The Muse: May 2001

Museum Birthday Celebration
Saturday June 2 - 10:00-4:00

It’s finally here - time to celebrate the Museum’s 25th Anniversary. Everyone is invited to come out to the Museum and participate in the festivities. This will be a day full of activities and events that you certainly won’t want to miss. There will be fun for people and children of all ages.

Activities will include:

• Historic craft displays including buggy making, basket making, weaving, lace making, masonry and more.
• A local geologist will be here to identify Amherst County rocks and minerals
• Longtime Amherst residents will share stories of growing up in the County
• Local music groups including the Central Virginia Community Choral Ensemble
• A flag ceremony presented by local Boy Scouts
• A time capsule will be prepared for storage or burial at the museum
• Announcement of essay and art contest winners
• Drawing of Dr. Rich painting raffle
• A celebration birthday cake

AND

The grand opening of the Museum’s permanent exhibit on the history of Amherst County!!!

More activities will be added in the next month. Call the Museum for information on when certain activities will take place. This celebration is free and open to the public so bring friends and neighbors down to the Museum June 2nd to have some fun and learn more about Amherst County’s history.

New Members

• Mr. Donald Jennings - Kensington, MD
• Mr. and Mrs. Dayton Lawman - Forest, VA
• Mr. R. Wayne Ogden - Covington, VA
• John and Frances Swift - Amherst, VA

‘Get to Know Amherst County’ Tour

The first of our ‘Get to Know Amherst County’ Tours will be July 14th. The tour will visit the historic areas of Elon, Agricola, Naola and Snowden. Local residents will be available in each location to share its history. We will leave Amherst at 9:00AM and plan to return about 12:00. Seating is limited, so please call the Museum (804-946-9068) to reserve a space by July 1. A donation of $3 is suggested to help defray transportation costs.

Director’s Notes: A Successful Winter

The past few months certainly have been busy here at the Museum. When you include planning for the Anniversary event in June, completing two temporary exhibits and driving away at the permanent exhibit it hardly seems that there’s been time for anything else. However, we also held four successful workshop sessions as well as our second Treasures ID and Assessment. Whew!

With help from Anniversary Committee members and volunteers, the first series of workshops was a great success. New faces were brought into the museum, and tips on preserving papers, photos, quilts, and dresses were shared. We learned of the experiences of a WWII POW and how to begin researching our Amherst genealogy. Overall, more than 60 people attended the workshops.

The Treasures ID and Assessment went equally as well thanks to the generous donations of time from our five local partners – Mr. Brian Bowen and Mrs. Catherine Stovall from Bowen’s Jewelry, Mrs. Betty Davidson from Estate Specialists, Mr. Jim Harding from Harding’s Clocks and Mrs. Lou Ogden from Lou’s Antiques. If you know any of these individuals, please make sure to thank them for their generous donations. This successful event raised over $350 for the Museum.

Thank you to those of you who attended our recent activities and helped to make this past winter a winning season. I hope to see you all at the Anniversary Celebration on June 2nd.

Meghan

Repair work begins at Kearfoot-Wood House.

The Museum will soon have a new front sidewalk. Members of The Village Garden Club have been planting and maintaining the beautiful flower beds on the Museum grounds. The next step of the Club's overall plan to enhance the appearance of the Museum grounds is to build a new brick sidewalk from the front porch steps to Main Street. The old concrete walk has been removed. Douwina Osinga, a Club member, has contacted Vance Leggett and his crew from the Job Corp. to build the new sidewalk. The sidewalks around the building were completed as an earlier part of the plan.

Smith-Wimer Construction Company has started to repair the gutters on the main part of the building. They are resealing , rebuilding and repainting many of the Museum’s deteriorated gutters. This work is possible thanks to a generous grant from the State of Virginia. These improvements will be timely additions for the Museum's 25th birthday celebration on June 2nd.

Sweet Briar Turns 100
Its Story Then and Now

Sweet Briar College was founded by Indiana Fletcher Williams (1828-1900) in memory of her only daughter, Daisy, who died in 1884 at 16. The college was chartered in 1901.

Indiana was a daughter of Elijah Fletcher, who came to Amherst County in 1811 to become headmaster of a small academy in present day Clifford. Her mother was Maria Antoinette Crawford of the plantation Tusculum, whose lands adjoined the academy grounds.

The Fletchers moved to Lynchburg in 1818 where Elijah owned and published the Virginian, a Whig paper of its day. He became a civic leader, land speculator, and built a sizeable fortune.

Elijah purchased the Sweet Briar lands in 1830 and enlarged his holdings to include more than 8000 acres. Today the college retains 3300 of those acres, including Mt. San Angelo with its Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

The first Board of Directors determined the college for women would be nondenominational and would maintain the highest academic standards for a liberal education. Sweet Briar opened in September 1906 with 51 students. The first class graduated five young women in 1910. Its Bachelor of Arts degree was soon accepted by the leading universities for graduate studies. Today the college also offers the Bachelor of Science degree.

The college seeks a diverse student body, which is drawn from a national and international pool of applicants. As it plans its centennial, it has an enrollment of 750+ women including several international students from 23 foreign countries, and 200+ students from Virginia - many from Amherst County.

The earliest college buildings, designed by the noted architect Ralph Adams Cram, are a Virginia Historic Landmark and are on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District.

The home of the college president is Sweet Briar house, the original home of the Fletcher and Williams families. It is one of the finest country Tuscan villas in the state, and it is also on the Virginia Register and National Register. All nine Sweet Briar presidents have lived in the House.

The college campus is one of the most beautiful in the U.S. and is world famous for its boxwood circle and hedges, all planted in the 19th century by Elijah Fletcher. There are also many varieties of trees both native and exotic grown old, and majestic, which are additional Fletcher-Williams legacies. Alumnae return to the lovely setting throughout their lives to nourish their roots and reestablish their identities.

Indiana Williams’ college has also been important in the lives of hundreds of Amherst County citizens over the past century providing many with college educations, careers, livelihoods, and scholarships as well as serving as a cultural center.

Academically qualified young women from Amherst and Nelson counties are eligible for Amherst-Nelson County Scholarships; qualified adult degree students receive Turning Point Scholarships.

Sweet Briar College offers cultural activities open to the general public, most free of charge, including plays, concerts, theater, dance, presentation, as well as sporting events. There is also a museum of the college historic properties and an art gallery.

Ann Whitley, Sweet Briar Museum (original published in the Amherst County Heritage Book).

Genealogical & Historical Queries:

Looking for Benedict LANHAM, b. abt. 1740, d. abt. 1826, m. Penelope. Father may have been Joseph LANHAM who was twin of Benjamin LANHAM/LANNUM/LANGHAM, both b. 1721 in Prince George Co. MD. Benedict LANHAM owned land on Cosby’s Creek, Amherst Co. in 1785.

Looking for ‘PENELOPE’ b. abt. 1740, d. abt. 1797. m. abt. 1759 to Benedict LANHAM. Children of Benedict and Penelope LANHAM were: Joseph, Sarah, Benjamin, Greenberry, George, Sarah, William, John, Patsey, and Susannah.

Greenbery LANHAM b. in Amherst Co., d. 1801, m. Catherine Nightingale. He owned land on Bonemarrow Mountain and Dutch Creek – south branch of Rockfish Creek. Did he serve in Revolutionary War?

Please submit your queries on 3x5 file cards, (one query per card) clearly and concisely written. Include your name and address so readers may contact you directly. No electronic submissions will be accepted for this service. One free query for Amherst County Museum & Historical Society members for each quarterly issue. Additional queries appearing in the same issue are $1.00 per query per member. Queries from non-members are $2.00 each.

New Genealogy Books

Most of the new genealogy books ordered with grant money have arrived. We have begun gathering information on several of our parent counties to facilitate researching early Amherst County settlers. The new books include:

• 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners & Gazetteer
• Albemarle County, VA Court Papers 1744-1783
• Goochland County Order Books 1728-1731
• Goochland County Wills and Deeds 1736-1749
• Early Virginia Families along the James River, Vol. 1
• Colonial Wills of Henrico, VA 1677-1781
• Henrico Co. Deeds, 1706-1750
• Genealogical Abstracts form 18th Century Virginia Newspapers
• Old Churches: Ministers and Families of Virginia

Feel free to visit the Museum and make use of these wonderful new resources.

Annual Meeting & Open House

This year’s September Annual Meeting will be a members only event. Plans are still in the making but possible activities may include guided walking tours of downtown Amherst, a guest speaker and a presentation of the Museum’s Annual report. Stay tuned to the next issue of The Muse for more information on dates, times, and specific activities.

Two New Sweet Briar Books Available

Ann Whitley has produced two new Sweet Briar Books - one on Elijah Fletcher and the other on Daisy Williams. Elijah Feltcher was the father of the College’s founder - Indiana Fletcher Williams. Daisy Williams, the daughter of Indiana Williams, died at only 16 years old.

Both books are available at the Museum for $5 each. Stop by and pick one up or send a check for $7 (to include shipping) to the Museum.

The Museum’s publications of Gravestone Inscriptions in Amherst County and Amherst County Story are also both still available for purchase. Prices are:
Gravestone Inscriptions - $25 ($30 to ship)
Amherst County Story - $12.70 ($15 to ship)

Raffle Begins - Painting is Prize

Dr. Elizabeth Rich, an artist who lives in Amherst County, has donated a lovely watercolor painting to the Museum to be used as a fundraiser. The painting shows an overview of the area near Love Lady Mountain, located in the Pedlar District of the county. It is matted, framed and ready to hang on a wall in your home. Tickets are $1 each.

Piedmont Conference

On March 31, four members of the Museum board and Director Mrs. Wallace attended the Piedmont Conference of Historical Societies in Louisa County. Sessions on historic preservation, caring for collections and preserving your historic landscapes were presented. Opportunities to tour historic Louisa county followed the conference.

Museum Yard Sale

Now is your chance!!!

To: Get your spring cleaning done
Get rid of things you no longer need
Help your Museum
Make a difference

On May 5th the Museum is sponsoring a yard sale from 7:00AM til 2:00PM in the basement of the Amherst County Library. Donations of plants, baked goods, household and miscellaneous items may be delivered to the basement of the library after 3:00PM on Friday, May 4th. If this is impossible for you, you may deliver them to the museum between May 1st and May 4th during Museum hours - no clothes this time please!

Just remember your trash = our treasures. Then bring friends and neighbors for a fun time on May 5th.

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