The Virginia Board of Historic Resources approved fourteen new highway historic markers at its quarterly meeting in December. The markers are expected to go up by March 2022. Several deal with figures and events connected to the Civil War and Reconstruction.
From the Virginia Board’s press release:
Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1867-68 figures prominently in two forthcoming markers:
- In Clarke County, the marker “John C. Underwood (1809-1873)” recounts Underwood’s experience in Clarke where he settled in the early 1850s—but departed in 1856 after his anti-slavery activity drew harassment from fellow residents. In 1863, President Lincoln appointed Underwood a federal judge for Virginia’s eastern district. After the Civil War, Underwood advocated for equal rights for African Americans. He was elected president of the state’s constitutional convention that produced the document ratified in 1869 and known as the “Underwood Constitution.” It granted Black men the right to vote and established free public schools, among other democratic reforms.
– - Born enslaved, Samuel F. Kelso (ca.1825-1880), one of Lynchburg’s first Black teachers after the Civil War, also attended Virginia’s Constitutional Convention, to which he was elected to represent Campbell County and Lynchburg. Kelso introduced a resolution calling for free public education open to all on an equal basis. He also was a delegate to the National Convention of the Colored Men of America, which advocated for African Americans’ civil rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
The Underwood Constitution was replaced in 1902 by a new state constitution that imposed new restrictions on voting and disenfranchised large numbers of African Americans and working-class whites.
Reconstruction-era African American churches and a Christian mutual aid society are the focus of three markers:
- Union Run Baptist Church in Albemarle County took shape soon after the Civil War when the Rev. Robert Hughes and other freedmen organized the congregation, which purchased a nearby church building and re-erected it on land deeded to them in 1867. The church served as a school and a community center and the property as a burial ground.
– - Chief Cornerstone Baptist Church in Buckingham County was established by 1876. It arose on land sold to the congregation by a formerly enslaved married couple. Members worshipped under a brush arbor before building a log sanctuary. The property also provided a burial ground for the community.
– - Norfolk will see rise the marker “United Order of Tents,” about the United Order of Tents of J.R. Giddings and Jollifee Union, which was founded by and for Black women. In Norfolk, soon after the Civil War two formerly enslaved women organized the mutual aid society Tents’ Southern District #1. It provided financial assistance and burial insurance, established nursing homes, sponsored scholarships, and supported civil rights activists. Its membership nationwide grew to about 50,000 in the 20th.
Full Text of Markers:
Samuel F. Kelso (ca. 1825-1880)
Samuel Kelso, born into slavery, became one of Lynchburg’s first African American teachers after the Civil War. He taught at a freedmen’s school on 12th Street and was later a trustee of the all-Black Polk Street School. Kelso was elected to represent Campbell County, including Lynchburg, at Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1867-68. There he voted with radical reformers and introduced a resolution calling for free public education open to all on an equal basis. In 1869 he was a delegate to the National Convention of the Colored Men of America, which protested the exclusion of Black Americans from civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. He was later a postal agent in Lynchburg.
Sponsor: Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation
Locality: Lynchburg
Proposed Location: 915 Court Street
Union Run Baptist Church
Soon after the Civil War, the Rev. Robert Hughes (1821-1895) and other freedmen organized Union Branch Baptist Church, later known as Union Run Baptist Church. Spiritual life was vital to formerly enslaved African Americans, and establishing churches and creating communities were of primary importance. Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Edgehill deeded one acre to the church’s deacons in 1867. The congregation purchased the Limestone Church building and re-erected it on this site, where it also served as a school. The church became a cornerstone of the community. The Rev. Hughes, pastor for three decades, was interred in the churchyard, the final resting place of hundreds of community members.
Sponsor: Albemarle County Office of Equity and Inclusion
Locality: Albemarle County
Proposed Location: 3220 Keswick Road
Chief Cornerstone Baptist Church
African Americans had established Chief Cornerstone Baptist Church by 1876, during a period when many Black southerners worked to build independent community institutions in the wake of Emancipation. John and Harriet Gregory, who had formerly been enslaved, sold a half-acre of their property to the church’s trustees. Members worshiped under a brush arbor, an open-sided shelter with a brush roof and a mound of earth serving as a lectern, before building a log sanctuary. The church’s cemetery is the final resting place of many community members, including veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
Sponsor: Chief Cornerstone Baptist Church
Locality: Buckingham County
Proposed Location: 4002 Bell Road, Dillwyn.
John C. Underwood (1809-1873)
John C. Underwood, an attorney from New York, settled near here early in the 1850s. Harassed for his antislavery activism and his work on behalf of the Republican Party, he left Virginia in 1856. Pres. Abraham Lincoln appointed him a federal judge for Virginia’s eastern district in 1863. An outspoken advocate of equal rights for African Americans after the Civil War, Underwood was elected president of Virginia’s Constitutional Convention of 1867–68. Among the convention’s 105 members were 24 African Americans. The “Underwood Constitution,” ratified in 1869, granted Black men the right to vote, established a system of free public schools, and secured other democratic reforms.
Sponsor: DHR
Locality: Clarke County
Proposed Location: on U.S. Route 50 near intersection with Mt. Carmel Road
United Order of Tents
The United Order of Tents of J.R. Giddings and Jollifee Union, founded by and for African American women, emerged from efforts to aid enslaved people who sought freedom along the Underground Railroad. Annetta M. Lane and Harriet R. Taylor, who had both been enslaved, formally organized the Tents’ Southern District #1 in Norfolk shortly after the Civil War. A Christian mutual aid society, the Tents provided financial assistance and burial insurance, established nursing homes, sponsored scholarships, supported civil rights activists, and aided mission work abroad. National membership grew to about 50,000 in the 20th century. This property became the headquarters of Southern District #1 in 1913.
Sponsor: DHR
Locality: City of Norfolk
Proposed Location: 1620 Church St.
Note: Feature photograph shows Union Run Baptist Church.
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