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by Marion Brooks Robinson From the beginning of the Jamestown settlement until 1786, the Anglican or Episcopal Church of England was the “state” church in Virginia. Many dissenters, however, moved into the early colony. Many settled in what is now Stafford County. Chief among these groups were Catholics, Quakers, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodists denominations. The…

In 1919, Mr. John Lee Pratt, a King George County boy who would become a multimillionaire and owner of Chatham Manor in Stafford, was a General Motors engineer. He had originally worked for DuPont and was loaned to General Motors to assist in troubles they were having with refrigerator development in their “Frigidaire Department.” GM…

Eighteen U.S. Presidents have visited Stafford County — nineteen if you include FDR whose train carrying his casket slowed down when it went through Stafford’s Brooke Point.  Here are those that have visited/passed through on their way to other places: George Washington Thomas Jefferson James Madison James Monroe Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren (while Jackson’s…

Tavern—a place where travelers or local residents could go for alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, food, games, sharing news, visiting friends, etc. There were different taverns that served different socio-economic groups from laborers to gentry. Women rarely entered taverns. During the years leading up to the American Revolution, the pros and cons of separation from England…

On January 25, 1863, Major General Daniel Butterfield was appointed Army of the Potomac chief of staff. In command of a demoralized force, Hooker and Butterfield began a complete transformation of the army. Butterfield, considered an “idea man” and the “brains of the outfit,” was a key player in the army’s resurgence.

Postcards used from the collection of Tom Harris. In 1946, state-sponsored construction crews completed the Highway 1 by-pass around Fredericksburg. Now people could travel rapidly from New York to Florida via U.S. 1, which was first built in 1927, without slowing down to go through the town of Fredericksburg.. A new bridge crossed the Rappahannock…

Robert Campbell Rodgers was born in Ireland, the son of Robert Rogers (c.1780-1857) of Londonderry. Upon leaving Ireland, he landed first in Philadelphia where he took a job as a bookkeeper. Robert became a naturalized citizen around 1842 and settled in Stafford County, Virginia around 1848. The elder Robert Rogers joined his son in Stafford…

All incoming and outgoing passengers and cargo had to be cleared through the Provost Marshal’s Office at Aquia Landing.  The office was later given responsibility for checking incoming express boxes to officers and soldiers.

For nearly a century, a little white frame building called Clifton Chapel was at the center of life in the Widewater area of Stafford. Relatively little is known of the early history of this structure. Withers Waller (1827-1900) donated the land from his Clifton tract for the sanctuary. The Clifton home stood on the Potomac…

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and even into the early twentieth century, grist mills were centers of social life where nearly everyone gathered to do business, share information, and visit. Bellfair Mills was for many years the hub of the northern Stafford community that surrounded it, functioning as a mill, post office, store, meeting…

Deploying to South Carolina, the 54th Massachusetts fought at James Island and Fort Wagner.  Shaw was killed leading his regiment to fame and glory. He was buried with his men in a common grave and they were together memorialized in a famous Boston monument. Shaw Monument in Boston, Massachusetts

Surgeon Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, is shown here with his staff. Their efforts, begun at Antietam and emphasizing evacuation, represented the beginnings of modern military medicine.