Woodberry Forest High School - Fir Tree Yearbook (Woodberry Forest, VA)

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Captain WValker had served through the XV ar under Colonel Moseby. In 1874 he married Anne' Carter Goss, the oldest daughteriof Ebenezer Goss of Somerset, Orange County, Virginia 5 and shortly after his marriage his father gave him the estate of VVoodberry Forest, in Madison County, as an inducement for him tor remain in Virginia instead of endeavoring to repair his fortunes in Louisville, Kentucky, as was at that time the intention of the young ex-ohcicer. I WoodlJe1'ry Forest was a portion of the original grant of land to Am- brose Madison ancl was given to Willianu Madison, brother of President James Madison, on the occasion of his marriage, the house having been erected between 1780 and 1785 from designs drawn by Thomas jefferson. At the time of the Wai' that branch of the Madison family having separated and drifted away, the estate was placed on the market and purchased by john Scott W8lliC1', and given finally to his son. During the VVar the house was occupied asiheadquarters successively by both of the contending forces, the farm was neglected and overrun with en- campments, often skirinished over, and at the close of hostilities it lay idle for six or seven years, so that when finally the property came into the hands of Captain VValker it presented an aspect of desolation difficult today to visualize. The hills stretching from the present baseball Held, across the golf links, to the river were thickly wooded with virgin forest. What had been the culti- vated portion of the farm ' ' V is 7' of 250 acres was a tangle of weeds, brambles, and young sassafras g r o w t li. There were no crops, all fences were gone, and most of the out-buildings' about the house had been de- stroyed. Practically no labor THE SCHOOL-1900 t'wenty-tlzrce

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A History T T N the days of readjustment follow- ing' the close of the VV ar Between 4 'A:'4 H the States many were the problems facing those men who had been the heaviest sufferers from a movement which so sud- denly swept away their means of existence. The landowner, with his many acres lying idle from the lack of man power, bore a burden even greater than his urban brother. Wfith no money, and no facilities for re- claiming more than a bare existence from his war-devastated and long-neglected helds, such matters as the education of his children i and their development along the lines of C P . S, VV, cf . . . APTMN XOBFRT in EK proud tradition, were placed entirely beyond the reach of thousands of Virginia's devoted sons. The more remote country districts felt the heaviest part of the burden- armies of occupation, whether friend or foe, had devoured the instruments of peaceful farming, man labor was sweptlaway, and the lirst institutions to feel the lowered standards of living were, of necessity, country schools. So that along with the struggle for existence the inadequacy of the educational out- look for the young generation presented an almost hopeless outlook. There were no schools of even second-rate quality in the country neighborhoods, and in the great majority of cases ready money was lacking with which to send the children away from home to established schools, Such were the conditions which faced, among so many others, Captain Robert Stringfellow VV'alker, the son of John Scott Walker' of Madison County. twenty-two

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1 -, ,g J ly l Q i l 1 4 was available to commence farming operations, and the young couple, as they settled down into their new home, faced what were almost pioneer conditions. Three cows, three l101'SCS, 213300.00 in the bank, and my own two hands, were the words of Captain Wfalker in speaking once of his early experiences. Probably few can realize the struggles Captain and Mrs. NValker expe- rienced, nor the indomitable courage with which they met and surmounted dilhculties of appalling magnitude. Even though as time went on and their labors began to show results, ever before them rose the question, How to educate our six sons ? They were unwilling to commit them to the crude conditions of the county school, and unable to provide the funds for sending them to boarding schools. The three oldest boys were taught first by their over-busy mother, then by her youngest sister, Charlotte Goss, a young woman of keen mind and line education. Then Elizabeth Grinnan, the oldest daughter of their nearest neighbor, Dr. Andrew Grinnan, undertook to tutor them together with her own youngest sister, Georgia. But they rapidly out- grew the feminine domination, so that in 1889 Captain VValker was compelled to secure the services of a young student from the University of Virginia, J. Thompson Brown, who, after two years of study, had found it necessary to undertake outside work in order to return to college later and complete his course. He was nineteen years old at the time of his tutorship, and for three years he had charge of a gradually growing group of boys, comprised of the six VValker boys and the sons of cousins and close friends of Captain and Mrs. lfValker, who were .eager to proht by the opportunity presented so unexpectedly at their very doors. The hrst year of I. Thompson Brown's incumbency, the enrollment list was small, with three sons of Captain and Mrs. VValker, Lewis Williams, and Wfilliam Brown, the youngest brother of J. Thompson Brown, as boarders, and Georgia Grinnan and Vivian Slaughter as day scholars. The following year, 1890-91, Eustace and Logan Golsan, Willie VVilcox, Lawrence and Ed- mund Lee, and Wfillie Rust swelled the list. In 1892-93 the little group in- tuicnty-fam' G f---'T-we -r B remotes B r r fm