The Mysterious Seb’n (2)

 

How did my people get to Nelson County? While I’d love to know more of the story, what I do know leads me to believe that my great-grandfather Walter Lemmon Withers fell in love with Elizabeth (Betty) Hamilton and that Walter moved from Gladys in Campbell County, VA to Nelson County to marry and practice medicine.

 

Google Maps tells me that it’s 48 miles from Gladys to Roseland, 52 minutes by car, 6 hours by bike (I assume that’s if you don’t stop for rest), and 20 hours if you walk (and don’t stop?). What it is by horse or horse and buggy I don’t know.

 

After the Civil War, Walter graduated with a medical degree from the University of Virginia (as had his older brother Robert Enoch Withers) and began his medical practice. Their father, Robert Walter Withers, was a physician in Gladys. During the war Walter was what was known as a “medical steward,” what we would call a “medic.” Walter was captured and made prisoner of war during Pickett’s Charge on July 3,1863. Considering the casualty rate at Gettysburg, and the conditions in Civil War POW camps, I guess you could say that I just made here.

 

How did Walter meet Betty? My guess is that he met her through a sister who was married and living in Nelson County. She had married a Massie and was living in Massie’s Mill, VA, not far from Roseland and about 50 miles from Charlottesville and UVA. Maybe Walter stopped at the sister’s home when traveling between Charlottesville and Gladys? Maybe he spent holidays with his sister and her family?

The Library of Virginia has two letters that Robert Walter Withers and his wife, Susan, wrote to the daughter while Gettysburg was raging. They had no idea the battle was happening, and no idea that the life of at least one of their sons was in danger. Holding those letters, with gloves, was a special experience for me a few years ago.

 

As I ponder Walter Lemmon moving to Nelson County to marry Betty, I recall that Robert Walter (my great-great-grandfather) likely moved from Fauquier County to Gladys in Campbell County to marry Susan. Since it is 152 miles from Warrenton in Fauquier County to Gladys in Campbell County, I have no idea how Susan and Robert met. As I mentioned above, Robert was a doctor and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

If you’ve ever been through Gladys (people seldom go to Gladys, they drive through it), you may wonder how someone living 152 miles away, 200 years ago, would find his way to such a place…I have no idea – it was before, I am assured, social media.

To be continued...