tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588690289397254572024-03-17T20:03:48.953-07:00The Gum Springs MuseumThe Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-41668701903050192212023-10-16T16:11:00.013-07:002023-10-16T16:16:02.092-07:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKDi9wSxyGCmVQQmzBrDAvwwqSjDoqEzvqsJ09kMC9886sSRdkgxP4LEeOsjNpw3_F4fHXRi2Xg3_qS4UjSUuZolrqSYFj26vDX9-dInGknvZmraQMm8TBoKDOdyWHPxSuz_Ejp0SqaOfukno7m5AHBaNLS7EMW2gtsHY1HnzWVGAd5vTTZfFtfF2it4/s4200/Sat%20%20j%20Final%20RC%20working%20flyer%20GS%20190%20Anniversary%20Photo%20Doc226%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4200" data-original-width="2550" height="1041" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKDi9wSxyGCmVQQmzBrDAvwwqSjDoqEzvqsJ09kMC9886sSRdkgxP4LEeOsjNpw3_F4fHXRi2Xg3_qS4UjSUuZolrqSYFj26vDX9-dInGknvZmraQMm8TBoKDOdyWHPxSuz_Ejp0SqaOfukno7m5AHBaNLS7EMW2gtsHY1HnzWVGAd5vTTZfFtfF2it4/w511-h1041/Sat%20%20j%20Final%20RC%20working%20flyer%20GS%20190%20Anniversary%20Photo%20Doc226%20(1).jpg" width="511" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-69737514144863750922023-08-09T18:07:00.002-07:002023-08-10T15:38:12.853-07:00Gum Springs 190 Anniversary GALA<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYQbJWA2_yeYASu8AcRMElIqPh0pa0t_ZAvR1EVfi9X-jQW8_x8ncV8ydFLFEkTqbbwtnT35ipCReS67zkqbWuK9cUgZAEH2zN9xVgLHLTY91vHGkkAIrqNjneKEBasyifnrJ4x29L3FDeIGN320nQojmFr3tip5_wFCKfbMsWyldfoeL7zoux3VPktT8" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="940" height="477" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYQbJWA2_yeYASu8AcRMElIqPh0pa0t_ZAvR1EVfi9X-jQW8_x8ncV8ydFLFEkTqbbwtnT35ipCReS67zkqbWuK9cUgZAEH2zN9xVgLHLTY91vHGkkAIrqNjneKEBasyifnrJ4x29L3FDeIGN320nQojmFr3tip5_wFCKfbMsWyldfoeL7zoux3VPktT8=w534-h477" width="534" /></a></div><p><br /></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p>Last year's Dinner was outstanding, so much so, we are doing it again at George Washingtons Mount Vernon. We are starting early buy your tickets now to Celebrate the 190 Anniversary of Gum Springs, The Oldest African American community in Fairfax County and one of the oldest in The Nation. Limited seating .you can purchase tickets starting now at EVENTBRITE. Join Us, and Watch the STARS COME OUT!</p></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For more INFORMATION Please call (703) 340-6051</span></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-26387874948641714482022-10-12T13:18:00.003-07:002022-10-13T09:18:12.356-07:00Gum Springs Founders Day 189 Gala Celeabration<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXDhjc8Gcl_R43zMy5flif59Eh6A-dmApLU9VnnD3Gf4F5M_b27zNfNiky2JPYnc0kNVQkPTuIX_B2WbTo4tpXNb9441qYhkQWCgcbnmLBOauMdZj8R65Orpjexz1gJ347og6F3T4_ayTup1jveWTNXoEP4bfGD5DAHgPTAaXCt6rPAV9nWgisLaU/s3300/102%20Flyer%20Gala%2022%20Doc2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXDhjc8Gcl_R43zMy5flif59Eh6A-dmApLU9VnnD3Gf4F5M_b27zNfNiky2JPYnc0kNVQkPTuIX_B2WbTo4tpXNb9441qYhkQWCgcbnmLBOauMdZj8R65Orpjexz1gJ347og6F3T4_ayTup1jveWTNXoEP4bfGD5DAHgPTAaXCt6rPAV9nWgisLaU/w446-h634/102%20Flyer%20Gala%2022%20Doc2.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /> </div><br />https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gum-springs-founders-day-gala-celebrating-189-years-tickets-429365211907</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-71863067357246670612022-09-01T13:14:00.004-07:002022-09-01T13:14:59.339-07:00<h2 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN3GqoMbYYfQD8OTop2BGuBQgax4Dsb5_IKXWpPM529qIQzymRyc6FMSit4T_WLNxAY4vT2iqvCp9xGUIFvbHWEJJs6zGU6-LHSZ8Fx3KlUlk3V8rGzZUK_uE-Thpu4LmQ8z93YRkPyivOuRARyOLsX4rYc08cPs_0ui6vs4eELU6bLFE8YEtRKmGI/s1640/Founders%20Day%202022%20FBCover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1640" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN3GqoMbYYfQD8OTop2BGuBQgax4Dsb5_IKXWpPM529qIQzymRyc6FMSit4T_WLNxAY4vT2iqvCp9xGUIFvbHWEJJs6zGU6-LHSZ8Fx3KlUlk3V8rGzZUK_uE-Thpu4LmQ8z93YRkPyivOuRARyOLsX4rYc08cPs_0ui6vs4eELU6bLFE8YEtRKmGI/w451-h254/Founders%20Day%202022%20FBCover.png" width="451" /></a></div></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gum Springs Founders Day Dinner</span></h2><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Join the Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum and the Mount
Vernon Ladies Association, for an enchanting evening as we celebrate the
Founder, and Early Community Leaders of the Historic Community of Gum Springs,
Fairfax County, Virginia circa1833. Gum
Springs is the oldest Historically African American Community in Fairfax County.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Founders Day Dinner will be Saturday, November 19, 6:00 - 9:00 pm, at historic George Washington's Mount Vernon.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have invited two special guest speakers and are waiting to confirm their attendance. These special guests are </span>Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Professor of African American History, Harvard University; and Dr. Cornell West, The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.</p><p></p><div><br /></div><div>There will be live music by Charles Rahmat Woods Jazz Trio , a silent action and dinner all in the Ford Orientation Center at historic Mount Vernon. </div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><p>
</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For more information or to buy tickets contact the event c</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">o-chairs David Barr and Ron Chase at </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">gshsfcva@gmail.com or </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">703-799-1198.</span></p><br /><p></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-66988900343421938652022-07-01T10:54:00.000-07:002022-07-01T10:54:43.709-07:00Letter to the editor of The New Yorker: via themail@newyorker.com To the Editor: "Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?”<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Letter to the editor of The New Yorker: via themail@newyorker.com</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To the Editor:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Gum Springs Historical Society wishes to bring to your attention errors of fact and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">mischaracterizations of the Gum Springs community, its history, and its founder, West Ford, in: The New Yorker: American Chronicles, March 14, 2022 Issue, “Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?” by Jill Abramson, March 7, 2022.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As president of the Gum Springs Historical Society, and frequent host to visitors to our small museum, I</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">have grown accustomed to visitors’ misimpressions of our community’s history – often recognizable as</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">having been promulgated in print by some “authoritative” source or other. I will continue to labor to</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">substitute such false histories with the more authentic perspectives on race, faith, freedom, and resilience, as lived by successive generations of families like my own, and other descendants of enslaved people of Mount Vernon and beyond. As one who has been thrust into civic activism to protect my community from a constant onslaught of threats, I suppose I should be grateful when a readership as wide as The NewYorker’s is introduced to our plight. However, will Ms. Abramson’s misstatements and errors, which substitute stereotyping for the traditional culture of Gum Springs – and worse, portray it as a disappearing community – help or hurt our cause?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Responses of the Gum Springs Historical Society to a few of the article’s problematic statements are as</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">follows:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “freedmen’s community” and “freedmen’s village”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>These terms are misnomers, or at least misleading, as they commonly reference post-</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Civil War encampments established by the Freedmen’s Bureau to temporarily house former</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">slaves freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. Stating that Gum Springs is an anomaly that is</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">an older version of this more common model of government military encampments to temporarily</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">house former slaves is an anachronistic and false characterization.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The dissertation by Judith Saunders Burton – a source cited in the article – includes a chapter that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">treats the subject of the Freedmen’s Bureau and its role in assisting Gum Springs after the Civil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">War and the influx of freed people, who had been settled there because it was a pre-existing,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">stable black community that provided “security and population growth potential.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Abramson: “ . . . West Ford, who lived and worked at Mount Vernon for nearly sixty years, first as an</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">enslaved teen-ager and continuing after he was freed. Following Washington’s death, in 1799, Ford</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">helped manage the estate . . .”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Response: This wording gives the impression that West Ford was enslaved at Mount Vernon by</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">George Washington, then continued working at Mount Vernon after George’s death. However,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ford did not arrive at Mount Vernon until three years after George’s death. He accompanied</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">George’s heir, Judge Bushrod Washington, who moved to Mount Vernon in 1802 from Bushfield</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Plantation, Westmoreland County. There, George’s brother, Bushrod’s father, John Augustine</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Washington, had held West Ford in slavery until his widow, Hannah, inherited West – still a</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">child. Hannah Washington then provided for his manumission through the terms of her will.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Only much later in the article do these facts appear, and would likely be surprising to the reader,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">after the initial impressions given by this wording.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson</b>: “unusually warm relationship with the extended Washington family”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>2</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> Source? Records kept and actions taken demonstrate that certain members of the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Washington family demonstrated favor toward Ford that could be construed as “warm” feelings</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(if one is looking for a reason other than the possibility of paternity). However, there is no</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">information about whether those feelings, or representations, were experienced by Ford toward</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">his enslavers. Suggesting this without corroborating evidence, unfortunately, plays into the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">widely discredited and spurious mythology of the “happy slave” propounded by apologists of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">slavery and those who perpetuate this false view of the history of American slavery.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “Awareness of West Ford had faded both in Gum Springs and at Mount Vernon, but in recent years his story has been at the center of a bitter controversy between the two sites.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> Awareness of West Ford has been an ongoing, central part of the identity of Gum</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Springs descendants and residents, who honor him as the founder of their community, and as</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">ancestor to many. His sons and daughters carried on his legacy through donations of land for</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">schools, churches, and civic associations, and these patterns of civic enrichment continued</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">through their children and each successive generation, The results of these contributions are</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">manifest in the community today, and to further ensure that his memory, and the cultural</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">traditions he represents, continue to be honored in the future, the Gum Springs Historical Society</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">was established in 1984. Ron Chase continues this legacy at the Gum Springs Museum today.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: “</b>They also argue—citing oral histories from two branches of the family—that Ford was</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Washington’s unacknowledged son, a claim that Mount Vernon officials have consistently denied. As that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">debate continues, Black civic organizations in Gum Springs are engaged in related battles to save their</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">endangered community.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> In what way is the initiative to prevent adverse effects of the proposed highway</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">project a “related battle”? How does a “bitter controversy” – if that is what it is – about West</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ford’s relationship to the Washington family, in any way, relate to the efforts of Gum Springs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">residents “to save their endangered community”?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “They have resisted, with some success, Virginia’s planned expansion of Richmond Highway,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">which would encroach on the town . . .”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>Source? To date, there has been no “success” in preventing the planned expansion of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Richmond Highway. Statements by politicians, especially for a project that will not be</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">constructed for several years, do not represent success. If any of the interviewees expressed such</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">a hopeful view, why not attribute such a statement accordingly?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: </b>“ . . . they have embarked on the process of getting Gum Springs named a national historic</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">site.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> This statement ignores the amply documented controversy – alluded to, but not</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">adequately articulated – much later in the article – over whether to pursue national or local</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">recognition of the historic value of Gum Springs. It also implies that naming the community “a</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">national historic site” would provide protections. It would not. It would be more accurate to state</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">that historic designation that would provide protections against encroachment is being sought.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That process in Fairfax County is known as Historic Overlay District designation. County</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">officials have only recently acceded to the possibility that such local designation could be</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">considered – with no guarantee that such an effort would succeed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">3</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson</b>: “We visited Bethlehem Baptist Church, founded, in 1863, by a freedom seeker named</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Samuel K. Taylor, who served as its pastor for thirty years. We hoped to go inside, but a sign was taped to the door: “Space Is Uninhabitable.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> This statement, which was never explained, will mislead readers into believing that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bethlehem Baptist Church is either marginal or defunct. The author inexplicably mistook an</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">unused building next to the church as today’s Bethlehem Baptist Church – a large modern church</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">building that is clearly marked with signage at its prominent location at the corner of Sherwood</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hall Lane and Fordson Road. It is difficult not to conclude that the author intentionally ignored</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">both the new church’s signage and its predecessor’s historical marker, in order to advance a</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">narrative of a “dying” community.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: </b>“The Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum was closed for the day.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>Did the author return to the museum during its hours of operation?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">“We found only one citation of West Ford, at a housing project on Fordson Road that was named for him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The historical marker for the town had been destroyed by drivers who, while speeding off the highway,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">had run into it. Replaced a few months later, it reads ‘Gum Springs, an African-American community,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West Ford (ca. 1785-1863).’”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>In addition to the “only one citation of West Ford,” the author herself mentions two</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">others: “Fordson Road,” and the text of the historical marker, which evidently had already been</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">replaced when the author visited Gum Springs. Further, that missing marker, which the author</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">acknowledges was replaced by the time she returned in November, was one of two identical</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">markers in the heart of Gum Springs that she visited.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “According to a 1990 monograph by John Terry Chase, a Fairfax County historian . . .”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> The late John Terry Chase was not a Fairfax County historian. He was an independent</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">historian contracted by the County to write the book. Further, it is regrettable that the author did</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">not clarify that Terry (as we knew him) was no relation to Ron Chase.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[This matters for a number of reasons, most importantly to Gum Springs residents, he did not</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">have the depth of understanding that residents and descendants would bring to the task of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">recording its history. Further, the community had no say in its content, and certain statements in</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">his book are not only unsupported by facts, but are offensive, for example: “Contrary to popular</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">belief, in northern Virginia free Negroes were seen as an asset by whites and were not</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">discriminated against in the period from 1806 to 1860.” p. 12.]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: </b>“ . . . the historian Norman L. Crockett wrote in 1979”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>Crockett’s book, The Black Towns, is a study of failed post-Civil War towns in</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Kansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, that were founded by black promoters. Crockett found that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">the practices employed in founding these towns were indistinguishable from those of white</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">speculators, and it was these practices that contained the seeds of their eventual failure, despite</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">racism and other societal factors that also presented challenges over time. Yet, the author of the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">article quotes Ron Chase’s statements about the fact that Gum Springs’ community leaders, who</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">were men associated with Bethlehem Baptist Church, “started a land-buying collective called the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Joint Stock Club, which sold parcels to newcomers at cost, for thirty dollars an acre in 1890,” the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">same time period studied by Crockett. This fact alone is clearly a differentiating characteristic</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">from those studied by Crockett, even if one discounts the actual history of the community’s</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">founding, by a formerly enslaved man, much earlier – in 1833.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Being easily differentiated from Gum Springs, geographically and sociologically, the entire</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">description of the “dream” of these promoters of “the black town,” as quoted from Crockett, or</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">apparently derived from his book, predictably rings false: there is no record of Gum Springs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">residents or leaders ever aspiring to “manufacturing plants hiring local labor”; and “refrigerated</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">trucks” posed no threats to Gum Springs farmers, who found nearby Alexandria markets as long</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">as they continued raising and selling fresh produce from their own gardens. Use of such false</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">claims to prove the author’s observation, “Racism was embedded in those realities,” sidesteps the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">more important question of how racial discrimination, both random and institutionalized, led to</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">both impoverishment and empowerment of the Gum Springs community.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: “</b>In the early nineteen-sixties, Fairfax County condemned and demolished more than two</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">hundred homes.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>Source? Could it possibly be true that the author’s sources actually said that “more</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">than two hundred homes” were demolished in Gum Springs? When questioned, the author stated</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">that the figure had appeared in several sources, including more than one article in The</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Washington Post. She stated further that when such a fact is repeated in many articles and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">publications, as she claimed was the case, one must assume the fact to be true. For those who</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">have seen false and misleading information about the history of Gum Springs disseminated</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">repeatedly over the years, such an assertion was as disappointing as it was outrageous.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Terry Chase, in Gum Springs, The Triumph of a Black Community (John Terry Chase, Fairfax</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">County Office of Comprehensive Planning, 1990), states that, in March 1963, “The Fairfax</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">County Public Health Department condemned over two hundred houses, most of them in Gum</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Springs.” He did not state that those dwellings were demolished. Instead, he reported, “In</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">response to such a stark challenge, Gum Springs stepped up its political activities.” He then</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">devotes the remainder of the chapter, “Trial and Triumph,” to the ongoing community activism</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">for which Gum Springs is known.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Judith Saunders Burton (whose dissertation is among the sources the author consulted) states that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">215 houses in Gum Springs were “either destroyed or ‘placarded’ as unsuitable for human</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">habitation.” The public record indicates that only a few of the dwellings were destroyed – because</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">of bold community action by Gum Springs residents and their supporters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">According to the Washington Evening Star (2/13/1963), at the time of the 1960 U.S. Census,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">there were a total of 270 dwellings in Gum Springs for a population of 1160. In the following</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">weeks, both the Evening Star and the Washington Post reported that a total of three families were</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">scheduled to be evicted and the families were given an extension as a consequence of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">intervention of Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ) who, with Gum Springs neighbors and others,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">assisted the families in repairing their properties and thereby avoiding the scheduled evictions.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(2/21/1963, et seq.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On March 6, 1963, The Post reported on the community’s organized response to the threats of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">eviction, stating that “at least 10 families” faced eviction “this spring.” [“Group Fights</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Evictions,” The Washington Post, March 6, 1963.] On April 7, The Post documented three</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">families had been “told by county health authorities to move out by Feb. 21.” Deadlines were</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">extended. A total of sixty-two families had been given notices of eviction since the ordinance was</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">passed in 1961. Noting that “Negro housing in Northern Virginia is scarce,” the article stated that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>5</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">notwithstanding the notices, “No eviction cases have been taken to court, however.” A petition</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">campaign followed; and a referendum was held to create a housing authority that “would have the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">power to work with the Federal Government in obtaining public housing, low interest rates for</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">private developments, funds for housing rehabilitation and longterm loans.” “Housing Authority</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Petitions Circulated,” The Washington Post, June 17, 1963.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The County’s continued neglect of drainage problems was clearly accountable for depriving Gum</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Springs residents of both private and government financing. Subsequent Post articles reported</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">estimated costs of fixing the drainage problem and associated re-zoning of a site for affordable</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">housing at $400,000. A County official was quoted stating that the estimated amount “exceeds the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">. . . assessed value of all property in the area.” The Washington Post, March 31, 1963.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clearly, the author’s statement is a significant misinterpretation of the facts notwithstanding the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">availability of multiple sources from which to gain an understanding of the events in question.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “These were replaced by public housing . . .”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response: </b>This wording suggests that construction of public housing in Gum Springs was the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">consequence of demolition of condemned dwellings. Not only is her claim about demolitions</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">incorrect, but there is also a gap of a quarter of a century between the condemnation notices that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">were issued pursuant to a 1961 County Public Health Department ordinance and the construction</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">of public housing in 1987.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Faced with the ongoing consequences of discriminatory housing practices in the 1960s, the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">community fended off the County’s plans to demolish over two hundred homes, many of which</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">were able to be repaired and retained. The community was successful in re-zoning and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">constructing apartments, utilizing FHA and HUD financing, along the edge of the community on</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Route One (a state road). The apartments provided housing for residents who could not afford to</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">rehabilitate their homes, and/or could not wait for the County to correct decades of neglect by</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">addressing inadequate drainage on the County road that ran through Gum Springs. These</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">conditions placed out of reach not only bank loans, but even federal housing loans intended for</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">correcting housing deficiencies. The Gum Springs community continued its efforts to provide</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">decent housing for a growing population, building Gabriel Plaza and Brosar Park subdivisions in</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">the 1970s and early ’80s before housing programs were cut in the Reagan administration.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “Chase and Cox, along with two dozen other residents, have been protesting the state-highway</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">‘improvement’ plan, which initially called for more than doubling the number of lanes where the road</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">crossed Gum Springs, from six to thirteen.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> “Initially”? What has changed? If an alternative to the “initial” proposed plan is being</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">studied, why not state this?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “Bushrod moved with his wife, Julia Anne, to Mount Vernon, where West Ford managed</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">their enslaved workforce.” “ . . . and managed dozens of people who were still enslaved by the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Washington family.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> This statement should be attributed to the source who provided it. It is at odds with</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">other sources, which indicate that West Ford brought his numerous skills to his role as manager</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">of the estate. The portrayal of Ford as an overseer of slaves is a stereotypical characterization that</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">is at odds with what is known about him. Perpetuation of this mischaracterization is unfortunate.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The author’s article has already been linked to by Wikipedia, despite its inclusion of the text of</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>6</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">the Gum Springs historical marker: “In 1833, Gum Springs was founded by West Ford, a freed</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">slave, skilled carpenter, and manager on George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[Wikipedia entry for “Hybla Valley, Virginia,” retrieved 3/20/2022] As if to suggest there is no</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">difference between the two versions, the author, later in the article, provides quoted text of the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">historical marker for West Ford, which reads: “Gum Springs, an African-American community,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West Ford (ca. 1785-1863), a freed man,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">skilled carpenter, and manager of the Mount Vernon estate.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson:</b> “Linda Allen Hollis, Ford’s seventy-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter, is the current</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">custodian of the family’s oral history.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> As with many families with different lines of descent, it is not often one single</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">individual who would be considered the “custodian of the family’s oral history.” With the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">descendants of West Ford, the article records that there are different lines of descent from his four</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">children, and that certain of their histories have been kept separate. Judith Saunders Burton, Ron</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Chase, and the Gum Springs Historical Society have been such custodians for the lines of descent</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">of those who remained in Gum Springs. This should be acknowledged, not only in fairness to</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">these keepers of Ford family history, but also to avoid misleading readers into accepting one</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">family’s knowledge – however authoritative – as extending to all of the family lines.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Abramson: </b>“Mount Vernon has almost daily records of Washington’s travels in the years between his</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">return from fighting the Revolutionary War, in 1783, and his assumption of the Presidency, in 1789.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Those records show that he was nowhere near Bushfield when Ford was likely conceived.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Response:</b> The author does not state until later in the article that recent corrections have been</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">made to the interpretation of records that had long been misconstrued, and relied upon, for ruling</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">out George Washington’s presence at Bushfield during the period when West Ford would have</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">been conceived. See Henry Wiencek, An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Creation of America, pp. 304-310. Wiencek’s information was new because he consulted the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">original will of John Augustine that he states had “unexpectedly surfaced in the Mount Vernon</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">archives in September 2003.” The will had previously only been consulted as a transcription –</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">whose errors were repeated over and over through the years by historians. The new information</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">supports a different timeline, and has not been refuted, notwithstanding Wiencek’s own attempt</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">to counter it with the familiar “character” arguments so often resorted to by historians who cannot</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">resolve the question of West Ford’s paternity, yet seem to feel that having insufficient evidence is</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">not enough of a rebuttal to such unthinkable possibilities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sincerely,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ronald L. Chase, President</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">8100 Fordson Road</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Gum Springs</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Alexandria, VA 22306</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">7</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(703) 340-6051</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div><p><br /> </p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-44545884228724886432022-06-30T13:26:00.000-07:002022-06-30T13:26:42.317-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSpU2wt0qexucdEEksRBo8cAsmlrh4t-wvY0QII-WsNj3Lgj0_rQYzvMfGyH3yk9_YP0qqBlLyTE8KG0sexacFTaUy5iw6X7wa2sPpp-iXM5JpqM6Z33tFu8JCgMN0OBSmmJQXOjT4J1TSxz9vJBO6X3QsrqJ1f4jUV_-ZafNA0f8SekO80XnLSW62/s852/IMG_0522.JPG" style="display: block; 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Abramson, March 7, 2022.
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Letter to the editor of The New Yorker: via themail@newyorker.com
To the Editor:
The Gum Springs Historical Society wishes to bring to your attention errors of fact and
mischaracterizations of the Gum Springs community, its history, and its founder, West Ford, in:
The New Yorker: American Chronicles, March 14, 2022 Issue, “Did George Washington Have
an Enslaved Son?” by Jill Abramson, March 7, 2022.
As president of the Gum Springs Historical Society, and frequent host to visitors to our small
museum, I have grown accustomed to visitors’ misimpressions of our community’s history –
often recognizable as having been promulgated in print by some “authoritative” source or other.
I will continue to labor to substitute such false histories with the more authentic perspectives on
race, faith, freedom, and resilience, as lived by successive generations of families like my own,
and other descendants of enslaved people of Mount Vernon and beyond. As one who has been
thrust into civic activism to protect my community from a constant onslaught of threats, I
suppose I should be grateful when a readership as wide as The New Yorker’s is introduced to
our plight. However, will Ms. Abramson’s misstatements and errors, which substitute
stereotyping for the traditional culture of Gum Springs – and worse, portray it as a disappearing
community – help or hurt our cause?
Responses of the Gum Springs Historical Society to a few of the article’s problematic
statements are as follows:
Abramson: “freedmen’s community” and “freedmen’s village”
Response: These terms are misnomers, or at least misleading, as they commonly reference
post-Civil War encampments established by the Freedmen’s Bureau to temporarily house
former slaves freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. Stating that Gum Springs is an
anomaly that is an older version of this more common model of government military
encampments to temporarily house former slaves is an anachronistic and false characterization.
The dissertation by Judith Saunders Burton – a source cited in the article – includes a chapter
that treats the subject of the Freedmen’s Bureau and its role in assisting Gum Springs after the
Civil War and the influx of freed people, who had been settled there because it was a preexisting, stable black community that provided “security and population growth potential.”
Abramson: “ . . . West Ford, who lived and worked at Mount Vernon for nearly sixty years, first
as an enslaved teen-ager and continuing after he was freed. Following Washington’s death, in
1799, Ford helped manage the estate . . .”
Response: This wording gives the impression that West Ford was enslaved at Mount Vernon
by George Washington, then continued working at Mount Vernon after George’s death.
However, Ford did not arrive at Mount Vernon until three years after George’s death. He
accompanied George’s heir, Judge Bushrod Washington, who moved to Mount Vernon in 1802
from Bushfield Plantation, Westmoreland County. There, George’s brother, Bushrod’s father,
John Augustine Washington, had held West Ford in slavery until his widow, Hannah, inherited
West – still a child. Hannah Washington then provided for his manumission through the terms of
her will.
Only much later in the article do these facts appear, and would likely be surprising to the reader,
after the initial impressions given by this wording.
Abramson: “unusually warm relationship with the extended Washington family”
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Response: Source? Records kept and actions taken demonstrate that certain members of the
Washington family demonstrated favor toward Ford that could be construed as “warm” feelings
(if one is looking for a reason other than the possibility of paternity). However, there is no
information about whether those feelings, or representations, were experienced by Ford toward
his enslavers. Suggesting this without corroborating evidence, unfortunately, plays into the
widely discredited and spurious mythology of the “happy slave” propounded by apologists of
slavery and those who perpetuate this false view of the history of American slavery.
Abramson: “Awareness of West Ford had faded both in Gum Springs and at Mount Vernon, but
in recent years his story has been at the center of a bitter controversy between the two sites.”
Response: Awareness of West Ford has been an ongoing, central part of the identity of Gum
Springs descendants and residents, who honor him as the founder of their community, and as
ancestor to many. His sons and daughters carried on his legacy through donations of land for
schools, churches, and civic associations, and these patterns of civic enrichment continued
through their children and each successive generation, The results of these contributions are
manifest in the community today, and to further ensure that his memory, and the cultural
traditions he represents, continue to be honored in the future, the Gum Springs Historical
Society was established in 1984. Ron Chase continues this legacy at the Gum Springs Museum
today.
Abramson: “They also argue—citing oral histories from two branches of the family—that Ford
was Washington’s unacknowledged son, a claim that Mount Vernon officials have consistently
denied. As that debate continues, Black civic organizations in Gum Springs are engaged in
related battles to save their endangered community.”
Response: In what way is the initiative to prevent adverse effects of the proposed highway
project a “related battle”? How does a “bitter controversy” – if that is what it is – about West
Ford’s relationship to the Washington family, in any way, relate to the efforts of Gum Springs
residents “to save their endangered community”?
Abramson: “They have resisted, with some success, Virginia’s planned expansion of Richmond
Highway, which would encroach on the town . . .”
Response: Source? To date, there has been no “success” in preventing the planned expansion
of Richmond Highway. Statements by politicians, especially for a project that will not be
constructed for several years, do not represent success. If any of the interviewees expressed
such a hopeful view, why not attribute such a statement accordingly?
Abramson: “ . . . they have embarked on the process of getting Gum Springs named a national
historic site.”
Response: This statement ignores the amply documented controversy – alluded to, but not
adequately articulated – much later in the article – over whether to pursue national or local
recognition of the historic value of Gum Springs. It also implies that naming the community “a
national historic site” would provide protections. It would not. It would be more accurate to state
that historic designation that would provide protections against encroachment is being sought.
That process in Fairfax County is known as Historic Overlay District designation. County officials
have only recently acceded to the possibility that such local designation could be considered –
with no guarantee that such an effort would succeed.
3
Abramson: “We visited Bethlehem Baptist Church, founded, in 1863, by a freedom seeker
named Samuel K. Taylor, who served as its pastor for thirty years. We hoped to go inside, but a
sign was taped to the door: “Space Is Uninhabitable.”
Response: This statement, which was never explained, will mislead readers into believing that
Bethlehem Baptist Church is either marginal or defunct. The author inexplicably mistook an
unused building next to the church as today’s Bethlehem Baptist Church – a large modern
church building that is clearly marked with signage at its prominent location at the corner of
Sherwood Hall Lane and Fordson Road. It is difficult not to conclude that the author intentionally
ignored both the new church’s signage and its predecessor’s historical marker, in order to
advance a narrative of a “dying” community.
Abramson: “The Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum was closed for the day.”
Response: Did the author return to the museum during its hours of operation?
“We found only one citation of West Ford, at a housing project on Fordson Road that was
named for him. The historical marker for the town had been destroyed by drivers who, while
speeding off the highway, had run into it. Replaced a few months later, it reads ‘Gum Springs,
an African-American community, originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West
Ford (ca. 1785-1863).’”
Response: In addition to the “only one citation of West Ford,” the author herself mentions two
others: “Fordson Road,” and the text of the historical marker, which evidently had already been
replaced when the author visited Gum Springs. Further, that missing marker, which the author
acknowledges was replaced by the time she returned in November, was one of two identical
markers in the heart of Gum Springs that she visited.
Abramson: “According to a 1990 monograph by John Terry Chase, a Fairfax County historian . .
.”
Response: The late John Terry Chase was not a Fairfax County historian. He was an
independent historian contracted by the County to write the book. Further, it is regrettable that
the author did not clarify that Terry (as we knew him) was no relation to Ron Chase.
[This matters for a number of reasons, most importantly to Gum Springs residents, he did not
have the depth of understanding that residents and descendants would bring to the task of
recording its history. Further, the community had no say in its content, and certain statements in
his book are not only unsupported by facts, but are offensive, for example: “Contrary to popular
belief, in northern Virginia free Negroes were seen as an asset by whites and were not
discriminated against in the period from 1806 to 1860.” p. 12.]
Abramson: “ . . . the historian Norman L. Crockett wrote in 1979”
Response: Crockett’s book, The Black Towns, is a study of failed post-Civil War towns in
Kansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, that were founded by black promoters. Crockett found that
the practices employed in founding these towns were indistinguishable from those of white
speculators, and it was these practices that contained the seeds of their eventual failure, despite
racism and other societal factors that also presented challenges over time. Yet, the author of the
article quotes Ron Chase’s statements about the fact that Gum Springs’ community leaders,
who were men associated with Bethlehem Baptist Church, “started a land-buying collective
called the Joint Stock Club, which sold parcels to newcomers at cost, for thirty dollars an acre in
1890,” the same time period studied by Crockett. This fact alone is clearly a differentiating
characteristic
4
from those studied by Crockett, even if one discounts the actual history of the community’s
founding, by a formerly enslaved man, much earlier – in 1833.
Being easily differentiated from Gum Springs, geographically and sociologically, the entire
description of the “dream” of these promoters of “the black town,” as quoted from Crockett, or
apparently derived from his book, predictably rings false: there is no record of Gum Springs
residents or leaders ever aspiring to “manufacturing plants hiring local labor”; and “refrigerated
trucks” posed no threats to Gum Springs farmers, who found nearby Alexandria markets as long
as they continued raising and selling fresh produce from their own gardens. Use of such false
claims to prove the author’s observation, “Racism was embedded in those realities,” sidesteps
the more important question of how racial discrimination, both random and institutionalized, led
to both impoverishment and empowerment of the Gum Springs community.
Abramson: “In the early nineteen-sixties, Fairfax County condemned and demolished more than
two hundred homes.”
Response: Source? Could it possibly be true that the author’s sources actually said that “more
than two hundred homes” were demolished in Gum Springs? When questioned, the author
stated that the figure had appeared in several sources, including more than one article in The
Washington Post. She stated further that when such a fact is repeated in many articles and
publications, as she claimed was the case, one must assume the fact to be true. For those who
have seen false and misleading information about the history of Gum Springs disseminated
repeatedly over the years, such an assertion was as disappointing as it was outrageous.
Terry Chase, in Gum Springs, The Triumph of a Black Community (John Terry Chase, Fairfax
County Office of Comprehensive Planning, 1990), states that, in March 1963, “The Fairfax
County Public Health Department condemned over two hundred houses, most of them in Gum
Springs.” He did not state that those dwellings were demolished. Instead, he reported, “In
response to such a stark challenge, Gum Springs stepped up its political activities.” He then
devotes the remainder of the chapter, “Trial and Triumph,” to the ongoing community activism
for which Gum Springs is known.
Judith Saunders Burton (whose dissertation is among the sources the author consulted) states
that 215 houses in Gum Springs were “either destroyed or ‘placarded’ as unsuitable for human
habitation.” The public record indicates that only a few of the dwellings were destroyed –
because of bold community action by Gum Springs residents and their supporters.
According to the Washington Evening Star (2/13/1963), at the time of the 1960 U.S. Census,
there were a total of 270 dwellings in Gum Springs for a population of 1160. In the following
weeks, both the Evening Star and the Washington Post reported that a total of three families
were scheduled to be evicted and the families were given an extension as a consequence of
intervention of Senator Harrison Williams (D-NJ) who, with Gum Springs neighbors and others,
assisted the families in repairing their properties and thereby avoiding the scheduled evictions.
(2/21/1963, et seq.)
On March 6, 1963, The Post reported on the community’s organized response to the threats of
eviction, stating that “at least 10 families” faced eviction “this spring.” [“Group Fights Evictions,”
The Washington Post, March 6, 1963.] On April 7, The Post documented three families had
been “told by county health authorities to move out by Feb. 21.” Deadlines were extended. A
total of sixty-two families had been given notices of eviction since the ordinance was passed in
1961. Noting that “Negro housing in Northern Virginia is scarce,” the article stated that
5
notwithstanding the notices, “No eviction cases have been taken to court, however.” A
petition campaign followed; and a referendum was held to create a housing authority that “would
have the power to work with the Federal Government in obtaining public housing, low interest
rates for private developments, funds for housing rehabilitation and longterm loans.” “Housing
Authority Petitions Circulated,” The Washington Post, June 17, 1963.
The County’s continued neglect of drainage problems was clearly accountable for depriving
Gum Springs residents of both private and government financing. Subsequent Post articles
reported estimated costs of fixing the drainage problem and associated re-zoning of a site for
affordable housing at $400,000. A County official was quoted stating that the estimated amount
“exceeds the . . . assessed value of all property in the area.”
The Washington Post, March 31, 1963.
Clearly, the author’s statement is a significant misinterpretation of the facts notwithstanding the
availability of multiple sources from which to gain an understanding of the events in question.
Abramson: “These were replaced by public housing . . .”
Response: This wording suggests that construction of public housing in Gum Springs was the
consequence of demolition of condemned dwellings. Not only is her claim about demolitions
incorrect, but there is also a gap of a quarter of a century between the condemnation notices
that were issued pursuant to a 1961 County Public Health Department ordinance and the
construction of public housing in 1987.
Faced with the ongoing consequences of discriminatory housing practices in the 1960s, the
community fended off the County’s plans to demolish over two hundred homes, many of which
were able to be repaired and retained. The community was successful in re-zoning and
constructing apartments, utilizing FHA and HUD financing, along the edge of the community on
Route One (a state road). The apartments provided housing for residents who could not afford
to rehabilitate their homes, and/or could not wait for the County to correct decades of neglect by
addressing inadequate drainage on the County road that ran through Gum Springs. These
conditions placed out of reach not only bank loans, but even federal housing loans intended for
correcting housing deficiencies. The Gum Springs community continued its efforts to provide
decent housing for a growing population, building Gabriel Plaza and Brosar Park subdivisions in
the 1970s and early ’80s before housing programs were cut in the Reagan administration.
Abramson: “Chase and Cox, along with two dozen other residents, have been protesting the
state-highway ‘improvement’ plan, which initially called for more than doubling the number of
lanes where the road crossed Gum Springs, from six to thirteen.”
Response: “Initially”? What has changed? If an alternative to the “initial” proposed plan is being
studied, why not state this?
Abramson: “Bushrod moved with his wife, Julia Anne, to Mount Vernon, where West Ford
managed their enslaved workforce.” “ . . . and managed dozens of people who were still
enslaved by the Washington family.”
Response: This statement should be attributed to the source who provided it. It is at odds with
other sources, which indicate that West Ford brought his numerous skills to his role as manager
of the estate. The portrayal of Ford as an overseer of slaves is a stereotypical characterization
that is at odds with what is known about him. Perpetuation of this mischaracterization is
unfortunate. The author’s article has already been linked to by Wikipedia, despite its inclusion of
the text of
6
the Gum Springs historical marker: “In 1833, Gum Springs was founded by West Ford, a freed
slave, skilled carpenter, and manager on George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon.”
[Wikipedia entry for “Hybla Valley, Virginia,” retrieved 3/20/2022] As if to suggest there is no
difference between the two versions, the author, later in the article, provides quoted text of the
historical marker for West Ford, which reads: “Gum Springs, an African-American community,
originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West Ford (ca. 1785-1863), a freed man,
skilled carpenter, and manager of the Mount Vernon estate.”
Abramson: “Linda Allen Hollis, Ford’s seventy-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter, is the
current custodian of the family’s oral history.”
Response: As with many families with different lines of descent, it is not often one single
individual who would be considered the “custodian of the family’s oral history.” With the
descendants of West Ford, the article records that there are different lines of descent from his
four children, and that certain of their histories have been kept separate. Judith Saunders
Burton, Ron Chase, and the Gum Springs Historical Society have been such custodians for the
lines of descent of those who remained in Gum Springs. This should be acknowledged, not only
in fairness to these keepers of Ford family history, but also to avoid misleading readers into
accepting one family’s knowledge – however authoritative – as extending to all of the family
lines.
Abramson: “Mount Vernon has almost daily records of Washington’s travels in the years
between his return from fighting the Revolutionary War, in 1783, and his assumption of the
Presidency, in 1789. Those records show that he was nowhere near Bushfield when Ford was
likely conceived.”
Response: The author does not state until later in the article that recent corrections have been
made to the interpretation of records that had long been misconstrued, and relied upon, for
ruling out George Washington’s presence at Bushfield during the period when West Ford would
have been conceived. See Henry Wiencek, An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves,
and the Creation of America, pp. 304-310. Wiencek’s information was new because he
consulted the original will of John Augustine that he states had “unexpectedly surfaced in the
Mount Vernon archives in September 2003.” The will had previously only been consulted as a
transcription – whose errors were repeated over and over through the years by historians. The
new information supports a different timeline, and has not been refuted, notwithstanding
Wiencek’s own attempt to counter it with the familiar “character” arguments so often resorted to
by historians who cannot resolve the question of West Ford’s paternity, yet seem to feel that
having insufficient evidence is not enough of a rebuttal to such unthinkable possibilities.
Sincerely,
Ronald L. Chase, President
Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum
8100 Fordson Road
Gum Springs
Alexandria, VA 22306
7
(703) 340-6051The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-57272671792971355502021-10-11T13:25:00.000-07:002021-10-11T13:25:50.147-07:00Slave Memorial Commemoration<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/z1-fVUrxE78" width="480"></iframe>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-58863545887234444352021-05-11T16:36:00.000-07:002021-05-11T16:36:00.515-07:00Gum Springs Community Day <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRBuPUeC0TVWy4NXng-BlMW4ek92DrygpotGV7oy8NZ3z5ayKQk7BPbPqJ1UotLGpZPhK6V11NWGZy31bDVS0SAiUG-Dlg41oJWNV8UwPKdh_Xz078KS3zZN0hgWWILsVpoTx2xn_C0s/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="567" height="647" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfRBuPUeC0TVWy4NXng-BlMW4ek92DrygpotGV7oy8NZ3z5ayKQk7BPbPqJ1UotLGpZPhK6V11NWGZy31bDVS0SAiUG-Dlg41oJWNV8UwPKdh_Xz078KS3zZN0hgWWILsVpoTx2xn_C0s/w458-h647/image.png" width="458" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-85659646940969908282021-01-04T14:01:00.001-08:002021-01-04T14:01:58.103-08:00One Step Closer to National Historic Designation for Gum Springs<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Gum Springs Historic Society is
working with Fairfax County on two historic studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first is for the nomination of the Pride
of Fairfax Lodge #298 (former Odd Fellows Hall) for the National Register of
Historic Places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The second is a reconnaissance-level
architectural survey and Virginia Department of Historic Resources study for the
creation of a Gum Springs Historic District. It will include a complete
historical context to identify the historical themes and narratives of the Gum
Springs community from its establishment in 1833 through the early 1970s. A
goal of the Historic Society is to highlight the many innovations and self-sufficiencies
of the African American community. It will also identify and analyze the
buildings, sites, structures, and objects which contribute to the significant
historical themes of Gum Springs.</span></p><p></p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-50464109798758290762020-12-14T08:29:00.002-08:002020-12-14T08:47:01.140-08:00Virtual Tour of the Gum Springs Museum<p>The Gum Springs Museum is excited to showcase an interactive virtual tour of the museum. It includes a exhibits about the founder of Gum Springs, Wes (West) Ford and the foundational blocks that helped to establish the community including its churches and the first community school which was formed in 1850, when it was illegal to educate black Americans.</p><p><a href="https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=6FoD1TBfw9j" target="_blank">Gum Springs Museum Virtual Tour</a></p><p>This interactive tour was produced by Kevin Cook of <a href="http://aeriallook.com/" target="_blank">AerialLook</a>. Keep checking back to the link as we continue to add more exhibits!</p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-83449394686527805062020-12-14T08:11:00.001-08:002020-12-14T08:49:56.200-08:00Museum is Open for Tours During the Pandemic<p>The Gum Springs Museum hopes that everyone is doing well and is pleased to announce that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the museum continues to be open for tours. Masks are required and groups are limited to 8 people. Appointments are encouraged. Call 703-799-1198 or 703-340-6051 to schedule. Museum hours are Monday through Friday 10:00am - 5:00pm.</p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-34638900129216078072019-10-15T14:17:00.001-07:002019-10-15T14:18:15.532-07:00Gum Springs Museum History In Motion Issue 7 2019<iframe height="640" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LofJ_vmpWNgkWW3QCGt83C0YG03vDNe8/preview" width="480"></iframe>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-87643493713976938892019-10-09T14:22:00.000-07:002019-10-15T14:23:08.373-07:00Gum Springs Museum History in Motion Issue 6 2012<iframe height="640" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzzDyBNXfEbLT3lvcFF6bE0tdEc4ZE1SOEdGWXdzYXo3WU1V/preview" width="480"></iframe>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-62711093514708496322018-12-08T13:12:00.002-08:002019-10-02T13:02:34.567-07:00History In MotionThe Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-53748497442164874362018-10-24T17:33:00.000-07:002018-10-24T17:33:24.930-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Awarded Virginia State Road Markers:</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I would like to thank everyone for the many birthday greetings I
received. and to thank all who contributed to the birthday marker fund to pay for the
current awarded State Historic Road Markers. So far we have raised 130.00<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was 27 years ago when the Historical Society achieved the
State marker designation for Gum Springs. At that time each marker was 1,400
dollars. The Society had two casted for Gum Springs at a cost of 2,800. We
raised the money through community and organization donations, and yes many of
our parents and grandparents were still living then, donating and helping to
continue the legacy of Gum Springs by being a part of the fund raising. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Society recently worked with Woodlawn Faith Church, and
Pride of Fairfax ,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>helping to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>acquire <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a marker for the church and the Odd Fellows
Hall. The markers today cost 1,700 each. They have each paid for their marker.
The Woodlawn Marker is already up and on view, the Odd Fellows Hall marker is
soon slated for a dedication date. The society acquired a marker for Bethlehem
Baptist Church, however the Pastor and Trustees does not want the marker .</span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "inherit","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Gum Springs Historical Society has a proposal pending for
the Drew Smith Elementary School, which we feel will be granted, 1,700 is needed to pay for that marker, we thank you for your continued
support. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-39728318353152165112017-05-05T14:42:00.000-07:002017-05-05T14:42:53.935-07:00Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc. Participates in Martin Luther King Annual Observance <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ronald
Chase, President, Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc., was the key note
speaker at the Transportation Security Administrations’ Martin Luther King, Jr. Day yearly program on January 11, 2017. The theme for his presentation was “Advancing
the Dream.” </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p>The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-75238484514084031332016-06-26T05:28:00.000-07:002016-06-26T05:28:19.738-07:00Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc. Participates in National History Day Contest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronald Chase, President, Gum Springs Historical Society, Inc., recently
participated in the </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Kenneth E. Behring</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">National History Day Contest held at
University of Maryland at College Park, MD, June 12-16, 2016. The contest is run on a local, state and
national level, involving more than 600,000 students. Less than 1% make it to the National
level. All 50 states, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the District of Columbia,
American Samoa, Guam, and international schools in Central America, China,
Korea, and South Asia were represented at College Park. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">National History Day provides young people with a high quality
educational experience, with each student responsible for research, design and
creation of their entry in one of five competitive categories: website, papers, exhibits, performance or
documentary. It also engages the
students in </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">critical
thinking skills that is hugely beneficial to college and career readiness. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For the
documentary category, all entries were judged on historical quality, relation
to this year’s theme “</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-19591711632916623442016-04-14T10:55:00.002-07:002016-04-14T10:55:43.846-07:00Gum Springs, VA, Family History - East Coast Connections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxF-O21T2aaERlrUjjIQKps87WvNJ62wrDanAit80jheq02qJCm2pVJkzb_88rAV5NuxXhPNtPIS3uVwIU9hgAxuINrm7dDAY4Nd9dGftxFjtB6WpZEbdu7GQyBNcWZpiEaKItnOwEIE/s1600/20160413+IMG_9956.JPG1+Visit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxF-O21T2aaERlrUjjIQKps87WvNJ62wrDanAit80jheq02qJCm2pVJkzb_88rAV5NuxXhPNtPIS3uVwIU9hgAxuINrm7dDAY4Nd9dGftxFjtB6WpZEbdu7GQyBNcWZpiEaKItnOwEIE/s320/20160413+IMG_9956.JPG1+Visit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Pictured (L to R): Cynthia Hill-James, Denielle Hill, Ron Chase,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Zaena Terra, Vivian Hill-Terra and Linda Hill-Dogan.</span></div>
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On Monday, April 11, 2016, the Museum received visitors from Florida (Pines and Lakeland), Washington D.C. and Maryland.<br />
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The visitors are nieces and great nieces of Ron Chase, Director, Gum Springs Museum and Cultural Center.<br />
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Pictured on the wall are Harriett Cortrell (square brown frame) and John Brown [b. 1875- ] (oval brown frame). John Brown was the grandson of Lovelace Brown and the great grandson of West Ford.<br />
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<br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-81795264152435603672016-04-14T10:05:00.000-07:002016-04-14T10:06:01.830-07:00Springtime in Gum Springs<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7V6mas_uHYw_HntAUZgNnhln_rhKrxB58j4gS25PC-eBJnQ1DqP_7QrmqUZuzfm-jdsg_NRWWMnXHF-C5oIbteNbgie0ewzADade-HegkPmZyXxch4Cx7oX6wkPDrsrKxY9Ym90AffI/s320/20160412_115558+Alan+and+Laura+Hill.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured: Laura Hill, Ron Chase, and Alan Hill</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alan Hill, and his lovely wife, Laura, dropped by for a visit and got an update on family members that helped develop the Gum Springs, VA, community. Currently residing in Omaha, NE, Alan is the son of the late Walter Hill, Jr, and the great, great, great grandson of Lovelace Brown. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loveless Brown, along with Samuel K. Taylor, Robert King, Nathan Webb, Hamilton Gray, all men of the Bethlehem Baptist Church, created the Joint Stock Company in 1890. These men formed an idea of expansion, with the desire to build a community, pooling their monies to corner the land market in Gum Springs, VA, and reselling their holdings to other African Americans needing and wanting a place of security. (The Joint Stock Company sold their holdings without monetary gain.)</span></div>
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The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-44666778725058341592016-03-29T11:57:00.004-07:002016-04-15T15:59:04.112-07:00Spring Break At Gum Springs We were happy to welcome Diamond, Noah, and William Jones to the museum on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. The sun was shining and kids home on Spring Break - couldn't have asked for a better day to make a road trip and share some history of where "Dad" grew up. Ron Chase, President, Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum, provided a tour of the exhibits and engaged in an informative conversation about the history of Gum Springs founding families - Belfield, Brown, Chase, Gray, King and Young. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Pictured (L to R): Diamond , Noah and William Jones with Ron Chase</td></tr>
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William is no stranger to Gum Springs or Route 1. He grew up on the Route 1 Corridor (Belford Manor--behind the Popeye's, Huntington, Woodlawn Gardens, and Cherry Arms). After attending Whitman and Mt Vernon High, William went off to college earning his undergraduate, and graduate degrees (Masters of Business Administration (MBA)), along with passing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) exams. William is currently employed as the Controller with Southeastern Universities Research Association in Washington D.C.<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;"> </span></div>
<br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-18689656736980610992013-11-26T11:09:00.002-08:002013-11-26T11:09:24.347-08:00Gum Springs 180th Anniversary Gala<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Welcome</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <i> Sam Ford</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> General Assignment
Reporter</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> For ABC7/WJLA-TV</span><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Blessing of Food </span></i></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Welcoming
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Society President and Founder of the
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Gum Springs Museum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The Honorable Scott Surovell, State Delagate</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The
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</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sharon Bulova<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Chairman, Fairfax County <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Board of Supervisors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #632423; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> LAST CAHNCE BIDDING ON SILIENT AUCTION
ITEMS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #632423; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;">Musical Performance</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Norris Garner & Co.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Presentations of Awards</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;">Pearson
Parker</span></div>
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Society,
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Ronald L.
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> <i>Musical Performance</i> Norris Garner & Co.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Keynote Address</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Harry
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Assistant Director &
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American Civil War Museum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <i>Special Recognition</i> Bernice Parker and Ronald L Chase <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Announcement of Auction Winners and
Closing Remarks</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-2347745804269900732013-11-25T18:06:00.000-08:002013-11-25T18:06:59.329-08:00The Gum Springs Historical Society 24th Annual Memorial Day Celebration, with Anchor Maureen Bunyan and Educator, Dr. Mary Futrell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-50412770270223699702013-11-18T15:37:00.001-08:002013-11-18T15:37:36.449-08:00The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-558869028939725457.post-80921429611940112762013-01-22T17:41:00.000-08:002013-01-22T17:41:32.980-08:00<span id="goog_840849260"></span><span id="goog_840849261"></span><br />The Gum Springs Museumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745884976043360389noreply@blogger.com0