BOYCOTT THE
J. E. B. STUART BIRTHPLACE
Below are photos and descriptions by Thomas D. Perry, Founder of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace and his believe that the site should be turned over to the Patrick County, Commonwealth of Virginia or the United States of America to be a park endowed by funds from the organization for future generations to enjoy. Perry has taken this step because he believes the Board of Directors does not possess the proper vision to preserve the site. He is calling on anyone who reads the following to boycott the effort until the site is turned over to the proper government body for permanent protection.
Below are two examples of the interpretive signs that obviously have not been cleaned in some time. Beyond that you will find many shortcomings that are just the tip of the iceberg!
Bird Droppings
Recently I took these photos of the eight interpretive signs that I wrote the text for several years ago at Stuart’s Birthplace. I was shocked at the state of the eight interpretive signs. For years I cleaned them, but with the treatment of my mother beginning last year I stopped doing it and apparently none of the dozen or so board members feel like they should clean the signs, but of course that would require them to visit the site more than once a year for the civil war encampment. So take a look at these photos and realize that the organization based in the town formerly known as Taylorsville do not care about the history or the upkeep of the site they are charged with preserving.
Where Are The Trees?
Several years ago the J. E. B. Stuart allowed trees to be planted on the property as a part of the flood control project for the Ararat River paid for with federal money. Apparently, the county needed to plant a certain number of these trees to fulfill the requirements for the project. The trees were planted in the flat part of the property near the highway and down along the Ararat River in the meadow. I took these photos several years ago after the trees were planted. Well, within a few weeks the trees were gone. Now, these trees were planted as part of a federal program that used taxpayer’s money and they were pulled up. Now I cannot believe that someone within the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc did not know about this or do it themselves. Now, I am not sure if this is illegal, but it is suspicious and I think the taxpayers of Patrick County deserve an explanation. Again, this points to the need, I believe, for the organization to turn the site over to the county, state or national government to be the park it was meant to be.
HOW DO YOU SLEEP?
Betty Perry At Stuart’s Birthplace where she was honored in 2006.
To read more about the preservation of Laurel Hill and Betty Perry’s role in it CLICK HERE
John Lennon wrote this for Paul McCartney during the angst of the Beatles break up, but I am here writing about the latest pettiness aimed at my family by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc. Instead of “Manning Up” coming after me the organization I started in 1990 because of my recent criticism the group continues to go after my seventy-five year old mother. Last year she was told that she could not eat at a Patrick County Chamber of Commerce After Hours by the President of the Birthplace, John Broughton, who then refused to apologize to her when she confronted him at the Civil War Encampment. On Friday, April 3, my mother saw Board Member Ronnie Haynes digging in the flower garden she had worked on for more than a decade where the split rail fence adorned the entrance to the Laurel Hill Farm. Ronnie explained to my mother that he was digging up the azalea bushes. She asked him to save the azaleas as they came from her father’s flower garden in Augusta Georgia and obviously meant a lot to her as her father died in 1976 and the azaleas from cuttings his Augusta Georgia home where planted at Stuart’s Birthplace by her. J. E. B. Stuart loved his mother, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart’s, and her flower garden. My mother spent decades working on the plants at Stuart’s Birthplace including hundreds of hours and over the years my family has spent thousands of dollars trying to preserve the site. Well on Saturday, April 4, during Park Day, the J. E. B. Stuart dug up the azaleas and we believe threw them away. On Monday when I arrived to cut my parent’s grass my mother in tears told me this story. After repeated phone calls to the organization, specifically to Vice-President Shirley Keene, who must have caller id since she would not answer and getting no response, I called the main number of the Birthplace and have gotten no response. I am disgusted that the level of pettiness, but to take it out on my mother is the lowest thing I could imagine. So, I ask the Board Members who go around talking what great Christians they are and telling everyone to have a “Blessed Day,” like John asked Paul in song HOW DO YOU SLEEP or maybe they should ask themselves What Would Jesus Do or maybe how J. E. B. Stuart would feel about treating a 75 year old woman, who has done nothing but try to preserve the “most historical project ever undertaken in Patrick County.” If you support or are involved with the organization I hope you will consider this behavior and realize that after nearly two decades of working on the site and the history I would not bring these incidents into the open if I was not very concerned about the future of the site. I believe that the Board and the organization need to go away and historical site be given to the county, state or national government to be the historic park it was meant to be.
Read about the history of Stuart’s Birthplace.
Click HereSite of azaleas that were dug up with no explanation on left and on the right before at entrance to Stuart’s Birthplace.
Stuart's Birthplace: Patrick County's Hallowed Ground
I received my copy of the Civil War Preservation Trust’s magazine Hallowed Ground this week and was interested in reading several article about the cavalry operations in the Gettysburg Campaign. The back cover horrified me because of the article titled Laurel Hill, Virginia, was an article about J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace in Ararat, Virginia. The short blurb was about the Civil War Discovery Trail that brings tourists to over 600 sites all over the nation. There it was the address in Stuart, Virginia, with the caption of the entrance road “Confederate Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart’s birthplace at Laurel Hill in Stuart, Va.” For the last time J. E. B. Stuart was born in ARARAT VIRGINIA. He has NOTHING to do with the town formerly known as Taylorsville. When the organization I founded and now denounce changed their address to Stuart from Ararat, where the site is and the address had been for a decade they brought just this sort of confusion to visitors and disgust to me and many in Ararat. They did this they claimed to be able to handle the mail, but when people including myself sent in money for membership we were ignored. Again, this is the definition of fraud in my opinion when you take money for services and do not provide the service. The birthplace ignored my certified letters and I am in the process of going to state authorities about my deep concerns about the management of the site. I think the reason they did this move was to take control away of the encampment, which Ararat resident Neva Combs Smith ran successfully for several years. By doing this, the Secretary and the clique in Stuart could control the organization. Members of a certain family and related VERY DISTANTLY to Stuart apparently think they have a birthright to the site. Well, they do not have any experience in historic preservation or obviously marketing. Anyone would with marketing experience would not place a photo of the entrance road giving the impression there is nothing at the site, but as I have said repeatedly that is the impression this board wants to make. Why not photos of the visitor’s center, interpretive signs or the state historical highway marker? Tourism is not their interest. A reenactment that has nothing to do with the real history of the property is. No battles were fought at Laurel Hill and the Stuart’s were gone two years before the War Between The States erupted. They are quick to say that I am not a team player. Well, I do not want to be on a losing team. Many people have told me they feel that the involvement of a certain family is the main problem within the organization because no one will stand up to a them due to fear of losing the donations that they MIGHT provide. The site needs to become the property of Patrick County, Virginia or the United States of America to be the park I planned it to be. They use my research to promote the site, but never have the professional decency to credit me. The article obviously does that. While this sort of publicity by the Civil War Preservation Trust would normally be a great thing for the site, but with Ararat playing a secondary role to a place that stole the name Stuart in 1884, twenty years after J. E. B. Stuart’s death, taking advantage of the opportunity that a famous person’s name would give the town, disgusts me. Visitors are coming to Stuart, Virginia, looking for a site in Ararat, Virginia over twenty five miles away and if you do not see the problem with that then you do not understand tourism. Again, tourism is not what the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace wants. They want to play dress up once a year and to heck with the real history of the site, the reason I worked so hard to save it. The Civil War Preservation Trust likes to take credit for the preservation of the birthplace due to the paltry $1,000 they gave early on. Well, my family contributed ten times that and I cannot even get a straight answer from the organization I founded or a response from the Civil War Preservation Trust. That is why I am calling on any and everyone to boycott the birthplace. Do not give them money. Do not pay to attend their one event a year. We must force them into turning the site over to the county, state or federal government as they are going to do nothing and thereby run the site into the ground. If you want to go to Laurel Hill go when none of the board of directors is present, which is mostly 363 days a year, enjoy the history that I preserved, and if you want a tour send me an email because they do not know the history of the site they suppose to preserve. A site James I. Robertson, Jr. of Virginia Tech called the most important historic project ever undertaken in Patrick County deserves better than the back cover of Hallowed Ground. In Patrick County it is our Hallowed Ground.
Highland Fraud
Imagine alienating the community your site is located in to the point that you have to put signs promoting your next event behind a barbed wire electrified fence and use a donkey as a security system to protect it. Such is life for the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace. Laurel Hill, the Birthplace of J. E. B. Stuart will host a “Highland Games” in April. There will be bagpipes and log tossing and all sorts of haggis recipes being passed around, but what does it have to do with J. E. B. Stuart and his family. NOTHING! I know Supervisor Jonathan Large likes to talk of “tricking” people into coming to the site, but why not use the real history to get people to the site. Of course, that would require someone on the Board of Directors to know the real history. While the Board is good at handing out the brochures I wrote or telling people about the eight interpretive signs that I wrote or directing them to the website for the Birthplace, most of which I wrote, they would be better off working to preserve the site as a county, state or national park. While wearing their kilts and hoop skirts they could hand out the new PINK brochures about the Confederate General’s birthplace, but maybe talking about Native-American, African-American, the American Revolution or life before the Civil War at the site preserved to be an Antebellum farm site would be more appropriate. Maybe one day they will think about the fact that there is absolutely nothing on Laurel Hill relating to the history that was not my idea, but they would have to know the history of their own organization to appreciate what my family has accomplished at the site. What they will not tell you is that Ararat is the most historic part of Patrick County, Virginia, with Bob Childress, Orlean Hawks Puckett and J. E. B. Stuart all hailing from the community. “Jeb” Stuart didn’t wear a kilt and was not of highland Scot descent, his family were lowlanders that were part of the Scots-Irish migration that came from Scotland to Northern Ireland to Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Again the real history of Laurel Hill will not be present the “Highland Games” because I will not be present and the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc., the organization I started in 1990 has proven they have no interest in or interest in promoting anything except big festivals while ignoring the real history of the site they are charged with preserving. I offered to come and speak for FREE to Glen King, who is shown below and is coordinating the event. Guess what no response, but I bet the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace told him I really had nothing to do with preserving the site. Gee, what a surprise.
The Secretary of the J. E. B. Stuart was quoted in the Mount Airy News saying that when they have events at Laurel Hill, the Birthplace of J. E. B. Stuart that they like low turnouts, “We like small.” Well, what you should like is BIG, big crowds, big vision and big money to preserve the site you are charged with. Again, this is what is wrong with this group. They move the address from Ararat to the town formerly known as Taylorsville because they say they will be better able to respond to people, but then don’t respond to people who want to be members. They brag about how much money they have while they allow the Dellenback-Mitchell House to fall down. They talk about what good Christians they are while making my mother break down in tears while destroying the flower garden she kept for years. They are right. They are small.
Change of Address
There are a lot of questions going around Ararat, Virginia, these days about the Board of Directors of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, the group I founded over seventeen years ago. Although I have not sat on the Board of Directors in over a decade, I have never publicly commented negatively on the organization until now, but I feel I must. The Board of the Birthplace in my opinion and the pun is intended are poor stewards of the property entrusted to them. Over a year ago in their infinite wisdom they changed the mailing address of the organization from Ararat where it had been since the last time a group of Board members from Stuart tried this same stunt. As the person who started the organization, I have complained about this since the action was taken over a year ago and have been ignored. Common sense would tell you that if someone sees a Stuart address they will go to Stuart looking for the site, but they will not find the site there. In fact, they will not find anything about James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart in the county seat of Patrick County except the plaque on the court house grounds placed there in the 1930s. The dirty little secret is that there is not one ounce of proof that J. E. B. Stuart ever sat foot in the town that bears his name. It reminds me of what G. E. “Sug” Brown once said to me. “If you ain’t got no history of your own then go steal someone else’s” The truth is that J. E. B. Stuart is from Ararat. His birthplace is in Ararat. Reverend Bob Childress “The Man Who Moved A Mountain” is from Ararat. Orleana Hawks Puckett, the mid-wife made famous along the Blue Ridge Parkway is from Ararat. Ararat is the most historic community in Patrick County. Over the past few weeks I have had multiple people in Ararat come ask me about this situation in recent weeks. When asked about the situation of late the following is what I have been telling those who ask. There are SIX board members that live in or have Ararat addresses. Their excuse for moving the address was that the secretary was not receiving the mail in a timely. Apparently, the secretary is still not receiving the mail as I and others have not received acknowledgement of recent monetary donations or memberships in the last three months that we have made to the organization. Now common sense would tell you that with SIX board members surely someone could visit the post office once a week and take the mail to Stuart. I cannot believe the board gets so much mail that it needs more than a once a week pickup. In fact, three board members have their offices in Stuart, Virginia, and travel there every day from Ararat. At one point I even offered to deliver the mail myself in order to keep the address in the same place it is really located. In my opinion, the board moved the mail box to take control of the Civil War encampment because of the infighting with the group. Every three or four years there has been a massive controversy within the organization that prevents it from moving forward. I believe it is time for Laurel Hill, the birthplace of Patrick County’s most famous person to be given to Patrick County, Commonwealth of Virginia to become a state park or the U. S. Government to become part of the National Park Service as it was intended to be seventeen years ago. A state or national park in the western end of Patrick County would give the site exposure that the present organization cannot give it and it will take it out of the hands of a group that has shown me, the founder of the group, that they are clueless in managing such a potentially great resource for our county. Ashamed? It is a shame that we cannot preserve and protect Patrick County’s history and the potential for bringing tourism money to the county better than this.
Boy Scout Trail
The above photos are the entrance to the trail at J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace built by two Boy Scouts, Matthew and Michael Miller of King, North Carolina, who cut a new trail along the eastern side of the property down to the Ararat River and west along side the stream until connecting with the existing trails and the river road as an Eagle Scout project. The organization, the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust has allowed this trail to grow up to the point it unrecognizable and frankly not safe to use. This is another example of someone doing something for the site and seeing it become an afterthought by a do nothing board of directors. Again, I worked with a local business to supply materials to restore the trail to its former use and heard nothing from the organization. I saw Ronnie Haynes, the only board member I ever see doing anything at the site a year ago and told him I would work with him to restore the trail. He told me he did not know there was such a trail. It tells me that these people are not taking care of the historic site they are charged with protecting when they do not tell the only man who is willing to work that such a trail even exists. I believe it is time for the organization to go away and the site be given to the county, state or national government to the park it was meant to be.
Icy's Scrapbooks
Several years ago I found myself alone in the office of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc., the organization now based in the town formerly known as Taylorsville, the county seat of Patrick County. While browsing I discovered the scrapbooks of Icy Bowman Brown, the last private owner of the property before my family saved the site located in Patrick County’s most historic community, Ararat. During my youth Icy had shown me these books, which then were a dozen at least. She saved every letter, newspaper article including cards and almost every possible piece of paper relating to her time living on the property. I used these books for research on my book J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace: The History of the Laurel Hill Farm, which tells the history of the paternal and maternal sides of Stuart’s family once they arrived in America. The book also tells about my personal relationship with Icy and her husband along with our efforts to save the site. When I discovered the scrapbooks again they were in a corner covered in dust and being allowed to deteriorate. As I was preparing my papers about the Birthplace to go to the Special Collections Library at the Newman Library at Virginia Tech to be part of the Civil War Center there, it seemed a no brainer that these papers should be part of the collection as they would tell part of the history of the site and be with all the papers I accumulated about the same history. I proposed this in writing to the Board of Directors of the organization I started and was rebuffed. I was told that they thought the scrapbooks should “stay in Patrick County.” Okay, where in Patrick County? At the historical society, that has no room, no staff and could care less about anything in Ararat. I would bet if I was a wagering fellow that they are now in the closet of someone in the Brown Family continuing to fall apart. They could be in a climate controlled special collections library with a professional staff with the papers of the man who saved the site. Historians in the future would have access to them where they could see how much Icy and her husband George Elbert “Sug” Brown did to try and save the site. Provincial thinking like this is why the Laurel Hill Farm should be county, state or national park as it was meant to be and not in the hands of a group that will allow history to fall apart in corners. Considering how they have treated my family, it should be no surprise that the memory of Sug and Icy are not held in any more esteem.
Where Is The Statue?
Photo of J. E. B. Stuart VI modeling for the statue many years ago at his family’s ancestral home in Ararat, Virginia. Several years ago the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc. began raising money for a statue of young James Ewell Brown Stuart at the site in Ararat, Virginia. Now, almost a decade later there is no statue. My question is where is the statue? Where is the money raised to place it at the site? I began to become concerned about this when the sculptor asked me what I knew about it. Now, if he does not know where the project stands I am concerned. I was never very positive about this project because I thought that $250,000 for a statue was money that could be used elsewhere for what in my opinion were more important projects at the site. I think the money should be used for an endowment fund for the long term care of the site after it is turned over to the county, state or national government to be the park it was meant to be. Also, I know that if you raise money for a project that you have no intention of doing or never do it that is not legal or suspicious at least. I do not know for sure if this is the case, but I know there is no statue at Laurel Hill and I think the people of Patrick County deserve to know the status and how much and where the money is and if it has been used for over purposes such as the pavilion that is nearby the site of the statue.
Filing With The Confederate IRS?
With April 15 and tax season I was reminded that The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace did not file tax returns with the IRS or papers with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. This happened several years ago and during this time the Stuart Virginia based organization that owns the Laurel Hill Farm, the organization became nearly bankrupt and the proper procedures and paperwork were not filed to keep the organization as a legitimate identity. The Treasurer corrected these problems, but not without much trouble. What this means is that during the time mentioned if you gave money to the Birthplace it was not tax deductable and the organization did not technically exist. What I would like to know is where the Board of Directors was? Many of these same people still serve on the Board of Directors and I think this is just another example of why this organization needs to go away and the site be given to the county, state or national government and endowed with the funds the organization claims to have to be the park it was meant to be. While the Board will say that I am “hurting” the Birthplace, I disagree. I believe that I am fighting to save the site from a group that is clueless as to what they have and what direction they should go. No one on the board has a degree in history or any experience in historical preservation, so I ask how they know what to do. To my knowledge there is no master plan for the long term future of the site. I see the Birthplace and the organization that owns it as two different things. They will say that they are afraid that if they turn the site over “political correctness” will cause the Confederate part of the story to be ignored. Well, there are two lawyers on the Board and I am sure an agreement could be written to make sure that does not happen. I do not make up stuff about the Birthplace. I never state anything in this blog that I do not have personal knowledge of. This is about saving the most historic site in Patrick County. It is my opinion that the organization that owns it is not getting the job done and does not have the vision to lead the effort into the future. I guess they thought they should file their paperwork with the Confederate IRS.
Stuart's Birthplace: A Tourist Attraction?
The Laurel Hill Farm better known as the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace is not just a place for reenactors to come play dress up. It is an historic park that covers many eras of our nation’s history. It is interpreted in eight signs written by myself beginning with the Native peoples who lived at the site. We know this due to archaeology by the College of William and Mary. Laurel Hill has the oldest marked grave in Patrick County of William Letcher, Stuart’s great-grandfather killed by Tories (pro-British sympathizers) during the American Revolution, who has two interpretive signs. The site is on the National and State Registers of Historical Places not because of Stuart or the Civil War, but because of its importance as an antebellum farm, which is interpreted by signs on the house, kitchen and cemeteries. There is also the old road bed from Ararat to Mount Airy, North Carolina, the nearby town where the Stuarts attended church and picked up their mail. The problem is that the Board of Directors only show up one weekend a year and the other 363 days the site is unmanned. There are no brochures in the Virginia Welcome Centers. The site is not on the Virginia Highway Map like the Reynolds Homestead. Tourism is not a priority for the organization and that is the problem. Why not have people at the site on weekends. With over a dozen Board Members that would require ONE weekend a year from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We know that will not happen and the opportunity that is the Laurel Hill Farm will lie vacant except when the reenactors need a drink. Laurel Hill has many histories and here are some links to explore more. Most of the visitors from my experience that visit Laurel Hill come from Mount Airy, but finding it from the “Granite City” is almost impossible. There are no signs directing visitors especially at the vital intersection of 103/104 (Pine Street and Riverside Drive respectively). The state line acts as a “Berlin Wall” and the people in the town I was born are more concerned with Andy and Opie than real history. Tourism at Laurel Hill is another opportunity lost just like historical tourism in Patrick County.A PARK IN ARARAT
The recent fire damage at Stuart’s Birthplace, a whole lot of noise about nothing in my opinion, will probably an excuse to lock the place up except for the civil war encampment ever year. It is a shame those twenty years of building up a site is ignored, while one act of vandalism is deemed worthy by our local media. Twenty years ago when I began thinking that we could save part of the Laurel Hill Farm, where Patrick County’ most famous son, James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart was born in 1833, the idea was to turn it into a park and give it away for the future as a county, state or national park. I think the time has come for this process to begin. It is obvious that the organization the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc. has run its course and is at best treading water and they are losing the battle. Recent events show they can no longer protect the site from vandalism. A county, state or national park at Laurel Hill would attract visitors from the Interstate 77 corridor, a mere ten miles away along with the Virginia Welcome Center along the North Carolina/Virginia state line. In fact on a clear day you can see I-77 coming down the mountain from Stuart’s Birthplace. It would also bring the massive numbers of Mayberry tourists from Mount Airy, North Carolina, a mere five miles away. The Stuart’s 1500 acre property’s southern border was the state line. Although you would not know it from reading our local newspaper, which has not written a story about the property in over a decade, Laurel Hill is interpreted with eight signs telling the history of property written by me until butchered by the birthplace and five more under the “Stuart Pavilion” written by Robert J. Trout. Additional interpretation could be used for such topics as the Mount Airy and Eastern Railroad, Ararat River, etc. The eras of history already interpreted are the Native-Americans, American Revolution, Antebellum Farm, Slavery and the Civil War. The Mitchell House could be interpreted as a twentieth century tobacco farm unless the board is going to let it fall down. This house could be a perfect vehicle to tell the story of a tobacco farm in the 1900s and a perfect outlet for the Tobacco Commission monies. Instead of trails not needed along the Danville and Western Railroad or skateboard parks, why not a national park in Patrick County connected with the most famous person from Patrick County. The research is done. The book is written. The history is documented. The interpretation and the trails are built. I cannot imagine a site on the Virginia and National Registers of Historic Places associated with such a prominent person from the War Between the States that is not a park at this point nearly twenty years after inception. While having an encampment and dressing up in uniforms and hoop skirts is nice, it is my understanding that it does even pay the bills anymore. Highland Games are fun too, but the Stuarts were lowland not highland Scots that were shipped off to Northern Ireland to become Scots-Irish before continuing on to Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Eventually, they came to Patrick County on Mrs. Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart’s inheritance after Archibald literally lost the farm. A state and national park with professional trained historians would make sure the real history of the site is explored not this sort of thing that while entertaining is not the history of the Laurel Hill Farm. This is a project that could get bi-partisan support from Democrats Rick Boucher, Ward Armstrong and Roscoe Reynolds. I bet our former Congressman Virgil Goode would support it. Virgil has actually been to Laurel Hill. An affiliation with the state or national park systems would give Laurel Hill much needed exposure such as signage along major roads, being marked on the Virginia maps and exposure in Welcome Centers and Visitors Centers that it presently does not get. The original idea in the 1970s was to have a wayside belonging to the Commonwealth of Virginia and I think that is what Laurel Hill needs to be now. A state or national park in Ararat would put the site in safe hands that is obviously does not have now.
J. E. B. Stuart Preservation Trust offers reward of $500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for the recent acts of vandalism at the birthplace site.
THIS CRIME STILL NOT SOLVED! ARARAT, Va. - Leads are sought in a vandalism incident at the J. E. B. Stuart birthplace, which Patrick County’s top law enforcement official is “taking personally.” “That’s one of the biggest historical sites we’ve got around here,” Sheriff Dan Smith said Wednesday. “It’s a Patrick County treasure and I take it personally when somebody tries to harm it.” The property damage occurred during the early morning hours Sunday at Laurel Hill, the homeplace of the Confederate general located on Virginia Route 773 in Ararat near the North Carolina border. The Ararat Volunteer Fire Department responded to a call at the birthplace and extinguished a fire at the scene. However, the blaze had destroyed a picnic table and damaged the grounds in surrounding areas, according to the Patrick County Sheriff’s Office. Smith said Wednesday that no arrests had been made in the case. He is asking anyone with knowledge about the incident to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (276) 694-3161 or Patrick Crime Stoppers, (276) 694-5000. Crimes Stoppers offers rewards for information leading to arrests in unsolved cases. “Anonymous tips are how things are solved a lot of times,” said the sheriff, who added that the fact someone would damage the Stuart site “burns me up.” No monetary estimate was given for the damages. The 75-acre historic site was saved from potential development in 1991 when it was purchased by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust. Much ambitious effort has been undertaken in the years since to enhance the birthplace, including the establishment of a self-guided walking tour to educate visitors about its historical significance. For the past 17 years, an annual Civil War encampment also has been held on the grounds of Gen. Stuart’s boyhood home, including battle re-enactments.” – Mount Airy News.
“I take it personally when somebody tries
to harm it.” These are the words of Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith in the
newspaper story shown above. I am glad he takes vandalism at Laurel Hill this
seriously. He thinks he takes it personally. He has no idea. This week I saw
something I have not seen years. A story graced the front page of our local
newspaper about the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace. It is a pity that only when
someone tries to tear something down that our local newspaper thinks it is news
worthy of coverage. The years of effort by myself and others have not been
worthy of such coverage. I have spent most of my adult life trying to build up
the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace, but there has not been a story written by
someone at Patrick County’s only newspaper in years. I have not been personally
not been interviewed in over a decade. A local newspaper is capable of printing
anything that you send them such as the story this week, but seldom in my
opinion do they print anything about Stuart’s Birthplace or expend energy to
write anything original. Over the years I offered articles on Patrick County
History for free to the newspaper. When they printed a few I got many positive
comments and then they refused to print anymore with no explanation. I started
this webpage and blog because I got tired of this “message control” in the “Free
State Of Patrick.” I know several people recently including my parents who will
not renew their subscription this year. The internet will eventually destroy
local newspapers. I have noticed that as newspaper subscriptions go down my
online membership goes up. I realized that Patrick County can do better, so I
started producing a monthly newsletter. With the success of my recent photo book
on Patrick County, which was almost totally ignored the week it was released
nationally by the local newspaper. A case in point The Mount Airy News did a
front page story as it did on the recent vandalism. When we held a candidate’s
forum at the Ararat Ruritan Club this year, guess what? No coverage from a local
newspaper. Too far to drive I guess. When the racetrack in Ararat opened stories
about the positive aspects such as raising money for the Dan River Park or
church groups where ignored or put on the back page while any negative comment
was displayed prominently on the front page. Fair and balanced? I do not think
so. Personally, when I had a display last year at the library in Stuart for a
month on the seven men from Patrick County who lost their lives in Vietnam
nothing was run until the week before the exhibit came down. Like many other
times multiple emails were sent to the newspaper with the information by myself
and the library. When I did a book discussion about my book on Stuart’s
Birthplace at the Reynolds Homestead NOTHING was in the local newspaper. Yet
there are weeks a recent one comes to mind when the opening page of the second
section had three large stories about events at the Reynolds Homestead and one
little blurb about the upcoming symposium at the Bassett Historical Center. Now,
I enjoy the programs at the Reynolds Homestead, but give me a break a symposium
to expand our regional history library that has a larger Patrick County
collection than the Patrick County Historical Society is more important in my
opinion. Some might think this is sour grapes, but this is over a decade of
being treated this way. I was once told that saving Stuart’s Birthplace was a
“pipe dream.” Yes that is correct it came from a local newspaper. So, yes I take
it personally. Now the recent vandalism looks to me like teenagers out enjoying
the birthplace probably after dark with some alcohol playing with some matches.
I am sure they will never read this blog, so I could gripe about it, but when
you give everything you have and your family devotes many thousands of hours and
dollars to preserving something you tend to take it personally. I think about
Mike Hayes and the guys at Brown Wooten Mill who built and donated those picnic
tables at cost. I thank them for what they did. A favorite theme in the town of
Stuart is that I quit the Birthplace all those years ago or any numerous
slanders and lies that I will not go into. None of which are true. It is
suggested that I really had little to do with the creation of the organization
or the subsequent fund raising. Well I have a whole chapter about that in my
book on Stuart’s Birthplace and boxes of material at the Special Collections
Department at Virginia Tech that tells a different story. I did indeed start the
group and I worked very hard to save the site. In fact, if you decide to go to
Laurel Hill you might visit their website
www.jebstuart.org
and read about it. Almost every word you read was written by me. If you visit
the site when you pull in and take a brochure out the box. You will find that
everything you read in the tri-fold piece of paper was written by me. As you
walk around the 75 acres you will find eight interpretive signs with text
written by me. So, yes I take it personally when someone tries to destroy the
site or does not give it the recognition it deserves. I think it is jealousy and
the fact the site is in Ararat just burns some people up. Home for J. E. B.
Stuart was Ararat, Virginia, from his West Point application to his many
comments about the “dear old hills of Patrick” are aimed at his birthplace not
the town named for him twenty years after his death. I hope the Sheriff catches
the vandals, but I will bet that the alienation that the Birthplace Board has
caused in Ararat with their condescending view is the real cause of the problem.
This is one of the many reasons I think Laurel Hill needs to become a county,
state or national park and no longer under the control of a board that not only
has no interest in the real history of the site, but obviously cannot protect it
either. Of course, if they went there more than one weekend a year to be seen
they would know that.
For many years I have displayed my brochures in the lobby of the Patrick County Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library along with many other historical groups. I must admit I enjoy the fact that my brochures are just outside the door of the
do nothing Patrick County Historical Society Museum. Last week when I arrived to check out a book I found my brochure rack, I secretly mark them, with brochures of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace. So this means someone probably I assume a board member of that organization threw my brochures away and replaced them with their brochures. I wrote the brochures, both of them, mine and the Birthplace’s and I wrote all the text on their website www.jebstuart.org (you can tell where they deleted my name by looking for the ?, ) and the text for the eight interpretive signs about the history of the REAL history of the Laurel Hill Farm, the birthplace and boyhood home of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart. I have requested in writing that the birthplace no longer use the material I created as there was no compensation to me nor did I take it off my taxes, etc. Intellectual property belongs to the person who created it and I copyright this material in 2005. They, of course, ignored my phone calls, letters, certified letters, etc. If you need another reason not to support this organization read on. I think it is time to call for a boycott of the organization I started and ask those of you who have supported the organization to voice your concerns and not to attend events or support the group financially. Laurel Hill needs to become a county, state or national park and the present organization needs to go away. This is the sort of PETTY behavior that my family puts up with. It is PETTY to play brochure wars with me, but it is pathetic to dig up a 75 year old woman’s flowers that she spent years working with at the Birthplace after she asked that they be returned to her and then not to return them to her. It is PETTY to tell a 75 year old woman that she cannot eat at a chamber of commerce after hours when she has spent thousands of dollars preserving the site. It is PETTY that after being caught in both of the above that the president of the organization does not have the common decency to apologize for their behavior, but when you have no conscious that is what I expect. It shows a lack of appreciation for a friend to tell them you do not attend events or support such an organization and then show up wearing a T-shirt that proves you did. You do not get to have it both ways. Many people think that it is alright to have events that have nothing to do with the REAL HISTORY of the property in order to make money. Well, that is selling out and is not why the site was preserved. People who think like that are great potential board members for such an organization and to presume that they know more about the history or that they know how Jeb Stuart would feel about it is exactly what it takes not to be my friend anymore.Membership or Fraud?
A friend of mine was recently told by a Board Member of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace that the organization’s bylaws require UNANIMOUS approval by the board to be a MEMBER not of the board, but a MEMBER of the organization. So, as I understand it, they have to approve you before you can give them money. In all my years of dealing with historical groups, I have never heard of such a thing. Imagine if Monticello or Mount Vernon had to have unanimous approval to allow anyone to be a member or if a person of color in this country wanted to be a member and was turned down by the organization that owns the birthplace of a Confederate General. There would be no members and no money in the treasury and I have a feeling that is what is wrong with the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace. Again, this is the Stuart clique and their Kool-Aid drinking Ararat members that sit on the Board of the organization showing me they are clueless. This shows the incredible paranoia and secretive nature of the organization that they have to control everything. If you do not agree with them then you cannot be a member. It is that simple. They complain about a lack of money, but will not take money from people and wonder why they alienate the community the property is located in. This Board says they put in hours of work, yet I never see any of them out there except one weekend a year at the Civil War encampment. Otherwise, the site is virtually never visited by the people charged with preserving it. They claim to make all this money from the encampment, yet nothing has been done while the Dellenback-Mitchell House is allowed to fall down. In fact, I have not seen anything accomplished at the site that was not my idea. I have not seen one original idea come from this Board. Again, this is a group that told my 75 year old mother she could not eat at a chamber after hours and dug up her father’s azaleas after she spent thousands of dollars on the project and hundreds of hours working at the site. Now, imagine if you give money to be a member in a group and never receive a membership. Well, that happened to me in 2007. I gave the group $100 from the sale of my book about the history of the property and requested a membership. I heard nothing. My check was cashed, but I received nothing from the organization. A friend of mine asked to join. He went to two different Board Members asking and was told that the board had to unanimously approve his membership and that his friendship with me and the negative comments I was making would make it difficult for them to approve his membership. I believe that to be President of the organization you have to be a member, so if you don’t want the vision that I am bringing, you keep me from being a member. That is simple control, but when you take money for services and do not provide it, that is fraud. When you use the United States Postal Service and do not provide the service that is mail fraud. If you are a member all you do receive are two newsletters and letters asking for more money. You do not get in free to the encampment or receive any sort of discounts. To be a non-profit organization you are required to meet certain criteria. Now, each year a membership meeting is held by the Birthplace, where they vote themselves back into office. The meeting is not open to the public and is not advertised. So, if you are a member you have no say in who is on the Board or the direction of the organization, but your money is welcome as long as you do not question the direction of the group. Now, that is a membership I would want, but I would really like my money back.
Salus per Christum Redemptorem
At the entrance to the Laurel Hill Farm, there is a large sign with the motto Salus per Christum Redemptorem” (Salvation Through Christ’s Redemption) under the “Stuart Family Coat of Arms.” Now I am no expert on Coats of Arms, but doesn’t Elizabeth II have to give you a real one of those. As the Stuarts were low land Scots who left Scotland for Northern Ireland in the 1600s and then to Pennsylvania before landing in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I have some doubts about the validity of the “Coat of Arms,” but then again when did the Board of Directors of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace ever care about getting the history surrounding their site correct. Recently, it dawned on me they don’t care about getting the religion right either. I saw a bumper sticker WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) and I got to thinking about that and more importantly for the Laurel Hill Farm “What Would Jeb Do.” Would he be happy with the group that is charged with preserving and protecting the site of his birthplace and a place he loved speaking often of returning to if he survived the war. Would he be pleased with the way my family, who more than anyone preserved the site he called home. I doubt it. The Board of Directors of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust reminds me of the “Bible Thumper” used car salesman who goes to church on Sunday and rolls back the odometers on Monday. “Do Unto Others?” Hypocrite is more like it. They love to spread rumors about me or allow other members of their board to spread them and do nothing about it. They never question their on behavior. I wish I had a dime for every time someone comes back to me that I am “not a team player” or “difficult.” Well I do not wish to be on a losing team and I believe in standing up for what I believe in. I do not want credit for saving Laurel Hill. I want respect and I expect to be heard and not ignored. G. E. “Sug” Brown use to say to me that Jeb Stuart was a man who as Luke 4:24 states “a prophet has no honor in his homeland.” Tell me about Sug pronounced “Shug.” Sadly, I have come to wish that I had never tried to save this place and if I had not it would be a trailer park or have a gigantic mansion sitting on top of it. I wonder if that would not be better than falling apart as it is now. This board needs to go and the site should be turned over to the county, state or national government to be the park it was meant to be. The board can then go practice their selfish Christianity that believes they just because they believe they can treat people any way they wish and forget about that good works thing. I hope they all have a blessed day, but they need to ruin something else in Patrick County. I have had enough of them doing unto others then splitting.
Visitors and Vandals Beware
Vandals and Visitors Beware the Board of Directors of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace have placed a multi-camera security system on the building they never open near the entrance to the site they never visit except one weekend a year for the annual Civil War encampment. Since virtually no one visits the place the other 363 days to learn about history there should not be much footage to observe. There will be lots of romantic picnics and blanket lying by couples of different sexes and apparently same sexes. There will be lots of golf practice and Frisbee throwing, but I doubt if anyone will be dumb enough to vandalize the place in front of a camera so far removed from the interpretation or pyromania picnic tables that are strewn throughout the property. Of course, if this like their last security system on the building that was not even connected to a phone line to notify the sheriff if someone tried to break in it will not matter. Now I have been to many historic sites all over this nation, but I have never seen a security camera aimed at a mailbox holding brochures. Maybe they are trying to catch me, the man who wrote the brochures, from taking one while giving a tour of or visiting the place my family saved. Oh such as dastardly crime that would be. The real crime at Stuart’s birthplace is a group with so little vision is in charge of the most historic site in Patrick County. They have money for security systems to protect the hay and the pasture, but no money to preserve the Mitchell-Dellenback house that is falling down. They have money for security to system to protect their brochure box that looks so much like a mail box that a visitor will assume it is a mail box, but yet they don’t have the moral, ethical and Christian fortitude to apologize to my 75 year old mother for bringing her to tears after decades of work at the site. They have money for a security system, but do not seem to realize that if they had not alienated the community the site is located by moving the address from Ararat to Stuart. They have money for a security system, but do not realize that if they treated local business and civic groups such as the Ruritans and the Dan River Park fairly at the their annual encampment they would not have need for such contrivances. Truly Big Brother Jim Keesee, President of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace will be watching visitors and vandals at Laurel Hill, but he will not see me. I think I have made my last visit to the site I saved twenty years ago.
GEEZ JIM MOW THE GRASS
Recently, I visited the Laurel Hill Farm in broad daylight and I did not nor have I ever burned a picnic table at the site I saved all those years ago. I was appalled at the state of the grounds. My question is why can’t them mow the grass and take care of the place better than this. In the “Stuart Pavilion,” a named forced on them by author Robert J. Trout, who wrote the five signs as long as they would not name it after anyone else. He was probably afraid they might name it after me While they honor his copyright they ignore mine on the other eights signs, brochures and their website. While standing under the covering (I still wonder if the money for the proposed statue was used to build the pavilion as the number of bricks and the cost to build it just do not add up), I found grass growing up through the bricks. How about a weedeater Jim?
I walked up the road past the site several years ago that the Jubal Early SCV Camp of Carroll County cleaned up, but has now been allowed to grow back up with only one lone bird feeder where there had been a mowed picnic area.
I followed the trail down to the Ararat River. Along the way I saw full trash bags dumped just above the river. I found the trail not mowed. Near the waterfall I found the bench and sign with grass nearly covering them both.
I returned up the old farm road by the bridge built by Jerry Wilson fifteen or more years ago with a tree across the trail on the other side.
When I returned to the locked gate near the road the hay was cut, but trees were across the road leading back to my car. Hay no doubt for the Brown Family, who are allowed to keep the crop for what now I do not know. It would seem that the hay could raise money for say an endowment fund for the long term care of the property and maybe mowing the grass.
Back up to the car I walked along the old road bed that Jeb Stuart had once ridden a horse upon and again another tree across the road. I think it will be a long time before I return to the Laurel Hill Farm because I cannot stand to see something so many worked so long and hard on being allowed to fall into ruin.
Planting Seeds At Stuart's Birthplace
A member of the Ararat
Ruritan Club sent me an email recently saying he tried to join the J. E. B.
Stuart Birthplace several months earlier at the suggestion of Dan River
Supervisor and Stuart Birthplace Board Member J. B. Large. After months he had
heard nothing from the Birthplace. Now, the J. E. B. Birthplace made a big deal
about moving their address from Ararat, Virginia, where the site is located to
Stuart, Virginia, the county seat of Patrick County twenty-five miles to the
east so they could better handle the apparently large amounts of mail they
receive. I protested this for over a year until someone in Ararat put up a flier
asking the Board if they were “Ashamed” of the community they live in and named
the members from Ararat. If you live in Ararat and someone from Stuart tries to
take something of yours that is throwing down the gauntlet of war within county
politics. I informed the Birthplace that someone wanted to be a member. I have
tried myself to become a member and offered to be President again, but I was too
ignored because I have made it clear that I would turn the site into a county,
state or national park and the do nothing board would apparently rather run the
organization I started in 1990 into the ground than make the site what it was
intended to be a park. When the Ruritan Club member asked again he was informed
that many on the Board thought he was going to be a plant for me within the
organization. Needless to say this angered us both. I already have many people
telling me what is going including Board members. This shows the attitude the
Board has towards all the work my family has done for the Laurel Hill Farm when
they are more concerned about my knowing what they do than encouraging a member
of the Ararat Ruritan Club who had a genuine interest in the site. Now, the
planting is going on. The organization is planting some very bad seeds within
the community it is located. The Ararat Ruritan Club offered unknown to me until
recently to give the Birthplace use of the Ararat Ruritan Building for free to
hold their meetings. The Board refused saying they met at the site or the Brown
Cabin across the road. The Birthplace claims to be in great financial shape,
yadayadayada, but I was told by an officer that the organization did not make
any money in their tent at the last encampment. Rumors are rampant among the
reenactor community that there may not be another Civil War encampment since the
organization did not make enough to break even last year. So, what is the truth?
They change the address to improve flow, but do not respond to people because
they might tell me what is going on. They have to have the local SCV camp mow
the grass, but they are in the best financial shape in years. My question is
this. What is there to hide? Why do they have to meet in secret instead of
holding a public meeting where everyone members, potential members, the founder
of the organization could know about and make comments about the direction of
the organization and the future of the site. To my knowledge there has not been
a meeting open to the public since I was President in the early 1990s. Now, if
you want to control everything and you have something to hide this is exactly
how you would behave. Indeed the planting is well underway and it is going to
produce some sour fruit. Here is another comment I
received recently via email and still not one comment not agreeing with me.
“Since they didn’t do anything, I don’t see how they could make any money. They
can not move forward unless they become a state park. The possibilities are
endless for the birthplace if people that had a clue were running it.”
TRASH
The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace is responsible for picking up trash along the Ararat Highway, Virginia Route 773 from the state line with North Carolina to the intersection of the The Hollow Road, where the opportunist owner of the J. E. B. Stuart Bed and Breakfast lives. I do not think I have ever seen the Board of Directors picking up trash on PARK DAY or any other day. I have the seen the members of our local Ruritan Club in Ararat picking up trash from that point up to Blue Ridge Elementary School. Of course, the latter are not afraid to be seen along the road or maybe they would not be concerned for their safety like the former group might be. When you alienate the community the site you are charged with preserving you have those problems. I guess the clique in Stuart and their minions from Ararat on the board cannot get their hands dirty. I have seen many criminals picking up trash along the birthplace with a deputy and his shot gun looking on. For some reason, I find that appropriate.
Park Day 2008
Driving from Mount Airy to Ararat on Saturday morning a few weeks ago to visit the parental units and wishing I could mow grass, but the rain just kept falling, I spotted “two fellers” picking up trash along the highway at the Laurel Hill Farm, J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace. I realized it was Park Day, April 5, 2008, the program from the Civil War Preservation Trust where over 100 sites across the nation are cleaned up by volunteers. The fact that I, the man who started the organization, did not know that the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc. was participating speaks to the lack of promotional skills the organization employs. As I said, I spied TWO men picking up trash along the highway. I rode past the entrance and saw several people on the porch apparently sipping coffee and no doubt thumping their chests talking about what a great job they are doing preserving “the most historical project ever undertaken in Patrick County.” Of course, they are in my opinion doing a terrible job. There was no mention of Park Day in any of the local newspapers, radio or even on the website of the organization that owns the site. Let me write that again there was NOTHING on their website about participating in Park Day 2008. Why would you not promote that you are part of a national day of cleaning up Civil War sites? Why would you not try to get people in the local community to come out and participate? Why would you not invite the man who wrote a book about the history of the site to come talk to the volunteers about “Real History” of the place? Now, what I did notice they completed is completely digging up the flower garden my mother spent years growing along the split rail fence at the entrance and seeding it with grass. It appears the fence is gone, which no doubt means a new fence and a big locked gate will soon be in place to prevent picnic tables from being burnt in the future. As many know, the organization told my mother last year at a Patrick County Chamber of Commerce After Hours that she and my four friends from the Surry County Civil War Round Table could not eat with the group. When she confronted John Broughton, then President of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace about this at the Civil War encampment in October he refused to apologize to her. Being her only son I have been on the war path ever since. My parents spent over $10,000 preserving Laurel Hill from paying for the gravel on the roads to printing brochures. The organization repays us by destroying her flower garden and refusing to acknowledge our family’s part in preserving the site either in person or on their webpage. In fact, they deleted it from the same webpage even though I wrote the copyrighted text. The organization now has a post office box in the town formerly known as Taylorsville confusing anyone who tries to find Laurel Hill and alienating the people of Ararat where it is located. The group is allowing the Dellenback-Mitchell House to fall down when several people have offered to help save it. In upcoming weeks I will continue to point out what in my opinion is the “Poor Stewardship” at Stuart’s Birthplace. I think it is time to stop support the Board of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace financially until they give the site to the county, state or national government to be the park it was meant to be. Then, we can form Friends of Laurel Hill group to continue the efforts I started in 1990, which I will gladly lead.
Ignore Someone Long Enough And They Will Go To The Attorney General
The Board of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace believes that if they ignore my criticism of their actions that I will go away while they continue on their merry do nothing way, but this time other people are noticing all over the country. Many people have told me they will no longer support the group because of the way they treated my family. Others have suggested going to law enforcement outside Patrick County with my concerns. Well, it would not be the first time I contacted the Attorney General.
Here is what Ararat native now Kansas resident Deb Goodrich recently wrote on her blog about Icy Bowman Brown’s Scrapbooks. “Icy Bowman Brown was my Grandpa’s cousin, and she and her husband, Sug, owned Laurel Hill where Jeb Stuart was born. Icy reveled in the history of her home, and saved every newspaper clipping, photograph, event program–anything related to the history of this site. When I was a kid, I would go over and go through her scrapbooks with her. She even let me take them home one time! I still can’t believe that. I was 15 and writing a regular column for The Enterprise in Stuart. Icy’s scrapbooks were the first historic documents I ever used. Tom Perry tells me he is concerned that they are not being properly cared for and suggested to the Patrick County Historical Society that they go to Virginia Tech with the other papers Tom donated. I think that’s a great idea. It’s difficult for local history groups to preserve items properly. Think of this when you’re making your will or donating items. Who has the ability to care for your items and who will make it available to future researchers? Here’s a photo of Icy and her son, Bowman Brown. What a beautiful image. She had a tremendous heart, and such class. Read more on Tom’s blog at the freestateofpatrick.com.”
From http://masondixonwildwest.blogspot.com/search/label/Jeb%20Stuart
Here is what Elva Adams recently wrote on her blog on My Henry County about the treatment of my family. “In 1983 Tom graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in History and after much work on bringing Laurel Hill to realization as a historical site, he formed the J. E. B. . Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust in 1990 and the Free State Of Patrick Internet History Group in 2005.The non-profit organization has preserved 75 acres of the Stuart property including the house site where Stuart was born in 1833. Perry wrote the 8 interpretive signs about Laurel Hill’s history along with the Virginia Civil War Trails sign and the new Virginia Historical Highway Marker in 2002. He spent many years researching, traveling all over the nation to find Stuart. Tom can be seen on Virginia Public Television’s Forgotten Battlefields: The Civil War in Southwest Virginia with his mentor noted Civil War Historian Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Perry has begun a collection of papers relating to Stuart and Patrick County history in the Special Collections Department of the Carol M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech under the auspices of the Virginia Center For Civil War Studies. He is the author of Ascent to Glory, The Genealogy of J. E. B. Stuart, The Free State of Patrick: Patrick County Virginia in the Civil War, J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace: The Stuart Family in America and the Laurel Hill Farm, and Images of America: Patrick County Virginia. Having read all that you may wonder why there is no mention of Tom Perry on the J. E. B. . Stuart website. Here is the text from a speech given to recognize Tom and the Perry family for their contributions. This speech is absolutely glowing … HERE (you’ll need to scroll down a bit to find the speech). Somehow between that speech and 2008 Tom has discovered there really is no thanks extended to him in Patrick County. In fact in the April 13th entry of his blog Tom describes some pretty bad goings-on. Does this surprise you at all? It is embarrassing but not surprising.”
From http://www.myhenrycounty.com/perry-shunned.php
They Just Don't Get It
Before we have a look at the birthplace website I thought I would ponder to
ask the question of how many board members at the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace
would still be board members if it did not put money in their pockets such as
proceeds from sewing “Period Dresses” for hoop skirts. You cannot accuse my
family’s $10,000 plus donation to preserving the site of that although I am sure
they do.
So www.jebstuart.org or www.jebstuart.com the website for the organized based in the town formerly known as Taylorsville, Virginia.
From http://www.jebstuart.org/about.cfm “Money was raised by public subscription to purchase the original Stuart property.?” Now this page use to have my name as the guy who started the organization, but when they deleted all mention of my family they forgot to correct this and it has been this way for several years. That is right YEARS. I even sent them a message to correct it.
From http://www.jebstuart.org/articles.cfm. They asked for articles about the history. I guess since I am the only one who wrote about it they could not get any so they settled for reenactor articles. Funny thing it is 2008 and the last article posted is from 2003. FIVE YEARS since updating a webpage. Now, I know I would go back and visit this page. Also, they have Jim Keesee’s email address as the high and mighty controller of the articles. I think it is his email address from about three email addresses ago as I think he went to earthlink and now embarq.
From http://www.jebstuart.org/news.cfm?ID=46 I wrote this PR and they changed to it exclude the fact that I wrote the sign in question and it was the thing that got me interested in the birthplace as a kid. This is discussed in my book and if you ever heard me give a talk on Stuart especially the slide show you know this. Very few of the board members ever saw it even though I gave it 200 times in the last few years. It can only be a matter of time before the “Yellow For The Cavalry” forsythia planted by mother are gone. If they will destroy azaleas I feel certain that something I use to promote the site is in danger.
Speaking of that last November I gave a benefit for the birthplace at the Star Theatre in Stuart. The birthplace would not promote the event on the event section of their webpage. I am not making this up. They would not promote a benefit that raised money for their site.
Now, they think only I notice, but other people have noticed how my family was treated and how there is not one mention of us on the website of the organization that I started and raised over $250,000 to save the site. http://www.myhenrycounty.com/front-features/perry.php
Also, the photos on this webpage are from my collection for the most part. I have asked them to either pay me for their use or remove them. They have ignored me, but I keep adding ten percent each month to the bill. It goes without saying that there are no links to my website or the history I provide free of charge about the site they are suppose to be preserving. For years, I did not sink to their level, but when they hurt my mother it was time to teach them a lesson. They think they can ignore me, but what they don’t get about their website is that if you don’t add new material visitors will not return. They don’t understand that if someone searches on them they will find me. Anyway you get the idea. What I am saying is that when amateurs handle history and websites about history this is what you get. This is a reason that everyone thinks the statue at the courthouse is J. E. B. Stuart. It is not, but you would have to know the history of Patrick County and actually visit the place to know that. With these examples of websites, no one is going to visit Patrick County anytime soon.
Mitchell-Dellenback House Falling Down
I am concerned over the condition of the Dellenback/Mitchell House now owned by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust. Below are my recent comments from a letter to the Dellenback and Mitchell Families, who lived in the house over the last one hundred years. The Birthplace has owned the house for over a decade and to the best of my knowledge have done nothing to preserve the structure. I have suggested many times over the last few years that this house would be a perfect opportunity to take the significant Tobacco Funds and turn the house into a museum to show what life was like on a tobacco farm in the twentieth century. I have offered to raise money repeatedly to save the structure. I know of a carpenter and his family that offered to move into the house and begin working on the structure in exchange for rent if someone would supply materials. I know for a fact that a local supplier offered to give materials to help with the project. Sadly, I know that all these offers to help have been ignored and/or rejected. I believe the Dellenback/Mitchell House, which is over a hundred years old could become a jewel for our area and in telling the story of our local history. This is just one of the many reasons that it is plain to me that the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace should not be in charge of the site anymore. I would not say things like this about the organization that I started except it obvious to me that something has to be done. Having written a book that prominently tells the stories of your family’s time on this historic property, I feel it is my responsibility to call this to everyones attention. I have not served on the Board of Directors for more than a decade, but I have continued to promote and write about the history of the property. If you feel as I do I hope you will express your concerns to the organization as I have asked the two families who owned and lived in the structure. Do not be misled by the Birthplace’s comments such as above. They could do this, but it requires them do something more than dress up once a year and drive from Stuart, Virginia, where the officers live to be seen.
If you are concerned about the “Poor Stewardship” at Stuart’ s Birthplace contact the
J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust
276-251-1833
LAURELHILL@JEBSTUART.ORG
JEB STUART BIRTHPLACE
P O BOX 1210
STUART, VA 24171
The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace recently posted a newsletter on their website although they cannot fix the obvious errors or put the name of the man who started the organization back in the copyright text he wrote them for free. The newsletter Reconnaissance I started back in the early 1990s had a very interesting theme. It was all about playing dress up. The first article written by Glen King, who coordinated the Highland Games that was a complete failure. I think maybe 20 people showed up. Playing dress up by putting on kilts I am sure is very enjoyable, buy it has nothing to do with the history of the Laurel Hill Farm. The Stuarts were lowland Scots, who moved to Northern Ireland, Pennsylvania and then the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia being poster children for the terms Scots-Irish. The newsletter contained a good article by author Robert J. Trout, whose books I promote, about what J. E. B. Stuart wore. Very nice article, but it has nothing to do with the history of the Laurel Hill Farm. Now, I have to ask is the purpose of the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace to be a fashion magazine or to preserve and protect the history of “the most important historical project” in the history of Patrick County. Mr. Jim Keesee admits in the newsletter that he was behind removing my mother’s azaleas from the entrance that he called her flowers “unsavory.” This is how he repays someone who spent decades working to keep the place beautiful and spent thousands of her own dollars to keep the site going. He has refused to respond to repeated emails, letters and phone calls to apologize to my mother and for that, I will no longer support the organization I started and call on others to do the same. Read more about what is happening at Laurel Hill and ask yourself the question why would the man who started the organization be against it if there were not good reason regardless of the personal slights my family endured for years. If you read this, you will not support them. The organization needs to go away and the site turned over to the county, state or national government to be a national park. Read more about the poor stewardship at Stuart's Birthplace.
July 4 at Stuart's Birthplace
A friend of mine recently sent
the following to the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace.
“…I just wanted to voice my concern on something regarding Laurel Hill.
I do hope you will honestly take to heart what I have to say. I really honestly
cherish Laurel Hill and what it stands for. I admire the history of Laurel Hill
and the fact that J. E. B Stuart was born there(in my hometown of Ararat VA) and
what he stood for. Not only that I respect the fact that his great- grandfather
William Letcher died for a very honorable cause…just as J. E. B did years later.
They gave the ultimate sacrifice in one way or another for all of us.
They died for our country and our freedom right???? With that being said I was
very shocked and saddened to pass by Laurel Hill on our Independence Day and to
not see the flags flying for all to see by the roadside. It looks like you guys
would have wanted to fly the flags there for all the world to see. Don’t J. E. B
and all the others who fought for our freedoms deserve that? I may be one of
the few in Ararat who embraces Ararat VA’s history which is sad because Ararat
has a lot to offer any history buff. I could not live with myself if I did not
say anything.”
In the past, I know that people have complained, vandalized and stolen the U. S. Flag and Second National Flag of the Confederacy went it flew over Laurel Hill. I once bought night lights and placed them at the main flag pole. Of course, for a flag to fly it would require a board member to visit the site and if you read my blog, you know they only show up once a year to welcome the reenactors to a site that never saw a battle. It would seem to me that on Memorial Day or Veterans Day or Independence Day that the most historic site and the home of the most famous soldier from Patrick County would be an obvious place to fly the flag, but that require effort from the board and some knowledge of the history of this nation that they have proved they do not have.