News 2025 First Quarter

President's Message

Here's to wishing the Henrico County Historical Society a Happy 50th Anniversary Year! It is a good time to review our own history. The Society was created as part of the Henrico bicentennial commemoration of the American Revolution.

On November 17, 1974, about a month after the Henrico County Bicentennial Commission came into being, Mrs. Jean Nelson Gibbons was invited to a meeting of the Hanover County Historical Society by her counterpart, Dr. Bruce English, chairman of the Hanover County Bicentennial Committee. Mrs. Gibbons was so impressed with the Hanover Society that she determined to establish a historical society in Henrico County. When Mrs. Arie Brandon met with Mrs. Gibbons concerning the approval of a Varina Women's Club's Bicentennial Project, Mrs. Gibbons mentioned to Mrs. Brandon the need for a historical society in Henrico County. Mrs. Gibbons met also with Mrs. Louise Foley who offered her help. Three days later Mrs. Brandon offered the help of the entire Varina Women's Club which had voted to give $50 for an initial mailing to interested citizens.

Mrs. Gibbons introduced Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Brandon by telephone. Mrs. Foley came to the meeting set up by the Varina Woman's Club in the Varina Branch Library in January 1975. Mrs. Foley came with the by-laws of the Goochland County Historical Society and the bylaws of the State Historical Society. That was the beginning! Mrs. Brandon served as temporary president and appointed a nominating committee as well as a committee to prepare the organization's bylaws. The Varina Woman's Club, throughout this organizational period, furnished many women-hours to help Mrs. Brandon. The chairman of the Board of Supervisors at that time, Mr. Eugene Rilee, suggested to Mrs. Gibbons that she give the name of Mr. Oliver J. Sands, Jr. to the nominating committee to serve as president because of his interest in history. In June, 1975, the Henrico County Historical Society was born.

(Reprinted from The Henrico County istorical Society Magazine, December 1976.)

The Henrico County Historical Society is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization. Think of it. All of what we accomplish is done by hard-working volunteers who realize the importance of preserving Henrico County history and give freely of their time and expertise.

None of what we do would be possible without members like you. We thank all of you for your membership. The Society would not be celebrating its 50th anniversary if not for your support. We receive no outside funding except through membership and occasional book sales. From the beginning, regional cooperation was instrumental in our founding. As mentioned, The Hanover County Historical Society and the Goochland County Historical Society assisted and we continue that association in the present. We owe a tremendous thank you to the Varina Woman's Club for their support from the time of our founding and. continuing throughout 50 years. The Varina Woman's Club, a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, has been serving the community since 1970. They provide scholarships, support local charities and volunteer throughout the Varina Community.

Many of our founders are no longer with us but their spirits remain as we carry their dedication to history forward.

We look forward to this celebratory year!

Sarah Pace
President

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March Quarterly Meeting

Come join us for our first meeting of the year!

Date and Start Time:

• March 2, 2025
• 2:30 PM

Location:

• The Chapel at St. Joseph's Villa
• 8000 Brook Road
• Richmond, VA 23227

Guest Speaker:

• We welcome Jenny Friar, CEO of St. Joseph's Villa, as our speaker of our March 2nd meeting.

Topic:

• Jenny will speak about the history of the oldest buildings on this facility, which is included in The Inventory of Early Architecture of Henrico County. This will be followed by a tour of the oldest buildings.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you and photo courtesy of St. Joseph's Villa!

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HCHS Elections

Slate of Officers - 2-year Terms:

Slate of Directores - 3-year Terms:

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In Memorium

The Henrico County Historical Society expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of
Gentry Bell (1940-2025).

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Inventive Henricoans

Those familiar with Virginia history, and readers of this newsletter would certainly qualify, should find the name of this patentee familiar. His name should have the designation "Jr." attached to it because he was the son of the well known General Fitzugh Mason "Fitz" Lee. Like his father, he was a military man, and his invention would seem to require a pretty precise strategy for opening.

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Handmade in Henrico - Tables and Chairs

At our house, we sit on history. The chairs around our dining room table once seated patrons of the Miller & Rhoads Tea Room. Of course, we could also sit on one of the two chairs from Richmond's old Miller's Hotel. Then there are the late Victorian walnut cane-bottom chairs that belonged to my great grandparents, the pair of Johnson chairs from Southside Virginia, and many others. You see, we love chairs.

So when I stumbled upon the above announcement in the 25 May 1776 issue of the Virginia Gazette of the sale of a Henrico County plantation, my interest was piqued. Among the outbuildings listed on the property was one I had never heard of before - a "Chair-House." It suggested that the owner, George Donald, might have been a furniture maker. In fact, the Scotsman was a fairly important Virginia cabinetmaker who was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1731. Interestingly, the village was also the birthplace of another significant cabinetmaker, Thomas Affleck of Philadelphia.

In the colonies, Donald first worked as either an apprentice or journeyman in Anthony Hay's shop on Nicholson Street in Williamsburg before relocating to Henrico County, where he had bought land from James Geddy in 1757. That Geddy was a Williamsburg silversmith indicates there was a good deal of interaction among the town's artisans.

Donald's connections, however, reached beyond the circle of craftsmen. He was cousin of Patrick Henry, giving him significant connections in Virginia; and his marrage to Dorothea Jones in Williamsburg put him in connection with Thomas Jefferson, among others.

In fact, Jefferson's Monticello houses a reading desk quite likely made by Donald. In his Memorandum Books (vol. 1, Bear & Stanton, eds.), Jefferson had made the following notation of a 1769 letter:

Inclose to G. Donald the following dimensions for a Readg. desk.
height where highest 4 f. 4 I.
breadth of top 1 f. 3 I.
breadth of lid or slope 22 I. i.e. from top of list on wch. book height from top of list to the floor 3 f. 9½ I.
length from end to end 5 f.

To fill such orders, Donald, like other artisans, took on apprentices. On 4 June 1763, he took on Joseph Fontaine from Charles City County. Fontaine was bound to Donald for a six-year apprenticeship during which Donald agreed to "Teach the said prentice [sic] the Trade are and Mistery of a Cabnet [sic] & Chair Maker and to Use him Well but is by Contract exempted from the Customary or Legal Freedom Dues and from Supplying the said apprentice with Cloths which he To be Supplyed With by his Guardian" (Henrico County, Deeds, Wills, etc., 1750-1767).

Donald got additional help with labor through a 1718 law by Parliament called the Transportation Act, by which approximately 60,000 convicts, dubbed "the King's passengers," were sent from England to America to serve as indentured servants. Ninety percent of them stayed in Maryland and Virginia. However, one that worked for Donald presented a problem - it seems that he ran away. Donald placed the announcement reprinted below in the 7 March 1766 Virginia Gazette:

Somehow, Turner was returned to Donald, who went to court to seek compansation for his loss. Henrico County Court Orders, 1763-1767 indicated that "Turner had ben runaway and been absent from his said Masters Service four months and that the said George had Expended £30 in retaking the said Turner . . . It is ordered that he do Serve his said Master after he shall have served out the time for which he was Transported Eight month for the four months absence and Forty five months for the sum of the £30 which the Court doth value to Three Thousand Pounds of Tobacco."

Aside from producing furniture, Donald also acquired a good deal of land. Of course, there was his "Plantation" advertised for sale in 1776. In 1768, he had paid £130 for 250 acres land on Gilley's Creek; and in 1773, he paid John Clarkson £100 for fifty acres of land adjoining his own.

Donald also owned land, lived in and apparently had a cabinetmaker's shop in the town of Richmond and had become a rather important figure. Dr. Louis Manarin notes in his History of Henrico County that the town's growth had led to a need for more local autonomy. To address this need, the General Assembly appointed George Donald as well as other local luminaries like William Byrd III, Richard Randolph and Benjamin DuVal as "directors and trustees for building, carrying on, maintaining said town." So Donald seems to have moved in an elite circle. In fact, between 1757 when he bought Lot 101 in Richmond and 1771, his name regularly appears in the Henrico record of deeds and wills for real estate deals in the town.

Apparently, the 1776 land sale that led to this article marked Donald's last, for he passed away in that year. In his will he bequeathed "the residue and remainder of my estate both real and personal" to his wife Dorothea. And the will illustrates some of the idiosynchrasies of records for the period around the Revolutionary War when many were destroyed by the British, particularly Benedict Arnold. This explains the notation at the end of the will that states, "This attested copy of the last Will and Testament of George Donald deceased, was presented in Court (and the record and original thereof having ben lost or destroyed) and ordered to be again recorded." It might also account for a peculiarity of the recording because the name of Donald's wife is spelled two different ways and appears to be written by two different hands, as seen in the two illustrations below:

Like the original recording of Donald's will, beyond the Jefferson notation about the writing desk, there is no record of specific Donald pieces. However, several pieces have been linked to George Donald, and they are pictured in the next article. It's disappointing not to have a picture of a George Donald chair. I plan to keep looking.

Joey Boehling

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Tables Attributed to George Donald

Starting below with the standing reading table pictured at the top to bottom picture are a standing reading desk at Monticello, a breakfast table, a sideboard table and a table. April Strader Bullin notes, "With the documentary evidence from Jefferson's 1769 letter, the favorable comparison of construction and decorative details, the chronology of his career, and the location of his shop, it is possible to attribute these four tables to the Richmond cabinetmaker George Donald" ("Research Note: The Scottish Cabinetmaking School of Colonial Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia," Journal of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, mesdajournal.org/2015).

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Oher Henrico Cabinetmakers

A perusal of eighteenth century newspaper announcements and Henrico County records reveals the names of a number of local cabinetmakers and apprentices. However, scant other information could be found about them. We would welcome other information about any of them or others that readers might provide.

John Forsie: In Henrico County's Deeds, Wills, etc. 1750-1767, a 2 April 1750 Indenture identifies him as a cabinetmaker who was taking on Thomas Dean Orphan as an apprentice.

Richard Timberlake: In Henrico County's Deeds, Wills, etc. 1750-1767, a 29 January 1767 deed to Joshua Storrs from Timberlake identifies him as a Cabinetmaker.

George Todd: In Henrico County's Deeds, Wills, etc. 1744-1748, a 5 December 1744 deed carries a notation in MESDA's Craftsman Data Base identifying him as possibly a cabinetmaker, and his 1746 will in the same volume lists many tools and much lumber that would suppport the assumption.

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Now You Know

Providing a Spark and Making It "Hit on All Four"

Congratulations to Peter Francisco, Matt Lowry, Anne Jackson and Haywood Wigglesworth for correctly identifying December's "What Do You Know?" object pictured left.

We'll use Peter Francisco's explanation of its function: "The wooden box in the photo is a T Model Ford Coil/Vibrator that was used in all Ford cars and trucks from 1908 until 1927. The contacts on top of the coil provide the spark. It provides the current to the four spark plugs in the engine. There were four of the coils in a box on the dash or firewall, one for each cylinder. They were energized by a timer (similar to a distributor) that was attached to the engine and rotated by an internal camshaft on the engine. Current to the timer came either from a 6-volt battery or the magneto (once the engine was running)." The timer Peter mentioned was replaced by the distributor of later automobiles, and the nut at the front adjusted the strength of the spark.

Not seen is a brass connection on the bottom like those seen on the side. It receives the charge from the magneto. The lower of the two brass connections on the face of the box connects to the spark plug, and the upper connection supplies the ground.

The arrangement: Below is a combination of two images. The closed box in the second image pointed to by the arrow contains the four coils for Peter Francisco's Model T. The box is open in the first image below.

Premier appearance: The illustration below was part of a full-page advertisement seen on page 29 of the 3 October 1908 Saturday Evening Post. It introduced Ford's Model T to the world.

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What Do You Know?

This rather oddly-shaped wooden object looks a bit like a solid funnel with part of its side sliced off. It is 13.5 inches tall (or long). The small circular surface at the "top" is 4.5 inches in diameter, and the large horseshoe-shaped "base" is 11.5 inches in diameter with a 6.5-inch flat edge.

Do you know what it is? Email your answers to jboehling@verizon.net.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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