Lost and Found

(Note:  this article was written in December of 2023 for the winter/spring issue of Washington College Magazine.)

 

(Headline)

Lost by a teenage Sioux warrior and taken as a spoil of war, a sacred tribal object and embodiment of its famous owner finds its way home again. 

When 18-year-old Jack defied his father, Chief Red Cloud, and joined a war party in 1876, he foolishly thought he would borrow some of his father’s battle prestige, as well. What followed was a classic tale of misadventure which only concluded when the headdress made its way back to the Red Cloud family, completing a round trip of over 4,000 miles and 144 years.

Here’s the story of how the headdress was lost in the days leading up to the Battle of Little Big Horn, how it ended up at Washington College, and how it was finally restored to its family and tribe. 

(Headline)

Lost and Found: A Repatriation Journey 

In June of 1876, a teenaged Oglala Lakota Sioux warrior named Jack left his home camp with a group of friends to join in what would later be called the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. With him he took his pony, his father’s 1866 Winchester rifle named “Yellow Boy,” and his father’s war bonnet, a magnificent headdress consisting of 81 eagle feathers, each one signifying an individual act of bravery in battle committed by its owner. This was no ordinary bonnet, because Jack’s father was no ordinary person; he was the great Chief Red Cloud.

Chief Red Cloud, or Mahpiya Luta, was named after an unusual cloud formation present at his birth in 1822 in present-day Nebraska. The son of Walks As She Thinks and Lone Man, raised by his uncle Smoke, he had no claim to hereditary chieftainship, but earned the rank based upon the force of his character and his talent for leadership. He grew to become possibly the most famous of the Great Plains chieftains, and the most photographed. 

Red Cloud’s War, from 1866-1868, is the only conflict between the Natives and the U.S. Army in which the Army was soundly defeated. The United States government wanted to build a road leading from Ft. Laramie to the Montana gold regions, but this road and its resulting traffic and settlements would have destroyed buffalo grounds along the Platte and Powder Rivers. Since the Sioux and other Great Plains tribes depended upon buffalo hunting for survival…for both food and shelter, as well as countless other tools and products, the destruction of these hunting grounds would have spelled disaster for these nomadic tribes. The subsequent treaty agreement made at Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming on November 6, 1868 required the U.S. to abandon Forts Reno, Kearney, and Smith, defining the limits of Sioux territory. Chief Red Cloud refused to appear or to sign the treaty until all three forts were abandoned, but once the treaty was signed, he kept his word not to go to war against the U.S. again, although he resisted all attempts at “civilization”, staunchly supporting the preservation of the old ways for the rest of his life. Following the discovery of gold in the sacred Black Hills, Red Cloud, along with chiefs Spotted Tail and Lone Horn, led a delegation to Washington, D.C. in May of 1875 to meet with President Grant, Secretary of the Interior Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith to attempt to persuade them to honor the treaty of 1868, and to slow the flow of miners to the northern Great Plains. Congress offered the tribes a payment of $25,000 for the disputed territory, coupled with relocation to Oklahoma. The chiefs refused this offer, yet upheld their end of the 1868 Treaty, and did not join Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in the Great Sioux War that followed. Chief Red Cloud retired from warriorship but remained a respected tribal councilor in his later years.

It was during this visit to Washington, D.C. that Chief Red Cloud was gifted the ornately engraved 1866 Winchester rifle, “Yellow Boy,” at the White House. It was just a year later that Jack Red Cloud took this rifle and his father’s war bonnet, without permission, and went with a group of friends to take part in what became known as the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876. He had joined with Sitting Bull’s group of warriors earlier in the spring, before the Sun Dance ceremony. Things did not go well for Jack...

Early in the fighting, Crow scouts allied with the U.S. Army shot Jack’s horse from underneath him. He then made the terrible mistake of not removing the bridle from his dead pony’s body, an important act expected of warriors even in the most dangerous battle situations, and fled still wearing the trailing eagle feather headdress, carrying Yellow Boy. He was a conspicuous target, especially once he was recognized as Chief Red Cloud’s son, making him particularly coup-worthy. A Crow scout named Bull Doesn’t Fall Down ran him down and beat him with his pony whip, counting coup, berating him as a coward for fleeing in panic and neglecting his pony, and finally admonishing him for wearing the feathers of a true warrior. Weeping and begging for mercy, Jack was spared his life, but the scouts confiscated the headdress and Yellow Boy. This was a humiliation almost worse than death. 

Crazy Horse and two other Sioux came to his rescue; both Jack and Chief Red Cloud, along with Crazy Horse’s close friend He Dog, belonged to the powerful Bad Face band of Oglala Sioux, a sort of warrior fraternity which was deeply committed to preserving the old ways, and held looking after its members as a critical value even in the most humiliating circumstances. Still, they too shamed him for behaving badly and crying in front of their enemies, refusing to look at him. The storied Battle of Little Big Horn occurred just 8 days later, and afterward Jack had to return home without his pony, without Yellow Boy, and worst of all, without his father’s beautiful war bonnet with its 81 golden eagle feathers representing most of a lifetime of bravery and leadership.

In July of 2020, at a small college located in a small town on the East Coast, enveloped in a nest of acid-free tissue in a sturdy archival storage box, a magnificent eagle feather war bonnet lay at rest. Made of tanned hide, ermine, horsehair, glass beads, red woolen cloth and copper alloy bells, the war bonnet had spent 144 years far away from the culture, people, and family who had created and cherished it. It had been through a lot, but its journey wasn’t quite over.

The war bonnet had been part of a collection of books and objects that were donated to Washington College beginning in 1930 by an alumna, Fredericka Strong Albee, a native of Kent County, Maryland. She was the second wife of Lieutenant George Emerson Albee, a veteran of the Civil War and the Indian Wars that followed, and a Medal of Honor recipient for actions during the latter. In an article published in the Washington Elm on November 1, 1930, it was reported that “the head-dress of Red Cloud was one of Captain Albee’s most prized possessions.” Documentation in the college Archives states that the headdress had been given to Albee by his close lifelong friend, Captain Henry Ware Lawton, with whom he had served in the 41st Infantry in the years following the Civil War.

It was sixty years later, shortly following Congress’ enactment of NAGPRA (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) that officials at the college began talking about returning the war bonnet to Red Cloud’s people. But time continued to pass, with little movement on the front of taking concrete action to return Red Cloud’s property to his descendants. Finally, in June of 2014, President Reiss received a very kind and eloquent letter from Chief Red Cloud’s fifth-generation direct descendant, Henry Red Cloud of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In the letter, Red Cloud recognized and commended the college’s desire to repatriate the bonnet, while emphasizing its importance to the Oglala Lakota people and urging its voluntary return as soon as possible. He expressed his willingness to assist in the planning and execution of the repatriation and extended an invitation to President Reiss to visit Pine Ridge for the honoring ceremony that would take place afterward.

Still, following several high-level leadership changes at the college, five more years passed before the effort was kicked into high gear. Mary Alice Ball was hired as the Dean of the Library and Academic Technology in early 2019, when the bonnet was being cared for in the college Archives, part of the Library and Academic Technology department. Members of Dean Ball’s new staff, knowing about her previous work with tribal communities in various parts of the country, seized the opportunity to alert her to the bonnet’s low-key presence in secure storage down in the Archives. Less than two months after her arrival at the college, Ball had begun her research into the matter and contacted Provost DiQuinzio with a detailed recommendation for return of the bonnet to the Lakota Sioux, stressing the necessity of working closely with the tribe and allowing the tribe to guide decisions about the logistics, events, and especially the publicity surrounding the repatriation.

She opened discussions with the Red Cloud family and tribal representatives, which continued for many months throughout 2019. It was ultimately decided that the process would begin with the college awarding an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service to Henry Red Cloud at the February 2020 Washington’s Birthday Convocation.

Henry Red Cloud was well-qualified for this special honor. Like his famous ancestor, Henry has used his creativity, skills, and leadership abilities to help guide his tribe and other Native communities through the modern crises of climate change and the scarcity and expense of natural resources. Born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Henry spent years away from the reservation, working as a steelworker in different parts of the country. When he returned to Pine Ridge in the 1990s, he volunteered his time and energy to the development of solar energy, wind turbine, and sustainable housing projects. He began Lakota Solar Enterprises, a 100% Native-owned and operated renewable energy company that established family-scale solar heating systems on reservations. From this company grew the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, an educational facility where tribal leaders from across the continent come to learn skills and solutions that they can bring back to their communities. During the past 15 years, Henry’s accomplishments have earned him national and international recognition, most notably a Solve fellowship from MIT and recognition by President Obama’s White House as a Champion of Change. Henry has worked hard to empower Native communities in a way that enhances cultural pride and enriches the spirit of these communities; he reminds them that a return to a traditional relationship with Mother Earth, which had always been respectful and sustainable, can be useful in surmounting modern challenges. His famous grandfather would no doubt agree and be proud that his family was carrying on his most cherished values and honoring the Old Ways.

In February 2020, Henry Red Cloud traveled to Washington College accompanied by his wife Gloria; his cousin Lula Red Cloud, Matriarch and oldest member of the Red Cloud family, and the great-great granddaughter of Chief Red Cloud; his friend and colleague Richard Fox; and friend and videographer Jason Mackie to participate in Convocation exercises and events, and to receive his Honorary Doctorate of Public Service. Conversations, camaraderie, and shared meals enhanced the time leading up to the ceremony, as plans were made for an honoring ceremony and transfer of the headdress to occur in April. At that time a larger delegation would come to the college, following the same route that Chief Red Cloud’s delegation had taken in 1875. It would include Lakota religious leaders, dignitaries, and a group of drummers to participate in the ceremonies and a public celebration. For the Convocation on February 21, Henry and Lula dressed in tribal regalia, with Lula offering the invocation to start the ceremony and Henry giving the keynote speech discussing his work and the importance of clean energy. The ceremony happened to coincide with a student demonstration protesting the college’s response to incidents of racial bias on campus; not surprisingly, Henry and his wife Gloria took time to speak with the students about their concerns.

~

On the last day of their visit, the Red Cloud family gathered in an office in Miller Library to finally reunite with the spirit of their renowned ancestor, embodied in his long-lost war bonnet. The family spent some time alone with the headdress, and during that time, they counted the feathers. There were 81, just as family and tribal history said there should be.

It was on this special occasion that Lula Red Cloud shared the family story of the bonnet’s loss that was handed down to her. She was the first person who shared with us the story of Jack Red Cloud and the Crow scouts (“the Crow betrayed us,” she said,) and Jack’s humiliation at the Rosebud fight leading up to the battle of the Greasy Grass (the Lakota name for the Battle of Little Big Horn.) The family was eager to know the story of the bonnet’s journey since that day, and attempting to piece together that history has been difficult, and the details elusive. The story centers upon a group of soldiers: Captain Henry Ware Lawton, Lieutenant George Emerson Albee, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, and General George Crook.

One morning in the fall of 1876, in the wake of Little Big Horn and the U.S. outrage at its results, Chief Red Cloud’s encampment was surrounded, disarmed, and brought to Fort Robinson by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry. In 1877, the group was removed to Pine Ridge, where Red Cloud spent the last 30 years of his life. In the meantime, his war bonnet changed hands, from the Crow scouts to the U.S. Army, and came into the possession of Captain Henry Ware Lawton. Lawton later became famous for leading the expedition that captured Geronimo in Arizona, but was known as one of the more compassionate officers, earning the respect of men such as Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg, whose people Lawton was tasked with removing to a southern reservation.

In 1876, Lawton was in the middle of a distinguished military career, having served throughout the Civil War from the age of 17, afterward joining the 41st Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Mackenzie. Lawton and Mackenzie grew to have a great respect and admiration for each other, Lawton becoming a close confidant of the Colonel while serving as a trusted and competent Quartermaster. Immediately following the battles of the Rosebud and Little Big Horn, Colonel Mackenzie and six companies of the 4th Cavalry Regiment under his command were ordered to the Red Cloud Agency and nearby Camp Robinson, Nebraska to subdue the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne still resisting being confined to reservations.

Mackenzie was given command of the Black Hills District, which encompassed Robinson and both the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, under the command of General George Crook. General Crook had been the commanding officer at the Rosebud engagement, and in charge of those Crow scouts who confronted Jack Red Cloud on that day. Henry Lawton had just been in Washington, D.C., applying for a promotion to the rank of Captain and Assistant Quartermaster. He received the recommendation of General Sherman, and a particularly glowing statement of approval from Colonel Mackenzie, recognizing his thorough competence and spotless integrity and calling him as an officer “by far the ablest who has ever served” under his command. Upon hearing of Custer’s disastrous defeat on June 25 and Mackenzie’s orders, Lawton immediately asked for permission to rejoin his regiment, boarding a train to Wyoming to join up with Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry Regiment.

It must have been sometime after this, when Lawton had rejoined Mackenzie as commander of B Troop of the 4th Cavalry in the southwest and in the plains, that the headdress came into his possession. Mackenzie was known to gift ‘relics’ of war to others, and the gift could have come from him; he could have received it from the Crow scouts, through trade, or acquired it under circumstances which we can only imagine. But the men were all connected: General Crook had commanded the Crow as well as Colonel Mackenzie, and both had been at the conflicts in June 1876. Henry Ware Lawton later gifted it to his comrade and greatest friend, Albee, the future husband of our donor…and we know the story from there. 

~ 

Along came the Covid-19 pandemic, and everyday life as we all knew it changed dramatically. Plans for the April 2020 ceremonies were cancelled, and most of the work of the college moved to home offices and online communication and teaching. At Pine Ridge, the Oglala Sioux Tribe passed a resolution to quarantine the reservation in an effort to protect the tribal population from the Covid-19 virus. They were met with a demand from South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to open their borders or face legal repercussions. The tribe pushed back, citing the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and emphasizing its promise of tribal sovereignty. 

Deflated, the team here at the college began to work on Plan B to finally get the headdress to its home in South Dakota. Finally, in July of 2020, Dr. Ball loaded the box into her car and drove it up to New Haven, Connecticut, where it would be transferred to Henry’s friend, Jason Mackie, who would then drive it out to Illinois, where he would meet Henry and Gloria Red Cloud, who would at long last carry it back to Pine Ridge. 

On September 20, 2020, at a ceremony organized by Lula Red Cloud and other Red Cloud family members, more than 100 people gathered at Bear Butte, a sacred vision quest location of the Lakota people. They had gathered to honor Henry Red Cloud at his Making of a Chief Ceremony. Leonard Crow Dog, spiritual leader of the Lakota, led the ceremony. Ivan Looking Horse served as Eyapaha (master of ceremonies) and Chief John Spotted Tail, Chief of the Sicangu Lakota and direct descendant of Chief Spotted Tail, placed Henry’s own ceremonial bonnet on his head. The bonnet had been made by Tamra Stands and Looks Back Spotted Tail. 

Henry continues his work with Red Cloud Renewable, and was recently featured on the PBS Series, “Native America.” Lula Red Cloud-Burk passed away on October 23, 2022. 

To learn more about Chief Henry Red Cloud and his work, please visit his website: 

https://www.redcloudrenewable.org/

Jennifer E. Nesbitt

MR. WALSH

When I was very young, my interest in family history encompassed people I knew who were still alive; I wondered what they were like as children, teenagers, young married people. My sisters, cousins, and I would sit on the green tweed sofa in my grandfather’s den, looking through the albums of oddly tinted black-and-white and sepia-colored photos by the yellow glow of the floor lamp. It was an evening ritual any time we gathered at the house on the lower Eastern Shore. There weren’t any pictures of William Walsh, my grandfather’s maternal grandfather, only a vague impression of his place in the family tree and the knowledge that he was our most recent immigrant from across the ocean. This made him, to me, the most mysterious and fascinating of our known ancestors. The shades and atmospheres conjured up by my childish imagination gathered around a few details, only half-remembered by those who shared them with me, which I hoarded like shards of blue beach glass. I heard as a child that William, born in 1840, left England as a teenager, and that he had served in the British Navy. That he had “jumped ship” in Virginia. I imagined a skinny kid with light brown hair, looking vaguely like me, literally leaping from the deck of a wooden ship into the salty waves far below. He wasn’t dressed in a naval uniform, but more in the manner of a pirate’s apprentice, in tattered homespun, without shoes, of course. He looked like he belonged among my grandmother’s “rogue’s gallery,” her collection of Royal Doulton toby jugs depicting salty sea characters such as “The Falconer”, “Captain Hook”, and “The Poacher.” I imagined that he had bravely fled an oppressive existence in a crowded and dirty city somewhere, that maybe he was an orphan or even a criminal who had happened to fall from the deck of a ship like a ripe banana onto the remote beach where he would meet my great-greatgrandmother as she sat mending fishing nets, or waded with her skirts hiked up, raking for clams in the shallows.

 Decades later, when I was in my mid-thirties, I became seriously interested in delving into the real history of my family. The story I pieced together from the documents of the time told a much different story of William’s arrival in the United States. In 1858, when he was eighteen and a new resident of New York City, he declared his intention to become a U.S. Citizen. Before doing so, however, he needed to establish himself well enough to find a person to attest to his good character. In the meantime, he spent at least part of his time earning a living with the British Merchant Marines. He did indeed “jump ship” in 1864, but in New York, at the height of the Civil War, after the deadly 1863 draft riots but shortly before the Copperheads’ attempt to burn the city to the ground in November of ’64.

When I was a teenager, my father started doing genealogical research, visiting courthouses and local libraries in the small rural places where my grandparents, and their parents, grew up. There was one document he was never able to find: a record of the marriage of William Walsh and my great-great-grandmother, Maggie Ewell. There were rumors of “another family” in New York. These questions were left hanging in the air. It was said that he had a large personality, and was a drinker; that often when he came home in an inebriated state, his wife would yell for their daughters (“the girls”) to all go out in the back yard to be out of the way. These rumors of a double life took root in my imagination. I imagined Maggie, my greatgreat-grandmother, waiting by her kitchen window in Seaside Virginia, wondering when William would be back from his latest jaunt to New York. I imagined her wondering what he was doing, perhaps seething silently about her secret status as the “other woman” while posing as the respectable wife of a hard-working man who occasionally “went to sea,” but was in reality a mysterious foreigner who lied and had shady dealings with mysterious parties far away. I imagined children springing into being in separate families in separate states, with “wives” quietly hating each other across the miles, never guessing that the New York wife had probably died, along with the infant Willie, leaving William to start over as a widower with two young children in the nation’s largest city. 

I don’t know what rumor of opportunity, or lucky acquaintanceship formed at the docks or in a neighborhood pub led William to leave New York for Accomack County and the tiny town of Modest Town, and I probably never will. One of his neighbors in the North Moore Street tenement where he lived with Mary was a man from Virginia whose wife had been born in England. Maybe the two men struck up a friendship. I am in awe of the millions of invisible chances and choices, breaths of air on invisible spider’s webs, hormonal fluctuations, desperate situations, and quirks of time and timing which result in each one of us being born.

 'Hey! --- Do you have a pic somewhere of our ancestor Walsh the sea captain with the parrot??? '

-email from my cousin 

 It’s funny, but not difficult to understand, how in the space of four generations, a person within the range of “ordinary” during his or her time and place could accumulate the status of a folk hero. Four generations of imaginative children, listening to snippets of adult conversations after dinner or while half-asleep in their grandparents’ laps, combining them with favorite storybooks, the simplified history learned in school, and artifacts looking down from shelves in their grandfathers’ studies, can give the images that form in their minds a life of their own. He may not have been a sea captain, but there was a parrot. What my cousin knew, he heard from his mother. She had inherited his parrot, which he had stuffed after it died. My cousin’s father, her former husband, had thrown it away without telling her. My cousin had been told that William was on a ship that sailed out of Liverpool, that he made a small fortune seafaring, and that he used that fortune to launch his businesses in the U.S. He retired, or possibly ran from, sea life fairly early. My cousin admitted that it could all have been fabrication, although it now seems like an exaggeration based on truth.

 The most compelling story of Mr. Walsh that I’ve seen to date is one that I haven’t yet finished compiling, and it consists of pages of snippets from the ‘News from the Towns’ section of the Peninsula Enterprise newspaper, between the years 1883 and 1915, the year of William’s death. It tells of a busy and enterprising man who operated a store and drinking establishment; raised nine children (two from his previous marriage) with his wife; bought and sold real estate, and generally had his finger in many pots; entertained eccentric visitors from New York and England; invented a hog cholera remedy and a life-saving device for rescuing shipwreck survivors; had many friends and some enemies; traveled frequently with his wife, friends, and children; and once caught a 10-foot shark with a sea turtle in its belly. I do have a photo of him now, taken on one of his trips to England after the death of his wife. It depicts a healthy, well-dressed older man, and carries his signature on the mat---- the same signature that appears on his citizenship papers. 

1753

The Social Meanderings of Mr. Billy Walsh (work in progress)

(Gleanings from The Peninsula Enterprise, Accomack, Virginia)
 4 October 1883 
 
Mr. Wm. Walsh, of New York, has bought a house and lot at Mappsville, of Mr. Nehemiah W. Nock, for $1,000.  He proposes to engage in the mercantile business at that place at an early day. 
 
15 March 1884 
 
The dwelling of Mr. Walsh, in this place, narrowly escaped destruction by the flames recently.  The fire is supposed to have originated from the spontaneous combustion (no external agency being perceptible) of a small package of flowers of sulphur that was placed upon a bureau upstairs.  The location of the fire was discovered by the odor of the deadly gas that issued from the room.  The damage was very slight. 
 
9 August 1884 
 
Wm. Walsh, Mappsville, Accomac County, Va., Now carries one of the finest line of goods to be found on the Eastern Shore, consisting in part of Dry Goods, Dress Goods, Notions, Drugs, Hats, Shoes, Fine Groceries, &c., &c., and defies any one to sell goods of same quality at lower rates.  Call and see him and you will find at his place of business everything you would expect to find in a country store, and at prices that will astonish you. 

 
3 October 1885 
 
Reports received from every part of our county shows, that a large number of hogs are dying with cholera, and in view of that fact attention is especially called to the advertisement of Mr. Wm. Walsh, Seaside P.O.  He claims to have found the remedy which as yet has never failed to cure, and no one should fail to give it a trial upon the reasonable terms which it is offered. 
 
Attention Farmers.  NO HUMBUG.  HOG CHOLERA POSITIVELY CURED BY WALSH'S Cholera Remedy.  The worst cases of the disease have been cured by a dose of only four ounces and in most cases only two ounces have been necessary to effect a cure, at the cost of 5 cents an ounce, (6 cents when sent by mail).  It is in the reach of every one, and money will be returned if results are not such as are claimed for it.  WM. WALSH, Seaside, Accomac County, Va. 
 
8 January 1887 
 
We have in our village quite a useful person in Rev. Richard Walsh of England, but more recently of El Paso, Texas.  He is an adept in candy making, having manufactured for his brother, one of our merchants, most of his Christmas candies, some of which was of a new and striking design.  He is also an expert in photography, and will soon erect a gallery for that business.  He is said to be also an excellent preacher. 
25 June 1887
MARRIED -- SAVAGE-WALSH -- At bride's residence, Mappsville, June 12th last, by Rev. Richard Walsh. Richard K. Savage to Miss Charlotte J. Walsh.
21 January 1888
The Rev. Richard Walsh, as rosy and smiling as ever, has after a short sojourn in Boston and other northern cities, again blessed us with his presence.
 
6 October 1888 
 
Bar room and retail liquor license were granted to......Wm. Walsh, Seaside.   .........Motion to revoke bar room and retail license granted Wm. Walsh was overruled. 
12 April 1890
Our photographer, Mr. Richard Walsh has been prospecting in Newport News for the past month, and has wisely invested some of his spare cash in several building lots at that place --- his brother, William Walsh is in New York purchasing his spring stock of goods, and at the same time looking after the landing of some blooded stock from the Old World.
 
30 August 1890 
 
Mrs. Wilson and daughter, and Mr. James Walsh, of New York, now in the county on a visit to family of Mr. Wm. Walsh, Mappsville, honored our sanctum with a call on last Monday. 
 
7 February 1891 
 
Physicians strongly recommend salt water baths in winter, using a handful of salt thrown in a tub of hot water, but the Rev. Richard Walsh disdains such an artificial contrivance and has during the week been trying the virtues of Nature's great bath tub, the briny Atlantic.

 
14 February 1891

FOR SALE -- Two thoroughbred English Jacks, suitable for breeding purposes, of medium size and quiet disposition, imported by the undersigned. Will sell at moderate prices for cash. Wm. Walsh, Mappsville, Va.
 
23 May 1891 
 
The practice night at present for the Mappsville Cornet Band, Monday, is quite an event in the village and neighborhood.  The members of the band have been handsomely entertained recently by Mrs. Mollie Rayfield and Mr. Wm. Walsh. 
 
 
 
23 May 1891 
 
Mr. Wm. Walsh will put quite an addition to his storehouse— 
 
29 August 1891 
 
Storehouse Robbed -- $50 Reward 
 
I will pay fifty dollars for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the thieves who broke in and robbed my store on Monday night, the 3d of August.  The work was evidently done by a gang who have entered other stores in the upper part of the county, and I hope all good citizens --- especially the merchants who may be interested for obvious reasons--- will do what they can toward the arrest and conviction of this gang. 
WILLIAM WALSH, 
Mappsville, Va. 
August 18th, 1891. 
 
19 September 1891 
 
 Messrs. William Walsh and N.W. Nock made a flying trip to Newport News last week.  They report the town as growing rapidly, an exceedingly attractive place for the investment of capital in building lots, and one of the finest locations naturally for an immense city to be found on the coast.  It is but a question of a few decades, when the whole country between Old Point and that place will be built up solidly.  The ship building plant in the opinion of good judges, is without a single exception the finest in the world.  At present it represents an expenditure of $3,000,000, employs 2,000 laborers, and the company is constantly making costly improvements and adding new machinery.  Two immense iron steamships for the Morgan Line—El Sud and El Norte, are now being constructed.  The wrecked iron steamship El Dorado is now being docked for repairs.  Her officers say that the pirates of the Bahamas looted her to the tune of 70 or 80 thousand dollars.  Our former townsman, Rev. Richard Walsh, is pleasantly located and Dame Fortune has not withheld smiles from him either; inside lots, bought some time ago are turning out to be veritable gold mines to him.  They were pleased to know that others of our county people located there were doing well, among them our esteemed former neighbors and friends, Geo. W. Oldham, Hargis and Pruitt. 
 
16 January 1892 
 
TAKE NOTICE--- The undersigned having purchased all that part of Assawaman beach and adjoining marshes, lying north of the dividing line extended to the Atlantic ocean, which line separates the lands belonging to the heirs of Col. James Northam from the lands belonging to Edward S. Johnson and wife, and which purchase is more fully described by deed on record in the clerk’s office of Accomac county, do hereby forewarn all persons from trapping, gunning, fishing, oystering, clamming, or in any wise trespassing on the above named premises.  Anyone violating this notice will certainly be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, unless permission to do so has first been secured from anyone of the undersigned.  Richard Walsh, James Walsh, William Walsh, N.W. Nock. 
 
25 June 1892 
 
Mr. Wm. Walsh has bought of N.W. Nock, agent for Mrs. Emma Floyd, of Wilmington, Del., the farm known as the Snead place. 
 
5 November 1892 
 
Thomas Metcalf, of Liverpool, England, is visiting his uncle, Mr. Wm. Walsh.  Mr. Metcalf comes directly from the East Indies, via Red sea and Suez canal.  His experiences in the Eastern world, as told by him, are entertaining and listened to with great interest by our villagers. 
 
7 January 1893 
 
Charles Ewell, Sr., has retired from farming and is a resident of our village. 
 
Messrs. John Chandler, Ezekiel Ross and George Nelson are also new residents of this place. 
 
Rev. Richard Walsh, of Newport News, has been spending the holidays with his brother, Wm. Walsh.  He has unbounded faith in the great future of his city.  Investments made by him there some years ago are yielding handsome returns. 

25 February 1893

The pulpit of the Baptist Church at Drummondtown will be filled again to-morrow (Sunday) by Rev. Richard Walsh.
 
1 April 1893 
 
Rev. J.L. King, with Mr. William Walsh and daughter, Miss Laura, have returned from quite a pleasant trip to New York.  Mr. Walsh having been for years a resident of that city and being well acquainted with many of its officials, our visiting party were enabled by their courtesy and kindness to see New York as few strangers are able to see it.  Captain Copeland, of the city police force, was especially attentive to them, placing at their service one of the city’s steamers, from whose decks they viewed the statue of Liberty, the great Brooklyn bridge, the monster Greyhounds that line its piers, and hundreds of other interesting objects from the Palisades on the west, to the Hell Gates on the east. 
 
13 May 1893 
 
Licenses were granted as follows:…..Barroom,…..Wm. Walsh, Mappsville;….. 
 
13 May 1893 
 
The wife of Mr. Thomas Savage had an attack of epilepsy in attempt to go up stairs last Tuesday night, and the lamp which she was carrying exploded, setting fire to her clothing and the furniture.  The fire was well underway when discovered by a gentleman, who happened to be passing along the road near (the) dwelling.  In a few moments more the building would have been consumed and with it the lady and three little children.  Mrs. Savage sustained painful but not fatal injuries. 
 
13 May 1893 
 
Our merchant and amateur fisherman, Wm. Walsh, has constructed a very ingenious device for carrying his drum line out beyond the breakers, himself standing upon the shore.  This contrivance enables the fisherman to send his line out to any desired distance and to drop his hooks and sinkers wheresoever he will.  No muscular effort, as formerly, is required in accomplishing this purpose.  This machine is constructed upon scientific principles and its range of work can only be limited by the length of the cord to which it is attached.  It is destined to be of invaluable service in the saving of lives upon stranded vessels upon the coast, as by its use life lines can be sent to wrecks entirely beyond the reachof the gun used for such purposes by our life saving service.  The device will be patented. 
 
 
15 July 1893 
 
Wm. Walsh who paid a short visit to Newport News, to recruit his health, came back not much improved.  He says business has a gloomy outlook in that place.   
 
Charles Ewell, Jr., and Samuel Abott will open a saloon soon in this village, upon the land leased by them of Mr. Albert Gillespie, opposite Wm. Walsh’s store.  The young men are quite popular and will no doubt make their venture a success. 
 
19 August 1893 
 
Oscar Chandler, a young gentleman of this place, has been very sick for several weeks with typhoid fever.  We are glad to say that he is now improving quite rapidly. 
 
19 August 1893 
 
William Walsh is now on a trip to New York, for the purpose of superintending the making of a model of his new device for saving life from wrecks of vessels on the coast. 
16 September 1893
Mr. Samuel Wertheim, of New York, a jolly young business man of that city, has been welcome visitor to our village recently. He made Mr. Walsh's house his home while here.
 
30 September 1893 
 
Rev. Richard Walsh, of Newport News, and James Walsh, of New York, were called by wire to the bedside of Mrs. Lottie Savage, nee Walsh, one day last week, whose illness was pronounced by her physician to be almost hopeless.  Mrs. Savage by her many excellent qualities of heart and mind, has so endeared herself to everyone in the community, that all hearts yearn toward the youthful sufferer and all lips utter prayers for her speedy recovery.  At this writing all are glad to learn that her complete recovery is possible. 
 
28 October 1893 
 
Oliver Baker vs. William Walsh (in slander).  Verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $100 damages and costs. 
20 January 1894
Albert Walsh, son of our fellow townsman and merchant of this place Wm. Walsh, left for New York Tuesday night. He will enter the employ of Walsh & Werthern, one of which -- Mr. Jas. Walsh -- is an uncle of the young man.
12 May 1894
Wm. Walsh has just gotten home from New York with a large supply of notions and other goods. He brought with him some of his New York friends.

6/23/1894: 
Mappsville. 
Mr. William Walsh has a New York artist visiting him, Mr. A. Kaufman, who is spending most of his time on the seashore sketching. 

21 July 1894
Paul and Alfred Wood, sons of Dr. Wood, of New York, visiting the family of Mr. Wm. Walsh, are having a "jolly good time" boating, fishing, etc.
Rev. Richard Walsh, formerly of this place, now of Newport News, was married last week in Jersey City to a lady of that place. Congratulations and earnest wishes for a happy future are sincerely tendered by your scribe. This event is a forcible illustration of the old saw "That it is never too late to mend," the groom being a frisky yound "bach" of about 60 summers. Pope said:
'There never swam a gander so gray; nor so late;
But what at some time would find an honest goose for a mate."
We are now inclined to think that he was right.
 
4 August 1894
Mr. Hamilton Howe, of New York was a welcome visitor to our village recently. James Walsh, Esq., and wife, of the same city, are visiting his father and sister, Mrs. Richard Savage, Jr.
 
8/4/1894: 
Mappsville. 
William Walsh, Esq., recently caught a monster shark. It measured nine feet in length, and upon investigation his captor found that for breakfast the shark had swallowed intact, a sea turtle measuring a foot in diameter.

 
9/15/1894: 
Mappsville. 
Suit is about to be entered by William Walsh, Esq., and others, against certain parties, and will probably determine the rightful ownership of what is known as Assawaman beach. The boundaries of this private ownership in the beach and adjoining marshes, bays and creeks, we hope will then be definitely settled, so that the public may know the limits of its privilege in these contested waters and marshes. 

13 October 1894
Mrs. William Walsh and daughter Laura, and Mrs. Lottie Savage are visiting friends in New York and vicinity.

24 November 1894
Wm. Walsh, Esq., has gotten home from a week's trip to New York, bringing with him new goods, including a fine lot of domestic and foreign fruits.
Mr. Charles Ewell, Sr., has left the village and gone to reside on one of his sea-side farms. George Collonna, Esq., is now occupying the farm near Mappsville, belonging to N. W. Nock.

9 October 1897
NOTICE --- All persons are hereby forwarned from gunning, oystering or egging on Assawaman Beach under strict penalty of the law. Twenty-five dollars will be paid for information leading to the arrest and conviction of trespassers. William Walsh.

22 July 1899
Messrs. Walter R. and Albert E. Walsh, of New York, are visiting their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Walsh. They are glad to have the boys with them. 

2 March 1901
We had a very dangerous fire in town Wednesday night of last week. The barn of Mr. Wm. Walsh was burned to the ground and if the wind had been blowing in a different direction the whole town would have been destroyed. Loss about $500.
 
 
January 11, 1902: 
Commonwealth vs. J. R. Bowden -- on appeal from judgment of Justice of the Peace -- upon a warrant charging said Bowden, with having stolen, taken and carried away 10 bushels of oysters from the private grounds of Wm. Walsh. Nolle prosequi entered. 
 
 
 
April 1902: 
  
Retail liquor licenses were granted to the following: Robert L. Parks, Centerville; Wm. Walsh, Mappsville; Ernest J. Figgs, Woodberry; Jno. O. Mears, Mutton Hunk: Artemus E. Poulson, Messongo Bridge; Jas. Lee Justis, Parksley; Berkley L. West, Pungoteague; John E. Roberts, Keller; Chas. W. D. Taylor, Mill Bridge; Fred R. Martin, Shilo Valley; Geo. W. Hack, Craddockville; Geo. Wm. Drummond, Pungoteague; Jno. T. Bonnewell, Mappsburg; Thos. R. James, Locustville; James Harmon, Belle Haven; Robt. P. Custis, Onancock; Wm. T. Winder, Onancock; Burton, Parker & Co., Onancock; George G. Ailworth, Drummondtown; Benj. F. Wharton, Drummondtown; Jno. D. Johnson, Parksley; Wm. H. Gaskins, Pungoteague; Wm. H. Moore, Pungoteague Bridge; Oswald D. Doughty, Wachapreague; Geo. R. Coleburn, Chincoteague; Major Jones, Chincoteague; Fair Oaks Liquor Company, Fair Oaks; Joseph H. Stevens, Wachapreague; Benj. F. Bull, Craddockville; Louis N. Major, Shilo; John L. Gardner, Bull Branch. 
 
24 January 1903
Mr. Wm. Walsh is improving his property on the sea-side with a new dwelling.
Mr. Albert Walsh talks of opening an up-to-date grocery store at Persimmon Point in the near future.

August 1903: 
Upon application of William Walsh for retail liquor license at his home at  Mappsville. Application refused and appeal taken to Circuit Court. 

26 September 1903
Capt. John Hughes while oystering last Tuesday, near Hog Neck Creek, fell overboard and was drowned before anyone could reach him. The accident resulting in his death is due it is thought to an attack of apoplexy.

7 November 1903
Reward - One hundred dollars ($100) will be paid for further information as to the party or parties who murdered Mr. John H. Hughes while in a boat in the main creek near Great Gut on Tuesday,, October 22,* at 2:15 p.m. All correspondence will be confidential.
Wm. Walsh,
Mappsville
 
January 1904:  
Proceedings of the court County of Accomac 
The last Official acts of the retiring Judge were the following: 
Mr. William Walsh, of this county, having had the portraits of the late Benjamin T. Gunter, a distinguished Judge of the Circuit Court of this county, and of the late Montcalm Oldham Jr., the efficient clerk of the court, made and placed in the court house at his own expenses; the Court, appreciating the spirit actuating Mr. Walsh in thus perpetuating the memory of these departed faithful officials, doth order this acknowledgment spread upon the records of this court and a copy certified to Mr. Walsh, attested by the Judge and Clerk of the said court. 

17 December 1904
FOR RENT -- For 1905 one large ten room house and plenty of outbuildings in good condition, viz: stables, carriage house and loft, situated in centre of Mappsville, suitable for boarding house and livery. Moderate rent. Apply to William Walsh, Mappsville, Va.

25 February, 1905
Mrs. William Walsh, Sr., of Mappsville, has raised this winter on a lemon bush in her house 20 lemons, weighing about 1 1/2 pounds each, besides a number of smaller ones.

17 June 1905
In front of William Walsh's Store in Mappsville, Va, all that valuable tract of land on which Capt. William Green formerly resided, and which is generally known as Red Bank which is situated on the seaside, in Accomac County, Va. This valuable tract of land has been subdivided and will be sold in four parcels as follows, viz: No. 1 is nearest to Mappsville, and contains 42 acres, 3 roods and 23 poles, and is bounded on the Southeast and Southwest by a creek, Northwest by the Seaside County Road, and Northeast by tract No. 2. It is improved by a comfortable dwelling and outbuildings and is now rented for $125. No. 2. has 25 acres, 1 rood and 23 poles and is bounded by the above named County Road and creek and tracts Nos. 1 and 3. No. 3. contains 33 acres and 25 poles and is bounded by above named creek and road and tracts Nos 2 and 4. No 4. is the main part of said tract and contains 149 acres and 2 roods. Is improved by a good commodious swelling of about 15 rooms, and large dry cellar, with necessary outbuildings, tenant house and oyster ground, from dwelling the Ocean can be plainly seen. A beautiful hedge fence divides each of the above named tracts. The land is all high, not a ditch on any part of it or the need of one as it is naturally drained by creeks which nearly surround it. Each tract fronts on the county road and runs back to the creek, is especially adapted to trucks. Is about two and one-half miles from Hallwood Station. It is seldom that land possessing so many natural advantages is offered at public sale.

1 July 1905
The "Green Farm: was sold at public auction at Mappsville last Saturday by Mr. F. H. Dryden. The main place was bought by William Walsh at the price of $7,205, and the three other tracts by Mr. A. J. Rew at $5,230.

15 February 1908
A lemon grown at the home of Mr. William Walsh, Mappsville, has attracted much attentionat the drug store at Accomac C.H. this week. It weighs 1 1/4 pounds, about 4 times as much as those usually found in our stores.

11 April 1908
Mrs. Maggie Walsh, wife of Mr. William Walsh, Sr., died suddenly, of heart disease, at her home at Mappsville, on Thursday, April 2d,* aged 57 years, and was laid to rest in the cemetery at Modestown Baptist Church on Saturday after funeral services conducted by her pastor, Rev. R. S. Monds. Her husband, three sons, Walter, Albert, and William, and four daughters, Mrs. Carson Chandler, Mrs. C. F. Bloxom, Mrs. Will Colona and Miss Maggie Walsh survive her. The deceased was a most estimable lady with the sincere affection and regard of a large circle of relatives and friends.
 
1 August 1908
Mr. William Walsh, Sr., of Mappsville, leaves Sunday night for New York, thence on steamer Lusitania for Liverpool, Glasgow, London, Dublin, and other points in Europe. He will return to this county about the 15th of September.
 

 

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