President's Message

As a result of low scholastic testing data, our focus this year has been to encourage the youth of Henrico and elsewhere to take an interest in learning. At our March meeting we learned of Boy Scout programs made available by our neighboring Chesterfield County Historical Society of Virginia that promote good citizenship, the study of American heritage, genealogy, archaeology in addition to other programs that provide character development and leadership training.

At the HCHS June meeting we conducted a book drive on behalf of the Henrico Christmas Mother in participation in their Christmas in July program. The book drive was very successful. Many thanks to all who contributed. A special thanks to Sharon and Peter Francisco who hosted a book collection event at Lakeside Farmers Market. Also a special thanks to Tinky Keen for collecting book donations at Christ Lutheran Church and to patrons of Pace & Company who also participated. The books will be distributed age appropriate, to families at Christmas, promoting an interest in reading. Over 200 books were collected. Plans are already underway for next year.

For the September meeting, Dennis Bickmeier, Executive Director of Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority will speak with us about the Henrico Sports & Events Center and other facilities that provide our youth the opportunity for accomplishment they would not otherwise have. What better influence is there for youth than sports? We saw evidence of that recently at the Paris 2024 Olympics. United States athletes brought home the most medals totaling 126, some of which broke records. Many told of their journey, starting out in home towns. They, in turn, will be role models for other youths and possibly mentor future athletes to be the best they can be.

A must-see is an exhibit in partnership with the Virginia Spots Hall of Fame at the Henrico Sports and Events Center honoring some of the state's top Olympians.

Even though many involved with sports do not reach the pinnacle of greatness, they learn discipline and determination that will serve them well.

There is history in every aspect of our lives, whether in medicine, science, the arts, manufacturing and invention or sports. The accomplishments of today or the accomplishment over many years of effort become history.

The youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Reviewing the HCHS motto: "Preserving the past in the Present For the Future."

Sarah Pace
President

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September Quarterly Meeting

Come join us for our third meeting of the year!

Date and Start Time:

Location:

Guest Speaker and Topic:

• Our guest speaker is Dennis Bickmeier, Executive Director of Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority.

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Reserve Your Place for the Special December HCHS Meeting!

We will have a special program for the Dec. 1 quarterly meeting at Historic Tuckahoe, Thomas Jefferson's boyhood home. There will be a presentation by Josh Pons on his book, Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm. A Historic Marker Dedication for the famous thoroughbred Boston that was foaled in Henrico County will follow.

There will also be a special tour of Historic Tuckahoe. Registration is required, and there will be a $15.00 per person fee which may be made using PayPal or mailing a form, both of which are found on our Shopping page.

Please reserve your place at the meeting by November 17, 2024.

For additional information, text or call (804)-839-2407.

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In Memorium

The Henrico County Historical Society expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of Welford L. Williams, Sr. October 25,1923 - June 22, 2024

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Notable Birthday!

Congratulations to Polly Lantz, who celebrated her 100th birthday on August 13, 2024!

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Inventive Henricoans

This patent was granted to Lewis Ginter around the time he and John Allen established Allen & Ginter, a Richmond tobacco company. The patent illustration shows a flat cigarette that would fit neatly into the cigarette box shown below. Allen & Ginter was the first company to produce and market cigarette cards for collecting and trading, an example of which is pictured below the cigarette package.

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One of Lewis Ginter's Many Projects Had Them Rockin' Out in Lakeside

The Lakeside Farmers market is a wonderful place to find fresh vegetables and more. And who would have thought that "more" included local history? With a bag of tomatoes and pattypan squash in hand, I struck up a conversation with Peter Francisco, who along with his wife Sharon owns and operates the market and who is a wealth of Lakeside history.

He told me of Lewis Ginter's late nineteenth century quarry that was just down the road from the market. A sketch of Lewis Ginter, left, is from his obituary in the 3 October 1897 Richmond Times. Ginter's quarry made me think about the quarry on Riverside Drive that I used to want to jump into when I would fish the James River, but I never associated the Lakeside area with the granite industry. I was hooked.

So with Mr. Francisco's permission and directions, I headed into the woods at the back corner of the parking lot of the Lakeside Professional Building.

In the wooded area off Laburnum and behind the Lakeside Professional Building, there it was - or at least what's left of it - a small creek running through huge granite slabs forming a small waterfall that fills a clear pool lined by granite walls and continues on its course.

It's quiet there now, but in its working days in the 1890s the drilling and blasting necessary for quarrying the granite would have made it quite different.

Finding specific records for the quarry is difficult since it seems that, unlike other quarries in the Richmond area, it was apparently unnamed. And while it does appear on page 13A of Henrico County's Plat Book 9, it is only designated as "Quarry." And the deed on page 246 of Deed Book 175A identifies "The Quarry Tract" as a "certain parcel of land...containing sixteen and three fourth's (16 3/4) acres, situate [sic] in Henrico County, Va., east of the Hermitage Road and south of Trumpet Branch. . . belonging to the estate of Lewis Ginter."

The quarry's useful lifespan is not clear, but it was probably used as early as 1890 when Ginter, at his own expense, macadamized a section of the Brook Turnpike. And Ginter's nearly three-page obituary in the 3 October 1897 Richmond Times contained a section under the heading "A GREAT ROAD BUILDER" that said he did the same for Westbrook Avenue, Laburnum Avenue and Melrose Avenue. The work required a good deal of manpower, and the article went on to note a time Ginter was told that he could save much time and labor using some of the "improved road machines." To that Ginter is said to have responded, "And what would become of these two hundred workmen and all these mules and carts?"

Two other Ginter projects requiring granite, the Bellevue Arch and the now-removed A. P. Hill Monument, might also have made use of the stone from the quarry in Lakeside.

The need to transport the quarried stone to his projects led to his financing the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad. And trains, of course, needed to be pulled. Ginter and Joseph Bryan had reorganized the Tanner and Delaney Engine Company into the Richmond Locomotive and Machine Works in 1887, and he turned to that company to have a locomotive produced. He named it "Barbara."

Ginter's concern for the workers on his roads apparently extended to his quarrymen as well. On the quarry tract he built a two-story frame house divided into individual rooms for the employees of the quarry. That house today at the end of Bloomingdale Avenue is a private residence separated from the quarry it once served by commercial and residential development.

How long it housed quarry workers and how long those men quarried the granite is unclear. As noted earlier, records are scarce for the quarry, possibly because Lewis Ginter used it and his other quarry at Young's Pond in what is now Bryan Park for his own projects rather than as a strictly commercial enterprise. I look forward to continuing to search and would appreciate any contributions interested readers might make.

Thanks to Peter Francisco and Mary Ann Soldano for their help, encouragement, information and content.

A product of the quarry. The one-foot wide rock below is embedded in the ground of the house's driveway and features the mark from a drill at its bottom left, indicating its source as the quarry.

Seen from above. The second image below shows the aerial view of the quarry area shows the locations of the quarry and the house for the workers and corresponds to the plat in the first image below from page 14A of Henrico County's Plat Book 9. The house, displayed in the article above, is labeled in the aerial photograph and the plat.

Joey Boehling

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Lakeside Quarry Preferences in the Papers

Newspaper references to the Lakeside quarry seem as rare as official records of the facility. Here are five examples that could be found: one of a fatal accident there, one that refers to two quarries as a selling point for a property, one that refers to Ginter's rail line train and quarry, one that speaks of a visitor to the area and one account of a fox hunt whose course passed by the quarry. Only one of these was printed during Ginter's lifetime, so how long the quarry remained active after his death is not clear. However, it was at least a recognizable landmark or point of reference for a period of time.

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Now You Know

Grain farmers used the container to measure up.

Congratulations to Anne Jackson and Haywood and Mary Jo Wigglesworth, who correctly identified the "What Do You Know?" item from the last newsletter as a double grain measure. This wooden "barrel" has two different dry measure capacities for measuring grain-a gallon on the shallow side and a peck on the deeper side, four of which would make a bushel.

Clearly, standards weren't quite exact when relying on hand-made implements like this one; but it comes from an age that was, perhaps, a bit more trusting.

In fact, it seems that before the United States strictly codified weights and measures in the twentieth century, measurement was somewhat fluid. John Quincy Adams was an early proponent of standardization of measurements. He noted in his 1821 "Report upon Weights and Measures" that "Weights and measures may be ranked among the necessaries of life, to every individual of human society. They enter into the economical arrangements and daily concerns of every family. They are necessary to every occupation of human industry; to the distribution and security of every species of property; to every transaction of trade and commerce."

Thirty years later, things had not changed. The 1854 chart below shows how the weight of a bushel varied among fifteen different states.

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What Do You Know?

These three ovoid tin containers are 15, 12 and 10 inches long. Each has a hinged door featuring a lithographic scene from nature and a cloth strap.

Do you know what they are? Email your answers to jboehling@verizon.net.

We look forward to hearing from you

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