Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-25
TWO OLD y PITFALLS,
jamestown and Williamsburg Virginia
as Seen, Today.
years ago.


1t is one thing to read a statement
of fact in history: it is quite another
to see with your own eyes the visible
testimony of that fact. The testimony
may be in the form of buildings, old or
even ruined. 1t is silent testimony;
but it is eloquent of the life of the past
AMI yerifies the bygone into present
realization. 1t embodies the magma
ton that is stirred into activity by
retrospect.
That is the reflection suggested by
recent visit to jamestown, Va, and to
Williamsburg, its successor as the seat
of government of the Virginia colony,
and the site of the Oldest college in the
country that has grown to be the i'm
pelial republic Of the United States.
jamestown, the first English settlement
in America. was upon an island on the
northern side of the James river. 1
say was" because there is no longer
a jamestown upon that island. In
deed jamestown, as a social, organized
entity, ceased to exist more than two
centuries ago; for malarial conditions
caused the removal of the settlement
to Williamsburg, several miles inland
and northward, which became the capt.
tai of the colony in 1899. 1t is not
strictly accurate, either, to speak of
jamestown as the FIRST English set
tlenent in America. There was an
earlier shipload of English immi-
grants who debarked upon Roanoke
Island. several years before. No man
knows whatever became of those
Roanoke pioneers. A ship bringing
them supplies found the island desert
cd. and it is supposed that the handful
of whites was absorbed in one of the
North Carolina today have a tradition
and some evidence of an infusion of
Anglo-Saxon blood.
But to return to Jamestown, which
was really the first English settlement
to persist, even though it was not to be
permanent in it's location. Founded in
1901. it artedated the Plymouth settle
ment by thirteen years, and it's exist
ence upon the bank of the James en-
dured practically until the end of that
century, or during the lives of three
generations Upon that island all that
now remains of Jamestown are the
tower and the foundations of the walls
of a second and larger church, upon the
same site and surrounding the first
foundation. What memories do these
ruins. with the graves in the shaded
churchyard, suggest. One calls to
mind instantly the radical theological
difference between the jamestown and
the Plymouth settlements; the first
Anglican, ritualstic, preserving the
. g a
that: the second Puritan, severe, SIM
| pie independent of the English estab-
| lishment. Yet We're the two settle
ments of intimate political kinship in
| the origin; for the Massachusetts
colony was founded technically under
| the charter of the Virginia Company of
London. ard the formal declaration,
| drawn and signed in the cabin of the
| MGyfiower, includes a reference to the
| charter of John Carver's band to oc-
cupy land in Virginia.
Upon the occasion of our visit to this
jamestown church there was exhibited
to US the original communion service,
fnOW preserved in the Williamsburg
successor to this church. 1t bears the
| royal arms and is of beaten silver,
| consisting of a tall cup and two plates.
Several Of our company touched these
ancient vessels reverently. Outside in
the graveyard we deciphered some of
the old, old inscriptions, all Of them
bearing craven witness to the faith of
these Virginia pioneers in that Joyful
Resurrection" which they still silently
await.
The James river. whose yeuo- cur
| traT1J1iiIN a
few score yards away from the ruin
is slowly undermining the clay bank
of the island. The government has
built sea wall for some distance above
the site of the church; but an addi-
| tiOna appropriation is needed from
| Congress to finish this protective work
| There is also n project to induce the
| government to acquire the entire
island and make of it a national re-
| serve. thus commemorating the FIRST
| English settlement" At present the
island is cultivated by private owner
as a tobacco farm, although some five
acres, Immediately about the church
ruins are owned by the Incorporated
association for the preservation of Vir-
ginia antiquities. The approaching
jamestown exposition, to be held near
Norfolk in 1907, will attract wide pub
lie attention to this somewhat neg
lected landmark of earliest ERslRnseiv-
ilization in America.
OF more vivid interest is a pilgrima -
to Williamsburg, the immediate sue
cessor to Jamestown. Williamsburg is
on tbs line of railway between Rich
moad and Old Point Comfort. and. is
therefore of comparativeiS easys ac-
cess. The ancient town preserves many
relics of it's origin. It's main highway.
Duke of Gloucester street, is exactly
one mile long, as originally SURVEYED
AT one end of this street is William
and Mary College; at the other is the
site of the colonial capital, where met
the House of Burgesses, the beginning
Of it's Atlantic parliamentary govern
ment; where Patrick Henry delivered
not his utterance of give me Inert
or give me DEATH spoken later at
Richmond, but in 1865 his speech de-
nouneing the stamp act, in which he
warned George III. that Caesar had his
Brutus, and where, in 1776 the colonial
convention declared for Independence
The side streets of WILLIAMSBURG