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Volume 12, Issue 1

January 2021

Central Rappahannock Heritage Center

Newsletter

A place that loses its history loses its soul

Message From The Chairman

As I look forward to the beginning of my term as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I am struck by how much we can be thankful for- even in the face of an unbelievably negative 2020. We are still a viable organization. We still have dues paying members. We have an impressive list of sponsors. And we have been blessed by having had a great leadership team to guide us through the Coivid-19 shutdown of the Center.

Barbara Barrett paid tribute to the outgoing Directors of our Board in the last newsletter. Meredith Beckett, Amy Olney, and Alma Withers. All had served in various capacities for the past six years. But she did not mention her own service. Barbara has served over eight years as a Board Director- five years as Chairman. She has led us through thick and thin to include the Zoom season! We will miss her leadership. On behalf of the current Board, I would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation.

So what can we look forward to in 2021? We will remain shut down for the foreseeable future. But we will continue to provide on line research. At some point we will need to rejuvenate our corps of volunteers. And at some point we will need to resume our fundraising activities, seek new sponsors and work to increase our visibility in the community. And, by so doing, acquire new members. There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is not the light of an oncoming train. It is the light of the beginning of vaccinations for all and the resumption of some form of “normality”. We will reopen!

Finally, as a harbinger of what is to come, the Center received a donation of $5000.00 during December.

Happy New Year,

Jack A. Apperson, Chairman

The Heritage Center

Become A New Member Today!

Heritage Center memberships support the important work done by The Center.

The Central Rappahannock Heritage Center is a non-profit, all-volunteer archive whose mission is to preserve historically valuable material of the region and make it available to the public for research.

Please join us as part of the Heritage Center's preservation team. As a member, you will be helping to preserve our priceless local history.

Click here to become a member today!

Membership

Thank you for your support,

The Heritage Center

MANY THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS

2021 HERITAGE CENTER SPONSORS

Barbara H. Cecil

Dovetail Cultural Resource Group

Jim and Betsy Greene

Mary Katherine Greenlaw

Lucy and Wayne Harman

To become a Heritage Center Sponsor, please visit our website. If you have any questions, please contact The Heritage Center at (540) 373-3704.

The YMCA

The Y, the YMCA, formally, the Young Men’s Christian Association. Many of us belong to the Y, start our days there, stay fit there, but how long has it been around? When we think of the Y, we think of the Massad Branch on Butler Road in Stafford, the Rosner in Spotsylvania or maybe the branches in King George or Caroline.

A little background. In 1844, George Williams, a 22-year old farmer turned department store worker in London saw the need for a refuge for young men who had come to the city, from the hazards of the streets. The emphasis was on Bible study and prayer meetings. A retired sea captain in Boston saw a similar need and established a Y at Old South Church. Anthony Bowen, formerly enslaved, started a YMCA for Black men in Washington, DC, in 1853. The movement spread across the country and grew from a place for Bible study and prayer to include housing and fitness for young men.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln recruited 5000 YMCA volunteers to serve as members of the Christian Commission, who distributed supplies and ministered to soldiers. Later, the Ys partnered with railroad companies to provide housing for their employees. Ys catered to ethnic groups such as Chinese, Japanese and Native Americans. Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, who had worked with Booker T. Washington, to build schools for Black students across the segregated South, issued a challenge grant to 23 cities in 1910. The goal was to build Ys to provide safe places for Blacks to stay as they traveled, especially Black members of the military.

Back to our area. Robert T. Knox spoke of the YMCA in a letter he wrote before the Civil War. Fredericksburg artist John Adams Elder (1833 – 1895), painted a portrait of Judge John Tayloe Lomax (1781 – 1862). Lomax was known for voting for ratification of the ordnance of secession at the Circuit Courthouse on May 23, 1861 and predicting dire events to come. Lomax’s portrait hung in the YMCA in that same Courthouse at 815 Princess Anne and was not destroyed when Elder’s studio in the Exchange Hotel burned in 1857. From that we know there was a YMCA in the Courthouse in Fredericksburg in 1857.

The Heritage Center has dozens of records with references to our YMCA. Hopefully soon, we will once again be able to examine this and other local history first hand.

Beth Daly

Volunteer

Collections Update - Researching A Big Fire

An article dated July 10, 1919 in The Daily Star, a local newspaper in Fredericksburg, caught the attention of another volunteer and myself. Located at The Heritage Center, in a bound volume, it is simply titled "A Big Fire", and it piqued both our interests. In reading the article, some interesting facts and historical tidbits emerged. We started digging through the archives to locate additional pieces of information.

Around 11:30 a.m., a fire began in the rear of the J. Willard Bookstore. During that time, the bookstore was located between Goolrick's Drug Store and Kaufman's Jewelry Store on Main (Caroline) Street. (This from an April 14th, 1915 plat, also archived at The Center.)

Quoted from the article: "The fire is said to have started from a bit of lighted wax which dropped while a can was being sealed where 3 barrels of turpentine or paint were stored...". "Barrels of paints and oils exploded, adding to the flames". "The fire truck, (authors italics), made many trips to the firehouse for extra hose...". At a certain point during the fight, Mayor J. P. Rowe, in consultation with a few leading citizens, including City Manager L. Houston, decided to contact Richmond for assistance. Firefighters from Richmond were to arrive by rail. However, before they could get to the city, the fire was controlled and the ensemble from Richmond was turned around.

The article goes on to describe damage to the adjacent buildings, all the affected stores and their inventories, and the fire's effects on tenants living above the merchants. There were no reported injuries and the article ended on a cheery note, reporting, "It is expected that all those that were burned out will rebuild".

An interesting side note was uncovered: in a document titled "City Report of Fredericksburg, Va.", for the years 1918 and 1919, mention was made of the fire. "The Fire Department maintained its usually high efficiency, and was able to keep the fire losses down to a very small percent, except in one instance". It then describes some additional details of the July 10th blaze. An example from the document is the reporting that the Richmond firefighters were alerted to the success of the Fredericksburg fighters and were turned around in Ashland.

As mentioned earlier, as with many endeavors, the pieces come together from various sources, and this is no exception. We have yet to examine any insurance documentation. And I am sure there is still more to be uncovered at The Heritage Center.

John Reifenberg

Collections Manager