In the late 1920’s and early ’30’s, Walker Jenkins

In the late 1920’s and early ’30’s, Walker Jenkins of Washington operated a bus route, carrying passengers for many years between Culpeper and Winchester, and later between Sperryville and Fredericksburg. Jenkins and those working for him made two double round trips a day, giving Rappahannock residents without transportation a chance to spend a day shopping in the city or to arrange appointments. His routes also connected with railroad service to Richmond and to the valley.

Ruby Jenkins, his daughter, remembers the days when folks anywhere between Culpeper and Winchester could stand along the road and wave for the big seven-passenger Buicks to stop.

Jenkins started out as a mail carrier when he was 14. Ruby Jenkins remembers a story he told of carrying the mail through a rough lightning storm. “He was stunned by lightning,” she said. “When he came to, he continued by foot to the post office. There was the horse waiting for him.” In addition to electrical storms, Jenkins had to contend with severe winter weather in an open buggy. His heater? A kerosene lantern placed at his feet.

The working conditions weren’t great and the hours weren’t either. When Jenkins carried the mail to Warrenton, he’d leave at 4 in the morning and return at night. Later, when he expanded to carry passengers, he hired additional men, Clyde and Robert Nethers and Theodore Saunders, who lived in Fredericksburg and could leave from and return there.

Jim Lillard, a Rappahannock resident, also worked for Jenkins.

“It was just a great thing to spend a day shopping,” Ruby Jenkins remembers. “And all of us went to school in Fredericksburg because we had an easy way to get there and back.”

When Jenkins expanded, a newspaper article cited his exemplary service and business sense as the reason for his success: