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Central Rappahannock
Heritage Center Newsletter
 
A place that loses its history loses it soul
Volume 5, Issue 12
December 2015
In This Issue
Message From The Chairman
Welcome New Members
Happy Holidays
Jane Becks "Daisy Turner's Kin, An African American Family Saga
Can you help identify these photos?
On Sale: The Circle Unbroken
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900 Barton Street #111 Fredericksburg, VA  22401

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Message From The Chairman
 
At its November meeting, the Heritage Center Board welcomed three new directors-Doug Cooper, Kitty Farley, and John Reifenberg-who assume three-year terms of office effective December 1. And we say farewell to retiring directors Diane Ballman, Bill Beck, and Ann Reamy, who have been such active, dedicated Board members. They will be missed!  Fortunately, they will support Center activities in various ways in the future.
 
This month, the Orange County Historical Society is publishing Patrick Sullivan's book No Matter What Befalls Me: Virginia Families at War and Peace.   The book documents some of our area's history based on family journals, letters, photos, etc. and draws on source material found in the Center's archives (and elsewhere).  We are happy to announce that Mr. Sullivan will hold a book signing at Beck's Antiques & Books, 708 Caroline Street, in downtown Fredericksburg. The signing will be held on Sunday, December 20 from 1 to 3pm.  Anthony Kale, whose family is one of those featured in the book, built the 3 story building at the address in 1831. It remained in his family until 1904. How fitting that the Becks host this book signing-just in time for gift-giving! Proceeds will be shared with the Heritage Center.
 
Note the Center will close from December 22-24 (Tues-Thurs), but will be open as usual December 29-31 (Tues-Thurs, 10-4) and January 2 (Sat 9-12).
 
This is my final message as Board chairman. Following in the steps of Billy Withers, Clinton Jones, and their predecessors has been a great responsibility.  But it has been a very rewarding experience to work with the other directors on the Board and the many volunteers who make the Center's existence possible.  I will serve on the Board another year, continue to write grants, and contribute to the Center's work in other capacities over the coming years.  And now, I pass the baton to Meredith Beckett, the new Board Chairman.
 
Happy Holidays!


Barbara Barrett, Chairman
Board of Directors
  

Welcome New Members

Ms. Shirley Haas
Ms. Fay Jones
 
CRHC memberships support the important work done by the Center.  The Center fills a unique role in the region:  the preservation of our people's history, which we make available for research.  We are a 100% all volunteer, non-profit organization.

Please join us as part of the Heritage Center's preservation team!  As a CRHC member, you will be helping to preserve our priceless local history.  Click here to become a member today! 


Thank you for your support,

The Central Rappahannock Heritage Center
 
Happy Holidays 

 
It is holiday time. Thanksgiving is over and now we look forward to a season of more celebrations. The poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, dates from 1823 and political cartoonist Thomas Nast depicted Santa as a portly, joyous, man sometimes with a white beard and wearing a red coat and trousers, a black leather belt and boots, and carrying a bag full of toys. In the mid nineteenth, people in the United States were celebrating Christmas with Santa Claus and trees were trimmed with candles and homemade ornaments. Many of the secular traditions adopted in this country were brought by German immigrants.

It was a simpler time before television, professional sports, enhanced and improved transportation, and the availability of goods. People spent days preparing food, visiting friends and family and attending religious services. These activities have been supplanted by shopping, sports events, parades, pageants, and festivals.

Many of our oral histories relate stories of Santa Claus, the Christmas angel at the St. George's Episcopal Church pageant, caroling and gatherings of friends and families home from college and military service. Bootsie Ballard Gravatt discovered that Santa Claus was actually her father, Harold Ballard. She recognized his wrist watch, so distraught; her mother had to take her straight home. Miss Elsie Lewis directed the Christmas pageant at St. George's and always groomed the little angels until they reached their late teens. Each year, one special angel was selected to be the Christmas Angel. Ralph Happel recalled caroling as groups of singers went house to house.

As the area has grown, we have welcomed people from many places and of many faiths. The season now means celebrations of Hanukkah, Kwanza,
Ramadan and other faiths in addition to Christmas.

These observances are followed by New Years. Many see New Years as a welcoming of a new year after reflecting on the past. In African American communities, New Years is remembered as the day the Emancipation Proclamation became effective. It was widespread knowledge that President Lincoln had issued the Proclamation on September 22, 1962; the effective date was January 1, 1863. It is still a widespread practice in African American churches to welcome the New Year and celebrate the end of slavery.

If you would like to read more of holiday seasons past, come join us at the Heritage Center and read books by local authors, oral histories, church histories, journals and other writings about a simpler time.


Beth Daly

Jane Beck's "Daisy Turner's Kin, An African American Family Saga"
  
 
When Jane Beck first met Daisy Turner in 1983 she had no idea that she would spend the next 30 plus years telling Daisy's story about the Turner family. Ms. Beck was serving as a folklorist for Vermont's State Art Council. Daisy Turner, born in Vermont in 1883 was the daughter of former slaves. Her grandfather Robert and her father Alec Berkeley (later Turner) were once enslaved by Jack Gouldin in Caroline County. Robert was born a prince in West Africa. It is almost unheard of for a family who had been enslaved to be able trace their ancestors back to Africa. Caroline County and the Gouldins brought Jane Beck to the Heritage Center where Tony Kent and Diane Ballman assisted with her research. Ms. Beck visited the area several times a year to find information to connect Daisy's father to the Gouldins and Caroline County. The Heritage Center is proud to have made this contribution.

Fans of Ken Burns' Civil War series will remember Daisy Turner. Burns filmed Daisy, then 104 years old, reciting a poem from memory, A Soldier's Letter by Mary C. Hovey.

We hope Jane Beck will visit the Center and talk about Daisy Turner's Kin.
 
   
Beth Daly
Can you help identify these photos?
Alvin T. Rowe, Jr. Collection                

Unidentified photo from the Alvin T. Rowe, Jr. Collection. (click on photo to enlarge)

Dena Cooper Collection

Unidentified photograph from the Dena Cooper Collection. (click on photo to enlarge) 
Update! This is a photo of James Nelson Cooper (1872-1963) and his second wife, Ritchie Dodson Cooper.
Thank you Pat Sullivan!
The Circle Unbroken: Civil War Letters of the Knox Family of Fredericksburg

On sale now at the Heritage Center 
$29.70 for members 
$33.00 for non-members 
You can also purchase the book online from the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation
                         (click on image to order online)