October 15, Tuesday, we leave Fredericksburg after first getting some photos of the narrow houses...narrow because they were taxed on the frontage only....
Then the home of James and Elizabeth Monroe, now privately owned.....
And then the entrance to the Civil War battlefield, now closed because of the government shutdown....
On the highway, we pass the Chancellorville Battlefield, closed because of the government shutdown!
and the spot where Confederate General Stonewall Jackson fought and the spot where he was injured and where he had his arm amputated. He survived the amputation but died 8 days later from pneumonia. Lee said that Stonewall Jackson lost his left arm, but he has lost his "right arm".
Across the divided highway will be the site of the Wilderness Battle. The battlefields 150 years later are beautiful meadows, rolling plains, farm lands...and they were just that before the War began....devastation to the land as well as the people is a serious outcome of war. It has taken over 100 years for the wounds to heal.....and perhaps for some, they have never healed.
We arrive at Culpeper, visit the court house, and do not find the information we are looking for about Liz's ancestor, Coleman Foster. Perhaps we will find more about him in Halifax County.
We drive on to Orange to see the courthouse there, first having a grilled chicken open-face sandwich at Elmwood at Sparks, a restaurant recommended by someone at the courthouse (whom Liz had called). It is good to call ahead for information as some of these courthouses do not allow cell phones, cameras, computers, etc. and it is good to know ahead of time...otherwise you have to take it all back to the car. Also they suggest where to park.
We are looking for land records for Peter Craven who lived in Augusta County in the 1740s, but the parent county, Orange, still has the records because the new county was too young to have a court house system. But, alas, no luck..we go to the Historical Society, but not finding much...no breakthroughs. We always gather some information wherever we go. Someday it may all come together!
We stay at the Holiday Inn, situated north of town on Round Hill, a former dairy farm with a beautiful view from our hotel window of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance...thought we were sleeping in a cornfield! We split a delicious sirloin steak dinner at the Silk Mill Grille where they made parachutes for World War II.
October 16, we enjoy some biscuits and gravy (a sinful Southern staple) at the Holiday Inn. We leave Orange and drive across the Blue Ridge Mountains to Staunton, pronounced Stanton. Since we had a dead battery and were delayed an hour, it is lunchtime when we arrive in Staunton. We find a place to park and have hamburgers with fried green tomatoes and homemade pimiento cheese at Byers Bistro. Off to the courthouse, but alas, no deeds for Peter Craven. We do find the order for him to work on the road, something we already knew, but we copy the source document from Order Book 4. We know he was in this area in 1754, which means either his third son, Joseph (Bob's ancestor) was born in Virginia in 1750 or, if he was born in NC, then he was born after 1750.
There is confusing geographical information in the two items about Peter. There are references to North Mountain, a gap...is it Buffalo Gap or another smaller gap?....it says the road is in the lower part of Augusta County...one reference names Linville's Creek which is now in Rockingham County north of Augusta County, and another reference to Roan Oke and one to the Roanoke River which is now in the county south of Augusta.
We do find lots of information about a Robert Craven, as well as the Harrison family who have married into the Robert Craven family. These people lived in Augusta County at the same time that Peter Craven lived there. Is Peter related to Robert? We do not know and did not find any reference connecting them....but their last name is the same and it is not that common a name.
We stop at the library which is open to nine, visit their geneaology room and read some about the early history of Augusta County and look at early maps of the area. Earlier in the afternoon, we changed our hotel reservations so we spent the night in Staunton at a Microtel Inn, and ate dinner at Chili's. Their mango chili chicken was delicious, spicy, but good.
October 17, off to Halifax County, looking for Coleman Foster and his parents. What will we find?
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