The Muse: February 2007

We are starting the new year with a new committee--Children’s Activities. Valli Ritchie is chair and the board liaison is Martha Cox. This is an energetic group and the ideas and energy they exude are exciting! Partnering some activities with the library (Children’s Services liaison Maxine Gasser) will enable us to broaden our audience and bring a knowledge of Amherst County’s fascinating past to the Museum’s future supporters!

Exciting things are happening in the library and archives as well. You can take a sneak peek at some of the new materials coming into our research library. Our members receing hard copy will be treated to a 60 year old correspondence about our Amherst apples. We also thank our volunteers and donors (we’ll need your help completing our volunteer list!) and Amherst County has yet another Virginia Landmark! Important calendar dates and "Looking For’s" complete the newsletter. Keep reading to keep abreast of goings-on in this busy place!

Holly Mills, Director

Have you been wondering about what kind of winter lecture we have planned for you? Well, wonder no more! Long time local journalist Bob Wimer will be presenting "Stonewall Jackson’s Passage Through Lynchburg" on Saturday, March 17 at 10 a.m. at the Museum. With the rising interest in the restoration of the Packet Boat Marshall at Lynchburg’s Riverside Park and Amherst County’s shared James River heritage with the city, you can expect to hear more about James River activities for later this year as well!

This year’s Annual Historic House Tour (Saturday, April 21) will center on the town of Amherst. Two hundred years ago the County of Amherst was divided and the northern portion became Nelson County. It was shortly after that time that the commissioners met and decided to form a new center of justice for Amherst County. They unanimously agreed upon the community known as The Oaks. It would later be called Amherst Court House, and today is the town of Amherst.

Yes, this is the book so many have been waiting for! Sherrie Snead McLeRoy has been working on the next edition of Strangers In Our Midst, the popular Amherst County book about free blacks. After many years of being out of print, this information packed resource will soon be available again, but with more! It is scheduled for release in March or April. Mrs. McLeRoy would like to hear from you if you have have suggestions, comments, or information. You can contact her at smcleroy@texoma.net

• Genealogy of the Lost Robert White Watts and His Descendants, by Lawrence A. Watts, Jr. A Christmas 2006 special donation from the author! Includes index, color photographs and source notes. A few tidbits to entice Watts descendants--color photographs of the Robert W. Watts home and store in Lynchburg and the Shelton Ellis Watts cemetery with gravesites marked and indexed! This is a research must for Watts family members who for years have been seeking substantial genealogical context for Robert White Watts!
• The Museum has recently received a donation of a personal library of Virginiana from David French! This collection is a wealth of collected volumes of natural history and recorded history, geology, flora and fauna, colonial and revolutionary. There are also some works on Virginia history for children and some lovely pictorials. A portion of the collection is focused on Amherst County as well. The David French Collection is a rare jewel of collecting of local history interest, something a bit more rare than the traditional book collecting practice done by collectors of showpieces. Over one hundred seventy volumes were collected with a genuine love of the subject! When the collection is fully inventoried, a list of the books will be put on the Museum’s website under the Library link.
• New member Betty Ellis has been busy with her research, and has shared copies with us! What has she been researching?
  • The Thornhill Wagon Company of Lynchburg
  • McDaniel family
  • Turpin family
  • West family
  • and much more material on related people and places!

A message from Food Lion:

Dear Members,

Food Lion, Community Affairs Department

• Mr. and Mrs. William McLeRoy
• Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb Nixon
• Town of Amherst
• Lawrence A. Watts, Jr. (securities value)

• William S. Cage Foundation
• ExxonMobil (courtesy of Bill Nine)
• Mr. and Mrs. William Mays

• Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hall
• Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hamble
• Doris Johnson
• Phillip Miller
• Mr. and Mrs. Rex Pixley
• Donald Selvage
• Phyllis and Wesley Shrader
• Shirley Snead
• Dr. Herbert Thornhill
• Patricia Walters

• Dr. and Mrs. Duncan Augustine
• Thomas Fulcher
• Mr. and Mrs. William Hopkins
• Mr. and Mrs. Charles Midkiff
• Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Mills
• James Morrison
• Mr. and Mrs. William Nine
• Mr. and Mrs. William Olinger
• James Robertson
• Mr. and Mrs. Bailey G. Wilkins
• Leona Wilkins

• Amherst County Retired Teachers Association
• Dr. and Mrs. Gregory Armstrong
• Virginia Babcock
• Forrest Gager
• John Gordon
• Eleanor Hartless
• Dorothy Harvey
• Bill Hathaway and Lyl Wray
• Don Hedrick
• Dr. and Mrs. William Kershner
• William Kramer
• Helen Massie
• Mr. and Mrs. Carlton Mays
• Joyce Moore
• Mr. and Mrs. Dick Powell
• Joyce Rumburg
• Carroll Strickland
• Caroline Tucker
• West of the Falls Chapter, Colonial Dames, XVII Century
• Mazie Wilson

• Mary Landon Brugh
• Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Butler
• Louise Cash
• Harold Dupuy
• Eugenia Farrar
• Amanda Fielding
• Robert Floyd, Sr.
• Calvin Garrett
• Betty Glass
• Juanita Henderson
• Carol Hendricksen
• Gloria Higginbotham
• Warren Howard
• George Lenz
• Eugenia Myers
• Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nilsen
• R. Wayne Ogden
• Elizabeth Payne
• Robert Sales
• Rosie Scales
• Mr. and Mrs. E. Reinman Shober, Jr.
• Patricia Sullivan
• Ed Tinsley
• Mr. and Mrs. H.S. Vanhoozier
• Diantha Wagner
• Mary L. Wilhelm
• James Williams
• Patricia Woodard

• AREVA
• Boxley
• Lowes
• Masonry class at Amherst County High School

• Ted Hughes of Chalklevel Carriage and Buggie Works

• Nadine Picard

Thank You to the Village Garden Club! for keeping our gardens among the loveliest in town and decorating the Museum so beautifully for the holidays!

And a Special THANK YOU to All of Our VOLUNTEERS!

Of course, it goes without saying that all of a board members have done countless hours of volunteer work even outside of the board room: Martha Cox, Betty Glass, Charles Hamble, Cynthia Hicks, Ed Hopkins, Steve Martin, Susan Mays, Holcomb Nixon, Mary Frances Olinger, Kathryn Pixley, Leona Wilkins.

Thanks also to:

• Frances Butler
• Mr. and Mrs. Gary Caldwell
• Jean Carter
• Laura Crews
• Rosemary Dunne
• Mr. and Mrs. Michael Esposito
• Judy Faris
• Marie Harris
• Dorothy Harvey
• Bill Hathaway
• Jean Higginbotham
• Lynn Kable
• Charlotte Kent
• Betsy Langhans
• Bill Nine
• Mr. and Mrs. Ron Ritchie
• Mr. and Mrs. Ron Sweeney
• Mary Wilhelm

(This list is compiled from what has been recorded in the volunteer log. If you have donated time to the Museum and do not see it here, please give us a call at 946-9068 so that it can be recorded!)

Amherst County has added yet another property to its list of Virginia Landmarks. On 6 December 2006, Forest Hill was added to the state’s register of historic properties. Forest Hill is owned by Bill and Claudia Tucker.

Forest Hill (also referred to as the Fourth Till), is a white frame house that sits on a rise overlooking the Temperance area. Its red roof can be seen for miles around. William Waller built this "I" house around 1820 before he erected the house at Rock Mill Farm again. The site is on land first patented by Robert Rose.

Forest Hill remained in the Waller family until 1913 when it was sold to Lipscomb Wood. Subsequently, Thomas Tucker bought the land and house in 1956.

Over the years the house has been extensively modified and is now a "T" shaped structure. Rooms have been demolished and new wings added, consequently one of the chimneys is near the center of the building. The entryway has double doors topped by a lunette with Gothic arch muntin bars. The living room has exceptionally fine detail in the wainscoating and fireplace. Some of the floors are of the old, original pine.

At one time there was a one-acre formal garden off the front porch. The outbuildings include a smokehouse as old as the house, an icehouse and several barns.

Above, the new Virginia Landmarks property, Forest Hill, stands in the Temperance community of Amherst County. The home was featured in our 2006 Historic House Tour.

• Betty Elliott, Lynchburg, VA
• Martha Kirby, Durham, NC
• J Derrick Morse, Anderson, SC
• Rubinette Miller Niemann, Abingdon, VA
• Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wallace, Madison Heights, VA

Can you help us find the family of David Freeman? His funerary flag and ribbons have been found in Madison Heights without any contact information. A service man’s funerary honors are generally a family’s prized possessions. How these came to be separated from his family is unknown to us, but we would like to have them reunited if possible. If you knew David Freeman and knew about his connections to Amherst County, we would like to know, too. Please contact the Museum or tersa529@aol.com

Currently the Museum is exhibiting County Fairs (with first place ribbons that go back to 1912!) and Bateau Festivals! Local artist Bill England is generously loaning us several paintings of bateaux. One of these is a new acquisition. Stop by and check out the point system for how to judge a pie, too!

We are still seeking a millstone for outdoor exhibit at the Museum. If you know of an Amherst County millstone in need of a home, please let us know! Call the Museum at (434) 946-9068.

Saturday, February 10 at 2 p.m. -- Victorian Valentines activities for the younger set. Refreshments, crafts, door prizes! Co-sponsored in conjunction with the Amherst County Public Library.

Saturday, March 17 at 10 a.m. -- Bob Wimer will speak for our Winter Lecture. His topic will be Stonewall Jackson’s Funeral Procession in Lynchburg.

And don’t forget our annual Historic House Tour scheduled for Saturday, April 21 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Well, lunch maybe... This year’s annual meeting will be truly revolutionary! Ed Hopkins has been working with Amherst County Public Schools to arrange for the Museum to have a very special guest speaker for our annual meeting on September 15. This is an event that you won’t want to miss, so be sure to mark your calendars now!

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