Lee Family Home

Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2003 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsetter published by the Franconia Museum and written by Jac Walker:

Famous Franconian: JOHN CLARK “PONY” LEE
Born Aug 18, 1874 in Widewater, VA on a 3,000 acre farm known as “Richlands”, Louis Napoleon John Clark Lee was the fifth child of Captain Sydney Smith Lee II (Confederate Calvary and Confederate Navy), nephew of Major General Fitzhugh Lee and great nephew of General Robert E. Lee. From the day of his birth, he was known as “Pony Lee”, named by his sister who commented, “He is short just like my pony.” He dropped his first two names.

Pony Lee and his wife raised their family of five in Springfield and Franconia. Oliver Lee, the youngest and only living child, and his wife, Julia (Nalls) live on Beulah Street in Franconia.

Pony Lee was an outstanding and colorful personality. He was extremely strong. He had great work ethics. He never owned a car. His mode of transportation was a Toro type tractor with a trailer which he could be seen driving all over

Franconia, even to downtown Alexandria, and to his church in Lincolnia via Shirley Highway (95 north) before it opened. He worked at Fruit Growers Express until his retirement.

Pony loved to go to Water Street in DC where the ships from South American would come in with loads of bananas. He was allowed to climb the 60’ masts and dive into the Potomac River which was about 60’ deep and come up with a handful of oyster shells. As a young man, he enjoyed Widewater Beach, which was a port with high riggers and windjammers; he talked about loading his pockets with rocks and diving from the high masts.

Pony loved to coon hunt. One of his weekly hunts to Aquia Creek in Widewater with two of his sons was very eventful. His two dogs “took to the water”, swimming across to the other side and did not return. He refused to leave them. Undressing to his long johns, he swam across the deep water which had a skim of ice (November) where he found they had a coon treed. He managed to get them back to shore in about 45 minutes where the sons had a bonfire. He wrung the water out of his long johns and stayed until morning — he said he had come to coon hunt. Pony was 85 years old at this time and did not even catch a cold.

Pony never went to a doctor, never took medicine, not even an aspirin. At age 100, his demise occurred just 40 days (April 19, 1974) after surgery was required for a broken hip. You can understand why he was labeled “Good Metal” by the old folks. More Pony Lee stories can be found in the Franconia Museum.