Willa Cather's 1st Home as of Oct 2023
A statue has been unveiled Thurs 12 Oct 2023 at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley outside. Take a look at that story on the statue here. Our focus, here instead, is on Willa Cather's 1st childhood home. This home was moved. It's original location was across Rt 50 highway in Gore itself. Her 2nd childhood home is nearby and it is privately owned and it is called Willow Shade. But here is how her first home looks as of 17 Oct 2023:
There are efforts to save it.
Ancestor Jeremiah Smith
But why is Willa Cather featured here on a website about Fort Loudoun and the French and Indian War?
Her ancestor was Jeremiah Smith.
He was known as the "old pioneer" in Colonel George Washington's time leading the Virginia Regiment in this area. Jeremiah Smith was largely successful with his militia company beating back an Indian Attack around Lost River near Wardensville WV.
Jeremiah Smith's forted home held a depot and stopping point on the road the Virginia Regiment traveled to Fort Edwards in today's Capon Bridge WV.
In fact, Willa Cather's two childhood homes still exist in close proximity to Jeremiah Smith's forted home and his gravesite on the west side of Great North Mountain and Back Creek.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 18 Oct 2023
Table of Contents
Pulitzer Prize Winner
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.
Famous Authors talk of Willa Cather
Her golden years of fame included sharing the spotlight with Sinclair Lewis and Mark Twain who she wrote criticism against.
She was also a contemporary of Stephen Crane who wrote, The Red Badge of Courage.
HL Mencken said Willa Cather should have won the Nobel Prize in Literature instead of Sinclair Lewis. HL Mencken also praised her specifically on one novel: “No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as MY ANTONIA.”
See an NPR look at this story "Critic H. L. Mencken thought MY ANTONIA to be the most accomplished and, reviewing it in 1919, shortly after it was published, he wrote, “Her style has lost self-consciousness; her feeling for form has become instinctive. And she has got such a grip upon her materials. … I know of no novel that makes the remote folk of the Western prairies more real … and I know of none that makes them seem better worth knowing.”"
After writing The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald lamented that in comparison to My Ántonia, it was a failure. See source of quote..
Willa Cather is best known for her stories of Nebraska and the pioneers of western prairies, such as O Pioneers! . But her last story took her back to Gore Virginia, Sapphira and the Slave Girl .
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More on Willa Cather
Willa Cather Statue Oct 2023
posted Oct 18, 2023
Willa Cather and Jeremiah Smith
posted May 17, 2023
Lord Fairfax and Willa Cather
posted Feb 25, 2021
A Night at Greenway Court by Willa Cather
posted Oct 18, 2023
Wikipedia
Interesting picture and good article on Willa Cather
Other Winchester Star articles
'This should be saved': Willa Cather birthplace purchased ...Winchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...May 17, 2023 — Winchester area business owner, realtor, and historic resources manager Katherine Solenberger has purchased the birthplace home of novelist ...
Statue of novelist, Frederick County native Willa Cather ...Winchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...2 days ago — WINCHESTER — In a sense, Willa Cather has come home to stay. A permanent bronze sculpture of the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist ...
Can Willa Cather's birthplace be saved? Property being ...Winchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...Apr 7, 2023 — The clapboard house near Gore, northwest of Winchester, is where Cather was born on Dec. 7, 1873. It is listed on the National Register of ...
Artist: Winchester having Cather sculpture 'makes complete ...Winchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...2 days ago — WINCHESTER — Now that the community has a statue of Willa Cather, her life has come full circle, Littleton Alston believes.
Grassroots effort launched to save Willa Cather's birthplaceWinchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...Apr 14, 2023 — In an effort to save the birthplace of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Frederick County native Willa Cather, members of the Cather family ...
Willa Cather statue to be unveiled at U.S. Capitol on ...Winchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...Jun 7, 2023 — A bronze statue of Frederick County native Willa Cather will be unveiled at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol in ...
Scholars treated to tour of Willa Cather's childhood homeWinchester Starhttps://www.winchesterstar.com › winchester_star › articl...Jun 18, 2019 — On Monday, the approximately 150 seminar attendees were invited to tour Cather's childhood home, Willow Shade, a private residence along ...
Artist: Winchester having Cather sculpture 'makes complete sense'
By MICKEY POWELL The Winchester Star
Oct 16, 2023
Sculptor Littleton Alston (from left) of Nebraska with Marjorie and John Lewis of Clarke County at Thursday’s unveiling of a Willa Cather statue at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester.
Cather was born in Frederick County in 1873 and moved to Nebraska when she was 9 years old. She went on to become one of America’s great novelists.Photo by Ginger Perry for the Museum of the Shenandoah Valle
WINCHESTER — Now that the community has a statue of Willa Cather, her life has come full circle, Littleton Alston believes. Alston, associate professor of sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, created the bronze work unveiled Thursday outside the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV). He and the late novelist have something in common: They’re natives of Virginia who eventually moved to Nebraska. To his understanding, Cather considered herself more of a Nebraskan than a Virginian. Still, “It makes complete sense” for Winchester to have a Cather statue, said Alston, “this being her hometown.”
The statue is one of three castings of the sculpture being sited in different places. In 2019, Alston was chosen from among 70 artists to create a sculpture of Cather to represent Nebraska in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol. The June 7 unveiling of the sculpture made Alston the first African American artist to have a sculpture there. “The dedication,” he commented, “was one of the rare beautiful moments” in Washington when politicians get together without showing political partisanship. He said the statue at the MSV is an exact replica of the one at the Capitol.
The third is being provided to the Willa Cather Foundation, a Nebraska-based nonprofit devoted to preserving historical settings and archival material related to Cather’s life and writings.
However, the MSV’s casting is special because it’s the only one being placed outdoors, mentioned Alston’s wife, Anne. Alston, who is originally from Petersburg, became a fan of Cather’s upon reading her books while growing up. “She speaks plain, simple and clear,” he said. “... carrying you through the lives of people (characters) in a way that you easily understand” the motives behind their thoughts and actions. Cather’s literary legacy is largely regarded as portraying challenges pioneers faced in moving to the Great Plains and settling in.
The sculpture includes a portion of a wagon wheel, intended as recognition of those struggles. “Many lives were lost,” Alston recalled, as people journeyed by wagon through harsh weather and rough terrain. Not just Americans, he pointed out, but people from all over the world. “They were people trying to make a better life for their children,” said Alston. He thinks many people don’t give much thought to that when examining the history of pioneers, he added. Records show Cather died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1947, yet she also battled breast cancer during her later years.
Alston, a soft-spoken man, said he sees her as being “a strong woman ... (and) so composed.” “She held her own,” he said, and as a historical figure, “she still does to this day.”
Alston believes that he incorporated those traits into the sculpture well. He chose bronze because it shows “warmth in its rich browns,” he said. When outdoors, he continued, a bronze sculpture also is able to evoke different feelings among those who view it, depending on when and how it’s seen. For instance, a person may interpret it differently when it’s shrouded in snow or surrounded by fog than when it’s fully visible. How sunlight shines on it, such as at dawn or dusk, can affect perceptions, too. “It will be very interesting to see how people relate to it over time,”
Alston said. Alston has created many other sculptures of famous people, from African American scientist George Washington Carver to abolitionist Frederick Douglass and St. Louis Cardinals baseball player Bob Gibson. Sculptures are unique in terms of the work that goes into capturing a person’s personality and significance.
Therefore, Alston isn’t able to specify a favorite among all of the ones he’s created. But in terms of its quality, he said, “I think Willa is the high point” of his artistic career, or at least one of the pinnacles. Alston is so fond of the sculpture that he personally drove it approximately 1,200 miles from Nebraska to Winchester, rather than having it shipped to the MSV. He’s especially impressed that the museum chose to prominently display it alongside one of its walking trails instead of rendering it “plop art,” using it simply to fill a vacant space. “That makes me happiest,” he said, smiling.
— Contact Mickey Powell at mpowell@winchesterstar.com
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Pictures of 1st childhood home
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'This should be saved': Willa Cather birthplace purchased by local preservationist
By CORMAC DODD The Winchester Star
May 17, 2023
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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