Erected By
The people of Loudoun County
in memory of
Her Sons who made the Supreme Sacrifice
In the Great War."[187]
Memory also should be kept afresh of the names of eleven Loudoun men who between them, for their services in the war, received no less than nineteen American and foreign decorations: Colonel Arthur H. Carter, Captain Edward C. Fuller, Major William Hanson Gill, William R. Grimes, Samuel C. Hirst, First Lieutenant William P. Hulbert, First Lieutenant James F. Manning, Jr., Colonel Thomas Bentley Mott, Bryant Rust, Captain Edward H. Tebbs, Jr., and Lieutenant Colonel Harry Aubrey Toulmin. This list is incomplete; as given it is copied from the publications of the Virginia War History Commission, Source Volume I, 1923.
During the war, as Federal Food Administrator of Virginia, there also served Colonel Elijah B. White of Selma so effectively that among the recognitions of his work that he received was the Agricultural Order of Merit bestowed by the Republic of France.
In 1918, in the midst of the war, a new State Administration assumed the reins of government under the leadership of Westmoreland Davis of Loudoun who became Governor of Virginia in that year and whose administration was accepted by the people as efficient, sound and well balanced.
In culture the county is recovering the position it proudly held one hundred years ago before ground down by war and poverty. Its public schools, then nonexistent, now under the supervision of Superintendent O. L. Emerick, grow and improve and are supplemented by several excellent private institutions of which Foxcroft, near Middleburg, has been described and the very successful Llangollan School for younger children, opened in 1937 near Leesburg by Mrs. Frances L. Patton (Miss Louise D. Harrison) also may be mentioned. Loudoun has produced a naval architect of international reputation in Lewis Nixon (1861- ), two well known artists in Hugh A. Breckenridge (1870-1937) and the late Lucian Powell and a number of writers upon her history whose works have been referred to frequently in the foregoing pages. Supplementing her schools and extending their educational work the county has two large libraries, the older founded in Leesburg in 1907 as the Leesburg Library largely through the efforts of the late Mrs. Levi P. Morton and her daughter, Loudoun's benefactress, Mrs. William C. Eustis of Oatlands. In the year 1918 the Thomas Balch Library was incorporated and at once, on land bought for that purpose through public subscription, the late Edwin Swift Balch and Thomas Willing Balch of Philadelphia, sons of Thomas Balch of international arbitration fame (who was born in Leesburg in 1821) began the construction for it of the beautiful library building on West Market Street, Leesburg, which so enhances the charm of the town. Mr. Waddy B. Wood, a Washington architect of recognized authority on the early Federal period of American architecture, drew the plans and in 1922 the building was completed and dedicated and the collection of books of the old Leesburg Library was presented and moved to the new institution. That collection, since then much enlarged, now numbers well over 10,000 volumes and is of a very definite value to town and county.[188]
There had been a small library at Purcellville for a number of years when in 1919 it was reorganized as the Blue Ridge Library and continued its activities until about 1926. There followed a period in which the library was closed. Then in 1934, largely through the leadership of Mrs. Clarence Robey, a Federal grant was obtained which, with about twice its amount in many smaller private subscriptions, made possible the completion in 1937 of the present imposing Purcellville Library building at a cost of nearly $30,000. It is rapidly augmenting its collection of books and to its primary function of library is adding that of civic centre, where lectures, concerts and other entertainments are frequently given and enthusiastically attended by the people of the neighbourhood. The new building is expected to be dedicated during the summer of 1938.
St. John's Roman Catholic Church, the first of its faith in Loudoun, was erected in Leesburg in 1878 and was dedicated on the 13th October of that year by the Right Rev. John J. Keane who was an orator of wide reputation and who later became the Archbishop of Dubuque. Among those most active in raising the necessary funds for its construction was Miss Lizzie C. Lee of Leesburg. Until 1894 mass was said but once a month by priests who came from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. In the latter year it became a mission of St. James' Catholic Church at West Falls. Later, through the untiring efforts of Father A. J. Van Ingelgem, masses were said each Sunday. Father Van Ingelgem continued to guide the congregation and church until Father Govaert was appointed the first regular pastor in July, 1926. Soon thereafter the frame church was greatly enlarged and beautified, largely through the generosity of the late Mrs. Henry Harrison (Miss Anne Lee) of Leesburg, and was opened with services conducted by the Right Rev. Andrew J. Brennan of Richmond. At that same time the attractive rectory, adjoining the church, was also opened. The Leesburg parish of this church covers a territory of 2,000 square miles, extends from the West Virginia line to that of Maryland and operates two missions, one of which is at Herndon and the other at Purcellville. The Rev. Father John S. Igoe, a native Virginian who enjoys the affectionate esteem of the whole community, is the present pastor.[189]
As throughout Virginia, hospitality is inherent in the people of Loudoun. Especially is this so at Christmas time when, from early days, the old English custom of stopping all farm work (save only necessitous care of the live stock) from Christmas Eve to the second day of January still obtains. Then scattered Loudoun folk seek to return, if but for a day, to their native soil bringing back with them friends and acquaintances that they may show their birthright; then open house prevails, time-honoured eggnogg and appletoddy greet all guests and the Leesburg Assembly, following its custom handed down through the generations, holds its eagerly awaited Christmas Ball.