I first visited Mecklenburg County, Virginia on 25 Jan 2003. I’ve learned and found many things these past 17 years, that I want to share.
See: “Why I created this site” https://mecklenburgvagenealogy.com/2020/02/27/julies-story-why-i-created-this-site/
These are some pictures I took in Jan 2006 at the Virginia War Monument, located at: 621 S Belvidere St, Richmond, VA 23220. I highly recommend a visit.
I’ve visited this Monument several times. I’ve also told several friends and family who are veterans about this monument. They all told me they were really impressed and glad they visited. This picture above (that I use for my profile picture) was taken by my husband during our visit in March 2008.
Here is a link to this monument’s website. There are more pictures with a brief video clip: https://vawarmemorial.org/plan-your-visit/
All the names of known Virginia veterans, who died in combat from World War II to Vietnam, are on the wall. There is also a research room and visitor center.
I asked about WWI veterans at this monument. I was told about another monument in Richmond, built in 1932. It’s in the William Byrd Park. The gold star began with WWI. Families hung a blue star in their window, often near their front door. One blue star for each soldier in their family. A silver star for wounded. When someone died, a gold star was placed over the blue star. The newspapers also ran columns labeled Gold Star Veterans when casualty lists were reported. Or small town newspapers reported on a local gold star veteran.
Here is a link about this WWI monument. It ended up raining on my visit. Some brighter pictures and more information about the monument are at this link: https://www.carilloncivic.org/CarillonHistory.php
Virginia did something unique after World War I, which I think is a treasure 100 years later. All veterans who survived WWI were asked to fill in a questionnaire. I’ve seen some records handwritten, some typed. Questions like: their occupation before the war, religion, how many times gassed, where served, and their opinion about several things. It used to be one of the searchable databases on Library of Virginia website and you could download TIFF files of these scanned records. Now, with the updated website, you can search by the veteran’s name. These questionnaires are also a part of the transcribing projects.
Here is a link to the WWI collections on the Library of Virginia website. Info about war and Virginia veteran projects (includes pictures): http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/ww1/#questionnaires
Charlie Lee Clark was the son of George Clark and Blanche Woodard. Charlie was born in Richford, New York, but was raised in Halifax County, Virginia. Charlie married Rosa Drewery Dortch, who was known by her friends and family as Drew Dortch. (Her brother, Robert Leonard Dortch was the previous veteran spotlight on this website.) Relatives told me that Eugene Dortch who was listed in records as the son of Charles Dortch and Rosa Perkinson (Drew’s parents), was really the son of Charlie Clark and Drew Dortch. Drew and Charles were not married when Eugene was born, so he was adopted by Drew’s parents. Eugene and Drew were raised in Mecklenburg, Virginia. I’m not sure if Charlie ever lived in Mecklenburg or how he and Drew knew each other. On the 1930 Census, Charlie is living with his parents in Halifax county, VA, listed as single, and Drew is with her parents in Mecklenburg, VA, listed as single. I first see them together (noted as married) on the 1935 Richmond City directory. On the 1940 Census, Eugene was living with his parents at 3112 Elwood Avenue. I found a 1940 “for rent” ad in the Richmond Times Dispatch Newspaper for this Ellwood Avenue house . Listed as 7 rooms, $40.00 per month. Charlie and Drew rented this home for decades! Between 1935 and 1939 Charles and Drew are listed on city directories at 2 different apartments on South 3rd street. Charlie lived at this Ellwood Ave home from 1940 until his death in 1960. Drew is believed to have stayed in this same home until her death in 1980. This home is in the area of Carytown. It’s near museums and monuments. It’s also not far from Maymont, where I believe this picture of Charlie (above) was taken; near the waterfall and Italian gardens. Link to see Maymont info: https://maymont.org/visit/
Charlie was in his mid 30’s when he joined the Navy during WWII. Charlie survived his ship being sunk by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. He would have been 39 years old at the time of this event! Before and after the war, Charlie worked for Dupont.
Charlie and Drew’s tombstone are the two front tombstones in this picture. This cemetery is the Richmond National Cemetery, in Henrico, Virginia. On Charlie’s military papers (not pictured in this post), under physical descriptions and markings, the record says: tattoo Left tricep, in horseshoe “R. D. D”. (His wife’s initials)
Pictures of Charlie and his family are from Jamie Malagorski and Aggie Reynolds. Virginia Oakley Shutt and Mary Walker (Drew’s cousins & friends) also talked to me about Drew and Charlie back in 2002-2003.
Robert Leonard Dortch was in the Army during WWII. I’m told he went more by his middle name of Leonard. His registration card says he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 165 pounds, blue eyes, black hair and dark complexion. After the war, Leonard lived in Norfolk for awhile. While married to Virginia Johnson, he ran a restaurant with her in Norfolk.
These pictures (below) are believed to be soon after Leonard married Virginia (Dec 1953). He wanted to introduce his bride to his friends and show her where he grew up. These pictures were most likely taken in Forkesville, where these people who are pictured lived. The first picture is Leonard with his wife Virginia Johnson, and Annie Burton Wright. The second picture is (left to right), Ida Lee White, her sister, Leonard, Grady Clary’s wife, Annie Burton Wright and Grady Clary. Leonard was also married to Patricia Morse. And he had a relationship in high school and later in life with Ida White. He had 4 children.
Leonard was the son of Charles Dortch and Rosa Lee Perkinson. Leonard’s father was an alcoholic, and his brother David died in an accident of a still catching on fire. When WWII started, only his mother and sister Drew were still living. His father and 2 brothers had died. His mother died in 1945. His sister Drew Dortch, (the wife of Charlie Clark ) was on his registration card as next of kin.
Leonard was one of the first people I started asking about on my early visits to Mecklenburg; asking if people knew where he lived or anything about his family. I’m a descendant of Charles’ sister, Theresa India Dortch. Leonard’s parents and brothers were buried in the Perkinson, Smelley, Walker family cemetery off Country Club Rd. Drew was buried by her husband in a veteran cemetery in Richmond. I met Ray Hines who told me he was good friends with Leonard. Ray told me he was at Leonard’s funeral and the burial was at Crestview in 1988. He also helped me ID some of the people in the pictures. I’m told Charles Dortch had a farm off Route 1. (Or highway 1), and that Leonard was raised there.
All of the pictures in this post were shared with me, by Jamie Malagorski.
Roy Jones with his wife Bertha and children Evelyn and baby Leroy.
Julie’s note: Robert Leroy Jones, known as Roy Jones was a soldier in WWI. It was not an experience he wanted to talk about, which I think is an important story too. Don Bell told me, “When I was in the Army he’d always ask me ‘how many boys are in the camp?’ I told him we had women in the camp too. Uncle Ashly Thompson was also in war and lost an arm in combat. Like most veterans of extreme combat, they did not talk about it. I served 20 years and know this to be true.” Don Bell told me had a long history of veterans in his family. I asked him to tell me so I could put these stories with Roy Jones’s military spotlight. Pictures and stories of this post are shared by Don Bell. I made this chart to go along with the people from Richard Jones family that Don wrote about below. Thank you Don!
I’ll try to put this in the perspective of my ancestors on my mother’s side of the family, the Joneses. Also will include spouses who served in WWI or II.
Edward Jones was injured and in hospital a few times during the war. He was in the 14th VA, Co F. He was released from Point Lookout Prison in Maryland 14 Jun 1865. His muster roll said he was 5 foot, 7 inches tall. He had light complexion, dark eyes and dark hair.
Edward’s son Richard was my great grandfather and with his second wife, Martha Alice Malone, they had seven children. I will list them below and provide a short description of military service as I understand it.
1. Charles Edward Jones born July 6, 1884. I have no record of service in WWI. He did have a son, John Barner Jones who was drafted into WWII at the age of 36. He served in Italy and Africa and apparently saw some combat but due to injuries was given an admin job behind the lines. He became the driver for wartime correspondent, Ernie Pyle, and drove for him for a while. Pyle later returned to the US to cover the Pacific Theater and was killed at Okinawa.
2. Grace Ellen Jones. Of course she didn’t serve nor did her husband. She had a son, Richard Davies Walker. During WWII he served with the 1329th Service Command at Camp Patrick Henry. He was an MP (military police). Camp Patrick Henry served as a Prisoner of War Camp and Davies Walker guarded German prisoners.
3. Boyd Beasley Jones was born July 1889. I remember him well. He served in WWI with the 28th Infantry Division, L Company, 110th Infantry regiment. I have read somewhere that my Uncle Boyd and my grandfather, Roy, trained at Camp Lee Virginia near the beginning of the war. During that time the Spanish Flu was a pandemic. One of my relatives went to Camp Lee, now Fort Lee, to visit them but could not because they were in quarantine. Don’t we know?
4. Frank Vernon Jones, October 1891, was not drafted and did not serve in WWI. His son, Weldon Edward Jones served in WWII with the Ninth Air Force 1944-46, Germany and France.
5. Robert LeRoy Jones, June 1894, my grandfather served in WWI with the 30th Infantry Division. I do know that he served in combat but would not talk about it. His son and my uncle Vernon Leroy Jones, deceased, served in the Korean War at the battle of Chosin Reservoir. It was one of the most gruesome fights of that war. It occurred in the dead of winter and in addition to battling 120,000 Chinese, they fought freezing cold. My uncle came back from Korea missing a finger. I think it was frostbite.
6. Rosa Jones, May 1887 married Ashley Thompson who served in WWI. He was wounded and lost an arm. Due to this he received a medical disability pension. That actually made him appear wealthy especially during the great depression. I remember fondly my Uncle Ashley. When I was a teenager he would take me hunting and fishing with him. He adapted to one arm being able to shoot a double barrel shot gun and he rigged his fishing gear for use with one hand. When I was old enough to drive, he brought he along more because it was hard to drive with one arm.
7. Henry Richard Jones, March 1900 was the youngest of my great uncles. He was not drafted nor did he have children.
That is the story as I know it. My father Floyd Bell Jr. and my uncle Arthur Bell, both deceased, served in the Navy during WWII. My dad was on a destroyer escort and my uncle was assigned to a hospital ship. My dad didn’t see combat not did my uncle. But, being a small world, they “bumped” into each other in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during war. My Dad’s CO allowed him to visit with his brother on the hospital ship for a one day liberty.
I guess that it is not surprising that I followed all that with a 20 year career in the Army. When I signed up for ROTC at the University of Richmond in 1965, I knew very little of the family history. I guess the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree.
My father was William P. Bullock and in WW2 he served in the Army Air Corps. He was born in Denniston, Halifax County, VA, in 1916. His mother was Bessie Tingin Bullock and her parents were Presly Tingen and Mary Griffin. They were mostly associated with Halifax County, but the family also resided in Mecklenburg and Brunswick Counties.
Julie’s note: Submitted and written by Sandra Shortridge. Thank you Sandra for sharing your picture and telling us about your father!
Henry Clay Kidd was a wounded WWI veteran. He stayed awhile in a European hospital recovering. Henry was gassed badly during the war. It affected his lungs and skin for the rest of his life. He returned to the United States Apr 1919.
I met Elva Kidd White two months ago (Mar 2020). She showed me this picture (above) of her father. I asked Elva what she did as a teenager for dating or courting. She answered me, “Nothing! My father said I wasn’t allowed to date!” She did not date until after she left home and moved to Richmond. Elva knew Warren White when she was younger. They wrote eachother letters during WWII. I asked Elva how her parents met. She said she didn’t know, that wasn’t the type of question they could really ask. Adults found it intrusive or too personal. This is Elva’s parents: Henry Clay Kidd and Susie Littleton Seymour’s wedding picture. They married 1 Mar 1923, in Brodnax. (Brodnax is a town partly in Mecklenburg County, partly in Brunswick County)
Henry Kidd owned a store in South Hill. At first, Henry’s family lived in town; then they moved to the country to have a farm. Their farm supplied the store with produce, milk etc… Elva told me she never felt hungry. They were always well fed and did well financially during the Depression. Her father tried to help people with jobs, and tried to be a good and fair employer. On Sundays, Henry’s family went to church, then visited with his wife’s family in Brodnax. They had a car, electricity, and a phone at home and also at the store long before more rural parts of Mecklenburg had these luxuries. Elva wrote in her family history memoirs book, “Even during the Depression, I always had plenty of food and the clothing I needed. My father didn’t even finish the grammar grades, but had beautiful handwriting, was a hard worker, and provided for his family. He worked on Saturday nights until midnight, but never worked on Sundays. He started with asthma when he was in his early 40’s: A result of the mustard gas and trench warfare of WWI”
Above is the ship manifest showing Henry coming home to his father Charles Kidd, in Bracey, VA. Charles would have been married to Lucy Burton then, (1919) living on highway 903 in Bracey. Henry Kidd was the sister of Nancy Kidd. Two of Nancy’s sons (Charles and Aubrey Tudor) have been the last two veteran spotlights on this website. Here is a chart showing Henry’s branch of the family. This download is a PDF size 8.5×11.
I’m very thankful to Elva’s sons, Brent & Randall White, for helping me meet Elva and get copies of these pictures. The White family has done an amazing, truly impressive job, preserving older pictures and stories!
