Years in Fredericksburg among 'the happiest in my life'

My parents came to Fredericksburg around 1951. My father had been a Christian Church minister, ordained in 1935 and his career had taken him to Richmond when he decided the doctrines of the Episcopal Church were stronger than what he'd been working with and he chose to leave the Christian Church, attend seminary and become an Episcopal minister.

Dad's ordination announcement
from the Free Lance Star, Dec. 1952.

My father was fully ordained on Dec. 17, 1952 and had already settled into the church located at the corner of Hanover and Prince Edward streets the previous year. The original congregation had begun in 1877 with just 36 communicants. The church was built in 1881 and had its first service on Christmas Day of the same year.

The rectory we lived in was right next door to the church at 706 Prince Edward Street. In 1952, I wasn't born yet, so it was my 11-year-old sister, Priscilla, 12 year-old brother, Jimmy, and my parents – within 2 years, my maternal great-grandmother joined the family having become too old to run her farm in rural Missouri.

My brother and sister spent their remaining school years in Fredericksburg. They had jobs, including my sister's weekly column at the Free Lance Star about the opinions of teenagers, while she was still in high school. Her old columns show the wonderful, dry sense of humor she had. They had dates, they had friends – some of whom have continued with their friendships to this day.

For years I've heard the stories from them both, mostly my sister – reflecting on numerous trips to Fairview Beach to party, back in a day when the drinking age was younger and kids learned to drive even younger than that. The Girl Scout stories still abound and during our trip back to Fredericksburg in 2003, we met with the now senior citizen classmates of my sister who were once young, giggling girls of the 1950s. They spent considerable time reminiscing and giggling about all their antics while Scouts.

Both Jim and Pris learned how to drive at the battlefield and living in old town Fredericksburg was simply a part of their young lives. They were surrounded by the wonderful Civil War and Revolutionary history that is such a deep part of Fredericksburg.

The family friends were old Fredericksburg names: Perry (Tommy) and Mary Louisa Thompson, Clyde and Virginia Myers, Dee and Charles Linton, Mickey and Sam Jamison, R.H. Brooks (Brooksie) the Brauers, Ida and A. Roy Beck, Waldo and Mooney Beck, Lem Houston, Duval Dickinson and so very many more. They've all passed on now and are just a warm memory.

Dad became the 15th rector of Trinity Episcopal Church on Sept. 15, 1951. In March 1953, Dad wrote to the bishop of Virginia, Rt. Rev. F. Goodwin about the possibility of moving the church from its current location to where the church exists today – to "better serve the community and college." He'd received approval from the vestry the evening before and at that time, the church with 245 communicants had no debt.

And so began the fundraising.

On March 16, 1955, the congregation voted 54 to 14 for the resolution presented to move Trinity Episcopal Church from Hanover and Prince Edward streets to the College Heights area.

On Aug. 1, 1955, Dad was informed he would also be the new chaplain for the college students at Mary Washington College.

The land was soon purchased with the help of John Jamison, an attorney, with the plans for the new building and the fundraising continuing  through 1956-7. By early 1959, the building committee had already raised $20,166.02.

The architects were to be R. Fleming and C.D. Hurt, Jr., from Waynesboro, Virginia. On the third Sunday in Advent in December 1958, the cornerstone of the new church was laid at the corner of William Street and College Avenue with Bishop Goodwin present, my Dad, Senior Warden Perry Thompson and Junior Warden Sam Jamison, as well as Charles Linton who was the building chairman, along with members of the choir.

Unfortunately, my father would not remain at Trinity and with heavy hearts, he, Mom and myself left Fredericksburg on April 1, 1959 for a calling to a parish in Elizabeth, NJ. My sister remained behind to complete her senior year at James Monroe High School and my brother was already attending Murray State College in Kentucky.

According to the "History of Trinity Episcopal Church," 1877-2001, during my father's 8-year tenure: "Mr. Rains doubled the membership at Trinity, parish income tripled and the new church building was near completion."

Dad returned to Fredericksburg for the first service in the new church he had so lovingly mentored on Sept. 13, 1959.

Despite having left Fredericksburg in 1959, as mentioned in previous blogs, we continued to rent the small cabin on "the river" in King George close to Chatterton. As the years progressed and I grew older, I became fond of those old Fredericksburg folks, from Ida Beck, who was my godmother, to the Myers', on whose farm I spent many a delightful day, to the church picnics down at the river and occasional visits from church folk as they visited with my parents.

My Dad had a knack for leadership in stewardship that was present throughout his career in both the Christian Church and Episcopal Church. We remained in Elizabeth until 1964, when he took another Trinity Episcopal in south Jersey – Vineland – a large farming community, where my parents would remain until July 1976.

With both Mom and Dad from Missouri, they decided that with their youngest now in college, it was time to return to their roots. Dad took a small church in historic Lexington, Missouri – a small city known for it's own Civil War battle (The Battle of the Hemp Bales, which the Confederacy won) and the occupation of Union troops throughout the remainder of the war – including the surrender of most of the guerrillas – Jesse and Frank James included.

It was in Lexington where Dad retired in 1980, but it was throughout western Missouri where he continued to preach God's word as an interim priest for the next 20 years until his health prevented him. My mother passed away in 1982, just a few months after her dear friend, Ida Beck of Fredericksburg, also passed. My father died in February 2002, telling me in his last days that he had spent his life serving the Lord and he couldn't wait to finally meet him.

At some point during his retirement, Dad wistfully wrote about his time in Fredericksburg. Not only had my mother enjoyed her new friends, their hospitality and being welcomed into their fold, but Jim and Pris had enjoyed their middle- and high-school years in the '50s and made many lifelong friends there. I was too young – only 3 when we moved away – but thanks to all those years at the river and visiting in Fredericksburg, I had nearly as many memories as my family.

Yet Dad described it best, "living in Fredericksburg was the happiest in my life. The people there [are] the most truly Christian group of people it has ever been my privilege to know."