Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

On April 6, 2006, the Herald printed an article (on page A3) entitled “1880 Silk Sunday School Map of Cove on Display at Library” about a map that had been donated to the Williamsburg Public Library. Because my Stayer ancestors and related families lived in the Cove in the nineteenth century, I clipped the piece for my files, thinking that I would visit the library to study the map on one of my research trips to Bedford or Blair County. I was hoping that it might reference individual farms or residences.

For years, I never followed through with this good intention, and the clipping became “lost” among the mass of genealogical documentation that I have accumulated. Recently, I “rediscovered” the clipping while reorganizing some files in preparation for another research trip to the Cove. I renewed my determination that I would stop by the library to examine this interesting artifact of nineteenth-century history.

This past Saturday, September 23, 2023 (seventeen years later after the article was printed!), my brother and I wended our way to Williamsburg after concluding a pleasant visit in the southern end of the Cove. We entered the town’s library, inquiring about the location of the map. Librarian Susan Lytle greeted us enthusiastically, particularly after we explained the reason for our presence. She directed us to the map, hanging on the wall by the children’s section, and she graciously moved tables and shelves so that we could get a close look at it and photograph it. She even went to the extent of taking a picture of it herself and providing us with a copy of her shot. She and I spent several minutes discussing the map and the various things shown on it.

Although it does not contain the detail that I had hoped, it is an intriguing document of religion in the Cove in the late 1800s. With a family background in the Church of the Brethren and the German Seventh-Day Baptists and having an interest in the history of the Brethren in Christ, the map enables one to quickly and easily identify the locations of the congregations of those denominations. A brief search of Newspapers.com revealed that Cove residents considered it a marvel even 140 years ago.

I am grateful to the Williamsburg Public Library for preserving this map and to librarian Susan Lytle for her warm welcome and wonderful assistance. And I am thankful to the Herald for publishing such valuable information. You never know the power and impact of local journalism! Keep up the good work!

Jonathan R. Stayer, Historian

York