Posted: 9:26 AM - Apr 21, 2006
From The Winchester Star – Thursday 20th Apr 2006
BERRYVILLE — If Simon McKay ever makes headlines,
digging up an ancient city along the Euphrates, we can say we
knew him when.
The 12-year-old Clarke County resident has created a brochure on historical markers set up before 1920 to point out Civil War battles in Clarke County.
Anyone interested in county history is invited to meet McKay at a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Clarke County Historical Association museum. His brochure, which includes a description of the Civil War actions and precise co-ordinates to find the granite markers, grew out of a 5th-grade project last year.
“We had to do a project on a war Virginia was involved in,” said McKay, who divides his school hours this year between Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville and the Classical Cottage home-school in Boyce.
While other students took World War I or Civil War battles in other parts of the state, a trip to Berryville gave McKay the idea for his project, Civil War fights that happened in Clarke County.
It was marker 7, that caught McKay’s eye. It stands along U.S. 340 south of the county seat.
“I’d seen it so many times,” he said, and he wondered what it was.
He sought information from an expert.
His mother, Maral Kalbian, is an architectural historian who has done much work for Clarke County on its several historic districts.
She sent him to a 1964 copy of the Proceedings, published by the Clarke County Historical Association. There, taken from resident Thomas Gold’s 1914 book, was a list of 10 markers.
“They were put up by the Jeb Stuart Camp of the Sons of the Confederacy,” McKay explained.
T. J. Orndorf, who owned a monument works on East Boscawen Street in Winchester, created the markers. McKay can point to a picture of Orndorf’s establishment in the book, “More Images of the Past,” recently printed by the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society.
In the Proceedings, McKay read about the marker on Lord Fairfax Pike that first intrigued him, and then others that were not so prominent.
There was the “Fight at Mount Airy,” for example.
“Mom said she knew of a Mount Airy farm,” McKay said. So, mother and son decided to go look at all the monuments on the list.
“It was so hard to find them,” McKay said.
The article in the Proceedings didn’t give any directions to the markers.
Kalbian speculated everyone then knew where they were by the place names. “The roads were narrower, not as much traffic,” she added.
“Most people then had been driving by those little marker for years. You could stop your buggy and read them,” said Mary Morris, archivist for the Clarke County Historical Association. But times have changed, as have vehicles and roads.
“We went looking for the Berry’s Ferry fight,” McKay explained.
The current bridges carrying U.S. 50 across the Shenandoah weren’t there in 1914.
“We looked under the bridge, we looked across the bridge.” They finally located the marker, about 100 yards west of the bridge.
At some point, Kalbian said, her son remarked, “I wish there was a map,” and a new project was born.
With mom as chauffeur and photographer, they tracked down every monument and photographed it.
For his school project, McKay created a display board with pictures and descriptions and also a power-point program. That computer program, printed out, became the basis for the brochure.
McKay said the project, which won him an A in class, “creeped some of the kids out, because they thought they were gravestones.”
Some of the markers, McKay said, are in better shape than others.
Those located near private homes, have apparently been cared for by the property owners.
Some are covered in weeds. One is leaning, thanks to a
resident groundhog. Several show damage, perhaps from
vehicles.
While McKay was pointing out the gouging on the marker at the site of Mosby’s attack on Sheridan’s wagon train, north of Berryville, he located two metal teeth from a bar mower, lying at the base of the monument. They could explain the rusty brown scratches on its surface.
Morris suggested McKay turn his project into a brochure.
“People still come in asking about the battles,” the markers recall, she said.
In fact, Morris said, the Confederate Camp had planned to print a brochure explaining them, when the markers were erected. “I have never seen one,” Morris noted. “Did they ever do it?” If not, McKay has.
Thanks to a donation from the CCHA, and from his parents, McKay printed 1,000 brochures giving locations and historic information on the markers.
Numbers tie the markers to a map, produced by Gordon Russell of the Clarke County Planning Department.
The brochure constitutes an easy driving tour of the markers, although Kalbian warns that only a few have safe pull-off parking.
McKay hopes his information will raise awareness of these historical treasures.
“I hope it gets people interested in them,” McKay said, “So they will improve their upkeep.”
As for the young author, he hopes to get a master’s degree in anthropology someday. Now, he’d like to specialize in the early periods of human history in Mesopotamia and Egypt, both sites which have suffered from human vandalism and neglect.
Speaking from some experience, McKay said, “(That) really stinks.”
Morris called McKay’s effort, “really neat. It shows that, if you can get kids interested in history, they really enjoy it.
The article from the Clarke Times Courier:
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab3 ... 6078&rfi=6
At this time I am unable to retrieve a copy of this one.
12-Year-Old Creates Brochure
Clarke County Historical Markers Listed for Civil War Battle Sites
By Val Van Meter
The Winchester Star
Clarke County Historical Markers Listed for Civil War Battle Sites
By Val Van Meter
The Winchester Star
 Simon McKay completed a brochure of Civil War battle site markers in Clarke County. This one is along U.S. 340 near Va. 7 in the Berryville area. A reception will be held 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Clarke County Historical Association museum in Berryville. The public is invited to meet the author.
(Photo by Jeff Taylor) |
The 12-year-old Clarke County resident has created a brochure on historical markers set up before 1920 to point out Civil War battles in Clarke County.
Anyone interested in county history is invited to meet McKay at a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Clarke County Historical Association museum. His brochure, which includes a description of the Civil War actions and precise co-ordinates to find the granite markers, grew out of a 5th-grade project last year.
“We had to do a project on a war Virginia was involved in,” said McKay, who divides his school hours this year between Johnson-Williams Middle School in Berryville and the Classical Cottage home-school in Boyce.
While other students took World War I or Civil War battles in other parts of the state, a trip to Berryville gave McKay the idea for his project, Civil War fights that happened in Clarke County.
It was marker 7, that caught McKay’s eye. It stands along U.S. 340 south of the county seat.
“I’d seen it so many times,” he said, and he wondered what it was.
He sought information from an expert.
His mother, Maral Kalbian, is an architectural historian who has done much work for Clarke County on its several historic districts.
She sent him to a 1964 copy of the Proceedings, published by the Clarke County Historical Association. There, taken from resident Thomas Gold’s 1914 book, was a list of 10 markers.
“They were put up by the Jeb Stuart Camp of the Sons of the Confederacy,” McKay explained.
T. J. Orndorf, who owned a monument works on East Boscawen Street in Winchester, created the markers. McKay can point to a picture of Orndorf’s establishment in the book, “More Images of the Past,” recently printed by the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society.
In the Proceedings, McKay read about the marker on Lord Fairfax Pike that first intrigued him, and then others that were not so prominent.
There was the “Fight at Mount Airy,” for example.
“Mom said she knew of a Mount Airy farm,” McKay said. So, mother and son decided to go look at all the monuments on the list.
“It was so hard to find them,” McKay said.
The article in the Proceedings didn’t give any directions to the markers.
Kalbian speculated everyone then knew where they were by the place names. “The roads were narrower, not as much traffic,” she added.
“Most people then had been driving by those little marker for years. You could stop your buggy and read them,” said Mary Morris, archivist for the Clarke County Historical Association. But times have changed, as have vehicles and roads.
“We went looking for the Berry’s Ferry fight,” McKay explained.
The current bridges carrying U.S. 50 across the Shenandoah weren’t there in 1914.
“We looked under the bridge, we looked across the bridge.” They finally located the marker, about 100 yards west of the bridge.
At some point, Kalbian said, her son remarked, “I wish there was a map,” and a new project was born.
With mom as chauffeur and photographer, they tracked down every monument and photographed it.
For his school project, McKay created a display board with pictures and descriptions and also a power-point program. That computer program, printed out, became the basis for the brochure.
McKay said the project, which won him an A in class, “creeped some of the kids out, because they thought they were gravestones.”
Some of the markers, McKay said, are in better shape than others.
Those located near private homes, have apparently been cared for by the property owners.
 Simon McKay, 12, of Boyce created this display board featuring 10 Civil War markers he has documented in Clarke County.
(Photo by Jeff Taylor) |
While McKay was pointing out the gouging on the marker at the site of Mosby’s attack on Sheridan’s wagon train, north of Berryville, he located two metal teeth from a bar mower, lying at the base of the monument. They could explain the rusty brown scratches on its surface.
Morris suggested McKay turn his project into a brochure.
“People still come in asking about the battles,” the markers recall, she said.
In fact, Morris said, the Confederate Camp had planned to print a brochure explaining them, when the markers were erected. “I have never seen one,” Morris noted. “Did they ever do it?” If not, McKay has.
Thanks to a donation from the CCHA, and from his parents, McKay printed 1,000 brochures giving locations and historic information on the markers.
Numbers tie the markers to a map, produced by Gordon Russell of the Clarke County Planning Department.
The brochure constitutes an easy driving tour of the markers, although Kalbian warns that only a few have safe pull-off parking.
McKay hopes his information will raise awareness of these historical treasures.
“I hope it gets people interested in them,” McKay said, “So they will improve their upkeep.”
As for the young author, he hopes to get a master’s degree in anthropology someday. Now, he’d like to specialize in the early periods of human history in Mesopotamia and Egypt, both sites which have suffered from human vandalism and neglect.
Speaking from some experience, McKay said, “(That) really stinks.”
Morris called McKay’s effort, “really neat. It shows that, if you can get kids interested in history, they really enjoy it.
The article from the Clarke Times Courier:
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab3 ... 6078&rfi=6
At this time I am unable to retrieve a copy of this one.