Waterford Foundation

Waterford History

John Dutton’s January 1864 Visitor

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 Telltale Nail: A Closer Look at the Second Street School

by

By Debbie Robison and John Souders

The simple one-room building on Second Street is the iconic symbol of Waterford’s rich African-American past. Black History Month is an opportunity to retell its story in light of intriguing recent discoveries.

Second Street School, 1920

For Waterford’s Black community, both free and enslaved, the prospect of education was one of the most prized results of the bloody Civil War; it was also a goal long supported by the local Quakers. Within months of Appomattox, 28-year-old Sarah Ann Steer had begun teaching under the auspices of her fellow Quakers in Philadelphia, where she had received training.[i] In September 1865 young Marie Matthews noted in her diary a trip in from her nearby farm to see “the Colored school held in Waterford.” She was favorably impressed.[ii]

Her reaction was far from typical in postwar Loudoun County, where former secessionists greatly outnumbered the Unionists who predominated in Waterford. The following January, a day after occupying Union forces had been shifted from Loudoun to Harpers Ferry, a minister from the Northern branch of the Methodist church was waylaid on his way from Leesburg to Waterford to preach. Three men in Confederate uniform put a pistol to his breast, saying “the damned Yankees have left now and you shall leave too.” The local agent of the federal Freedmen’s Bureau reported from Leesburg that in the absence of soldiers “it is the sheerest folly to keep an officer of the Bureau on duty here.”[iii]

Miss Steer was undeterred by such episodes. By July 1866 she was able to report to her school’s Quaker benefactors that “I have on my list 46 scholars all of them attend when they can, of the number 25 or 28 always present. They are mostly small children who can be spared from home. The larger Boys and Girls and Adults are obliged to work most of the time for their support and come to school when they have a leisure day or afternoon.” [iv]

Local historians have long supposed that Sarah Ann was teaching from her house—her family was then renting the Mahlon Schooley House (15555) on Second Street.[v] She regularly complained of the limited space available. A closer look at Freedmen’s Bureau records and Quaker correspondence, however, indicates that within a year she had begun to rent a small building from her cousin William B. Steer, a well-off elder of Fairfax Meeting.  He had purchased Dr. Charles Edwards’ old house (15545 Butchers Row) in June 1866 and on the property, according to insurance records, was a one-story brick structure—possibly the doctor’s office—measuring 16 feet square.[vi] The size closely matches the Freedmen’s agent’s description of Sarah Ann’s classroom as of May 1867: “. . . there are now attending Miss Steer’s school about 25 Scholars all that there are accommodations for as the school is taught in a room not more than 14 feet square.”[vii]

By then the Freedmen’s Bureau was paying William Steer the monthly rent—$2.10—while the Association of Friends of Philadelphia continued to pay Sarah Ann’s salary.[viii]

The local Black community, meanwhile, had taken an active role in their education. In July 1866 “the Colored People of Waterford” purchased for $75 a vacant lot on Second Street from Quaker wheelwright Reuben E. Schooley and his wife Louisa (Lucy).[ix] They aimed to put up their own building to serve as both a school and church. They had selected five men to serve as trustees: Jonathan Cannady (Kennedy), Matthew Harvey, Alfred Craven, Henson Young and Daniel Webster Minor. “Web” Minor could read and write, but most of the others were probably illiterate. Craven and Young had been born into slavery.[x]

Money for the new building was, of course, an issue, even as construction began in early 1867. The Quakers appear to have chipped in, and the local Freedmen’s agent appealed to his superiors in May for $250 to complete the work.[xi] “. . . when the new house is complete [it] will seat and accommodate about 65 or 70 scholars, it will be filled to its fullest capacity, many can not now be admitted [in the rented space] for the want of room.”[xii] By then the building was already “under roof,” according to the trustees’ application to Waterford’s insurance company for coverage. The structure was “Made of wood and new, 24 by 30 feet with one brick flue when completed. One or two stoves.”[xiii]

The new building was still not ready for occupancy when Sarah Ann reopened school in November 1867, in the crowded rented room. But, she reported, during the summer break “the colored people [had] set themselves to work in good earnest to finish the house which is to serve the double purpose of a school-room and church. They had it plastered, the entire expense of which was borne by one man. They then had a church festival, the proceeds of which they devoted to putting in seats and a desk for me.”[xiv]

The style of the Second Street School doors, and the through tenons used in constructing the doors, suggests that the door was manufactured sometime around the late-19th century. Photo by Debbie Robison

Curiously, in June the Freedmen’s Bureau had paid local White carpenter Charles Fenton Myers $100 for “service rendered in repairing [the] School house at Waterford.” The job had taken two carpenters 20 days to complete. “Repairing” on that scale seems an unlikely activity on a building still under construction. Perhaps the term was a bureaucratic fudge deemed more likely to elicit reimbursement from headquarters.[xv]

By the end of 1868, despite setbacks and delays, the students and Sarah Ann had settled into their new building. A visitor forwarded a glowing report to the Freedmen’s Bureau:

“. . . I came to Waterford where I remained over night & half a day visiting the colored people and their school and have the [honor?] and pleasure of submitting the following with reference thereto. There are about Thirty-five (35) families of (col’d) people in and about this village almost all of whom are said to be industrious and worthy people. Their advantages in this community are very much greater than in any other visited by me so far in the counties of Fairfax & Loudoun. Almost the entire white population being wealthy Quakers who interest themselves in the welfare of all the people without regard to race. The Teacher of the (col’d) school now in operation at this place is Sarah Steer she has enrolled about (30) pupills but a smaller [number?] in attendance. The salary of the Teacher is $35.00 per month Paid entirely by the friends of Philadelphia . . . Best school house in the county I believe is this one, owned with the lot of half acre entirely by the (col’d) people worth about $800, frame house good style & painted in size 25 by 30 ft in addition to all this they have now in their associations Treasury about $200 for educational purposes whenever needed, but thus far as I understand they have not been required to contribute any thing to the salary of the Teacher. It is only necessary to say in conclusion that if all the colored people in Virginia were as these are, with such white neighbors, ‘Peace’ would reign and reconstruction might be short work . . . But . . . Waterford can take care of its colored people or rather . . . they can take care of themselves.” [xvi]

That report was probably a bit over the top, but the 1869-70 session continued to build on earlier success, as the Bureau’s monthly report for February 1869 made clear:

“Waterford School opened October 1st and was expected to close May or June. The school was funded in part by the Friends of Philadelphia and part by Freedmen who contributed $15 this month. One teacher, 50 students enrolled: 35 male, 15 female, avg attendance 36. 24 students are members of the Waterford Temperance Society. Number in Writing: Books 36, Slates 20. Sabbath school with 6 teachers and about 40 pupils.”[xvii]

The Freedmen’s Bureau had pressed for establishment of a temperance society as an important feature of its support for the local Black community.[xviii]

The October 1869 report introduced a couple of cautionary points, noting that the school had been closed for five days “to make necessary repairs to the building,” and that public sentiment toward colored schools was “not very favorable though I think improving.” It was a period in which the political tides in Loudoun and the South were running against the reformers.[xix]

1870 brought big changes to the school. Virginia had a new postwar constitution—a condition for readmission to the Union—and with it a statewide public school system. The transition marked Sarah Ann Steer’s last year at the school. “In accordance with instructions received from Philadelphia, I closed my school March 31st.”  She hoped “to be held in remembrance by those which whom I have been associated in this great work, a work in which my heart has been truly interested . . . .”[xx]

1891 Insurance Policy

Under the Loudoun County school system, subsequent teachers at “Colored School A” on Second Street were African American. The school continued to be a source of pride in the Black community, and the trustees evidently retained a role in the management of the building, possibly receiving rent from the Jefferson District School Board for use of the building. By 1884 there was concern that the building was no longer adequate. The press reported in January that “the school trustees are going to build a large school house for a graded colored school.”[xxi] From the beginning the building had also served as a place for church services but had probably never been large enough for the purpose. In March 1885 “the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Colored) of Waterford . . . have no place now that we can call a house of worship, and the building we usually occupy does not accommodate the congregation.”[xxii]

In the end the congregants decided to build their own church, and the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church on Bond Street was dedicated six years later.

The plan for an enlarged schoolhouse was never realized. The Jefferson District School Trustees purchased a lot on High Street but never built the school and ended up selling the lot.[xxiii] Instead, a recent close inspection of the current structure indicates that it was at some point largely rebuilt. The wire nails used to frame the building, attach siding and interior paneling, and construct shutters, etc.  did not come into use until well after the initial construction in 1867. And that siding is also not original; its cove-lap profile was not commonly used until the 1880s.

As yet, research has turned up no clear documentary evidence of reconstruction. Clues, though, appear on an insurance policy for the schoolhouse dated 1891, which shows that the schoolhouse, then in moderate repair, was still locally owned. At the top of the cover there is a second date, in red, of August 9, 1895. That may be the date when the insurance was discontinued, suggesting that a change occurred either in the names of local trustees or a possible transfer of ownership to the Jefferson District School Trustees. Ongoing research into insurance records, newspapers, and school reports is underway to narrow down the date of reconstruction, any ownership changes, and the reason for rebuilding the schoolhouse. Stay tuned.[xxiv]

In any event, the new building continued to serve the Black community of Waterford and its hinterland until 1957, when Loudoun consolidated its rural schools. The School Board sold the vacant structure to a private individual in 1966, and the Waterford Foundation acquired it in 1977.[xxv]

[i] O.S.B. Wall , Letter to Col S. P. Lee, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Superintendent of Education, M1913, Roll 45, p. 908, 17 Dec 1868.

[ii] John E. Divine, When Waterford & I Were Young, Waterford Foundation, 1997, p. 40.

[iii] Ferree to Fullerton, Act As. Cmr DC, Leesburg, VA, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Assistant Commissioner Files, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) M1055, Roll 5, p. 248, 15 January 1866.

[iv] Sarah A Steer, Monthly School Report, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Superintendent of Education, NARA M1056, Roll 14, p. 90, July 1866.

[v] Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, Policy 473, 31 August 1867, Library of Virginia.

[vi] Loudoun County Deed Book 5V:335, 02 Jun 1866; Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, Policy 231, 01 Apr 1869, Library of Virginia.

[vii] Smith to Manly Leesburg, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA M1913, Roll 100,  N495, 18 May 1867.

[viii] Smith to Lee, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA M1913, roll 100, N194, 22 Mar 1867.

[ix] Loudoun County Deed Book 5V:334, 29 Jul 1866.

[x] Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, Policy 17381, February 2, 1891; Loudoun County Will Book U, pp. 148 & 371

[xi] Smith to Capt S. P. Lee, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Assistant Commissioner, NARA M1048, Roll 5, p.219, 08 May 1867.

[xii] Smith to Manly, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA, M1913, Roll 100, N495, 18 May 1867.

[xiii] Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, policy #425, 27 Apr 1867, Library of Virginia.

[xiv] Friends Intelligencer, Philadelphia, PA, November 3, 1867

[xv] Charles F Meyers, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA M1913, Roll 36, pp. 232, 234, 09 May 1867.

[xvi] O.S.B. Wall, letter to Col S. P. Lee, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA, M1913, roll 45, p 908, 17 Dec 1868.

[xvii] Sarah A Steer, Monthly School Report, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Superintendent of Education, NARA M1913, roll 50, #821, Feb 1869.

[xviii] OO Howard, Circular letter to S P Lee, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, Records of Field Offices, NARA M1913, roll 048, p. 673, 23 May 1867.

[xix] Sarah A Steer, Monthly School Report, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Monthly School Report, Superintendent of Education, M1053, roll 17, p. 434, Oct 1869.

[xx] Friends Intelligencer, Philadelphia, PA, 1870.

[xxi] Alexandria Gazette, Volume 85, Number 26, 30 January 1884, p. 2.

[xxii] Loudoun Telephone, Hamilton, VA, 27 Mar 1885, p. 3.

[xxiii] Loudoun County Deed Book 6V:15, 28 Aug 1883; Loudoun County Deed Book 7I:437, 20 Sep 1894.

[xxiv] Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Loudoun County, Policy 17381, February 2, 1891, Library of Virginia.

[xxv] Loudoun County Deed Book 461:491, 31 May 1966 ; Loudoun County Deed Book 682:309, 19 Oct 1977.

Random Thoughts from the Elbow Chair of Tim Tickler Sr.

by

Tim Tickler Sr. was the nom de plume of S.B.T. Caldwell, a Wheatland resident and member of the “Young Friends Literary Society”, founded in the mid-19th century, although he was not a young man at the time, nor was he a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). A former publisher of the Genius of Liberty, Caldwell’s observations in the essay below demonstrate how quickly news could travel in an age of telegraph, railroads, and steam power, in some cases more quickly than folks were able to understand.

12th Mo 21st 1859

Random Thoughts from the Elbow Chair of Tim Tickler Sr.

Confined for many years to my chamber by the gout, cut off from the world without getting no information of passing events except what I can persuade my little flirt of a grand-daughter to read from the papers, and she soon tires, unless I can listen to love stories, or tales of murder- I am consequently badly posted in regard to matters and things in general, rather at home or abroad. My cogitations during the intervals between the twinges of the gout, have been principally upon things past, with a strong desire that I might be able to compare them with things present- but my knowledge of the present was too superficial- too unreliable- to come to any satisfactory conclusion. I have heard so many and such strange tales about the wonderful progress made and making in this age and generation from my nephew, Tim Twist, who by the way is a very fast young man, that my mind was not prepared to believe anything. There was too much of the Arabian Knights, too much of the Gulliver’s Travels, in the reports I heard to give credence to any of them. But my faith was staggered a few years ago [1852] by the sudden announcement of the death of my old favorite- Henry Clay.

My daughter Tilda came into my room with a paper in her hand, while I was suffering much with pain in my toes and feet. Say she Father- don’t disturb me child says I- but I thought you would like to hear the news- says she- well what is it? says I: Why Henry Clay is dead! Dead says I, when did he die? Yesterday morning says she! and she read an account of his death and then next on to read telegraphic dispatches showing how the news of his death was received in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Richmond, Cincinnati, Louisville, and all the principal cities for 6 or 700 miles in every direction. What paper is that says I? The Baltimore American of this morning says she- well well says I, that will do Tilda, that will do. Then I began to reflect is it possible says I that H Clay died yesterday morning in Washington and that a Balt. paper of this morning not only gives me the sad intelligence but informed us how it affected the whole community for many hundred miles around us, east west north and south. It cannot be, there must be some mistake. The newspapers are working upon the credulity of the people, the news of his death cannot yet be known to the people of Boston, Louisville, etc. It is all guess work up on the part of the Editors. They would make us believe they are omnipotent, omnipresent; that they know all things by intuition. It’s all a humbug. I don’t believe a word of it & won’t believe that H Clay is dead until I hear further. Such were my cogitations at the time. But alas it all turned out to be too true. Still it was a mystery- one that I could not fathom. I looked back to the time when it took a whole day to get the mail from Washington to Baltimore- when it required a week to et the news from Richmond up into the country, when there was no unusual delay occasioned by bad roads and high waters- and could not believe that this progressive age had accomplished such wonders. 

My mind was much exercised for a week or two upon this mysterious development- It appear to me so much like a dream and it passed off and I have hardly given it a thought since- and have heard but little that is going on in the outside world since until very recently when the whole community was suddenly startled by the movements of a fanatic by the name of Brown, Old Ossawattamie Brown I think they call him– There was something so romantic in the whole affair that my witch of a granddaughter has read nothing else to me since it happened.

She has thrown away her love stories and while my daughter Tilda is bathing my feet with Radway, the little sprite sits on a stool beside me and reads all the news from Harpers Ferry and Charlestown from the Baltimore paper which gives all the news of the preceding day at either of those places- by which I learn that monomaniac Brown came to Harpers Ferry with a hand full of men 22 I think all told, black and white, took possession of the US arsenal laid the town under siege stopped the cars upon the Rail Road- blockaded the Bridges- guarded the various avenues to the place – made prisoners of some 50 or 60 of the citizens and government officers- broke the telegraph wires– went 5 or 6 miles in the country- captured some of the principal farmers- brought them with their servants prisoners of war to town in their own carriages and struck a panic thro’ the whole surrounding neighborhood- this was all done on Sunday night and Monday morning – Presto-

On Tuesday the whole state was in motion and by noon of that day Gov. Wise with the military from Richmond, Alexandria and Washington was there- Brown still holding his prisoners as hostages and resisting the authorities until the US Marines, by aid of battering ram broke open his fortress and compelled this modern Leonidus to capitulate. See this occurred almost within hearing of my chamber and I knew nothing of it until Tuesday evening when Tilda brought in my supper and told me the whole story and much more as she has heard it from Tim Twist just from the Ferry- Tis no such thing says I, Till- I don’t believe a word of it- It is not probable that Gov. Wise could get the news and come two or three hundred miles with a large military force and be on the spot before I, living within a stones throw of the place, should know anything about it- It is just one of Tim’s big stories- but before I had fully expressed by disbelief in the improbable tale my neighbour Crazon came in and confirmed the whole story with some additions and amendments, I was then compelled to believe against my own better judgment- for I knew him to be a truthful and reliable man- still ‘twas strange, ‘twas wonderful; Thinks to myself- O Steam & Electricity behold thy power–Had I ventured 25 years ago that I should live to witness such progress in the transmission of thought by Electricity- or such rapid locomotion by steam- I should have pronounced it all a humbug. 

The visionary schemes of some wild hare-brained romances- Now I am compelled to believe it a living reality- for I have listened to the daily reports of the last six or 8 weeks which has confirmed it all- It forms a part of the eventful history of the times and I am prepared to believe anything, everything no matter how unreasonable. If told that a Balloon from Australia and one from California were now sailing through the air showering gold dust upon our land I should believe it and call for Tilda to push my chair to the window that I might see the stranger sight with my own eyes- and should probably hold out my hand to catch some of the precious metal as it fell-there is nothing so wild, nothing so visionary, nothing so improbable as to create a doubt in my mind of its reality- yes Brown has been arrested, twice, convicted, condemned, and executed, by due course of law and without the aid of Judge Lynch. 

Since this Brown excitement has measurably subsided my mind has been particularly exercised upon the power and influence of Fashion Fickle Fashion whose tyrannical sway over her votaries is more powerful than Steam, more wonderful than Electricity- yes I am ok? ok! ok! The gout The gout, More Radway Tilda- more Radway…….

Find other stories like this in To Talk is Treason by Divine, Souders & Souders available here.