The Lancaster Virginia Historical Society (LVHS) “Zooming In On Lancaster County History: Thursdays at 3:00” virtual speaker series will continue through February 18.
The speaker series is free for LVHS members and $5 per program for others. All viewers must register for each webinar separately at www.mkt.com/maryball or 462-7280, and will need a valid email address, reported executive director Karen Hart. Each session will begin at 3 p.m.
Registration to view the live session closes at noon on the day of the program. After a program has aired live, attendees can register for on-demand access to a video recording.
The upcoming schedule includes:
- January 21, “Dr. Peirce’s Babies,” by Margaret Forrester.
- February 4, “Black Voices: African American Oral Histories from the Lower Northern Neck,” by LVHS researchers.
- February 18, “Free Blacks in Lancaster and Northumberland Counties during the American Revolution,” by Karen Sutton.
Prior installments
The series launched with “Life at Lawson Bay Farm” by Robby Robison on November 19. His recent book, The Lawsons of White Stone and Lawson Bay Farm, spans 1650 to the present, but his talk emphasized the property history in the post-Lawson years from the 1880s onward, with just a brief review of the generations of the Lawson family who farmed the land for more than 200 years before the era of steamboats and beach resorts.
Robison also shared stories of his own family history in White Stone, growing up at Lawson Bay Farm in the 1950s, and coming back in recent years to take over the property and update the circa 1830 house.
Robison’s book is available for $20 from the LVHS website or Museum Shop.
On December 3, Denise Pope Mazyck presented “My Grandmother the Midwife: The Life of Claudine Curry Smith.” She was joined by her mother, Jeannette Cottrell, and her aunt, Shirley Dunaway, both daughters of Smith.
They shared their memories along with Smith’s own stories as documented in LVHS Oral History audio recordings and the autobiographical book My Bag Was Always Packed: The Life and Times of a Virginia Midwife.
“Claudine Curry Smith delivered over 500 babies as a midwife in rural Lancaster and Northumberland from 1950 to 1981, mostly serving Black communities,” said Hart. “When she retired in 1981, she was the last licensed practicing midwife in the area.
“Pregnancy and childbirth were managed by midwives and general practitioners well into the 20th century, and most babies were born at home. There were no local hospitals until 1964 in Tappahannock and 1977 in Kilmarnock,” she said.
My Bag Was Always Packed, co-authored by Mildred Roberson, can be purchased at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/54-0975119. LVHS will benefit from sales on AmazonSmile that designate Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library as the chosen charity.
On December 17, researcher Shaune Lee shared information she compiled for a previous LVHS museum exhibit about Northern Neck life and Christmas trends and traditions in the Depression era, including numerous stories and advertising images from local newspapers of the period.
According to Lee, The Rappahannock Record newspaper captured the feeling of the era when it reported in December 1932 that “in spite of talk of hard times, the holiday spirit is abroad in the land.” The Christmas season brought on a mixture of hope and doubt, as families looked for ways to make the holidays cheerful.
“Although times were tough, Lancaster residents tried to do what they could to ensure a happy Christmas, especially for the children,” said Lee. “Area stores offered special sales and selections of toys and gifts, and implored people to shop locally. Going out of town to shop was reserved for large or out-of-the-ordinary purchases, though shipping goods from large commercial hubs via steamboat was still a viable option.”
On January 7, series coordinator Lois Williams presented “The Lees of White Stone: Tracing a Family and Property 1650-1900.”
Williams about about her recently published book, The Lees of White Stone, Lancaster County, Virginia, 1650-1900, which also features map illustrations by Tom Kinney. Williams’ research traces the history and owners of a property on James Wharf Road southwest of White Stone, historically known as the Thomas Lee Estate.
According to Williams, Epaphroditus Lawson patented the 1,000 acres in 1650 and died two years later. The property entered the Lee family holdings in 1676 when Lawson’s niece, Elizabeth Medestard, married Charles Lee, the son of Richard Lee of Cobbs Hall.
For the next two centuries, most of the land was owned and divided by three succeeding generations named Thomas Lee. In 1750, the Thomas Lee Estate was the fifth largest landholding in Lancaster County. Some of the property was sold out of the Lee family in 1781 and eventually purchased by the Sanders family. Other portions were reconnected to the Lawson name through the marriage of Thomas Lee III’s daughter, Margaret, to Henry Chinn Lawson.
In the 1870s through 1890s, descendants of both the Sanders and Lee-Lawson families divided much of the land along James Wharf Road into small parcels and sold it to African American individuals and groups including members of the Taylor, Waddy, Kelley, Winder, Morris, Gordon and Wiggins families and representatives of Mount Vernon Baptist Church.
Copies of the book also can be purchased online for $20 plus sales tax and shipping.
