|
|
IT'S BEEN MORE than 140 years since the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates hailed from the Fredericksburg area. William J. Howell of Stafford County is poised to become the new speaker in January, after winning the support of fellow House Republicans last month. The last speaker from this area was Oscar Minor Crutchfield of Spotsylvania County, who held the post for nearly a decade immediately before the Civil War.
Crutchfield, born at Spring Forest in Spotsylvania on Jan. 16, 1800, was the son of Col. Stapleton Crutchfield and Elizabeth Lewis Minor Crutchfield.
According to research provided by Barbara Willis, manager of the Virginiana Room of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, Crutchfield was from a family with deep roots in Spotsylvania. He served as a major in the state militia, a justice of the peace, sheriff and judge of the county court before being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
Crutchfield served several terms in the House, from 1834 to 1843, and from 1850 to 1861. He held the post of speaker of the House from 1852 until his death in 1861, at the age of 61.
According to the book "Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-1996," revised under the direction of Bruce F. Jamerson, Crutchfield presided over the deliberations of the House "with a felicity of administrative vigor rarely surpassed."
He entertained the Marquis de Lafayette in Fredericksburg in 1824, the book noted. Lafayette returned the favor a few years later, hosting Crutchfield at his home near Paris.
Masonic records indicate Crutchfield was initiated into Fredericksburg Lodge 4 in 1824, and received the second and third Masonic degrees in 1825. Although he never presided over the local lodge, Crutchfield was elected grand master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1840 and served until 1842. He spearheaded an unsuccessful effort to build a Masonic Memorial to George Washington in Fredericksburg.
In October 1833, Crutchfield married Susan Elizabeth Gatewood, daughter of Dr. William Kemp and Barbara Minor Gatewood of Ben Lomond in Essex County.
No known picture of Crutchfield exists.
He died on May 15, 1861, at Green Branch, an 1,100-acre plantation in southeastern Spotsylvania County built by Robert Crutchfield in 1819. Oscar Crutchfield is buried on the property, although no marker survives.
The May 17, 1861, Fredericksburg News reported the death of Crutchfield: "This unexpected loss has fallen upon our county and community so suddenly that we cannot express the individual and public grief or fully set forth today the record of his worth and services. We publish this most appropriate tribute to his memory:
"With the shock of a public calamity and the sorrow of a personal loss, I heard, on yesterday of the sad and sudden death of Major Oscar M. Crutchfield, for the past ten years the able and honored speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and the genial friend and companion of so many of its members. The State has lost a brave champion, an uncompromising advocate of its rights and interests, the Legislature its highest and worthiest Officer; while affection mourns the generous-hearted man, the kindly companion and the unswerving friend.
"So many years has Major Crutchfield served his State, so long has his County conferred upon him the distinction of her tried and trusted Representative, that his life has truly been spent in her service as well as crowned by her deserved rewards. For thirty years a member of her Legislature Councils, for ten of those years successively and unanimously chosen as Speaker, he has faithfully fulfilled every duty and worthily worn every honor she has bestowed. Those Halls will long miss his manly presence, and that Chair retain to many an eye the memory of his form and the echo of his voice.
"The State sorrows for her departed Son; her Delegates grieve that their Leader has fallen, though in the field and with his armor on; and I, as one who knew and loved and honored him, lay this leaf ever fresh and fragrant with the recollection of his many virtues, sadly and gratefully, upon his grave. J.S."
RUTH CODER FITZGERALD of Fredericksburg is a writer and researcher. Contact her by mail at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va., 22401; by fax at 373-8455; or by e-mail to her attention at gwoolf@freelancestar.com.
