Freemasonry emerged from the craft guilds of stone masons during the Middle Ages. This “secret society” became very popular in Colonial America and many of the founding fathers belonged to Masonic Societies, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Paul Jones. The Masonic Service Association website defines the organization as “a worldwide fraternity emphasizing personal study, self-improvement, and social betterment via individual involvement and philanthropy.“ Originally, these organizations were limited to men.

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Freemasonry emerged from the craft guilds of stone masons during the Middle Ages. This “secret society” became very popular in Colonial America and many of the founding fathers belonged to Masonic Societies, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Paul Jones (no, not the same eponymous individual who named the JPJ Arena here in C-ville; that John P. was a 1948 graduate of UVA Law). The Masonic Service Association website defines the organization as “a worldwide fraternity emphasizing personal study, self-improvement, and social betterment via individual involvement and philanthropy.” Originally, these organizations were limited to men.

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For the past two years a committee has been working on restoring and researching the remarkable collection of 150 works of art painted by Frances Brand (1901-1990), a notable Charlottesville folk artist. She was also known for her work as a civil rights activist and as a world traveler. In the 1950s after serving as a major in the US Army, she retired and began studying painting in Mexico City. The painting shown at the right is a self-portrait.

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In the 19th Century, the local courthouse played an important social, economic, and legal role in the community. Most male citizens traveled to this locale several times a year: to pay taxes, dispute bills or land surveys, register property, and socialize with rarely seen residents. Local maps included this central location, usually with the abbreviation “C.H.” The excerpt above is from an 1864 map of Amherst. If you look closely you will see the Orange & Alexandria Railroad tracks and two of the “gaps” that led to the west.

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Amherst County contains 100s of historic structures. Many of these buildings point to a by-gone lifestyle. A perfect example is a mill. Once a necessity (for sawing lumber or processing grains), these businesses (and ruins thereof) were usually surrounded by a small community because it became an important location for trade, exchange, and the processing of goods. This week’s historic feature is the 1810s [corrected date, see comment below] Sandidges Mill, located in the eponymous town (west of Amherst, off Route 60).

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On some downtown structures history is writ large on the sides of old, brick buildings. The images below represent a small sample of the 19th and early 20th century advertising technique of painting buildings. See how many old store names you can locate on and around the mall this summer. A hint: the photos illustrated here were taken near East Water Street and 4th Street SE. Ironically, the brand-new building in the back of the “Chas King Grocers” building is “the Holsinger,” named after a famous, historic photographer.

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The area now called “Amherst County” was Monacan land for 1000s of years before the first Europeans arrived. Once the Europeans arrived on the scene they had a tendency to name every feature and land mass in sight. In the case of the county, it was named after Sir Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797), a British Baron who was eventually promoted to Field Marshal after his service in the Seven Years’ War. The North American campaign, called the French and Indian Wars (1754-63), pitted the British against French forces and their Native American allies.

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A wealth of information about the county and its residents can be found at the Amherst County Museum & Historical Society. The Museum offers permanent and changing exhibits, archival resources, lectures, and seasonal house tours and special events. Moreover, it serves up a slice of local history, from the historic house that it operates out of (the Kearfoot-Wood house, built in 1907 for a local pharmacist, Dr Kearfoot) to the artifacts that populate its exhibits.

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What year would a young man have been able to sign up for the above, fictional job posting ? The answer: 1933, working with the Civilian Conservation Corps (originally nicknamed “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”). President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the C.C.C. in March of 1933, during the Great Depression, as a partial solution to high unemployment. By 1935 over 2,600 C.C.C. camps had been opened across the country. Over half-a-million individuals lived in these camps while they worked on public works’ projects.

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Welcome to a new local county history blog, www.locohistory.org/blog/amherst. Send in short (under 400 words) entries about historic Amherst buildings, artifacts, homes, country stores, churches, mills, people, etc. This site will contain a weekly update on the “gravestone of the week” from area cemeteries. There are also links to activities for kids, virtual tours, and educational puzzles. Sign-up for an RSS feed to be alerted when there are new posts to the blog.

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Much of local history lies in front of our eyes, but goes unnoticed. This is not the case with the Taylor Family. The Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association and Hospital combined to sponsor a marker that commemorates an African American family that has lived in the neighborhood for over 150 years. Quoting from the marker, “The land was originally part of a 25 acre parcel purchased in 1869 by Fairfax Taylor (1816-895).

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Recently cemetery vandalism has been on the increase in our local cemeteries. The worst hit cemetery is the historic African American graveyard adjacent to Oakwood and known as the “Daughters of Zion” or “Society Cemetery.” More recently, vandalism has been increasing in Maplewood Cemetery (near Martha Jefferson Hospital). The perpetrators vary in age from teenagers to adults and from the homeless to school children. Gang-related graffiti has been found, etched on an obelisk.

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In the 19th century, urban traffic in Charlottesville required something other than a gas station for fuel. Instead, the equine motors needed water. To satisfy this daily requirement, the city installed four water fountains. The upper portion of the fountain was for two-legged animals, while other domesticates used the overflow from the “fishes” that was collected below in a basin. Unfortunately, none of the fountains survived in situ in the 20th century.

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A couple years ago I visited an unmarked graveyard off Route 22. Today located on private property, adjacent to a 20th Century house, the fieldstones in the graveyard dated to an earlier period. The un-inscribed stones suggested an informal, family graveyard, most likely used by individuals who could not afford mass-produced markers. With no names or dates, I filed the cemetery away for later research (such as deed and census analysis to try to figure out who owned the land 100+ years ago).

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There has already been a lot of press and events surrounding the current exhibit at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, but if you haven’t yet had a chance to visit, do so soon. The title of the exhibit is: Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam. Guest curator Art Beltrone (a military artifact historian and former marine) began collecting graffiti from the Vietnam War in the late 1990s after assisting with the production of Terrence Malick’s film update of The Thin Red Line.

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The Virginia Discovery Museum is hosting the exhibit “Beyond Jamestown” (curated by Karenne Wood, director of the Virginia Indian Heritage Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities). The exhibit runs through May 11th and is well worth a visit for children of all ages. While kids and their adult guests read about the vibrant heritage of Indians in Virginia, children can learn how to plant the “three sisters” (corns, beans, and squash, a nutritional assemblage that provided essential amino acids) and fish from a traditional dugout canoe.

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This post is a plea for information - to see if anyone knows historic details about the Albemarle Roller Mill (used by the Hartman Mill), located on a tributary of Moore’s Creek. The mill was used to process either lumber or flour. Today the site is located somewhere near Hartman’s Mill Road (between Ridge and Avon St). The drawing at the right comes from the 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and the complete image includes about half-a-dozen associated outbuilding.

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In the 19th Century, American families strolled through public cemeteries in an effort to impart morals and religious ideals to their children. In the 20th century this practice became taboo, as the arena of death became professionalized (through the rise of Funeral Homes and morticians who took over tasks that had previously been performed by family members). But cemeteries still have a lot to teach us. Gravestone inscriptions reveal family values, kinship relations, religious beliefs, expected gender roles, and attitudes towards death.

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What do the terms in the title have in common ? All three refer to vermiculite, a grayish, basaltic mineral. Jefferisite is a synonym for vermiculite, named after the American mineral collector, William Jefferis (1820-1906). Vermiculite derives its name from the Latin “vermiculare” which means “to breed worms.” This description alludes to the exfoliation (or expansion) of the mineral when exposed to intense heat. And finally, all of this ties in to Albemarle County with the old Charlottesville Quarry, located in Shadwell.

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In honor of the upcoming holiday, I searched Albemarle County maps for roads named after the genus Meleagris, order_ Galliformes, _i.e. “Turkey.” Road names are a great source of local history, often preserving family names, events, animal species (sometimes long since extinct, e.g. Buffalo Gap), and occasionally imaginative monikers (common in developments that select historically or romantically inspired names which lack authenticity). In my search for Benjamin Franklin’s “Noble bird,” I first located Turkey Sag Road and Creek (in Keswick).

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