Column: Past Times

Photos by KEN LAUTERSTEIN | Special to Laker Weekly

The parade to the courthouse included Dennis Doss (center), great-great grandson of a Confederate soldier killed three months before Robert E. Lee surrendered. Doss carried his great-great grandfather's original regimental flag.

Statue that was dedicated.

Re-enactors who turned out for the statue dedication, wait by the entrance to The Grove.

The Confederate memorial stood for 97 years on the green of the Franklin County Courthouse, overlooking many changes on Main Street in the last century. Dedicated on a cold day in 1910, there were a number of Franklin County Confederate veterans in the large crowd.

The women of the Jubal Early Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), led by "Essie" Smith, drew a veil from the new monument on Dec. 1, 1910. Since 1902, when the project was initiated, the chapter had raised about one-third of the $1,800 cost through donations to go along with $600 from the Franklin County supervisors.

Booker T. Washington also was a donor, who in 1905, after founding the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, wrote that he was inclined to do so in honor of the young Confederate soldiers in the Franklin County family that had once owned him.

The first donation to the cause came from young Abram Booth Hancock Hopkins, who contributed his prize of 50 cents as a winner of an essay contest titled "Why Franklin Should Have A Confederate Monument." He accepted the statue on behalf of the county and later presided over the courthouse as a Circuit Court judge.

The original statue made its way from Carrarra, Italy to Rocky Mount, where the foundation was set by J.E. Boon's Roanoke Marble Works, which donated much of the work. Boon was the son of a Franklin County Confederate veteran.

The statue stood until June 2007 when it was struck by a pickup truck and broken into hundreds of pieces. It was carefully reassembled by the Rock of Ages Corporation in Vermont whose sculptor used the reassembled statue as a model for carving the new statue. It was rededicated on the courthouse green Aug. 7.

The dedication was well attended. Introductions were made by the Honorable William Alexander II of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia. Dr. James Robertson, distinguished history professor from Virginia Tech, was the keynote speaker.

Before the start of the program, there was a parade of Confederate re-enactors (also known as living historians), some of whom were camped in The Grove, an historic antebellum home, on Floyd Avenue. Once again, members of the Jubal Early Chapter of the UDC performed the unveiling of the new monument. Annette Wetzel, the UDC registrar general, placed a wreath.

On this day, the entrance to The Grove looked much as it might have in 1865 -- perhaps with smaller trees.

The cost of the new monument, paid for entirely by insurance money and donations, was approximately $162,000. The increased cost, far beyond the rate of inflation over 97 years, was mostly because the number of qualified marble cutters and sculptors are far fewer now than at the turn of the century. Also, the broken statue had to be reassembled from hundreds of pieces before it could be copied.

The Franklin County Historical Society worked with Mike Thurman, general properties manager for Franklin County, Dr. Francis Amos, Judge Alexander and Chapter 553 of the Jubal Early UDC in making the many arrangements for the dedication ceremony.

The destruction of the original monument was likened by some to a "death in the family." However, the Franklin County community's positive reactions in the forms of donations, public interaction, education and a renewed interest in the area's history, culture and heritage have turned an unfortunate accident into another proud day for the county.

-- Source: Confederate Monument Dedication program

Franklin County and the Civil War

An estimated 2,500 Franklin County men served the Confederate States of America at a time when the county's population was 20,098. At least 300 did not return. Countless others were ravaged by disease and wounds, many losing limbs, partial use of their bodies and suffering other trauma associated with the war. Sixteen companies were raised in Franklin County and were comprised of mostly local men. Many county men served in other companies formed in surrounding areas.