The Confederate monument on the court green in Mathews is the hottest topic slated for discussion during the upcoming Mathews County Board of Supervisors meeting, to be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in the Mathews High School auditorium.

A number of residents requested removal of the monument during the board’s July meeting, submitting written comments that spoke of the structure as a reminder of the days of enslavement, oppression and exclusion. It was suggested that the monument be moved elsewhere, possibly Fort Nonsense Historical Park. One speaker at that meeting said the monument needed to remain, and that the county needed to clarify who owns the land it sits on.

A report that County Administrator Mindy Conner will present to the board for consideration at next week’s meeting includes the results of historical research conducted on the monument by Becky Barnhardt, the head of Genealogy and Family Research Services at Mathews Memorial Library.

According to the report, archival material and microfilmed copies of the Mathews Journal and the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal were all researched beginning in 1900. Barnhardt found no record of the board of supervisors having approved a monument in the Board of Supervisors’ minutes book dated 1900-1923 and no record of a plat that included the monument in the county’s Land Plat Book 1, dated 1817-1923. There was, however, a charter for the Mathews Monument Association in Deed Book 17, page 611.

Newspaper records for 1906 contain accounts of the Lane-Diggs Camp of Confederate Veterans considering erection of a monument and announcing a fundraising meeting, of the Mathews Monument Association, held to discuss fundraising, and of a Daughters of the Confederacy chapter organizing to raise funds to help construct a monument.
Accounts of final actions on the monument occurred in 1912, with the Lane-Diggs Camp C.V. and Sallie Tompkins Chapter U.D.C. meeting to approve a contract to build the monument and having a cornerstone-laying ceremony that drew a crowd. The unveiling of the monument occurred in September that year. The keynote speaker was Col. Robert E. Lee Jr., and the prayer was given by the Rev. Giles B. Cooke of Mathews, who served on Gen. Robert E. Lee’s staff.
The cost of the monument was $2,500, with additional costs of $129 and $76 for two tablets and $176.80 for an iron fence. The iron fence was removed in 1937.

Finally, a plat depicting the court green locates the monument on the northeast corner but shows no separate parcel carved out for it. The undated plat is clearly of modern derivation because it depicts power, telephone, television, water, heat and computer lines.

Conner’s report lays out three options for the board: to take no action and leave the monument in place; to schedule a public hearing, which is required before a board may vote on removing, relocating or altering a monument; or to approve a resolution to hold a referendum during the November 2021 election to allow residents to vote on what happens to the monument. If the board chooses the second option, it must also issue a request for proposals for museums, historical societies, governments or military battlefield sites that may want to take ownership of the monument.

Referendum recommended

Conner recommends in the report that the board hold a referendum on the matter in 2021. She said it would give time for “facilitated discussions and careful consideration” and would remove the possibility of litigation should the board itself make the decision.

“I believe it is in the interests of good government to entrust the citizens with the responsibility to make this decision as a community,” she said.

Scheduling was an issue

With such a controversial topic on their agenda, the board had a difficult time scheduling the meeting. It was initially supposed to be held at 6 p.m. this past Tuesday in the historic courthouse—the date and time set for the August meeting at the beginning of the year.

But, expecting the subject of the monument to draw a crowd, supervisors decided to move the meeting to the high school auditorium instead.

The only problem was that, after the new location had been announced, the board learned that the auditorium had already been booked for use, so the meeting was moved back to the historic courthouse. But that meant that only one speaker at a time would be allowed inside the courthouse building, possibly leaving a crowd gathered outside to wait for their turn to speak.

Supervisors’ chair Amy Dubois said that she had discussions with board members and Sheriff Mark Barrick and decided that the situation created too much of a safety issue because of the coronavirus and “the very passionate exchanges that are being observed,” so the board decided instead to move the meeting to this coming Wednesday, Sept. 2, when the high school was available. The meeting was initially scheduled for 3:30 p.m., but the early time raised so many objections from the public that it was pushed up to 5 p.m.

Among the other items on Wednesday’s agenda are:

—Consideration of a request for a subdivision ordinance waiver by Teresa Roberts and Warren Brownley for their property on Aldebaran Road;

—A request by the Mathews Maritime Foundation to create a maritime park on property at the end of South Bay Haven Drive on Gwynn’s Island that the county purchased through FEMA’s Flood Hazard Mitigation Program;

—A request from the Mathews Broadband Advisory Board for CARES Act funding to purchase off-grid Smart Poles for broadband access;

—Consideration of a claim for $22,112.46 made against the county during last month’s meeting by David Jones of JB Property Development;

—The county’s social media policy, and

—Back to Business grants available to local small businesses and Rebuild VA grants available to both business and nonprofit organizations.