Figure of the Week

Wilson B. Shackelford was a Confederate veteran and lived his later years in Fredericksburg. In 1905, he advertised “One eight H. P. steam engine, one grist mill with two sets of runners, fifteen ares of land, known as the Long Branch Mill Tract. There are good indications of gold on this land. For information write to W. B. Shackelford, Coakley’s P. O., Stafford county, Va.” (Free Lance, Aug. 22, 1905). This may be the old Briggs’ Mill lot located near the junction of Stefaniga Road (Route 648) and Poplar Road (Route 616). In 1889 and 1890, Wilson B. Shackelford was an overseer of an unspecified section of road in the Aquia District of Stafford County, Virginia.