The Muse: August 2007

About Mr. Barker:

Mr. Bill Barker of Colonial Williamsburg has performed as Thomas Jefferson at the White House, the Palace of Versailles, and throughout the United States, Great Britain, and France. He has been featured as Jefferson in several magazines including Time, People, Southern Living and the Colonial Williamsburg Journal.

Bill received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Villanova University and attended the University of Pennsylvania. He resembles Mr. Jefferson in uncanny ways. He is exactly Jefferson’s height (a shade under 6'3"), almost exactly the same weight (180 pounds), and has the same reddish hair and the same fair skin that is prone to freckling. He exudes Jefferson’s brilliance, his felicity of expression and aristocratic reticence. Add the hint of a Virginia accent and you have the very model of one of America’s Founding Fathers.

About the Meeting:

Mr. Bill Barker of Colonial Williamsburg will be in Amherst County on Friday and Saturday, September 14 and 15, 2007. Bill has portrayed Thomas Jefferson in a variety of settings both here and abroad (see above). On Friday, September 14, Bill will visit many of the Amherst County Schools.

On Saturday, September 15, Bill will be the keynote speaker at the annual membership meeting of the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society. The meeting will be at Winton Country Club at 11:00 a.m. A buffet lunch will be served ($12 per person) following a brief business meeting. The program will follow the meal.

Members, feel free to wear colonial clothing to add to the festivities. We expect other visitors from the past, so bring your camera, too! Seating is limited so make your reservations NOW. Call the Museum, 946-9068.

The Museum Director has several projects in the works that are in need of a volunteer(s). These projects are designed to preserve historical information about Amherst County and also make the information more accessible to the public.

Among these projects are the indexing of old Amherst newspapers from microfilm, transcription of Amherst County legislative petitions from 1776-1806, data entry of cemetery recordings and digital photography of old documents.

Much of the data entry can be worked in the comfort of your home at your own computer. Some of the work would be performed at the museum--on your own schedule.

There is much Amherst history out there. We need help making it available.

Charles Hamble, Board President

Want to catch up on some Amherst--Jefferson reading? Try From Days Gone By. $4.50 in the Museum Gift Shop.

• St. Luke’s Cemetery, Pedlar Mills, CD, photographs of the markers and an alphabetized inventory of markers.
• Frank Padget Day, May 2007, CD, containing the Power Point presentation created by Amber Richie.
• Goochland County, Virginia: Court Order Book, 1731-1735, compiled by Ann K. Bloomquist. Heritage Books, 2006.
• Virginia Slave Births Index, 1853-1865, volume 1: A-C. edited by Leslie Anderson Morales, Alexandria Library; Heritage Books, 2007.
• Religious Freedom Petitions and other Legislative Petitions relating to Amherst County, CD.
• Virginia Historical Index, Earl Gregg Swem, 1936. Reprinted 2003 by Genealogical Publishing (two volumes). Original publication 1936.
• Campbell County Deed Book I: 1782-1784, by Phillip Wayne Rhodes.
• Our Mayo Family Genealogy and Heritage, by Stephanie Mayo Scott, on the occasion of the Mayo Family Reunion, June 2007.
• Records from family Bibles including the families of Roberts, Steen and McIvor.
• Maps Relating to Virginia, by Earl G. Swem, VSLA, 1989, reprinted from the Bulletin of the Virginia State Library.
• Buckingham Burials: A Survey of Cemeteries in Buckingham County, Virginia, vol. 3. Willow Bend Books, 2007.
• Marriages of Orange County, Virginia, 1757-1880, by Therese A. Fisher. Willow Bend Books, 2006.
• Images of America: Gloucester County, by Sara E. Lewis. Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
• Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary, by Martha W. McCartney. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007.

Edward McIvor of Madison Heights donated two ledgers from W.C. Steen’s store and post office, which used to be located on the ground floor of the old YMCA building (no longer existing). Dates of transactions go back to the early 1920s. Goods include such items as sugar, jelatin, pickle spice, vinegar, seed, rakes, leather, various types of cloth and thread, peaches, cabbage and apples. Elon District School had an account with the store and purchased chalk and erasers among other things. Mr. McIvor also donated the Roberts and Steen family Bibles.

Mr. Bill Tucker of Lynchburg donated a framed clipping from an 1886 program from the Amherst Opera House and a vinyl recording of the 1964 Amherst County High School Band and Chorus.

Julie Thomas of Amherst has given the Museum a number of photographs of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp #2356, today the site of the Amherst Wayside on US 29 east of Amherst. Also included in the gift is a postcard of the Bowman "Tourist Home" that used to be located near the 29/60 traffic circle.

Ronnie King of Monroe has donated a digital scan of his photograph of A.B. Dodd’s school bus that served the Pedlar Mills school. The school is no longer standing, having been washed away by flooding in the early 1970s.

A collection of papers relating to the Carpenter-Cash family of Amherst County, dating from 1853-1895, has been donated to the Museum. Many of these are receipts dealing with tobacco crops and sales, along with several letters, school compositions and other documents. Please note: An advance appointment of three working days notice must be arranged to see this collection.

Several World War II era items have been donated by Mary Frances Olinger of Amherst. Included in the donation are two almanacs, 1919 and 1944, a merchant’s ruler/calculator, a ration book and a military issue soldier’s sewing kit.

The Museum has also received two copies of The Monelison, 1930 and 1932, from Alice Hall Burnett.

Louise Hume, of Monroe, has graciously loaned to the Museum several items of special interest during this Jamestown anniversary year. On exhibit is a small bowl, of clay pottery, painted by the daughter of a Powhatan chief, with a key to understanding the words painted on it; also displayed with it is a bud vase depicting Pocahontas, a souvenir of her grandfather’s trip to Jamestown in 1907 where he attended a special communion service sponsored by the Virginia dioceses of the Episcopal Church. The 1907 service program is also exhibited, with the service program for the 2007 communion service sponsored by the Virginia Episcopal dioceses. A salt-glazed limited edition pitcher (#163 of 2000, Jamestown 2007 series) from the Williamsburg Pottery is also on loan for the occasion.

In May, 1957, seventeen buildings in Amherst County were on the Jamestown Festival Historic Homes Tour. What has happened to them? Geddes continues to be a private residence.

• St. Mark’s Church, Clifford, continues to hold weekly Sunday services.
• St. Luke’s Church, Pedlar Mills, has recently begun having weekly Sunday services.
• The Glebe/Minor Hall, Clifford, continues to be privately owned. Red Hill has been put on the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places.
• Tusculum is on the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places. It is currently being relocated to Sweet Briar College (see program at right).
• Winton is now on the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places. It is no longer a private residence and serves as a country club.
• Mountain View/Spencer Mountain has also been placed on Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places.
• Brick House/Garland House has been listed on the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places. It continues to be a private residence.
• Seven Oaks was torn down in 2004.
• Mountain View in the Town of Amherst was torn down in the 1990s.
• Boxley continues to be a private residence
• Sweet Briar House was added to the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks and also the National Register of Historic Places and later became the cornerstone for the Sweet Briar historic district.
• Edge Hill continues to be a private residence.
• Haywood Plantation burned down in the early 1960s and the couple living there died in the fire.
• Kenmore continues to be privately owned.
• San Angelo was heavily damaged by fire in 1979.

• 2:00 p.m. Introduction and Overview-Welcome Home, Maria Antoinette Crawford!

  Kathleen Kilpatrick, ’74, director, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, will introduce the architectural significance of Tusculum--one of only a handful of houses in Virginia to retain its listing on the National Register of Historic Places even after it is rebuilt.

• 2:15 p.m. Session 1 - Giving Tusculum a New Home

  Travis McDonald, director of restoration, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, will discuss the original building methods and the anticipated reconstruction and restoration of the Georgian-styled dwelling.

• 2:45 p.m. Session 2 - Life within Tusculum

  Christian Carr, director of Sweet Briar College Museum and assistant professor of arts management, will address the family’s life at Tusculum, including the home’s furnishings.

• 3:15 p.m. Session 3 - What Tusculum Can Tell Us Today

  Dr. Elizabeth Monroe, project archaeologist at the College of William & Mary, will discuss the archaeological evaluation of Tusculum-an eighteenth- through twentieth-century plantation.

• 3:45 p.m. Session 4 - Valuing Tusculum as a Part of our History

  Timothy Robinson, owner and president of Heartland Millwork and Restoration and a 27-year veteran of historic home restoration, was hired by the College to complete the dismantling effort. He will discuss the unique features of this property including the fooling and techniques used in the original construction.

• 4:15 p.m. Session 5 - Preserving Tusculum for the Future

  Kathleen Kilpatrick, ’74 will continue her engaging commentary on historic preservation and environmental sustainability as a focus of the project.

• 4:45 p.m. Closing Remarks and Tour

  In concluding our study day of Tusculum, we will visit the intended re-construction site as well as the Dairy Barn, where Tusculum is currently stored. Closing remarks will offer discussion on how the College will use Tusculum as a community initiative.

For more information, please contact Christian Carr, Director, Sweet Briar Museum 434.381.6246 or ccarr@sbc.edu

What do you like about baseball? August in Amherst County has brought the Dixie Youth League World Series and with it a multitude of baseball fans! For the occasion the Museum’s voting booth is now taking votes for What Do You Like About Baseball? Whether it’s peanuts, pitching or hot dogs, here’s your chance to let us know. Alongside the booth is a scrapbook of Dixie Youth League photos from the past fifty years of Dixie Youth in Amherst County.

If you’ve been to Jamestown this summer for its 400th Anniversary, you may have seen the new Archaearium. With so much to learn about how to find the past by digging into it, the Museum will have archaeology workshops for the younger set on Saturdays in August. Each Saturday between 10 a.m. to 12 noon there will be a volunteer to assist youngsters with sampling some archaeology techniques in our own back yard. Come and see!

The first of three programs in a series designed to introduce the younger generation to the wonders of archaeology, Digging the Dirt on Amherst, was held on Saturday, August 11 at the Museum. Two more programs remain in the series, Brick-A-Brack will be held on Saturday, August 18 and A Tree Ring Circus will be held on Saturday, August 25. The programs are free; but due to limited space, advance reservations are required. The program includes a learning session, some hands on lab work, and refreshment.

While the children were digging in their own archaeology pit, some of the parents decided they would not be left out of the fun. Adult digging began at the site determined to be the location of the old metal roofed stable. Take a look at what they found!

The town we know today as Amherst was referred to as The Oaks in 1800. The court was established in the town in 1808, and thereafter it was referred to as Amherst Court House, and today as simply Amherst. The centennial of its incorporation will be in 2010 and the Amherst County Museum & Historical Society plans to publish a book about the town. Make sure your stories about the town don’t get left out! This is your opportunity to contribute to the town’s history! Contact the editor, Mary Frances Olinger or the Museum at 946-9068 for further information about this project.

We are in the process of planning our fall tour--with a bit of Civil War history about it. Can you guess where we’ll be going? Watch for more details as plans develop in future newsletters and on our website!

• Saturday, August 18 - Speed-the-Plough Springhouse Conservation project living history interpretations.
• Saturday, August 18 - Brick-A-Brack, from 10 a.m. until noon. Children’s archaeology program. Limited to eight participants, so reserve your child’s place by calling ahead at 946-9068.
• Saturday, August 25 - A Tree Ring Circus, from 10 a.m. until noon. Children’s archaeology program. Limited to eight participants, so reserve your child’s place by calling ahead at 946-9068.
• Thursday, August 30 - A Jamestown 2007 event sponsored by the Amherst Rotary Club. Excerpts from Virginia’s early businessmen, as recounted by Amherst County businessmen of today. Dessert and coffee will be served. 7 p.m. at Winton. Free. Come join us!
• Saturday, September 15 - Annual Membership meeting at Winton.
• Saturday, September 22 - 2 to 5 p.m., Tusculum seminar at Sweet Briar College.

• Saturday, August 18 - Nelson County Museum of History sponsors a program of Hurricane Camille. Details at www.historicnelson.org.
• Saturday, September 8 - Bedford County Genealogical Fair. For more details see www.bgsociety.org.
• Sunday, September 23 - Lynchburg Historical Foundation sponsors their annual Historic Homes Tour and Patron Party. More information is at www.lynchburghistoricalfoundation.org.
• Saturday, October 13 - Botetourt Genealogy Fair. Details at www.rootsweb.com/~vaboteto/fair.html.
• Friday & Saturday, November 2 & 3 - Virginia Genealogical Society Fall Conference at the Roanoke Public Library, Virginia Room. For more information see www.vgs.org.

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