USA > Virginia > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County, Virginia : parts I and II : a short chapter and bright day in its history > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
2
3
4
8
9
10
LEE FAMILY
I. R. E. LEE
2. RICHARD LEE
3. HENRY (Light Horse Harry) LEE
4. CHAS. LEE
5. SMITH LEE
6. RICHARD HENRY LEE
7. THOMAS LEE
8. 9. FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE WM. LEE ro. ARTHUR LEE
.
PART II.
VIII.
Westmoreland, the Plant-bed of an Ancient Civil- ization is Still the Cradle of the New --- Her Efficient Board of Supervisors --- The Sand- Clay System of Good Roads.
Westmoreland County of To-day (1912). The New Westmoreland, Her Present Conditions, Her Progress, Her Climate and Soil. Her Agricultural, Industrial, and Commercial Re- sources and Assets. Her Efficient Board of Supervisors Standing for the "Economy of Good Roads"-the Slogan of Common Sense.
The future historian will write the glorious history of West- moreland. This is no history-only a brief chapter, Job said : "Behold my desire is that mine adversary had written a book." This, in former days, passed for as sore an evil as a good man could think of wishing to his worst enemy.
Whether any of my enemies (I hope I have none) ever wished me so great an evil, I know not. But certain it is, I never dreamed of writing a book. The humble writer, with the burden of other duties, assumes no such task, and aspires to accomplish no such purpose.
The original scope and purpose of this short chapter was to have no Part I., and no Part II., but it was intended only to refer to the historical features of Westmoreland and her magnificent memo- rials, and to print the eloquent tributes to her name and fame- her great men and the richer trophies of their brilliant deeds; and not to present even in brief review her present conditions, her pro- gress, her climate and soil, and her agricultural, industrial and commercial resources and assets. But we have been beguiled into speaking of these present conditions so attractive to the home- seeker and so inviting for agricultural development, remunerative investment, grand enterprise and splendid opportunity, and have adopted Part I. and Part II-the old and the new Westmoreland.
When Bishop Meade, after exclaiming "Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria Dardanidum," uttered the following prophetic words, "We trust there awaits for Westmoreland a greater glory than the former," no one realized that in a few decades that Dr. McKim, standing upon its sacred soil, could, and would utter the fulfil- ment of the prophecy, and would proclaim-Dr. Beale voicing the
102
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
universal sentiment-that "to-day a greater glory does indeed be- long to Westmoreland than when the noble Bishop contemplated her fallen grandeur."
Westmoreland county of to-day, with all her proud tradition of the past, not unlike her mother, the Old Dominion, "has yet to reach her zenith. The years that have been put behind her are the years of a formative period; the decades that are to come will mark the fruition of her hopes. Henceforth, industry, as exemplified in a hundred forms, will be her gracious helpmeet. Nor must the Virginian of future years walk in a narrow path, for he has many fields of usefulness in which he may expand. Never did any coun- try under the sun offer more diversity of opportunity, or finer chances for founding of fortunes than does this State."
"The time-honored Commonwealth, indeed, now walks with quickened step, despite the lapse of nearly three centuries. Her elasticity is the child of prosperity."
Westmoreland, the birthplace and plant bed of an ancient civ- ilization, is still the cradle of a new. While her landscape is glori- ous with the sheen of golden harvests, she, too, is gathering the ripe fruitage of her rich vintage. Her waste places are being re- stored, and blossoming as the rose. Her soil is supporting an en- terprising people, and still invites the stranger, honest and bona fide, by "benevolent assimilation" to swell a still more teeming population. Her churches are being restored and rebuilt. Her people are animated by a spirit worthy of her great past. Her young men are fired with a noble ambition to emulate the patriot- ism and virtues of her heroes of former days. Her men of intel- lectual and moral stature worthy of Westmoreland's splendid his- tory, are at hand to represent her in the councils of the State and nation. Her women are lovely, gentle, and queenly. When Alexis de Tocqueville, whom Mr. Gladstone termed "the Burke of his age," visited America in the last century and wrote his "Democracy in America," he said: "If I were asked to what I attributed the greatness and peace of America, I should say to the sanctity of home and to the purity of the women." And the Hon. James Bryce, Minister Plenipotentiary to this country representing the Court of St. James, says in "The American Commonwealth": "I have heard keen American observers predict that these Southern States will be the chief nursery ground of statesmen in the future, and will thus assert an ascendency which they can not yet obtain by their votes, because population grows more slowly in the South than in Eastern cities, or in Western prairies."
Mr. Gladstone, in his "Kin Beyond the Sea," page 204, said of America : "She will probably become what we are now, the head
·
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VA. DAVID HUNGERFORD GRIFFITH HON. WM. MAYO, Chairman, Ex-State Senator WM. H. SANFORD
103
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
servant in the great household of the world, the employer of all · employed, because her service will be most and ablest." He also said: "No hardier republicanism was generated in New England than in the slave States of the South, which produced so many of the great statesmen of America."-Life of Gladstone, by Dr. J. L. M. Curry, page 214.
What has Westmoreland done since the war, and what is she doing to-day in the march of progress and civilization, in energy and the activities of life ?
The efficient Board of Supervisors of Westmoreland stand for the economy of good roads. They advocate the economical aspect of good roads reform. They have adopted, with the State's aid and the State Highway Commission, the sand-clay system, and are actively projecting the same. Good roads are the cheapest. This is the slogan of common sense. We clip from a contemporary on the "Economy of Good Roads." It says :
"The plea that good roads are 'too costly' belongs only to the cheap statesman, the mossback, and old-fashioned publications. It has no place in the consideration of the problem of modern road building.
"The primary purpose in securing good roads is to eliminate the enormous and everlasting cost of bad roads. Modern country roads bear the same relation to the rural districts as paved streets bear to the cities. Paved streets for municipalities are first of all, a business proposition. The comfort and convenience afforded by them is a matter of secondary consideration. No city could be built on mud streets. Neither can agricultural communities be de- veloped on mud roads. And any condition that retards the fullest' development of country life is an expense that spells ruin and bank- ruptcy in the end.
"The old wooden plow could be purchased for less than the modern implements used to break the soil. But no farmer could maintain his farm with a wooden plow. It would prove too costly an experiment. The ox team could be purchased for less money than the draft horses cost, but the ox team has been abandoned as an expense that no modern farmer could stand.
"Mud roads retain the same relation to modern progress as the wooden plow and the ox team. Virginia wastes $1,000,000 every year on mud roads. It is a system of 'throwing good money after bad money' in an attempt to 'improve' roads that need to be rebuilt, and after millions have been wasted in this manner the same old mud roads exist. Nothing is left to show for all the expense.
"The $10,000,000 Virginia has lost in the mud holes of its
104
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
country roads in the past ten years would have given the State an excellent system of permanent highways. It would have meant an investment that would now be paying big dividends to the farm owners of that State."
"That is the common sense of the case. The failure to construct good roads is equivalent to a tremendous waste of money. Good roads, we say again, are the cheapest roads."
The Times-Dispatch says :
THE GREAT REFORM. ,
Interest in good roads does not abate, either in Virginia or the other States of the South. A casual perusal of the press of this part of the nation proves that all interesting good roads articles and good roads editorial expressions are copied in full in a major- ity of the papers, and there are the most impressive signs of the fact that this mighty reform has a tightening grasp upon the dif- ferent States in which the movement has once been started.
In making sentiment for improved highways, we hope that none of our contemporaries will let up a minute in the fight. What has already been done in Virginia in the good roads reform has been excellent, but in order to keep step with other Southern States we must continue ceaselessly the campaign for better highways.
Is the good roads question a live one? Are other States taking an interest in it ?
The other day a great convention met at Birmingham and dele- gates from almost every community in Alabama were there, eager to learn more about good roads. To this meeting in the cause of better roads not only came an army of interested delegates, but also two-thirds of the Legislature of the State. The people out there are intensely worked up about good roads, and they are not going to rest until they have them.
Calling this convention one of "vast significance"-and rightly so-the Birmingham News said editorially :
"There is no subject before the people of Alabama to-day that has a more vital bearing upon the progress of the State than this matter of good roads. It is a physical impossibility for any people to advance rapidly either intellectually or materially without the means of intercommunication, and the better the means the more rapid the advance. If the children of the State are to be educated and are to reap the benefits that come by reason of contact with the forces and influences that make for advancement, this end must be accomplished through the construction of good roads. If the
105
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
farmers of Alabama are to prosper, are to get the fullest returns upon the labor they expend upon the soil, they must be brought into close touch with the consumers, an end impossible without good roads. If the people as a whole are to advance in proportion to their opportunties it must inevitably be through the construction of improved highways."
The name being changed, this applies with equal force to Vir- ginia. The issue is live. It vitally concerns the welfare of the people, their comfort, their happiness, their prosperity. It is a . great reform, and too much cannot be said in its favor.
Another contemporary on the "Value of Good Roads," says :
For a part of this week the Alabama Good Roads Association has been in session at Birmingham, and powerful interest has been manifested in this far-reaching reform. President John Craft had some very good things to say in his opening address, and one of them was:
"The vigor of the State lies in its industrial vitality and the great arteries through which the life blood of the Commonwealth must course are its highways. Therefore, I believe it to be our bounden duty to labor toward having the great thoroughfares of the people built in the healthiest manner possible. By having a permanent and thorough construction of roads, distance will be shortened, time will no longer be measured by hours. The time of travel will be lessened so much that the farmer who lives twenty- five miles or more from the steamboat landing, railroad station, or the city, will be enabled to bring his products to the place of ship- ment and return between sunrise and nightfall.
"The farmer deserves better highways. It is he who digs from the soil precious gold represented by the products of his labor. He cannot be prosperous if the hauling cost is twenty-five cents per ton per mile, when it should be eight or ten cents."
There is the gist of this matter. It is in the cost of transpor- tation that the farmer sustains his greatest loss. That loss is equivalent to a most extravagant waste.
..
IX
Besides What Nature Has Done, Westmoreland Stands for Civic Improvement and Educa- tional Advancement, and the Better- ment of all Conditions.
Her People Industrious and Progressive .- Civic Improvement and Educational Advancement .- New and Handsome Homes, and Erection of High School Buildings, and the Establish- ment of Public High Schools .- Two Practical Ecomonic Problems Confronting the People :. More Population of Energetic, Robust and Frugal Men, and Quicker Travel and Transportation.
Besides what Nature has done, and its natural potentialities; besides men of muscular energy and brains, men of lofty ideals and high standards, men of human endeavor, men who teach with pure lives the tenets of our holy religion, there is a progressive spirit abroad. The people are industrious and progressive. Be- sides her commercial activity, Westmoreland shows civic improve- ment, and educational advancement. She can point to a large number of high schools and high school buildings second to none in the rural districts; to teachers in these schools who are special- ists in their line and the best instruction given. New and hand- some homes are going up, and charm us as we pass by. Altogether, a spirit of public improvement. The tide of population must and will turn from the over-crowded cities, and the natural gravitation to these attractive homes is inevitable. There has been a marked progress in the improved system of good roads, and for the better- ment of all conditions along educational, industrial and agricul- tural lines. Here, speaking of this, it is no longer a postulate, but an axiom; not an experiment, but a demonstration, that edu- cation is the hope of a Republic, and a menace and death itself to a monarchy. Popular education in our country is the idol of the people, and its pride. We are beguiled into giving an extract from Lord Brougham, whose beautiful tribute to the immortal Washington is published elsewhere in this booklet. We publish the extract because they are the famous words of one of the famous inen of the world. We do not publish it to minimize the soldier, but to exalt the schoolmaster. These burning words are perhaps one of the first and greatest tributes to the public education of the masses, and has done as much for public schools as anything ever said. In his speech in the House of Commons on January 28, 1828, on the address from the Crown, Brougham severely re-
107
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
ferred to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Duke of Wellington, who was also the Prime Minister and the head of the government. While he seemed to consider the presence of the conqueror of Napoleon at Waterloo in the chief councils of the King a harmless state of affairs, Brougham nevertheless argued against the practice of putting military men in the high civic places in the government. This objection, in substance, was the theme of the speech and the quoted paragraph below, which a current report said was received with cheers and laughter, was a very fitting climax to Brougham's notable effort :
"The country sometimes heard with dismay that the soldier was abroad. Now there is another person abroad-a less important person-in the eyes of some insignificant person-whose labors had tended to produce this state of things. The schoolmaster is abroad! And I trust more to the schoolmaster, armed with his primer, than to the soldier in full military array, for upholding and extending the liberties of my country."
Two practical economic problems still seem to confront our people :
1. Nature has lavished her treasures on them in magnificent waterways, estuaries and arms of the sea. They desire, however, quicker transit and travel by rail, and transportation of their pro- ducts. Like Rasselas, King of Abyssinia, who yearned to see be- yond his lovely mountain home and environment, they are restless to reach beyond their sea-girt horizon.
2. They need a larger population-say 50,000 more of robust, energetic, frugal men-to cut up and divide the large landed estates and holdings, and to develop the latent natural resources, food supplies and materials for industry. Give them 50,000 more of population, and the problems are solved. Roads-steam and electric-and good roads for automobiles and every appliance for travel and transportation will be assured and complete. Which will come first? Which will be the one to bring the other? The people desire both, and both will come. The people of Westmore- land are unlike good old Doctor Johnson, author of "Rasselas," who took a gloomy view of life, and wrote "of an age that melts in unperceived decay." They are optimists and not idle dreamers. We wish for an Irving to picture the peace of the people.
Just as this booklet goes to press the re-turn survey of the new railroad from Doswell to the deep waters of the great Wicomico is nearly completed. Channing M. Ward, recently of Richmond county, Va., is the promoter. What a feeder from the rich granary of the great Rappahannock River valley and the Northern Neck for the great metropolitan city of Richmond this will be. We wish it a God speed. Because it will be a mighty revelation and a con- necting link between these grand people.
X.
Westmoreland, With Her Diversified Farm Pro- ducts, Thriving Industries and Plants, Points to Her Excellent Financial Condition and Low Rate of Taxation.
What Westmoreland of To-day is Doing .- Her Excellent Financial Conditions, Progress in Improved Buildings and Low Rate of Taxation .- Her Diversified Farm Products, Thriving Industries and Plants .- Beautiful Monuments to Her Sol- diers .- Westmoreland Camp C. V., Pension Board, and Washington and Lee Chapter U. D. C.
Westmoreland county can point with pride to her excellent financial condition, progress in improved buildings, and low rate of taxation. Its diversified farm products, fruit culture and can- neries-climate and soil for vegetable and trucking industries- rich products of its tidal waters; its sheep industry of the finest imported breeds; Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, inlets and tributaries, furnishing water power for finest manufacturies and plants and transportation facilities ; churches, public schools, banks : Bank of Westmoreland at Colonial Beach, Bank of Kinsale at Kin- sale, and Bank of Montross at Montross, with deposits, resources, and financial earnings of the people generally-figures that speak volumes for soundness of local business conditions. Westmoreland Enquirer and Colonial Beach Record, newspaper, at Colonial Beach ; good telephone communication; accessible to the markets of Bal- timore, Washington, Alexandria, and Fredericksburg. Health superb; artesian wells numerous, fine flow and delightful water. Lands enhancing in value and more and more in demand with rising prices; riparian privileges; splendid opportunities for the home seeker and investor.
The most casual observer does not fail to see the progress, energy and activities of the people.
A beautiful marble shaft, erected by the United States Govern- ment, now marks Wakefield, the birthplace of Washington; and the name and fame of the great chieftain, General R. E. Lee, shed a brighter luster around Stratford, his birthplace.
A costly and beautiful monument, erected to the Confederate dead, stands in front of the handsome, new courthouse at Montross,
109
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
the county seat. The Westmoreland Camp of Confederate Vete- rans is one of the most active in the State, and has its glorious annual reunions to rekindle and keep brightly burning its camp fires, to revive sweet memories and to renew loyal fraternal greet- ings.
The company rolls and rosters of every honorable soldier in the service of the Confederate States are being filed and recorded amongst the archives by order of the Circuit Court in pursuance of the act of the General Assembly of Virginia. It should be re- corded as a great historical fact that even President Roosevelt in 1905, in Richmond, Va., the late capital of the Confederacy, said : "On the honor roll of those American worthies, whose greatness is not only for the age, but for all time; not only for the nation, but for all the world-on this honor roll Virginia's name stands above others." And no man knew better than he the story of the great country of which he was the head.
As has been so often said, and should be thoroughly emphasized, the names of all the Confederate soldiers will never be perpetu- ated and rescued from oblivion except by these muster rolls and rosters. Granite and bronze may crumble and perish, but copies of the battle rolls printed and preserved in our own archives and distributed through the great libraries of the world would be as secure of immortality as anything human can be.
The plea of Westmoreland is for the private soldiers, and they are as dear to them as the epaulettes of Washington in his buff and blue, and the stars of Lee in his glorious gray won by their blood and valor.
On her monument are inscribed the names of her private sol- diers, and on her memorial tablet in her court room the names of her cadet heroes, Joseph Christopher Wheelwright and Samuel Francis Atwill, who fell at the battle of New Market, May 15, 1864, together with the beautiful verses of Virginia's brilliant poet, Armistead C. Gordon, immortalizing the deeds and memory of these men and these cadet heroes of the Virginia Military Institute in that battle.
Let us rejoice that this proud old county is saved from a similar everlasting reproach such as Thackeray administered to the Eng- lish Parliament and people, when, upon visiting Waterloo and reading the memorial tablets to the British officers who fell on - that famous field and found that the name of not a single private appeared on them, he dipped his pen in gall and wrote these blast- ing words : "Here, indeed, they lie sure enough ; the Honorable Col- onel This of the Guards, Captain That of the Hussars, Major So and So of the Dragoons, brave men and good, who did their duty by
110
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
their country and fell in the performance of it. Amen. But I confess fairly that in looking at these I felt very much disappointed at not seeing the names of the men as well as the officers. Are they to be counted for naught? A few more inches of marble to each monument would have given space for all the names of the men, and the men of that day were the winners of the battle. We have right to be as grateful individually to any given private as to any given officer; their duties were very much the same. Why should the country reserve its gratitude for the genteel occupiers of the Army-list and forget the gallant fellows whose humble names were written in the Regimental books? English glory is too genteel to meddle with those humble fellows. She does not con- descend to ask the names of the poor devils whom she kills in her service. Why was not every private man's name written upon the stones in Waterloo Church as well as every officer? Five hundred pounds to the stone cutters would have served to carve the whole catalogue and paid the poor compliment of recognition to men who died in doing their duty. If the officers deserved the stone, the men did."
The efficient Pension Board, with the co-operation of the Camp, through the Circuit Court in pursuance of the act of the General Assembly, is aiding all the citizens of the county who were disabled by wounds received during the War Between the States while serving as soldiers, sailors, or marines, and such as served during said war as soldiers, sailors, or marines who are now disabled by disease contracted during the war, or by the infirmities of age, and the widows of soldiers, sailors, or marines who lost their lives in said service, or whose death resulted from wounds received, or disease contracted in said service.
The Washington and Lee Chapter U. D. C., at Kinsale, Va., is bestowing crosses of honor, and making more sacred the cause for which our heroes fought, and rendering it more imperative that the children of the rising generation be taught that their forefathers were heroes, and not rebels, "lest we forget."
All these benign and powerful agencies and instrumentalities spring from, and are the result of the reverence for our Confederate heroes. All are vieing with each other to strew flowers along their pathway, to make soft their pillows, and to pour from their ala- baster boxes on their heads the very precious ointment of spikenard, of love and charity, kind deeds and sweet benefactions.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT MONTROSS YA.
XI.
Stratford to Be Dedicated to Virginia as a Memorial of the Lees --- Old Yecomico Church to Be Re- habilitated Under Control of the Diocesan Board of Trustees.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.