April 17, 2024
A connection to the storied steeples of Richmond and of a former enslaved man fighting for his freedom.
It was a 10-minute walk from his home on Twenty-Third Street to the church. It was a fine fall day in 1873, perfect weather for beginning work on the steeple. It had been a long time coming. Work had started on the church back in ’59, before the war. Obviously, a lot had happened since then. Joseph Newell, 51, reflected on his time in the Confederacy, and how he’d come back to the city to see much of it destroyed by fire. Trinity Methodist had been spared, though, and so had Broad Street Methodist 10 blocks closer into town, even though the latter was located much closer to the burnt district. Broad Street Methodist had been completed by the time the war started. Its steeple stood in testament not only to the fact that it had survived, but it also had the effect of reminding the worshipers at Trinity that they still had work to do. Joseph and his partner William Liggon had worked on the construction of Trinity after the war, but still completion of the steeple had lagged. It was only fitting now that he finish the job that they had started. His sons had gone straight to the warehouse to pick up the materials they would need today, and the three of them would work long hours to get a good start on it for all to see.
(The above introduction is an imagined scenario of the beginning of Newell’s work on the Trinity Methodist Steeple.)
For the complete story of 619 North 23rd, click here for the PDF:
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Following, for internet search purposes, are names of persons which appear in the downloadable PDF narrative. When maiden names of women are known, they are shown in bold type.
- Joseph Newell
- William Liggon (aka Liggan)
- Susan Hawkins Newell
- William Benjamin Newell
- William Hawkins
- Nancy A. Hawkins (maiden name unknown)
- Agnes Jones (possibly Agnes Ann Jones) (maiden name unknown)
- John Jones (possibly John H. Jones)
- James Jones
- Joseph E. Newell
- Samuel W. Pearce
- Elizabeth Pearce (aka Ann Eliza) (maiden name unknown)
- Robert D. Mitchell
- Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (maiden name unknown)
- Colonel Richard Adams
- George M. Carrington
- Richard A. Carrington
- Susan G. Carrington (maiden name unknown)
- Louisa Carrington (maiden name unknown)
- Samuel Pearce (the hatter)
- Mary Wingfield Scott
- M. E. J. Staunton Moore
- Joseph Woodson
- Hiram Oliver
- John Carter
- Ida Mason Newell
- Geroge Fince Newell
- John P. Pearson
- Nancy Ann Hawkins (aka Anna) (maiden name unknown)
- William Brown
- Robert B. Lyne
- C. D. Eachs
- Selena Virginia Murray
- Emma Jane Murray
- Mary E. Frensley
- Nathaniel Jarrett
- Dilmus Jarrett (aka Dilmas Jarrett)
- John Tyler
- Briggs (first name unknown)
- Sarah Newell
- Thomas Newell
- Ann E. Knight
- Ellen Robinson
- Albert L. West
- Frank D. Hill
- Ann Newell (aka Nannie Newell)
- Margaret Mosley
- William Anderson
- Georgie M. Anderson (maiden name unknown)
- Robert C. Anderson
- Geroge L. Anderson
- Elizabeth Atkins
- Sarah Rennie (maiden name likely Atkins)
- Milton Atkinson
- Margaret Rumbaugh
- Wilder Rumbaugh
- Norris B. Jones
- Amanda M. Woodfin Jones
- Joseph C. Brooks
- Albert Bakes
- Harroup T. Morriss (sic)
- William L. Eubank
- Silas L. Johnson
- Thomas Powell
- James H. Crump
- W. H. Powell
- Henry L. Rose
- Kate A. Powell Rose
- Davenport
- Pearman
- Atkinson
- Mrs. Bushell
- E. J. Burruss
- Eva P. Burruss (maiden name unknown)
- Kimberly Merkel Chen
- Ernest Burruss, Jr.
- Maude M. Griffith Burruss
- Patrick H. Fore
- Susie Gertrude Fore (maiden name unknown)
- Thomas B. Smith
- Mary B. Smith (maiden name unknown)
- John R. Bushey
- Mary Ellen Bushey (maiden name unknown)
- Hal D. Kerry, Jr.
- John Nash
- Madge Goodrich
- Captain Tyler (police officer) (first name unknown)
- William G. Wharton
- Alice Smith
- Richard Jones
- Natalie Blanton
- Holly Jackson
- Matt Conrad
- W. O Burton
- Colonel Lewis Johnson
- General John Bell Hood
- General William Tecumseh Sherman
- Laura Jane Starks Jones
Other search terms: steeple, spire, Trinity Methodist, Broad Street Methodist, Mosby Street, enslaved, Oregon Hill, police officer, First Market, Union Hill, Church Hill, seven hills of Richmond, Leigh Street Baptist, Asbury Methodist, Building Fund, Germans, abolition, Pickett Street, Union Station Church, agricultural fairgrounds, lightning, Union Street, Concurrence Street, Concordance Street, Marshall Street, 17th Street Market, fresco, slave schedule, slave agent, slave hire, where enslaved persons lived, difference in slavery in Richmond, Civil War, Confederacy, Union, Virginia Convention, Chimborazo Hospital, prisoner-of-war camps, Jackson County (Georgia) Volunteers, George State Volunteers, Fourth Brigade (Georgia), Big Shanty (Georgia), Kennesaw (Georgia), Camp Scott (Richmond), Camp Oregon (Richmond), Camp Winder (Richmond), prisoner of war, Liggon Tobacco Company as prison, Goldsboro (North Carolina), Neuse River (North Carolina), Fredericksburg (Virginia), Camp Fisher (Virginia), Dumfries (Virginia), pneumonia, Confederate draft, “United States,” Company H, 3rd Virginia Infantry, Henley’s, McAnerney’s, Blacks and Whites, Blackstone, Nottaway County, Appomattox, Jones House, railroad, Fort Harrison, Varina, Ross Street, Mayo Street, spire, architect, New Light Baptist Church, Virginia Commonwealth University, streetcars, Augusta (Georgia), First Police Station, 17th and Main, Richmond City Council, Pickett’s Harbor, Cape Charles, corbels, Long Depression, Springfield School, Bowler School, segregation, Italianate, St Paul’s Episcopal, Shockoe Valley, Works Progress Administration (WPA), Mount Zion Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Manchester, St. John’s Church, Second Baptist Church, building inspector, electric trolley, Church of God, car lot, Hurricane Hazel, building inspector, Adams Street, Byrd Street, Buron Street, Jefferson Park, M Street, Short Street, Leigh Street, Pleasants Street, Jessamine Street, Venable Street, Union Street, gentrification, Richmond Chemical Works, tornado, storm, cyclone, United States Colored Troops (USCT), 44th USCT, Company E, Infantry, Chattanooga (Tennessee), Dalton (Georgia), Company F, 57th Illinois Volunteers, Company B, 7th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry, 20th Ohio Battery, U.S. Colored Infantry (USCI), home guard, General Bates, Villanow (Georgia), Columbus (Georgia), Griffin (Georgia), Nashville (Tennessee), Piketon (Kentucky), 121st Regiment, Company H, 13th Regiment, Heavy Artillery, Department of the Cumberland (Kentucky), Black orphans, Black children, emancipation of children, redlining.
Richmond Narratives 