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The CCC Comes to Spotsylvania
Camp MP-3, Chancellorsville (National Park Service)Â Â Â Â When Franklin Roosevelt became President in March 1933, the United States was in a bad way. The Great Depression was by then in its fourth...
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"I write a few lines tonight to let you hear from us"
Nan Row (Ellen Apperson Brown)First and last pages of Nan Row's letter (Ellen Apperson Brown)Â Â Â Â Recently I had the privilege of meeting with author and historian, Ellen Apperson Brown. She shared...
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"Your kindness shall ever be remembered"
James Tompkins Williams (Ellen Apperson Brown)Martha Row Williams (Ellen Apperson Brown)Â Â Â Â This is the story of a chance encounter between two men during the Civil War, an encounter that would leave...
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A Footnote to the Death of Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson, April 1863Â Â Â Â In 1816, Samuel Alsop, Jr., bought an 849-acre tract on the Po River near Corbin's Bridge in Spotsylvania. Several years later, he built a house there as a wedding...
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A Petticoat for the Confederacy
Ellen Victoria Hull (Courtesy of Ellen Apperson Brown)Â Â Â Â My last post (A Footnote to the Death of Stonewall Jackson) was based on an entry from the diary kept by John Samuel Apperson during the Civil...
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Zion, Part 1
Bishop Francis Asbury         Born in Staffordshire, England in August 1745, Francis Asbury worshiped at the local Methodist church as a youth. At the age of 18, he became a lay minister. When he was...
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Zion, Part 2
[This is the second in a series of articles on the history of Zion Methodist Church. Click here to read the first installment]Â Â Â Â Despite the widespread poverty that persisted throughout the region,...
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Zion, Part 3
[This is the third in a series of articles on the history of Zion Methodist Church. Click here to read Part 1, and here to read Part 2]Â Â Â Â Leota Pendleton's scrapbook contains another photograph of...
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Zion, Part 4
[This is the final installment of a history of Zion Methodist Church. Here are the links to the previous articles in this series: Zion, Part 1, Zion, Part 2 and Zion, Part 3.]Zion's collection plates...
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Powhatan Foster
Powhatan Thomas Foster (Barbara Faulconer)Â Â Â Â For a number of years now, I have wanted to write about Powhatan Foster, who was a friend and an employee of my great grandfather, George Washington Estes...
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"He heard the report of the gun"
Oakley, 1935 (Frances Benjamin Johnston)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Several years ago, I wrote a piece on the early history of Oakley, focusing primarily on the letter written by Maria Dobyns in June 1864, in which she...
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Death Comes to Hickory Point
    When John and Jennie Coleman were murdered at their home in Spotsylvania on the evening of April 2, 1935, their deaths shocked and outraged citizens throughout the region. Because of their deep...
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The Sad Tale of Mollie Lumsden
Map detail of southwestern Spotsylvania County, 1863Â Â Â Â Richard Matthews Lumsden and Martha Ann Hillsman were both born in Spotsylvania County in 1816. They were married in 1836, and over the next 22...
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John Day Andrews
John Day Andrews (Ancestry.com)Â Â Â Â During the waning years of the eighteenth century, four sons were born in Spotsylvania County to John Andrews and Elizabeth Lipscomb. Lewis, the oldest (1793-1858),...
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Goshen: The Early Years
Original sanctuary of Goshen Baptist Church    Over the past several years, I have had the privilege and honor of writing about four of Spotsylvania's historic churches: Berea Adventist and Shady...
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George Day Stephens
George Day Stephens (Courtesy of Matt Ogle)Â Â Â Â He was a scion of two of Spotsylvania's more prominent families, and his life's work connects him to both my family and topics I have written about for...
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Parker
Western Spotsylvania County, 1863Â Â Â Â Parker (also known as Parker's Store, or Parkers) is a small community in western Spotsylvania near the Orange County line at the intersection of modern Orange...
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"I intend to make the Yankees pay for that hat"
Detail of central Orange County, 1863    The home of Catlett Rhoades (1804-1878) was the scene of a number of dramatic incidents over the years, both during and after the Civil War. Catlett married...
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Salem Baptist Church
Salem Baptist Church (American Antiquarian Society)Â Â Â Â Dr. Reed Brockway Bontecou (1824-1907) was a surgeon from Troy, New York who was head of the Harewood Hospital in Washington, DC during the Civil...
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Berkley Estes Johnson
Berkley Estes Johnson    Marshall Johnson was born on a large, prosperous farm in southwestern Spotsylvania County on Christmas Eve 1805. He was the youngest of six children born to Jonathan Johnson...
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