Jefferson’s note, other treasures

By Darrell Laurant

Published: May 12, 2008

It’s appropriate that the Jones Memorial Library is on an upper floor of the building it shares with the Lynchburg Public Library.

That’s because, as Lewis Averett says with a smile: “We’ve been called ‘Lynchburg’s attic.’”

Which is a good thing if someone walks in with a rare local treasure that he or she wants to entrust to the Jones; bad, if an orphan box is lugged in with some variation of the phrase: “I came across this, and I have no idea what it is.”

“We have to say ‘no,’ a lot,” said Averett. “We don’t accept old newspapers, for instance. We don’t take old magazines, unless it’s one particular magazine that focuses on a piece of Lynchburg history.”

But the rejections always come reluctantly, because the Jones Memorial staff takes its role as keeper of Central Virginia’s historical flame quite seriously.

“We’re always running across unusual things,” said Averett, a retired teacher who joined the Jones Memorial staff in 1989 after 29 years with the Lynchburg school system. “When we were going through our manuscript collection awhile back, we found some things relating to the Blackford family, a very prominent family in the city at one time.

“It seems that one of the family members had taken a trip to Europe, and while he was on the ship, there was some sort of incident that required a hearing. Whenever that happened, under British law, a panel was chosen from among the passengers, and Blackford was appointed chairman. What we found was a certificate signed by Queen Elizabeth (the first one) and (British Prime Minister Benjamin) Disreali.”

There are a few other extraordinary items in the Jones Library collection. Like a note written by Thomas Jefferson to his friend William Steptoe, a Bedford physician, asking Steptoe to ride along on horseback as Jefferson took two visiting scientists to Natural Bridge and the Peaks of Otter.

“It’s written by a 3-by-4 inch sheet of paper,” Averett said. “We got that from the Steptoe family.”

The same family also donated a desk that Jefferson had given to the good doctor. It, and four replicas, are among the things you sit at when you stop into the library to do research.

“Our patrons come from all over the area,” Averett said, “and some of them from other parts of the world. We even have adoptees who come in trying to trace their birth parents.”

If nothing else, a trip to the Jones Library can be soothing to jangled nerves.

“It’s one of the quietest places in town,” sighed Susan Pillow, who is poised to succeed long-time director Wayne Rhodes when Rhodes retires this month. “That’s one of the things I like about it.”

She’s right. It’s so quiet that you can almost hear the past whispering to you.

Rhodes will deliver a lecture Wednesday, “Jones Memorial Library: A Dream Realized,” that will be the latest in a string of events commemorating the library’s 100th anniversary. His main point will be that this repository for Lynchburg’s history has a fascinating history all its own.

At one time, when it was officially open only to whites, the Jones Library became a lightning rod for anti-segregation groups. Before that, someone once tried to blow up founder Mary Frances Jones with dynamite (unsuccessfully: I can’t remember the motive).

It’s been pretty quiet ever since.