Figure of the Week

Powhatan Moncure (1830-1908) was the son of John Moncure (1793-1876) of Carmora and Woodbourne, Stafford County.  Prior to the War Between the States, he lived at Ravenswood, part of which was recently taken for the airport interchange on U. S. Route 1.  Powhatan became gravely ill at the outset of the war and was never able to serve in the military.  During the Union occupation, the Ravenswood house was badly damaged, but the walls remained standing.  After the war, Powhatan and his family lived at the adjoining Oakenwold farm.  He married Dorothea Ashby (1838-1911), the sister of Confederate Gen. Turner Ashby (1826-1862) of Fauquier County.  During the painful years following the war, there was a good deal of excitement about a deposit of coal found on Powhatan’s property, but it proved to be a small deposit of poor quality.  In 1872 Powhatan was appointed one of the commissioners of the Free Bridge between Fredericksburg and Stafford County, now the Falmouth Bridge.  He served as a magistrate in Stafford from at least 1860 to 1867.  He and many of his family are buried at Aquia Episcopal Church in Stafford County.