Our First California Company member, Scarlett Stahl, is a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe and attended Historic Jamestown’s April 5 commemoration and reenactment on their 400th wedding anniversary. She describes her experience in her article published in micechat.com and includes several of her photos.
Other news sources that published accounts include the Washington Post, Colonial Williamsburg and the Hampton Roads Daily Press.
Here are more photos from our March 2 event in Los Angeles:
Our Speaker, Karenne Wood, With Pocahontas Descendants
First California Company Governor Ginny Gotlieb presided as we hosted our first western regional Society meeting for 67 guests on Sunday, March 2, in Los Angeles. Three companies were represented, including First Deputy Governor Leslie Steuben of Northern California and Patricia Dell’Aria, Governor of First Nevada/Arizona and Martha Gordon, its Founding Governor. In addition, officers and members of eleven other heritage societies attended.
The meeting’s theme was an early commemoration of the 400th wedding anniversary of Pocahontas and John Rolfe that will be celebrated at Historic Jamestown on April 5. Our speaker, Karenne Wood, an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and Director of Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, discussed Pocahontas and Women’s Roles in Virginian Indian History, including a review of romanticized Pocahontas mythology and women’s unrecognized important status, role and cultural functions among American Indian tribes and nations.
Five Pocahontas descendants who were present were recognized. Treasurer Harry Holgate delivered a nuptial toast, and wedding cake was served as dessert for the luncheon.
Here are the first photos of our event. Please watch this page for more photos and details and information in the near future.
Our Wedding Cake, picturing the James River
First California Company has invited all Society companies and members in California, Nevada and Arizona to join us in commemorating the 400th wedding anniversary of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. This luncheon meeting will be held on Sunday, March 2nd at 1 PM at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045.
LA Airport Marriott
The April 5, 1614 wedding was significant for the establishment of our nation, as it ended the first Anglo-Powhatan war and enabled the first permanent English settlement in the New World to begin growing tobacco that became its major export product and economic foundation. This new industry empowered Jamestown to become the first boomtown in America and, later, would similarly help support our Revolution.
Our program will feature Karenne Wood, Director of Indian Programs for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She will discuss “Pocahontas and Women’s Role in Virginian Indian History.” We expect that she will likely include the wedding from an Indian perspective, Pocahontas as a member the Virginia tribe who met the Jamestown settlers and daughter of its paramount chief, and their culture.
We also will recognize those Pocahontas descendants who attend.
The cost of the event is $50, offering a choice of steak or vegetarian entrees. Reservations are due by February 15 and should be sent to First California Company Treasurer Harry Holgate, 115 West Fourth Street #208, Long Beach, CA 90802-2312.
Karenne Wood
Karenne Wood is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and serves on the Monacan Tribal Council. She directs Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wood is currently a PhD candidate and Ford Fellow in anthropology at the University of Virginia, working to reclaim indigenous languages and revitalize cultural practices. She edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, now in its third edition, published by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, led the “Beyond Jamestown” Teachers’ Institute, and curated the “Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present” exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. She recently contributed a chapter on Southeastern Indians for National Geographic’s Indian Nations of North America.
This regional meeting of the three California Jamestowne Society companies and the Arizona-Nevada Company is open to anyone interested in early American history and we will welcome guests.
To request an invitation, please contact our Secretary.
Also, please watch this News Page for further updates to this post.
Our First California Company will be joining other lineage societies on Saturday, January 18 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club for two meetings that should be of importance to all of us.
Los Angeles Athletic Club
Company members have been invited to convene at 10 AM for a business meeting to consider a major revision of our bylaws, complete preparations for our March 2nd commemoration of the 400th wedding anniversary of Pocahontas and John Rolfe and elect a nominating committee to recommend a slate of officers for election at our annual meeting in the late spring.
After we adjourn, our hosts, The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of California, have invited us to join them for a luncheon and program featuring as guest speaker their National Society Governor General Gerald Gettes Tyrrell, who will discuss Why Hereditary Societies are Important; Keeping Them Relevant and Solvent.
Governor General Tyrrell was born in Canton, China, the son of a British diplomat and a “Southern Belle” from Kentucky. He was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, graduated from Yale University and took a graduate banking degree from Rutgers University. He retired after thirty years as Executive Vice President from Kentucky’s largest bank. He then worked ten years for the City of Louisville as Chief Financial Consultant, and later was Vice Chairman of the Board of Porcelain Metals Corporation, a privately owned industrial company.
Gerald joined the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1969 and was the Kentucky Society Treasurer from 1970 until 1989; Secretary from 1996 until 1999 and Governor from 1999 until 2005. He was elected Treasurer General of the General Society in 2004, Lieutenant General in 2007 and Governor General in 2012.
David Hayball, a member of the Jamestowne Society, is currently the California state society’s governor. The Sons of Liberty Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution will co-host this meeting. There will be a cash bar at 11:15 AM and luncheon will be served promptly at noon.
The Los Angeles Athletic Club is at 431 West Seventh Street, in downtown Los Angeles. The event cost is $40 with luncheon entree choices that include hanger steak, Atlantic salmon and vegetarian pasta. Parking is available at the club’s adjacent garage for $3.50.
Attendance at the luncheon and program will be by reservation only with the Sons of Colonial Wars, which must be confirmed by Wednesday, January 15, 2014. For more information or details, please contact our Governor.
Following these events, there would be a unique opportunity for a couple of hours of genealogical research nearby at one of the best resources in Southern California at the History and Genealogy Department of the Los Angeles Public Library.
In the shadow of the debacle of the federal shutdown, the Virginia House of Delegates has commended archeologist Bill Kelso for his accomplishments with the discoveries at Historic Jamestown, as reported by the Virginia Gazette.
2014 will mark the 20th year since Kelso used his spade to turn up the first evidence of the remains of James Fort. Since then, he and his Jamestown Rediscovery team have enabled historians to recover vital affirmation of our heritage from the myths of failure and indolence to enlighten us about our ancestors’ struggles and back-breaking work to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World. They brought with them their customs, industry and self-governance principles that evolved into what we today enjoy as a nation, which is Jamestown’s most lasting legacy.
The House of Delegates offered its commendation at the October 2 inaugural meeting of the recently formed Jamestown Discovery Society, which has been established to offer a means of public support for continuing the work of Dr. Kelso and the Jamestown Rediscovery team. The creation of this new donor group and contact information was announced in the Jamestown Rediscovery Newsletter.
Last month, we posted more evidence of the preservation of our national heritage with the completion of phase I of the repair and restoration of the 17th century church tower. Andrew Zellers-Frederick, Director of the Historic Jamestown Fund at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, expects that there will be an announcement of the scholarly finds (of which there were several) once there is mutual agreement on them. As we have noted before, he will offer members of the Jamestowne Society a comprehensive update on the project and its future at their November 2 meeting in Richmond.
Damaged Tower (Jamestown Rediscovery)
Jamestown Rediscovery is preserving important evidence of our ancestral heritage with completion of phase I of the repair and restoration of the 17th century church bell tower. The deteriorated masonry at the top of the structure that posed extreme risk of falling on visitors has been mended and replaced and a lead cap installed that will maintain its integrity for the foreseeable future.
Important lessons for this project have been learned from past preservation mistakes; practices that were used in the 19th and 20th centuries accelerated deterioration. In the tower’s case, then-modern cementing repairs trapped moisture in the ancient bricks that became vulnerable to expansion and freezing. New preservation techniques use mortar made with time-proven pulverized oyster shells (as were the original materials) that will enhance the life of the old and replaced bricks (the replacements were made by Colonial Williamsburg with a centuries-old method.)
We previously reported on the need and progress toward this project, and Jamestown Rediscovery has posted Restoring An American Icon, a YouTube summary of this summer’s work. This complements a local press report by Mark St. John Erickson in The Virginia Gazette that offers other details. The JR crew will return next year to continue with repair and restoration at the tower’s lower levels, which have not posed such dire hazards.
First California Company members should take pride in making our contribution to the Jamestown Society’s $10,000 gift that served as the bell-cow to evidence grass-roots support and helped to attract the balance of the $200,000 to fund this project.
On November 2, the Society will get a comprehensive status report on the project from Andy Zellers-Frederick, the Director of the Historic Jamestown Fund at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Two horizontal planting furrows. On the right, a vertical line exhibits the fort extension wall. (Photo courtesy The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
Perhaps those first settlers weren’t so “lazy,” after all, belying what some historians have been telling us for many decades.
In exploring the first extension to James Fort, Jamestown Rediscovery has recently uncovered evidence of their first attempts at agriculture and traces of cultivation, where furrows were made by hoe and other 17th century back-breaking implements. The ten furrows, added to others discovered about ten years ago, indicate that by 1608 they had attempted to plant about ten acres of yet-to-be determined crops.
In a video and comments posted by Jamestown Rediscovery, Bill Kelso summarizes the efforts and results of past weeks’ digs and examination by Dan Givens and other JR archeologists.
Articles by Brittany Voll in the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily and Mark Erickson in the Daily Press and Virginia Gazette offer more details of the findings.
If you are interested in pursuing unique opportunities for researching for your Virginia ancestors, there appear to be two promising genealogical tours to Richmond and Williamsburg hosted by Roads Scholars in the next few months. Here are their summaries and links:
Researching Your Heritage; Genealogy and the Library of Virginia
During much of U.S. westward migration, Virginia was the largest state, and many Americans have Virginian forebears. The extraordinary Library of Virginia, adjacent to the beautifully restored capitol in Richmond, has the state’s most complete genealogical resources. Led by an expert genealogist, get background information to master research techniques, then enjoy privileged access to the Library’s records for individual work tracing your ancestors. Advanced students will receive professional assistance. This program is of great value for both novice and experienced family historians.
http://www.roadscholar.org/n/
Genealogy in Virginia
Immerse yourself in the extraordinary history of Tidewater Virginia, site of the first permanent English settlement in North America and entry point for thousands of adventurers, indentured servants and enslaved Africans. Learn how to further your genealogical research into the lives of your 17th- and 18th-century ancestors using Virginia land, church, civil, tax and business records. See how economics, religion, and warfare impacted people’s lives, with time for individual research under expert guidance.
http://www.roadscholar.org/n/
We are updating our posts of December 6, 2012 and May 11, 2013 with this progress report on the restoration of the 17th century church bell tower.
The need for the repairs and restoration is much more clearly seen in this black and white photo of its westerly exterior that shows its extensive damage from years of weathering:
Weathered Bell Tower Face
We have this report from Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick, Director, Historic Jamestowne Fund:
“The Jamestown Church Tower Project officially commences on July 8th when the scaffolding will be fully placed. As you know, this is Phase I, which will involve the removal of the 1960s-70s Portland cement parging and cap for the top of the fall to the first encounters structural step; the removal of the cement pointing in areas being repairs; the repointing and stabilization of masonry, primarily from the vent holes to the top of the walls, the stabilization of the upper portions of the walls which have been structurally compromised, the application of a lime based cap on top of the walls and upper interior ledge; and select pointing where mortar joints have severely deteriorated.
“In the meantime, Colonial Williamsburg has been diligently making 17th-century brick in its brickyard (about 4,000) for use in this project. In addition, the scientific dedrochronology study to try and better date the Tower is scheduled. This work should go about 8 weeks or so.
“We have raised approximately $205,000 from gifts including the Jamestowne Society, the Commonwealth of Virginia and many interested individuals. We might have enough to cover the second phase next year, but certainly more funds will be required for Phase III which will involve the design and placement of an interior roofing system (“invisible” from the outside) and a water removal system or we would have the same problem returning an a decade or so.”
If you wish to make an individual contribution to the Phase III needs, please send it to the First California Company (see below) or directly to the Society at Post Office Box 6845, Richmond, VA 23230. Indicate that you are affiliated with the First California Company and that the donation is for the Jamestown Church Tower Restoration Project, the Society’s dedicated capital fund account for this purpose.
Harry Holgate, Treasurer
First California Company
115 West 4th Street, #208
Long Beach, CA 90802-2312
The sunny climes and harbor views of the Long Beach Yacht Club were an appropriate venue for the maritime music theme of our fourteenth Annual Meeting on Saturday, June 15th.
The Program
Forty six Company members and guests listened to musical historian Simon Spalding present and perform Songs our Ancestors Sang – nautical, colonial and folk music from the times of our ancestors through today. The program was something of a continuation from the demonstration of 17th century English Country dancing at our January 19 meeting in Riverside.
Spalding related how music and dancing were widely enjoyed through the Elizabethan and Stuart reigns and brought to Jamestown, but their traditions and instructions were rarely transcribed. In mid-17th century, they were banned and prohibited in both England and Virginia during Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth, which stimulated the saving of melodies, lyrics and descriptions. Thus, when these popular entertainments regained legitimacy at the Restoration, the traditions could continue, as they have come down to us. What we know of our dance and folk music heritage largely stems from then.
His performance included a variety of musical genre, including sea chanties and pieces that were originally Dutch and Chinese, and instruments that we rarely see today.
Business Meeting
The business meeting was held following the program, which included approval of the minutes of our January meeting, a membership report, the Treasurer’s report, a report on our participation on the June Southern California Genealogical Jamboree and our Governor’s report on other items from the Society’s May meetings in Williamsburg. We are donating $500 to the Society’s Wingo Fund for record restoration. Membership Chair Phyllis Kinzle reported we have six new Company members, one of whom, Jana Bickel, she introduced.
Governor Ginny Gotlieb’s Report on the Governors’ Roundtable
This year the Governors’ Roundtable meeting, held May 10, 2013 in Williamsburg, had a new format. The exchange of ideas through each governor’s company report remained. The morning session also included a talk by our October 2010 speaker Martha McCartney on researching early ancestors and referenced her recent book, Jamestown People to 1800.
The afternoon program offered the governors an exceptional onsite educational experience. Dr. William Kelso, Chief Archeologist of Historic Jamestowne, met us at the Jamestowne church bell tower and reviewed the tower’s condition and the restoration plans. Funding for this summer and next summer’s work has already been obtained. Dr. Kelso thanked the Jamestowne Society and the companies for their key role in the fundraising. A third summer of work may be needed and those funds must still be raised. Plans for that final phase of repair and preservation are not yet firm. Dr. Kelso also took us to the well site where “Jane’s” skeletal remains were found. The discovery of her partial skull and limb is the first physical confirmation of the written references to survival cannibalism during The Starving Period, the winter of 1609-10.
The governors and guests crossed the James River on the Jamestown-Scotland ferry, a beautiful twenty-minute ride to Surry County from near the Jamestown Settlement. It offers views of the three replica ships and views of the length of Jamestowne Island, including a river perspective on the Historic Jamestowne fort and church tower. The James is a wide, impressive river and seeing it as our ancestors might have was moving. This river vista is threatened by Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to erect a $155 million, 550-kilovolt power line across the James River on several 40-story towers. This threat to our historic view has stimulated the National Trust for Historic Preservation to list it as one of the top eleven most endangered sites in the US.
Our tour continued to Bacon’s Castle, the oldest datable brick home in Virginia and one of only three high Jacobean structures surviving in the Western Hemisphere. The home was built in 1665 by planter Arthur Allen. Its current appellation derives from the fact that Major Allen, the builder’s son, a Member of the House of Burgesses and a supporter of the governor, was driven from the home by followers of Nathaniel Bacon in the Bacon’s Rebellion uprising of 1676. Now owned by Preservation Virginia, the furnished home, outbuildings, and recreated gardens are open for tours. A new phase of stabilization and preservation of the home is underway. This is a site worth adding to your itinerary when you visit the Jamestown area.
The governors concluded this stimulating, educational day with our dinner in Smithfield.
We will give more details and photos from our tours in future posts to this News page.
Photos by Kathleen Faherty, Phyllis Kinzle and Ginny Gotlieb
Next meeting will be held in October 2024. Details TBD.
