James Madison Museum: Faudree Feud
John Major Faudree and Henri Jean Mugler exchanged several letters over the course of their historical spat. (Photo Credit: Bethany Sullivan)
There are times when the museum receives a donation that has hidden gifts which are slowly uncovered during the process accession, as you enter the data about each individual artifact in the collection donated. For the last couple of weeks, I have been cataloguing the balance of a donation from Nancy Kent of Fredericksburg.
The Faudree family’s Grassland postal unit, donated by Nancy Kent of Fredericksburg. (Photo Credit: Bethany Sullivan)
The donation consisted of the Faudree family's postal unit from Grassland and a few boxes filled with papers, photographs and several small items. The papers have been interesting to read and have revealed a fascinating family dynamic, something which is widely relatable even in the “best of families.”
Among the hundred-plus documents are receipts for goods and services, letters, deeds and miscellaneous bits and pieces. Each item has to be read, photographed and catalogued into the PastPerfect museum software program. It was while transcribing these Faudree letters, I came across a little family “to-do” between John Major Faudree of Orange County, Va. and Henri Jean Mugler of Grafton, W.Va.
These two men shared a thread of common experience, but otherwise their lives were vastly different.
Faudree had deep roots in Virginia that dated back to 1736. Mugler did not. He had immigrated from France around 1838. In 1851, Mugler enlisted in the U.S. Army and held a variety of positions, including a stint under Sheridan fighting the Yakama Nation.
Mugler returned to Orange, Va., where following the passage of the Secession Ordinance, he enlisted in the Thirteenth Virginia Infantry serving as chief musician from 1861-62, until he became a prisoner of war (1862-64) and was held at Elmira in New York.
Faudree also fought in the American Civil War under Captain T. J. Payton’s Company of the Eighth Auxiliary of Virginia. He was eventually stamped “disabled” due to a broken leg and asthma.
Their post-war lives were very different. Tax records indicate that Faudree had a small farm and held no enslaved persons before the war. He appeared to be struggling but survived through and beyond the war.
While Faudree struggled, Mugler returned to Washington, D.C., and eventually found work with the National Cemetery Corps working at several Virginia battlefields. He also served as a delegate to the Virginia Republican Convention of 1867.
Later, while working at the National Cemetery at Grafton and for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, he became a superintendent of painters on the Road Division in West Virginia. Sometime after 1874, Mugler worked briefly as a self-employed painter, and then opened what would become a thriving paint and hardware store in Grafton.
John Major Faudree may have been living on Squirrel Bottom Road (Brick Church Road), not Grassland, at the time of this contretemps in 1886. It also appears that he may have been a squatter of some sort on the farm; at least that is the impression one receives from Henri Jean Mugler’s July 26, 1886 letter to Faudree.
Mugler wrote to Faudree on his company stationery. In the letter, he points out that Faudree had been living “nearly two years” on Mugler’s property without his “consent or permission.” Further, he reminds Faudree that he had promised to move out in two weeks. Mugler evidently gave Faudree $2 to finish building his own home, but he had yet to move out of Mugler’s place. The overall tone is reserved yet polite.
However, just a couple of months later, Mugler sends another letter to Faudree with a starkly different tone. On Oct. 11, 1886, Mugler writes to Faudree threatening legal action and closes the letter with, “I feel that you have treated me outrageously and shamefully.”
Never pleasant events, evictions were almost routine, especially in Mid-Atlantic and Southern states following the war. What makes this a family matter? Mugler’s brother, Phillip, was married to Faudree’s sister, Lucy. By extension, Faudree and Mugler are brothers-in-law.
There are no further communications between Henri Mugler and John Major Faudree; however, the situation was eventually resolved between Lucy and her husband, Phillip Mugler, and John Major Faudree based on the deed of Oct. 7, 1895 granting Lucy/Phillip Mugler and John Major Faudree “life interest” in the three acres but settling a fee-simple ownership onto Faudree’s youngest son, John Franklin Faudree, upon their deaths.
Grasslands U.S. Post Office was opened in 1912 by John Major Faudree’s son, John Franklin, and his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Mae Crockett Faudree, in 1912. Both Frank and Maggie served 51 years consecutively as Postmasters, each retired by the U.S. Postal Service upon their 70th birthdays. Frank was retired in 1957 and Maggie on Jan. 12, 1968. The Grassland Post Office was closed permanently.
The property was auctioned off in 2018 and sadly, after what looked like a brief attempt to work on the “big house,” it appears to have been left to the elements. Hopefully, it will receive new life soon. We are planning an exhibit on Grassland and the Faudree family for Spring 2024.
- Bethany Sullivan, director, The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage
The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage is located at 129 Caroline St. in the Town of Orange. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.thejamesmadisonmuseum.net.