Rockbridge Vignettes

Rockbridge Vignettes Interesting and entertaining small stories about Rockbridge County's people, places and things. We post new items most evenings around dinnertime.

Sometimes, we give you a rerun bonus item earlier in the day too.

James Jordan (1813-61) was the executor of his father John Jordan’s estate, and apparently James found himself finically...
10/30/2025

James Jordan (1813-61) was the executor of his father John Jordan’s estate, and apparently James found himself finically strapped. Or perhaps there was another reason he placed this advertisement in the Gazette in 1856, titled “Murder! Murder! Murder!”, in which he asked that Col. Jordan’s debtors pay off their obligations so he, the son, could pay off his late father’s creditors. (Never mind the aside about people stepping on his toes and even burrowing into his hole to dun him.) “Plank up the dimes without further notice!”, the younger Jordan demanded.

Better days ahead. Chris Fox photo with Rio, Feb. 9, 2025.
10/30/2025

Better days ahead. Chris Fox photo with Rio, Feb. 9, 2025.

Landon Garland (1810-95) established Lexington’s first Sunday School in 1831 at the Presbyterian Church when it was loca...
10/29/2025

Landon Garland (1810-95) established Lexington’s first Sunday School in 1831 at the Presbyterian Church when it was located in what’s now Oak Grove Cemetery. At the time Garland was a professor at Washington College, but soon he became a peripatetic college president, first at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland (1836-46), then at the University of Alabama (1857-67) and finally at Vanderbilt (1875-93). Buildings at all three schools are named for him.

William Couper (1884-1964) graduated from VMI in 1904 and then earned a degree in engineering at MIT. He quickly rose in...
10/28/2025

William Couper (1884-1964) graduated from VMI in 1904 and then earned a degree in engineering at MIT. He quickly rose in the ranks of the Army but retained a strong connection with VMI, developing (as a volunteer) the institute’s first long-range plan in 1920. In 1925 he was recruited to become VMI’s first executive officer, and over the next three decades he was involved in finance, construction, planning, athletics, hiring, and admissions. He oversaw the new library, gymnasium, physics and engineering buildings, and the mess hall. He was VMI’s official historian and established VMI’s archives. The VMI Foundation gave him its very first Distinguished Service Award.

General Charles P. Dorman (1784-1849) was that rare 19th-century Lexington military man who became an officer not of the...
10/27/2025

General Charles P. Dorman (1784-1849) was that rare 19th-century Lexington military man who became an officer not of the Confederacy but in the U.S. Army (War of 1812). In civilian life he was a lawyer, state delegate and editor. In the 1820s he built The Rectory (Episcopal) on Lee Avenue, now in private ownership, which may (or may not) have been designed by the Darst & Jordan partnership as part of its contemporary indelible brick-and-column residential development on that residential block.

When World War I broke out, Rockbridge and America mobilized. Local lawyer Greenlee Letcher, son of the Civil War govern...
10/27/2025

When World War I broke out, Rockbridge and America mobilized. Local lawyer Greenlee Letcher, son of the Civil War governor John Letcher, patriotically organized the Rockbridge Artillery, recruiting 190 soldiers and five officers to fight in France. Letcher was older than most of his soldiers’ fathers – 49. By the war’s end, 1,040 Rockbridge men and women (yes) had served; 35 or 38 from Rockbridge died, depending on who did the counting, including four African American soldiers, 30 of whom in September 1917 had marched proudly to the train station in the company of an honor guard, a band, and about 200 black schoolchildren and teachers.

Say “photograph” and “Rockbridge” in the same breath and someone will respond “Michael Miley,” and that person would not...
10/26/2025

Say “photograph” and “Rockbridge” in the same breath and someone will respond “Michael Miley,” and that person would not be wrong. But long before Miley came to town, there was Samuel Pettigrew (1826-68). Just a couple of years after Louis Daguerre made the first daguerreotype in 1839, Pettigrew opened a studio in “up-to-date Lexington,” as a Staunton newspaper put it in an 1854 article. He enticed you to browse through his art gallery of daguerreotypes, and coaxed you to buy one of his lockets “on modest terms” and get your picture taken to put in it. “Now, everyone has a chance to see himself as other see him … secure the shadow ’ere the substance fades.”

Fancy Hill, between Lexington and Natural Bridge, was a tavern in its early days, “where the hospitality of Benjamin Wel...
10/25/2025

Fancy Hill, between Lexington and Natural Bridge, was a tavern in its early days, “where the hospitality of Benjamin Welch was known far and wide,” Henry Boley wrote. The bill of fare included:
• “Hot diett with small beer”: 3 shillings
• “Cold diett with no beer”: 2 shillings
• “Good pasture, 24 hours”: horse, 1 shilling 8 pence; cow, 1 shilling 3 pence
In 1831, Dr. Washington Dorsey advertised in the newspaper that when he wasn’t on duty, he could be found at “Mr. Welch’s tavern at Fancy Hill.”

Two Rockbridge vineyards — Great Valley at Fancy Hill and Rockbridge in Raphine — won four gold medals this fall in the...
10/24/2025

Two Rockbridge vineyards — Great Valley at Fancy Hill and Rockbridge in Raphine — won four gold medals this fall in the Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail awards competition:
• Great Valley — Shenandoah Red and Vin Gris Rose
• Rockbridge Vineyard and Brewery — Chardonay and deChiel Reserve Chardonnay.
That’s out of 26 golds over all.

Lisa Tracy and her late sister Jeanne uncovered a trove of papers the attic in the family home years ago left there by t...
10/24/2025

Lisa Tracy and her late sister Jeanne uncovered a trove of papers the attic in the family home years ago left there by their grandfather, Charles E. Kilbourne, of VMI’s class of 1894 — and superintendent from 1937 to 1946. The papers include gems like a limerick and a recipe for spiked punch, but important personal and military documents as well, including letters between General Kilbourne and his wife, Bess Egbert Kilbourne, while he was overseas. Naturally, Ms. Tracy donated the papers to the VMI Archives. “His first venture into the military was at VMI” as a cadet, she said, “and his last assignment was at VMI.”

Natural Bridge had its first light show in 1927, and this weekend it returns with the splendor that a century of technol...
10/23/2025

Natural Bridge had its first light show in 1927, and this weekend it returns with the splendor that a century of technology has enabled. In that first year, President Coolidge had agreed to press the “on” button by remote control from Washington, but at the appointed hour, he was out on the Potomac relaxing aboard his yacht. The Rockbridge County News circumspectly reported that “it is said” Coolidge switched the Natural Bridge lights anyway, thanks to “connections” that “were there made for him to carry out the intended program.” On-site guests were treated not only to the dramatic 7-million-candlepower display but also to a banquet and ball, and the Metropolitan Opera’s diva of dramatic soprano solos, Miss Etheldreda Belle Aves, entertained the throng by singing “I Love You” and “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.” How time has changed some things yet not others. You can see the modern-era light show on the last Saturday of each month from 7 to 9 p.m. — that is: this Saturday!

You be the judge. Were these houses, both built in 1867, made from the same blueprint? Lyle and Simpson (“Architecture o...
10/23/2025

You be the judge. Were these houses, both built in 1867, made from the same blueprint? Lyle and Simpson (“Architecture of Historic Lexington”) believe they were. At the left we have the Edmondson-Penick House at 104 White Street, with a basic rectangular form, wide veranda, attached greenhouse (apparently original), and decorative ironwork outlining the balcony. On the right is 3 Lewis Street (just to the south of Sigma Nu’s headquarters), built for James Gardiner Paxton, with a similar roof and elaborate ironwork.

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