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Schurtz Family Farm (Site)

GPS Coordinates: 38.7715891, -77.1520273
Closest Address: 6234 William Edgar Drive, Alexandria, VA 22310

Schurtz Family Farm (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the family house once stood, surrounding by several outbuildings. No visible remains exist.


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Here follows an article written by Sue Patterson in the Fall 2002 "Franconia Legacies" newsletter as published on the Franconia Museum's website:

A "quintessential Franconian", William E. "Brother" Schurtz died on April 10, 2002 at his beloved farm in Shenandoah County, Virginia, near Mount Jackson. "Brother" born on July 31, 1929, in Alexandria, spent his entire life as a resident of Franconia.

He was the son of Charlotte "Lottie" Lyles Schurtz and William McKinley Schurtz. Since his mother died after his birth, his Uncle and Aunt, Joseph and Emma Schurtz of Franconia on Beulah Street raised him. He married Ruby McClary in 1949. At the Franconia Museum Story Swaps in 2001, he entertained local residents with his stories of life in Franconia in the 30's, 40's and 50's. He never forgot a name or a date.

For 41 years, he was involved as a volunteer or a firefighter with both the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue and Franconia Fire Department. He started as a volunteer in 1947. His "life membership" in the Franconia Volunteer Fire Department included serving as a chief in 1958-1959 and again in 1988. From 1989-1997, he served as president of the organization. As a member of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Deparmtnet, he began as a firefighter in 1961. Throughout his 27 years career, he rose through the ranks and retired as a Battalion Chief in 1987. He was in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954 and served in Korea.

Brother Schurtz has left a legacy of hard work and devotion to this community and his family that will be hard to live up to by the rest of us.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Alexandria Gazette as written by Darcy Nair:

Development marks end of an era.
The memories remain, but family farm won't.

Bill Schurtz, 62, remembers when Beulah Street was a dirt road that cut through farm land. There were only five houses along the one-mile stretch between his home and Franconia Road. Back then, when Beulah Street was called Beulah Road, people drove Model A Fords, and families struggled to make ends meet during the Depression.

Another change is on the way since Schurtz's 26-acre farm, one of the last remaining in the area, will soon be replaced by a development of single-family homes that has been approved by the Board of Supervisors.

"I hate to see it go, but the taxes were just too much," said Schurtz, a retired fire and rescue battalion chief. "I pay as much on taxes [each year] as it cost to have this house built."

Schurtz has lived on the farm since his father, Joseph Edgar Schurtz, carried him in when he was 7 days old, he said. About a week later, the houses on Beulah Road were wired for electricity for the first time.

The property has been in the Schurtz family since 1865. When his father married Emma Jane Rogers in the early 1900s, he bought the land from her family.

Schurtz's father worked nights on the railroad and days on the farm, harvesting sweet potatoes, peas and strawberries, and making the rounds among area markets with his produce.

"We weren't really poor -- we had this to fall back on," Schurtz said. "Anybody who could raise anything supplemented their income that way ... we never wanted for too much."

Schurtz, who will remain in his house on Schurtz Drive with his wife Ruby, has seen a lot of change in the area.

"I can't get used to it -- I never will," he said. "Everytime a car used to come down the street, we used to run out of the house to see who it was because not everyone owned cars. Now 30 or 40 cars drive by before I can pull out of my driveway. ... There used to be 25 houses on the whole road. You knew everybody. Now there are 1,000 people living across the street from me, and I don't know the first one's name."


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Here follows an excerpt from the Spring 2018 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

BROTHER SCHURTZ MEMORABILIA

The magnificent Brother Schurtz Memory Quilt was quite a hit at the Franconia Museum’s History Day Celebration on November 5, 2017, at the Franconia Volunteer Fire Department. How fitting it was to unveil the quilt for its first public showing in the very building William Edgar (Brother) Schurtz worked so hard to build and nurture over the years, serving as Chief and President of the Volunteers. He died on April 10, 2002, and his possessions passed to his wife, Ruby McClary Schurtz, who died on January 30, 2014.

The Schurtz estate then passed to Ruby’s niece, Shelley McClary Fink, and her husband, Tom. The Finks had been like the children Brother and Ruby never had, Shelley first as a young girl who loved horses and rode at the Schurtz farm on Beulah Road, and then Tom, who helped introduce Brother to things he had never before taken the time to do. Going through all of Brother and Ruby’s lifetime possessions was hard, and took time.

Shelley grew up on Edison Drive with her parents, Helen and Bill McClary. Her mom still lives in the same house. Her dad was Ruby Schurtz’ brother and, of course, a volunteer at Franconia Volunteer Fire Department. Shelley’s best friend at Mark Twain Intermediate and Edison High School was Cindy Rodda Barfield, who also loved horses and Brother Schurtz and Ruby. Cindy is now a professional quilter and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the old Santa Fe Trail. Shelley, Tom and Cindy always called Brother Schurtz “Uncle Buck,” and he doted on the affection.

The stories are priceless. An occasion Shelley recalls is someone left the gate open to the field and barn where the horses lived and 12 of them were in the front yard. She and her sister tried to get them back in the field behind the fence, but they ran off down Beulah Road, crossed over Franconia Road and into people’s yards. It took several hours to round up the herd. Fortunately, neither the wranglers nor the horses were hurt. Shelley had three horses at the Schurtz farm and was there every day taking care of them and doing chores. Sometimes, she and Cindy would sleep in the hayloft.

ABOUT ME

Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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