THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR...FEWER GIRLS...

SESSION 1880-1881

I thought it might be helpful to give the roster of girls attending for the next school year 1880- 1881. They are as follows with R representing a returning pupil and N a new one.

Sallie Lee Blount (R)

(She's the girl whose autobiography you find in earlier blogs and became a renowned artist ~ portraits her specialty)

Mattie Kate Fauntleroy (R)

(I found a card with her name written on it the other day in a little ledger book ~ like the ones students give out when they graduate. It was beautifully handwritten

Mattie K. Faunt Le Roy). I'll add a photo of it tomorrow.

Fleet, Lucy (R)

(She is somehow a cousin to the Fleet sisters who teach the girls. I'll try to figure out the connection. She refers to Mrs. Fleet as Aunt M.Lou)

M. Lou Henley (R)

Nannie F. Sale (N)

She would be from a nearby home on the Mattaponi River in Walkerton called North Bank.

Loulie Starke (N)

If you've been reading up till now, you will recall many of the people mentioned. But for someone just beginning, here are the family members. Mrs. Fleet is the mother of Lou, Bessie (aka Betsy)and Florence who are the teachers at Green Mount. Mrs. Fleet stayed busy managing the house and the once 3000 acres of farmland. Her boys are Fred, Benny (deceased 1864 - killed by Union troops near home), David and Willie. Fred returned to and graduated from UVA after the Civil War and moved to Missouri to start a military academy. He was very successful. David graduated as a civil engineer from VMI and went to Missouri for a while with Fred, then moved to Washington Territory. He became a prosperous and respected citizen there. And Willie at this time attends the University of Richmond, a student of law. He became a judge in K & Q County and lived his life out here at Green Mount. Dr. Fleet, the father of this family, husband to Mrs. Fleet, has been deceased 15 years by this time, having passed away a year after Benny in March of 1865, just one month prior to the surrender at Appomattox. Mrs. Fleet commented in a letter once that "You know, March had always been a bad month for us." But she has managed to live to be 58 by this new school year, provide well for her children and not only educate all of them, but extends the offer of academics and music to young ladies under her loving care, as if they were more of her own.

In a magazine article written in 1980, one hunred years later, by Mrs. Fleet's granddaughter, whom she never knew, also named Betsy, daughter of Willie mentioned above; she describes the period of the home school girls with the following words:

"The girls at Green Mount were not cloistered, however, and they were given ample time to flirt innocently with the boys of the neighborhood. When amateur theatrical performances or concerts were given at Aylett, (a nearby waterfront community), the girls were allowed to attend. Occasionally during the school year, the girls were allowed to attend well-chaperoned parties. The Green Mount School also held parties and invited the Aberdeen boys to feast on such victuals as ham, beef, sausages, fish, apples, and brandy peaches. (uh-oh!) Since some of the girls were week boarders only, they went home for the weekends. Sometimes they invited a classmate or two to accompany them, and, if they had a brother who attended Aberdeen Academy who had also brought a classmate or two home, a house party might result. The young people danced "the old Virginia Reel" and quadrilles, and played games - all night long."

Note about Aberdeen Academy:

The Aberdeen home is still standing and once had a schoolhouse next to it. That structure burned years ago. Wayne and Betsy Watkins live in Aberdeen today and attend St. Stephens Church as do I. They are a sweet, fun loving couple and appreciate the history of their home very much and have told us many things that connect it to Green Mount. The Fleet sons attended Aberdeen Academy prior to college and the boys who schooled there after the Civil War would sometimes serenade the girls here at Green Mount, standing below their bedroom windows.

Sallie Blount once wrote, "Our weekly excitement was to go to church. I cannot give the preacher credit for the intense interest we felt in going to the small Baptist Church called St. Stephens, situated in a grove of oak trees. It was here that we first saw and met the Aberdeen boys. Col. Councill had a select school of boys, from fifteeen to the early twenties, at his home called Aberdeen...

These young men would meet our vehicles in the grove a short distance from the church, and we would pair off walking to the church. After services they walked us back and helped us into our vehicles. These short walks gave food for conversation for a whole week..."

Here are photos of Aberdeen today as well as St. Stephens Church. Both are within just a few miles of Green Mount, on Route 14 ~ The Trail.

The 3 photos above are of Aberdeen and the two below are of the church which sits about mid-way between Aberdeen and Green Mount.