Strother Conference - 2018
The 17th Biennial Conference of the William Strother Society was held in Fredericksburg, VA, at the Hilton Garden Inn. 98 people -- members, families and friends -- were registered. The main focus of the conference was on the Strother Family history at Ferry Farm (the most visible expression of our ties to George Washington), Millbank and the town of Fredericksburg. The George Washington Foundation, owners of Ferry Farm, provided a great deal of assistance in setting up this conference and in making the many features of Ferry Farm available to us. The current owners of Millbank, Gail Wertz and Andrew Ball, graciously hosted our group, displayed the ongoing archeological research at Millbank, and explained their plans for the future. The schedule included a variety of activities:
- a trolley tour of old Fredericksburg and the Fredericksburg Civil War Battle Field, with a US Park Service guide who explained the details of the Battle of Fredericksburg. The day ended with dinner at Brock's Riverside Grill overlooking the Rappahannock River. The evening speaker, Paula Thomas, presented a few of the stories from her book "Potluck: Little Stories from a Big Table" about some of her own family's experiences.
- a tour of the restored Ferry Farm house with guides who explained how the house was designed, built, and restored using a combination of archeological field work and research. Also on display were a few pieces of reproduction furniture. Lunch was provided in the pavilion, an open-air structure built in the manner of an 18th century barn, and included a further discussion of the restoration by one of Ferry Farm's archeologists.
- a tour of Millbank that included a discussion by Gail Wertz on the archeological digs underway and a ride across the fields in a hay wagon to observe several of the sites.
- Saturday included a meeting of the current Board of Directors, the Business Meeting with election of officers, and a meeting of the new Board of Directors. The Banquet that evening at the Hilton Garden Inn featured a Col. George Washington impersonator who participated in the photo sessions.
- The banquet was followed by an awards presentation to Jimmy Strother, Mike Noble, and outgoing President Dan Strother in appreciation for service to the Strother Society. The program included a discussion by Gail Wertz on future plans for Millbank, a discussion by another archeologist from Ferry Farm on different approaches to their research, and discussions by Ernst Bauer and Bill Garner, President of the George Washington Foundation, on future plans for Ferry Farm and how the Strother Society can have an impact on those plans.
For more details on the activities at the 2018 Conference and accompanying photographs, check the Conference Photos section of this website and the upcoming issue of the Houses of Strother Newsletter.