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News

End of Term Report: May 1884

June 5, 2025 by Stephanie Thompson

The one room school on Second Street served Waterford’s Black students from 1867 when it was built until 1957 when students were bussed into Leesburg. Sometimes serving over 60 students at once, many of whom were over 16 years old, the small space was filled with students eager to learn. Teachers and students alike worked hard to make the most of their new educational opportunities after Emancipation, as witnessed by a May 1884 visitor who shared his experience in the Loudoun Telephone:

Mr. Winton Walker and his students at the school on Second Street, c. 1920

‘On Friday evening last the Waterford colored school closed, at the end of an eight months’ session with Prof. Edw. F. Arnold as principal, Miss Mollie Saunders, assistant, and Messrs. Roberson [Robinson], Boyd, and Minor, Directors. 

‘The exercises clearly showed progress in the school, which was due to the untiring efforts of the teachers and directors together, with some assistance from interested patrons. Recitations, dialogues, music &c., were the order of the evening. A public examination of the pupils convinced the visitors of stores of knowledge fastened in their minds during the session.–The reading by some of the pupils would put to blush some of the scholars in our white schools. It was done with confidence and boldness. The singing, with all respect to the white folks, was so superior as to compare with the squeaking of a wheelbarrow and the notes of the woodthrush. Special praise in this direction is due to Miss Saunders, whose throat seemed to contain a harp of a thousand c[h]ords.

 ‘Flowers were displayed in great profusion and very tastefully arranged. The children were genteel in appearance and dignified in deportment….”

– Loudoun Telephone, 16 May 1884; as quoted in A Rock in a Weary Land, A Shelter in a Time of Storm, Souders and Souders, 2003.


Learn more about Waterford’s African-American heritage in A Rock in a Weary Land, A Shelter in a Time of Storm, available online here.

Filed Under: Black History, history, News, Waterford History

2025 Annual Meeting Recap

May 2, 2025 by Elizabeth McFadden

The 2025 Waterford Foundation Annual Meeting, held on April 10th at the Old School Auditorium in Waterford, Virginia, began with a presentation by Historic Preservation Director Abigail Zurfluh. She discussed the semi quincentennial celebrations planned in Loudoun County and the VA250.

President’s Report:

President Sue Manch thanked members, donors, and volunteers for their support in addressing challenges in 2024, particularly regarding a canceled power line project that threatened conservation easements. The Foundation is dedicated to protecting these easements and enhancing legislative support. Progress on the five-year strategic plan includes the Second Street School program, diverse tours (Garden and Black History), and preservation efforts such as a grant for the John Wesley Community Church renovation.

Executive Director’s Remarks:

Executive Director Stephanie Thompson highlighted successful fundraising efforts like the Give Choose campaign and the Waterford Fair’s 80th anniversary, which saw significant participation. Educational outreach was strengthened through the Craft School and Second Street School programs.

2024 Annual report

Awards and Recognitions

Eagle Scout Recognition: Nicholas Babu for designing chair carts.

Special Recognition

  • Andres Torres of Dominion Energy received special recognition for his crucial role in addressing an electrical service upgrade challenge for the Waterford Fair.
  • The Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance was honored for its successful advocacy against new power lines in Rural Loudoun.
  • Waterford Fair Libations Team and Wheatland Spring was celebrated for their role in enhancing the 80th Waterford Fair by creating a popular new beer and expanding beverage locations.

Community Partner Award: Lovettsville-Waterford Ruritans for exceptional support during the Waterford Fair.

Volunteer of the Year: Debbie Zungoli for extensive support of educational events.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Ed Lehmann and Edith Crockett for longstanding dedication to the Waterford community and the Foundation.

Board Elections

The business meeting included the approval of the previous year’s minutes, the Treasurer’s report by Dave Hunt, and recognition of departing board members Dave Hunt and Anna Rathmann. The meeting concluded with the report from the General Nominating Committee, announcing eight openings on the Board of Directors and the nomination of new board members.

Meet our 2025-2026 Board of directors

Filed Under: News Tagged With: meeting, news

Waterford Foundation Beginnings, 1943-1970

May 2, 2025 by Stephanie Thompson

By John Souders, originally printed in the 2018 Waterford Fair Booklet

The Waterford Foundation: The Early Years—1943-1970

Each year thousands visit Waterford and marvel at a wonderfully intact remnant of early America. This year the village celebrates the Waterford Foundation, the far-sighted organization that for 75 years has worked to preserve and share that treasure. Its successes have been neither easy nor inevitable.

Black and white image of a stone house
Laura Page’s house stood on the southwest side of Main Street adjacent to 40155 (Goodwin-Sappington House).

By the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, the old town was a near shambles, the hollowed out remnant of a long slow decline after the Civil War. Many locals doubted that the dilapidated buildings could or even should be saved from inevitable collapse. One charming old structure on Main Street, the final home of a former slave, was taken down for its stone, which was hauled to Leesburg.

The Pink House (40174 Main Street), originally an early 19th-century tavern, escaped a similar fate only because its brick proved too soft for reuse. As one dismayed newcomer put it, “Most every building looked as though it was about to fall apart … It seemed a truly deserted village.”

The one sign of life was the work of brothers Edward and Leroy Chamberlin, who had begun to repair and resell a number of deteriorating residences in and around town. The Chamberlins were an old Waterford Quaker family that fortunately had the means to tackle the job in the depression-ravaged community. But Edward died in 1940, and their momentum threatened to stall.

Allen B. McDaniel, architect and engineer and first president of the Waterford Foundation

Soon, though, a handful of concerned locals and a few recent arrivals came together and resolved to build on the Chamberlins’ progress. In 1943 they were incorporated by Virginia as the Waterford Foundation, Inc.  As a first step the founders organized themselves into a board of directors (there were no other members) and selected officers, including the first president, Allen B. McDaniel (1879-1965), an accomplished engineer with a firm in Washington. McDaniel had discovered Waterford, bought the old Quaker meetinghouse, and—with a thorough renovation—made it his home.

But where to begin? The new organization had no money and no real plan other than a desire “to preserve the historic buildings” and “to increase the public’s knowledge of life and work in an early American rural community.” As a tentative first step, the Foundation pulled together $825 to buy a dilapidated house that, fittingly, had been built circa 1800 for Mahlon Janney son of the town’s founder. They made necessary repairs and resold it in 1945 for $1,500. The organization would repeat this pattern of rescue and resale many times in the decades that followed, a bootstrap technique that was largely self-funding.

But not all needy buildings could or should be resold. A prime example was the defunct old mill, the iconic structure in the village. The Foundation was able to purchase that building in 1944 only because the Fadeley family stepped in with a $2,000 donation. Then, casting about for more sustainable ways to continue its work, the Foundation hit on the idea of holding an exhibition of arts and crafts and charging a nominal fee to attend. The success of the first such demonstration in 1944 exceeded the board’s hopes, and the “Waterford Fair” rapidly grew to a major cultural event in Loudoun and beyond, furthering the organization’s educational mission and providing a vital source of funding. [The Foundation will explore the history of the Fair in greater detail next year, the 75th anniversary of its modest beginning.]

Mahlon Janney House (15545 Butchers Row—also called the Doctor Edward’s House and Market Hill) was the Foundation’s first purchase.  Its long-neglected condition was typical of many Waterford buildings at the time.

Over the years the Foundation has confronted many challenges, some of its own making. An early and persistent one was a charge of elitism, coupled with secrecy. To help allay concerns, the board opened membership to anyone interested. But as president McDaniel put it in 1944, there was no certainty the people would “cooperate through a form of membership involving a nominal yearly contribution without some definite benefits or returns to them personally.” On that score he needn’t have worried, but suspicions about the Foundation’s motives long persisted in some quarters.

A greater threat to the long-term success of the Waterford Foundation arose from an unexpected source: the accelerating growth of Loudoun County. The population of the county had remained remarkably stable between 1800 and 1950, and few foresaw what would come next. Only belatedly did the board recognize that preservation of the mill village could not succeed without saving the green space that was its historical and visual context. The threat came to the fore in 1970 when the Water Street Meadow and Schooley Mill Barn properties came on the market, opening the possibility of new construction immediately adjacent to the town. Still, not all board members thought the threat was as great as the purchase price, and there were multiple resignations when the majority opted to buy the Water Street acreage. In hindsight the wisdom of their acquisition looks much clearer.

By 1970 the work of the Waterford Foundation had acquired a national reputation as a model of grassroots preservation. It had achieved its successes in restoring buildings, protecting open spaces and celebrating early American crafts and activities with virtually no public funding. That same year, in recognition of those accomplishments, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated Waterford and its surround as a national historic landmark district, a category reserved for the likes of Mount Vernon and Independence Hall.

But the work was not finished. The Waterford Foundation has continued to protect viewsheds, maintain fragile buildings, host the annual Homes Tour and Crafts Exhibit, and develop educational programs and exhibits. The challenges since 1970 and those ahead are topics for next year’s fair booklet.

Founding Members
Edgar H. BeansEdgar (1882-1957), was a livestock dealer and descendant of early Waterford Quakers.
Vera M. Chamberlin & son Edward M., Jr.Vera, from New Jersey, married into an old Waterford family. Her son was at one time treasurer of the Foundation.
Ellen H. & son Fenton M. Fadeley, Jr.The Fadeleys were an early Loudoun family. They lived at Rosemont, on the Old Wheatland Road.
Allen B. & Margaret B. McDanielAllen (1879-1965), a New England-born engineer, helped build the acclaimed Bahá´í temple near Chicago and was active in the Bahá´í faith.
Douglas N. & Winifrede (Frieda) E. MyersDoug (1896-1982), from an early Waterford family, was president of the Foundation in the 1960s. Frieda, a teacher, was from Indiana.
Paul V. & Pauline (Polly) S. RogersThe Rogers bought a farm near Waterford in 1937. Paul was a Washington attorney, Polly was from Kansas.
Frederic S. & Mary Phillips StablerThe Stablers were both of early Quaker families. They owned the Phillips Farm, where Mary was raised.

Filed Under: history, News, Waterford History

Christmas Celebrations

December 5, 2024 by Stephanie Thompson

While Waterford is now on the edge of bustling Washington, D.C. suburbs, for most of its history the village was a remote rural community. Waterfordians knew how to celebrate holidays with local products supplemented by goods shipped in by the village’s enterprising storekeepers, and businessmen. Before refrigeration, seasonal foods such as oysters were brought in for special occasions. Frank Rinker (1853-1924) ran a butcher shop at 15479 Second Street (The Old Insurance Building) where at Thanksgiving and Christmas he sold oysters, at $6.00 a gallon—a rare delicacy then at that high price. 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 and get them. Arthur Jackson, a chauffeur for the Chamberlins, would drive one of them to Florida near the holidays and return with oranges for the family. All the families, black and white, remember extra baking. One family remembered Christmas was the only time of the year they had “store nuts”—the rest of the time they gathered hickory nuts and black walnuts—driving them through an auger hole in a heavy board with a wooden mallet.

Eleanor James, who lived on Bond Street shared a recipe for Christmas Beer in an article for the Times Mirror:

“As soon as Thanksgiving was over, preparations for Christmas began. There was a traditional Christmas drink in Waterford that was made in almost every home; it was called Christmas or Lemon Beer. It consisted of three gallons of warm water, three pounds of sugar, three lemons sliced thru, one yeast cake and twenty hops. You boil the hops (tied in a piece of cloth) for ten minutes. You make this in a five-gallon stone jar. After adding all the ingredients, you stand the jar in a warm place for twenty-four hours to work; stir every once in a while. It will bubble and you can see it is working. Then strain, put in jars and it is ready to drink when cold. Do not use water that has chlorine in it to make this beer. During Christmas holiday visiting, this was the drink most often served to young and old alike. Though all used the same recipe, each tasted differently and “How did your beer turn out this year?” was a question often asked.”

We tend to romanticize the times in the village but people were working hard; times were tight; gifts were handmade and or utilitarian. Nevertheless, there still was a magic there, that John Divine captured in his memories of L.P. Smith’s Christmas store:

Paxson’s Store stood next to the Pink House at the intersection of Main, Second, and Water Streets.

“For several years Mr. Lem Smith rented the closed Paxson’s store during the holiday season and used it as a Christmas store. Oh! What a thrill it was to see so many things near and dear to a little boy’s heart. There were little red wagons, sleighs and tricycles, then, for the girls, dolls and games. No mall today can give the pleasure of that little Christmas store. When the holiday was over, there were no after-season sales. Mr. Smith simply packed everything away and set it out again the next year to thrill us all over again.”


Find this and other Waterford stories in When Waterford and I Were Young, by John Divine with John and Bronwen Souders.

Filed Under: history, News

The Visit

September 6, 2024 by Stephanie Thompson

Mary Frances Dutton Steer [1840-1933] was the daughter of John B. Dutton and Emma Schooley Dutton and sister to Lizzie and Lida Dutton of Civil War-era Waterford News fame. She was a gifted poet and artist, and today’s historians are blessed to be able to study Waterford’s past through her eyes. Her poem “The Visit” was inspired by a visit of two elderly friends, Rachel Steer and Sarah White, when Steer herself was sixty-four, circa 1904. 

Ann T. Gover (1820-1896), Sarah G. Janney White (1815-1905), Hannah Mendenhall Worley (c1820- ), Rachel Lousia (Lucy) Steer Schooley (1825-1896), Rachel Steer (1814-1912). Rachel is in the lower right. The other women are not individually identified. Image courtesy of Taylor Chamberlin.

“The Visit” by Mary F. Steer

As printed in the booklet of the 1948 Waterford Foundation Exhibit of the Work of the Artists and Craftsmen of Loudoun County, Virginia.

They came to spend the afternoon
These dear old friends of mine;
One of them was eighty-eight,
The other, eighty-nine.’

With knitting-bag hung on an arm,
Their dress so clean and neat,
With aprons white as driven snow,
I tell you, they were sweet!

They tip-toed through the kitchen door, 
(“Front steps were hard to climb”)
For one of them was eighty-eight,
The other, eighty-nine.

Just half-past one it was they came,
“Oh! What a treat!” I said,
“To have an old-time visit!
It almost turns my head.”

I set for them the easy chairs,
They laid their wraps aside
And soon took out their knitting-work
How fast the time did glide!

They laughed and joked and told great yarns
Of happenings in the town
When they were young and went to school
To gentle Mary Brown.

At four I made the kitchen fire,
The supper to prepare.
(They could not stay till after dark
For dampness in the air.)

I brought my choicest dishes out
And gathered a bouquet
To decorate the table,
For it was a gala day!

Do you not think I ought to
Have seated them in state,
When one of them was eighty-nine,
The other, eighty-eight?

And long before the sun went down,
I saw them safely home.
They said they had a happy time,
And I was glad they’d come.

Strong is the chain that binds us
In friendship’s mystic tie,--
For I feel old as they do. 
And they feel young as I.

Filed Under: News, Waterford History

Waterford School Days

August 1, 2024 by Stephanie Thompson

This account of school days in Waterford in the early 20th century comes from John E. Divine in his book When Waterford and I Were Young, written with Bronwen and John Souders. The school he describes in this excerpt was the school for Waterford’s white children through the early 1960s. It is now called the Old School and is where the Waterford Foundation offices are currently housed. The school on Second Street that served Waterford’s Black children is also discussed in Divine’s book as well as other Waterford Foundation publications. Find more information about that school here.


With few exceptions, Waterford School was blessed with good teachers. They certainly were not in it for the money–salaries in 1904-05 were just $27 per month. 

It is always dangerous to rate or even name teachers, lest some fine ones be overlooked. I will nonetheless mention two who made a great impression on me.

My first grade teacher, Miss Mary Shawen1 led her pupils gently from freedom to the discipline of academic life. Miss Minnie Russell2, who lived on Patrick Street, was a great mathematician for the 6th and 7th graders. Miss Minnie taught at least two generations of students–the parents of some of my classmates had studied under her.

Miss Mary Shawen is pictured in the front row, to the left of the girl holding a ball.

Miss Minnie was a stern task-master with but one aim: make every student ready for the next grade. I can picture her with her starched white apron and high black collar standing in front of a class after we had not performed to her standards in a quiz. “Well! I’m ashamed of you! But I promise you, you will learn this work or we will still be on these pages at the end of the school term!” These were not idle words, for you did learn it as you were afraid not to respond. A great regret of mine is that on her death I could not stand at her grave and say, “Thank you, Miss Minnie.” A World War II date with Uncle Sam had taken me away from Waterford.

From the heartland of America came a Hoosier schoolteacher, Winifriede Elliott, who made contributions to the social, as well as academic, life of the village. “Frieda” married in Loudoun, forsaking her native Indiana to become a true Waterfordian in every sense of the word.

The name Frieda Myers became synonymous with education at the high school level, church work, and with the broader family life of the community. She became principal of the high school for a term and a half, after Mr. Vivian Ayers resigned midterm in 1926. She brought with her a discipline that the school had not previously known; of this, the writer of these lines has first-hand knowledge. Never again did a 16-pound shot, used in track, ever fall down the ventilator duct, nearly shaking every window loose.

Not that Mrs. Myers lacked a sense of humor. She told a story that captured life in Waterford at Christmas time, when friendliness reigned supreme: Mrs. Myers had a near neighbor and, in the custom of the time, she invited this neighbor in to visit and sample her fruit cake. This fine lady had but one fault: occasionally she would speak without thinking. On that day, as they ate the fruit cake, Mrs. Myres remarked thoughtfully as she tasted it, “I think it needs a bit more spice…” Whereupon the guest replied, “Most anything that was done to it would have helped!”

For a school so few in numbers, we had good athletic teams–girls basketball, men’s baseball, and mixed tennis. In 1925, we won the county baseball championship, defeating Round Hill 4-3 in a real thriller for the title. One of the great days in our young lives was the following Monday morning, when at assembly, the principal, Mr. Ayers, made a speech of congratulation.

Mr. Ayers, by the way, was courting a teacher that year who boarded with Mrs. Flave Beans in the rooms over the present Waterford Market. There were two large buckeye trees in front of the building, and Mr. Ayers would park with the bumper of his new Durant auto against one of them when calling on his lady friend. 

One night some boys wired his bumper to the tree and hid nearby to see what would happen. Mr. Ayers finally came out and started the car, which immediately choked out when he tried to back away. The next attempt he applied a little more gas, with the same result. The third time he applied enough gas to make his wheels spin. This brought him out of the car and revealed the reason for his troubles. 

Not until well into the 1930s was there county school bus transportation. Some of our students came by horseback, some by horse and buggy, and maybe a couple by auto. But the greatest number came on foot. It was a sight to see twenty or more pupils forming a group to walk out the road to Paeonian Springs at the end of the school day.


Find more stories from Waterford’s history in When Waterford and I Were Young by John E. Divine with Bronwen and John Souders.


  1. The Shawens are an old Waterford family. In 1815 Cornelius Shawen was one of 12 directors of the Loudoun Company, the county’s first bank. Miss Mary (1858-1925), who lived at Old Acre, was descended from those early residents. Her sister Frances (Fanny) married Waterford’s Frank Myers of “ Lige” White’s 35th Battalion–but only after keeping the hardened cavalry officer in uncertain torment for several years. ↩︎
  2. The Russells have also been prominent around Waterford for many years. Miss Minnie (1868-1942) lived in town with her unmarried sisters Ida (1859-1928) and Edmonia (1870-1945). Edmonia was postmistress for 25 years. ↩︎

Filed Under: history, News, Waterford History

2024 Second Street School Painting

July 3, 2024 by Abigail Zurfluh

After this last busy school year, we were able to give the outside of the Second Street School some much needed TLC! Following Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Rehabilitation, repairs were made some woodwork on the rear elevation and the building got a fresh coat of paint. Now, the Second Street School is ready to host another years worth of scholars coming to Waterford to learn about Reconstruction.

Check out below for some before and after pictures! It is thanks to generous donations to the Lantern Light Fund that the Waterford Foundation is able to preserve and educate the public about African American life here in Waterford and Loudoun County.

Before:

After:

To support work like this in the future, please consider a donation to the Lantern Light Fund, our fund that supports the artifacts, sites, and stories of Waterford’s Black community including the Second Street School and the John Wesley Community Church.

Filed Under: News, Preservation, sss

Plague of the Blue Locusts

July 3, 2024 by Stephanie Thompson

Excerpt from Between Reb and Yank: A Civil War History of Northern Loudoun County, Virginia: Chapter 21 – After Gettysburg, Chamberlin and Souders, 2011.


Late June [1863] found the Loudoun Rangers attached to a brigade assigned to protect the B&O tracks west of Baltimore, although as it turned out Stuart’s cavalrymen did minimal damage to that railroad as they hurried to Pennsylvania. On 25 June, when Lee’s intentions were still unknown, Army Chief of Staff Henry Halleck ordered Capt. Sam Means to strip the surrounding countryside of horses suitable for military use, to prevent their capture by the Rebels. In compliance, the Rangers marched to Tenleytown, outside Washington, and began working their way north through Montgomery County. They spared farmers with just one animal but otherwise took horses without regard to their owners’ loyalty, issuing vouchers redeemable through the Quartermaster Department. While some citizens “at first refused to part with their stock,” showing them Halleck’s order silenced most complaints. Means’s command reached Harford County by early July and began collecting horses along the Maryland/Pennsylvania border.

Samuel Carrington Means (August 5, 1827 – March 2, 1891), founder and first captain of the Independent Loudoun Rangers, a Union cavalry unit raised in Virginia in 1862.

The Rangers’ horse detail ended with the Confederate threat, and they returned to Point of Rocks on 15 July to await the arrival of Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s army on its way south from Gettysburg. Means set up camp at “Dripping Spring,” just north of town. The site was in a dense forest at the foot of the Catoctin Mountain. In short order the Virginians cleared out a shaded courtyard in front of their tents, which was used for morning roll call and as “a reception room for the company’s numerous lady visitors.” Not all, apparently, were ladies. Within a few weeks Sgt. Joe Divine, for one, found himself in the hospital in Frederick being dosed for syphilis. Still, Briscoe Goodhart declared the camp the best they would have during the war. Yet, even in this Eden, there were several serious fights. One pitted Sgt. William Bull and Cpl. Sam Tritapoe in a dispute over spilled coffee. As Goodhart explained, “the Rangers were fighting for principle, and as there was more or less principle involved in a cup of coffee, there was no reason why they should not fight for that as well as to fight [the Rebs].”

On 27 July, while the command was at Dripping Spring, Thomas Fouch enlisted, and gained the distinction of being the youngest Ranger. Like other members of the Fouch family, he had worked on farms around Waterford and Goresville but found himself all alone after his father Temple and brother Henry joined Means’s company in the summer of 1862. Fouch’s father claimed his 5-foot, 4-inch son was 17 and was joining to avoid Confederate conscription. Tom was, in fact, barely 15 (a postwar medical report put his age at enlistment as just 13 years and 4 months).

***

Meade wasted far less time getting the Army of the Potomac on the move than McClellan had after Antietam, although he retraced roughly the same route south through Loudoun County. After assembling his forces at Berlin and Sandy Hook, the Union commander sent the 5th Corps across the river on pontoon bridges to occupy Lovettsville on 17 July. At the same time, Kilpatrick’s cavalry division scouted ahead to Purcellville and Waterford. The next day a tide of blue engulfed north Loudoun, as Meade established his headquarters in Lovettsville and the 1st Corps crossed at Berlin and marched into Waterford that same morning. To the west, the 2nd and 3rd Corps crossed at Harpers Ferry and camped near Hillsboro, while the 5th Corps advanced from Lovettsville to  Wheatland. These masses of men pushed farther south a day later to bivouac at Hamilton, Purcellville, and Woodgrove, and were followed by the 11th Corps, which camped south of Waterford, and the 12th Corps, which skirted the base of the Blue Ridge. Racing to beat Lee to Culpeper, Meade’s entire army passed beyond Loudoun’s southern border by 23 July.

View of Loudoun across the Potomac from Berlin. Double pontoon bridges speeded the crossing of Meade’s army into Virginia (October 1862 photograph by Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress).

While the vast army’s transit of Loudoun was fleeting, it was memorable. The 1st Corps began pouring into Waterford at 10 A.M. on 18 July and, with their departure and the simultaneous arrival of the 11th Corps the following day, the village was awash in blue. Rebecca Williams counted 600 wagons in the supply train, and, watching all the infantry and artillery regiments pass, she assumed, incorrectly, that it must be the greater part of Meade’s army. The 1st Corps set up its camps close to the village, with a large body along Catoctin Creek and others on Amasa Hough’s farm at the northwest end of town. As they had twice done the year before, residents turned out to welcome their Union heroes and feed, or at least give water to, as many as they could. The 7th Indiana Infantry had fond memories of their brief stay.

This part of Loudoun County had a preponderating Quaker population, among whom … we found Friends indeed. On nearing the outskirts of [Waterford] our advance was met by a party of citizens who on learning the purpose to go into camp soon one of them, pointing to a large bluegrass pasture nearby said “There’s grass for thy horses, a fine spring for thy men and beasts, and ricks of cordwood for thy cooking.” The invitation was accepted, gratefully, and it needs not the telling that no order touching top rails was necessary during our stay there.

Sunday afternoon, 20th[sic, 19th] again on the march. It was oppressively hot; as we passed through the village the street was lined with citizens–men in broad-brimmed hats and drab coats, women dressed in the modest garb of their sect, and young ladies and misses slightly more fashionably habited than their mothers–all extending to us their fare-thee-well. Here and there, close by the roadside, was a group of three or four to a half-dozen of these demure young Quakeresses–all sisters, one would judge from their appearance–astonishing the number of thirsty men in the line; to be honest, even I must plead guilty. [In a footnote the author acknowledged that one of the girls encountered that day, Lizzie Dutton, later married a member of his regiment and was, at the time of his writing, secretary of their veterans’ association.]

It had been noticed that among our many visitors there were but few youngish men. Inquiries as to why this was brought the answer, “Many of them are in a Maryland Union regiment.” How do you reconcile that with your religious faith? was asked of one. “We do not call this war, but correcting wayward children.”

21st: [sic, 20th] lay all day near a miserable Secesh town named Hamilton, in the same county, and the day following moved to Middleburg….”

While no one else met his future bride that day, others had equally pleasant memories. A member of the 39th Massachusetts Infantry called Waterford “a right smart place” with about 600 mostly Union inhabitants. American flags waved from some of the houses and women stood in front of their homes offering water to the troops. The New Englander had heard that “several hundred [sic] Union soldiers had enlisted there” and noted, “They do not take Reb. Scrip.”

A soldier in the 84th New York Infantry was similarly impressed.

[After] passing through Maryland and across the Potomac [we came] through the greatest little Union town of all we had seen yet. Nearly at every house, on the porch or stoop, and on the sidewalks, were the beautiful ladies, passing water, and bestowing their real cheering words and blessing, for the soldier-boys, smiling such sweet smiles, which none but real Union ladies know how to smile. Flags and white handkerchiefs were waving at nearly every house–such is the picture of the Union town of Waterford, Va.

Many passing through the village that weekend were struck by the profusion of Union flags. One banner had been hastily sewn by the three young Matthews sisters, Annie, Edie, and Marie, almost certainly for this occasion. Its 35 stars suggest it was made shortly after West Virginia became a state in June, and their concentric arrangement in the “Baltimore pattern” reflects the family’s ties to that city. Although the flag would later be proudly displayed whenever Union troops passed by the family farm, Clifton, the girls would have been in town that day, probably at the home of their aunt, Maggie Gover. At other times, the “treasonous banner” had to be hidden under a floorboard in their attic, where it survived several searches by Southern soldiers.

Clifton, home of Annie, Edie, and Marie Matthews, circa 1860.

The Loudoun Rangers accompanied the 1st Corps to Waterford and remained there for several days. Briscoe Goodhart quoted an account of a grand ball staged by officers of the 24th Michigan Infantry in the town’s honor. 

Waterford, a most beautifully embowered and intensely loyal village. It seemed strange to find so patriotic a place in the Confederate dominions. That evening the merry maidens of the place with elastic step tripped the fantastic toe with our army officers. The streets were lined with smiles and beauty. Windows and balconies were filled with matrons, maidens, and children, who waved handkerchiefs and the starry flag, and cheered on the Union troops with many a hurrah for the Union. God bless Waterford!

Elsewhere in the county interaction between citizen and soldier was less cordial, especially with memories of the carnage at Gettysburg still fresh in the Federals’ minds. Members of the 49th Pennsylvania crossed the Potomac on the morning of the 19th and camped on Robert Wright’s “plantation” at Wheatland. Having marched all day with no time to eat, the foot soldiers were angered to discover the former militia general had put a chain on his water pump. One foraging party got into a dispute with a nearby farmer who would not give them any food. (His stacks of grain were later set on fire.) At the next farm a soldier held a gun on the owner, while a second went under the house to retrieve geese, chickens and eggs. That night General Wright’s barn was deliberately torched. The soldiers later heard that the owner had “one of his negroes tied up for telling the Yankees who he was.” 

Mrs. John Janney was appalled by the destruction of “the best built, and the finest barn in the county,” along with large stores of flour, a carriage and “superior” farming equipment. Alcinda’s mood grew even darker when she heard that the soldiers had taken everything Wright had “in the way for food,” leaving his neighbors to feed him and his family. “He is almost literally ruined. This done by the enlightened North, to the Southern savages. Oh! How hard it is, really, to forgive your enemies, but vengeance belongs to God. He will repay it.”

Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s 11th Corps passed through Waterford on 19 July and camped between that town and Hamilton. Howard took over Israel Warner’s home for his headquarters, and while he treated the owner with respect, there were problems. When soldiers broke into Warner’s corcrib, he persuaded the general to station guards there to see that the corn was measured before being taken away. Yet even though the farmer got an accurate voucher for the grain, he was never paid for his loss. Two horses also disappeared, but the corps quartermaster refused to issue a voucher for “stolen property.” Howard’s men also camped on the nearby farm of Bushrod Fox., where two horses, wheat and hay were taken.

Farm products like these oxen at Clifton and the haystacks in the distance are examples of some of the resources commandeered or destroyed by Union soldiers passing through Loudoun in July 1863.

Such losses were the norm throughout the county. On 22 July, two and a half miles west of Hillsboro, tenant farmer George Virts found himself hosting members of Gen. John Geary’s command, then part of the 12th Corps, which camped at the farm he rented from the Thompson family. His loyalty to the Union proved no safeguard against losses. The soldiers took nearly all of his livestock and poultry, along with tools, harness, the food out of the kitchen and pantry, and even blankets off the beds and a keg of vinegar stored in the cellar. When Virts complained to Geary that night, the general told him to come back the next morning, but the entire command headed south before the matter was resolved.

Evidence suggests that Halleck’s earlier order to impress horses in Maryland was used to justify similar action in Loudoun. Nettie Dawson wrote that Meade’s army was “taking all the horses, but few they will find with southerners. Wheat is all taken to feed to the horses.” The wheat had just been harvested, and in many cases what the Federals did not use they burned. Whatever their loyalties, farmers throughout Loudoun breathed easier after the immense swarm of blue locusts passed.


Read more about how the Civil War impacted northern 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.

Filed Under: history, News, Waterford History

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