Middlesex Museum Celebrates 79th Year

Seventy nine years ago, the Middlesex  County Museum began with one woman and an idea!   

Mrs. May Rowe (Edward W.) Chappell of Urbanna presented the idea   in 1933 to the Middlesex County Woman's Club, which organized a   museum committee with Mrs. Chappell as chairman of the community   project.  Committee reports and news articles are preserved in   scrapbooks now at the museum.   

The Middlesex Board of Supervisors lent their support in providing a   room in the old clerk's office and the community at large loaned items   for display.  Here are Mrs. Chappell's remarks from an address given in   1939:   

"The first idea for the Middlesex County Museum came to me, I think,   when I was antiquing one day and found a part of an old-fashioned gig   up in the attic of an old home.  The lady who was selling her furniture   insisted upon giving it to me because she said she knew I would take   care of it.  What on earth would I do with it, I thought; but could not   hurt the dear old lady's feelings. Then it was I began to realize that a   county as old as Middlesex, with so many descendants of the original   families still living, must have a store of old treasures and heirlooms."   

Mrs. Chappell continued, "Dr. Berkley's book, The Small Community   Museum, which he afterwards presented to the museum, gave me further   inspiration. Why couldn't the Woman's Club have a place where   county people could safely exhibit their valuables and relics?"   

Mrs. Chappell was the chairman of the museum committee formed by   the Woman's Club.  She went on to say, "With its steel door and   ceilings, making it burglar and fire proof, the old clerk's office was an   ideal place.  The Board of Supervisors has shown their interest in every   possible way.  Thus, the first county museum in Virginia was born.  We   did not have the money to pay a custodian, and voluntary ones seldom   prove satisfactory.  At the time we seemed up against it, but we would   not give up.  We would find a way."   

Federal money was available for jobs and arts projects under the   F.E.R.A. and the W.P.A. of Virginia.  These funds helped with the   renovations, such as providing a door, painting, and building cabinets.    It also funded the custodians, Mrs. Maude Jamison and Mrs. Annie May   Booker, who gathered items for display and managed the museum.    The museum opened September 17, 1935.   

"Our ambition is to broaden and enlarge our museum so visitors,   children especially, can relive the glamorous past and recapture   something of that warmth of good living and graciousness among our   ancestors," said Mrs. Chappell.  (In 1938, there were approximately   2,000 visitors.)   

An August 9, 1935 Southside Sentinel editorial noted, "There is always a   certain degree of honor and distinction in being the first to invent or   the first to establish something worthwhile, and the members of the   Middlesex Woman's Club are justly proud of their museum, which is   established in one of the rooms of the old clerk's office at Saluda, and   while their quarters are not so spacious as they might be, they will   answer nicely for a beginning."   

The article went on to reprint the editorial of Dr. Douglas S. Freeman   that was published in the Richmond New Leader.  Dr. Freeman praised   the efforts of the Woman's Club as an example for other clubs in rural   Virginia, and for the counties of Henrico, Hanover, and Chesterfield to   take note.  "Middlesex long will have the first county museum in   Virginia -- and a very creditable one."   

The museum thrived with various exhibits of art works and artifacts   until March of 1942.  The war effort required that all funds for galleries   and museums be directed elsewhere, and notice was received from the   Federal Works Agency, Works Projects Administration of Virginia that   the funding would end.  As a result, the museum closed.   

Mrs. Jessie DeBusk, historian of the Woman's Club, recalls that Mr.   and Mrs. Chappell lived across from the Gressitt House, next to the   Montagues in Urbanna.  They had three childre, and she was friends   with their daughter, Rebecca.  "Mrs. Chapell was quite a gardener and   had lovely flowers in her yard.  Mr. Chappell was the manager of the   Coca Cola Bottling Company.  The family was actively involved in   Urbanna Baptist Church.  Mrs. Chappell also participated in the   organization of the book club of the Woman's Club."   

Mrs. DeBusk also related that Mrs. Chappell helped to organize the   Ralph Wormeley Branch of the APVA (Association for the   Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) in the late 1930s.  There was an   interest by the Brown Tobacco Company to buy the Tobacco   Warehouse and move it to New York.  The Woman's Club and their   husbands joined to form the local APVA, and the dues were $2.  Their   efforts kept the Tobacco Warehouse in Urbanna.   

The Middlesex County Museum is indebted to the Middlesex County Woman's Club, not only for establishing the museum in 1935, but also   for reviving it in 1975 as a bicentennial project in the old clerk's office.    Mrs. Louise Eubank Gray was chairman of the Museum Committee, as   well as co-chair of the Bicentennial Committee.  The Woman's Club   members were docents for the museum.   

The Board of Supervisors continued its support, and the community   enjoyed the reopening of the museum as part of the Flag Day   Celebrations on June 14, 1975.   

In the 1990s, the museum reorganized with a Board of Directors.  Mrs.   Louise E. Gray was elected Chairman of the Board, and Gibbie   Mangum was elected President.   

Other charter members were Vaughan and Ruth Noble, Mavis   Mangum, Ruth Horton, Gene Ruark, Lee Weber, Pat Perkinson, Anita   Healy, Melanie and Linc Marquis, Helen and Rogger Hopper,   Kathleen Moshier, Bill Horsley, and Sherman Holmes.   

The work of these members moved the museum to its permanent   location in Saluda, just down the street from the courthouse.  The   dedication of the new museum site took place September 19, 1998.   

Mrs. Chappell's idea 75 years ago, the Middlesex County Woman's   Club, the support of the Board of Supervisors, and the work of many   volunteers have helped over the years to support the efforts of the   Middlesex County Museum to protect, preserve, and present the   artifacts and history of how people used to live and make a living in   Middlesex County.

This article was published in the Southside Sentinel local newspaper in September 2008, which was the 75th Anniversary of the Middlesex County Museum. It was written by Mary Steed Ewell.