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From Lucille McWane
Watson’s perspective, the thriving Lynchburg Foundry was one manifestestion of a proud, industrious, and enduring regional culture.
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contents
features
4 “A Freedwoman of Virginia”: Charlotte Scott and the Scott
and Rucker Families of Lynchburg by Marjorie Huiner. On the eleventh anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, a monument to the martyred president was dedicated in Lincoln Park, Washington D.C. Fredrick Douglass was the keynote speaker. President Grant was given the honor of unveiling the bronze. Among the spectators was an ex-slave from Lynchburg named Charlotte Scott. Her presence held a special significance. After Lincoln’s, hers was the only other name on the plaque at the base of the statue.
18 Millner’s Department Store: “Synonymous With the City It Serves” by Brandi Marchant and Douglas Harvey. A department store with a nearly seventy-year history in Lynchburg, Millner’s evokes bygone days for many longtime residents—memories of a bustling downtown, paychecks earned, the joys of youth, personable sales clerks, and elegant and stylish merchandise. Founded as a dry goods store in 1890, Millner’s came to be recognized as a premier Lynchburg department store and remained locally owned and operated until it merged with Richmond’s Miller & Rhoads in 1957.
26 Place, Pride, and Public Relations: The Lynchburg Foundry’s Unlikely History Magazine by James W. Wright. For almost six decades of
the twentieth century the Lynchburg Foundry Company published a most unlikely magazine. Begun as a humble “house organ,” the Iron Worker evolved into a richly produced, widely respected journal of local and state history. The transformation was driven by one woman with a passion for preserving the region’s heritage and with the family connections to make it happen: Lucille McWane Watson (1893–1988).
36 Excerpts from “Trouble Don’t Las’ Always”: The Legacy Museum’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Exhibit by Dianne Swann- Wright. The untold experiences of enslaved people and free blacks during the Civil War are now being addressed in current sesquicentennial exhibits, including an installation at Lynchburg’s Legacy Museum named “Trouble Don’t Las’ Always”: African American Life in Central Virginia During and After the Civil War, 1860– 1870. Selections from the exhibit included in this issue have been condensed and edited for Lynch’s Ferry readers.
departments
3 From the Editor 43 History in Brief
FRONT COVER: Charlotte Scott attended the 1876 dedication ceremonies of the Freedman’s Memorial, and a photograph of her was taken and sold to raise
further funds for its upkeep.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
FALL/WINTER 2013
Official Publication of the Lynchburg Historical Foundation
PUBLISHER
Nancy Blackwell Marion
EDITOR
Mary M. Abrams
DESIGN
The Design Group
EDITORIAL BOARD Lamar Cecil
S. Allen Chambers John d’Entremont Peter Houck
Thomas Ledford Marilyn Martin Scott Smith William Young
Lynch’s Ferry (ISSN 1949-2146) is published twice a year by Blackwell Press
311 Rivermont Avenue Lynchburg, VA 24504
Telephone (434) 847-0939
Subscription orders and notice of change of address should be sent to the above address. Subscription rate is $10.00 per year (2 issues) or $18.00 for two years (4 issues) paid in advance.
Copyright 2013 by Blackwell Press All rights reserved
Lynch’s Ferry is for sale at the following locations: Bookshop on the Avenue, Givens Books, Lynchburg Visitors Center, Old City Cemetery, Point of Honor, Market on Main, and Lynch’s Ferry’s office at The Design Group.
Image courtesy of Kyle Baldwin