A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON THE FLEET FAMILY CHILDREN and Mrs. Fleet (Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet)

I was thinking that it might be helpful to give a brief description of the Fleet family, because the children are the center of Mrs. Fleet's life. Her determination to educate her children was paramount. According to an article written by Betsy Fleet, Mrs. Fleet's granddaughter and published in the Virginia Calvacade Winter 1980 issue, "Maria Louisa Fleet was born in 1822, was the daughter of Dr. Jacob David Wacker, a native of Austria who settled in King and Queen County in the early nineteenth century, and Maria Pollard, also of K & Q Co. Her parents died before she was eight years old, and she went to live with her guardian, Colonel Alexander Fleet, and his wife, Betsy Pollard Fleet, at their home, Melville. (I am assuming then that Maria was the niece of Mrs. Betsy Pollard Fleet, who was probably a sister to Maria's mother). Colonel Fleet gave careful attention to young Maria Louisa's education, providing private tutors for her until she was old enough to attend Mr. and Mrs. Keeling's School for Young Ladies in Richmond. (Here we see a similarity in the school she began at Green Mount to her own educational upbringing.) At eighteen she had finished a course of study that included English grammar and literature, German, French and music. She returned to Melville and in 1842 married Colonel Fleet's younger brother, Dr. Benjamin Fleet, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania medical school. (Dr. Fleet had been raised directly across the road from Melville in his home place called Goshen. Both houses still stand today. If going toward Tappahannock from Richmond, the houses sit, Goshen on your right and Melville on your left as you travel east on Rt. 360. They are almost mirror images of one another. This area is called St. Stephens Church, VA. These houses are about 5 miles from Green Mount, also in St. Stephens Church. Dr. Fleet was the 14th child born to his parents at Goshen. His mother died after his birth.)

Dr. Fleet took his bride to a farm he had recently purchased in King and Queen County, called Pickle Hill. Without delay she changed the name of her residence to Green Mount. Between 1843 and 1856, Maria Louisa bore seven children: Alexander Frederick, in 1843, Benjamin Robert in 1846, Maria Louisa in 1849, David Wacker in 1951, Florence in 1852, Betsy Pollard in 1854, and James William in 1856. During these years Maria Louisa Fleet had little time for anything but running her household and raising her children. 'Anybody who says children are no trouble, is either lying or not doing her duty,' she once commented."

I must pause for a few hours to go to a class. I take an adult tap/jazz class which I love and try hard not to miss. More later...

Having returned from dance class and eaten a semi-late supper, I'm glad to be able to continue this blog entry. The article written by Mrs. Fleet's granddaughter is wonderful and is a good summary of the two books, also written by her titled Green Mount and Green Mount After the War. The first book, published in 1962 is primarily the diary of Benny (Robert Benjamin) born in 1846, the second oldest child to Maria and Dr. Fleet. He began his diary in 1860 and it ends just four years later at his untimely death in 1864. Actually, Benny died March 2, 1864, which tomorrow will mark the 146th anniversary of that date. He was 17 1/2 years old and was "murdered by the Yankees" as his father, Dr. Fleet wrote in the family bible. Benny had gone to scout out a report of Yankees coming across the Pamunkey River, into King William County and headed toward K & Q County. He and two other local "homeguardsmen" came upon the Northern troops and were fired upon. Benny was shot in the arm, fell off his horse and bled to death beneath a pine tree just a few miles from his home. Another of the men was shot in the abdoman and barely survived, but he did and was able to tell the story. The third local man got away unharmed. Benny's horse came back to the yard empty. The next morning they used his dog to track him and found his body. Benny's diary tells us a tremendous amount about life here just prior to the Civil War and during it as well. There were some hard, hard times, but Benny was clever, industrious and devoted to his mother and father and siblings.

His older brother Fred who had begun his first year of college at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, just prior to the war, left college and joined the Confederate Army as soon as the war began. He fought under General Wise in the 26th VA Infantry. His family wrote letters to him and he wrote back and those family letters are chronologically interspersed in the book Green Mount along with Benny's journal entries. A year after Benny's death, his father passed away from an acute blood disorder in March of 1865. The war ended one month later and Mrs. Fleet was left with her remaining six children, no slaves except for two of the 50 who stayed on, and no usable money. A quote from the dust jacket flap of Green Mount After the War reads: as she lamented in one of her letters, "I never thought I would see the day when I am unable to borrow $200 on three thousand acres of land." Her son Fred had literally walked home from Appomattox and we found his parole paper here in the house when we moved the furniture back in after restoring the home. His parole was like a "permission slip" allowing him to return home with his personal effects and his horse. He shared his horse with another local man, a Watkins boy I believe. Watkins had been wounded more so than Fred and couldn't walk too well. So they took turns using the horse and made it back to K & Q County.

There was a very lean year that followed. Along with the two slaves and their families who stayed on, Fred raised a garden and the family and two slave's families merely survived off it and whatever else they could manage to get. But, Mrs. Fleet was determined that her children would be educated. Her story of survival and perseverance is remarkable, and I'm sure there were many women like her in the South. Fred went back to UVA, completed his education, his younger brother David attended and graduated from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington as an engineerand the youngest child, Willie, graduated from the University of Richmond with a degree in law. The daughters, Florence and Betsy also attended college out west in Missouri and graduated. Upon returning home, they encouraged their mother to allow them to start a school for girls. That is how the school began and opened its doors to day students and boarders in September of 1873. Mrs. Fleet had done without many of the things she had been accustomed to having, sacrificed for her children, paid off debts slowly, and continuously. She never lost the respect of friends, neighbors or businessmen, nor did she ever lose the admiration and love of her children. Her faith in God is so evident in her letters and even in the structure of her school.

It's getting late and I will post again soon. I'll add photos of Benny, David and Willie. The students here never knew Benny of course, but they did meet Fred, David and Willie. There is a funny story to tell about Willie coming home from college while the girl students were in attendance here. One of the journal secretaries, Sallie Blount describes him in great detail in her autobiography. You can find her tale in a previous blog that shows several pages of her autobiography. I haven't even added the photos taken in Richmond over the weekend that pertain to Sallie and will need to do that next time as well.

This entry has been a very brief summary of Mrs. Fleet and her life here at Green Mount, the births of her children, the death of Benny and her husband and the creation of the GM Home School for Young Ladies. I should add that none of her daughters ever married. When Mrs. Fleet passed away in January of 1900, between 300-400 people attended her funeral here at the house. Her daughters Florence and Betsy both passed away just a few years later and the oldest daughter Lou, lived on a little longer, outliving both her younger sisters. The boys all married, had children and did very well for themselves. Young Willie became a judge in K & Q County and lived out his life here at Green Mount while Fred moved to Missouri and David ended up a prominent citizen in Washington Territory. Willie finally got married at about the age of 40 to a local girl, Nannie Burke and they had 4 children. Their three daughters were named, Betsy, Mary and Florence, the same as Willie's sisters. Their son was William Fleet. Their daughter Betsy is the granddaughter of Mrs. Fleet who transformed Benny's diary and the family letters into the two Green Mount books. My husband, children and I were friends with Betsy and Mary before they passed away in the late 1990's. They told us several wonderful stories about the Fleet family and they remembered their Uncle Fred, the Civil War soldier and said, "He would give us rides around the yard on his shoulders, and he always had lemon drops in his pockets." Thanks for reading!