Past occupants of this house had experience of slavery, Black entrepreneurship in the early 1900s, Army service, and work at the Sylvania cellophane plant.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The original owner of this home on Princess Anne Street, John Henry Lee, was so “highly respected” in Fredericksburg that the deacons and trustees of Shiloh Baptist Church (New Site) unlocked the church—which had been padlocked to force the resignation of the current preacher—for three hours to hold his funeral.
Lee was the treasurer of Shiloh New Site, according to research conducted by Anna Branner in 2005 for the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation’s marker program, when he died in 1904.
He was born into slavery on Santee Plantation in Caroline County and moved to Fredericksburg after the Civil War, where he worked as a butler for Judge A.W. Wallace for 12 years. In City directories of 1889 and 1892, he’s described as a “waiter” and a “laborer,” respectively.
When Lee bought the property where 228 Princess Anne Street stands from William B. Young—described as an oyster dealer and restauranteur in the 1885 City director— the land was valued at $75 and the structure at $575, according to City land records.
Lee’s February 27, 1904, obituary in the Fredericksburg Free Lance, describes him as “another one of the old school colored men of ante-bellum times.”
“Like their former owners, they are becoming few and far between,” the obituary continues. “[Lee] was a slave of Samuel Gordon, of Caroline … and was faithful to every trust. He was a property holder and although not in need he was looked after by the Gordon and Wallace families from the time he was incapacitated for work up to his death.”
Lee left his property to his surviving heirs and by 1910, his widow Fannie Lee, daughter Bettie Braxton, and Cordley Wright, who was possibly a grandson, were living in the house, according to Branner’s research.
The Free Lance-Star ran an obituary for Bettie Braxton in November of 1939. “Bettie Braxton, colored, for many years prominent in religious and social work of her race here, died Saturday,” it reads. “As a deaconess at Shiloh New Site Church and a member of various church organizations, she took an active part in the religious life of the community.”
In 1919, Lee’s heirs conveyed the house to Cordley Wright. He was a barber and owned a shop “in the old building on the north east corner of Princess Anne and Commerce [now William] streets,” according to his 1937 obituary, which states that he “held the esteem and respect of both the white and colored populations.”
In 1948, the house went to Cordley Wright’s son James, who lived there with his wife Mamie Tann Wright. James Wright served in the Army and then worked for the Sylvania Industrial Corporation, which manufactured cellophane at its plant in Spotsylvania, which is now the Bowman Center, according to an article from the Fredericksburg Front Porch.
“Cellophane production requires substantial quantities of wood pulp and water and gives off a putrid odor,” the article states. The plant employed about 10% of the population of Fredericksburg City and Spotsylvania County, according to the article, with Blacks “relegated to lower-level jobs.”
Mamie Wright earned a bachelor’s degree from Bennett College in North Carolina and taught elementary school overseas during her husband’s military career and then in Stafford County Public Schools for a total of 23 years, according to her 2002 obituary.
She owned 228 Princess Anne Street for more than 50 years when she sold it in 2001.
Local Obituaries
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