Waterford Foundation

history

Accidental Historians: Uncovering History in the Writings of Waterford Women

by

Personal letters and journals can yield a wealth of information about everyday life during significant periods of history, such as in Waterford during the Civil War. Discovering a trove of correspondence is a boon for historians, as described in the About This Book section of To Talk Is Treason: Quakers of Waterford, Virginia on Live, Love, Death & War in the Southern Confederacy:

This account of Waterford’s Quakers during the Civil War came together unexpectedly in the summer of 1996. While several long-time residents of the village had been familiar with the outlines of the story, many of the details were unknown–and the village had lost touch with descendants of those who had lived through the conflict. 

One of those descendants, Miss Phebe Haviland Steer, has miraculously provided the key to unlocking that past. From her home in California, she enquired if anyone in Waterford would be interested in a box of old letters and journals that had belonged to her grandmother, Mary Frances Dutton Steer. They had just been rescued from being discarded by a well-meaning friend.

Miss Steer, three years earlier, had generously given the Waterford Foundation an extraordinary patchwork quilt pieced–in the manner Mollie Dutton herself has described–from the silk wedding dress her great-grandmother Emma Schooley Dutton had worn in 1838. The cover of this book reproduces two colors of that quilt. 

Waterford is forever in debt of these women. For it turned out that Mollie had preserved a rich record of the past, keeping not only her own wartime letters, but also meticulously copying a large volume of correspondence and other writings of family and friends from the early 19th century to the end of her life. Among those treasures is Rebecca Williams’ poignant diary of the war years.

These writings in turn provided clues to other sources. Dutton descendants in New Jersey generously shared period photographs of Lizzie and Lida and Mollie, as well as additional details of their times. A library in Michigan furnished a list in Lida’s hand of Union soldiers who had passed through Waterford. There is every reason to expect that more information will be discovered; it is our hope that this first telling of the stories will spur the search…

In the end what makes this narrative compelling are Waterford’s remarkable Quakers themselves. When disaster struck those peaceful, capable people met the challenge without flinch or compromise. We are grateful that their care in recording their history has given us a chance to know them and their times. May we do as well to preserve what they have left us.

John E. Divine, Bronwen C. Souders, John M. Souders, September 1996

To Talk Is Treason: Quakers of Waterford, Virginia on Life, Love, Death and War in the Southern Confederacy, 1996, WAterford Foundation

The Waterford Foundation maintains an institutional Archives as well as a Local History Collection. If you may be interested in donating documents, photos or artifacts from Waterford’s past, please reach out to our staff for further information via phone (540-882-3018, x2) or email.

John Dutton’s January 1864 Visitor

by

Excerpt from Reb and Yank, A Civil War History of Northern Loudoun County, Virginia by Taylor M. Chamberlin and John M. Souders

Chapter 26: Blockaded; January-February 1864

The New Year found Capt. Albert M. Hunter of Cole’s Cavalry stranded deep in “Mosby’s Confederacy.” Two days earlier, with orders to scout to Rectortown in Fauquier County, he had led sixty men out of his battalion’s winter camp on Loudoun Heights, opposite Harpers Ferry. They started on the road to Hillsboro in late afternoon but, aware that Rebels maintained lookouts atop outcrops on the Short Hill and Blue Ridge, Hunter disguised his plans by cutting back across country after dark to seek shelter among Lovettsville’s Unionists. 

Leaving the German Settlement on the last day of December, the Marylanders pushed on through sleet and snow to a farm two miles outside Upperville, where they spent their second night. A brief skirmish the following morning confirmed that the enemy knew of their presence, but Hunter felt compelled by his orders to proceed into Fauquier. Riders shadowed his movements along the way and, after sending an advance party to briefly reconnoiter Rectortown, the apprehensive captain ordered his men to return directly to Harpers Ferry.

His concern was warranted. Although Mosby was out on a scout, a subordinate, Capt. William R. Smith (Co. B, 43rd Va. Cav.), sounded the alarm for the partisans to assemble. Their number surpassed 35 by the time they reached Rectortown, but the Yankees had already left. Galloping off in pursuit, the Rebels caught up with their quarry at a crossroads four miles to the north. A running fight ensued that continued almost to Middleburg, where Hunter’s troopers broke ranks and began to flee in confusion. At this point the captain was thrown from his saddle and taken prisoner. Left unattended while his captors went to retrieve his horse and equipment, he concealed himself in the underbrush and escaped detection on their return.1 

The captain emerged from hiding that afternoon and set off on foot toward the Union lines along the Potomac, thirty miles away. His first obstacle, Goose Creek, was so swollen with slush and ice that he could not wade across. Skirting its banks, Hunter stopped at a small log cabin after dark, where he obtained food and an old hat to ward off the bitter cold. But no amount of persuasion, or offers of payment, would induce the fearful tenant farmer to guide him to safety. “I dare not do it, my boss would know before sundown tomorrow and I would have to go into the army.”

Armed with directions from his reluctant host, Hunter pressed on alone to Pot House, a crossroads north of Middleburg, where he spotted a horse tied to a gatepost. Concluding it safer to “play infantry” than ride, he passed by – a fortunate decision he later learned, as the steed belonged to Mosby himself. As the night wore on, Hunter lost his way and again risked seeking help rather than freeze to death. This time, he walked up a lane to a substantial house that signified a well-to-do farmer. Things got off to an inauspicious start when the door was opened by “an old negro woman,” who answered “No sah,” when asked whether her master was  Union man. Still there appeared to be no choice but to identify himself when the owner appeared and explain his predicament. Like the man in the cabin, his new host knew about the fight earlier in the day and informed Hunter that not more than half of his men had managed to escape, “which was the truth, as [the captain] afterward learned.” The secessionist farmer agreed to provide directions to the Goose Creek Meeting House, but only if the officer would sign an order enabling him to purchase supplies at Point of Rocks. An agreement was reached, and Hunter filled out the necessary authorization, while his host outlined the best way to reach the Quaker community.

Sunnyside, home of John B. Dutton and family, pictured in 1937.

The weary Yank finally staggered into Goose Creek at sun-up, seeking refuge in the first house he came to. Although put off by his scruffy appearance, a Quaker woman allowed him to enter and take some breakfast. The captain then fell into a deep sleep until roused in the afternoon by a man named Steer, who offered to drive him to Waterford. To hide his uniform, Hunter was given gum overshoes and an old gray overcoat, which along with his battered hat, gave the appearance of a common laborer catching a ride. At Hunter’s suggestion, Steer drove him to John Dutton’s home in Waterford. The exiled shopkeeper had returned to spend the New Year with his family and was well acquainted with the captain. Once, the two had tried to skate on the canal from the Point to Georgetown, only to be forced back by rough ice. Even so, Dutton did not recognize the strange-looking man in the carriage until Steer identified him. Seeing an opportunity to play a joke on his family, he invited the two in, but told Steer to introduce his companion, still in disguise, merely as a “friend.” The visitors were in the parlor conversing with the family for a half hour before the youngest daughter (11-year-old Annie) finally recognized their guest. After supper and a night’s rest at the Duttons’, Hunter resumed his disguise and was driven to the Point by Steer. Not wanting to offend his benefactor by offering money, the captain presented him with his spurs and left a fine pocket knife in the carriage. His arrival by train at Harpers Ferry caused quite a stir, as he had been reported wounded in the fight at Middleburg.2

  1. Albert M. Hunter, “Account of the War Between the States,” part II; Mewborn, In Mosby’s Command, 14-7; Maj. Mosby’s report 4Jan64, OR, 33:9; and Keen and Mewborn, 43rd Battalion, 98-9. Hunter mistakenly placed the initial skirmish at Middleburg. He also recalled losing half of his 60 men, whereas Mosby estimated Hunter’s force at 78, of whom 58 were casualties, a figure Mewborn reduces to 39. ↩︎
  2. The driver was probably William B. Steer, 69, an abolitionist elder of Fairfax Meeting and husband of Quaker minister Louisa Steer. Hunter was fortunate to reach safety; three of his men were captured near Waterford on 2 January, while making their way back to Maryland (Williamson, Mosby’s Rangers, 118-9). ↩︎

Read more from Captain Hunter at the Emmitsburg Area Historical Society website.

Holiday Recollections in Early 20th Century Waterford

by

In the early 1900s, Christmas was an occasion when Waterford residents of different congregations came together to celebrate. According to recollections by late Waterford resident John Divine (1911-1996) in When Waterford and I Were Young:

“All three churches [The Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, still standing on High Street in Waterford] shared in a Wednesday evening prayer meeting and all three had Sunday School picnics. The reward for going to Sunday School was two-fold: the picnic, when ice cream flowed abundantly, and the Christmas program, when we got an orange and a small box of chocolate drops.

The Christmas program also gave all of us amateur actors a chance to perform. Any similarity between our Three Wise Men and the real Magi was purely coincidental. Only the parents enjoyed that group of squirmy little boys singing Away In A Manger off key.” 

Many holiday recollections center around special foods and feasts among family and friends. Divine remembers the special foods that came to Waterford during the holidays in the early 1900s, sold out of the meat shop operated by E. L. James and later his son Minor out of the Old Insurance office on Second Street:

“At Thanksgiving and Christmas, the meat shop handled oysters. The only time I ever ate oysters was at those two dates: at $6.00 per gallon, they were a real delicacy. Orders were placed about ten days in advance and they were received a day or two before the holiday. The gallon cans, packed in ice, were shipped up on the railroad to Paeonian Springs. Later, when Minor James got a Model T truck, he would drive to the wharf in Washington, D.C. to get them.”

When Waterford and I Were Young is available for purchase online or in person at our offices in the Old School.

A War of Conscience: Quakers in the Civil War

by

Written by Robert Dabney Trussell. This article first appeared in the 50th Annual Waterford Homes Tour and Crafts Exhibit Booklet, October 1-3, 1993.

The American Civil War–it has been described variously as the war between the states; the conflict that pitted brother against brother; the battle for freedom or slavery.

It was a war of extreme points of view where the middle ground of rationality was razor thin or lost in the bloodletting. It was a war of opposing armies marching, foraging, camping and fighting over the rolling fields and idyllic towns of a new republic. The war involved every community in some way and likewise touched every citizen in the nation.

While most Americans both North and South marched to the cadences of their causes, Quakers in both regions struggled to heed their consciences. For the most part, members of the Society of Friends believed that both governments were wrong to use violence to settle their differences. Quakers opposed slavery as the vilest form of human degradation, superseded only by the act of killing.

Friends generally stood against a war that most Americans, religious denominations and political organizations of the time regarded as a righteous war. How could Quakers take such a stand?

The simplest reason stemmed from a primary precept of the Quaker faith that the light of God burns within every man, woman and child. Therefore, the sacredness of life was not to be violated in any manner. This moral stance had a secular human rights component that faulted both the Union and the Confederate governments. Friends found the federal government’s brutal policy toward Native Americans to be as inhuman as the South’s institution of slavery. Also, Quakers openly decried the North’s abolitionist propaganda while its manufacturers profited greatly from raw goods derived from slave labor.

At the same time, the Civil War altered the traditional isolationism of the Friends and thrust many Quakers into the turmoil of the time.

Even before the war, some Quakers risked their lives as participants of the “Underground Railroad” which provided a route to freedom for thousands of slaves. Quakers, even in the South, attacked slavery through newspaper articles, tracts, and nationally published Quaker journals. When hostilities did break out in 1861, numerous Quakers struggled greatly with their consciences, left their meetings for worship and took up arms against the Confederacy.

Quakers in the South and thereby in Loudoun County, found themselves at particular risk. This population of Friends was sizable, influential and prosperous. Following the land migrations of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Quakers settled throughout Virginia. More than 60 meeting houses were built in the Commonwealth and several Quaker communities were well established in Loudoun County. The town of Waterford became a major center for Quaker education and commerce, as well as the location of the Fairfax meeting.

This whole community of Friends was threatened by the war. Whereas Quaker pacifism was protected in the North (Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandfather was a Pennsylvania Quaker), being a Quaker in the wartime South was a liability.

Quaker men who refused to enlist or answer the draft were frequently imprisoned and ridiculed. One Waterford Quaker objector was even abducted from his home, forced to march with an infantry unit and cruelly placed without defense in the front line of an attack during a battle. Somehow he survived that ordeal only to die from disease in a Confederate prison. The Fairfax Friends’ opposition to slavery left them vulnerable to discrimination or at least shunned by fellow Southerners. Rebel armies would target Quaker farms in the area for food and shelter. Farmers and merchants suffered great loss of property and business. Also the war cut off Quakers from their friends and relatives in the North.

Through it all, Friends in Loudoun County kept their faith and traditions alive and struggled to follow Christ’s words “to do unto others”. A poignant example of this belief is found in a letter written in 1863 by Susan Walker, a Waterford Quaker. 

Susan Walker described an event that occurred early in the war. On Sunday, Friends of the Fairfax meeting arrived for worship to discover a company of Confederate regulars billeted in the stone meeting house. Both the house and the yard were strewn with stacks of rifles, flags and campaign gear. Soldiers relaxed on the meeting house benches and slept up in the gallery. As the Quakers entered, some soldiers rose to meet them with jokes about their plain attire and taunts about their anti-slavery beliefs. 

Interior of Fairfax Meeting House

But the Quakers were resolved to worship that day; a quick compromise was reached with the commanding officer. A portion of the meeting room was partitioned off with tenting allowing the Quakers a place to quietly wait upon God. The Quakers then invited the soldiers to worship with them. Curious about “how Quakers prayed”, several of the company joined them. During the silence, an elderly woman, moved by God’s presence, stood and spoke to the odd assembly. In a strong voice she prayed “God bless all here and that the wings of peace might return to our prosperous country and peace be with the strangers in our midst”.

With this the woman sat. So moved by her words, the soldiers wept openly: “…great tears coursed each other down their sun-burned cheeks”, wrote Susan Walker. 

The year was 1861. Four long and bloody years of the Civil War still remained before peace finally returned to the Quakers of Waterford and the Nation.

Contributor: Robert Dabney Trussell who attends Goose Creek meeting in Loudoun County. Mr. Trussell lives in Rosemont, Maryland and works for the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.

Skirmish at Walker’s Hill – August 7, 1863

by

The most significant Civil War action to take place in the Waterford vicinity occurred in early August 1863 when Eliiah White’s 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry encountered a large scouting party from Harpers Ferry commanded by Capt. Harvey H. Vinton at Walker’s Hill at the southwest corner of the Town of Waterford. The following is an excerpt about the skirmish and its aftermath from Between Reb and Yank: A Civil War History of Northern Loudoun County, Virginia by Taylor M. Chamberlin and John M. Souders:

Brig. Gen. Henry H. Lockwood’s earlier request for cavalry to contend with partisans in Loudoun County remained unfilled, but the Harpers Ferry commander still had 400 horse soldiers at his disposal: specifically, detachments from Purnell’s Legion, the 1st Connecticut and the 6th Michigan. Accordingly, on 6 August he ordered Col. George Wells to send out a hundred-man cavalry detachment from the 1st Brigade with instructions to pass through Hillsboro and Waterford as far as Leesburg. The objective was to “ascertain the force and whereabouts of…. Rebel guerrillas who are reported to be ranging Loudoun County and committing depredations on the persons and property of the Union citizens thereof.” The next day thirty riders from the 1st Connecticut and seventy from the 6th Michigan crossed the Shenandoah into Loudoun with three days’ rations for an extended scout in pursuit of White’s “guerrilla band.” The column, led by Capt Hervy H. Vinton of the Sixth’s Co. M, proceeded up the Between the Hills valley as far as Hillsboro, turned east through the gap in the Short Hill and arrived at Waterford in the late afternoon.

That same morning (7th) their intended quarry, Colonel White and about 120 men of the 35th Battalion, rode into Wood Grove, where they learned that Vinton’s column was in Hillsboro, three miles distant. Cautiously approaching that town, the Rebels found the Yankees had already departed for Waterford. White followed the bluecoats east, halting his command halfway between Wheatland and Waterford near the farm of Armistead Vandevanter. He assumed the Federals would return to Harpers Ferry via the same route later in the day and laid an ambush. Just before dark, however, word arrived that Vinton planned to spend the night at Waterford. At this point White edged his men closer to their target, cutting across Sanford Ramey’s farm (Rosemont) to the south branch of Catoctin Creek, then moving downstream toward the town, using trees along its banks as cover.

The Northern squadron had been in Waterford about two hours when Vinton learned that White and “his band” were only a half mile away, observing their movements. With darkness fast approaching, the Michigan captain moved his 100 riders to a more defensible “high hill” on James Walker’s farm, one that overlooked the town from the southwest. The Federals posted pickets on all roads and paths into town, and about 9 p.m. set out additional “camp guards” around the encampment at a distance of 10-15 rods. A Connecticut trooper recalled the memorable evening.

All remained quiet until near 11 o’clock, when the enemy was discovered marching out of the woods into an open field, evading our outer pickets, but was discovered by one of the camp guards, who, according to instructions, fired his pistol and reported to the commanding officer that the enemy was approaching. The men were immediately aroused from their slumbers, mounted their horses, and, according to orders from Capt. Vinton, fell in line back towards the advancing column, the Michigan cavalry being on the right and the Connecticut on the left.

The rebels came slowly and steadily up the hill until our boys could hear the officers saying to them stead men, keep your dress, etc. They, however, did not make a good calculation, for in charging their left came in contact with our left, therefore the Michigan cavalry did not receive a shot.

Receiving no orders from the commanding officer, Sergeant Gore gave the order, “Form left around wheel,” but before our boys were in line, the rebels gave a volley, wounding several horses. This made them very fractious, and uncontrollable, three of which charged through the rebel line. Our boys then gave them a splendid volley, which checked them. At this point if the officers had brought the Michigan men around and charged them on their left flank, it would have totally routed and put them to flight. But no! All this time the officers and men were looking the other way for them, but finding they were attached in the rear broke and ran, disgracefully leaving only thirty men to contend against 300 strong.

The rebels then rallied and our boys were compelled to fall back, leaving in their hands ten men, who fought most gallantly. If the Michigan boys had shown half the courage that Frank Leslie’s artist gives them credit for at Falling Waters, we are satisfied the result would have been very different.

Captain Frank M. Myers, White’s 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry

Frank Myers’s account of the fight on Walker’s Hill provides a different perspective. After ascertaining the location of the enemy’s hilltop camp just before dark, White had his men tie their horses along the creek and follow him. With the goal of taking as many horses and prisoners as possible, he told the dismounted soldiers to observe strict silence until they reached the edge of the camp. The field below the hill was filled with haycocks, which made it difficult for the Rebel colonel to keep his men in line. Then, still 200 yards from their objective, White stumbled over one of the obstacles and accidentally discharged his revolver. This caused further confusion, some thinking it was the signal to open fire, others believing they were under attack. By this time the Yanks had mounted and fired one volley at the shapes approaching in the dark, before departing “with all haste.” The Southerners returned fire, felling three or four of the enemy. But most of the Federals made good their escape, with all but a few of their horses.

The engagement proved costly to the 35th Virginia. Pvt. John C. Grubb was killed in the initial firefight, and his cousin, Capt. Richard B. Grubb of Company C, was mortally wounded nearby in a confrontation with Yankee pickets on the road to Hamilton. Myers considered the loss “irreparable,” calling Captain Gurbb “one of the best, if not the very best officer” in the battalion. He termed the “affair” at Waterford “fruitful only in disaster.”

Rebecca Williams was spending the night with the Walkers when the fight broke out at the western edge of the farm. “I had not slept any when about 11 o’clock, I heard musketry very sharp firing for 4 or 5 minutes. White & his gang attacked the Federals, they fell back in order, retired down street, again formed in line of battle on A[masa] Hough’s hill [at the north end of town], but they were not pursued….” In fact, White’s dismounted troopers were in no position to pursue their foe even if they had wanted to. Rebecca later learned that each side had suffered two killed, but thought there might have been additional Confederate losses. The “two Grub[b]’s were taken to E. Walker, & from there their freiends conveyed their lifeless bodies home near Hillsborough. The two Federals were brought to the brick [Baptist] church, coffins made & were decently interred. Another badly wounded was brought to Kitty Leggett’s where he is being kindly cared for & is likely to recover.”

At dawn the following morning, as Lida Dutton was returning from an inspection of the skirmish site, she encountered Michigan cavalryman Ulrick Crocker crossing the street at the south end of town. The girl had seen Rebels about on her way out to Walker’s Hill, so she led the soldier back to her parents’ house via an alley to prevent his discovery. On their way, Crocker told how he had lain all night in a cornfield beside his dying companion, Dallas Dexter, whose body Lida had already encountered lying along the road. Crocker had spiked the dead man’s gun and told her that she could keep it as a souvenir, if she could find it. (Lida retrieved the gun and years later presented it to her daughter.) Another soldier, Edward M. Woodward of the 1st Connecticut, also found refuge in the village, and the two Union soldiers were subsequently spirited to safety at Point of Rocks.

In the aftermath of the fighting, one Waterford civilian managed to aid the Union cause while trying to turn a profit. William Densmore, a native of Maine, was a carpenter by trade, but with work scarce in wartime, he sometimes made ends meet by carrying mail between Waterford and Point of Rocks. Like many other residents, he went out to survey the scene of the fighting the night before. His return route took him down by the creek where he found three Rebel horses still tied to the trees. Densmore hired three local black men, Thomas Robinson, French Clapham and George Lewis, to ride the mounts to the Point and turn them over to Captain Means. They had not gone far when they discovered White’s soldiers in hot pursuit “By hard riding and dodging” the trio made good its escape and delivered the horses.

The skirmish on Walker’s Hill was Waterford’s largest engagement of the way. Yet the only account to appear in the Official Records was written at Point of Rocks the following morning by Captain Means, who played no part in it. Captain Vinton had just ridden in to report being attacked by a “large force of rebels,” and that 50 of his men were still missing. (Most would eventually find their way across the Potomac.) For reasons of his own, Means forwarded the information to Washington rather than Harpers Ferry, where Vinton’s expedition had originated. As he had in several earlier messages, the Ranger captain direly warned of Confederate forces massing in Loudoun in preparation for a raid into Maryland. “Send me the force, and I will clean them out. Strangers cannot find them.” Means may have been secretly pleased that Lockwood’s first significant venture into Loudoun had failed, particularly since the general had not seen fit to ask his Rangers to guide the expedition.

Read more about this and other Civil War action in Loudoun County in Between Reb and Yank: A Civil War History of Northern Loudoun County, Virginia by Taylor M. Chamberlin and John M. Souders available online here.

The History of Waterford’s John Wesley Church

by

By Elise Bortey

It’s difficult to say when African Americans first came to Waterford, but we do know that in 1758, there was at least one enslaved person in the area. By the end of the eighteenth century, a few free African Americans had established residency. Because Waterford was largely a Quaker community and Quakers did not believe in slavery, it is believed that freed African Americans were drawn here. However, this didn’t mean non-Quakers in the area held the same sentiments towards slavery. While in 1810 there were 24 freed persons that resided in Waterford, there were also 11 Black enslaved people.

When Africans were brought to America, they continued to follow their beliefs and traditions as much as possible. White Christian slave owners tried to suppress their cultural beliefs and forced them to attend Christian church services. The teachings were a way for slave owners to gain more control over their enslaved, introduced under the guise of religion. They interpreted the Bible in ways that justified slavery. Throughout much of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, Christianity began to take hold and replace much of the African religious belief system. African Americans embraced Evangelicalism and started forming their own churches. This enabled them to have more power over their own beliefs and interpretations of religious texts.

The primary Evangelical branches African Americans embraced were Methodist and Baptist churches. In 1867, the African American community of Waterford established the John Wesley Church, a Methodist church, in the building now known as the Second Street School. It was named after an Anglican clergyman, who was the founder of Methodism. When the congregation outgrew the small schoolhouse, they sought property to build a larger church. With the help of the white Methodist churches in the area, the John Wesley congregation was able to raise enough money to buy the Hough property on Bond Street, approximately a half a mile north of the Second Street School and near the Waterford Mill. There, they built their own church. They began building in 1889 and finished sometime towards the end of 1891.

As of 1910, the church had a thriving, active membership consisting of 25 Black households residing in town. It was used both as a place of worship and as a central location for social gatherings. The church had an active charitable congregation that would regularly sponsor fundraisers, community picnics, and special events for children to enjoy.

John Wesley Methodist-Episcopal Church congregation, circa 1910

The Waterford Foundation commissioned a Historic Structure Report in 2018 to document the history of the church structure. By observing the existing structure and comparing historic photographs, it was determined that the congregation made a few changes to the church to ensure it was well maintained and with minor modifications to better suit their needs. They added shutters, moved the front door, and painted both the building and the glass to help give the effect of stained glass windows.

Original front door location, converted to window. Note the break in the molding.
Glass painted to look like stained glass in the belfy lancet windows.

Unfortunately, as the Great Depression hit, people began to struggle. With few jobs available and people needing to find work, many folks left Waterford. By 1940 there were only about 75 African Americans living in the area. During this period, the church’s population shrank and was primarily made up of the older generation. As the membership continued to decline, so did the funds. With the needed repairs continuing to grow, the church members had a difficult time maintaining the church. By 1967, the North Carolina-Virginia Conference of the Methodist Church declared the John Wesley Church of Waterford abandoned and sold the site to the Waterford Foundation that following year for $500.

After the church was sold, the descendants of the congregation and the few surviving church members that were left were able to become stewards of the property and continue to use the church to worship. Four months after the Waterford Foundation purchased the property, they transferred ownership to the stewardship committee for $10. The church became known as the John Wesley Community Church of Waterford and was overseen by a Board of Trustees. During this time, the church was used for religious meetings, homecoming celebrations to welcome back past church members that moved away, and an annual fundraising supper. In 1999, before the final member of the board of trustees passed away, he decided to sell the deed for the church to the Waterford Foundation so it could be preserved past his death. The terms of the purchase were that if the descendants were able to form an organization that could maintain the property and be up to the easement holder’s standards, they could buy back the property. In the meantime, the Waterford Foundation would maintain the property. In 2000, the Foundation donated an interior and exterior preservation easement to the Virginia Board of Historic Resources to prevent any inappropriate changes that would alter the historical integrity of the church. 

Since the Waterford Foundation acquired the property, they have renovated and restored the church. In 2001, they repaired the steeple and belfry’s framing and replaced and fixed the building’s roof. In 2002, the stone foundation was repointed, window panes and sills were repaired and replaced, steps and a landing were built, and French drains were installed to prevent further water damage. In 2018, the flight of stairs from the sanctuary to the basement was rebuilt, and a kitchenette, bathrooms, and mechanical room were installed. The newly built bathrooms introduced running water to the church for the first time. All repairs were made with the utmost care to ensure that they matched the original features of the church.

Kitchenette and bathrooms, installed in 2018.
Rebuilt interior staircase

The Foundation is currently applying for grant funding to continue the restoration of the sanctuary. They have also been in touch with some of the congregation’s descendants who may be interested in forming a new organization to reclaim the church. The Waterford Foundation looks forward to a day when they will be able to return ownership of the church to the descendants of the original congregation.

Sources:

  • Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “John Wesley”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 May. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley. Accessed 23 May 2023.
  • Coffield, Brian, et al. John Wesley Methodist-Episcopal Church Historic Structure Report, Smithgroup, prepared for the Waterford Foundation, 2019

A General History of Waterford, VA

by

General History of Waterford, VA

By Debbie Robison

Waterford is a special place. Much of the historic village reflects the various time periods in which it was built, from a mill race dug in the 18th-century colonial period, to log homes, craftsman shops, and dry goods stores constructed at the start of a new nation, to new businesses begun in the Victorian era, and onward to buildings restored in the 20th-century colonial-revival period. In Waterford, it feels like history.

The story of Waterford can be told hand-in-hand with the story of America. The impact of religious revivals, manufacturing innovations, slavery, economic depressions, and laws that governed free Black people all touched this village. The individual histories of each home, shop, barn, and outbuilding, as well as the people who lived here, are all part of a larger story. And that is, in part, what makes Waterford so special.

Waterford Mill, early 20th Century

The village was founded ca. 1784 by Joseph Janney, a Quaker businessman formerly from Pennsylvania, who offered lots for sale and lease near a water-powered grist mill and sawmill.[i] The land where the village was built was originally settled by Quakers, members of the Society of Friends, when John Mead purchased 703 acres in 1733.[ii] This was during the time of the Great Awakening, a religious revival in the 1730s and 1740s that led to an increase in religious conviction. Other Quakers soon followed Mead and settled in the area where they found religious tolerance as well as fertile, well-watered soil. They farmed tobacco, raised families, and established a Quaker meeting.[iii] During colonial rule, tobacco was shipped to Great Britain, who regulated and restricted trade. Once the flour trade opened to the British West Indies, grist mills were established along streams throughout the area, including the mill built by Mahlon Janney on Kittocton (now Catoctin) Creek ca. 1762.[iv]

The village began with a dry goods store, saddlery, cabinet shop, tannery, and blacksmith shop.[v] The store did not prosper since farmers and millers, who were store patrons, struggled to find international buyers for their goods after the Revolutionary War. This was because, at the start of the new nation, America was only a confederation of states without a federal constitution to provide collective bargaining power for international trade agreements. Despite this hurdle, the other businesses succeeded, with young apprentices providing much of the labor while learning valuable skills.[vi] In time, former apprentices and employees of these first manufacturing enterprises started their own businesses and purchased lots, along with others, in the expanding village.[vii]

The American Revolution heightened the ideals of religious liberty and freedom, which sparked the Virginia General Assembly to enact a law in 1782 allowing any person to emancipate his slaves.[viii] During this Second Great Awakening, a number of local Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists freed their slaves, joining the Quakers who had disavowed slavery prior to the war.[ix] Free Black people settled in the area, possibly attracted by job opportunities and a willingness of the Quaker population to assist them, establish store accounts, and sell them lots.[x] Some of the non-Quaker proprietors, particularly the tavern keepers, had enslaved Black people work in their establishments.[xi]

Pre-Civil War education in Waterford varied depending on if you were a White person, free Black person, or an enslaved person. Early on, some free Black children learned to read and write as part of their apprentice agreement.[xii] In 1819, Virginia outlawed allowing enslaved people to meet at schools to learn to read and write, and then made educating free Black people illegal in 1831 in response to increased abolitionism in the north.[xiii] The Quakers in town were devoted to education and had built a schoolhouse in 1805 on the meeting house grounds.[xiv] In 1818, Virginia created a literary fund to pay for the education of poor students.[xv] The fund helped pay for teachers in Waterford as early as 1818 when William Adams of Waterford was teaching.[xvi] In 1822, three Waterford residents were paid for teaching: Jacob Mendenhall, who operated an academy in Waterford, Robert Braden, Jr., and Ann Ball.[xvii]

1800 Petition for Town Signatures

In 1801, the village officially became a town with the ability to lay off land into lots and streets. [xviii] This enabled the town to expand beyond the existing Main Street up, what in the early days was called, Federal Hill.[xix] The town continued to grow and fill with tradesmen, tavern keepers, and craftsmen who made furniture, hats, shoes, saddles, and clothing. The building trade was so busy that a second water-powered sawmill was built off Balls Run to churn out even more lumber for the housing boom.[xx] Most of the new houses were constructed of brick, likely made at the brick manufactory that was established in a meadow by the mill race.[xxi]

The pace of building slowed to a crawl after Thomas Jefferson enacted the Embargo of 1807 that prevented merchant ships from trading in foreign ports. This resulted in an economic depression and the financial ruin of the Waterford grist mill, which relied on foreign trade.[xxii] Building in town resurged once the embargo was lifted in 1809.[xxiii]

Spurred by new innovations in America’s first Industrial Revolution, a woolen factory was established at the south end of town.[xxiv] This corner of Waterford would come to be a manufacturing hub where blacksmiths, carriage makers, wheelwrights, and machinists worked at their anvils. Down the street, the nearby sawmill operation added machinery for a plaster mill and clover mill to foster increased local agricultural yields.[xxv]

After the War of 1812, the town greatly expanded around new streets and alleys laid out in a grid pattern during America’s 1815-1819 economic speculative boom. To support the growth, a bank was established briefly in Waterford before the state required it to close.[xxvi]  Brick dwellings were constructed in the “New Addition,” the grist mill was replaced with a larger three-story brick mill, and a commodious three-story brick house with a lower-level store was built in the center of town – – right before everything came to a halt with the 1819 banking panic and years-long depression. The proprietors of the Waterford Mill and the large stone tavern were forced to sell their businesses to meet their financial obligations.[xxvii] The long economic recovery, recession, and depression that followed stalled most growth in the town, though industrial manufacturing of agricultural implements continued to evolve.[xxviii]

A period of American business expansion from 1844-1856 included the establishment of a fire insurance company and construction of a few more houses and the Baptist Church edifice in Waterford.[xxix] A fraternal benevolent association, Evergreen Lodge No 51 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was organized in 1847. They purchased a three-story brick house on Main Street where they held meetings and transacted business.[xxx]

But soon the Civil War commenced. Men from Waterford and other strongly Unionist areas of north Loudoun formed the Independent Loudoun Virginia Rangers, a federal cavalry company under the leadership of local miller Samuel C. Means.[xxxi] At least one free Black man from Waterford joined the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, while a few more served in other Union units, sometimes informally.  A handful of White residents voted for secession, though, and several fought for the Confederacy.[xxxii] The town was beset by raids, including a bloody skirmish at the Baptist Church, and intermittent occupation by Confederate troops.[xxxiii] Post-war reconstruction benefited the Black population when they constructed a school for their children, aided by the federal Freedman’s Bureau and a Philadelphia Quaker society.[xxxiv]

Little growth followed until, bit-by-bit, Waterford started to shake off its stagnant economy.  In 1867, passenger railroad service from Alexandria arrived at nearby Clarke’s Gap station, and two years later, a daily stage line ran between Waterford and the depot.[xxxv] This benefited Waterford homeowners who earned additional funds by boarding urban-area residents in the summer months.[xxxvi]  In 1875, the town of Waterford was reincorporated and a map of the town was created that advertised businesses, including a number of women-owned establishments.[xxxvii] The new charter allowed the town to collect a town tax, make public improvements, and have use of the county jail.[xxxviii]

By the time industries fueled America’s business expansion from 1879-1893, Waterford carpenters were already quite busy. New types of specialty stores, such as grocery stores, drug stores, and tin shops opened; several in new buildings. And several Victorian-style homes were constructed on available town lots to house the shopkeepers and clerks.[xxxix]

This period of growth coincided with the Third Great Awakening. Increases in church attendance resulted in the return of a Presbyterian congregation to Waterford and construction of a Methodist church edifice for White congregants on the hill and for Black congregants near the mill.[xl] The temperance movement, which sought to limit and then ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages, found new life in Waterford. Advocates met in the Temperance Hall above the Chair Factory.[xli] Other community activities at the time included attendance at literary society meetings held in local homes.[xlii]

FJ Beans operated his store in the Waterford Market

Waterford saw remarkable changes during the Second Industrial Revolution. In 1884 you could place a telephone call at Dr. Connell’s store in Waterford to Clarke’s Gap after lines were run between the two places.[xliii] Or you could receive electric therapy treatment from Dr. Connell with the use of his Electric Battery apparatus.[xliv] Mr. J. F. Dodd improved the Waterford Mill by putting in machinery for making roller process flour.[xlv] And in 1914, E. H. Beans, Waterford’s enterprising liveryman, acquired an automobile.[xlvi] The type of employment available in Waterford also changed. By 1910, there were no longer any Waterford craftsmen making chairs, furniture, saddles, or shoes, which by then were made in urban factories. However, there was a stenographer, electrician, and a “phone girl” working in the Central office.[xlvii]

The Industrial Revolution led to an increase in the pace of urbanization. The population of cities swelled as employment opportunities in factories and department stores rapidly grew. Farmers began converting fields into dairy farms to supply milk to local creameries that made butter for the burgeoning Washington, D. C. market. Kingsley Creamery built a creamery on the Waterford town lot in 1885, but its’ duration was short lived.[xlviii] Local creameries were made obsolete by new inventions that allowed city factories to obtain cream directly from farmers.[xlix] Local water-powered grist mills were also declining. Engineering advances in mill technology enabled large flour factories to be built on more substantial and reliable waterways.[l]

In consequence of urbanization and changes in manufacturing, both White and Black residents of Waterford moved to cities, notably Washington D.C.[li] When they left, many of the older structures on Main Street were purchased by Black families, greatly increasing home ownership for Waterford’s Black residents.[lii]

During the Great Depression, buildings were purchased by wealthy preservationists who wanted to revive Waterford into a “Little Williamsburg.”[liii] Colonial-revival fever struck Waterford. Buildings were stabilized, altered, and “restored” with hand-hewn beams and colonial-style door hardware. The Waterford Foundation, an early preservation organization, was formed in 1943 to encourage interest in restoring the town to an earlier period.[liv] Fundraising fairs featured early crafts made by local artisans and home tours. The village and tour buildings were provided with histories, often with dates erring on the side of the colonial period, never mind that Waterford was founded after the American Revolutionary War.[lv]

In time, White families began moving to Waterford in search of post-World War II housing, while the Black population dwindled as the younger generation sought opportunities elsewhere.[lvi]

The national historic preservation movement took hold after the enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 that established funding and guidelines for preservation programs.[lvii] Waterford was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. A number of Waterford’s historic structures were placed under easements with the state in the 1970s to ensure appropriate preservation treatment.[lviii]

The Waterford Foundation continues its work to preserve historic properties owned by the Foundation and to further the understanding of the history of the village in support of its education mission.

[i] Thomas Hague to Joseph Janney, Loudoun County Deed Book O:9, Lease and Release, May 1, 1781; also U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Pennsylvania, Montgomery, Abington Monthly Meeting, Men’s Minutes, 1756-1765, as viewed at ancestry.com, also Deed from Joseph Janney to Richard Richardson, Loudoun County Deed Book P:338, June 12, 1785; also, Deed from Joseph Janney to Joseph Pierpoint, Loudoun County Deed Book P:340, June 12, 1785; also Deed from Joseph Janney, Merchant of the county of Fairfax, to Thomas Moore Junr of Loudoun County, Loudoun County Deed Book O:158, August 17, 1784. Alexandria was then part of Fairfax County.

[ii] Deed from Catesby Cocke to John Mead, Prince William County Deed Book B:186, November 20, 1733, as viewed at https://www4.pwcva.gov/Web/user/disclaimer

[iii] Deed from John Mead to Amos Janney, Prince William County Deed Book Index C:400; also Deed from John Mead to Francis Hague, Fairfax County Deed Book A1:282, March 19, 1743.

[iv] Deed from Francis Hague to Mahlon Janney, Loudoun County Deed Book C:367, June 14, 1762, mentions mill features; Joseph Janney and Mahlon Janney were second cousins.

[v] Index of Indentures & Bound out Children Papers, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records, as viewed at Indentures.pdf (loudoun.gov)

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Levi James was apprenticed to Asa Moore to learn the trade of saddler in 1791. He purchased a lot on main street, Loudoun County Deed Book 2W:34, 1810; Henry Burkett, who lived with Thomas Moore Jr for three years, paid ground rent on a lot, and two people (Jesse James and Daniel Lovett) who had been apprentices of the Moore family live with him, Loudoun County Deed Book U:266; see also Index of Indentures & Bound out Children Papers, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records, as viewed at Indentures.pdf (loudoun.gov)

[viii] “An at to authorize the manumission of slaves,” Henings Statutes, Volume XI, Chapter XXI, May 1782, p. 39-40, as viewed at https://vagenweb.org/hening/vol11-02.htm

[ix] Ancestry.com. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Source material: Swarthmore, Quaker Meeting Records. Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1758. Examples of others who emancipated their enslaved people include Reverend Amos Thompson (Presbyterian), William Osburn (Baptist, Buried at Ketoctin Baptist Church Cemetery), John Littlejohn (Traveling Methodist preacher, Leesburg), Charles Binns (Methodist)

[x] John Williams Store Ledger 1805-1808, microfilm from Duke University, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia.

[xi] Federal Census of 1810, as viewed on ancestry.com

[xii] Nathaniel Minor Indenture, 1802, Bound Out Children and Indenture Papers, Catalog number I1801-0016-1384, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records; Samuel Minor Indenture, 1802, Bound Out Children and Indenture Papers, Catalog number I1801-0017-1385, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records; Peter Manley Indenture, 1799, Bound Out Children and Indenture Papers, Catalog number I1799-0037-1318, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records, as viewed at https://lfportal.loudoun.gov/LFPortalInternet/0/edoc/326239/Indentures.pdf

[xiii] An act reducing into one, the several acts concerning Slaves, Free Negroes and Mulattoes (1819), Virginia Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia, Vol 1, Thomas Ritchie, publisher, Richmond Virginia, p. 424, as viewed at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Revised_Code_of_the_Laws_of_Virginia/VVhRAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=virginia+revised+code+1819&printsec=frontcover ; Also, An Act to amend the act concerning slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes (1831), Acts Passed at the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Chapter XXXIX, p. 107, as viewed at https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/lu9QAQAAMAAJ?gbpv=1&bsq=Free%20Negroes

[xiv] Quaker Meeting Minutes, Fairfax Monthly Meeting, March 23, 1805, as viewed on ancestry.com

[xv]An Act appropriating part of the revenue of the Literary Fund, and for other purposes, Acts Passed at the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Feb. 21, 1818, Thomas Ritchie, publisher, Richmond, p. 14, as viewed at https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/kMo_AQAAMAAJ?gbpv=1&bsq=Literary%20fund

[xvi] Loudoun County Schools 1789-1910, School Commissioners and Treasurer Bonds, Box 1 of 2, Misc. Papers-Schools, School Commissioners, 1818-1819, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records, Leesburg, Virginia.

[xvii] Loudoun County Schools 1789-1910, School Commissioners and Treasurer Bonds, Box 1 of 2, folders Schools 1820-1829, Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historic Records, Leesburg, Virginia; Also, “Obituary. Noah Haines Swayne,” New York Tribune, June 10, 1884, p. 2, which notes that ex-Justice of the US Supreme Court Noah Swayne was sent to the academy of Jacob Mendenhall at Waterford, Virginia.

[xviii] “An Act to establish several towns,” The Statutes at Large of Virginia, January 8, 1801, as viewed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112104867314&view=1up&seq=276

[xix] James Russell, “Houses for Sale,” Washingtonian, April 10, 1810, as viewed on geneologybank.com.

[xx] Mahlon Janney writ of adquoddamnum for dam for grist mill, Loudoun County Order Book W:241, July 11, 1803; Mahlon Janney Jr inherited the sawmill from his uncle, Mahlon Janney, Loudoun County Will Book K:119, June 8, 1812.

[xxi] Mahlon Janney deed to Edward Dorsey, Loudoun County Deed Book 2D:327, September 22, 1803; Nathaniel Manning deed to John B Stephens (mentions brick yard of James Russell), Loudoun County Deed Book 2U:32, May 13, 1816.

[xxii] Loudoun County Land Tax ledger 1807, 1809, microfilm, “Land Tax Records,” Reel 170 (1800-1815), Library of Virginia, Richmond.; Also, “A Merchant Mill for Sale,” The Washingtonian, April 2, 1811, p. 4.

[xxiii] Loudoun County Land Tax Ledger, 1810, microfilm, “Land Tax Records,” Reel 170 (1800-1815), Library of Virginia, Richmond.

[xxiv] Young men bound out to James Moore & Co (Woollen Manufactory), see Loudoun County Minute books of 1813 paged 6:235, 6:285, 6:344, and 7:105; see also James Moore & Co, “Domestic Cloths,” Daily National Intelligencer, October 15, 1814; Also, Loudoun County Will Book P:126, December 12, 1812.

[xxv] Noble S. Braden, “Clover Mill,” Genius of Liberty, July 18, 1829.

[xxvi] “Petition for charter for the encouragement of Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures,” Legislative Petitions, November 10, 1815, Library of Virginia. (Bank went into operation 10 Jun 1815.); Act required unchartered banks to close, Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia p 115, February 24, 1816.

[xxvii] Waterford Mill transferred to trustees for creditors of Braden, Morgan and Co., Loudoun County Land Tax Ledger, 1826, microfilm, “Land Tax Records,” Reel 172 (1824-1831A), Library of Virginia, Richmond.; “Sale under Deed of Trust,” Genius of Liberty, July 20, 1819.

[xxviii] James M. Steer, “Manufactory of Agricultural Implements.,” Genius of Liberty, Vol. 21, No. 42, October 21, 1837; William Addams, “New improved Wheat Fan.,” Genius of Liberty, March 18, 1817, p. 3.

[xxix] Loudoun County Land Tax, 1855, microfilm, “Land Tax Records,” Reel 487 (1853-1856), Library of Virginia, Richmond. John B. Dutton was assessed tax on one lot with a building value of $500 with a notation of “Buildings added.”; Also, Deed from Samuel C Means to Robert Thomas, Loudoun County Deed Book 5T:388, January, 26 1861; Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, “The Act of Incorporation, Constitution and By-laws of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, Va, W. Wooddy & Son, 1849.

[xxx] Evergreen Lodge No 5 William S Wood et. al. v. John Hough et. al. Loudoun County Chancery Case M1005, index number 1860-011, as viewed at https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/case_detail.asp?CFN=107-1860-011

[xxxi] Briscoe Goodhart, Independent Loudoun Virginia Rangers, U. S. Vol. Cav. (Scouts) 1862-1865., Press of McGill & Wallace, 1896, as viewed on Google Books.

[xxxii] Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service, as viewed at https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm; James Lewis grave marker, located in Waterford, Virginia, identifies his unit; Also, Albert O Brown grave marker, located in Waterford, has a military marker indicating Confederate States Army (CSA), Virginia 35th BN.

[xxxiii] John W. Geary, “Report of Col. John W. Geary, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, including operations of his command to May 6, 1862,” The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I-Vol V. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, p. 528, as viewed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077730194&view=1up&seq=3&q1=waterford ; Chas P Stone, Correspondence to Maj. S. Williams, 28 Aug 1861, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I-Vol V. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, p. 582; Skirmish at Waterford, 27 Aug 1862, The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Operations in N. VA, W. VA. And MD, Chap XXIV, p. 242 as viewed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077728222&view=1up&seq=3&q1=waterford

[xxxiv] Letter from Smith to Col S. P. Lee, Freedmen’s Bureau Letters, M1048, Roll 5 p.219 #367, May 8, 1867; Letter O.S.B. Wall to Col. S. P. Lee, Freedmen’s Bureau Letters, Supt of Education, M1913, 45, 908, December 17, 1868, as viewed on Familysearch.com

[xxxv] Annual Report of the Alexandria, Loudoun, and Hampshire Railroad, 1867. Courtesy Paul McCray; Also, Brown, Albert O., “Daily Stage Line From Waterford to Clark’s Gap Depot,” The Washingtonian, June 4, 1869, Leesburg, VA, Waterford Foundation archives.

[xxxvi] “Waterford Waifs.,” The Loudoun Telephone, November 15, 1889, p. 3, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA

[xxxvii] Map, Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia, from Surveys by James S. Oden, 1875, Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County Records, 1849-1954. Accession 41374. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

[xxxviii] Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, at the Session of 1874-5. Richmond, R. F. Walker, Supt Public Printing, 1875, as viewed on Google books at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Acts_and_Joint_Resolutions_Passed_by_the/uhQSAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1875+waterford+incorporation+virginia+general+assembly&pg=PA141&printsec=frontcover

[xxxix] Loudoun County Land Tax, 1888, microfilm, “Land Tax Records,” Reel 854 (1888), Library of Virginia, Richmond, A. M. Hough building value, 1900 Federal Census lists A M Hough as a Dry Goods Salesman; “Oscar James has purchased the old cabinet shop of Lewis Hough and is building a dwelling house,” The Loudoun Telephone, May 17, 1889. Deed from L. Kate Rickard to F. J. Beans, Loudoun County Deed Book 6Z:254, May 17, 1887.

[xl] “A New Church Edifice,” The Loudoun Telephone, August 18, 1882 (Presbyterian Church); “Letters from Loudoun,” Alexandria Gazette, March 8, 1884 (Methodist church on hill); Deed from Mary Jane Hough to James Lewis and other trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Loudoun County Deed Book 7B:14, July 3, 1888 (Methodist church by mill)

[xli] Map, Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia, from Surveys by James S. Oden, 1875, Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County Records, 1849-1954. Accession 41374. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

[xlii] The Loudoun Telephone, January 16, 1885, p. 3., microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA. The Literary Society in good order.

[xliii] “Telephone in Waterford,” The Loudoun Telephone, August 22, 1884, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA

[xliv] “U. S. Examining Surgeon, Dr. G. E. Connell. Chronic Diseases and Troubles Peculiar to Women a Specialty,” The Loudoun Telephone, October 1, 1886; The Loudoun Telephone, March 2, 1883, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia.

[xlv] The Loudoun Telephone, July 3, 1885, p. 3, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia.

[xlvi] “Waterford Waifs,” Loudoun Mirror, June 26, 1914, p. 4, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia.

[xlvii] 1910 Federal Census, as viewed on Ancestry.com

[xlviii] “Waterford Flashes,” The Loudoun Telephone, July 31, 1885, p. 3.; The Loudoun Telephone, March 9, 1888, p. 3.

[xlix] “The Cost of Milk has been Increased: Consolidations,” Mathews Journal, Volume 4, Number 12, February 28, 1907, as viewed at https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=MJ19070228.1.1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN——–

[l] “Old Grist Mills,” Page Courier, Vol 43, Number 52, March 31 1910, as viewed at https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=PCO19100331.1.1&srpos=1&e=——191-en-20–1–txt-txIN-%22old+grist+mills%22——-# ; Also, J. F. Dodd accepted a position with the Laurel (Md.) Roller Mill Co., to take charge and manage the large, handsome mill which they are building at that place. The Loudoun Telephone, October 11, 1889, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia.

[li] “Waterford Waifs.,” The Loudoun Telephone, January 3, 1890, p. 3; “Waterford Waifs,” Loudoun Mirror, September 26, 1913, p.8; Also, S.A. Gover, “Store Room For Rent in Waterford,” The Loudoun Telephone, September 5, 1890, p. 3, microfilm, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Virginia; Also, Loudoun County Deed Book 9D:467, March 12, 1918, A. E. Johnson, formerly A. E. Love, sold lot on main street when living in Washington D. C.

[lii] Deed to John Lee and Thomas Lee, Loudoun County Deed Book 7I:420, September 24, 1894; Deed to Alfonzo Palmer, Loudoun County Deed Book 8F:191, October 8, 1906; Deed to Philip P. Curtis, Loudoun County Deed Book 7T:330.

[liii] Solange Strong, “Waterford Wakens,” The Magazine Antiques, October 1949, p.280.

[liv] Waterford Foundation, Inc. Waterford (Allen B. McDaniel, pres.): to recreate the town of Waterford as it existed in previous times. The Commonwealth: The Magazine of Virginia, Volume 11, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, 1944, p. 29.; Also, Waterford Foundation’s Twenty-Third Annual Homes Tour and Crafts Exhibit, 1966, p. 2.

[lv] Waterford Foundation Inc., Exhibit of the work of the artists and craftsmen of Loudoun County, Virginia, 1946.

[lvi] Often, the heirs of long-time Black residents sold the lots, for example: Loudoun County Deed Book 417:80, September 10, 1962; Loudoun Deed Book 1448:20, May 31, 1966; Loudoun Deed Book 350:533, November 7, 1955.

[lvii] U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, “Federal Historic Preservation Laws,” Washington, D.C. 1993 p. 6.

[lviii] Loudoun Deed Book 624:573, July 31, 1975; Loudoun County Deed Book 630:663, October 31, 1975; Loudoun County Deed Book 631:586, December 3, 1975.

The 1875 Waterford Town Map: Taking a Tour of Women’s Businesses

by

The 1875 Waterford Town Map: Taking a Tour of Women’s Businesses

By Debbie Robison

Hanging on a wall at the Waterford Foundation offices is an artist’s interpretation of an old map of Waterford. The original map, upon which this is based, has been around for 148 years. Now at the Library of Virginia, the map was preserved all these years by the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County (now Loudoun Mutual Insurance Company) at their Waterford offices.

Surveyor James Oden created the map in 1875 for the Waterford Town Council when the town was incorporated after the Civil War. The map was required by the Virginia General Assembly to distinctly show the boundaries and the public streets and alleys with their width.[1]

The map offers a fascinating snapshot in time. Each lot, carefully laid out along Waterford’s streets, is identified with its size and owner’s name. Yet the most interesting information can be found on the sides of the map. Here you will see hand-drawn business cards advertising a variety of businesses where Victorian-era men and women could purchase goods and services. Many of the cards publicize businesses operated by women, which gives a rare opportunity to explore where in town the female proprietors conducted their trade.

So, in honor of Women’s History Month, lets follow the map to their shops.

Stop 1: The Divine Sisters, Carpet Weavers

We begin on Bond Street where spinster sisters Frances and Rachel Divine manufactured and sold carpets.

DIVINE SISTERS, Carpet Weavers, Work done in handsome & Durable Style, Bond St.

The carpets were woven on a loom, possibly out of carpet wool that could be dyed a variety of colors. Frances had raised twins, Joseph and Mary – both 33 years old at the time the map was created, as an unwed mother.[2] The carpet weaving business, which was conducted in their home, provided a much-needed income for the sisters.

Stop 2: Sallie Radcliffe’s Fancy Store

Heading down past the tan yard to Main Street, it isn’t long before you arrive at Sallie Radcliffe’s Fancy Store where a wide variety of goods could be purchased.

Sallie Radcliffe, Fancy Store, Main St.

A Fancy Store carried fancy articles like beaded purses, dress trimmings, hosiery, corsets, laces, sun umbrellas, specialty papers for making paper flowers, hoop skirts, collars, ribbons, and occasionally writing desks, assorted China articles, and toys.[3]

Sallie, a single Quaker woman, lived with her widowed mother, Ann Ratcliffe, in the house where she operated the store. In addition to operating the store, Sallie was also a milliner.[4]

Stop 3: Catherine Leggett’s Confectionary Store

After shopping at Radcliffe’s, a visitor might walk a few doors up Main Street to stop in at the widow Catherine Leggett’s confectionary store for a sweet. Fruits, candies, and nuts were typically sold in confectionary shops.

Catharine Leggett, Confectionary, Candy, Cherries, Figs, Sweetmeats of all kinds, Main St.

Catherine Leggett (nee Rinker), who went by Kitty, purchased the house in 1860 from William Russell, who acted as guardian of the children she had with her first husband, Joseph Wright.[5] Her second husband, cabinet maker Samuel Leggett, died earlier that year.

Stop 4: Amelia Rinker, Tailoress, and Stop 5: Sallie Graham, Tailoress

If a small town could have a garment district, then it would have been found on Waterford’s Main Street near The Loudoun Hotel (40170 Main Street, formerly Talbott’s Tavern) where a cluster of seamstresses and tailoresses offered their services.

After leaving Kitty Leggett’s confectionary store, you soon arrive two businesses for tailoresses, one run by Kitty’s sister, Amelia Rinker, and the other by Kitty’s daughter, Sallie Graham. Amelia Rinker [Stop 4] lived to the west of Amelia Sappington, a seamstress, and Sallie Graham [Stop 5] lived on the other side.[6]

Amelia Rinker, Tailoress, Main St

Sallie Graham, Tailoress

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tailoress sewed custom fitted garments, typically for men. In addition to sewing jackets, vests, and trousers, a tailoress may have also sewn shirts with detachable collars and neckties.

Stop 6: Sallie Orrison, Milliner and Dressmaker

The exact location of the shop that Sallie Orrison rented on Main Street is unknown, but it might have been near the tavern.[7]

Her card advertised her as a milliner (a trade that typically fashioned and sold hats and caps for women and girls), yet she promotes dressmaking:  Dresses Cut & Made In the most fashionable style.

Sallie Orrison, Milliner, Dresses Cut & Made in the most fashionable style, Main St.

Before her marriage to Townsend Orrison in 1872, Sallie was living with her family and working as a milliner.[8] In 1875, Townsend Orrison, who was financially embarrassed and unable to pay his debts, declared his intention of taking the benefit of the Homestead Act, passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1870 to protect a debtors personal property.  Among the personal property he listed in his homestead exemption was all the stock of goods such as ribbons bonnets &c & other articles used in the millenary business now on hand in the store carried on by my wife in the Town of Waterford valued at $200.[9]

Stop 7: Ella Mount, Private School Principal

Possible Location of Ella Mount’s Private School

Continuing down Main Street and then up Second Street takes you to the area where Ella Mount was the principal of a private school. The exact location of her school is unknown.

Private School, Ella Mount, principal – Second St.

Ella Mount was the daughter of William T. Mount and granddaughter of John Mount, both Waterford furniture and chair makers. In 1870 John and William Mount were in a rented house on Main Street.[10] Ella’s residence is unknown. John and William Mount had a 1 ½-story cabinet-maker’s shop on Second Street.[11] It’s possible, though not confirmed, that Ella held her private school in the upper story of the shop.

Stop 8: Sallie Divine, Dressmaker

On the far side of the village was the only other garment maker whose business card is on the map. Sallie Divine advertised her dressmaking services on High Street.

Sallie Divine, Dressmaker, Dresses fitted to give satisfaction, High St.

Sallie wed Joseph T Divine, son of Frances Divine the carpet weaver, in 1870.[12] They purchased the house on Hight Street the year the map was created.[13]

Women’s dress fashions in 1875, the year the map was drawn, sported rows of ruffles, drapes and/or pleats. Sallie may have kept up-to-date on the current styles of dress by subscribing to a dressmaking periodical, such as the popular Godey’s Ladies Book, published in Philadelphia, of Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly, a New York publication. Demorest also offered seasonal dressmaking instruction guides with a catalog of patterns available for purchase. Sallie may have also sewn undergarments and lingerie.

The following lithograph shows the latest fashion in 1875, the year the map was created.

 

[1] Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, at the Session of 1874-5. Richmond, R. F. Walker, Supt Public Printing, 1875, as viewed on Google books at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Acts_and_Joint_Resolutions_Passed_by_the/uhQSAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1875+waterford+incorporation+virginia+general+assembly&pg=PA141&printsec=frontcover

[2] Joseph Tuinto Divine Death Certificate, Virginia Death Records, 1912-2014, as viewed on Ancestry.com; Mary Alvernon Trunnell Death Certificate, Washington, D.C., U.S., Select Birth and Christenings, 1830-1955, as viewed on Ancestry.com

[3] C. C. Berry, “Dealer in Fancy Goods & Notions of Every Description,” Alexandria Gazette, 29 May 1875, p.1; H. Baader, “Selling Out at Below Cost,” Alexandria Gazette, 14 May 1870, p. 1;

[4] 1870 Federal Census for Sallie Radcliffe, as viewed on Ancestry.com; U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Fairfax Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1843-1932, image 30 of 36, as viewed on Ancestry.com

[5] Deed from William Russell to Catherine Leggett, Loudoun County Deed Book 5T:255, August 10, 1860; Joseph H Wright Probate Account, Loudoun County Will Book 2I:415.

[6] Amelia Sappington v. Charles Sappington, Chancery Case 1872-068, image 30 of 75, Library of Virginia.

[7] In 1880 federal census Sallie Orrison is listed immediately before C. W. Divine

[8] 1870 Federal Census, Loudoun, Northern Division, Taylorstown Post Office, as viewed on Ancestry.com

[9] Townsend Orrison Homestead Exemption, Loudoun County Deed Book 6H:223, December 1, 1875.

[10] 1870 Federal Census

[11] John Mount’s Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County application #570, January 25, 1868, Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County Records, 1849-1954. Accession 41374. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

[12] 1870 Federal Census for Joseph and Sallie Divine

[13] Loudoun County Deed Book 6G:469, February 1, 1875.