle would ensure that it reached Richmond. 

Dr. Boyle led a fascinating life, which is referenced in this article which I think many of you will find interesting: Secret Societies of the South

My primary sources for this article were contemporaneous articles from the following newspapers:

-The Alexandria Gazette

-The Daily Press (Newport News)

-The Free Lance (Fredericksburg)

-The Culpeper Exponent

-The Culpeper News

-The Richmond Times Dispatch

-The Shenandoah Herald (Woodstock)

-The Native Virginian (Orange)

-The Daily Star (Fredericksburg)

I also used information from the website of the Orange Volunteer Fire Company

     

         

 

Farm of Edgar Harrison, 1866 (National Park Service)

     About the early life of Edgar Wilton Harrison I have been able to learn very little. He was born in Virginia about 1829, but I cannot say with any certainty where he was born, or who his parents were. He first appears in the written record, so it seems, in the 1850 census. A 22-year-old "E.W. Harrison," a clerk, was living in King and Queen County in the household of merchant Moore Boulware. 

Fredericksburg News, 23 September 1851

     In 1851 Edgar was living in Caroline County. On September 18 of that year, Edgar married Ann Maria Smith Goodwin at St. George's Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg. Reverend Edward C. McGuire presided at the ceremony.

     Ann's parents were William Peter Goodwin and Mary Byrd Crutchfield Burke. A veteran of the War of 1812, William was active in the civic life of Fredericksburg. He was a merchant, a member of the Hope Fire Company and he was active in Democratic politics. 

   In 1829, Ann Goodwin's maternal grandmother, Frances Crutchfield, wrote her will. She left to Ann and her brother, William Mary Byrd Goodwin [1] her interest in Rose Hill plantation in Spotsylvania. This land would remain in the Goodwin family until 1915.

Ford's Hotel (Encyclopedia of Virginia)

     The obituary of of Edgar W. Harrison revealed that at some point in his life he had been the proprietor of Ford's Hotel in Richmond, located at the intersection of Broad and 11th streets. This may have been the case, but I have not found any contemporaneous sources to substantiate that. 

     Sometime during the 1850s, Edgar and Ann acquired property on Brock Road near Spotsylvania Court House, just south of the Neil McCoull farm. Although they could have not foreseen this at the time, this would be the place where the Bloody Angle battle would be fought in May 1864. In the meantime, they farmed their property in peace and raised their young children: Edgar Wilton, Jr., William Henry, Ellen Byrd and Temple, whom they called "Temmie."

     The 1860 census tells us that the Harrison family was well-off for their time and place. They owned 190 acres, worth $1,500, and their personal property was valued at $9,500. This amount was based primarily on their ownership of nine slaves: a 39-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman, and seven children aged four months to eleven years. 

     Edgar and Ann's youngest child, Temple, was born on February 10, 1861, which may possibly explain why he did not rush off to join the Confederate army when Virginia seceded two months later. On April 1, 1862, Edgar Harrison enlisted in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry at Camp Boulware in King George County. He signed up for a three year stint, and received a $50 bonus for doing so.

     His surviving compiled service record shows that Edward was marked present on most muster rolls, except for the four month period January-April 1864, when he was absent without leave. He was then present until October 1864, which is the final entry in his military record. Although there is no mention of his being a patient in any hospital during the Civil War, his wife attested in her 1900 application for benefits as the widow of a Virginia veteran that Edgar had been badly wounded and could not perform manual labor for the rest of his life. Ann also mentioned that he was receiving a $30 year veteran's  pension at the end of his life. 

Approval for Harrison's claim for damages (Fold3.com)

     In May 1863, Edgar hired James L. Taliaferro to represent his interests in a claim for damages to his property. During the Chancellorsville campaign, soldiers of the 16th Virginia Infantry, while passing through the Harrison neighborhood, helped themselves to 64 panels of  his worm fencing. In his letter to General Robert Hall Chilton, Lieutenant Colonel H.W. Williamson recommended the payment of $32 to settle this claim. He noted: "This fencing was destroyed and burnt by the trains of this army in passing to and from the Battle field and Spotsylvania Court House during heavy rain storms..."

Receipt for the hire of Jeff (Fold3.com)

     In October 1864, Edgar received payment for the hire of one of his slaves, Jeff, by the Confederate quartermaster department for the period January 15 to October 5, 1864. For Jeff's work as a teamster, Edgar received $319.33.

     The most profound impact of the war on the Harrison family took place in May 1864, as the Federal Army emerged from the Wilderness and began to make its way to the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House. As it so happened, the Harrison farm stood very near the spot where some of the most savage fighting of the war occurred. 

Jedidiah Hotchkiss map of the Mule Shoe Salient (Fold3.com)

     On May 4, 1864 the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George Meade and accompanied by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, crossed the Rapidan River and plunged into the Wilderness of Spotsylvania County. The Union army fought pitched battles against the outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia commanded by General Robert E. Lee. On May 7, the Union army sidestepped the Confederates and made an attempt to reach the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House before Lee could get there. Had they been successful, the Union troops would have been between the Confederate army and Richmond, and the war could have taken a very different direction.

     As fate would have it, however, the Confederates got there first and interposed themselves between the Federals and the court house. The rebels were able to block Brock Road on May 8 and repulsed Union attacks at Laurel Hill, the Spindle farm. On that same day, General Jubal early assumed temporary command of the Confederate Third Corps, replacing General A.P. Hill, who was ill (likely with another flare-up of the venereal disease that he had contracted as a cadet at West Point in the 1840s). General John Brown Gordon assumed command of Early's division. 

     The Confederates immediately set about constructing more than four miles of fortifications extending across Brock Road from Mrs. Spindle's place to a point beyond the home of Neill McCoull, a neighbor of the Harrisons. Because of its shape, as can be seen on the Hotchkiss map above, this defensive position was called the Mule Shoe. 

     On May 11, the usually canny Lee made an error that could have had catastrophic consequences for the Confederacy's fortunes. Movements of some Union forces were misinterpreted and Lee ordered the artillery in the Mule Shoe salient to be withdrawn and be prepared for a movement to the right. Unbeknownst to the Confederates, the section of the Confederate line now stripped of artillery was precisely where Union General Hancock planned to attack the following morning. On the night of May 11, Confederate General Richard Ewell made his headquarters at the Harrison house, and General Lee pitched his tent in the yard.

     Early on the morning of May 12, Union troops came crashing through the Mule Shoe salient near McCoull's. Word of this disaster now unfolding soon reached Lee and Ewell. General Gordon assembled his division in the Harrison's yard, and the Confederates quickly advanced to stem the Union tide. Thus began a 22-hour fight known as the Battle of Bloody Angle. Huge losses were incurred on both sides, but Meade was not able to budge the Confederates and advance to the court house.

     Meanwhile, all was confusion and panic in the Harrison household. Joseph F. Walker [2], a young slave at the Harrison farm at this time, remembered the events of that day in a memoir written in 1940: "Later in the afternoon my mistress Miss Harrison and my mother began gathering up the silver to leave...My mistress asked if there was any danger, and we all clustered around the officers for safety; but in a few minutes we were ordered to get out as the firing was going to begin, which it did like a thunderstorm. All I could hear was "Go to the rear!" We managed to get through the three lines of soldiers and went to a house known as the Dabney [Spotsylvania Clerk of Court Robert C. Dabney] House."

     The war would grind on for another 11 months after the fighting near the Harrison farm. When Edgar mustered out of the cavalry he was impoverished, and his injuries prevented him from adequately rehabilitating his farm.

     In 1870, Edgar and Ann, with her brother acting as her trustee, bought a 60-acre property from Dr. Addison Lewis Durrett across Brock Road from their first house. The Harrisons called their new residence "Forest Home." Edgar, Ann and their two daughters lived there for the rest of their lives. 

     In order to finance this purchase from Dr. Durrett, the Harrisons borrowed $250 from Fredericksburg attorney John Minor Herndon, who died a year later. Except for one $30 interest payment, the Harrisons did not pay anything toward the principal. In 1881 Charles Minor, acting as executor of his father's estate, sued the Harrisons for the money they owned. In court papers, Edgar was described as "insolvent." The following year an arrangement was made regarding the outstanding debt, and the Harrison family continued to live at Forest Home.

In order to supplement his meager income from farming, Edgar Harrison became a school teacher. The first mention of his new career in the local newspapers was in September 1875, when he was teaching at the "Alsop Gate School," presumably at the Alsop farm at the intersection of Brock and Gordon roads. Throughout the 1880s, Edgar's name was mentioned in the papers as a teacher in the public schools. 

     Edgar's obituary reveals that he also taught at the "Hotel School." In 1887, New York native Joseph Bittle bought the Spotswood Inn at Spotsylvania Court House. He established a private school there called the Virginia Collegiate Institute. The Bittles were Free Methodists, and their school curriculum was infused with that religious philosophy. In 1894, Bittle sold the inn to local merchant Thomas H. Harris (whose family owned nearby Bloomsbury farm). School continued to be held at the inn, but without the Free Methodist teachings, and the name of the school was also changed. The school closed for good in 1898.

     By the 1890s, Edgar's health began to decline. In February 1896 he suffered a paralytic stroke and died two days later on February 9. He was buried in the cemetery at Christ Episcopal Church at the court house.

The Daily Star 11 February 1896

The Daily Star 12 February 1896

     In 1939, Edgar's daughter Temple ordered a veteran headstone for her father from the War Department:

Temple Harrison's application for headstone

Headstone of Edgar Wilton Harrison

     Ann Harrison outlived her husband by 9 years; she died December 18, 1905 and was buried at Christ Church. Her daughters Ellen and Temple, neither of whom ever married, are also buried there.

The Free Lance 20 December 1905

Footnotes:

The Free Lance 17 September 1889

[1] William Mary Byrd Goodwin was born about 1828. In 1852 he married Nancy Holladay, and they raised their two daughters at Rose Hill. After the death of his father in 1859, he inherited some of his slaves, including Joseph H. Walker (the 1860 census shows he owned a total of 13 enslaved people). On March 1, 1862 he joined Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry at Camp Boulware in King George County. His military record is notable mainly for his being absent without leave during much of 1863-1864. The last mention of him was on February 7, 1865 when he was a patient at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond. 

     After the Civil War,William, like his father, was active in local Democratic politics and for a time served as chairman of the Spotsylvania Democratic Party. He was also a justice of the peace in addition to farming at Rose Hill. 

     In 1877 Charles E. Pendleton killed a black man with whom he worked at Bradley's lumber yard in Fredericksburg. He was found guilty at trial and sentenced to serve five years in the state penitentiary. Upon Charles's release in 1882, William offered him a job working at Rose Hill. William's impressionable 17-year-old daughter Kitty fell in love with Charles. Kitty and Charles eloped to Washington, D.C. where they were married in August 1882. William strongly disapproved of their union, and forbade them from coming to his house. That being the case, Kitty and Charles lived in Orange County. 

     After a time Kitty-who by this time had two daughters of her own--pleaded with her father to allow them to come stay with him. She was living in poverty and her marriage was not a happy one. William relented, and allowed Kitty and Charles and their children to come live at Rose Hill. He still did not like Charles, and they quarreled frequently, but William adored Kitty and his granddaughters and so he put up with Charles. 

     On September 13, 1889 Charles announced that he was going to buy some pigs at Jack Carter's, and William asked him to buy some pigs for him as well. When Charles returned that evening, he was roaring drunk and instead of the pigs he brought back a couple of hunting dogs. Charles and Kitty got into an argument and Charles called her a "damn liar." Upon hearing that, William rose from his sick bed and picked up a 2-inch piece of wood about 18 inches long. He then delivered two blows to Charles's head. Stunned but still full of fight, Charles grabbed William's shotgun and pointed it at him. William grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it at the ceiling and then pulled the trigger, emptying the gun. He and Kitty then pushed Charles out of the house on to the porch and secured the door behind him. Charles picked up another loaded gun that was on the porch and fired it through the door, striking William in the thigh. Doctors Martin and Voorhees were summoned and with the help of Spotsylvania County sheriff  Thomas Addison Harris they amputated William's leg. Their efforts to save William's life were in vain. William died the next day, September 13, 1889. A few days later Spotsylvania clerk of court Joseph Patrick Henry Crismond wrote a memorial for William on behalf of the Zion Methodist Church Sunday school:

The Free Lance 27 September 1889

     At trial, Charles Pendleton was found guilty of murder. For the second time, he was sentenced to serve a term in the state penitentiary, this time for 12 years. The year after he killed her father, Kitty divorced Charles and took back her maiden name. In 1893, while suffering from tuberculosis, Charles appealed for clemency from the governor. His appeal was denied. 

     Some time in the early 1900s, Kitty Goodwin moved to the household of now former clerk of court J.P.H. Crismond. She worked for him as a domestic servant for the rest of her life. In 1915 she sold Rose Hill to Fredericksburg builder Elmer Grimsley "Peck" Heflin. Kitty died of complications from a perforated ulcer in 1923.

 

[2] Joseph F. Walker (1854-1943) was born a slave in the household of William P. Goodwin at Rose Hill farm. Upon Mr. Goodwin's death, ownership of Joseph passed to his son William Mary Byrd Goodwin. Joseph's mother and sisters were given to William's sister, Ann Harrison. After the Civil War, Joseph served for decades as sexton at St. George's Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg and also worked as a butler for Judge William S. Barton. Joseph was a member of Shiloh Baptist New Site, where he was a deacon for 48 years. Together with educator Jason Grant, Joseph helped establish the Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute in 1905, which was the forerunner of the Walker-Grant School named in their honor.

Joseph F. Walker

Sources:

Joseph Walker

Walker-Grant School 

Library of Virginia Chancery Causes

Fold3 Compiled Service Records for Confederate Soldiers, Confederate Citizens File, Civil War maps

Contemporaneous newspaper articles from The Daily Star, the Free Lance and the Fredericksburg News

Fredericksburg Research Resources