Part 15 (1/2)
Gore, a grandson of Mr. Jacob Gore. It is in a good state of preservation, the inscription on it being ”Presented by the Fredericksburg Agricultural Society, 1823.” On the left of the inscription is a wheat fan, beautifully engraved, near which is the letter J, which stands for Jacob, and on the right is another fan, near which is the letter G, standing for Gore. We do not know when these annual fairs ceased.
About the year 1850, possibly a little earlier, fair grounds were laid out on Green House Hill, covering most of that part of the town where Prof. A.
B. Bowering now lives. A Mr. White, of Caroline county, was the first president, Mr. W. N. Wellford succeeding him to that office. The first steam engine for thres.h.i.+ng wheat ever seen in this country was exhibited at one of these fairs by the Hope Foundry, of this place, then operated by Messrs. Scott and Herndon. It was constructed by Mr. Benjamin Bowering, foreman of the works. A committee of farmers was appointed to examine it and report upon its merits. After witnessing its work the committee condemned it, because ”it would burn all the wheat up.” Fairs were held on these grounds about three years.
A year or so after the Green House Hill fair grounds were closed, the grounds on which Major W. S. Embrey now lives and those in front of him for some distance east of Spotswood street were purchased and converted into fair grounds. Very successful fairs were held there until the commencement of the Civil war, when they were closed. The last fair held on these grounds was in 1860, only a few months before hostilities actually commenced. At one time Major J. Horace Lacy was president of this society and Major J. Harrison Kelly was secretary.
After the closing of the fair grounds, in 1860, Fredericksburg had no other fair for twenty-five years. In 1887 steps were taken by the citizens of the town to inaugurate annual fairs. A charter for a society was obtained, stock was subscribed for and the Amaret farm, on the Fall Hill road west of the town and bordering on the Rappahannock river, was purchased and converted into excellent fair grounds. The society inaugurating these fairs is known as the Rappahannock Valley Agricultural and Mechanical Society, and its annual fairs have been a great success.
The presidents of the society from its organization have been Hon. A. P.
Rowe, of Fredericksburg; Charles Pierson, Esq., of Caroline county; Hon.
S. Wellford Corbin, of King George county; Mr. Oliver Eastburn, of Spotsylvania county; Frank W. Smith, of Spotsylvania county; Captain Terence McCracken, of Fredericksburg; Colonel E. Dorsey Cole, of Fredericksburg; Capt. M. B. Rowe, of Spotsylvania; Chas. H. Hurkamp, of Stafford; Henry Dannehl, of Fredericksburg, and Thomas F. Morrison, of Spotsylvania.
FERRIES AND TOLL BRIDGES.
The first ferry across the Rappahannock river, provided by law, was an act of the House of Burgesses pa.s.sed in 1748. This act provided for a ferry from the Fredericksburg warehouse, where the tobacco was deposited and inspected by public, bonded inspectors, to the land of Anthony Strother, on the Stafford side of the river. The charge for a horse, which seems to have been the only one regulated by law, was fixed at three pence. In the year 1796 a pet.i.tion was presented to the General a.s.sembly of Virginia for leave to build a toll-bridge across the Rappahannock river from the lower line of the land of William Fitzhugh, of Chatham. The Legislature granted the request and Mr. Fitzhugh built the bridge, which was kept open for the public travel as a toll-bridge until 1889.
This bridge has been destroyed several times, some times by floods and at other times by fire, and has been rebuilt, but the dates of its destruction have pa.s.sed from the minds of our oldest citizens. The only dates that can be given, with anything like accuracy, are, that in 1820 it was destroyed by a great flood, in 1861 by fire, in accordance with military orders, and in 1889 by another great flood. In 1890 the city purchased the site and constructed the present iron bridge, which is about one thousand feet long. On its completion it was opened to free travel and has been continued such to the present time. It was at first a toll-bridge and owned by private parties for nearly a century, and yet so far as we can discover there have been but three owners up to the time it was purchased by the city. These three were William Fitzhugh, Esq., Judge John Coulter and Charles S. Scott.
Near the beginning of the nineteenth century a covered bridge spanned the river at the foot of Wolfe street, landing on the farm on the opposite side of the Rappahannock. The farm was then owned by a Mr. Thompson. No one knows when this bridge was built or to whom it belonged. It was known as the Stafford bridge, as the one above it was known as the Chatham bridge, until it was purchased by Mr. Scott, after which it was known as Scott's bridge. The two bridges were destroyed in the flood of 1820 and the Stafford bridge was never rebuilt.
CARE OF THE DEPENDENT POOR.
The first move made by the Common Council, or any other town organization, to provide for the dependent poor of the town was on the 25th of January, 1805, when the hustings court appointed five commissioners--Elisha Thatcher, James Smock, Wm. Benson, Benjamin Botts and Wm. Taylor--to ”enquire into the probable and comparative expense of erecting or renting a poor and work house for the reception of the poor of the corporation, and ascertain the probable salary of a steward for such poor and work house and the annual expense of supporting the same.”
These commissioners were empowered to receive propositions from persons desiring to rent suitable houses for the purpose, and to ascertain who would be willing to act as steward and report at the next session of the court. The report was submitted at the March term of the court and was approved and filed; when another commission was appointed, with Dr. George French as chairman, to ”rent a house for a term of one or more years,” at a cost not exceeding fifty pounds, and John F. Gaullier was appointed steward of the poor and work house.
The steward was to be ”allowed a salary at the rate of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, with two rooms and so much provisions as may be necessary for himself and family,” which should not exceed three in number. He was to be at his post at all times to receive the poor into the poor and work house, to ”treat them with tenderness and humanity, but at the same time to make them work.” For the better government of the inst.i.tution five inspectors were appointed by the court, consisting of George French, from the lower end of the town to Wolfe street; James Brown, from Wolfe to Hanover street; James Smock, from Hanover to William street; Stephen Winchester, from William to Lewis street, and Wm. Taylor, from Lewis street to the upper end of town. From the record it appears that John Minor was appointed inspector for the town at large.
The inspectors were instructed to place all the poor in the poor and work house and to ”advertise a request to the inhabitants to a.s.sist no poor person residing in town, lest imposition and idleness be encouraged.” This manner of providing for the poor seems to have been continued to the beginning of the Civil war, and, in addition to looking after the steward and the inmates of the poor and work house, the inspectors (more frequently recorded overseers of the poor), were to bind out all orphans who had no one to look after and provide for them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Exchange Hotel. (See page 166)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Fredericksburg College. (See page 198)]
It is not stated in what part of the town the first poor house was located, but for many years before the Civil war it was located on the Lang property, near Gunnery spring, and afterwards the poor were quartered in a brick house near the western limit of Princess Elizabeth street, which was rented for the purpose and which is now owned by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company.
After the war, for about eighteen years, the poor were maintained at the private houses, with such families as would agree to take them. In some instances the town paid rent for the houses for the families who would take one of the poor, and in others a stipulated amount per month for their maintenance. This manner of providing for the poor caused much complaint, both from the city and its dependents. The city authorities charged that the cost per capita was entirely too much, running annually in the aggregate from two to three thousand dollars, and the poor complained that they were neglected in both food and clothing.
But the overseer of the poor (the number having been reduced from five to one under the city ordinances) aided and a.s.sisted by a committee of three from the Common Council, could do no better with the facilities at his disposal, and while the subject continued to be discussed the Council had been slow in making any change. This inaction, however, was not because the citizens did not favor providing better methods for taking care of the poor, because the public favored it, and the necessity was recognized, but because no member felt willing to take the lead in such a movement.
In the Fall of 1882 a case of small pox broke out in town, and, strange as it may appear, it caused the erection of the present almshouse. The small pox case occurred near the corner of Princess Ann and Frederick streets.
The citizens in that part of the town became greatly alarmed and a stampede was threatened. An extra session of the Common Council was called in haste, to make arrangements for the removal of the patient (a colored man) to some isolated place. The Council met and discussed the matter, but it was found that there was no place to which he could be moved. The town owned no land where a temporary hospital could be erected, and land owners declined to rent to the city, for spreading a tent or for erecting a temporary hospital.
In this condition of things the economy of having an almshouse, in which to keep the poor, entered very largely into the discussion, and the result was the farm and residence of Mr. Frank Beckwith, on the hill about half a mile west of the town, was purchased for seventeen hundred dollars. The small pox patient, to the great delight of the citizens in the lower end of town, was at once sent to that place and the excitement subsided.
The following year the residence on the farm was greatly enlarged and a commodious department for the colored poor was built, under the direction of the Committee on Poor of the Common Council, consisting of Messrs. S.
J. Quinn, E. D. Cole and M. B. Rowe, and the dependent poor of the town were sent to ”Mount Nebo,” which was the name given to the place, because of its commanding position and the splendid view of the town and surrounding country from that point.
Since the poor have been kept at the almshouse they are better provided for and are better satisfied, besides they are more comfortable than under the former system, and the expense of maintaining them has been reduced fully one-half. Mr. Albert Hooton, who was overseer of the poor of the town prior to the erection of the almshouse, was the first superintendent of the inst.i.tution. Mr. Hooton died on the 23rd of November, 1897, and Mr.
John Wesley Ball was elected to the vacancy and is now serving. Mr. A.