In this his final book, beloved Northern Virginia historian John Divine
looks back affectionately at the village of his youth. Waterford,
Virginia-now a National Historic Landmark-was a wonderful place for
a lively boy growing up in the early 1900s. The town was a yeasty
blend of farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and cobblers, freed slaves
and Civil War veterans, sober Quakers and village drunks. Young John
knew them all and loved their stories. He shares them here-warts
and all-with warmth and wit.
No one could do it better. His roots in the village extend six generations-to
the mid-1700s-and John himself seemed as much at home in the Waterford
of the 1820s as of the 1920s. It is in this spirit that his co-authors
have completed what he began, adding historical context and rounding
out his anecdotes. Taking their cue from John Divine himself, they
have relied almost entirely on interviews, primary documents, and period
photographs.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: John E. Divine, a nationally recognized authority
on the Civil War, died in November 1996. He was the author of
several books on "The War," including most recently "To
Talk Is Treason," a fascinating account of Waterford's Quakers
during that struggle. Associate and friend Bronwen Souders and
her husband John collaborated with him on that book and this. They
have
lived in the Waterford area for more than 25 years in a house built
by the first of John Divine's forbears in Loudoun County.
