THE RIVER

The old letters tell a young couple’s story. He was a hardworking young guy, a little reckless maybe; she a delicate teenager. Through reading his letters written to her over a hundred years ago, we learn that she cared deeply for her “Spruce Run Boy”, as she called him. She always wanted the best for him; her words were clear. And his love was like many young men his age who wore “his heart on his sleeve”. Their letters tell about the years before they married, sharing with us how they grew up as they grew together.

While rereading his letters in 2018, we are drawn to the narrow road he traveled to see his girl. Each of us knows it well, each curve and sharp turn on the mountain road is etched in our minds. As young kids we traveled the same route to swim in the rivers’ cool strong current. And as we read his words today, we imagine him driving his buggy from what is now known as Spruce Run Road onto the road to McCoy. In his letters, Granddaddy always hoped for clear skies and no rain for his drive.

Whittled out of a thin strip of land, the McCoy Road snakes between the railroad tracks and the New River, a complicated body of water that still influences lives today. Yet after all these years, New River remains a mystery. We know that it is old but can only guess her age. During Granddaddy’s time the river was a means via the ferry to travel. We understand that even now her waters are a food source to patient anglers; but importantly, for his grandchildren we remember the fun growing up playing on her banks and swimming in her warm summer water.

“Spruce Run Boy” was our grandfather. We never met. He passed long ago. But his words touch two generations since he courted his girl. The young couple married in 1907 and my dad was born one year later. The little girl from McCoy quickly became a wife living in Spruce Run as well as a mother to 5 children.

THE CHURCH IN SPRUCE RUN

The small simple building lures us with the starkness of her design. Built from hand cut wood taken from the Giles County forest more than 100 years ago; milled on-site wide planks have continually supported the rustic structure sitting along the water. Though neglected and depressive to the eye, she quietly points her metal roof upward through a mass of overgrown trees. She is a humble building erected in a simpler time.

Family history says Henry Scott set aside land for a church in Spruce Run. Legal records show that William Henry Scott positioned trustees in charge of the building as long as it was used for worship. Our last living uncle recently said that our grandfather, the youngest son of William Henry Scott, built it. However, even with family history, legal documents, and word of mouth her past is unclear.

In reaching out to contemporaries in 2018, several have said, “We attended the church in Spruce Run as a child”. From these conversations we became aware of the foresight of Henry Scott in setting aside the land for a community church, and in his son William Henry, who put trustees in place for the church, and maybe even our grandfather, John David, in building the structure.

Most likely we’ll never know the full intent of our ancestors. But because of a simple gesture years ago, we learn yet another aspect of early life in Virginia. By putting trustees in charge of the church building we learned through this one document of our family’s faith which included “that for and in consideration of the Love and affection we bear for our God and fellowman” (W. H. Scott trustees deed dated February 18, 1911) our Scott family offered a place of worship in Spruce Run.