A few years ago, I became convinced that the first home of the Second Germanna Colony was in the Great Fork of the Rappahannock, in the region defined broadly by Fleshman's Run and German Run. I gave a talk on this conclusion to a group of people interested in Germanna. Perhaps I did not win everyone over, in part due to the fact that my conclusion was opposite to the generally accepted, but totally unproven ideas of the past.
At the conclusion of my talk, David Brown from the audience came up and said to me that he knew the area I described very well. It seems that his grandfather had used land along Fleshman's Run to run cattle. David used to accompany his grandfather on some of the inspection trips that were made. David was interested in the Civil War, not in Germanna. He asked his grandfather if there were any Civil War camps or relics in the area. His grandfather said there was nothing from the Civil War, but that there had been a settlement in the area. He went on to say that the settlement had been abandoned long before the Civil War.
A settlement abandoned long before the Civil War? That was exactly what I was looking for. And here, in the oral tradition, without a prompt, was confirmation that the area I was thinking about did have a settlement quite early. David, at the time of his grandfather's telling him, immediately lost interest and had not even thought about it in the intervening years. When I told my story, he recalled his grandfather's comments, and immediately made the connection that his grandfather and I were talking about the same thing.
When the meeting resumed, I got permission for David to tell the audience the story that he had told me. He and I were both standing in the front. I could concentrate on the audience as he told his story. I have never seen a better demonstration of "gaping" than shown by that audience. The lower jaws were dropping all over the place.
Of course, David's story only convinced me more that I was on the right track. I had to see the area for myself.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.