Shenandoah National Park

After leaving the Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison, Virginia I drove south on U.S. 29 to Charlottesville then west on Interstate 64 to Waynesboro where I spent the night. The next day (Monday, October 26th) the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park beckoned me. The first 20 miles were still quite pretty with brightly colored foliage but further north and in the higher elevations, the trees were nearly bare though there were patches of brilliant yellow here and there.

That notwithstanding, the next several days were spent traipsing through the forest (or perhaps I should say, huffing and puffing) on several trails. The weather was not very cooperative with heavy fog and intermittent rain on Tuesday. It gave me an opportunity to catch up on writing blog posts (but I've fallen behind again – can't believe it's been two weeks already).

I was staying in the Big Meadows Campground, not far from Hawksbill Peak (the highest peak within the park) and hiked to the summit on Wednesday. The rain had stopped during the night and the fog had lifted mid-morning. The trail was just 1.7 miles long with only a 500 foot elevation gain, but it sure felt longer and higher!

Wednesday afternoon, I made a short detour out of the park to Luray to try and track down a church where two of my ancestors served (more about that in a future post) then returned to the park and spent the night at Mathews Arm Campground. It was cloudy on Thursday morning and more rain was in the forecast. I took advantage of the offer made by my Aunt in Silver Spring, Maryland and spent the weekend at her place.

10/26 near Bacon Hollow Overlook

10/26 Moorman's River Overlook

10/28 Fog Rising at Fisher's Gap Overlook

10/28 from Hawksbill Summit

10/28 Crescent Rock Overlook

10/29 Gimlet Ridge Overlook

John Caspar Stoever and Hebron Lutheran Church

The charming little town of Madison, Virginia lies on U.S. Route 29 about 10 miles south of Culpeper and 25 miles north of Charlottesville. A few miles north of Madison there is a small church that is significant for several reasons. The Hebron Lutheran Church is the oldest Lutheran Church in continuous use in the United States. Built in 1740, it is one of the few wooden churches surviving Virginia's colonial times. The first pastor of the congregation was my 6th great-grandfather, Johann Kasper Stöver aka John Caspar Stoever, in my father's lineage, on his mother's side.

Baptized January 18, 1685 in the Lutheran church at Frankenberg, Hessen (in present day Germany), Johann Kasper Stöver was the son of Dietrich and Magdalena (Eberwein) Stöver. Along with his son of the same name, he arrived in Philadelphia on September 11, 1728 aboard the ship James Goodwill with David Crockett as the ships Master.

Several years earlier, after fulfilling their obligations at the Germanna Colony, a group of German Lutheran colonists purchased land near what would later become the town of Madison. They settled there and carved out lives for themselves and their families. And in 1726, they built a small log chapel along the Robinson River. It wasn't until the spring of 1733 that they were finally able to secure the services of a minister - the Rev. John Caspar Stoever (Senior).

His time as pastor of Hebron, was short - only about a year and a half. But in that time he laid the foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the church. A new house of worship was badly needed. The chapel in which he preached had become too small for the growing congregation and unsuitable for church purposes. The means of his people were limited. After paying their pastor's salary and taxes for the support of the established church, they felt that the burden of building was too great for them to bear alone. It was finally decided to ask for help from their brethren across the seas. Thus it was that in the fall of 1734, Pastor Stoever, Michael Smith (an elder), and Michael Holt (a member of the congregation) were sent to Europe to solicit funds to aid in building a church, establishing a school, and supporting an assistant pastor.

The fund-raising trip was quite successful. Sadly though, on the return voyage to Virginia, in the spring of 1739, Pastor Stoever became critically ill and died at sea. Though constructed in 1740, after his death, the church building is part of the legacy of John Caspar Stoever as is a school built in 1748 - the first school for German speaking colonists in the South – that was used for 100 years.

This historical marker is on the right side of the road when traveling north on the Blue Ridge Turnpike (Virginia Route 231) and is a little south of Hebron Church Road (County Route 638).

The inscription reads “Nearby stands Hebron Lutheran Church. This cruciform church was built in 1740 and is America’s oldest church in continuous use by Lutherans. The congregation was formed by 1725 by German families, some of whom arrived to Virginia in 1717 to work at Germanna, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood’s frontier mining community. The church was enlarged about 1800 and a pipe organ crafted by David Tannenburg of Lititz, Pennsylvania, was installed. The interior of the church has elaborate frescoed ceilings painted by the Italian born artist Joseph Oddenino. It was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.”

It was on Sunday morning (October 25th) that I was given a tour of the church by its historian, Mrs. Judy Ann Fray. Due to poor timing, I arrived after services were over but was extremely fortunate that Mrs. Fray was still there. And even more fortunate that she was gracious and willing to take the time to show me around.

Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison, Virginia. The parish house is to the right (east) of the church. The cemetery and stone fences date from the early 1900s.

The south side (front) of the church was added between 1790 and 1802. The small platform in front of the church was used for mounting and dismounting from horses and carriages. There are three of them, the one in front and one on each of the east and west sides.

The north side of the church (now the back) was built in 1740.

The pews and balcony on the east side, part of the original church building.

Installed in 1802 and restored in 1970, the Tannenberg organ is still in use today.

The southern side, added between 1790 and 1802. In the balcony area, where the organ was installed, you can see that the church originally had a high barrel-shaped ceiling.

The ceiling was lowered and plastered during renovations in 1850. In 1884, the ceiling was painted by Joseph Oddenino of Turin, Italy. Additional renovations were made in 1961.

Sources:
History of the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia from 1717-1907 by Rev. W. P. Huddle, Pastor. New Market, Virginia, 1908. Pages 23-30.

Stover-Stoever-Staver-Stiver, An Account of The Ancestry and Descendants of Johann Caspar Stoever of Pennsylvania by Vernon Stiver & Patricia R. Donaldson. Saline, Michigan, 1992. Pages 11-49 provide an interesting and detailed accounting of the life of John Caspar Stoever, Sr.

Pamphlet published by the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison, Virginia. No Date.

Tombstone Tuesday :: Marjorie Quillen

September 11, 2009 - Since it was dark the previous day when I went through the charming community of Overbrook, Kansas and because I was now back in the area to photograph tombstones from another nearby cemetery, I decided to see if I could locate the grave of little Marjorie Quillen.

According to an entry on Interment.net, Marjorie died on January 20, 1903 at the age of 14 days. Her parents were Mandella “Della” Joslin and James Downey “J. D.” Quillen. Della was was a sister of my 2nd great-grandmother, Malissa (Joslin) Brubaker. They lived in Overbrook for a few years before moving to Anacortes, Washington prior to 1907. While in Overbrook, J. D. was editor and publisher of the Overbrook Citizen. I wonder now whether any issues of the newspaper exist (on microfilm or otherwise) and if J. D. wrote of the death of his little daughter. For some reason I didn't even think of it while I was in Overbrook. A one-track mind, I guess.

I stopped at the library in Overbrook and asked it they had a publication of tombstone transcriptions. She said no, then when I asked if they had a diagram of the local cemetery, she said yes! And then brought out this huge book, which they called a “census” of the cemetery. Different terminology, but just what I was looking for.

Alas, the diagram of Overbrook cemetery that was published in the book bore no resemblance whatsoever to the various sections as they now exist. The drawing even had the librarian confused. The “census” did show that Marjorie was buried in the old section of the cemetery. The lady I was speaking with tried to tell me where that might be and I think that is the area where I went, but nowhere could I find little Marjorie!

I looked for over an hour, in the hot sun, and I walked up and down all the rows in what seemed like was the oldest section, to no avail. Then off in the distance I could see a young man on a three-wheeler driving down each of the lanes. Attached to the three-wheeler was a weed-eater. He stopped in front of me as I frantically waved my arms at him.

He had the nicest smile. He was very helpful but couldn't recall seeing a stone with the Quillen name on it, but he said he sees so many stones every week and even if he remembered the name he probably wouldn't be able to tell me where it was located. So for perhaps another 30 minutes we both walked up and down the rows, but little Marjorie was not to be found – at least not by me and not on that day.

There was a touching tribute to another little girl, Vivian Butell. She was older, having lived for four years from 1914-1918. I am sure that Della and J. D. would have liked to have left such a monument to their little daughter, but they were not wealthy folk. I envision little Marjorie's marker to be a small one, unassuming and unostentatious. I was somewhat saddened that her grave site wasn't found but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Marjorie wasn't found that day, but I must admit that I was overcome with emotion when I saw the lovely monument to Vivian Butell. The inscription read: Vivian Dau of / Dr. A U & Maud / Butell / 1914-1918

Greetings from... Virginia!

There were really only two directions to go when I left Assateague Island. I could have gone south, crossing the Chesapeake Bay on the 17-mile long Bay Bridge-Tunnel into Norfolk, but instead chose to travel north on U.S. Route 50, crossing the bay at Stevensville and passing by Annapolis.

My first destination was the small town of Madison in northwest Virginia, and second was Shenandoah National Park. To avoid most of the traffic in the Washington, D. C. area I took U.S. 301 south through Maryland and across the Potomac River, then Virginia Route 3 through Fredericksburg.

It had been a nice leisurely drive, for the most part. Cloudy, sprinkled now and then with light showers and the occasional torrential downpour. The latter came just as I was getting into Fredericksburg. It was raining so hard it was nearly impossible to see. In fact, I pulled over to the side of the road for a while until it let up some. Then when I got into Fredericksburg, traffic was tied up with several minor accidents. I later learned that they had gotten several inches of rain in a very short time and that I had just gotten into the tail end of the storm. Lucky me.

Even better, as I got out of Fredericksburg, the rain stopped. The sun came out. The clouds broke up. And blue skies appeared. It turned into a beautiful evening. I stopped for the night at Culpeper, a couple miles down the road from Fredericksburg and just a few miles from my first destination in Virginia - Madison.

Assateague Island :: Adieu

It was with some degree of sadness that I bid farewell to Assateague on Saturday morning (October 24th). It had been so peaceful and quiet the previous four days but when Friday evening arrived so did more people. The campground loop where I was staying, which had been nearly vacant, was now filled with weekend visitors. The spell was broken, it was time to go. Besides, rain was in the forecast for the next few days!

The golden glow of the sunset over the marsh. My last night at Assateague.

Not as colorful as the morning's sunrise had been, but quite lovely. Indeed.

Assateague Island :: Sunrise

One of the things I had promised myself that I would do while at Assateague was to get up early enough to watch the sunrise over the marsh. The first three mornings had already gone by and I hadn't gotten up in time but when Friday morning (October 23rd) rolled around, I awoke before the sun was over the horizon. The clouds in the sky were bathed in streaks of orange and pink. It turned out to be a spectacular sunrise. One of the best. Ever. Mother Nature outdid herself that morning.

7:00 a. m. Walking over to the marsh boardwalk.
It was cold. And Dark.
But I just knew it would be worth the effort.
That was an understatement.

7:07 a. m. From the middle of the boardwalk.

7:13 a. m. From the far side of the boardwalk.
Looking just a little to the south of the sun.
The sky and marsh were completely bathed in wonderful light.

7:18 a. m. From a distance, using the telephoto feature.
Looking directly into the rising sun. Magnificent.

7:22 a. m. From the same spot as the previous photo.
Longer telephoto setting.
The sun rising over the horizon.

7:24 a. m. The morning has risen.
Breathtakingly beautiful. Quiet. Tranquil.
All mine, and mine alone. Until now, when I share it with you.

7:32 a. m. My only companions were the birds.
A small flock of Snowy Egrets.

Assateague Island :: More Wild Ponies

Stopped traffic was a common sight whenever ponies were spotted along the roadside. I wasn't immune to their allure either, almost always stopping when I saw a group. This day I was riding my bicycle out to the bridge, which was a little over 3 miles from my campsite. This is at the intersection to the main road out to the Island.