In Saluda, Virginia there stands the handsome old courthouse, which was built in 1852. It was listed on the National Registry of Historical Places in 1978. On the walls of the courtroom, there are images of several very important people in the history of Middlesex County, Virginia. One of the more serious looking is of a man named Philemon Tyler Woodward. The wood frame is ornate, and the restored image appears to be a colorized old black and white photo. The subject is not smiling. He is looking very serious and for good reason. The American Civil War was raging in Virginia literally in his own backyard.
In the early days of the Civil War, Union generals, Winfield Scott and George B. McClellan, fought a traditional war and protected citizens and noncombatants. They were confident that by waging a humane war they could encourage Unionism. However, repeated Union failures in the Virginia campaign between 1861 and 1862 changed the way the Union waged war. By 1864, Union generals David Hunter and Philip H. Sheridan had waged what is known as a hard war. Sometimes called the scorched- earth policy. In the final two years of the American Civil War, they followed a systematic and widespread destruction of Confederate civilian’s homes. Barns were burned, food pillaged, crops burned, and court records destroyed. All across Virginia nearly all records of birth, deaths, real estate documents, and marriages were systematically destroyed. The Confederate government became aware of the Union scorched- earth policy and encouraged all county records be shipped to Richmond, where they could be stored for safekeeping. Unfortunately, the building where they were stored in Richmond was accidentally burned by Confederate troops.
Nearly all of the counties in Virginia lost records dating back to the 1600s. There was at least one exception, Middlesex County. Philemon Tyler Woodward was the county court in Middlesex County in Saluda, Virginia. Upon receiving the directive to ship all the records to Richmond, Woodward convinced Circuit Judge Joseph Allen Christian to grant him permission to hide the records locally. Woodward reasoned that shipping the records to Richmond would put them in an unsafe place because, he predicted, Richmond was likely to be the scene of battles by the contending armies. It turned out that Woodward was absolutely correct, and the records sent to Richmond by most Virginia counties were destroyed.
Philemon Tyler Woodward was an interesting and very accomplished man. He was an attorney and a surveyor. His great- granddaughter, Kathy Page, possesses a great amount of information about her great- grandfather, which she was kind enough to share with The House & Home Magazine. Walboro was the Woodward family home, located one mile west of Saluda. Woodward was married on November 4, 1845 to Mary Elizabeth Pollard, and they had five children. Woodward had Walboro built in 1853 shortly after he became clerk of Middlesex County in 1852. Prior to building his new home, the family lived near Church View at their family’s home called Woodville. Page believes the Woodwards moved to Walboro so he could be closer to the courthouse in Saluda.
The Woodwards were evidently direct opposites. In their book, Historic Buildings in Middlesex County Virginia 1650-1775, authors, Louise E. Gray, Evelyn Q. Ryland, and Bettie J. Simmons, offer some insight into their personalities with a quote from the Reverend John Pollard, Woodward’s brother-in-law. “Mr. Woodward and his wife were very much alike… in neatness, in industry, in thrift, in systematic management, in having their opinion…In some matters, however, there was quite a contrast between them. My sister (Mary Elizabeth Pollard Woodward) was decidedly talkative and communicative, but Mr. Woodward was rather inclined to silence and reserve. His opinions would rarely be known to the public unless the general good required them to be told while hers would be known to everybody, as she was always frank and outspoken.” Mrs. Woodward was an accomplished pianist. There is presently a beautiful antique Charles M. Stieff square grand piano (circa 1800-1860) in the foyer along with a chair believed to be used by Woodward in his office at the courthouse. The are additional artifacts both in the house at Walboro and in the museum in the original clerk’s office adjacent to the old courthouse.
Reverend Pollard said of Woodward: “Mr. Woodward was clerk of the county and circuit court years before I went to the county and years after I left. The system and order with which he kept his office was remarkable. His close attention to the duties of clerk will never fade from my memory. Rising in the morning, eating his breakfast, taking the well-worn path that led to and from his office at Saluda, sitting down to his table and taking up his work had about something of the regularity of the sun in its daily march through the sky. During the eighteen months that we lived as boarders with Mr. and Mrs. Woodward we fared sumptuously; for nothing that a well-managed garden, pasture, and farm could furnish and lacking from their table.”
A family legend relates a tale about Mary Elizabeth Woodward that took place during the Civil War. During the Union Army march through Middlesex, troops commanded by Union General Hugh Judson Fitzpatrick were camped in a field at Walboro. One of the Union offices had parked his horse on her walk. Mrs. Woodward ordered him to remove his horse. The officer said, “Madam, I’ll ride my horse up your steps if I please.” Defiantly blocking the way with her hands on her hips she said, “I dare you!” Evidently, the Union officer backed off and moved his horse. The legend recounts that Union officers ate their meals with the Woodwards. This, despite the fact that Woodward was loyal to the Confederacy. Page believes the Woodwards had no choice but to feed the Union officers. She also rejoices in the fact that Woodward never owned slaves. However, he may have used a neighbor’s slaves to transport the court records to various hiding places in Dragon Run swamp. Woodward is believed to have hidden the records in a barn belonging to an old gentleman who lived on an island in Dragon Swamp. Ironically, Union forces searched the barn and fed their horses on the fodder piled up in the barn. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, many of the records were hidden in boxes under the fodder. The soldiers did not dig deep enough into the fodder to find the records. It is believed there were other hiding places.
One cruel but fascinating story about the various hiding places was told by Elvin Miller of Topping, who remembers hearing the story as a child. In his book, Signatures in Time, Larry Chowning relates Miller’s story, “Ellison Daniel was my great-great grandfather, and this story was passed down to me by several relatives. I believe it to be true. His wife, Mary Daniel had a deaf and dumb and supposedly weak-minded daughter named Eugenia. In those days, there wasn’t a place to send people with disabilities. So, they made out the best they could. She did not live in the main house. She lived in a small shack by herself in back of the main house and was locked inside most of the time. They fed her by passing food through a hole at the bottom of the door. The Daniel family was well-known in the county, and Ellison was approached about providing a place to hide the county records. I don’t know who suggested it or how it came about, but they buried the records under Eugenia’s shack. I was also told that they figured the Yankees probably would not go that far off the road but also if they did, they surely would not go into the of house a girl whose mind was touched.” Evidently, the Union soldiers did not enter Eugenia’s shack.
Thanks to a quiet highly intelligent man who had the foresight and courage to defy the directive that likely came from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the records were saved for generations yet to come. With his action of hiding the records, Woodward outsmarted Union Generals Kilpatrick and his superiors. Woodward had saved the Middlesex County records dating back to 1600. Philemon Tyler Woodward is truly a hero of Middlesex County.
Woodward labored as clerk of the court for forty years until his death on January 3, 1892. He is buried at the Mattaponi Baptist Church cemetery in King and Queen County alongside his wife of forty-six years, who died in 1900. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of the Middlesex Museum and Historical Society, his story is preserved in what was his office. The small brick clerk’s office adjacent to the old courthouse in Saluda has been turned into a mini museum where artifacts and documents relating to Woodward can be viewed.