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Lucketts History |
Excerpts from Loudoun Times Mirror, June 1978, Eugene Scheel The Lucketts Family Before Loudoun County’s formation in 1757, members of the Luckett family owned Potomac River bottom land in Maryland across the river from Virginia’s Lost Corner. In 1770, Thomas Hussey Luckett married Elizabeth Noland, daughter of wealthy Loudoun County Virginia ferry owner and property speculator Philip Noland who had built and operated a ferry across the Potomac since 1775. It wasn’t until September 13, 1785 that Loudoun County records show that Philip Noland sold 182 and one-half acres to his son-in-law. Thomas Luckett’s own will is recorded the next year showing that he was leaving his Loudoun plantation, one which he was living, to his youngest son (not yet baptized but later named Thomas) and to a Negro man named Sam. About a quarter-century later, on May 5, 1809, Elizabeth Noland Luckett sold her husband’s plantation to Samuel Clapham whose father Josias owned property surrounding the Loudoun Luckett’s property. The younger Thomas lived on his other Loudoun lands, with his manor house at the southwest corner of the crossroads at today’s Village of Lucketts. That house, still standing in 1809 was lived in by Thomas’s son, Samuel, in the 1820’s. Upon Samuel’s death in 1831, his lands of about 132 acres were divided among his wife and four sons, William, Roger, Josiah and Luther. William and his wife Mary lived at the old Luckett homestead at the crossroads until years after the Civil War. By 1870, the neighborhood named this crossing place of the Noland’s Ferry Road (“ferry Road” then) and the Leesburg Point of Rocks Road (today’s Route 15) Lucketts’s Cross Roads. By the late 1880’s, Samuel Luckett (a Democrat) sought the assistance of republican neighbor Nathan L. Stoute to write republican President Harrison proposing a post office in Lucketts. It was housed in a one-story frame store Samuel built in the northwest corner of the crossroads. The area was officially called “Luckets” – omitting the second “t”. In 1892, with the election of Democrat Glover Cleveland, Samuel’s brother Frank became the postmaster. With Republicans back in power in 1897, the postmastership shifted to Republican Leonard T. Frye. Every four years it changed until Roger W. Luckett took over in 1912. Luckets became Lucketts after that. William H. Luckett (Roger’s father) founded the general store in 1879 at the northeast corner of the crossroads and conducted a thriving business until 1907 when it was taken over by Roger Luckettt who served as the postmaster and store keeper until his death in 1944. his wife Mae Arnold Luckett, (a local girl) took over the operation of the store until it closed about 1955. She closed the post office in 1960. How Lucketts Grew Just a few miles south of Lucketts was the village of Goresville, named after Thomas Gore of Montgomery County, Maryland. Goresville competed with Lucketts as a thriving village. This area was the business center and post office from 1854 until 1892 when Samuel’s brother, Frank, became the postmaster in Lucketts. The only commercial enterprise at the crossroads was Wilson Sander’s grist mill, built in the 1850s and the only mill in a near 50-square mile area. That grist mill in Goresville was still operating until 1913 when it was run by the Titus family. About 1920 it was taken over by Richard Howser who switched to a nine-horsepower steam engine. He then relocated the mill to a hill 50 feet away and changed to a gasoline power until it closed in 1928. By the late 1880s, the glittering gas lights of Leesburg and Waterford eclipsed the village of Goresville. The crossroads at the Village of Lucketts – farther from the big towns – was the place to start a new village, according to Samuel Luckett who then lived at the intersection. He was successful in seeking the approval of the post office by president Harrison who named the post for the Luckett family. In 1879 William H. Luckett built a store at the crossroads. Two new area businesspeople joined the Luckett store in the early 1900s. A blacksmith shop, run by James L. Kidwell, began operation. It was later run by Herbert Fry, Charlie Newton, Milton Crim and “Uncle” Bill Coleman, the area’s only black businessman. A competing blacksmith and wheelwright shop (called the Red Hill Shop) operated about ½ mile east on Ferry Road (today’s Route 662). The first physician was Dr. West who had his office in Goresville. Later Dr. Fox moved in at Montresor. Often off in Africa hunting big game, he tended to emergencies when he was home, but never charged. Lucketts had a doctor’s office in a frame shack belonging to Dr. Dan Willard who rode to Lucketts one a week on horseback. Dr. Willard dies on his way to Lucketts one day, coming over the mountain from Lovettsville. Several still active churches played an important part in the history of the area. Christ Episcopal Church began services in Goresville as early as 1773 in a dwelling on the land that was purchased in 1869 to build the now historic board and batten church. Bethel United Methodist Church, located at Stumptown, is west of Lucketts. Located just east of Lucketts on faith Chapel. Before its 1885 completion and dedication, services and Sunday school classes were held at nearby Oak Hill School. One of its first ministers horsebacked from Waterford Presbyterian Church once a month to conduct services. Furnace Mountain Presbyterian Chapel, built in 1917 with monetary assistance from the Leesburg District Schools, was also used as a school. |