A Place that Loses its History Loses its Soul. | |
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Central Rappahannock
Heritage Center
Newsletter
Volume 14, Issue 8
September 2023
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Distinguished Patawomeck scholar
to speak at Center's annual meeting
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Please plan to attend the Heritage Center’s annual membership meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 19, at the Walker-Grant Center, 210 Ferdinand St., near downtown Fredericksburg.
A brief business session will precede a presentation by Dr. Lauren McMillan, a professional archaeologist whose research primarily focuses on the early colonial period of Virginia during which English settlers first came into contact with Native Americans.
Her program is titled “Shell Masks and Anthropomorphic Objects Among the Patawomecks.”
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Dr. McMillan is an honorary member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia and she was named 2022 Honorary Member of the Year for her work and collaborative research with the tribe.
As cultural resource manager for Virginia State Parks, Dr. McMillan manages historic archaeological and architectural resources at 42 state parks across the commonwealth. She earned her undergraduate degree in historic preservation from the University of Mary Washington, an M.A. in anthropology from East Carolina University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Prior to her talk, the meeting’s business session will include a summary of the Heritage Center’s activities during the past year. Also on the agenda will be voting on a slate of directors for the board.
Three current board members have been nominated for second three-year terms. They are Jan Bieneck, Christine Henry, and Sharon Null.
Nominated to join the board for their first three-year terms are Wayne Brooks, Clinton Jones, and Daniel S. Goldstein.
A quorum is required to conduct Heritage Center business, so please join us to support the board’s efforts.
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Getting to know the new nominees
Wayne Brooks was born and raised in Fredericksburg and he is a 1966 graduate of James Monroe High School. A resident of Caroline County for 39 years, he is retired from a career in civil engineering. Active in a number of civic organizations in the county, he is a life member of both Historic Port Royal and the Caroline County Historical Society. He’s currently president of the Sidney E. King Foundation for the Arts.
Clinton Jones of Fredericksburg previously served on the Heritage Center board from 2007 to 2012, including terms as vice-chair and chairman. A longtime city resident, he graduated from James Monroe High School and the University of Virginia. He was a bank executive in Washington for 35 years before assuming the presidency of McK Company in Fredericksburg. He has also served on the board of the Fredericksburg Festival of the Arts.
Daniel S. Goldstein’s deep ancestral roots in Spotsylvania County spawned his lifelong love of history and museums, as well as a career path in the historic preservation field. In addition to numerous internships, he has held positions at Colonial Williamsburg, the Gettysburg National Battlefield Foundation, the Virginia Association of Museums, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the Fredericksburg Area Museum. Among his current responsibilities as historic preservation specialist with the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation, he organizes the county’s annual historic symposium, conducts tours and history programs, and provides research for Rippon Lodge Historic Site.
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Message From The Chairperson
Florence Barnick
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It’s summer and it’s hot. For many people this means a trip to the beach and enjoying themselves outdoors, but one thing it means for me is pickles. Most summers find me making at least one type of pickles. Other folks will find themselves canning vegetables and making jams and jellies. While the canning process still involves a steamy kitchen, we’re most often working in air conditioning. Take a moment to think about this process when the kitchen wasn’t otherwise cooled, and earlier when stoves involved actual fire. Yikes!
One of the recipes I use was my grandmother's, but I honestly don’t know how old it is or where she got it. (I know I copied it from my mother’s collection in the 1980s, so it goes at least that far back!). Cooks have exchanged recipes since who-knows-when, and many of the recipes in my collection have the names of other people, mostly women, attached. We have some cookbooks in the Heritage Center, and although they aren’t added to our collections for the recipes they contain, they hold hints to the relationships found in our community. It’s likely you have a community cookbook in your possession, maybe from a church group, women’s club or similar organization. Take a look back not at the recipes, but at the names. Oh, yes, you might also see a recipe you want to try!
At the Heritage Center, we don’t collect cookbooks for cookbooks’ sake. Those that we have contain other historic information such as information on historic homes attached to certain recipes. Other recipes might be contained in various personal collections. Looking back at these brings a level of respect for the work involved in cooking. Beating egg whites before electric mixers, or even before hand egg beaters with gears was a feat of strength and perseverance! An angel food cake was going to be a special treat. If you look into the history of gelatin, you can understand the rise in popularity of Jello dishes in the 20th century - all of a sudden these dishes were easy and quick! Food historians are a unique subset, but in some ways all cooks are carrying on these historic traditions.
Genevieve Bailey Rowe Hunter’s Bread & Butter Pickles
1 gallon medium-sized cucumbers
8 small white onions
1 green pepper
1 sweet red pepper
½ cup coarse medium salt
Cracked ice
5 cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
5 cups vinegar
Thinly slice cucumbers. Add sliced onions & peppers cut in narrow strips. Add salt; cover with cracked ice; mix thoroughly. Let stand 3 hours, drain. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over cucumber mixture. Bring to boiling point, seal in sterilized jars. Makes 8 pints.
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Mystery from the Stearns Collection | |
Who is Etta? Young Eugene Stearns Burcher poses for a picture at 720 William St. with a woman known only as Etta. We know Eugene was born in 1930 and his nickname was “Bookie,” but as for Etta, we don’t even know her last name. We’d like to know more about her, so please contact the Center at contact@crhcarchives.org, if you can help. | |
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Collections Report
John Reifenberg
| Unique piece of history turns up in Hearn Collection | In 2021, an interesting collection was donated to the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center, another installment from the Hearn family which has provided us with many genealogical records and scores of other important documents over the years. | |
In one of the collections was a maintenance logbook kept on the “U.S.S. Commander,” a ship built in North Carolina in 1917 as a sightseeing ship. The vessel was free-leased to the Navy on September 17th, 1917, a common practice to beef up the domestic naval resources during World War I.
The attached photographs from the U.S. Department of the Navy show the Commander as, first, a sightseeing ship, and then, outfitted as a military utility vessel.
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The Commander was given the designation SP 1247, with a stated purpose of assisting in the fitting out of submarine chasers and patrolling the area around the New York Navy Yard.
Research provided by Jay Hearn and Diane Ballman brought to light a slew of interesting facts and photographs related to the ship and its history.
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One of those records indicates that after the war, the commanding officer of the vessel, Philip Howard Reid, received the ship and assumed ownership.
The ship's maintenance log book now in the Center's collection contains a variety of information, including a listing of personnel assigned to the Commander. One was John Thomas Hearn, Sr., who is presumed to have been in possession of the book.
Hearn was born in 1890 in Port Royal, Va., and was a blacksmith and wheelwright before enlisting in the Navy in 1917. His occupational skills served him well as he was designated the Chief Mechanics Mate aboard the Commander.
After the war, Hearn resided in Fredericksburg, Va. and went into business for himself. He and his wife, Nellie Armstrong Hearn, had three children, Virginia Gordon Hearn Whiting, Charles Mason “Pete” Hearn, and Catherine Cole Hearn Metz. He died in 1939 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Most of the entries in the log book relate to the engines and performance of the ship, such as documenting oil consumption, engine speed, and breakdowns, with a smattering of comments on the weather. Other entries report the ship’s arrival at specific ports of call: Liverpool, England; Brest, France; Lisbon, Portugal.
But sprinkled among these entries are some fascinating tidbits. Recorded on June 6th, 1918, is the entry: “Laying to from 1:10 p.m. for burial at sea of two men picked up in a dinghy.” And this: “Paris, leave party returns aboard 1:30 P. M.” Or while in France, March 13, 1919, a crewman reported “President arrives at Brest 8:00 a.m.”
Reading the log provides actual documented evidence and focuses a much more powerful lens on the ship's activities than what we found while searching the web. A postcard depicting the Commander is also among the center's collections.
The Heritage Center is very grateful to the Hearn family who have over the years greatly increased the scope of The Center’s collections and aided in our stated purpose to preserve important records and provide the opportunity for research.
Recent Collections:
A scrapbook of the Fredericksburg Junior Doll Club,1988 to 1992.
Minutes from the Woman's Club of Fredericksburg dated June 2012 through May 2020, included are assorted additional records.
We are always grateful for donations of new collections, materials to bolster the archives, or supplies to aid in the archival process. Our wish lists below aren't currently linked but they can be accessed at the bottom of the Home tab on our website: www.crhcarchives.com.
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The Heritage Center's Collections
Virginia figures prominently in history books, but the founders of the Heritage Center believed that grassroots history was being lost - the stuff of basements and attics, old photo albums, tattered newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and boxes of letters and memorabilia.
In 1997 they founded the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center and began collecting all types of historical documents and photographs to archive and preserve the personal heritage of the City of Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford.
Among the Center’s varied collections now are family and business histories; court, county, and church records; documents on slavery and Jim Crow era legislation; family correspondence and diaries; genealogy; birth, marriage and death records; local newspapers; maps; photographs; and postcards. The variety covers the gamut and reflects the stories of people from every walk of life in the Rappahannock River region.
And we're always looking for more materials to add to our collections, many of which are searchable on our website. Please don't go to the landfill; entrust your memorabilia to us.
To donate, contact:
John Reifenberg
jreinfenberg@crhcarchives.org
540-373-3704
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Center Hours and Research Services
Hours
Wednesday 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Other days by appointment only.
Location
900 Barton Street #111
Fredericksburg, VA
22401
(540) 373-3704
Our volunteers will gladly offer research services.
For requests, appointments and rates:
contact@crhcarchives.org.
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Welcome New Members!
Judy Moore
Martin Schonteich
Lindsay Alukonis
Please go to online to join our membership to support
the preservation of our region's unique history.
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If you've enjoyed this newsletter and want to stay
up-to-date on Heritage Center activities,
please visit our website to sign up:
www.crhcarchives.org.
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MANY THANKS
TO OUR GENEROUS 2023 HERITAGE CENTER
SPONSORS & CORPORATE MEMBERS
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Deborah Baker
Jeanette and Nick Cadwallender
Barbara Hicks Cecil
Jim and Betsy Greene
Mary Katherine Greenlaw
Lucy Harman
The Hon. J.M.H. Willis
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Become a 2023 Sponsor and help save our history!
For information on becoming a sponsor, contact:
Thena Jones
tjones@crhcarchives.org
(540) 373-3704
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The Heritage Center is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization that relies on donations to fund its important mission of preserving the region’s history. Your generosity helps pay for archival preservation materials, operational and maintenance costs for the library and facility, and other related expenses.
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Central Rappahannock Heritage Center
Email: contact@crhcarchives.org
Call: 540.373.3704
www.crhcarchives.org
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