Date and Place of Birth

Mud Town and Macedonia

James Adams and the Neighborhood Churches

Names and Locations of Family and Other Community Members

Neighborhood Places and Locations: Fort Ward, Schools, and Donaldson's Store

Date and Place of Birth
Patricia Knock:	I'm gonna fill out this piece of paper. Just for your name and your address and all that.
Julia Bradby:	I understand.
PK:	Could you give me your full name?
Julia Bradby:	My full name is Julia Marie Adams Bradby.
PK:	And...Your birth place?
Julia Bradby:	Fairfax County, June 8, 1920.
PK:	June 8, 1920. Where were you born-what was the address of the place you were born? Do you remember?
Julia Bradby:	Well, I know it was on Quaker Lane where I am now.
PK:	On Quaker lane.
Julia Bradby:	Well, I don't know, maybe it was...I don't know who gave us the numbers, probably the Alexandria... but we just had a Seminary post office address at that particular time. We received our mail over at the Theological Seminary.
PK:	And your house was on Quaker Lane then?
Julia Bradby:	On Quaker Lane.
PK:	Or was it a road or a lane that went off of Quaker Lane?
Julia Bradby:	Woods Lane.
PK:	Woods Lane.
Julia Bradby:	But we lived on Quaker; we never lived on Woods Lane. The house was always facing this way.
PK:	So you were born on Quaker Lane?
Julia Bradby:	I was born on Quaker Lane.
PK:	Did you live other places in Alexandria?
Julia Bradby:	No I didn't; my other brothers and sisters may have in Alexandria. We lived here all our life. I ain't never been to any other place but here. Then when they built the new community they've rebuilt back in this house, here. This is not the original house.

Mud Town and Macedonia
PK:	When did you so do you live in what they called Mud Town?
Julia Bradby:	Well, they called it Mud Town.
PK:	Or Macedonia?
Julia Bradby:	But I never knew it as Mud Town where we lived. We always lived in, right here in front of the Episcopal High School Gate. We never was - we never lived over in that area that they called Mud Town.
PK:	Did you hear the name of Macedonia?
Julia Bradby:	Yes.
PK:	Where is Macedonia?
Julia Bradby:	Well, this is what they called over there in that area on Oak Hill. Over there was Macedonia. That's what they called Macedonia, over there.
PK:	Did you feel like Mud Town was part of Macedonia?
Julia Bradby:	...Well, sure.
PK:	It was.
Julia Bradby:	It was, mmhm. Because it was all in the same area. They just had different names that they, you know, they called it.
PK:	That they called it. You think Macedonia was an older name-or they called them at the same time...
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, I think it was something that was back when my parents were-you know living. You know when they were younger. This is what they called Macedonia....Now the Mud Town-I never heard that until the renewal...
PK:	Yeah.
Julia Bradby:	Uh huh, I never heard Mud Town until then so they called the whole area Mud Town you know. But we never knew anything but Quaker Lane.
PK:	Or, or you heard that...
Julia Bradby:	Now, now we never lived in the area that they call Mud Town.
PK:	Okay.
Julia Bradby:	Mmhm, But all of this, they named it all the same so were all in the same area.
PK:	I'm gonna come back and talk to you at another time 'cause I'm going to be doing what they call Mud Town. Which Dr. Mitchell and I found out from Mrs. Douglas that they called Macedonia first. So you don't know...
Julia Bradby:	Is this Elizabeth Douglas you talking about?
PK:	Yes, ma'am.
Julia Bradby:	Well she's just a little bit older than I am and I don't understand how she knows, you know, all that. You know, maybe she has a better memory than I do. [laughter]
PK:	I heard the word Macedonia first from her; that's why I ask you about it.
Julia Bradby:	You know why she's telling you that because this is where her aunt and uncle lived. They lived in that part of what they called Macedonia and Mud Town. I've never lived over there. The Woods, the Adams, the Wanzers, all those people lived in this area here. Always on Quaker Lane. Always, on Woods Lane.
PK:	I see.
Julia Bradby:	But the part that she's telling you about, Macedonia, is over...was over in that area on Oak Hill.
PK:	Okay.
Julia Bradby:	In that area.
PK:	There was a cemetery back there?
Julia Bradby:	The cemetery was back off of Woods...off of Woods Lane behind my mother's cousin Bonnie's house. It was exactly on Oak Hill. But it was on a back hill back in there.
PK:	Is that where the church was first? Oakland Baptist Church?
Julia Bradby:	The Oakland Baptist Church is a branch from the old church that they...met up there on Oak Hill. My mother told me all this, I don't know nothin' about it, they used to go up there and have church on Oak Hill. Then they came...down and they had church...some people-they found Oakland Baptist Church and some of the people stayed at Oakland and then some of them went down to Ebenezer and [unintelligible]. My mother-my parents...my mother's mother and father they were members of Ebenezer Baptist; they didn't stay with Oakland. But my father did. My father...was a licensed minister from Oakland Baptist Church.

James Adams and the Neighborhood Churches
PK:	What was your father's name?
Julia Bradby:	James...James Adams.
PK:	James Adams.
Julia Bradby:	Always learning up at the Seminary.
Dr. Henry Mitchell:	Oh yeah...[laughter]
PK:	Was he an Episcopalian before?
Julia Bradby:	But you know we almost were Episcopalians-my brother and my oldest brother tells me that the only Sunday school that they had to go to was the...was the Seminary. My brother said they didn't go to Sunday school here they went to Sunday school up at the Seminary. They attended the Sunday school there. They didn't have a Sunday school here and they went to Sunday school at the Theological Seminary. And then they built the church over-they had a schoolhouse up in the Fort Ward Park.
PK:	Mmhm.
Julia Bradby:	That-and they-church was up there too. I think they had church and all in that same place and someone from the Episcopal Seminary was the minister for them.
PK:	Right.
Julia Bradby:	So some of the people...That's why the (Mac-Mac?) was there?
HM:	Right [Mac-Mac?]
Julia Bradby:	And all those people are Episcopalians.
HM:	Peters[?]
Julia Bradby:	Uh huh and the Peters and all-they stayed in to the Episcopal Church.
PK:	Do you remember what...on Seminary...do you know where the Sunday school was that your brother went to?
Julia Bradby:	They said it was a regular Seminary for the Sunday schools and all the rest of the people up there who lived up there attended.
PK:	You don't remember ever going up to the building?
Julia Bradby:	I don't remember, I know I never been there.
HM:	What we're...what we've been trying to locate is where the building was and we haven't been able to validate where it was-you know.
Julia Bradby:	All those people-it's just some of the people here-they've died.
HM:	Yeah, I know.
Julia Bradby:	You know who would know all these things-this is what happened. I'm so sorry that you missed Crozet Wood Johnson's father, now he could have told you all these things.
PK:	Do you think maybe Crozet knows?
Julia Bradby:	Crozet may know. She might. But she's just a little...not that...she's older than I am and she and one of my sisters are the same age.
PK:	Yeah she said she would talk to me. So I need to talk to her.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah. But I don't think that Crozet ever attended the Sunday school. It was like my older brother, my older sisters, you know...and all.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	And then there...they all attended...the Episcopal Seminary Sunday School.
PK:	So you where Oakland Baptist Church...that was your church?
Julia Bradby:	That's my church. That's the church I remember.
PK:	And when you were a child did you go to Ebenezer?
Julia Bradby:	No...No.
PK:	You always went to Oakland...
Julia Bradby:	I never...I've always attended Oakland.
HM:	Where is Ebenezer?
Julia Bradby:	Ebenezer's on Queen Street. You know that Reverend? Bartlet Street? You know Reverend Roberts?
HM:	I know it.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, That's Reverend Roberts Church.
HM:	There are two Reverend Roberts.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, but one's gone. One was at the Methodist Church, uh huh-he's gone-his time is up. There's a new minister now.
HM:	Methodist, yeah.

Names and Locations of Family and Other Community Members
PK:	Do you have any old photographs, diaries, or any other items...family Bible?
Julia Bradby:	Well, we had an old Bible at one time and I gave it to my brother, the oldest brother who passed, and the only thing that I received back from his wife was the little piece of the cover, and that's all. I can show you that, that's all I have.
PK:	Well I was...I was looking for names. Let me show you what I have, okay? This is a map of 1879, 1878, before people started buying property up at the port, and here's...this is the area right here...and then the 1894 map of this same area. Here's all of the families, in here. Let me show you on a bigger map. In the 1870 census, this where Clara was living. Clara Shorts was living here. She was 5 years old.
Julia Bradby:	So she was a Shorts?
PK:	She was a Shorts...uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	So she wasn't a McKnight like we've been hearing.
PK:	A what?
Julia Bradby:	A McKnight. She wasn't a McKnight.
PK:	Okay, well, Burr [?] and Harriet...it was Harriet McKnight, married Burr Shorts and she had some children that were McKnights and then she and Burr had...three children and they were Shorts. So Clara is one and Charles Shadnick[?] is one and Mary was one and those were the Shorts children. Now at that time-you're related to the Adams, right?
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, my grandparents were Adams, James and Felicia[?]
PK:	Okay, the Adams were living in the same neighborhood...you knew that.
Julia Brady:	Yeah, that's right; this is my grandparent's property too. As well as my mother and my father's.
PK:	So they were living here. There's George Adams and here's the children. Some of the children. Now who was your...
Julia Bradby:	James Adams was my father.
PK:	Who was the father of Natalie Vaughn?
Julia Bradby:	Oh she was...her mother?
PK:	It was her mother?
Julia Bradby:	My mother was a [unintelligible]
PK:	Was that Ada?
Julia Bradby:	No, no, no, no. Her mother's name was...I'll be darned.
PK:	We have Sarah, Mary, and [unintelligible].
Julia Bradby:	She had...we had one aunt named Aunt Mary and one named...oh my goodness, I can't...Sally! Sally!
PK:	Okay, so she's Sarah. Sarah was her mother?
Julia Bradby:	Sarah was...well they called her Sarah. Sarah and Sally...I can't believe how the names have changed! My goodness! These were children of my grandparents!
PK:	Uh, yes.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, uh huh and I see the James.
PK:	Right, and I made you a copy of everything.
Julia Bradby:	Okay.
PK:	So I'll give you a copy when I go. So this is 1870. Now do you know where they were living then?
Julia Bradby:	Here, in this area here...
PK:	Quaker Lane?
Julia Bradby:	...that was an older house. That was an older home here.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	And my father brought out all his sisters and brothers and he built a home for his family here. So the uh...yeah. This...it was right in this area.
PK:	Right here in Quaker Lane.
Julia Bradby:	In Quaker Lane.
PK:	Uh, that's...thank you, thank you. [laughter]
Julia Bradby:	...where did you get that old...no that's my father's immediate family on that Bible...all of us.
PK:	Well, you lived in a good neighborhood here. [laughter]
Julia Bradby:	That's true...I have never left...I always liked it here.
PK:	I'll give you a copy if this...here's a copy too for your cousin.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah. [Unintelligible] didn't tell you that?
PK:	I didn't ask her.
Julia Bradby:	Oh!
PK:	I asked her about her family.
Julia Bradby:	Oh!
PK:	I didn't ask her about you.
Julia Bradby:	Well her family...
PK:	I knew you were cousins.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, we're cousins with two sisters and brothers children. Do you know...? [unintelligible]
HM:	Well, I know here now...I had met her one time, met her one time at the AARP.
Julia Bradby:	At the AARP...right, when they...when we [unintelligible] honored the women.
HM:	That's right, when we honored those people. That's right I remember her.
Julia Bradby:	Right!
PK:	OK. Let me give you the right ones. Okay, this is yours.
Julia Bradby:	Okay, thank you.
PK:	Now...Thank you. [laughter] Very much.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah...that my grandparents lived here...
PK:	Okay. Now something else that happened is, ten years later there were some more children. Okay, so you had more aunts and uncles then.
Julia Bradby:	You're kidding!
PK:	Well, we added Ada, which we didn't have on the last one.
Julia Bradby:	Oh, Ada, yes Ada-I remember her.
PK:	Ok. Yeah, So I made you copies of the 1880 census also. This is 10 years later.
Julia Bradby:	10 years later-there were some more cousins-who were they born to? Do they say there..?
PK:	This is to your grandmother and grandfather-had more children-had another child.
Julia Bradby:	Let's see. This started with my father and Sarah and Mary?
PK:	Well, you can take a look here.
Julia Bradby:	...and Robert. All we know is Robert, Sally, and Mary, and...
PK:	Kizzia [unintelligible]
Julia Bradby:	I know all those names. I know aunt Ada. I know her.
PK:	OK. Well just...[unintelligible]
Julia Bradby:	I thought they were a different group of people though. I did-I mean I knew they were related to us and they were my [unintelligible] my...they were my father's aunts.
PK:	They were your father's aunts?
Julia Bradby:	Yes! Miss Kizzy, Aunt Kizzy and Aunt Ada was my father's aunts.
PK:	What was your father's name? I think we're missing...
Julia Bradby:	James.
PK:	I think we're missing a generation here is what's happening.
Julia Bradby:	James...my father's name was after his dad.
PK:	Um hum. Your father was James after his dad?
Julia Bradby:	James, after his dad.
PK:	OK then this is your grandfather. James is your grandfather. He would have been...in 1880 he was 22. That makes sense. Right?
Julia Bradby:	A yeah...that's true.
PK:	And then George is your great-grandfather. I guess?
Julia Bradby:	Uh hum.
PK:	These names all match up with you? We have James...
Julia Bradby:	I have something...my brother told my daughter and she took a little bit of history from him and he was saying that our...told her that our grandfather's name was George.
PK:	Your grandfather's name was George?
Julia Bradby:	It...James...is that it?...George says George Adams.
PK:	Right. [unintelligible] This is 1880 now. When was your father born? Do you know that?
Julia Bradby:	No, I have to look in the Bible. [unintelligible]
PK:	Okay...[long pause]
Julia Bradby:	[unintelligible]..and Dad was on here someplace...[unintelligible].
PK:	I...well, this James would have been born two years after the Civil War, so I don't think that's your grandfather. Your grandfather would have been the next generation down the line.
Julia Bradby:	[unintelligible]
PK:	James Adams.
HM:	Yeah.
PK:	June 25, 1884.
Julia Bradby:	...thank you. I was looking all over top of here. Uh huh, 1884. And my mother was born September 17, 1880.
PK:	Okay. Could I get...could I copy those down...before I go?
Julia Bradby:	Look how they did. [laughs]
HM:	That's when they got married.
Julia Bradby:	29 plus, years.
HM:	I think they got married.
Julia Bradby:	See, and then it has 25...
HM:	Yeah, see?
Julia Bradby:	But off 3 months.
HM:	Yeah.
Julia Bradby:	So that means that they counted the month after the birth date, see the 25, and then it says plus 3 months, and this says plus years, I don't...I don't, I don't understand what that means.
PK:	Well this, this James was born in...1858.
Julia Bradby:	So that's the grandfather.
PK:	That's your grandfather. And then this George is your great-grandfather. 'Cause he's the...he's the dad of this first James who would been in 1858 and then that's about right about...born in [18]84...let's see 4, 50, 8...he would have been 26 when he had the second James in [18]84, June 25 [18]84. So then you're...
Julia Bradby:	And this is my...this is my brother here.
PK:	So you're really the great-great niece of Robert instead of just one great. Right?
Julia Bradby:	See I didn't know all this. [laughter]
PK:	Well, that's why I'm going to leave these with you, so you can...
Julia Bradby:	My daughter would love [unintelligible] I'm going to give all this to my daughter.
PK:	You can write a big book here like Dr. Mitchell's.
Julia Bradby:	We've never gotten a reunion together. Ned[?] has been talking about it, we've never ever and I think we've waited too late.
HM:	Well, no, it's not too late.
PK:	No!
HM:	We've talked...they talked about this for a long time, they said, "Let's stop talking about it and do it!" [laughter] [unintelligible] A bunch of them were teachers and they said, "You'll be responsible for this, you'll be responsible for that, you'll be responsible for that."
PK:	Yeah, that's...
HM:	And they put together 400 and some pages of that.
PK:	That's a great...
HM:	They went to cemeteries, they went to court houses, they went to...well one of the, my cousins is an archivist, an archivist, and she has a degree in that, so she...she is the one that orchestrates everything.
PK:	Yeah.
HM:	Her name was Francis Peal Keith. So she was the one that orchestrated everything and got them all together.
Julia Bradby:	See that's what you need, somebody who knows...well, I have a daughter who, you know, who writes and sheshe's been trying to get something together for a long time and she just been gettingshe got a little bit from my brother just before he passed.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	I don't know, a little bit, you know, from him.
PK:	Well, you'll have...what I'm going to write up too as part of your...of the beginning and...
Julia Bradby:	This'll get started [laughter]
PK:	And I'll leave you these and I'm leaving the map and you can sort of carry on from there. I...have the 1900 census too that has them. In 1900, Robert, that, which was you're great-great uncle, right?
Julia Bradby:	And then we had, my father had a brother named Robert also.
PK:	Did he?
Julia Bradby:	Yeah.
PK:	Well I...
Julia Bradby:	He...he was...he died in World War I.
PK:	Robert...Robert and Clara only had one child and...adopted, I guess Clara couldn't have any children, not sure. Unless she had some on later in life because...
Julia Bradby:	No I've never known her to have any children.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	She used to come down to visit my mother...and Sunday, sometimes she'd come to Oakland, and she'd walk around and visit my mother.
PK:	This census has her with...oh here it is...right here is...Robert W. Adams, and then his wife Clara W. Wife and no children born and no children living and then they have Walter A., adopted son. Have you ever heard about Walter at all?
Julia Bradby:	Never heard of Walter. Walter A., adopted son. My mother had an uncle...named Walter, and the only Walter I know but he was...he wasn't the one because he was a Butler. See my mother's maiden name was Butler, my father off the Adams side. My mother...my mother's maiden name was Butler.
PK:	Let me show you something else I've had that's interesting and maybe you knew...heard something about it in the family. In 1870 when Clara lived...here, the house that she lived in, or the Shorts lived in, was only two houses away from Cassius-or three houses away from Cassius F. Lee's property-up here was called Monoacan, it was an old...it was a country home. He was a cousin of Robert E. Lee. [unintelligible]. And we were guessing that maybe the Shorts were slaves of...
Julia Bradby:	Of those people?
PK:	Of the Lees. Did you ever hear anything about the Shorts at all?
Julia Bradby:	I never heard anything...I've heard my mother speak about Harriet.
PK:	Right, Harriet...
Julia Bradby:	Harriet Shorts, I've heard my mother speak of her many times.
PK:	What did she say about Harriet?
Julia Bradby:	She would just be saying that...people who lived around here at that particular time. Harriet Shorts...let me see if I can find [unintelligible] [Tape cut off?] But I didn't...I don't think there was anything in it about Shorts.
PK:	Uh huh. Well I know there was more than Harriet Shorts around here too, I think they're...
Julia Bradby:	I don't even know a person who's living now that could tell you this.
PK:	Yeah it's too long ago.
Julia Bradby:	And I'm sure that this Elizabeth Douglas would not know those people.
PK:	No she didn't know...she didn't know the people at the Fort. She didn't...because she lived up that way.
Julia Bradby:	[Unintelligible] because the only people who'd know would be Crozet's father. See Crozet's grandparents lived next door to us-and where the street is right here. But my grandparents...but their grandparents, the Woods and my grandparents where here...first. They were all living here together. Then where they lived over there, their mother and father bought property on the other side of them...of their father...of his father...over there. But Mr. Douglas Wood, and Matilda Wood, lived next door to my parents...to my grandfather. And so therefore they lived next door us too.
PK:	Uh huh. So I need to talk to them.
Julia Bradby:	Yeah, but I don't think she can tell you anything about the Shorts, that you were talking about, because you'd have to be my oldest brother's age, you know, to know.

Neighborhood Places and Locations: Fort Ward, Schools, and Donaldson's Store
PK:	Did you...Did you go down to the Fort when you were a kid?
Julia Bradby:	No, I, they built this school, the Seminary school, and I was...when I was 6 years old and ready to go, I cried cause I wanted to go up there. [laughter]
PK:	You wanted to go to the Fort?
Julia Bradby:	I wanted to go to the Fort everybody was talking about and they all walked there every day to school and I used to watch out the window and watch them go and I was so mad then, 'cause I didn't ever get to go there. And they also attended the...had the schoolhouse down here-did Ms. Douglas tell you that?-at the Liberty Hall. Our church owned another building that they called the Liberty hall and they went there.
PK:	They had school there also?
Julia Bradby:	We had school there too, attended school there. And then they had the Fort school, did they ever tell you who the teachers were up here at this Fort school.
PK:	Um, no.
Julia Bradby:	I think it was Mrs. Kerry Vaughn and...and the Terrell over here.
PK:	Oh, I did hear of Beatrice Terrell.
Julia Bradby:	Terrell.
PK:	Beatrice. Yeah.
Julia Bradby:	And then, and uh, Mrs. Kerry Vaughn.
PK:	Uh, when that, when that school was there, do you know about how many children attended there?
Julia Bradby:	Well, all those people who were old enough in the Fort Ward Park area and the children here and this particular community...attended there.
PK:	So would you say that...
Julia Bradby:	I would say...what, what, what, about 25 to 50 maybe. Or 25 to 30. I don't hardly think it was that big.
PK:	You never went up to that school...
Julia Bradby:	No, I never attended that school, because when they built this school, here, I, this school was built when I was 6 years old and ready to go to school, and I went to that school. So, that was in what-19, 1920, and that was what, 1926?
HM:	Yeah.
PK:	Yeah, I think so. Did you go...to the store, to Donaldson's store?
Julia Bradby:	Yes. [unintelligible]
PK:	Where was Donaldson's store? Is it [unintelligible]
Julia Bradby:	Right here the...the flower shop.
PK:	Is it gone?...It's gone now though, right?
Julia Bradby:	They just tore it down about 2 years ago. That's a shame.
PK:	'Cause I went looking for it. [laughter]
Julia Bradby:	[unintelligible]...They tore it down about 2 years ago.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	Just about two years ago it's been down. And they have that flower shop around there.
PK:	Were you allowed to up there by yourself? To Donaldson's store?
Julia Bradby:	Oh yes, we could walk, we had a pathway that led right through this old Harmon property, you know this is...Harmon property where those apartments are...and...
PK:	How do...How is that...Highman?
Julia Bradby:	Harmon...H-A-R...I think that's how you spell it...M-O-N.
PK:	Uh huh.
Julia Bradby:	And um...so they...this property was sold to them and then it was sold...I don't know who the original owner was...and then it was sold to the Donaldson's, the old Donaldson's store people owned it. And then I think that they are the people who sold it to the apartments...people, the real estate people here. And we had a pathway, that we walked straight across to Donaldson's...store and my mother-we would go every day to the store. [unintelligible] was the only place to buy any food.
PK:	Can you think anything about this neighborhood, of your childhood that you particularly-are in your memories?
Julia Bradby:	Well...I remember that we always had a nice neighborhood and the people were always kind and nice and they looked out for one another, you know, and the children and that we all lived it like one family. When it was a old neighborhood and we had pathways that we went to each other's homes and we went to school, we'd go right down the path here, right on down my mother's property and right to the school, 'cause our property joined...T.C. Williams, where it is now. [Side A ends; Side B is unintelligible. The recording device was either covered over or placed near an air conditioner or other device that made a loud cycling noise. Only a few words can be heard.]