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 FREDERICKSBURG, VA Posted by:  vhasler
N 38° 18.153 W 077° 27.605
18S E 284886 N 4242247
The city has kept its Colonial roots downtown, while becoming a regional commercial center.
Waymark Code: WM9YC7
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 10/16/2010
Views: 3
FREDERICKSBURG (50 alt,, 6,819 pop.), where George Washington attended school for four months and his mother spent her last years, where Monroe practiced law, John Paul Jones had his only home, and the armies of the i860's fought their bloodiest battles, is at the head of navigation on the Rappahannock River.
The city's eastern boundary is the river, crossed by a railroad bridge and by Free Bridge, which passes over a tiny island. Northward is the old town of Falmouth, and southward and westward residential areas rise toward pleasant fields on rolling land. Old Fredericksburg is a rectangular plot from the river to the higher level of Princess Anne Street. Straight streets, under arching trees, crisscross at right angles. Commerce follows William Street from the center of the city to Caroline Street, where grocery stores, meat markets, hardware stores, motion picture houses, and restaurants are in full possession. Negroes and factory workers live in small old houses huddled together beside the river and in several outlying areas.
Houses, cemeteries, and monuments tell of two centuries of distinguished people and stirring events. Tourist conscious now, the city presents an almost universal gleam of fresh paint, applied to white clapboards, green shutters, and to the trim of red brick Colonial buildings.
Fredericksburg has long been the urban center of a fertile agricultural region. Its people still trade with country folk who market and buy here. The city's industrial plants, with an annual pay roll of $2,500,000, manufacture flour, clothing, textiles, shoes, crates, and boxes. But Fredericksburg is primarily an old residential community that cherishes the profitable aura of its past.
The dog mart, held in the city park each October, perpetuates an old custom. It is preceded by a bench show, street parade, and hornblowing contest, and is followed by a ball. The story goes that first settlers brought fine hunting dogs with them, of which the Indians were so covetous that a day was set each year when settlers traded dogs for furs and other articles. The barter was begun in 1698 and continued until interrupted by the Revolutionary War. In 1927 it was revived.
Fredericksburg's authenticated record begins in 1608 with a visit by Captain John Smith. In 1671 John Buckner, Robert Bryan, and Thomas
Roys ton patented here a tract called later the Lease-land. In 1722 there was a public ferry across the river 'from Mrs. Fitzhugh's plantation ... to the wharf on the leased land of Thomas Buckner and John Royston.' About 1723 William Levingston moved here and built 'a dwelling and kitchen.' In 1727 the general assembly directed that 50 acres of the Lease-land be laid out, and established a town for Spotsylvania County by the name of Fredericksburg for Frederick, Prince of Wales and father of George III. Colonel William Byrd II, visiting the sparsely settled town five years later, was impressed by the stone prison, (strong enough to hold Jack Shepherd,' and by the versatility of 'Mrs.Levistone,' who was a 'Doctress and Coffee
Woman' and 'qualify'd to exercise 2 other callings' He noted that 'the Court-house and the Church are going to be built here, and then both Religion and Justice will help to enlarge the Place.'
The town grew as a port. Ships lay 'close to the Wharf, within 30 Yards of the Public Warehouses, which are built in the figure of a Cross.' Wagons jolted in from the countryside with wheat and tobacco for export. Rows of buildings, many of brick, began to rise on Sophia and Caroline Streets, and mansions were built on the 'hill.' In 1734 a new ferry was authorized (on Rappahannock river, from the warehouse landing, at the town of Fredericksburg ... to the land of William Thornton.' A French traveler wrote in 1765: 'Back settlements send down to Fredericksburg great quantities of butter, cheese, flax, hemp, flower and some tobacco.' Soon wheat and flour led the exports.
During the Revolution the town furnished leaders for the Continental army and arms from its 'gunnery.' In an old order book, dated September 18, 1783, is an entry 'to Mary Driskell, a nurse in the Continental Hospital at Fredericksburg, from January 9, '79, to May '82, by .which appears to be due the amount certified, L266 : 19.'
In 1781 Fredericksburg was incorporated as a town. After the Revolution it prospered steadily. In 1807, however, during the obsequies of William Stanard, an overturned candle started a fire that reduced half the town to ashes. But Fredericksburg recovered. As center for a large number of slaveholding landed proprietors, some of whom lived in town, it entered a period of luxury, when racecourses, wine cellars, and balls reached their apogee.
Great canvas-covered wagons, some as high as 12 feet, lumbered in from 'up country' with loads of grain, tobacco, and other produce, drawn by four to eight horses with bells jangling on their collars. They returned laden with groceries, wines, housefurnishings, and other imported supplies. Two hundred of these huge conveyances were often in Fredericksburg at one time, {bringing business for the many vessels, some of them large three-masted schooners, which came from all parts of the globe to anchor at the wharves.' In 1822 Fredericksburg was made a central point for the distribution of mail to five States, and the mails became so heavy that surreys
were used instead of postriders. During this era of prosperity even funerals were occasions for entertaining, refreshments being served in dark wrappings and wine drunk from glasses festooned with long black ribbons. In 1840 there were 73 stores, 4 semiweekly newspapers, 3,974 inhabitants, and exports amounted to about $4,000,000 yearly.
Fredericksburg's distinguished men were not all of the Revolutionary period. Matthew Fontaine Maury, the great marine cartographer, spent part of his life here. Another native was Maury's brother-in-law, William Lewis Herndon, who worked with him for a time at the National Observatory and, in 1851, was apparently the first to explore the Amazon to its headwaters.
The War between the States struck Fredericksburg down. Situated half-way between Washington and Richmond and on main roads and a rail
route, it was a major objective of both armies. It changed hands seven times during the conflict and achieved, with its immediate neighborhood, the unhappy distinction of being one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of history.
In 1879 the general assembly created 'the city of Fredericksburg . . . one body politic, in fact and in name.' By the beginning of the twentieth century the scars of battle and Reconstruction were fairly smoothed out, and since then improvements have changed a sleepy community into a modern little city. In 1912 Fredericksburg exchanged its councilmanic form of government for the city manager plan.
---- Virginia - A Guide to the Old Dominion State, 1940.
Fredicksburg now has a population of 23,193 (2009) with significant growth as a bedroom comunity of Washington, DC. Major employers are GEICO Direct, McLane Mid-Atlantic Grocery Distribution, Mary Washington College, and nearby military bases.
The coordinates are chosen to be at St. George's Church located at the intersection at Princess Anne and George Street.
Book: Virginia
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 215-218
Year Originally Published: 1940
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