On Sunday, May 29th, the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area (VPHA), based in Middleburg, Loudoun County, conducted an open house of the Bel Air property in Front Royal at the invitation of the LeHew family, the current owners of the property. Travis Shaw, VPHA Director of Education, introduced Bel Air owner Jeff LeHew, who welcomed the attending guests to his home. The featured speaker of the event was Dr. Elizabeth Baer, editor of the diary of Lucy Buck. Lucy and her family lived at Bel Air during the War Between the States, 1861-1865, and hosted General Robert E. Lee when he brought the Army of Northern Virginia through Warren County in late July 1863, following the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, Pa.

Built in 1795 by Captain Thomas Buck, Bel Air was the ancestral home of Lucy’s parents, William and Elizabeth Buck. William was a merchant and a leading citizen of Front Royal. His great grandfather was one of the first settlers in that part of the Shenandoah Valley.

BelAir 1860

Bel Air is located a quarter mile east of town on a prominent elevation. The front of the house faces southward toward the town and the beautiful panorama of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Thomas Buck was a captain in the Virginia militia in the American War of Independence, 1775-1781. It is believed that he named Bel Air for Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland, located north of Baltimore. This Maryland community also was the home of the noted theatrical Booth family (which included the famed Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth and his actor/ brother, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865), the home of Nancy Richardson, Capt. Buck’s wife.

Bel Air is considered one of the oldest brick houses in Front Royal and is one of the finest examples of the Classical Revival style. During the Open House, visitors toured the home’s beautiful first and second floors and looked through the windows at Lucy and her family’s views during their residence there. The highlights of Bel Air include the penciled signatures and comments on the walls and ceilings preserved in a room on the second floor. The first of these graffiti dates to August 30th, 1796, shortly after the house was completed. Another is the signatures of the entire Buck family, including daughter Lucy, dating from the early 1800s to the beginning of the 20th Century.

Bel Air has had just three owners since its construction in 1795. Capt. Buck and his descendants owned the property until the early 20th Century. Sydney Byrne Downing acquired the property and made a number of alterations to the house in 1905. In the early 1970s, Larry LeHew purchased Bel Air; it is currently owned by Larry’s son, Jeff, who recently completed the rehabilitation of the exterior stucco and porches. He and his family continue to preserve this beautiful home and property.

Lucy Rebecca Buck was born on September 25th, 1842, in Warren County, Virginia, the third of thirteen children of William and Elizabeth Buck. She learned the social graces at two local schools. On Christmas Day, 1861, eight months after the War Between the States began in April, Lucy was given a diary which she kept for the duration of the War, during which time troops were quartered in her home, and battles were literally waged in her front yard.

Lucy recorded first-hand accounts of the numerous troop visits and occupations of Bel Air. Her daily life was centered around the domestic routines of a large household and included reading, sewing, visiting, and tutoring her younger brothers. Numerous friends and relatives were received regularly at Bel Air during the War. Her diary, Shadows On My Heart, was edited and published in 1997 by Dr. Elizabeth Baer.

This extraordinary chronicle mirrors the experiences of many women torn between loyalty to the Confederate cause and dissatisfaction with the unrealistic ideology of white Southern womanhood. Two of Lucy’s brothers, Alvin and Irving, enlisted early in the Confederate army. When Lucy was given the diary that Christmas morning, she wrote:

I cannot but feel a little sad this morning for my thoughts continually revert to those dear absent brothers who were wont to share our Christmas cheer and gladden the hours of this festive season for us. When I think of the unexpected changes that have occurred in the last year, I feel as if I could not count upon ever having them with us again as of yore with any degree of certainty.

In powerful, unsentimental language, Lucy Buck’s diary reveals her anger and ambivalence about the challenges thrust upon her by the upheaval of herself, her family, and the world as she knew it. This document provides an extraordinary glimpse into the “shadows on my heart” of both Lucy Buck and the American South. Lucy’s diary gives a detailed look at civilian life in and around Front Royal during the War years. Her diary entries describe daily life at her home with an extended family that included parents, a grandmother, aunts, cousins, younger siblings, visitors, and enslaved servants.

As the war moved closer to Front Royal, Lucy and her family were exposed to menacing raids by Northern troops. Her diary writings indicate that she was challenged to maintain the everyday pattern of family life during that difficult period. In January 1862, Lucy detailed in her diary the occupation of Front Royal by the Union army under the command of Brigadier-General Nathan Kimball, a physician in Indiana before and after the War; he was the first to use Bel Air as a headquarters in the Spring of 1862. His troops were quartered in the meadows surrounding the house.

Union Major-General James Shields also stayed at Bel Air prior to the defeat of Union troops in the Battle of Front Royal on May 23rd, 1862. Other visitors to Bel Air included Confederate General James Longstreet and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. General Jackson’s victory at Front Royal was one of the strings of Confederate successes in General Jackson’s famed Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862.

The most significant change in the family’s routine occurred in the middle of 1863; Lucy confided to her diary:

Ma told me that the servants (household slaves) had all left in the night and carried our three horses with them. Laura and I went to milk the cows while Ma, Grandma, and Nellie cleaned the house, got the breakfast, and dressed the children.

Lucy and her sisters suddenly had to deal with household chores for the first time, but servants from neighboring households came to help them through the ordeal. On July 22nd, 1863, a day after winning a victory over Federal troops attempting to destroy Lee’s army at Manassas Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, just east of Front Royal, when the Army of Northern Virginia marched through Warren County on its retreat from the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., Lucy’s father, William, met General Robert E. Lee and his staff at the pontoon bridges over the Shenandoah River. He invited them to Bel Air for some refreshment, and General Lee accepted the invitation. Lucy wrote in her diary that day how the officers arrived to…stretch their cramped limbs and drink fresh buttermilk. I shall never forget the grand old chief as he stood on the porch surrounded by his officers, a tall, commanding figure clad in dusty travel-stained gray but with a courtly dignified bearing.

Lucy and her sister Laura played and sang Southern songs at General Lee’s request while he stood by the piano. After the enjoyable respite, the Southern troops continued their line of march south through Rappahannock County and eventually into Orange County, where the army spent the Winter of 1863-1864.

In spite of the hotly contested actions going on literally in their front yard and the loss of their slaves, Lucy and her family emerged from the War virtually unscathed. From her diary, we learn the titles of all the popular novels Lucy read during the period and all the parlor games the young people played for an evening’s entertainment. Sometimes the “guests” in the family parlor wore Union blue instead of Confederate gray – and on those occasions, Lucy stayed in her room and sulked.

Lucy Buck, a fervent supporter of the Confederacy, was grieved by the final defeat of the Southern armies in 1865. Lucy was 76 years of age when she passed on August 20th, 1918; she is buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Front Royal.

View of BelAir today. Below is a south view overlooking Happy Creek from the front porch.

At the Bel Air Open House on May 29th, the visitors were welcomed by Ian McDougall, Public Programs Co-ordinator for the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area (VPHA); and by Travis Shaw, VPHA Director of Education. Travis introduced the featured speaker for the Open House: the editor of Lucy’s diary, Dr. Elizabeth Baer. During the Open House, Dr. Baer read a number of excerpts from Lucy’s diary; her readings provided an excellent backdrop for the visit to the property.

Dr. Baer is Research Professor in English at Gustavus Adolphus College; Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius; the school is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus College gets its name from Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, from 1611 to 1632.

Dr. Baer currently works in the Senior Historian’s Office at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. From 2016-2017, she served as the Ida E. King Visiting Distinguished Scholar in Holocaust Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey. She is the author of The Blessed Abyss: Inmate № 6582 in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp for Women (Wayne State University Press, 2000); Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust (2003); The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction (2012); and The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich (2017).

Would you like to tour BelAir? The Warren Heritage Society is hosting another tour on September 24, 2022. Click here for more information and tickets. 

Enjoy this photo gallery of BelAir.

2nd Floor Hallway

2nd Floor Sitting Room 3

Blanche Buck – 08-30-1796 & AndrewRice – 08-30-1897

Buck Family Bible dating to the 1700s

Buck Family 1700s-1901

Buck Family Grafitti 04-16-1861

Buck Family Grafitti 1800s

Climbing Stairs To Second Floor

Dining Room

Dining Room Painting of Gen. Lee At BelAir

First Floor entry into the kitchen

First Floor Room with Stained Glass windows

First Floor Gathering Room Beyond Kitchen

First Floor Parlor

First Floor Parlor Furnishings

Front 2nd Floor Window View Looking South

Front 2nd Floor Window View Blue Ridge

Gen. James Shields

Gen. Thomas Jackson

Gen. James Longstreet

Gen. Nathan Kimball

Gen. Robert E. Lee

Gen. Lee & Staff BelAir – 07-22-1863

Looking Down Stairway From 2nd Floor

Lucy & Nellie Buck

Lucy Buck’s Diary

Painting of BelAir Front View with Happy Creek

Painting of Gen. Jackson & Staff on Chester St. in Front Royal, May 1862.

Painting of Gen. Jackson and Staff in Front Royal, May 1862.

Painting Magnolias & Southern Belles 1862

Photograph BelAir 1860s

Photograph BelAir 1862

Second Floor Room Top of Stairs

Second Floor Window View Looking North

Signatures in attic

Stained Glass Details in Gathering Room

Stairway To 2nd Floor

Stair Way To Second Floor

Stairway Window

Travis Shaw Introducing Jeff LeHew

Travis ShawV PHA Welcome Guests To BelAir

Up To Third Floor

Wartime Artifacts Found At BelAir

Wartime Artifacts Found At BelAir

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It was a mixed verdict in the wake of the Warren County Board of Supervisors (BOS) unanimous vote approving appropriation of $5,714,541 of what was termed “Supplemental Appropriation Items” into the Fiscal Year-2022/23 county public schools budget. A vote on appropriations to what has been cited as an FY-22/23 Warren County Public Schools budget of $71.1 million was added to the Tuesday evening, August 16, regular meeting agenda out of a Closed Session following a 5 p.m. supervisors work session. The closed session was to discuss legal and financial matters surrounding the WC EDA, not the school budget.

One of 10 public hearing speakers urging the board to fully fund the county public schools operational budget request. Initial gratitude for a $5.7 million appropriation for six basic requests eventually turned to disappointment that another $1.8 million for 37 specific ‘needed additions’ had been left unfunded, tho $1.2 million remained in the County’s reserve fund for the school budget. Below, shot of crowd, a large portion of which were educators there in support of full funding of the public school budget. However, Ryan Messinger, third seat in first fully pictured row, had a different message for the board – ‘Dissastisfied’ in its handling of the Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District.

What appeared to be 20+ people, including teachers and interested citizens in support of county public schools were present. Some had signed up to speak in support of the requested public schools budget at “Public Comments” on non-agenda items. A number of others were present to speak in support of recommendations by current and past Shenandoah Farms Advisory Boards to abandon at least temporarily the Phase 4 and 5 portions of the Old Oak Lane Capital Improvement Plan that the board and its Sanitary District manager seem determined so see through despite skyrocketing cost estimates that it appears Farms Sanitary District residents will be responsible to cover.

But on the school budget front, as first signed-up Public Comments speaker and secondary school teacher Amy Flora told the board, she had to reconsider her planned remarks in the wake of the board’s added agenda item action. Flora and others thanked the supervisors for the appropriation of the $5.7 million in support of teacher salaries, scheduled bonuses, filling of eight vacant positions, and funding of extra-curricular activities and athletics programs. However, as some absorbed what had been approved versus what had been on the table as potential additions or reductions to the original public schools budget proposal, some dissatisfaction emerged.

Warren County Education Association Secondary Education President Amy Flora thanked the board for its $5.7 million basic needs appropriation, but like other present wondered why another $1.2 million for additional positions and programs set aside in reserves wasn’t appropriated. Below, page 1 of a page-and-a-half of 37 ‘Potential Reductions’ are no longer potential – they are reduced from the schools budget.

And after follow-up discussion with both Supervisor and County-Schools Liaison Committee member Delores Oates and County Finance Director Matt Robertson on Wednesday, it appears the discontent revolves around a $1.2-million gap in that $5.7-million appropriation and $6.9 million the board had set aside in a County Reserve Fund to address additional needs in the public schools budget. Robertson noted he could not explain the difference between that $1.2 million in unappropriated funds and a $1.8 million cost estimate listed for 37 items presented by school officials at an August 9 supervisors work session on the schools budget.

But to the tune of $1.2 million or $1.8 million, the fact that those 37 items received none of the available reserve funds set aside for those additional requests did not sit well with those public school employees present at Tuesday’s meeting. In fact, when Flora, who serves as president of Secondary Education for the Warren County Education Association, returned to the Public Comments podium she told the supervisors that a poll conducted among system teachers indicated that 77% of respondents indicated they are considering leaving Warren County Public Schools for other public school systems they feel are more adequately funded on an annual basis.

There seemed to be a disconnect between  the board and its chair and teachers upset that English Language and Elementary Art teaching positions, along with Elementary School Counselors, Math Coaches, and a variety of Teaching Assistants and other requested positions had been ignored by the board despite available funds to support a significant portion of those requests.

After repeated imploring that those additional requested positions were much needed to reduce staffing shortages and a continued over-stretching of existing staff workloads, board Chair Cheryl Cullers, herself a former public schools nurse, reiterated that her board had never intended to not appropriate existing staff’s salary requests, including 5% STEP or COLA raises. She added that she believed she was elected to ask hard questions about budgets and assured public school staff present that they were not the only ones to be targeted with such questions, that county departments got the same treatment.

But that, that treatment might possibly lead to as many as 77% of current teachers to employment in public school systems elsewhere should be a matter of public concern for anyone, elected or otherwise, concerned for the future of the Warren County Public School system.

Following adjournment of the Public Comments the bulk of the educational community left the meeting room to discuss what had transpired in the Warren County Government Center meeting room. Those present deferred to Warren County Education Association Secondary Education President Flora for comment on the budget that was and was not approved.

“It’s not enough. The salaries are great but it kind of feels like it’s just to get us to stop talking, stop fighting. But we can’t because everything else that is on that budget is reasonable, it is needed, and it does not cost the County anything more than what the County paid last year, even in this time of inflation and rising gas prices. The fact that they don’t have to spend any extra money should be a no-brainer that they should fund us 100%. All of those positions are completely needed, it’s completely transparent. And we’re not going to stop fighting for those because we need it, these teachers need it. And again, that survey that we put out said 77% of teachers right now, are looking to leave Warren County Public Schools next year because of this whole process.

“So, for them to say that they are doing and they care about the public schools and teachers in Warren County – THAT is not the result of a County that cares. When 77% of our teachers are so concerned about this process that they’re considering leaving, that is not showing that they care,” Flora concluded without dispute from those teachers around her.

However, county officials assert that the flat funding claim from last year is not entirely accurate. During our Wednesday email conversation with County Finance Director Robertson and Supervisor Oates, at the end of a list of involved numbers, Robertson wrote: “After last night’s meeting, the total appropriation of local dollars to the School Division is $28,776,158. That is a total increase of $1,056,158 from the prior fiscal year.”

And for a fiscally conservative county board, whose chairman has bragged during this budget cycle that the current board majority elected three years ago on a reform platform related to the aftermath of the FR-WC EDA financial scandal, has yet to approve any tax increase to produce additional revenue, even during the above-mentioned inflationary economy, that reported $1.05-million increase in local funds to public schools might have set off alarm bells. Would adding another $1.2 million of available reserve funds threaten to break that string of no-tax increases in the next budget cycle?

Well, “you gotta do what you gotta do” as an old saying goes, or perhaps not – but at what risk?

I guess we’ll find out next year when the FY-2023/24 Warren County Public School budget is presented with a new number of teaching vacancies needing to be filled.

WCPS Superintendent Dr. Chris Ballenger went to the podium later to explain discrepancy in the number, 6 or 7, for a Consent Agenda item request for funding of purchase of new school buses. The $903,693 for 7 buses was unanimously approved after the item was removed from Consent Agenda for additional discussion. Hopefully, the school system won’t need some of those buses to transport teachers, cited at 77% considering leaving the system, to their next job out of county out of fear of future public school budget funding shortfalls.

Click here to see the entire meeting in the County VIDEO, including the often emotional post-schools budget vote Public Comments during which 15 people addressed that, among other issues. The “other” was primarily the seeming reluctance of the board and staff to follow Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District Advisory Board(s) recommendations concerning road Capital Improvement Project decisions, and consequences of the potential closing of Farms community property assets as plans to seek financial reimbursements from former advisors, the Property Owners of Shenandoah Farms (POSF), appears on the horizon. County Attorney Jason Ham explained the result of his research into a previous Circuit Court ruling that POSF was not by Virginia law a legal Property Owners Association due to a lack of corroborating evidence that all Shenandoah Farms property owners are required to be POSF members.

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Without a media release nor acting following a Tuesday-night closed session presumably to discuss the status of Councilman Joseph McFadden, the Front Royal Town Council posted on the municipal website Wednesday afternoon that it is “accepting resumes from citizens who are interested in serving on the Town Council to fill a vacancy that is currently open due to the resignation of Councilman Joseph McFadden on August 8, 2022.”

The council went into a closed meeting Tuesday evening, following a joint meeting with the Front Royal Planning Commission, for “the discussion, consideration, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of any public body, specifically Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Clerk of Council pursuant to §2.2-3711(A)(1) of the Code of Virginia.”

Tina Presley, clerk or council, confirmed today that no action was taken following the closed session.

Joe McFadden’s request to rescind his abrupt resignation from council apparently fell on deaf ears, as the council has posted a notice seeing candidates fill his seat.

McFadden made a dramatic exit from last week’s meeting, stating that he was resigning after former town manager Steven Hicks was terminated by the panel at that August 8 work session, though he expressed regret to Royal Examiner’s Roger Bianchini in an August 13 telephone interview.

McFadden stated that he presented a letter to Town Hall on August 12, asking the mayor and council to rescind his resignation as it had not been properly submitted by Robert’s Rules of Order.

“It looks like I can withdraw my ‘motion’ to resign … with no acknowledgment by the chair or vote by the members (to accept his resignation) does my motion to resign die on the floor?” McFadden asked of Robert’s Rules of Order guidelines presented to him following his verbal resignation in reaction to the Hicks’ termination.

McFadden: Resigned or is he? Hicks: Fired or is he? Legal questions follow Aug. 8 council work session – or was it a meeting first?

The notice on the town website states, that “if appointed, the term would end upon the oath being administered by the candidate elected at a Special Election TBD. The candidate elected during the Special Election will serve the rest of Mr. McFadden’s term which is December 31, 2024.

To be eligible for appointment to the Town Council, candidates must reside in Front Royal, must be a registered voter, and have been a resident of Virginia for one year immediately preceding their appointment.”

Interested parties are asked to submit a resume and cover letter by September 6, 2022, at 4:30 P.M.

Royal Examiner reached out to McFadden, the mayor and vice-mayor, as well as interim town attorney George Sonnet Wednesday afternoon; no one had responded by publication time.

Click here to watch the Special Town Council Work Session of August 16, 2022.

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On Saturday, August 13, 2022, two Front Royal, Virginia natives achieved their second­-degree black belts in mixed martial arts self-defense worldwide.

Pearl W. Nickens Jr., age 69, and Aries W. Nickens Bolanos, age 13, attend Kwon’s Champion School in Front Royal. They study mixed martial arts under World Grandmaster H.Y. Kwon. Pearl and Aries have been studying mixed martial arts for over six years and have exceeded many expectations.

From left to right: Aries W. Nickens Bolanos, Grandmaster H.Y. Kwon, and Pearl W. Nickens Jr.

Grandmaster Kwon states that both students had almost perfect scores for passing. Pearl strives to accomplish every task set before him. He’s very open-minded, physically fit, and knows that martial arts are not just for fighting but for helping others in many different ways. Grandmaster Kwon then asked Pearl’s wife, Donna Nickens, and daughter, Dominique Nickens, “How much has Pearl changed?” They both stated that he’s become more passionate about working with others and more willing to listen to the situation before passing judgment. “Overall, he’s grown more than we ever thought he would.”

Grandmaster Kwon then talked with Aries, who asked his family about his schoolwork and listening. Aries spoke to his mother, Dominique Nickens, asking, “How often do I listen to you, Mam?” She then responded, “100% of the time.” “How is my schoolwork, Mam?” “School work is excellent. He’s got straight A’s and is in all advanced classes.” Grandmaster Kwon asked Aries’s grandparents, Pearl and Donna Nickens, “How much has Aries changed since he began?” They responded, “Aries is more respectful and open to trying new things. He stands up for all the little guys. He doesn’t like bullies and doesn’t let bullies pick on anyone when he’s around. He knows everyone deserves a chance in life, sometimes more than one.”

Grandmaster H.Y. Kwon’s Champion School teaches you many skills and techniques, such as self-defense, confidence, respect, and an all-around healthy way to express stress and manage weight. All goals are achievable if you take them one step at a time.

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The Port of Virginia® continues processing record-setting amounts of cargo having handled nearly 318,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in July and in doing so making it the most productive July in the port’s history.

July’s TEU total was ahead of the same month last year by more than 24,500 units, or 8.4 percent. Additionally, July was the fourth consecutive month of TEU volumes exceeding 317,000 units. The combined volume of April, May, June and July is 1.3 million TEUs, resulting in the busiest four-month stretch in port history. Comparatively, the total TEU volume for the same period in 2021 was 1.17 million TEUs, a difference of more than 10 percent.

Stephen A. Edwards, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, is expecting business to remain strong during the peak retail months leading up to the holiday season. This, he said, will position the port to have its best calendar year performance on record.

“We’ve brought on 10 new vessel services in the last 12 months and five of those in the last five months, so our growth is attributable to the reworked [and new] ship line services that are calling here and our efficiency is the result of an experienced team maximizing modern terminals,” Edwards said. “What we are seeing is growing interest from ship lines and cargo owners that are working to restore some predictability and reliability to their vessel services and supply chains. We have a proven track-record of success in what remains a challenging trade environment and the result is growth at The Port of Virginia.”

August Cargo Snapshot (2022 vs. 2021)

• Total TEUs – 317,691, up 8.4%
• Loaded Export TEUs – 85,170, up 5.1%
• Loaded Import TEUs – 149,829, up 4.8%
• Total Containers – 176,441, up 7.4%
• Total Rail Containers – 59,143, up 2.6%
• Total Truck Containers – 109,089, up 9.1%
• Total Barge Containers – 8,209, 24.3%

The Virginia Port Authority (VPA) is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VPA owns and, through its private operating subsidiary Virginia International Terminals, LLC (VIT), operates four general cargo facilities: Norfolk International Terminals, Portsmouth Marine Terminal, Newport News Marine Terminal and the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County. The VPA leases Virginia International Gateway and Richmond Marine Terminal. A recent economic impact study from The College of William and Mary shows that The Port of Virginia helps to create nearly 437,000 jobs, and generates more than $100 billion in total economic impact throughout the Commonwealth on an annual basis.

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On August 26, 2022, approved adopters can adopt a dog for just $26 at the Winchester SPCA Adoption Center, located at 111 Featherbed Lane in Winchester, between 10am and 5pm.

Whether mixed or purebred, embrace the opportunity for all dogs to live a happy, safe, and abuse-free life. They all give us companionship, keep us safe, and aid those in need. They keep us healthy, both physically and mentally.

While many of our days aim to find loving homes for dogs, this day expands that consideration to look beyond the breed. Look into the heart of the animal. The purpose of the National Dog Day Foundation is to rescue 10,000 dogs each year! Lear more at www.winchesterspca.org.

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