The Free-Lance Star
Date published: 11/27/2004

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/112004/11272004/1581600/index_html?page=1

Grand mansion is lost to time

A long driveway leads to Travellers' Rest, off Kings Highway in Stafford County. The land on which the house was later built was originally owned by Col. James Ball in 1700. The site was documented for the WPA Virginia Historical Inventory in 1938.

VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE ARCHIVES
John Bowie Gray III was born at Travellers' Rest in 1846. A cadet at Virginia Military Institute when the Civil War broke out, he fought in the Battle of New Market in 1864. Later, Gray returned home to farm and breed livestock.


KINGS HIGHWAY in eastern Stafford County was once the site of numerous estates and manor houses whose lawns sloped gracefully down to the river's edge of the Rappahannock. Flat lands and fields of corn spread out gracefully on either side of this highway leading to Northern Neck.
Not all of these grand homes remain standing today. Travellers' Rest--one of the grandest--is just a memory, its grounds once used as a sand-and-gravel company's site. In its prime, the house was the center of hospitality. Legend is that there was prominently displayed the sentiment "Enter ye weary, no matter whence you came and whither you go, and have rest." Today, the site, about five miles from the Chatham Bridge near Sherwood Forest, sits deserted and radically changed due to years of excavation, its only remaining feature an overgrown and hidden old cemetery.

Travellers' Rest evolved throughout the years from a somewhat small Colonial home to a grand mansion with beautiful gardens laid out in formal patterns by an English landscape gardener.
The land upon which Travellers' Rest sat was owned by Col. James Ball of Bewdley in Virginia in 1700. This tract was originally a portion of the massive Sherwood Forest property granted to William Ball and Thomas Chetwood in 1667. In 1754, Ball willed the Travellers' Rest property to his grandson, Col. Burgess Ball. Burgess Ball built a two-story brick home with dormer windows in a style popular at the time. The chimneys of this structure were unique in that they were situated so that the fireplaces were in the corners of each room instead of in the center of the wall, as was the usual design.

Burgess Ball married twice, first to Mary Chichester and later to his cousin, Frances Washington. He was a staunch supporter of the Colonists during the Revolutionary War, serving in the military first as a captain with the 5th Regiment of Virginia and later as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Virginia Regiment Infantry of the Continental Army. In 1776, he organized, equipped and clothed an infantry regiment for the Continental Line.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, Ball returned to Travellers' Rest, where he continued to offer hospitality to those who visited. The government refused to reimburse Ball for his financial and personal investment in the war efforts, and soon his remaining finances vanished. His health and fortune destroyed, Ball sold Travellers' Rest to Thomas Garnett and retired to Springwood, his rustic farm in Loudoun County, where he died in 1800 at the age of 50.

Travellers' Rest is listed as owned in 1800 by the widow of Thomas Garnett. The Widow Garnett married Richard Tutt. John Gray, Esquire, of Port Royal, held a mortgage on the property. When the house was put up for sale on Aug. 10, 1809--to settle Thomas Garnett's estate--Gray purchased it.
In 1815, a wing was added, comprising a long hallway, a cellar, an entryway and three rooms on the first floor, with a hall and two rooms on the second floor. This structure featured dormer windows on the second floor and also featured eight "cuddies" (small closets under the eaves). The addition featured a porch, two doors and a basement entrance, as well.
John Gray, a native of Gartcraig, Scotland, came to America in 1784 and settled at Port Royal in Caroline County. He married Lucy Robb of Port Royal. Lucy Robb was instrumental in the design and layout of the terraced gardens of Travellers' Rest. The gardens were a showcase of landscape design, and renowned for their great beauty. They featured a gravel walkway that led to a long flight of stone steps that reached the river's edge. The front roadside portion of Travellers' Rest's expansive grounds was equally well-designed. The entrance avenue stretched a half mile from the highway, with large cedar trees flanking either side. Legend is that it was considered one of the finest entryways in the area.

John Gray also purchased Wakefield, the birthplace of President George Washington, from George C. Washington in 1813. Gray's son Atcheson Gray resided there with his bride, Catherine Willis, the daughter of Henry Willis of Fredericksburg, and operated the farm. Atcheson died of malaria at Wakefield within a few months of his wedding, and is buried in the Gray family cemetery at Travellers' Rest.

After the death of Atcheson Gray, his father sold Wakefield and gave his widow, Catherine, a large settlement from the estate. Catherine had spent a lot of her time traveling to and from Florida, and her father also traveled to Florida on an annual basis. So, after her husband's death, Catherine moved to Florida where she soon met Prince Archbulle Murat, the son of the exiled King of Naples. They wed, and she lived in Florida with him until his death in 1847. Catherine thus became the first American princess.

 

She traveled back home frequently, often visiting relatives at Travellers' Rest during her stays in the area. Catherine died in 1867, and lies beside her husband in their family plot in Tallahassee, Fla.
John B. Gray inherited Travellers' Rest and its surrounding acreage in 1854. He wed Jane Moore Carr of Fredericksburg. He pulled down the original house and added a large three-story addition to the 1815 wing. This new structure also featured a cellar. A long central hallway ran the length of each floor.

Each floor featured four rooms with the exception of the first floor, which had a long parlor on one side, running 40 feet with a bay window overlooking the riverbank and gardens. A one-story square wooden porch was built on the front and back of the house. In the end, Travellers' Rest had 22 rooms, eight hallways and 13 closets.

John Gray presented a silver communion service to St. George's Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg in 1827. The family name was engraved on each piece of silver. The service was stolen during the turbulent times of the War Between the States, but eventually the pieces were redeemed and returned to Fredericksburg.

Travellers' Rest sat at a strategic site during the Civil War. Its location to the north of the town of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County resulted in its being used frequently by Yankee troops during their long occupation of Stafford County.

John Bowie Gray III was born at Travellers' Rest May 30, 1846, and was educated at Fredericksburg Academy and then at the University of North Carolina, which he attended only two months before becoming a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute in September 1863. During the Civil War, Gray fought in the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864, where he switched places with another soldier who was subsequently killed.

Gray's mother is believed to have been heavily involved in spying operations in Stafford during the war. Union provost marshal Marsena Patrick, one of the more "gentle" of the Yankee officers encamped in southern Stafford, gave in his memoirs his impression of exactly where Mrs. Gray's true alliance (with the South) lay.

At war's end, Gray returned to VMI, where he graduated ninth in a class of 11. The original class consisted of 295, but the war had taken its toll, and 181 of the cadets were later given honorary degrees.

In November 1870 he married Mary Hunter and settled into a quiet life as a farmer and livestock breeder. Mary was the daughter of Maj. Bushrod Washington Hunter of Alexandria. The couple had four children. In 1890, Gray purchased all interests in Travellers' Rest and its surrounding acreage.

John Bowie Gray was a dedicated businessman, who was proud of the fact that he raised "Purebred Jersey and Short Horn Cattle Pure Cotswold Sheep and Registered Poland China Swine," which he shipped to Germany, Cuba and "all the Southern states."

He retained close ties to VMI and worried in 1889 that he would not be able to attend the school's semi-centennial ceremonies as they were taking place during his "busy season" at the farm.
His schedule created the same sort of problem in 1914, but Gray was able to attend a meeting of the VMI cadets and the Marines at New Market in 1923.

Some of Gray's personal effects were contributed to the museum at Virginia Military Institute by his family after his death. These items include his textbooks; a cherished, spent bullet from New Market; and some buttons.

Tramps became a problem at some time during Gray's residency at Travellers' Rest, and, as a result, he redesigned the road to extend its distance from the highway. This revision doubled the entryway's length from a half mile to a full mile. Evidently, this change did not diminish the attractiveness of the avenue in the least.

Mary Gray died on May 10, 1920, and John Bowie Gray III died at Travellers' Rest on Oct. 8, 1930. He and his wife rest in the family cemetery there.

John Lee Pratt, best known as the final private owner of Chatham, bought Travellers' Rest from Gray's estate in 1930, originally intending to use the mansion as his personal home. But sadly, Travellers' Rest had been built upon sandy soil, being so close to the river's edge, and was beginning to suffer from severe structural difficulties. The foundation was cracking and sinking and, after extensive study, it was decided that collapse of the structure was imminent and that it was not possible to save the old home.

Pratt was unable to live there, and the mansion sat empty for some years before collapsing, leaving nothing to mark the site other than large numbers of old bricks and the depression where the cellars once stood.

Robert Gray, brother of John Bowie Gray III, used the bricks from Travellers' Rest to add a wing to his home, Eastwood, which still exists.

Travellers' Rest was documented for the Works Progress Administration's Virginia Historical Inventory in January 1938. The WPA photographs show the house from a distance, with a large tree blocking the front roadside façade, but the mansion is still impressive. One photograph gives a view of the gardens; at that time, they were still in place. Some of the cedar trees still lined the driveway into the site.

To the south of the mansion site was the Gray Cemetery, which still exists. Pratt purchased Chatham Manor shortly after purchasing the Travellers' Rest estate. He bought Chatham in 1931 for $150,000, restoring it to the elegant mansion and beautifully landscaped site that remains today.

Pratt was born in King George County in 1879 in humble circumstances. His career began simply enough as a clerk in a Fredericksburg farm-equipment store. He became interested in mechanics and attended the University of Virginia, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1902. He began working as an engineer for DuPont Corp. in 1905, and moved to General Motors in 1919. He quickly rose to become a corporate vice president in 1922. He was elected to GM's board of directors and served from 1923 until 1968. He retained his title of vice president until 1937.

Pratt served the nation in many capacities, including on the federal government's War Resources Board under President Franklin Roosevelt prior to World War II and the Land Lease Administration.
Pratt socialized with the highest elected officials of his time. He and his wife had excellent taste in both art and architecture. Though simple and unimposing upon first sight, the Pratts were well-known philanthropists. They donated millions to universities and other charitable organizations. Mrs. Pratt's collection of Czar Nicholas jewels, including her exquisite Faberge egg collection, is now permanently in place at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

Chatham and its surrounding acreage was donated to the National Park Service upon John Lee Pratt's death on Dec. 20, 1975.

The fate of his other estate, Travellers' Rest, was not so fortunate. Although the house held on for many years after being declared unsafe for habitation, it finally collapsed.

The Travellers' Rest property was purchased for use as a sand-and-gravel excavation site in the last century, and the grounds of the grand old mansion were radically changed. Today, the site sits abandoned, with only some old bricks scattered upon the ground and the family cemetery remaining to verify the estate's once-magnificent existence.

NEXT WEEK: The Gray family cemetery
 

Intrepid researcher braves the brambles to uncover the secrets of old cemeteries.

By Donna Chasen

Lost-cemetery research daunting, but rewarding
The Free-Lance Star

Date published: 12/4/2004

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/122004/12042004/News/FLS/2004/122004/12042004/1581602

LOCATING AND documenting cemeteries is not a task for the weak of heart. Very few older cemeteries are easily accessible by automobile. They may have some weathered old headstones, but quite a few of the much older sites may have graves marked only by fieldstones with no exact method of determining who is buried where.

I am currently working on documenting three family cemeteries in Nelson County and two other distantly related cemeteries, along with one abandoned church graveyard there as well. The walk to one of these involves driving 12 miles around and through surrounding mountains, then parking and walking another 3 miles up steep abandoned mountain roads to the cemetery site. The task requires fierce determination, but the results are greatly rewarding when one finally locates long-abandoned graveyards with their poignantly simple stone markings. To actually stand at the final resting places of long-gone relatives is well worth the strenuous journey.

My trek to the Gray cemetery at Travellers' Rest was much closer to home, but the task of finding it was no less daunting. On my third try, I climbed, stumbled and slid through miles of Rappahannock riverbank property, being scratched, bruised and whacked by small branches and, more painfully, thousands of the tiny little thorn bushes that thrive so abundantly along the river's edge.

More than once, I was threatened with the loss of a shoe as I pulled my foot from the ground only to have my shoe print fill immediately with groundwater. After 3 hours of hiking through the area, I came upon an indentation in the ground with significant brick scatter. This generally indicates the location of a house or similar structure. Continuing just a short distance farther, I came upon the Gray cemetery. The site was well worth the effort, and to find it still basically intact was a great surprise. To actually see the final resting sites of people whose names I have come across during my research on the area made the story of Travellers' Rest all the more meaningful.

Luckily, the cemetery was thoroughly documented during the 1930s for the WPA Virginia Historical Inventory program, as many of the stones have now weathered to the point that quite a few of the inscriptions are now illegible. Two new graves have been added since that time, the newest being that of Alymer Gray, the spinster daughter of John Bowie Gray, who died in 1969.

Physically, the memories of the long hike to the graveyard are still with me. I was pulling small twigs from my hair for the remainder of the evening and bear enough scratches to make one think I had tangled with a bobcat along the way. Two days later, my bones and joints ache tremendously and the jury is still out on whether the small marks on my hands will blossom into full-fledged poison oak, but I would make the journey again in a heartbeat!

DONNA CHASEN is a member of the board of directors of the Spotsylvania Preservation Foundation and a founding member of the Fredericksburg Regional Preservation Trust.

NOTE* Travellers' Rest was documented for the Works Progress Administration's
Virginia Historical Inventory in January 1938. The WPA photographs show the
house from a distance, with a large tree blocking the front roadside façade, but the mansion is still impressive. One photograph gives a view of the gardens; at that time, they were still in place. Some of the cedar trees still lined the driveway into the site.

Luckily, the cemetery was thoroughly documented during the 1930s for the WPA
Virginia Historical Inventory program, as many of the stones have now weathered to the point that quite a few of the inscriptions are now illegible. Two new graves have been added since that time, the newest being that of Alymer Gray, the spinster daughter of John Bowie Gray, who died in 1969.