Search Results

Middlesex County Educators gather together to learn more about the local history of Middlesex County. Beaton Healy (literary specialist), Carol Walsh (mathematics specialist), Danielle Allen (principal) and Paige Moore (5th grade social studies teacher), and Dr. Byron Bishop (assistant superintendent), tour the Middlesex County Museum to discuss possible projects from multiple eras for students to learn more about Middlesex and the people who resided here earlier. The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society and the Middlesex County Elementary School are joining together to develop educational materials for students to learn more about local history. The ninety-one students enrolled in the fifth grade this year will be participants in the newly developed curriculum, following on the heels of the Virginia history they studied in the fourth grade. Utilizing the museum’s extensive collection as a focal point for the project, official first-person documents will be added from within the county’s archives, as well as other universities, museums and archive collections as supporting materials. The students will work with plats, deeds, wills, maps, letters and journals to gain knowledge from our previous county residents. Museum director Holly Horton will help to cross-reference materials to meet the established learning goals for math, literacy, social studies, history, etc. An example could be census records dissected to look at math applications of population density with percentages of residents broken down by various demographics. Thanks to the foresight of County Clerk Philemon T. Woodward who moved our documents during the Civil War, Middlesex has its early documents. They were not burned in Richmond as was the fate of so many of our surrounding counties’ documents. The museum’s new exhibit “Middlesex Early Inhabitants” will be the focus of the first segment of the programming. Utilizing segments of John Smith’s maps and journals, Native life in our area will be defined and explored. Who were Middlesex County residents at that time? What did they eat, where did they sleep, how did they socialize, what were their family units like? Moving forward in time, census data, deeds, plats, indentured and enslaved labor records as well as militia registrations from the following centuries will be poured over and organized into timelines and grouped into projects that will open discussion about early life in Middlesex County and what it involved. While broken up into small groups, students will become modern detectives, noticing details and gaining clues that help to highlight important aspects of our past residents and their time here within our county’s borders.

On Sunday, October 16, 2022 Fred and Bettie Lee Gaskins will be presented the Middlesex County Museum & Historical Society Annual Preservation Award to recognize their 56 years of writing for, serving as treasurer and publishing the Southside Sentinel. (See The Event, Here.) In 2022 the Southside Sentinel is celebrating its 127th year of reporting on life in and around Middlesex County, and Fred and Bettie Lee Gaskins are marking their 56th year as its owners and publishers. The Gaskinses agree that in many ways it seems like yesterday when they bought the paper from attorneys John and William T. Bareford in 1966, and settled in. They were newlyweds, married only for about six months. “We weren’t kids but I feel like we did a lot of growing up in those early days,” said Fred. “We made a lot of lifelong friends while falling in love with Middlesex County, and of course our new hometown, Urbanna.” Both are graduates of the University of Richmond where Fred minored in journalism and Bettie Lee was editor of the college newspaper. Bettie Lee had experience working with her father, Emory Currell, editor and publisher of the Rappahannock Record in Kilmarnock for 66 years. Fred’s family was in the seafood business and lived in Irvington. With the help of some existing Sentinel staff in 1966, Fred worked full time at the paper, writing stories, taking photos, selling advertising and trying to learn how to produce a paper with hot lead. The office was where the Something Different retail/takeout side is now. Bettie Lee did bookkeeping and proofreading as needed while also teaching third grade in Middlesex. Within a year they had to give up on the old hot metal type printing technology they inherited and switch to a central printing plant using a new “offset” process. “We had a notion that we would buy our own modern press later, but it was never feasible to make the investment in equipment and trained personnel to operate it only one or two days each week,” Fred said. The Sentinel was never again printed in Middlesex County. Today the Sentinel, and the Rappahannock Record, are printed in Alexandria on the same press that prints the Washington Post. The major printing change was the first of many, many production changes and upgrades over the years. Now all the pre-press work is done on computers. After the death of Bettie Lee’s father in 1993, the Gaskinses also assumed management of the Rappahannock Record, owned by Bettie Lee and her sister, Clara Christopher, of Williamsburg. Fred became president and publisher of the Record and Tom Hardin became editor of the Sentinel. Bettie Lee serves as treasurer for both papers. In the ensuing years, and to Bettie Lee’s and Fred’s delight, their three children, Susan, Kate and Joseph, became involved with the papers. Susan and Kate now manage the Record and Joseph is the production manager and graphic designer at the Sentinel. Urbanna native Robert Mason Jr. has become the Record’s editor. Bettie Lee and Fred are supposed to be semi-retired, but still put in some long hours most weeks. On Main Street in Kilmarnock the Record still operates in the building where it was founded 105 years ago, but during the Gaskinses’ tenure the Sentinel has outgrown a couple of locations on Virginia Street in Urbanna. When the staff began to expand in the early 1970s a larger building was needed. They bought the former Mercer Funeral Home building at the corner of Virginia and Prince George Streets in 1972 and remodeled it. The former funeral home was the Sentinel’s home for the next 32 years. Then, faced with replacing the entire roof and other major repairs, Fred and Bettie Lee decided to build a new office in the Sentinel parking lot. When it was complete in 2004, the old funeral home was demolished and that space is the current parking area. Fred and Bettie Lee are quick to point out that although spacious buildings and new technology are nice to have, it’s been a dedicated staff that has enabled the Southside Sentinel and Rappahannock Record to produce their “weekly history books” for so many years. “Beginning in 1966 with the struggles the Sentinel had with hot lead, learning an entirely new way to compose the paper, hiring our first advertising sales person, our first reporter, and all the talented employees who have since come our way, I am simply amazed at how we have been blessed with the right people at the right time throughout our 56 years,” said Fred. “It’s almost as if some master playwright set up the plan, sent out a casting call when a need existed, and in they came. In my mind’s eye I see and remember so many of them, and the talents they brought and in some cases continue to contribute. We are thankful to all of them, and of course to the community for supporting its hometown newspaper.” (The 1986 centennial article mentioned that former publisher Julian Brown holds the record for the most number of years at the Sentinel, 59, so we are getting close to matching that!)

Article by Bill Dancy Colonial-era trash pits provide layers of history and a glimpse into life in the 17th century. But sometimes those glimpses are bigger than usual. Download The Full Article Here Download

Two early plantations; Purton in Gloucester Co. , and Shooters Hill in Middlesex Co. were locations where the Smith Family settled.   Purton Bay on the North shore of the York River and the land around it are very significant to Virginia history.  First,  the original Indian village that was Chief  Powhatan’s home in 1607 was located there, when the English settled Jamestown.  This is also where Pocahontas saved John Smith in 1607. It is called  “Werowocomoco” and had been a significant village for hundreds of years.   The Indians abandoned it in 1609-11 due to “English  pressure from settlement”.   Then in 1642 William Pryor, a very early and Purton Bay’s first English settler, was granted a land patent for 1300 acres around Purton Bay.  Next, in 1647 Richard Bernard came to Virginia, and took a lease on Pryor’s property.  He was developing the property and the home when he died in 1648-50.  In 1652 his wife Anne (1636-1698) purchased Purton Plantation  and added 1000 acres to the property for a total of 2300 acres. She also married John Smith (1627-1680) in 1652. He had just arrived in Virginia in 1652, probably at Jamestown.  Their son “Lt. Col. John Smith of Purton” (1662-1698) was Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in 1680.  That year he also married Mary Warner (about 1665-1700) daughter of Augustine Warner builder of “Warner Hall Plantation” in Gloucester.   Today the National Park Service owns Werowocomoco (part of Purton Plan) and will some day open it to the public again. Their son Augustine Warner “Gus” Smith (1687-1756 ) was like his father, born at Purton, and moved to “Shooters Hill plantation” in Middlesex, about 1724. His father probably acquired that 1256 acres in Middlesex, on the Piankatank River in the late 1600s. Augustine married Sarah Carver in 1711, their son was John Smith (1715- 1771). When operated by the Smith’s, Shooters Hill plantation had a very large three story brick home with lead roof. There was a fish pond on the lead roof all of which made it exceptional for that time. The home burned sometime before 1797. This plantation also had a significant Indian attachment. During John Smith of Jamestown exploration of the Chesapeake Bay he visited a significant Indian village on the north shore of the Piankatank River between August 30 to September 1, 1608. The Indian Kings house (village) on the Piankatank was most likely part of, or next to land that became Shooters Hill. Were these two properties, land of high value to early settlers because they had all necessities for survival and some land was cleared which was for Indian crops (corn, beans, squash, and tobacco)? The English settlers were interested in cleared land for planting “Tobacco”, their gold! Rob Warner, Deer Chase Subdivision on the Piankatank, Middlesex Co.

Located across the street from the courthouse, the Saluda Hotel operated from 1855-1937 and provided county visitors with lodging and meals. This brick, three-story structure had four chimneys, a wide veranda porch across the front of the building, and grounds in the back with croquet and tennis in the summer. Case witnesses, both for the defense and prosecution, as well as trial lawyers, stayed at the Saluda Hotel during their case hearings. Traveling salesmen and sports fishermen also stayed there according to historic records. Lodgings there provided 3 meals a day and featured farm to table cuisine utilizing local fruits and vegetables and fish and oysters. The hotel was built by Thomas W. Fauntleroy in 1855. He lived on Oakenham Plantation there in Saluda which he had built in 1837. After his death, Addison Hervey Ward and his wife Eudora Catherine Roane Ward bought Oakenham and the Saluda Hotel in 1884. They later sold the hotel to a succession of owners, but during much of the 1920s and 30s, their daughter, Mrs. Lena Ward Blakey operated the hotel. Her granddaughter Patricia lived with her there and recorded many memories of this time when she was an adult. Pat’s daughter, Jean, donated a hotel register to the museum this month.  It will join photographs, keys and service ware from the hotel already in our permanent collection. All will go on display in a newly created Saluda Historic District section of the museum. The Saluda Hotel stood across the street from the historic courthouse in downtown Saluda and was demolished by 1944. A gas station now stands on the lot. Page from 1929 Saluda Hotel ledger

Before anything can be included in an exhibit and seen by the public in the museum, it needs to be accessioned and brought into our computer system software program, PastPerfect. This involves much detailed focus time to capture all of the facets related to the new accession. It proves so helpful in the future to have historical information and stories related to the object as well as its physical aspects. The better the back story, the more interesting it is to the public. Marilyn oversees the assignment of a new accession number and entering all of the pertinent information into the software program: Size, shape, color, type of material made of, where found, who used, and how it relates to Middlesex County history. Tyler scans our photographs and negatives at large sizes so that we will be able to utilize them digitally in a variety of applications including exhibits and on our website. They are all assigned names related to their new accession numbers. He also uses this process to capture a likeness of fragile paper objects such as documents, forms, ledgers, newspapers, letters, journals and such. And finally, Holly pulls the information together to create a 3D experience for the museum visitor. They can see the object and learn more about how it was used and some information about who used it in the past. Our new exhibit about the Saluda Historic District is currently in this information gathering process. Objects already in our collection are being married with newly accessioned materials and all will be cross referenced with historical documents to create an exhibit that everyone will enjoy.

Jewish is not how most would describe the cultural landscape of the Middle Peninsula. However, in the late nineteenth century, “Jewish” would have been an appropriate characterization of Middlesex County. Located in what is now the community of Water View, Inglewood was purchased by Joseph Friedenwald—a member of a prominent Jewish family in Baltimore—to become a Jewish agricultural colony. Formerly the home of Robert Latane Montague and his son Andrew Jackson Montague (the 4th Lieutenant Governor and the 44th Governor of Virginia respectively), Inglewood was situated along the Rappahannock River between what is now State Route 640 (Waterview Road), and Weeks Road.1 Ten to twelve families of recent Russian immigrants began living there in October of 1882. For the next thirteen months, members of the Waterview Colony farmed between five and eight hundred acres belonging to Mr. Friedenwald, and the newspaper The Baltimore Sun published regular updates on their status. P.T. Woodward, Dr. William Kemp Gatewood, Rev. J.W. Ryland, Rev. W.A. Street, Robert H. McCann, and A.B. Evans are documented as assisting the colonists, and it is likely that other Middlesex locals did as well.2 While it is still unclear why the Waterview Colony was unsuccessful at cultivating the land, the colonization of Middlesex County was deemed a failure by the Baltimore Jews providing funding, and the colony was officially abandoned by the end of 1883.3 Most of the individuals who lived in the Waterview Colony returned to Baltimore, but it is unknown if they stayed there. I am researching this endeavor by the Baltimore Jewish community to create an agricultural community of Russian Jews in Water View, Virginia as part of my undergraduate thesis. I believe it was a response to the increased number of Jews emigrating from Russia in 1882. I want to find out who the colonists were and learn why the colony failed, as well as discover how the landscape of Water View has changed since then, so that I can help others understand something about Jewish immigration to the United States prior to the Immigration Act of 1924 (which restricted immigration based on nationality through quotas)4 and highlight an unexpected piece of Middlesex County history. Naomi Alberts is a Junior in the Double-Degree program between Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary and is spending the summer of 2022 working with the Fairfield Foundation and the Middlesex County Museum. Notes and Select Bibliography: 1. Middlesex County, Virginia, Deed Book 30:185. 2. “Refugees in Virginia.” The Baltimore Sun . Baltimore, MD. April 9, 1883. 3. Larry Chowning, Signatures in Time: A Living History of Middlesex County, Virginia . Middlesex County, Virginia, 2012. 4. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “United States Immigration and Refugee Law, 1921-1980.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/united-states-immigration-and-refugee-law-1921-1980. Accessed on July 08, 2022. Help Wanted: Know something about the Waterview Colony? Please reach out to me at: waterview_research@nralberts.myfastmail.com

Download and view the document: Some Notes On The Grymes Family Of Middlesex County, Virginia Grymes Family History Download

TREE OYSTER SHELL Isognomon maxillata (Lamarck, 1819) Taxonomy (PBDB) Life : Animalia : Mollusca : Bivalvia : Ostreida : Malleidae : Isognomon : Isognomon maxillata This hinged bivalve grew in Middlesex County during the Miocene Era some 10-20 million years ago. It is now extinct but has a close family member still here that we enjoy eating today, Crassostrea Virginica, also known as the Virginia Oyster, the Eastern Oyster, or the American Oyster. The fossilized remains of the tree oyster show that during its life, the tree oyster lived in a brackish marine water environment, attaching itself for a stationary lifestyle by byssal threads that resemble those of mussels or pen shells. It was a suspension feeder that grew up to 3.7 inches. The museum is blessed with several of these fossils in beautiful condition all on display in our new exhibit, “Middlesex Early Inhabitants”.

The color of a shark tooth, or any other fossil, is determined by the type of sediment the fossil is preserved in. The color has almost nothing to do with the age or type of fossil. To elaborate, let’s take a basic look at the fossilization process for shark teeth: Let’s say a particular shark tooth is shed and sinks to the bottom of the sea. To become a fossil, it is quickly buried by sediments. Over time, the oxygen poor sediment layers build up and up. Pressure will start to compact the sediments that the shark tooth is entombed in. When enough layers and pressure build up, water will cause minerals in the surrounding sediment to flow into the shark tooth (permineralization). Eventually the minerals will fill in and replace most of the original organic material and the shark tooth will become preserved as a fossil. The color of the minerals in the sediment will become the color of the fossil. Colors of Shark Teeth: The Simple Answer The color of a shark tooth, or any other fossil, is determined by the type of sediment the fossil is preserved in. The color has almost nothing to do with the age or type of fossil. Fossilguy.com

The Veterans’ area of the museum has had two new display cases added to its floorplan. Biographies of the service men and women have been compiled and will be included with various artifacts of their time serving our country. Uniforms, photography, medals, and records are all part of the expanded display area. A childhood area has been created to showcase the museum’s large collection of toys and childhood games. Clothing and furniture are also included from this slice of early life. Volunteers Ed and Cherie Moore (museum director Holly Horton’s parents) spent time wrapping and cataloging artifacts to be moved into accessions storage this month.

Middlesex County is blessed with a wonderful geographic location that has provided its inhabitants, since its founding, with important life amenities. Today as in 1670, the county has a land area of 132 square miles and 135 miles of shoreline. Throughout the centuries, this shoreline has provided shelter, sustenance, employment, and enjoyment to thousands of people who have benefited from the water meeting the land. Included here is a montage of photos taken over the past century of various views of our Middlesex coastal shoreline.

Middlesex Early Inhabitants has opened in the visitor center and showcases fossils and Native American artifacts found in the local waters and soils of Virginia. Learn about Middlesex’s two indigenous tribes John Smith recorded in his journals and on his famous map from his 1608 voyages around the Chesapeake Bay. A large variety of arrowheads, grinding stones, axes, and other tools are on display for you to see. Also included are modern ceremonial items donated by a native descendant to the museum from his private collection. The fossil section contains multiple showcases of shells, teeth, bones and even dinosaur poop from the animals that lived here before we humans came. Several maps from the 1600s are also included. Bring the kids and grandkids to this family friendly and educational exhibit and have fun learning about Middlesex’s early inhabitants. Keep your ears open for the upcoming special talks and events that will be presented this summer around this exhibition.

Our museum’s floorplan is being rearranged with display cases moved and objects rotated into storage. In so doing, new items have been brought out of object storage and put on display to create new and unique exhibits. This has been an ongoing project for the past six months and our good news is that we are getting closer and closer to being finished. A new exhibit case is added for WW II Veteran Raymond Burrell and showcase his interesting personal life story. Brothers Becket and Micah Carter help move some of the heavier objects and exhibit cases.

On Thursday, June 16, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved a historical highway marker for Antioch Baptist Church in Saluda. Located in the recently designated Saluda Historic District, Antioch Baptist Church was established in 1866 and is the oldest African-American church in Middlesex County. The text of the marker is as follows: A ntioch Baptist Church Antioch Baptist Church, the oldest black church in Middlesex County, was formed in 1866 by black members of white-led Clark’s Neck (later Saluda) Baptist Church. They acquired an acre of land just north of here in 1867 and added two more acres in 1881. Civil War soldiers are buried there. Antioch was one of four founding churches of the Southside Rappahannock Baptist Association and hosted its first meeting in 1877. An early black public school, Antioch School, was adjacent to the church. Two Antioch pastors, the Revs. R. E. Berkley and C. R. Towles, were founders of Baptist-run Rappahannock Industrial Academy in 1902; buildings there were named for them. Four churches came out of Antioch. The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society is the sponsor of the marker. The marker will be partially funded through an African-American history restricted fund that was given to the museum by Mary Wakefield Buxton. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources will order the marker and schedule its installation. The marker will be unveiled at a public dedication ceremony in 2023.

The Advisory Board of the River Counties Community Foundation has awarded a grant to Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society in the amount of $15,000.00. Lincoln Boykin, Director of the River Counties Community Foundation, notified the museum at the end of May. “This grant will be used to support a new HVAC/Dehumidifier and Upgrades for the main museum building,” says museum director Holly Horton. The current one is more than 20 years old.” “Being that summers on the middle peninsula are hot and humid, it is important that this issue be rectified. We have been running fans and small dehumidifier units, but they are not meeting the long-term problem. Mold is a devastating problem in museums and one that we are in a constant battle to keep at bay,” says Horton. “This grant will be a great help to the future of our collection.” The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society maintains over three thousand items in the collection and most are acquired through the general public. New items are brought into the collection in a number of ways: donation, purchase with named funds, short-term loan and long-term loan. Printed materials (books, journals, newspapers, articles) organizational records, personal papers, family history materials, sheet music, broadsides, and maps, and photographs. Personal objects such as clothing, jewelry, textiles, instruments and furniture. Each of these items are reviewed before acceptance to determine that they are appropriate for our museum. Yet it is expensive to give them the specialized care that they require for optimal preservation, whether they are on exhibit display or in acidic-free, climate-controlled storage. Dust, light and humidity can be dangerous to culturally historical objects as they age into the future. Improper care can have negative effects on their preservation. The Smithsonian Institution states, “Long term artifact preservation and storage is…important in order to ensure that…artifacts can remain a tangible, visible part of history for years to come… to be kept for the benefit of future generations.” “This grant from the River Counties Community Foundation will help to maintain the cultural vibrancy of what the museum hosts under our roof and allow us to have a greater impact on the community at large,” says Horton. The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society is devoted to fostering the procurement, care, study, and display of objects that are of lasting interest and value to the history and culture of Middlesex County. In addition, the Museum strives to enhance and further the education of members of the community of their history and heritage. The museum showcases the personal lives of the people that lived here. Where they lived, how they dressed, what they did in their free time. It is focused on the social lives and interactions of past residents. Through that lens, multiple aspects of life in Middlesex, both on the water and on the land are looked at: At home, work, and leisure. Horton continues, “As a cultural institution, our museum enhances people’s lives and creates a special experience outside of the normal realm of boating, swimming, waterskiing, picnicking and fishing that a lot of county visitors encounter when visiting Middlesex.”

In order to accommodate various out of town guests, the Middlesex County Museum & Historical Society and the Middle Peninsula Detachment 1317 Marine Corps League has moved the re-dedication of Puller Park away from the museum and Puller Park site. It will now take place at Christ Church Parish Hall located at 56 Christchurch Lane, Saluda VA at the original intended time of 1:00 PM. The museum as well as the new park are located at 777 General Puller Highway, Saluda, VA and both will be open from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in honor of this occasion. Puller Park is on the grounds of the museum and visitor center. Memorabilia from Lt. General “Chesty” Puller along with other distinguished local military servicemen are on display at the museum along with county items related to local history. The visitor center will also be open and has a new exhibit related to the earliest inhabitants of Middlesex County, indigenous people and local fossils from pre-historic life here on the middle peninsula.

Starting Friday, May 27, 2022, the Middlesex County Museum will be expanding our open hours. We will now be open: Wednesday – 1 to 5pm Friday – 1 to 5pm Sunday – 1 to 3pm

World War II veteran Raymond W. Burrell Sr.’s family has donated his personal memorabilia into our permanent collection here at the museum. A graduate of Middlesex High School, Mr. Burrell was inducted into World War II from Baltimore, Maryland, to become one of many black men to enlist in the 761st Tank Battalion. In December 23, 1942, he entered into active service at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and after training in Texas and New York, he left for Europe. The 761st Tank Battalion was assigned to General George S. Patton, as part of the 26th Infantry Division of the 12 Corps in the Third Army. He was part of the D-Day invasion of November 8, 1944 on Omaha Beach, in France. On November 2, General George S. Patton gave them a rousing welcome saying “Men, you’re the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren’t good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don’t care what color you are, so long as you go up there and kill those Germans. Everyone has their eyes on you and are expecting great things from you. Most of all, your race is looking forward to you doing well. Don’t let them down, and don’t let me down!” In 183 days of front-line fighting, Mr. Burrell came home without a scratch. He and his fellow comrades of the 761st Tank Battalion fought because they wanted peace, liberty, and justice for all Americans. Their unit was segregated, and proved a point that they were just as good as any white man in the armed forces. Upon returning home, Burrell lived a very full life in Hardyville: he married Clarice Burrell and became the father of 3 children, daughter Leanna, and sons Robert and Raymond Jr. He spent his career working in the Newport News Shipyard and Drydock Company in Newport News from where he retired. He lived to be 100 years old. In 2022, a roadside memorial was installed and dedicated in his honor in Deltaville. Part of the pieces accessioned into the museum’s permanent collection include the shadow box pictured here that contained his medals, a patch of his unit, his picture in uniform, and flag flown at the U.S. Capitol from Senator Mark Warner. Also coming into the collection is his enlistment papers, dog tags, a large photo of the 761st Tank Battalion, Burrell’s Army Uniform, many photos, newspaper articles, and his personal letters home. These pieces will be on display in the Veterans section of the museum.