FACES , REMEMBRANCES AND FIRST MINUTES OF NEW SCHOOL YEAR 1880-1881

Here again are the family faces of Green Mount. If it were not for Benny, so much history would have been lost forever. His journal written from age 13 until his death at 17 1/2 from which his niece Betsy Fleet wrote the book Green Mount is without a doubt the greatest material treasure here at the Fleet home place.

Dr. Benjamin Fleet ~ Pa (1818-1865)


Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet, Ma, Mrs. Fleet (1822-1900)

Benjamin Robert Fleet ~ Benny (1846-1864)

David Wacker Fleet (1851-1937) & James William Fleet (1856 - 1927)


Alexander Frederick Fleet ~ Fred (1843-1911)

Maria Louisa Fleet ~ Lou (1849-1917)

Florence Fleet (1852-1903)

Betsy Pollard Fleet ~ Bessie (1854-1904)

Another Betsy Fleet (see below), who was Willie's daughter died in 1996. "Ma" would have been her grandmother. In her lifetime she had written both Green Mount and Green Mount after the War and had found the journals from which I am typing this blog. She referred to these journals in her books as well. However, her preface in the second book GM after the War I would like to share before we begin the minutes for the next school year. Below her photo I hope you will read her words. She wrote beautifully and it's interesting to me that she felt the way she did as a child, having very little self confidence. She is pictured in her Navy Uniform, proof that she overcame that feeling of inferiority.

She was born in 1902, was an officer in WWII, a rare position for a woman in her day. She never married, but left a legacy of words that continue to educate and enlighten us today. She died in 1996. We miss her and her sister Mary very much. There are so many questions we wish we could ask them today.

Betsy Fleet (1902-1996)

Preface in Green Mount After the War, by Betsy Fleet, 1978:

Among my first memories are those of the "Green Mount Girls" who used to spend a day or sometimes many days at Green Mount. They would look intently at my two sisters and me for some trace of resemblance to my aunts, Florence, Betsy, and Lou, and my grandmother, Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet, who had conducted the Green Mount Home School for Young Ladies. Invariably they looked away without saying anything and we could sense their disappointment. We wondered how anyone could be as talented and beautiful and good as everyone said our grandmother and aunts were. We never knew them, for they died before we were born, with the exception of Aunt Lou, whom we knew when we were very young. On the occasions when the former "school girls" came, there was always a large dinner, and afterward we were allowed to come out of the kitchen, our accustomed dining place when there was company, and join the guests in the parlor. We found footstools and usually seated ourselves behind the chairs where the "the girls" sat, as we were shy and didn't like being stared at.

About the same time Martha Ann Gaines Baylor arrived and was greeted by the former students as warmly as they had greeted the family. She was tall, spare, very dark and had the aristocratic bearing of some of her race. She always described herself as a "Green Mount family piece." Her grandmother, Milly, had been the mammy for Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Fleet's children and her mother, Mary, had been the cook. They stayed with the family all their lives, even when Gen. Philip Sheridan and his men camped in the front fields and took their husbands, Joshua and Harry, away with them; the men escaped, however, and found their way back. Martha Ann put on a snowy white cap for these occasions and innumerable starched white petticoats under her black dress. She always reminded me of asymmetrical cedar tree.

Then the reminiscences began about the absent ones, and everyone contributed all she presently knew about them, some of which was so sad that tears accompanied the recounting. At that point Martha Ann, who had to a great degree that "peculiar gift" which an old negro preacher referred to when he prayed "O Lord, who has given thy people a peculiar gift of mimicry, teach them to mimic thy Son,"would say, "You jes' ought to seen Nancy get happy last Sunday at Morning Star Church." Nancy had waited on the table when the school was in session. Martha Ann, who had the most supple body, in fact was double-jointed, would in imitation of Nancy get up and shout and exhort; increasing in momentum, would show how Nancy made a flying leap over the pews and how it took six men to catch her. When one thought he had succeeded, according to Martha Ann, he found his arms full of starched petticoats.

The conversation inevitably turned to "dear Mrs. Fleet," and one after another spoke of what she had meant to her. When "Father sent me here just after Mother died," one said (that would have been Sallie Blount) "I felt, and I am sure I saw, a warm glow of light and love radiating from her; in fact, I still feel her comforting presence." Aunt Lou was so overcome that she spread her handkerchief over her face. Martha Ann got to her feet and with short, quick steps walked the length of the room, saying, "As Old Miss would say, "Now girls, don't let the clouds obscure the sunshine!' "It must have been a perfect imitation, for everyone in the room burst into spontaneous laughter.

Always we wondered what our grandmother was like. From where we sat we could see her portrait over the mantel, but the serene young girl in early nineteenth-century dress holding a red bird on her finger gave little clue to the "dear Mrs. Fleet" and "Old Miss" who dominated the conversation. Now she comes to life for us in the letters and papers found in trunks and boxes in the Green Mount attic. Some of the letters written during the Civil War were published with her son Benny's diary in Green Mount (1962); many of the remaining letters are presented here...The letters show how "Ma," widowed before the war ended, on a plantation ravaged by both armies, with no money and little credit, kept her home, educated her six children, and held the family together by using her only resources--education, love, courage, and a firm and abiding faith in God.

I hope these pictures and the words of Betsy will help us return to the years here at Green Mount, where the "school girls" continued to hold their meetings of the Evergreen Society. The girls flourished and were groomed in the most contemporary and yet lady-like fashion of their day.

Their minutes begin...

Green Mount Sept. 15, 1880

With very thankful hearts we met to reorganize our Evergreen Society. The short vacation which had intervened since our last meeting was filled with many mercies & pleasures for us all.

Sallie was elected President & Mattie Kate Vice-President. Lucy was re-elected Treasurer, & we decided that the duties of Secretary should be equally divided among us all; consequently it fell to my lot to write first.

Lou played "Beauregard's March" & Mattie Fleet repeated the Frost. Nannie played "Chachouca Waltz." Mattie Kate read a pathetic story of how "An Innocent Amusement" proved the ruin of a promising boy. Sallie played with a great deal of expression "Chant du Berger," & then Lucy read a charming little story full of good lessons called "Rob's Magic Mirror."

Mattie Kate suggested & we passed unanimously the resolution not to use any slang, but to strive together for the improvement & happiness of each other both in & out of school. I hope we may have as happy a session as the last, & that each one of us may try to make the Wednesday evening hour, fuller than ever of pleasure & improvement.

M.L. Fleet

MRS. FLEET'S DRESS

Today is Saturday, March 6th and the weather is a sunny, chilly 40ish degrees here in King and Queen County, Virginia. I'm glad to be able to walk the yard and get some fresh air and also have the time to "blog" a little. The vacuum can do without me a while longer, right? Everyone is gone except me and the 6 dogs (of course.) I can do as I wish for a short time.

One thing that you will see when reading this blog is that entries will retreat into the past as they seem to apply or come to mind. I hope that as long as we continue with the minutes from where we left off, these entries that give us a view into the events that preceded the girls attending school here, may serve to broaden the understanding and attitude that Mrs. Fleet and her daughters had in regard to teaching and caring for these students, many of whom were boarding here. I think the background that brought this family to the era of the homeschool for young ladies, only helps us to understand better not only what the family had been through, but from what various circumstances some of the girls may have come from as well. Events that happened here were not unlike some of the experiences these girls may have had also.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I wanted to add a photo of Mrs. Fleet's dress from about 1858. This would have been her dress when she was in her mid 30's and probably one she would have worn to church. Mrs. Fleet must have been all of 4'10" ~maybe! Her dress measures 48" in total length from the neckline to the bottom of the hemline. So she was petite to say the least. One thing that always stands out in my mind about her gumption relates to a story during the Civil War. Her son Benny had passed away March 2nd 1864 and in June some Yankees came to Green Mount. After the affair had ended she wrote to her oldest son Fred, who had been wounded at the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg and was at a cousins house being cared for in that same town. Having received a letter from him that he was being cared for she replied in a letter to him this account:

"I have been through so much and suffered so acutely that my strength has well nigh failed, but I never felt so little like giving up in my life. We have a plenty left to live on and though all of the servants are gone but Milly, Mary and her children, I don't work any harder than I did before, I can't. We had a sale on Friday week to dispose of some of the hogs, &c. and realized $2233.85 from 25 hogs, one head of cattle, three lambs, some fish, vinegar and useless things about the house and plantation. I am afraid you will hear dreadful accounts of the Yankees' depredations but don't be uneasy, the Lord will provide. They left most of the corn at Old Hall, they took all of the cattle, sheep, hogs (except a pig or two, a few old fowls-enough to give you something to eat if you can only come home). They left the garden, the house, the farm and all of us alive.
Lou will tell you some of the proceedings of Saturday, Sunday and Monday and leave Tuesday for me. On that day we saw some deserters enquiring the way to the Rappahannock (river) and congratulated ourselves that the worst was over. About eleven o'clock three Yankees stopped at Milly's house, rested awhile under her porch and then walked to the barn and went to sleep under the apple tree. After a little 4 more came from Sam Wilson's into our front porch, one walked right into my chamber and commenced searching my wardrobe, I thought of my watch which was in the bureau, came in and got it out and met Lou at the door. I then went down into the cellar to hide the milk for that and the bread was all our dinner and when I came back one of the children told me two of them had Sister in the chamber with the door locked. (This would be Florence-see her photo in a previous blog)

Imagine my feelings! I don't know how many seconds passed not many - my mind was complete chaos - but the door opened, my child came running to me and threw her arms around my neck and commenced screaming, one of the men pointed his gun at us and gritted his teeth. I told him to shoot and stood perfectly still. One of them took her hand and told her to hush, they wouldn't hurt her. I said, "Take your hand off my child." He then said "Take her in your chamber and lock the door inside and he shan't come near." I carried her in the chamber, gave her water, threw some in her face, fanned her and so kept her from fainting. She asked if I thought the Lord would protect us now - If I thought he could. We prayed together and she told me what had alarmed her so much after locking the door, one of them, the greatest devil of the party asked her how old she was, she replied, "Thirteen." The other one said "That's too young." He told her to hold his naked sword while he tried to unlock Pa's desk with a bunch of keys out of his pocket. The other one asked her for the gold and silver. She had presence of mind to tell him if he would let her go out she would get it. When she got out she got three teaspoons (the only ones we had) and handed them to him. He said he didn't want them, he wanted money.

Just then I came up and we locked ourselves in the chamber. One kept guard at the door while the other went all over the house helping themselves to whatever they wanted. After a while they went out to Milly's house, drove away Joshua and frightened the women almost to death. Mrs. Dunn then thought of the men at the barn and went around and claimed their protection. They came to the house and sat in the yard by the porch. Just then David, who had walked with Peachey home (just think if she had been here) came up and the four demons in human shape gave him their canteen to fill with water. Upon carrying it to them they made him drink some to see if it to see if it were poisoned and then laid down under the apple trees to play cards till night, apprehending no danger. Mark all the points and see the hand of the Lord. In about an hour more or less, we saw a young man ride up about Benny's appearance who called on the three in the yard to surrender, they did it at once and I seeing five or six other of W. C. Fleet's men ride up, ran down to the gate and begged them to go and take the others. The same youth, Henry Lewis, started down with David to pilot him and I had the great satisfaction of seeing them taken. That was a scene, I assure you. Milly started down to the gate clapping her hands and thanking God. All of us ran down and I told our men to take care of them and not let them go till they heard from me. That evening Sam Wilson's daughters came and told us of the men's shameful conduct at their house of their saying they wanted to stay all night and sleep with them. Next day Pa came up and got some clean clothes and I told him all about it and some of our men heard the Wilson story and they said to me they should never annoy another woman and they never will. But there are plenty more like them, and if I were a man I would never take a prisoner I would consider it my duty to rid the world of all such monsters. God can have mercy on them he chooses but if I could, I would rid our fair Virginia of every foe who presses her soil. Of the hundreds who were here there might be three or four who might be termed gentlemen - if they had not been Yankees. About as many more men - all the rest were brutes and demons in human shape.

Then after some description of Pa being so distraught over the situation and his hands having fled and his fields in ill shape she writes... I have not seen a word about your coming home. You don't know how many hopes and dreams I have about your being able to spend a month or so at home with loving hands to wait on you and loving hearts to anticipate every want...

I'm not sure where Pa was when all this occurred, but most likely away from the house attending to a sick patient or off conducting some business as was often the case. One thing, with him being a doctor, Yankees would have most likely taken him as well if they had an opportunity to do so, because he could have been forced to tend to the sick or wounded on their behalf.

This is just one of the many examples that shows Mrs. Fleet's spunk and determination to take care of her children. Please remember that she was a loving woman and she was caught up in a most brutal war and had lost her son Benny and feared for the safety of Fred and all her family and friends, just like you or I would have. It was a different time, and we cannot judge and we certainly don't know exactly what she felt. I would only hope that I would have had even half as much courage as she. None of us knows what we would have done in the same circumstance.