In this his final book, beloved Northern Virginia historian John Divine looks back affectionately at the village of his youth. Waterford, Virginia-now a National Historic Landmark-was a wonderful place for a lively boy growing up in the early 1900s. The town was a yeasty blend of farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and cobblers, freed slaves and Civil War veterans, sober Quakers and village drunks. Young John knew them all and loved their stories. He shares them here-warts and all-with warmth and wit.
No one could do it better. His roots in the village extend six generations-to the mid-1700s-and John himself seemed as much at home in the Waterford of the 1820s as of the 1920s. It is in this spirit that his co-authors have completed what he began, adding historical context and rounding out his anecdotes. Taking their cue from John Divine himself, they have relied almost entirely on interviews, primary documents, and period photographs.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: John E. Divine, a nationally recognized authority on the Civil War, died in November 1996. He was the author of several books on "The War," including most recently "To Talk Is Treason," a fascinating account of Waterford's Quakers during that struggle. Associate and friend Bronwen Souders and her husband John collaborated with him on that book and this. They have lived in the Waterford area for more than 25 years in a house built by the first of John Divine's forbears in Loudoun County.
