A recent message here contained a letter from Peter B. Bowen to his daughter Sarah Bowen who was at William A. Bowen’s place in Fauquier Co., Virginia. This was written 10 May 1829. Mr. Bowen’s will was written in Culpeper Co. In 1859 Culpeper Co. would have had the same boundaries then as it does now. One of the witnesses was a James M. Button, which suggests the Little Fork area of Culpeper County.
Peter Bower, in writing the letter to his daughter, gives his return address as "Hebron". This gave me a pause because the only Hebron that I am aware of in the Germanna area is the Lutheran Church outside Madison, Virginia. The name might have applied to the Community and not to the Church. Does anyone know if there was another area or church which was known as Hebron besides the Madison, Virginia, church?
In the Church Records for the Lutheran church outside Madison, the name Hebron was not used until about an 1850 date. Prior to that it was called the German Church, or the German Lutheran Church, or simply the Lutheran Church. Since so much of our discussion on this List pertains to the Eighteenth Century (the 1700's), I do not like to refer to this Church as Hebron. Doing so would be similar to saying the First Colony moved to Fauquier County or the Second Colony moved to the Madison County. The latter case would be truthful only if you said "the present Madison County", since it did come into existence until 1792.
There is another reason that I like to avoid identifying people as from the Hebron Community and that is that the name Hebron became associated with a Lutheran Church. There were many people who lived in the area who were German Reformed, or Church of England, or Baptists, or other.
I prefer to describe the area which is sometimes known as the Hebron area as the Robinson River Valley. Madison County today is close enough to being the extent of the Robinson River area that no serious harm is done by this description. It is the only name that is truthful from the early 1700's to the present day. Furthermore, it does not discriminate against any group. The only disadvantage that I see is that many people today do not know the extent of this valley. So, for them, I will say it approximates Madison County today.
I started by asking what Peter Bowen meant by Hebron when he used it in his return address. Was that the name of his farm? Was there a community known by this name?
(28 Nov 05)
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