"He heard the report of the gun"

Oakley, 1935 (Frances Benjamin Johnston)

           Several years ago, I wrote a piece on the early history of Oakley, focusing primarily on the letter written by Maria Dobyns in June 1864, in which she described to her friend, Nan Row, the occupation of her family's farm and the violence that occurred there during the Battle of the Wilderness.
     Earlier this year, I came across an eleven-page typewritten history of Oakley which included details I had never seen anywhere else. The author's name does not appear on this document, but his primary source of information is referred to as "Judge" Kent. This would have been William Lee Kent (1862-1949).

William Lee Kent

     William Kent at one time served as a justice of the peace in Spotsylvania County, and was also county  registrar for a time. I think that this is how he earned the nickname "Judge." He was very knowledgeable about Spotsylvania history, and was the main resource for a history of Shady Grove Methodist Church written in 1939. He was also frequently consulted by Mildred Barnum when she wrote her surveys of historic Spotsylvania properties for the WPA during the 1930's.
     William  spent his entire life on the farm established by his grandfather, Warner Kent, who was arrested by soldiers of the United States army during the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864.
Warner Kent was confined at the Old Capitol Prison for a time following his capture. His family had no idea what had happened to him until his return home some weeks later. The Kent family's dreadful ordeal during this time can be read in this post I wrote in 2011.

Detail Spotsylvania County map, 1863

     The Kents lived next to Hazel Hill, which was owned by W. W. Jones during the Civil War. Oakley, home of the Dobyns family, lay across Catharpin Road from Hazel Hill.

Leroy Dobyns and family. Spotsylvania County, April 1866

     From this recently discovered history of Oakley, I learned that Leroy Dobyns brought two families of slaves with him when he took possession of Oakley in 1854. These were the Fauntleroys and Woodwards, who remained in Spotsylvania after their emancipation and for decades afterwards.
     I also learned about two features of the Oakley property that have been gone for a long time. A large, two-room brick kitchen once stood behind the house. The room closest to the house included a huge fireplace which was nearly the width of the room. Hanging in the fireplace were large iron cranes, which could be raised or lowered. The cranes hung on pivots, so that pots and kettles could be swung into and out of the fire as needed. The fireplace included a large brick oven. The back room of the kitchen was used as quarters for the cook.
     The other thing different about Oakley during these years was that the driveway was not in the same place as the modern one. The entrance to Oakley at that time was about a half mile east of the one that exists today, and the road leading from Catharpin to Oakley was much longer.
     Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Leroy Dobyns and his family returned to Essex County, which had been their home before moving to Spotsylvania. The Embrey Index of Spotsylvania Deeds shows that Leroy W. and Mary C. Dobyns of Essex County sold 1000 acres to Jos. "Lichtensteen" of New York on January 3, 1868.
     Joseph Lichtenstein was born in Hungary in 1811 and at some time immigrated to New York City, where he made his money as a vinegar manufacturer. While he lived in New York, his name appeared as "Lichtenstein" in the state census of 1855, and the federal censuses 1860 and 1880. For whatever reason, once he came to Spotsylvania, his name appears as "Lichtenstern" in the 1870 census, articles in the local press and in the history of Oakley I am referring to in this article. I have no way of knowing if he chose this version of his name himself to sound less Jewish in the rural south, or if this was just how local residents chose to spell it. For the purposes of this post, he will be called Joseph Lichtenstein.
     Lichtenstein did not move to Spotsylvania right away. For a time, he rented the farm to Lucius Estes and Richard Todd. Lucius and his wife lived at Oakley until the arrival of the Lichtenstein family.  Lucius, his wife and their adopted son later lived as caretakers at "Greenfield," the Row farm just northwest of Oakley.
     When Joseph Lichtenstein finally arrived at Oakley, he brought with him his wife, Julia, and their children (there are six children named in the 1870 census).
     The former vinegar distiller apparently had visions of becoming a country squire once he came to Spotsylvania. He also brought with him a dozen fine horses and a number of stable boys to care for them. A man named Jones was hired to oversee the farming operations at Oakley.
     Unfortunately, neither Lichtenstein nor Jones knew much about farming. During the first year, much of the wheat crop was lost to their ineptitude (some of the wheat had been piled into one huge mound, and was allowed to rot). Each man blamed the other for this poor showing, and Jones was threatened with dismissal without pay. Lichtenstein approached three neighbors and asked them to help arbitrate the case. They ruled that Lichtenstein was responsible, and that he owed Jones the remainder of that year's salary. Jones was paid off, and then fired.
     Lichtenstein next hired William Harris as overseer. Harris was a brother of future Spotsylvania sheriff and clerk of court, Thomas Addison Harris. Harris's parents' farm can seen in the lower right of the map detail above. Later, William and his brother John owned Harris & Brother Grocery in Fredericksburg.
     William and his wife, the former Mary Ann Buchanan, lived at Oakley in the wing of the house. Mary Ann taught school at Hazel Hill, and was a teacher of William Kent.
     When William and Mary Ann Harris moved on, Lichtenstein decided to run Oakley himself. This did not go well, and he soon went into debt and had to borrow $4,000.
     His problems were compounded by a tragic accident that occurred not long after the birth of the Lichtenstein's daughter, Katie. One of their older sons, Isadore, kept a pistol in the bureau. One day he showed it to the black nurse hired to take care of Katie. After Isadore had left the room the nurse, who was holding Katie in one arm, took the gun out of the drawer. While examining it, the pistol accidentally discharged, instantly killing Katie. She is buried in an unmarked grave at Oakley. (Another daughter, Julia, died in January 1871.)
     About 46 years after this sad event, in 1918, William Lee Kent, who had worked as caretaker at Oakley for seven years, was tending the crops there. While he was working in the field, a man approached William and identified himself as Charles Lichtenstein, a younger brother of Isadore. William and Charles walked through the house together. When they entered the room where Katie had been fatally shot, Charles told William that he had been present when this tragedy occurred. He heard the report of the gun, and then the scream of the nurse, who started running down the hall. At just that moment, Katie's mother had come up the stairs from the basement to see what the commotion was about. Just as Julia Lichtenstein opened the door, the terrified nurse dropped the dead baby at her mother's feet.

Fredericksburg Ledger 10 May 1872

     Not long after  Katie's death, Joseph Lichtenstein sold Oakley to Thomas Hall and returned to New York, where he became an insurance agent. His ownership of Oakley started its long, downward spiral of absentee owners and neglect that would continue until the place was bought by George Charles Beals in 1926.