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From the late 1600s to around 1930, Stafford County was one of Virginia’s most industrialized counties. Major industries conducted here included sandstone quarrying, fishing, iron making and forging, timbering, gold mining, pyrite mining, and flour milling. Logging and sawing lumber commenced shortly after the county was settled in the 1650s and continued as a major…

Stafford County’s earliest telephone service was provided by the Toluca and Fredericksburg Telephone Company. While this was the first such venture in Stafford, residents and businesses in other regions had had telephones for years. With the formation of the Northern Neck Telegraph and Telephone Company in 1887, Lancaster County and part of King George were…

During the 1930s and 1940s, Stafford County hadn’t money to fund a school athletics program. In 1939, attorney Frank P. Moncure (1889-1969) organized a few of his friends and bought a 15-acre parcel of the old Atchison tract on which they constructed a ball field and bleachers. This became known as the Stafford Athletic Club…

This little 20th century tavern was built on the edge of Wayside Farm that belonged to Col. Thomas Conway Waller (1832-1895). Wayside house stood on the north side of Garrisonville Road (Route 610) where Stafford Market Place shopping center is now located. This was a large, 1 ½-story frame building with a large chimney and…

The building once known as part of the Fredericksburg Museum and Cultural Center was completed in 1927. Construction had commenced the previous year with Philip N. Stern as architect. This gentleman also designed the Princess Anne Hotel and Lafayette Elementary School (now the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Headquarters) in Fredericksburg as well as the present…

In the 1870s black churches developed in the pockets of Stafford County where African Americans lived. Generally, the churches formed schools and evolved benevolence groups, such as the Union Branch of the True Vine, by which mutual assistance was possible. Community centers thus developed. The oldest black Stafford churches were all Baptist.  Some of them…

Reconstruction refers to post-Civil War U.S. history from 1863 to 1877; it also refers to the transformation of the American South and its states during that same period. Directed by the Federal government with the aims of restoring the formerly seceded states to the Union, reconstructing and reconciling American society, and absorbing some four million…

Reconstruction is generally referred to as the period following the Civil War ending in the return of the Southern states to Constitutional, legal and political viability. Some historians date Reconstruction from the war’s end; others date it from 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation (January 1st) went into effect and when Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was delivered…

Dr. Mary Walker was an abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, and surgeon. Mary Walker was born on November 26, 1832 and raised in Oswego, NY. Her parents, Alvah and Vesta Walker, instilled progressive values in their children at a young age – they split domestic chores equally, sheltered freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, and…

During the Civil War, Stafford’s housing declined due to over 1,000 men serving in the Confederate army. Materials for repairs were less available and construction and maintenance standards, never good, declined. Confederate occupation was brief (one year) and respected their citizens’ property. Throughout the war, those Staffordians who remained (many “refugeed” south) lived as best…

The Virginia “gold belt” lies in a northwestern linear band from Great Falls of the Potomac River, southwest through Stafford, Fauquier, Chancellorsville, Mineral, Tabscott, and nearly to Appomattox. Stafford’s gold mines were concentrated along Rocky Pen and Horsepen Runs in the lower part of the county. Eugene C. Scheel’s excellent historical map portrays the large…

With the exception of the Eagle Mine, most gold removed from Stafford mines was dug from pits. Eagle was one of the few Stafford mines with tunnels or shafts, which were constantly plagued with water seepage. Gold was usually found as flecks in decomposing white or pink quartz. Once dug, laborers used mauls to break…