Evening star., 1936-03-16
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Inc story OF The SCTdDge laCe VI oilC
of the historic shrines Of America
has been patched together during the
past few weeks by Resettlement Ad-
ministration engineers. The aban-
doned village Of Appomattox Court
House happens to fall within one OF
their largest land reclamation prof.
ects. They are planning to restore 1t
as a national park, and consequently
want to know what has become of 1t.
Some of the historic old county
seat where the Civil War ended is still
left. There is the brick tavern now
used as a dwelling house, the jail
which hasn't had an inmate for hall
a century, two or three homes, some
cellar holes overgrown with weeds, and
a few solitary brick chimneys. But
they couldn't find any trace OF the
brick Mclean house where the actual
surrender took place.
The last authentic report they could
get was that it had been torn down
and partially Grated for shipping to
the Chicago World Fair, So years ago.
There it was to be rebuilt as mid
way attraction. For some reason or
other it had never been moved. The
timbers remained Grated, the bricks
stacked in neat piles. Apparently no
body owned it. A farmer in the
neighborhood acted as a sort Of un-
oficial custodian.
Brick Pile Disappears.
Old folks in the neighbohood re-
membered that up to about 10 years
ago there had been a considerable
stack of bricks on the site. NOBODY
paid any attention to them, except
occasional Civil War veterans and
their families who came back to visit
the old war scene. There were not
many of them in those days. The old
court house was out Of the way for
casual tourists.
It used to be the regular practice
to take O brick, or whittle on bit
of the timber for q souvenir. Some
small boys in the neighborhood used
to sell a brick now and then to espe-
cially gullible visitors for candy
money. Still the pile went down very
slowly. It had been a big. old brick
house.
Then came good roads and a much
greater influx of tourists. All the
Young folks were anxious to help
themselves to a brick from the place
grandpa had told them about. Now
a fine-combing of the site has failed
to uncover a single brick. The OLD
house is scattered from Maine to
California.
J. P. Andrews, director Of the big
gest Virginia resettlement project
would like to have some OF those
bricks back-and no questions asked.
There must be several hundreds OF
them. he believes, still extant among
family curios.
The ruined village, thriving place
when the armies of Lee and Grant
converged there at the end of the war.
forms the gateway to the 30,0o0-acre
Appomattox- Buckingham forest prof.
ect of the Resettlement Administra-
ton. approximately $50 families
have been moved from wornout TO-
bacco and cutover forest land, where,
practically since the Civil War, they
and their fathers have lived in miser-
able. isolated shacks tilling nearly
sterile soil with half-starved horses.
At a cost of $4,000 to the Govern
ment most of the Land has been ac-
ouired and. with a large force Of local
w. P. A. workers. Is being converted
into q forest park. Roads are being
built. dams constructed to make artif1-
cial trout ponds and bathing places,
substantial log cabins erected and
streams stocked with fish and the
woods with game. underbrush cleared
away, good timber trees planted 70
repla e scrub growth. When finished
1t is expected to provide playground
for the people of three cities, which
at present have no park facilities
within driving distance. The Re-
settlement Administration is laying
out Fairgrounds and group camp sites
Plans are under way to allow people
to lease tracts and build their own
cabins.
Dismal Spot at Present.
At present it is dismal place In
a rather dismal countryside. The
Aupomattox countryside was settled by
one of the first westward migrations
| of the Virginia settlers. It was q
thriving land in the old tobacco days
The big planters didn't realize how
rapidly their soil was being worn out
especially with the inefficient slave
labor. Ruthlessly forests were felled
and the land turned over to tobacco
and corn, without much regard for
its quality.
Then came the Civil War and the
surrender at Appomattox. The blight
of that surrender has grown heavier
and heavier with the passing years
The planters couldn't till the land
themselves. They didn't have money
to hire anybody to till 1t for them
So they leased it or sold it to their
| former slaves or white foremen. These
didn't have any capital for intelligent
agriculture. They drained the land
worse than 1t ever had been drained
before.
There was considerable timber left
One way to increase income was to
sell railroad ties. The trees were cut
largely on a "shore-crop" basis. They
| grew more and more scraggly. Finally
a single tree would yield only a single
sleeper. The rest Of 1t was left where
it had fallen. Forest fires swept over
the area. With their trees gone. the
tenants and owners tried desperately
to get a bare living out Of corn and
tobacco. The law of diminishing re-
turns set in. They couldn't afford to
let fields rest.
Then came erosion-both gully
erosion and sheet erosion. The top
soil was washed into the river. Large