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Chris Witman of Habalis Construction does preservation work on headstones at the Ennever–Lucas family cemetery behind the Manheim auction complex in Stafford County on Wednesday morning.

Craig Amelung and local historian Anita Dodd look over documents pertaining to the Ennever-Lucas family cemetery in Stafford County.

Nathan Best says the cemetery restoration—his Eagle Scout project—is about 95% complete.

Chris Witman of Habalis Construction uses lime mortar, water and a few basic hand tools to restore headstones to their original condition.

Lucy Ennever’s headstone has been restored at the Stafford cemetery on the Manheim site.

Three Civil War-era headstones taken from a rural burial site about 15 years ago recently made their way back to the same family cemetery in Stafford County.

“Thankfully, whoever had the tombstone inscribed noted Lucy Ennever was of Stafford County, Virginia,” Jerrilynn Eby MacGregor said. “Oh, yes, we knew Lucy and we knew exactly where she belonged.”

MacGregor, a member of Stafford County’s Historical Society, said three of the seven tombstones documented in the Ennever–Lucas Cemetery were probably “snapped off” at their base by vandals who removed them. The old burial ground is behind the large parking lot of Manheim Fredericksburg, a wholesale vehicle marketplace near the Interstate 95 and U.S. 17 interchange.

“I have no idea why this happens,” said Anita Dodd, who serves on Stafford’s historical commission. “This is not the first time we’ve seen this happen in cemeteries, where people take stones. I don’t know why.”

The cemetery is also the site of an ongoing Eagle Scout project to restore its grounds, as well as stones that have been damaged over the years. The Scout in charge of the project said the work is about 95% complete.

“This has been a team effort between the Stafford Cemetery Committee, the Stafford Historical Society, Craig Amelung and an Eagle Scout,” said MacGregor.

In 2008, before the auto distribution center existed, Dodd visited the rural family cemetery, which at that time was still buried deep in the woods under heavy overgrowth. Dodd counted four marble headstones in the cemetery, which was once part of a large farm called Stanstead, the home of Charles Carter, who died in 1764.

Historical records show that seven headstones were once at the site. At some point before Dodd’s 2008 visit, three headstones had been taken from the property. They ended up about 65 miles away.

“Two of the stones returned were found in Richmond by an archaeologist who was doing (work) on a piece of property down there,” Dodd said.

About 18 months ago, Richmond officials returned those two stones to Amelung, general manager of Manheim Fredericksburg.

“The third stone—Lucy—was found in a backyard of a home in Richmond,” Dodd said. “Because it had Stafford County on the stone, they gave it to the historical society in Stafford.”

Dodd didn’t know at the time that the other two headstones had previously been returned to Amelung, but contacted him to have Lucy’s stone returned to her original burial site.

“He was very willing to do something,” Dodd said.

Amelung said the return of the three headstones to the family cemetery motivated him to do something meaningful.

“I think it’s our responsibility as property owners,” Amelung said. “My decision was, if we’re going to do this, I’d like to make it a community-type event.”

Dodd said a county ordinance requires land developers to maintain cemeteries on their property. They also have to create a fenced, 35-foot buffer around the cemetery. Amelong saw the cemetery’s restoration as an opportunity to help someone earn the highest award in Boy Scouts.

He contacted Jeff Best, a business partner and friend who lives in Chantilly. Amelung asked Best how his 17-year-old son, Nate, was coming along on his Eagle project.

“And he said, it’s funny you say that, he’s looking for one now,” Amelung said.

Amelung gave Nate, a senior at Chantilly High School, the opportunity to restore the cemetery as an Eagle project. He said he also did it to benefit historians, relatives or others seeking information on the old family cemetery.

Amelung said Manheim Fredericksburg invested nearly $12,000 toward the effort, which included professional restoration of the damaged stones and a large wooden sign on the cemetery property.

“I wanted to honor the cemetery by doing the right type of sign,” Amelung said. “This is all about the (Stafford) historical society and what they do in the community, and it’s about Nathan Best.”

Best said he submitted the idea to restore the cemetery as an Eagle project to Troop 695’s Eagle coach nearly nine months ago. By May, he said about 30 volunteers came to the cemetery to lend a hand.

“I wanted to clean it up, restore it and make the cemetery prettier,” Best said. “Preserve a bit of history.”

With the project nearly complete, Best said the journey came with a few memorable moments along the way.

“Right as we were on the final stretch of the program, it started raining,” Best said. “It’s a lot harder to move dirt when it’s wet.”

Chris Witman, a preservationist who works for Habalis Construction of Fredericksburg, said his company takes historic sites—usually buildings—and restores them to their original condition. He said his company was contacted by Stafford historians to restore the headstones at the Ennever–Lucas Cemetery.

“A lot of them snapped over time due to various issues,” Witman said. “Some we found broken and buried in the ground, so we kind of had to excavate a little bit to see where the stone would be to dig up the base of it.”

Witman said he uses only lime mortar, water and a few basic hand tools to do the delicate reconstruction work on each damaged headstone.

“You’ve got to care about this,” Witman said. “You try just to keep it preserved as best as you can.”

The cemetery is slightly elevated from the parking lot that surrounds it, and lies on a former 263-acre tract. The property was owned by Charles Carter, the son of merchant, planter and Colonial Virginia politician Robert “King” Carter.

MacGregor said Carter “bought up a good deal of real estate” between Falmouth and the Fauquier County line along the Rappahannock River. By the mid-1700s, James Hunter, who owned Hunter’s Iron Works on the Rappahannock, bought Stanstead after Carter moved to a plantation called Cleve in King George County.

Hunter’s Stafford ironworks supplied the Continental army and navy with muskets, swords and other armaments and camp implements. A historic sign commemorating the former foundry sits at Olde Forge Drive.

“The forge in Stafford was arguably the largest multifaceted manufacturing facility in Colonial America, and it was a major producer of firearms during the American Revolution,” MacGregor said.

The foundry also produced everyday items, such as hinges, bridle bits, curry combs, kitchen implements, traveling forges and the $10 one-horse “Farmer’s Friend” plow, which, according to an 1853 advertisement, “had our new and peculiar sloping standard, entirely preventing it from choking and greatly diminishing the draft.”

Although Hunter owned the Stanstead tract, he chose to remain in a home near the Chatham Bridge, where he could easily oversee the operations at the forge. After his death in 1784, Hunter’s nephew sailed to America from Scotland and, according to MacGregor, “continued running the foundry as best he could” until his death in 1805. At that point, MacGregor said the court appointed commissioners to divide the Hunter estate and auction it off. During that time, Joseph Ennever, who had been a clerk at the ironworks and is buried in the cemetery, bought the part of Stanstead that included the farm home and the cemetery.

“So the cemetery out there is called the Ennever–Lucas family cemetery because Joseph Ennever’s daughter married Albert Lucas, who was a Stafford–Fredericksburg boy,” MacGregor said. “So it’s Joseph Ennever, his wife Lucy Latham Ennever, and then Albert G. Lucas their son-in-law, Lucy Ennever Luca their daughter, and then two more.”

“(Amelung) didn’t have to do this. It could have just been left there,” MacGregor said. “It’s been a neat team effort.”

Although the cemetery is not open to the public, Amelung said relatives of those interred there, historians or students with an interest in the burial ground should call 540/368-3500 for access and an escort to the site.

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I spent 23 years in the Navy in media relations and as a reporter. Prior to coming to The Free Lance-Star in 2019, I volunteered with a local non-profit that helps formerly incarcerated people transition back into society. I'm also an avid motorcyclist.

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Chris Witman of Habalis Construction does preservation work on headstones at the Ennever–Lucas family cemetery behind the Manheim auction complex in Stafford County on Wednesday morning.

Craig Amelung and local historian Anita Dodd look over documents pertaining to the Ennever-Lucas family cemetery in Stafford County.

Nathan Best says the cemetery restoration—his Eagle Scout project—is about 95% complete.

Chris Witman of Habalis Construction uses lime mortar, water and a few basic hand tools to restore headstones to their original condition.

Lucy Ennever’s headstone has been restored at the Stafford cemetery on the Manheim site.

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