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03 April 2006 - Monday |
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In the morning before
we got underway Janet gave us four jars of her homemade jam. Then we headed back up U.S. Highway 15 to begin
research in the Fluvanna County Court House.
As we were passing through Buckingham County we spotted a rather large
hardware store that also contained a Radio Shack electronics store. As we needed several items that might be
had in a business such as this we pulled in.
What happened to us here was a delightful experience of good old
southern humor and hospitality. As we
were not from the local area the salesmen were interested in how we had come
by their store. Soon we were telling them of our trip and what we hoped to
accomplish, then we all went outside to take a closer look at the camper van,
we followed this up with some talk of our times in the U.S. Navy (Fred) and
Air Force (Tom). Yes indeed, these were
good folks are genuinely interested in the customer. What a difference from the cold, business
only, approach so prevalent throughout the northeastern corridor between
Boston and Washington D.C.! As the
trip progressed Fred would refer to his home in the aforementioned area as
the “belly of the beast”. Shortly after we
arrived in Palmyra Tom called the phone number for the Fluvanna
County Historical Society. We
were pleasantly surprised to find out that someone would be available in
their library, located at the “Maggie House,” to assist us with our research.
Although the library’s resources were fairly meager Judith Mickelson worked
hard to provide us with anything they had that would assist with our
investigation. As they did not have
any information on the Scruggs family we promised to send what we had after
the trip. Judith conducted a tour of
the Old Jail Museum where we were told that a courier pouch carried by one of
the Scruggs boys in the Civil War was on display. We found a pouch exhibited
but it had belonged to a local doctor who carried it during the War. Judith promised to inquire further about
this item as it may be in storage. After leaving a
generous donation we proceed to the Courthouse to perform more research in
the deed and wills records held there.
As a result of our exploration we determined that the Joseph C.
Scruggs home site was located 8 miles west of the courthouse on
the middle branch
of the
Cunningham Creek, Fluvanna Co., VA |
Cunningham Creek. In
addition we found that the ancestral property had remained in the hands of
our great-aunt Martha Judson Scruggs until 1914. These are among many other tidbits of excellent information
that we collected to scrutinize at a later date. As we left the
courthouse parking lot we spotted a Sheriff’s Officer sitting in his
car. We thought it would be a good
idea to ask him if there were any places nearby where we could park the van
for the night but being only a few days on the road we were both hesitant to
approach him. Finally Tom summed up
the courage to ask and received positive results as he suggested that we
proceed to the Sheriff’s Office and talk to Corporal Deborah Morgan as she
knew practically everyone in the county and might know of a place where we
could stay. We found Corporal Morgan
at the office and talked to her for a few minutes about whether she knew of
any of our ancestors. Unfortunately
she was not able to add to any information on our family but she did
recommend that we contact Minnie Misogowa of the Historical Society as she
was the best resource for this type of information. Cpl. Morgan even went to the trouble of finding an address and
phone number for us. As for a place
to stay the night she suggested that we ask Mr. McCloud the owner of
McCloud’s restaurant and store. As we
were departing she told us to, “come on back”, if that didn’t work and we would work on a plan “B”. It being close to our
lunchtime we headed back down the road and had ordered sandwiches at
McCloud’s. During our meal we
eyeballed the folks working there and determined who Mr. McCloud was. After eating Tom went into the store to
ask permission. Again we met another
kind and giving person as Mr. McCloud had no problem with us parking next the
his establishment for the night. We spent the early
evening driving out the Haden –Martin
Rd., to look for the Joseph C. Scruggs home site. We took pictures of the
Cunningham Creek as well as two likely places before we encountered a fairly
severe thunderstorm.
19th Century Farmhouse, Fluvanna co., VA We eventually returned to McCloud’s where we made a salad with a
can of tuna fish added. This along
with a large beer purchased from the store served as our evening meal. |
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