Evening star., 1949-07-28
IBork|ev Crowns Queen at CuIpeper Fete
By George Kennedy
>Stnr Stoff Cerrsspendsnt

monies GnaL Degdn WIN IHe CTOWH-
ing of one of its pretties girls
as queen of the bi-centennial by
Vice President Barkley.
This afternoon Gov. Tuck was
to review the biggest parade this
town has seen since the armies
of the Blue and Gray alternately
marched through its streets.
At $3.50 o'clock (EST) tonight
there will be a pageant, Under
Three Flags" telling the story OF
Culpeper's 200 years.
The crowning of Miss Lucyle
Dove Humphries, II. eighth gen.
Grafton decsendent of Robert
Green, one of the country's first
settlers, was carried out before
500 people in the blaze of noon.
Despite the heat there were only
two minor heat cases.
Princesses Called Prettiest.
Veteran observers said the prin-
cesses of the neighboring counties
who formed the royal court were
the prettiest ever selected Tor a
Virginia festival.
The Rev. Thomas w. Hooper,
Culpeper's Presbyterian minister,
acted as master of ceremonies.
Gov. Tuck had a place of honor
with Mr.. Barley on the stand in
front of the factory of Rochester
Ropes, Inc, Culpeper's big new
industry, which looks like a :oun-
try club.
Virginia's Senators Byrd and
Robertson were in the audience.
A band from the Quantico Marine
Corps Base played, while a guard
of honor of Marine Corps Junior
officers. immaculate in whites, and
the princesses paraded down the
slope carrying bouquets OF glad
iolas.
The story of Culpeper is to be
told tonight in the pageant. which
also will play tomorrow night.
Culpeper is named for Sir
Thomas Culpeper. Royal Governor
of Virginia in 1880 and OF the
same family as the unfortunate
Young man who over a century
before had been discovered as the
lover of Henry WIS fifth queen.
Pageant Played in Open.
The chilling war whoop OF In
dians again pierces the hot July
nights as the pageant opens with
scene at the great fork OF the
Rappahannock, played on an
open-air stage, marked off only
by a hedge of cut evergreens in
the playing field behind the high
school. The new county is decided
on in a second scene in the
Grange, the home of Robert
Slaughter. The surveyor arrives,
17-year-old George Washington,
the same man who measured Alex
andria. The first meeting, in July,
1749, of the Culpeper County
Court, the legislative body made
up of justices of the peace, Is
enacted.
Prof. Woodford B. Hackley. of
Richmond University. native OF
Culpeper wrote the play.
Culpeper was one of the Vir-
ginia counties that protested the
Stamp Act in 1765. The protest Of
its peace justices has been pre-
served and is printed in the SOU
venir program.
The pageant re-enacts the IT'S
mastering in of the Culpeper Min
ute Men, $50 strong, in green hunt
ing shirts, with Liberty or Death"
in large white letters on their
chests, and their marching away
to Williamsburg and the battle OF
Great Bridge near Norfolk behind
q flag with a big rattlesnake on 1t
and the warning. Don't Tread
on Me-"
All this is a prelude to the final
scenes of Culpeper under the third
nag, which still has the place Of
honor on the walls of Culpeper
homes, the Stars and Bars.
Big Scene in 1868.
The big scene is the night OF
June 8. 1868. The young officers
of the Confederacy and the pretty
young ladies of Culpeper are dane
ing. It is an historic incident and
parallels the ball in Brussels on
the night before Waterloo so men,
orably described by Thackeray in
Henry Esmond. With the music
still playing, a Confederate cour-
ier enters, covered with dust from
a hard ride. He looks for the man
he wants among the dancers and
then taps one on the shoulder. 1t
is j. E. B. Stuart's famous cavalry
scout, Frank Stringfellow. q son
of Culpeper. The courier informs
him that Hooker's cavalry has
crossed the Rappahannock. Maj.
Stringfellow calls his officers and
they leave for the battle of Brandy
Station a few miles east Of Cul-
peper.
That battle is a favorite Of cav
airy fans, and many call it the
greatest cavalry conflict in his
tory. There we're 10000 horse on
each side. Many of the young
men at the Culpeper party prob
ably suffered sabre wounds in
the melee. Hooker's cavalry was
commanded by Maj. Gen. Alfred
Pleasanton, a native of Washing
ton. They crossed the river in
reconnaissance in force to md
out whether Lee was preparing
Gs.TILL 81
, SAT-. ONLY