By Sinead Juday

When Susan Grubbs first started coaching softball for Clarke County High School, the field was “too small and behind the Presbyterian church with only a few benches and rusty backstop,” says her sister, Kim Braithwaite. Now, many years later, the new and enhanced softball field is dedicated to their father, Charles O. Grubbs, who was responsible for these improvements.

In the spring of 2001, the Clarke County High School softball field was first dedicated to Charles. Recently, a ceremony was held to rededicated the field to Grubbs following his death in October. On March 10, his family, friends, and the Clarke community gathered to celebrate the significant improvements that Grubbs had made, not only to the Clarke County High School softball field and program, but to the lives of many people.

After retiring in 1992, Grubbs took on the task of fixing up the Clarke County High School softball field. He spent most of his newfound free time soliciting people to assist him in upgrading the field and seeking out more who could help fund these improvements so the softball program wouldn’t have to bear all of the cost. Grubbs helped lead the way to build the visitor’s dugout, the concession stand, and the press box while also improving the backstop and repairing the batting cage. These renovations have helped to enhance both the Clarke County High School softball field and the softball program.

Grubbs, however, did not expect nor need to be recognized for all the work he put into this project. When the field was first dedicated, it came as a surprise to Grubbs. Although he took great pride in the softball field, the mere satisfaction of improving the field and helping softball program was enough for Grubbs. He took this on as a personal project.

As well as coordinating contributions for the softball program, he could often be seen mowing, digging holes, or trying to get water off the field himself. According to his family, Grubbs’ dedication to the field and joy for helping the softball program are some of the many virtues that possessed. These qualities are what inspired the decision to dedicate the softball field to Grubbs.

Charles Grubbs wasn’t the only one of his family to be involved in softball in Clarke County. With Grubbs as a role model, each member of the Grubbs family has shown enthusiasm to assist in bettering the Clarke softball programs. His daughter Susan Grubbs, who is currently a math teacher and softball coach, has been a part of the softball scene for many years. Kim Brathwaite, another of Grubbs’ daughters, has also been very involved with Clarke County Little League softball and baseball.

Because the majority of his family contribute to the Clarke County High School softball program,  many members were involved in the ceremony. His wife Shelby Grubbs threw the first pitch, and his grandchildren unveiled the new sign and scoreboard at the field. In addition to the scoreboard and sign, a chair with Grubbs’ jacket was displayed in the location where he often sat to watch the softball games.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Grubbs would often say. His passion for helping others is echoed in this frequently spoken phrase. Even in the last couple years of his life, Grubbs was always looking for a way to help his family and to help others. The entirety of the Clarke softball community and all of Clarke County will remember Charles Grubbs for his humility, his dedication and his love for serving others.

The Clarke County Farmer’s Market is starting strong this season with Furnace Mountain Band providing live music on opening day, Saturday, May 5. The market offers fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts and baked goods every Saturday morning, May through October, from 8am–12pm in the town parking lot on South Church Street in Berryville. Enjoy something new every week as produce comes into season.

The 2017 vendor list currently includes:

• Audley Farm
• Chef Eloy’s Kickin’ Salsa
• Chilly Hollow Farm
• Dwarf Hollow Farmstead  (starting 5/20)
• Encircle Design Jewelry (starting 5/13)
• Geo’s Joy
• Gina’s Pies
• Greenway Vista Farm & Nursery
• Life More Abundant Ranch (starting 5/27)
• Mackintosh Fruit Farm
• Magic 4 Maintenance
• Persimmon Ridge Farm
• Rooster Dirt Farm
• Shallowbrooke Farm
• The Baekehaus
• Tranco Farms Gardens
• MTO Kombucha
• Plant sales from Grafton students

Visit the market’s Facebook page for updates, or e-mail manager@clarkecountyfarmersmarket.com.

About Furnace Mountain

Though often overshadowed by Southwest Virginia and its famed Crooked Road, the Shenandoah Valley and Virginia’s northwestern counties have always been fertile ground for traditional music, and they continue to be home to many of its finest practitioners.

Furnace Mountain, named for a mountain near where all the members grew up, consists of some of the most innovative and gifted musicians in Virginia. With Aimee Curl on bass and vocals, Danny Knicely on mandolin and fiddle, Dave Van Deventer on fiddle, and Morgan Morrison on guitar, bouzouki, and vocals, the band creates music that is at times lively and raucous, with spirited fiddle melodies weaving in and around the powerful rhythms of the bass and bouzouki, and other times poignant and poetic, with sublime vocal harmonies beautifully interpreting some of the oldest songs ever written.

Furnace Mountain has performed throughout the world, from the Yangtze River in China to the banks of the Shenandoah River, where they are the host band of Watermelon Park Festival, held on the site of one of the very first bluegrass festivals, in 1965. Furnace Mountain plays music from the American Appalachian traditions, as well as original compositions and songs penned by their favorite songwriting friends.

Winchester, VA – The 2017 Virginia Humanities Conference (VHC) at Shenandoah University, to be held Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8, is titled “The Unbearable Humanities.” Sponsored by the university’s College of Arts & Sciences, this conference examines the concept of that which cannot be endured or tolerated—with scholars, activists, and students from a wide variety of disciplines and institutions.

VHC 2017 examines how and what kinds of knowledge the humanities produce that existing structures cannot bear; how and why approaches to this unbearableness that are grounded in the humanities are met with resistance; and, finally, how those in the humanities value, make use of, and respond to contemporary, and sometimes unbearable, issues.

“I am thrilled that Shenandoah University has the opportunity to host this year’s Virginia Humanities Conference,” said Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Jeff Coker, Ph.D. “We have a great number of diverse and interesting panel sessions for those attending, and those on the panels not only represent our fellow Virginia academic institutions, but institutions and organizations from across the country and around the world as well.”

Two events which are free and open to the public are associated with the conference:

Pressures of the Unbearable: A Critical Conversation, a keynote address given by Lauren Berlant and Lee Edelman, is held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 7, in Halpin-Harrison Hall, Stimpson Auditorium. Berlant, the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English at the University of Chicago, and Edelman, the Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University, are co-authors of “Sex, or the Unbearable” (2014). Read more about the keynote speakers below.

Can the 21st Century America Bear the Humanities?, a humanities panel discussion, is held from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 8, in Henkel Hall, Hester Auditorium; moderated by Dr. Coker. Participants include: David Bearinger, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities; Robert Ehrenreich, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; David Smith, Department of History, Baylor University; and Robert Townsend, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Those wishing to attend the full conference should visit vahumanitiesconference.org to register. Register by Tuesday, March 28, to avoid a late registration fee. For more information, contact the President of VHC 2017 and Shenandoah University Director of Gender & Women’s Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature Petra Schweitzer, Ph.D., at pschweit@su.edu or 540/545-7380.

 By Jesse Russell

In 1850 one of the most hotly contested court battles in the area, if not in the entire state of Virginia, began its long journey through the courts and was not resolved until 7 years later in 1857. What made this particular court case so unusual were not only the defendants but what they were defending. The defendants were slaves. Their argument was the most basic of human rights. Freedom.

In 1848, a large landholder and slave owner in the northwest part of Clarke County, died. His name was John Russell Crafton (1772-1848)* and in his will he not only left his 2,000 acres to be equally divided among his heirs, but he also named a large number of his slaves to be freed upon his death. Among those slaves named to be freed was a young black woman known only by the name of Juliet. She had known what was in the will, but she did not know that a later addendum to that will, known as the “Articles of Agreement,” had been added to the will June 13, 1842. It not only revoked their freedom, but instructed the heirs to sell the slaves upon Crafton’s death.

Juliet was not going to be deterred from her fight for freedom, and forced the heirs of Crafton’s estate to bring suit against Juliet and others who had refused to accept that Crafton had reversed his initial desire that she and others be freed.

It does seem odd that John Russell Crafton would have changed his mind about freeing these slaves. He had been raised by his mother’s family (his mother Ann Russell had died shortly after his birth) in Loudoun County, Va., and his grandmother had been a Quaker. As has been well documented, Quakers saw slavery as immoral. It would have been natural that John Russell Crafton would have been, at least in part, influenced by his grandmother. Although he had been a slave owner, there may have been a residual guilt of owning another human, and to rectify such he therefore made the late moral decision to free his slaves upon his death.

In 1839 John Russell Crafton had provided in his will the freedom of his slaves and any children that may be born prior to his death. Their names, with their ages as given in 1850, were as follows: Juliet (35), Moses(30), Amanda(17), Fanny(16), Harriett(13), Marshall(12) and all their children, named Rachael(4), Mary Jane(19), Granchison(8), Thomas(7), Wenny(4), Emily(2) and two infant children, one the child of Amanda and the other a child of Mary Jane. The total persons declaring their freedom was a total of 14 slaves.

Two years after John Russell Crafton’s death, the court case was filed in the Clarke County Court House by Bennett Russell, curator for the estate of John Russell Crafton. The year was 1850 and in 1851, the court was moved to Frederick County, Va. No doubt, the venue was changed by the request of the attorney representing Juliet and others. With Clarke County being a far larger slave-owning county than Frederick County per capita, and the fact that Bennett Russell, curator, was not only well known in Clarke County but was also a Gentleman Justice of the local courts, the attorney for Juliet did not feel that a fair trial could be had in the local court.

How Juliet was able to convince any local attorney to take their case is not known, but it does not seem possible that Juliet would have had the resources to pay an attorney. The local attorney who represented Juliet and the others was Richard Parker. The Parkers were an old family in Clarke County who had lived for several generations at their home between the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah River known as “The Retreat.” This stately old home still stands today and the development, Shenandoah Retreat, next to it was named for the home.

Thus began a court case that Cartmell’s book, “Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants” described as, “…a torturous course through the courts…..attracting large crowds of people to every trial.”

In the 1850s the abolitionist movement was reaching an all-time high. The winds of war were already being felt. The wealth of the South had been built upon the backs of slavery. Ending slavery meant ending their wealth and power. There was no doubt that the area residents, as well as others throughout Virginia, followed this court case with intense interest. How the court eventually ruled on this case would have reverberations throughout the land.

Slavery had from the beginning been questioned as a moral issue but now, a small but vital part of the slavery question was being addressed in a court of law. For the slaves involved in this court case, it was far more than a legal precedent. It was simply freedom versus continued bondage. For slave owners everywhere, the case was viewed as a possible chink in the legal armor of slavery laws. The court had already, knowingly or not, acknowledged the right of a slave’s voice to be heard in a court of law and question those who enslaved them.

John Russell Crafton was an old man in 1842 when these Articles of Agreement were signed and although my research has not yet proven so, there are questions as to the health and “soundness” of Crafton’s mind when he signed the Articles of Agreement — if indeed he had actually signed such an agreement. What is known, the courts took 7 years in which to answer this question. This was an unusual amount of time to spend in court for what many thought would be an open and shut case in favor of John Russell Crafton’s heirs.

In 1857, the court finally rendered a verdict. It was the court’s opinion that the Articles of Agreement was to be considered the Last Will and Testament of John Russell Crafton, thus ending the slaves historic and heroic 7-year battle for their freedom. Per the directive of the Articles of Agreement, the slaves were sold.

How could a man who initially had left his slaves their freedom turn around and not only revoke their freedom but make the decision to break this family up by selling them? The answer to this question will never be known for sure and we are left to only speculate.

Two years later, in 1859, a lanky, bearded man with intense eyes and severe countenance passed through this county, stopping at large estates to repair clocks. It has been said that he was often found conversing with slaves on the farms he visited. This strange and intense old man had, within months of passing through Clarke County, become the leader of a slave rebellion that ended in his capture after a short, but bloody, fight at Harpers Ferry. The old man’s name? John Brown.

John Brown’s trial was held in Charles Town, Va. (now West Virginia). The judge who presided over his trial and sentenced him to hang was none other than Richard Parker, the attorney who had for seven years fought for the freedom of John Russell Crafton’s slaves.

*John Russell Crafton’s father was Major Bennett Crafton from King William County, Virginia.  Other than the signing of his marriage bond and his Last Will and Testament, he informally went by the surname Russell. All of his children went by the surname Russell as they became adults. John Russell Crafton is the 3^rd great grandfather of the author of this story; and Bennett Russell was his 2^nd great grandfather. The name of the family farm was Rock Hall, and the old home first built as a log cabin and later added a stone wing was torn down in the early 1990s. A photo of the old home and Bennett Russell was taken in the late 1850s to 1862.