Bachelor Musings, Brandy, & Babies- Christmas 1916

 From the West Point News of December 22, 1916

ROXBURY

 I wonder who will think of me? This is the question uppermost in the minds of everyone as Christmas, the happiest of all days, draws near. I heartily agree with the editorial in the last issue of the News entitled “Christmas Gifts.” Who is going to remember in some small way the poor widows, orphans and the sick and afflicted in their neighborhood? This has been a prosperous year with Those who give cheerfully, [        ] be made happy. As to this writer in my little bungalow alone with little snookums, I will be happy with good health and plain food. To see  others happy, always makes me happy.

 Brother Peters* has played havoc with his prohibition law. Not [     ] that Baltimore quart can be de[    ] to the man unless he have a [                 ] like he was trying to force the bachelors to marry whether we wish to or not. Man can manage the quart, if not good, he can throw it away, but; when he is tied to the apron strings of a woman, he has to keep her; no one else will. He can’t throw away or trade her off for other live stock. So we bachelors stand between Hades and the deep blue sea. As for this scribe, I never tasted ardent spirits in my life. I would not know the taste of brandy from sauerkraut, yet it seems free America is at last unkind people. He says he is growing fat on fine oysters, ducks and other good things to eat from the kind people of Gloucester. Brother McNeil and family, I send through the columns of the News congratulations. God bless your labors in your new field. We sadly miss you but our loss is another’s gain. Brother McNeil, remember oysters do not grow up here so if you have more than you can manage, send some to your old friend, Truthful Jeems. 

 If one gossip is on straight in this neighborhood some of the pretty teachers have decided to remain permanently in New Kent and it is said they do not expect to live alone.  

The stork visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Bailey Tuesday night and left a beautiful little baby boy with Mrs. Ida Carey as a Christmas present. Mr. and Mrs. Cary are being congratulated by their many friends.

 Mr. H. C. White and Roy Bailey were visitors at Wrights bungalow last Sunday.

 Young George Crump, who through mistake shot a deer for a rabbit, was tried by Justice Wright† Friday and was fined $5.00 and costs which George paid with a smile. The deer was a three year old doe and weighed 105 pounds. On the market in season, the deer would have sold for $30. The strict game law has caused an abundance of all kinds of game.

TRUTHFUL JEEMS.

* I assume 'Brother Peters' is the first Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Prohibition, J. Sidney Peters. Statewide prohibition had been approved by a referendum of Virginia voters in September of 1914. 

† 'Justice Wright' and 'Truthful Jeems' were one and the same. 

Christmas in the South - 1870

 From the Christmas edition of Harper's Weekly 1870

Christmas in the South - Egg-Nog Party -12/31/1870

The Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation

 Here is a link to the website for the Tidewater and Big Bend Foundation which owns numerous historic properties in New Kent and Charles City. Whatever ones opinion of the purchases one has to admit it is a nice informative site.

A list of some of the historic properties in New Kent owned by the Foundation (though some of these are still held under the name of Criss Cross Properties.)

Cumberland

Cedar Hill

Cedar Lane

Moss Side

Shuttlewood

Spring Hill

Rose Garden

Scottsville

South Garden

Hampstead

Iden

"Cold and Clear" - December 1924

     QUINTON

 Cold and clear and all have begun to feel that Christmas is, near. Already one can get the odor of nice fruit cake and boiling hams, etc. The old gobbler and fine fat fowl await the fatal day when they will be led to the gibbet, where the execution will take place without ceremony. All merchants are putting in heavy stocks of goods, expecting fine sales. We hope they will cut out the sale of pistol cartridges, that often lead to the death of some one, with the only explanation 

Let New Kent follow the example of our neighbor county, Henrico. No cartridges for pistols sold, no trespassing, no cutting and carrying away by wagon and automobile our beautiful evergreens, holly, cedar, running cedar. Every year crowds come down here and strip the forest of the beautiful trees for Christmas decorations. They have no more right to go into a man’s forest and cut and carry away those beautiful trees than they have to go into a man’s cornfield and carry away his corn crop. That is the reason our birds leave us in the winter: their winter food, the holly berries, is carried away. Yes, carried away and sold for fancy prices.*

 Thanksgiving day was generally observed here. Many sportsmen were out, but very little game was killed, as they were told to move on. This they did, while they had a chance and going was good. Henrico county did some fine work, as many as 20 huntsmen being arrested for trespass and hunting without license. Each was fined $15 and costs. This was a sad day, as many had to eat their dinner at the expense of the county taxpayers.

  . . .

TRUTHFUL JEEMS.

- West Point News, December, 1924

* New Kent at the time was an important manufacturer of Christmas wreaths.

Holt's Forge

 

  In June, 1870, a freshet, the result of previous heavy rains, overflowed and broke the dam at a point known as Old Forge, on the Jones branch of the Chickahominy River, in New Kent County, Virginia. Trees were overturned, a building  undermined, and a gorge cut, uncovering in its route the remains of an early forge or smelting furnace. The foundation, portions of a chimney, an anvil, a hammer, and six bars of iron were exposed to view- one of the last, bearing in raised letters the inscription "B.G., 1741," which were supposed to indicate the place and date of manufacture; the first of which was assumed to have been Bear Garden furnace, Buckingham County, Virginia. The forge is marked on Fry and Jefferson's Map of Virginia 1765 as Holt's Forge. It must have commenced operations at a period not much later than 1741, if not as early, and was continued until some time during the Revolutionary war.

 Tradition assigns to Col. William Byrd (the second) the credit of erecting and first working the forge, and Mr. William H. Christian, of Richmond, states that in his boyhood he was informed by an old negro man, named Guthridge, that his owner, one Jones, who operated the forge until its destruction, stationed him, then a youth, upon an eminence to watch the movements of the British soldiery who were in the section. Their approach being descried, the buildings were hastily fired and earth thrown upon the ruins to conceal the tools, &c. After the war bar iron was produced so cheaply in other sections that no efforts were made to revive the works. A grist-mill being erected in late years near the site of the forge and driven by water from the pond used for its operations was first called Providence Mills, but such was the force of custom that the residents of the section would retain the old designation, Forge; hence the new and old name has by common consent and usage been united in the component term Providence Forge. 

 "Early Iron Manufacture in Virginia 1619- 1776" By R.A. Brock- (Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society) in Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Volume 8- 1886

An interesting note on this article, after consulting the Fry/Jefferson map, I do not find any mention of a "Holt's Forge." There is a "Holt" located on the map somewhat to the west of Cumberland on the Pamunkey, but the only spot located near present day Providence Forge is "Soane's Bridge." 

Of course this same map also locates Whitehouse just east Brickhouse almost on Weir Creek.