Willa Cather and Jeremiah Smith
Two stories in the Winchester Star appeared about Willa Cather.
On Monday 5/15/2023 in Winchester Star's Monday series, "Out of the Past . . .", Willia Cather was awarded Sunday night of 13 May 1923 a Pulitzer Prize.
And on Wednesday 5/17/2023, a story appears about Kathy Solenberger buying Willia Cather's childhood home to give towards groups dedicated to historical preservation.
She was nationally known. She might not be so known these days. But this locality has people who liked to remember local history.
Willa Cather, known for stories of the western prairie, also wrote of her home orgins.
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Willa Cather (7 Dec 1873 – 24 Apr 1947) wrote a story about Lord Fairfax (22 Oct 1693 – 9 Dec 1781) and his place Greenway Court
You can read the story she wrote here.
And she wrote another story of her hometown area. In 1940 Willow Cather published a pre-civil war era story, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, that most believe describes her second old childhood home of Willow Shade in Gore VA.
But there's another big historical person who has a link to her:
Jeremiah Smith.
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Willa Cather's ancestors
go back to Jeremiah Smith
who was known as the Old Pioneer
by George Washington
and Lord Fairfax.
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How is Willa Cather related to Jeremiah Smith?
Willa Cather is granddaughter of
William Cather and Emily Ann Caroline Smith
Emily Ann Caroline Smith is granddaughter to Jeremiah Smith.
James Cather begot William Cather. He is he one who married Emily Ann Caroline Smith
William Cather and Emily Ann Caroline Smith begot Charles Fectigue Cather
Charles Fectigue Cather married Virginia Boak and those two begot Willa Cather.
Sources:
Page 65, Home 41 of Some Old Home in Frederick County VA by Garland R Quarles, first printed 1971, 2nd revised edition of 1999.
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One more merry-go-round to consider: James Cather, above, represented Frederick Co in the Virginia House of Burgesses 1840-1844 (page 63 Quarles) whereas the father, William L Boak, of Virginia Boak (Willa's mom) represented Berkeley Co in the Virginia House of Burgesses 1845-1846.
Source:
Page 34, Home 21 of Some Old Home in Frederick County VA by Garland R Quarles, first printed 1971, 2nd revised edition of 1999.
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served as a depot to Colonel George Washington's
Virginia regiment during the French and Indian War.
This map shows the proximity between Willa Cather's first and second homes in Gore VA.
The two homes are near Jeremiah Smith's forted home and near the cemetery holding his remains.
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Jeremiah Smith was the leader in the battle of the Lost River, before those same Indians went on to bother Fort Pleasant in the Battle of the Trough and threatened Fort Ashby and created an ambush a mile outside of Fort Edwards in the Battle of the Great Cacapon.
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Jeremiah Smith's home on the Back Creek in Gore VA while serving as a depot for the Virginia Regiment, was also a stopping point for the soldiers travelling between Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA to Fort Edwards in what is now Capon Bridge WV. From Fort Edwards these troops would often head to another depot of food and ammunition at Pearalls' fort in today's Romney WV.
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And before, during and after, there existed Lord Fairfax's Greenway Court. See historical sign for this home no longer in existence.
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What else is on that Map ?
On that map also is Willow Shade, Willa Cather's 2nd child home just east down the road from location of her 1st childhood home.
A note about that first childhood home. It was actually moved. It's orginal location was originally across the street to the entrance of Gore.
Willow Cather wrote a pre-civil war era story, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, that most believe describes her old childhood home of Willow Shade in Gore VA.
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That's it for now.
That's our lead story.
There's always more.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Below are news articles and other souirces.
Compiled by Jim Moyer 2/15/2021, 2/24/2021, updated 5/17/2023
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Sources
Willa Cather's story on Lord Fairfax
Big T route of VA Regiment going past Jeremiah Smith
Willa Cather
Jeremiah Smith
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Willa Cather's 2nd home Willow Shade
Page 65, Home 41 of Some Old Home in Frederick County VA by Garland R Quarles, first printed 1971, 2nd revised edition of 1999.
Page 34, Home 21 of Some Old Home in Frederick County VA by Garland R Quarles, first printed 1971, 2nd revised edition of 1999
'This should be saved': Willa Cather birthplace purchased by local preservationist
By CORMAC DODD The Winchester Star
May 17, 2023 Updated 3 hrs ago
Winchester area business owner, realtor, and historic resources manager Katherine Solenberger has purchased the birthplace home of novelist Willa Cather in Gore. Solenberger said she intends to hang on to the property for a year before donating it to a nonprofit preservation group. Solenberger co-owns The Homestead Farm at Fruit Hill Orchard on North Frederick Pike with her daughter and is the president of the Fort Collier Civil War Center.
Picture byJeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
Katherine Solenberger carries a shovel to fend off snakes as she explores the Willa Cather Birthplace property she has bought.
Here's a list of pictures you can see in link
GORE — Although famed novelist Willa Cather’s birthplace is quite dilapidated, it is here to stay.
About a month after her birthplace was listed for sale, the property in western Frederick County is now in the hands of a woman with an extensive background in historic preservation.
Katherine Solenberger, a local realtor known for her work preserving historic sites, said on Friday that she purchased the literary landmark and the surrounding 5 or so acres for $180,000. She intends to donate the property to a nonprofit that is presently being formed to receive the house in the interest of restoration. The purchase marks a success for members of the public and descendants of Cather who have long hoped to see the historic property saved, and the birthplace of an American literary icon preserved. Cather, who is best known for her novels about life on the prairie, was born in the house located in Gore on Dec. 7, 1873.
“I’m hoping to let the experts, the family, and the nonprofit that is being created take the lead,” Solenberger said. “I just thought this should be saved. There was just a two-week window for us, and it came down to the last minute. I thought I would invest in Frederick County history.”
Moving forward, Solenberger, Cather’s relatives, stakeholders and other grassroots enthusiasts will work to establish a preservation plan, Solenberger said. That will include seeking out grant opportunities and consulting preservation experts. The general stabilization of the clapboard home — long in a state of disrepair — will be the first order of business, she said.
In the past, groups have sought to save the Cather birthplace, particularly local relatives of Cather. “The family has been the impetus for the last 20 years to save the property and purchase it, but they didn’t have a willing seller,” Solenberger noted.
The house was listed when its longtime owner died in December, and the inheritor wished to sell the property.
The circumstances of the sale went like this: After the home went on the market, members of the Cather family in Virginia and the National Willa Cather Center in Nebraska launched a grassroots effort to raise the funds necessary to purchase the property. Solenberger was involved with this group.
Solenberger, who is a real estate agent with Winchester-based Colony Realty, was also representing Preservation Virginia, a nonprofit that seeks to sustain Virginia’s historic places. The Cather relatives united with Preservation Virginia and Solenberger in their attempts to strike a deal with the property owner.
But according to Solenberger, Preservation Virginia made an offer for the Cather birthplace that was contingent upon a 60-day study period. But another offer had been made, and the property owner did not want to wait 60 days. Sensing the urgency of the situation — the other offer had come from outside the preservation community — Solenberger intervened and bought it herself.
“I knew if something wasn’t done, it would be sold. I just made the decision to do it,” Solenberger said. “I actually prayed to God and consulted the Bible, and it said ‘you can’t serve two masters: God and money.’ So I made a cash offer.”
Located northwest of Winchester along Northwestern Pike (U.S. 50), the home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. But the house has been dilapidated for years, and its historical site status is honorary and would not have protected it from being razed.
Solenberger — the former chairman of the McCormick Civil War Institute of Shenandoah University and former Preservation of Historic Winchester board member — has a long track record of refurbishing historic properties in the northern Shenandoah Valley.
Projects she has worked on include refurbishing Rebecca Wright’s Birthplace, which is now a wedding and event venue on Apple Pie Ridge in Frederick County, and restoring the carriage barn at her great-grandparents’ Thwaite Farm that is now The Homestead Farm at Fruit Hill Orchard. She is also the founder and current president of the Fort Collier Civil War Center which acquired and preserved Historic Fort Collier. She’s dealt with 19th-century homes with holes in wooden floors that a ball could roll through, and some houses without any floors at all. “I’ve been remodeling and restoring houses for 25 years and the condition of the Cather birthplace is not good, but it doesn’t scare me,” Solenberger said. “I love history and I’m not afraid of old houses.”
On Friday, she surveyed the newly acquired property and walked through the overgrowth wielding a shovel to ward off potential snakes lurking on the property. “The saving grace of the property is the metal roof,” Solenberger said of Cather’s birthplace. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but it can be saved.”
A second house, also in obvious need of repair but in much better condition than Cather’s birthplace, is also located on the property. In Solenberger’s view, this would be a perfect place to host a writer’s retreat or house a caretaker for the property.
The National Willa Cather Center, located in Red Cloud, Nebraska, has also been involved in the efforts to save the historic property. The Willa Cather Foundation set up the “Willa Cather Birthplace Fund” to support the acquisition and/or preservation of her birthplace.
According to the center’s director Ashley Olson, over $30,000 has been pledged or donated to the fund.
“We are looking forward to working with a nonprofit collaborator to deploy the funds for the stabilization and preservation effort. In Cather’s sesquicentennial year, it is wonderful to see her legacy embraced in her Virginia birthplace,” Olson wrote in an email. Of Solenberger’s generous purchase, Olson wrote, “we are so grateful to her for purchasing the house to ensure its preservation.” A GoFundMe started by a relative of Cather has raised just over $5,000 — money that will also be parceled out to the nonprofit that is being formed.
For those who study Cather, her birthplace is central to understanding her southern heritage and how that influence operates in her 12 novels, six short story collections and two poetry collections. Cather’s final novel, “Sapphira and the Slave Girl,” published in 1940, is set in the northern Shenandoah Valley.
“Willa Cather’s own memories and family stories are entangled in the book, which is set prior to the Civil War, a time of mounting disagreements about slavery. Cather’s ancestors included both those who enslaved people and those who fought to free them,” Olson previously wrote about “Sapphira and the Slave Girl” in an email. “She struggled with her family’s role in Virginia’s slaveholding culture during her lifetime, and she referred to Sapphira as the ‘most difficult book I ever wrote.’”
Cather lived at the home as a baby before moving to a nearby brick house called “Willow Shade,” which still stands in Frederick County and is privately owned. In 1883, when Cather was a young girl, she and her family relocated to Nebraska, and the landscape of the Great Plains became the backdrop for some of her best-known novels, including “My Antonia” and “O Pioneers!”
She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her novel “One of Ours,” about a young man from Nebraska who enlists in the Army during World War I. Her 1927 novel, “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” has also been lauded as a classic. — Contact Cormac Dodd at cdodd@winchesterstar.com
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Here's a list of pictures you can see in link
Katherine Solenberger surveys her surroundings in a second-floor bedroom of novelist Willa Cather’s birthplace in Gore. Solenberger has purchased the home and the 5.8 acres of land the home sits on.
Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
Willa Cather Birthplace buyer Katherine Solenberger looks over the back of the historic property she has purchased in Gore. Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
Katherine Solenberger stands in the living room of the historic Willa Cather Birthplace in Gore. Solenberger has purchased the house and 5.8 acres of property. Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
Katherine Solenberger stands on the steps of a second home located on the Willa Cather Birthplace property she has purchased. Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
Katherine Solenberger explores the large collection of books she found in a room of the home behind Willa Cather’s Birthplace. Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star
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Out of the Past ... from the archives of The Winchester Star
May 15, 2023
Click on link if suscription
May 15, 1923
Miss Willa Sibert Cather, a native of Frederick County, and in whose honor a room has been provided at the Handley Library, where copies of her literary works are preserved, together with a picture of her old home place, has been awarded one of the 1923 Joseph Pulitzer prizes.
The announcement was made Sunday night in New York by the advisory board of the Columbia University School of Journalism, which was founded and endowed by the late Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World.
The judges selected “One of Ours,” by Miss Cather, for the $1,000 prize for the year which best presented the American novel.
Miss Cather’s prize novel deals with a middle western farm boy who goes to war and with the war’s reactions upon him and those near to him. Miss Cather, who is now in Europe, is the author of numerous short stories and several other novels, the most highly regarded of which is another story of the middle west, “My Antonia.”
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