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By Richard Lykes
Special to the Rappahannock News
There are annual meetings, and then there are annual meetings. But few offer their members the pleasure of a short meeting, a tour of two historically significant buildings, and a sumptuous buffet served on the lawn. Such was Sunday’s meeting of the Rappahannock Historical Society where some 25 members of file society gathered for the organization’s annual meeting held at the historic Conyers House on Slate Mills Road.
Another first for this meeting was a poem written and read to the group by board member Wayne Baldwin urging his fellow Rappahannock neighbors to join hands, contribute, and volunteer to continue the important work of the Society. One of the stanzas in this “sonnet” read:
Become a member, volunteer, or help on a committee, There’s lots been done but there’s more still to do. You may be a native or moved here from the city, But we’re all Rappahannockans too.
Following the meeting, members were invited on a special tour of the historic FT Baptist Church—the Conyers House adjoining neighbor. The old church was organized in 1778 and rebuilt in its present location in the 1880s. The history of the old church, now updated with heating, air conditioning and bathrooms, was described in fascinating terms by historian and board member, Lucia Kilby. Among the facts disclosed was the custom adopted in colonial times of men coming into the church by one door and women by another. The sexes were seated on opposite sides of the church at the time. Sex was not the only mark of segregation in the 1800s: blacks were seated in the balcony. An 1853 census of the church reported that there were 78 white males, 190 white females, and 135 “coloreds” in the congregation. Tbday, the FT Baptist Church is proudly a home of worship to all people of faith, regardless of color.
Conyers House, host to the afternoon’s delight, also was on tour. Sandra CartwrightBrown, who with her husband, Norman, has owned this historic house since the early 1970s, escorted two groups of Society members through the house. Built in 1810 and previously a country store in post-colonial times, the county’s oldest B&Bs boasts Jack Russell greeters, five
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