By Phil James
In 1905, Rev. Josiah Ellis took charge of the mountain mission work of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. From his headquarters at Rockingham’s county seat in Elkton, he had oversight of eight workers, Sunday Schools, parochial schools, and churches spread out from high atop Brown’s Gap on the border with Albemarle, and north into Page County.
One Christmas season, Rev. Ellis decided to deliver gifts into the hinterlands where many of those in his charge lived. This labor of love became a tradition for him. His much anticipated horse and buggy came to be called the “C&O Train” because his deliveries always included “candy and oranges.”
His Christmas “connections and schedules” could be hampered by downright disagreeable weather. One mountain woman said that upon his arrival the thermometer read “seventeen degrees below Pharaoh.” Still, all of the children in his section were eventually visited. His dedication inspired similar endeavors in other areas of the mountain diocese.
For 45 years, the newsletter titled Our Mountain Work shared reports, such as the storied deliveries of the C&O Train, from the peaks and hollows of the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia. Begun in 1909 by Episcopal Archdeacon of the Blue Ridge Rev. Frederick W. Neve, the paper was mailed to that work’s proponents who were scattered far and wide.
Field workers’ letters and accompanying photographs illustrated the challenges, joys, successes and failures at mission points extending mostly from southern Albemarle north to Page County on the western side of the Blue Ridge. Rev. Neve, who founded his first mission outpost in the Ragged Mountains of Albemarle in 1890, complemented their dispatches with his own inspirational prose and original poetry. Pressing needs were publicized, and donors responded with gifts ranging from schoolchildren’s pennies to an occasional check that would cover the full expense of building a mountain schoolhouse, church building or infirmary.
Each season in the mountains included pleasant times and difficulties, from the relative ease of warm weather months to life-or-death challenges during the isolating months of winter in the higher elevations. Still, life went on. Customs observed in lowland villages had their counterparts even in remote locations where primitive roads were sometimes nearly impassable.
The winter of 1935 was described by Philip Peters, at that time a mission worker in Cubbage Hollow in Page County. “The blizzard of January 22nd did not pass us by. A great part of the 18 inches of snow that fell is still with us. When the sun rose over the mountain at 9:30 the next morning, the giant persimmon tree behind the cottage resembled the recently discarded Christmas tree. The brightest of blue stars sparkled in profusion from root to top, and were strung along the wire fence as if that had been decorated by man. The only time I ever saw a more beautiful sight was in April on Frazier Mountain when the early apples were just beginning to bloom and a thick cloud came over the land, followed by a freezing wind. Every blossom was incased in a little bell of ice and the new sprouting leaves, also ice crusted, added their pale green to the picture.
“To go back to Cubbage Hollow . . . While engaged in cutting open the hen house door with a chisel and hammer, I looked up from my rather chilly occupation, and there, going up the road, was the doctor in a Chevrolet drawn by a mule with a man mounted on his back. The car could not negotiate the 18 inches of loveliness. It certainly was a droll sight.”
The Christian holy days of Easter and Christmas were typically observed with special services and youth pageants. Much effort was expended to assure that mountain congregations had special clergy-led services and that the children in those areas received gifts.
Freeman and Marie Fisk served at St. John’s Mission in Blackwell’s Hollow during the Christmas season of 1942. Their Christmas services and festivities were spread across three days. “We begin to think about Christmas preparation as early as October,” wrote Rev. Fisk. “It is then that the children begin to ask Mrs. Fisk such questions as, ‘What pageant are we going to give this year? What part may I take?’”
Many rehearsals with the older boys and girls, as well as the teaching of songs and recitations to the youngsters, led up to their Christmas tree festivities in the parish hall on the 22nd of December. “In spite of rain, sleet and snow,” remarked Fisk, “the Hall was filled with expectant children and adults long before the appointed hour. . . . The cedar tree, majestic in vari-colored ornaments and trimmings, and aglow with radiant lights, stood watch over the many gifts of love sheltered under its branches. In each window hung a wreath of running cedar and holly. . . . Once again, the glorious story of old had brought us new hope, new strength, and a determination to follow Christ. Each member of the Sunday School and Bible Class was called forth to receive his gift, candy and orange.
“Christmas morning found our Chapel filled with reverent worshippers for the early service of Holy Communion. The Christmas season found its climax on Sunday, December 27th. Although roads were mired axle deep in mud, our people again filled St. John’s Chapel [for] the arrival of Bishop [W. Roy] Mason for his first official visit to our mission.”
Candy and oranges, even when delivered by special C&O express, are but a welcome, sweet diversion. When days and nights harbor challenges that threaten to try our very souls, we take stock of where our family members and closest allies are, and in whom we place our greatest trust.
Twelve months following the entry of the United States into World War II, Mary Ella Bedinger, a worker at Mission Home on the Albemarle-Greene border, voiced the concerns of many. “Christmas, and War, and everything wrong!” she wrote. “But, no, not everything, for once again the Angels’ song has been heard, the Bethlehem star has shone and we have celebrated the Birthday of our Lord.”
Follow Secrets of the Blue Ridge on Facebook! Phil James invites contact from those who would share recollections and old photographs of life along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Albemarle County. You may respond to him through his website: www.SecretsoftheBlueRidge.com or at P.O. Box 88, White Hall, VA 22987. Secrets of the Blue Ridge © 2003–2015 Phil James
