In September 1942, the Virginia Conservation Commission’s Division of History and Archaeology, under the direction of Dr. Hamilton J. Eckenrode, began a war records collection program. Unable to continue the Division of History’s historical marker program because of wartime rationing, Eckenrode sought to “record the history of the Old Dominion’s war effort while the history is still fresh in the making, rather than wait until after the war when the events and details would be more obscured.” The Conservation Commission began a correspondence program in which a non-salaried correspondent from each locality sent reports about local war activities and local effects of and reactions to the war.

In March 1943, Mrs. Mary B. Thompson of Stafford County submitted to the Commission the “Story of Stafford Evacuation” by Elizabeth Russell Powers.  Approximately 350 families lived in the 30,000 acres of condemned land in Stafford County.  Powers described the difficulties the families faced moving:  locating a new home, packing belongings, a shortage of trucks, and muddy and washed out roads.  Powers also addressed the “fine spirit” of the people forced to leave their homes.  Their spirit “has suffered, and they feel for good and sufficient reasons” - the short moving time fram, lack of assistance from the Marine Corps, and lack of payment by the United States government for their property.  “Though I sympathize with the men and women who feel they have been unfairly treated,” Powers concluded, “I believe they will live to realize an economic and social benefit.”  A contemporary newspaper account seem to support Powers’ assertion.  A story in the 8 October 1942 issue of the Washington Post quoted Robert Guy, a life-long resident of Stafford:  “We’re blessed here,” he told his sister.  “Why shucks, over across the water, they’re killing men and women and little children every day and bombing their homes.  All we have to do is move out.  We’ll still have our families.”

While families were forced to move on short notice, they did not receive payment for their land for months and in some cases years.  The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on 29 October 1943 that title to only a third of the condemned land had been deeded to the United States government.  For those owners still awaiting payment, Fauquier, Prince William and Stafford counties added insult to injury:  the owners had to pay property tax on land that they no longer possessed.  A.B. Cloe, deputy treasurer of Stafford County, explained that while the Navy took possession of all properties by December 1942, the property taxes were only shifted to the purchaser when legal title had been transferred and recorded in the county clerk’s office.  “When the government took over the land last year [1942],” Cloe said, “I don’t know of a single person who minded paying up taxes through December, even though many had to get out of their homes a month before the end of the year.  However, it is hard for them to understand why they must pay this year’s taxes [1943] when the government has had possession, and use of their land.”  By 1944, the Navy had title to nearly 70% of the condemned land.  In 1945 the United States government surplused some property obtained for military use during the war – but they kept the 50,000 acres for Quantico.

The records of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History is open for research at the Library of Virginia.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

On Thursday, October 20, staff from the Library of Virginia’s Local Records Services Branch were in Jersey City, New Jersey, to formally accept one of the Commonwealth’s long-lost treasures – a Stafford County record book taken from Virginia in 1863 by a Union officer serving in a New York regiment. 

 The volume, an order book detailing the daily activities of the court from 1749 to 1755, was transcribed by a Stafford deputy clerk in 1791.  The book was removed from the Stafford courthouse by Captain W. A. Treadwell of the 4^th N.Y. Regiment and was long considered to be a casualty of the war.  A note inside the front cover and presumably in Treadwell’s hand states that it was “Taken from Stafford Court House, March 30 1863.”

 The volume was handed down several times over many years before it was presented to the Hudson County Historical Society. The Society’s collection eventually was transferred to the collection of the Jersey City Free Public Library’s New Jersey Room. Recognizing that the order book did not fit within the New Jersey Room’s collection policy, Jersey City Public Library’s John Beekman contacted the LVA to return the volume to its rightful home in Virginia.  The volume will be conserved at LVA’s in-house conservation lab and scanned and microfilmed to ensure its preservation. Scanned images will be presented to the Stafford County Circuit Court Clerk’s office so that the citizens of the county will have ready access to a volume long thought to be lost.

 Stafford County is one of a number of Virginia localities that suffered major records losses during the Civil War due to acts of vandalism in which records were seized by Union soldiers and destroyed or taken as souvenirs.  The Library of Virginia is the repository that holds many of the records that still exist from the colonial era. “It is time for this volume, after nearly a century and a half, to be returned to an institution where it can be preserved and made accessible to researchers,” said Beekman, New Jersey Room assistant manager.

 “The Library of Virginia is pleased to accept this volume on behalf of Barbara Decatur, the Stafford County Circuit Court Clerk, and the citizens of Stafford County and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Carl Childs, director of Local Records Services at the Library of Virginia.  “The return of this volume helps to fill a gap in the history of Stafford County and its inhabitants,” Childs said.

 “For the Library of Virginia to receive back a unique, irreplaceable 18^th-century ledger almost 150 years after it was stolen and after all expectation of its return had long ago died, is nothing short of miraculous.  Perhaps other archivists will be inspired by John’s action to take a closer look at items that don’t really fit the scope of their collection and find more suitable homes or even the rightful homes for any such items,” added New Jersey Room manager Cynthia Harris.

[Editor's Note: A "Welcome Home" ceremony was held at the Stafford County Courthouse on December 1, 2011, to celebrate the order book's return and to allow the public and local officials to get a glimpse of this rare volume. For more on the celebration see the article "Lost Ledger Returns Home" from fredericksburg.com.]