OUR HERITAGE

FXBG only foreign-born mayor

By matt kelly

of the Emergency Room that a full time Physician would be required. The Fredericksburg Rescue Squad a volunteer organization was the mainstay for transporting patients to the hospital. The local counites would soon have their own volunteers. Many of can still remember the local fund drives to raise monies for the units. Most all of them today are paid units. The largest expansion in the hospital history occurred in 1979 with a cost near 12 million dollars. This would increase the beds from 285 to 340, and two new wings. After Harry Bach the hospital hired William "Bill" Jacobs. It was under his leadership that a major change was made with the formation of "MWH MediCorp" was established . MWH MediCorp with the subsidiaries such as MediCorp Properties and Mary Washington Hospital Foundation the abilities to expand and raise funds and accept donations. The Cancer Center of Virginia that was completed in 1985 was a result of donations such as the land by Carl Silver and fund raising in excess of 1.5 million dollars. James Monroe High School was one of the first to have a LPN (License Practical Nurse) program where students could receive training for positions in all medical facilities. Many went on to work for the hospital and many Physicians in the area.

In 1993 Mary Washington Hospital would open on land known as "Snowden" This would be the third location in ninety-four years, all within the city of Fredericksburg still being used for residential and business.

Dedicated to All the Present & Past Doctors, Nurses & Staff of MWH

In Memory: Cathy Van Valzah, Hale V Pecor, R K Steckler, Mike Blevins, Jimmy Rodgers, K T Skinner, & Waldo Beck

Tuffy is Front Porch’s Resident Historian

Charles E Mallam holds a unique place in the history of Fredericksburg. He was the city's first appointed mayor during Reconstruction after the Civil War He was also the city's only foreign-bborn mayor The circumstances of his appointment and subsequent removal from office provide a nuanced picture of Reconstruction politics.

Mallam arrived in Fredericksburg in the fall of 1866 as district whiskey inspector. Born in Oxford, England, he served in the British Army before arriving in the United States in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. He joined the Union Army and by war's end was a brevetmajor.

In the Reconstruction South of 1868, Virginia was known as the First Military District. Elections in Virginia had been postponed, and Civil War Union Gen John Schofield, commander of the district, was tasked with appointing local officials who had not supported the defeated Confederacy. In carrying out this directive, Schofield gave local leaders the opportunity to recommend candidates who met the qualifications.

Lt George Greenough, Military Commissioner to Fredericksburg, was responsible for making recommendations to Gen. Schofield for appointments to the Common (City) Council. His recommendations-endorsed by Schofieldleft 4 of 12 Council members in place. Three of those appointees had previously been endorsed by the local African American community

The Fredericksburg Herald noted, "The military Commissioner, Lt. Greenough, who had the power of recommendation, has entitled himself to the thanks of the people for his judicious recommendations." The position of Mayor remained vacant.

The Fredericksburg Ledger reported, "A communication, signed by many of the leading Conservative citizens, was in circulation, calling on Col. Charles E. Mallam…to make application for the office." The paper went on to say, "If appointed, he will no doubt give satisfaction."

Councilman John Hurkamp nominated Mallam for Mayor at a meeting of the Common Council on April 17, 1868. On a vote of 7 to 3, the Council favored Mallam over Councilman George Eve The official appointment came from Schofield. Charles Mallam's term was both uneventful and short-lived. He was removed from office a little over a year later. His removal from office had nothing to do with his actions as Mayor but rather due to a change in command and his actions on the state political stage.

In fall 1868, Mallam wrote an open letter, reprinted in several Virginia papers, taking issue with the negative portrayal of the south "made by some persons and presses in the north." In March 1869, at the Republican state convention, he supported Gilbert C Walker for governor over the Radical Republican candidate Henry Wells

General Edward Canby, who took command of the First Military District in 1869, was less inclined to accommodate local interests and backed the Radical Republican agenda. He removed Mallam from office that July.

Charles Mallam died in Hampton on October 29, 1902. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Matt Kelly is an avid local historian and a member of City Council.

PhotoCourtesy of Library of Congress

Walking along the Sunken Road by the Stone Wall, you'll come upon a simple arrangement of granite blocks that trace the outline of a historic home, the Martha Stevens House Here, visitors pause to reflect on the life and times of its owner, a true enigma in Fredericksburg's history.

Her story resonates with different people for different reasons: diversity and equal rights, the horrors of slavery, the Civil War and its "lost cause" retelling. Prior to Emancipation, a large proportion of city residents were enslaved persons, and some of our city residents today are their direct descendants. Even now, we still feel ideological divisions about our past, present and future.

Fredericksburg is awash in a complicated social history. Emblematic of our struggles to accept and understand one another, is the question of how we interpret the wording on the monument erected on the site in 1917 which reads: "HERE LIVED MARTHA STEVENS FRIEND OF THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER 18611865"

She remains the only woman of Fredericksburg to have a Civil War monument erected in her honor. But what, exactly, are we honoring? As historian John Hennessy puts it, "to most Fredericksburgers, she would have been near the bottom of the list of prospective heroines, for Martha Stevens lived an unconventional life on the edges of Fredericksburg society."

By jon gerlach

If you could travel back in time and visit the Fredericksburg Battlefield in the 1880s, when the house was still standing (it was destroyed by fire in 1913), you might happen upon its owner, the legend herself, Martha Stephens (aka Martha Stevens, d. 1888). Her house sat at ground zero during both battles of Fredericksburg. Ever the businesswoman, she would later sell off parts of her bulletriddled house to souvenir seekers, and frequently regaled visiting veterans of both armies with her colorful tales of the battle.

A fiercely independent businesswoman who never married, she owned several parcels of real estate … at a time when that was a rare thing. She could neither read nor write, and signed her name with a simple "X". She smoked a pipe, was rumored to associate with AfricanAmerican men, and ran afoul of the law for dispensing alcohol out of her house. History has been both kind and condescending to this remarkable person

Before the Civil War, her reputation was sullied: "a woman of abandoned character and an outcast of society", wrote one man. Her friend John Goolrick described her as "uneducated, too free and too outspoken in what she said and how she said it." She was thought to have run a brothel, but that has since been mostly debunked. Her activity as a saloon-keeper may have contributed to her questionable reputation in the community.

Martha never married. Evidence indicates that she lived with one Edward Stevens for nearly 30 years. She even took on his last name (aka Stephens). Under Virginia law, real property owned by a woman would promptly pass to her husband upon marriage. Perhaps she stayed single to retain ownership and control over her real estate holdings. photo: Stevens House postwar photo courtesy of npsfrsp.wordpress.com

Oddly, by the time of her death in the late 1880s, her status had swung dramatically, from town nonconformist to beloved heroine. By the time the monument was erected in 1917, it was believed that she had tended to wounded soldiers during the December 13th 1862 battle, although there are no wartime accounts of this ever happening. Perhaps the genesis of the legend came from her own story-telling to veterans who visited the battlefield, as suggested by John Hennessy in his Wordpress article Martha Stevens Redeemed: Pariah to Heroine - a Matter of Faith or History?

Martha Stephens was often shunned, misunderstood, and beloved, so the enigmatic view we have of her today is not surprising.

So what's in an Enigma? Here, a true maverick who history remembers in starkly different ways.

An attorney and retired archaeologist, Jon Gerlach serves on Fredericksburg's City Council, Ward Two.