The Muse: December 2005From the PresidentWe are nearing the end of another great year. I hope you all have had a chance to drop in during our party hours and see the interesting decorations. I want to thank all of you who have helped your museum move forward during the past year. I won’t go into all of the many wonderful things that have been accomplished this year, you already know that. With your continual help, next year will be even better. A happy holiday season to you all and may God grant you peace. Mary Frances Olinger, President You are invited to a Christmas Open House at the MuseumTuesday, December 6, 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.Come by to enjoy the decorations and refreshments. The "halls will be decked"! The Billy Hunt Singers will present songs of the season, and Bob Faught, author of Amherst Men in Gray, will sign his book for your special Christmas gift (available for purchase). Some mystery guests from the past may appear. Treat yourself to some Christmas fun, and bring a friend! Especially for the HolidaysThe Museum will be displaying a number of special pieces on loan to us for the holidays. Christmas toys are the delight of childhood memories, and several members have allowed us to show you some of their particularly meaningful toys of Christmases past. Indoor board games such as checkers (on loan from Mrs. William Olinger) and Monopoly® (on loan from Mrs. John Faris) could keep a child’s interest for hours during the cold winter months. During World War I and shortly thereafter, young boys were fascinated with the idea of being a sailor, as evidenced by the sailor suit (gift of Mr. Marvin Cash) and these two playthings (below; doll at left, "Willie," belonged to Mrs. Olinger’s father; doll at right belonged to the father of Col. Charles Hamble, USAF, ret.). Our Election Day Cake Event will be held (surprise!) on Election Day, November 8. Donations to the Museum will be accepted at polling locations all over Amherst County. We’ll be giving away cakes at the end of the day! What's New in the Library
Tax Deduction Anyone?Our "compulsory tithes," known as income taxes, can be lessened by tax deductible donations to non-profit groups. The Amherst Museum and Historical Society qualifies legally as one of these, serving to preserve artifacts and memories of Amherst County for our own generation and future generations. We hope the Museum will be on your list of donations to worthy causes when tax time rolls around next year. Your donation will need to be made before January 1, 2006 to qualify as a deduction for the 2005 tax year. Thank you! Below, in 1989 Mack Ludlam donated this piece of currency to the Museum. Issued in 1862, it is no longer valid for payment of today’s taxes!  Thank You!Many thanks to all who helped with the Election Day Cake Event. Some baked delicious cakes, and some worked the polls. All monies raised are appreciated. Thanks too to the organizers of our Van Tour on October 29. Three vans and 24 people enjoyed Elon and beyond. It was a beautiful day! Spring House Tour UpdateSeveral historic homes and two historic churches in the Lowesville area will be open to visitors who join the Spring House Tour on Saturday, April 29, 2006. One of these, mentioned in the last issue of The Muse, is Rockmill Farm, a plantation house built in 1824 for William Macon Waller and his second wife, Sarah Garland. It has been restored as a bed and breakfast inn by John and Susie Shimp. A smaller house on the property, also restored by its owners, may be seen on tour day. Another home scheduled for the tour is Forest Hill, begun before the American Revolution, interior woodwork enhanced by feather painting attributed to the efforts of soldiers, for an earlier scion of the Waller family. Doors in the house have their original brass locks. Its owners are Bill and Claudia Tucker. Nysalta, a home built for Cornelius S. Tucker and his wife, Sallie Strickley in the early 1890's, with the charming architectural attributes of that era, will be open also. Nysalta is owned by Preston and Martha Tucker. Preston Tucker and Bill Tucker are grandsons of Cornelius S. Tucker. Ivy Hill United Methodist Church, built on land donated by the Waller family in 1832, is one of the churches on the tour. In 1882 Charles Tucker and Samuel Kirkpatrick replaced its original frame building with a brick structure for which they formed the bricks from field clay. Members of Central Baptist Church, another lovely church built to completion in 1884/85 with bricks made from soil in a nearby field and lumber hauled over muddy roads from the train depot, will host a luncheon for the Spring House Tour. For further information contact Holly Mills, Amherst Museum Director. Welcome to our new members!
Recent Acquisitions Above is a snippet listing "a barrel of corn" and "mending of shoes" from an 1840s ledgers recently donated to the Museum by Dick Bennett of Madison Heights, VA. Mr. Bennett began collecting postal cancellations in the 1940s and upon his move to Virginia in 1959, began to focus his collection on Virginia. He has donated these to the Museum as well. Several central Virginia postmarks included are a manuscript postmark, Dispatch, Virginia, 1876; Amherst, Virginia, 1901; Tye River, Virginia, 1905; and Sweet Briar, Virginia, 1907.  Early Roads of Virginia and Amherst County, Part 3from a lecture by Charles Hamble, delivered March 17, 2005(Please note that dates prior to 1750 are identified as "O.S." or Old Style) Various points along the roads created natural places of commerce, especially ordinaries, where travellers could obtain meals and lodging, and ferries for travelling and crossing the rivers. The court orders for 3 April 1780 includes details of some of these commercial activities. The following licensed to keep an Ordinary: John Henry Goodwin at his house near Lynch's Ferry; Samuel McGehee at his house near Rose's Mill. The Several Ferry Keepers in this County are authoried to Receive for the Services performed at the Respective Ferries 24 prices on what was Established by Law. The Court proceeded to Rate the Prices to be paid for Diet at the Ordinarys in this County, to wit: A Warm Diet £2 10 0 A Cold Diet 1 10 0 Good Whiskey by the Gill 1 10 0 West India Rum by the Gill 2 2 0 Good Brandy by the Gill 1 16 0 Three Gills of Rum made into Toddy 8 8 0 Three Gills of Brandy made into Toddy 7 4 0 One Quart of Whiskey Bumbo 4 16 0 A Night's Lodging with Clean Sheets on a Feather Bed 1 12 0 Stabledge for a Horse Twelve Hours 1 12 0 Pasturage for a Horse Twelve Hours 1 12 0 Corn or Oats by the Gallon 2 0 0 Fodder by the Bundle 4 0 Cyder by the Gallon 2 0 0The May Court for 1781 addressed allowances for ferry keepers. The Different Ferry Keepers in the County are allowed to Receive at the Different Ferrys four Dollars for the passage of a man and four for a horse, and so in porportion for other Services performed at the said Ferrys. At the court held 10 May 1884 one finds: It appearing to the court, from the certified copy of an order of the road supervisor that the footbridge lately rebuilt by R.N. Ellis across the Pedlar River at Pedlar Mills at a cost of $50.00 is approved... The court proceeds to order the Board of Supervisors to issue a warrant on the Treasurer for this work. What follows is a commentary on 1811 road conditions related by Elijah Fletcher as he travelled from Alexandria to Charlottesville and from there to Amherst County. 24 May 1811 -- ...entered the stage coach in company with 3 Virginia gentlemen.... The day was rainy, the roads were muddy, and the prospect of viewing the country as we past along not delightful, for we past through nothing but barren, poor, uncultivated land,... 50 miles to Fredericksburg.... Here we tarried over night.... At 8 o'clock we started in a western direction, passed through Orange County, within about 4 miles of Monpelier, President Madison's seat; saw the manner of teamsters travelling by carrying their own and their horses provision and at night kindling up a fire beside the road a making the open air the house of entertainment, saw also the manner of rolling tobacco by putting a pole for an axletree through the middle of the hogshead, fixing [shafts?] to each end, putting in horses and so rolling it upon its hoops two or 3 hundred miles to market. At sunset we broke our carriage, took supper and tarried till 10 o'clock before we got our carriage mended, then on all night without making any stop but to change horses once. Got no sleep. The latter part of the night was rainy, roads bad. We ran onto a stump and broke the swingle tree or what you call whipple tree. About 7 o'clock in the morning we hove in sight of the famous Monticello....We arrived a little before [torn] at Char., a village of about 400 houses, courthouse, and good taverns...I took breakfast and went on six miles farther, where I left the stage and my baggage at a tavern, and walked about a mile from the road to Esquire Garland... My expenses from Alexandria here was about 25 dollars. For the first 50 miles stage fare was 12 1/2 cents pr. mile and the rest of the way 10. I bought some cloathes before I left Alexandria, and I bought them cheaper than I could in Vt. In the early records, certain roads were identified by their special functions. One such road was a "rolling road." This was a land cleared and smoothed so that hogsheads filled with tobacco could be placed horizontally and an axle installed through the barrel so that oxen could pull the barrel like a big wheel. The diary of the Rev. Robert Rose mentions his clearing a rolling road from his mill on Hat Creek on two miles to connect to a road to his plantation, Bear Garden. Another unique highway was the turnpike. Possibly the first government authorized turnpike was in Augusta County in 1772. The road was funded with 300 pounds from the colony, and 900 pounds raised by a lottery. After 1785 many companies were formed to build turnpikes around the state. The tolls were set by law. In Amherst County, there were several short turnpikes whose operation lasted into the twentieth century. In Madison Heights, a turnpike ran from Sally's Tavern down the bluff to ford through the James River to Percevill Island and up the island to Horse Ford Road in Lynchburg. Another short toll road ran from the present highway 130 to Pedlar Mills. In more modern times, a turnpike connected Lynchburg to Salem and was the first macadam (compacted crushed stone) toll road in the state. Here at Amherst Court House, the Toll Gate House stood on the west side of North Main Street across from the Ganaway House. The small house was built in 1857 as a tenant house of the Brody plantation. In time, the house was occupied by a Mr. Rucker and used as his residence as a keeper of the toll road. The toll road ran for two miles north - a part of the Old Stage Road. Mr. Rucker was responsible for collecting tolls and for maintenance of the road using a horse drawn scraper and pick and shovel. The charge: horseback, one cent; wheels, two cents. More tolls were collected here; in the front yard was a locust tree "the hangin’ tree" purportedly used by a lynch mob about 1900. While dirt was the most common road surface, other methods were used to raise the traffic out of the mud. The best solution was a macadam rock packed tightly in their 6 to 9 inch layers. These roads were very labor intensive until the advent of steam powered machinery. A corduroy road was constructed by placing logs crosswise and covered with dirt to form a road bed, particularly over a swampy area. Similarly, a plank road was built by placing sawed planks crosswise on a log base. The advent of railroads in the mid 19th Century had a great effect on road construction. The rails essentially stopped the development of any large intrastate network of highways. The railroad was cheaper to build and the iron horse ran faster than the skin and bone horse. Another side effect was that colleges taught railroad construction instead of highway engineering. While the state legislature tinkered with road laws through the 19th century, it was not until the appearance of the automobile around 1900 that the public demanded road improvements. Although the General Assembly had established a state Board of Public Works Commission with a Principal Engineer to oversee roads, bridges, and canals, it was not until 1906-90 years later that the first Highway Commission was established with a $16,000 budget (perhaps enough to build 200 feet of modern paved, two-lane road). The first highway project of the new commission-a gravel and sand road from Jamestown to Williamsburg. At the same time the legislators saw a good thing coming down that pike and created auto registration in 1910: $5 fee for autos under 20 HP $10 fee for autos 20 HP - 45 HP $20 fee for autos over 45 HP The legislator also laid down the first speed: 20 MPH in open country/8 MPH in town. In 1910 there were over 3000 autos registered in Virginia. By 1913 more than 10,000 cars and trucks were registered. As the autos increased speed, the legislative process picked up. Virginia approved its first state highway system in 1918 with 4002 miles of road. The first asphalt paved road in Virginia was laid in 1924. The Secondary Road System was established by the state in 1932, thus removing the responsibilty of the road system from the counties which had held that prerogative for over 300 years. The commonwealth acquired 36,000 miles of roadway, 70% of which was dirt. The federal and state interstate system of 43,000 miles was the last major effort in highway construction. The roads were as important back in the colonial days as they are today. The roads were also expensive back then-in terms of time, effort and manpower. Roads not only tie us together today, but lead us back through history. Below, the equestrian traffic takes precedence over the automobile and pedestrian traffic during this Main Street parade in Downtown Amherst. Circa 1940s-1950s  |