Sunday's Obituary: Sinah Ann (Newton) Wise

Alexandria Gazette
15 July 1871

At Oakland, Prince William county, Va., on Wednesday morning July 12, 1871, Mrs. SINAH ANN NEWTON, wife of Geo. P. Wise, esq., and youngest daughter of the late Wm. Newton, esq., of Alexandria, Va. in the 64th year of her age. The unwavering faith in a Saviour's love, which sustained her through the vicissitudes of life, grew brighter as the final change approached, leaving upon her lovely face a radiance that spoke of heavenly companionship, while the air about her seemed balmy with the breath of God.

[Sinah Wise is buried beside her husband in Presbyterian Cemetery, Alexandria, Va.  She was the daughter of William and Jane Barr (Stuart) Newton. ~ cgl]

Trustees Sale: Carter's Green (1876)

Alexandria Gazette (Va)
01 November 1876

TRUSTEE'S SALE OF A GOOD FARM, IN PRINCE WILLIAM CO., NEAR HAYMARKET, CONTAINING 289 1/2 acres.  By virtue of a deed of trust executed to me by J. T. Carter and wife, dated the 26th day of May, 1866, and recorded in the Clerk's office of the County Court of Prince William county, Va., I will offer by public auction, at the front door of the Court House, in the town of Warrenton, Fauquier county, Va., on MONDAY, December 11th, 1876, that being the first day of the Circuit Court of said county, the valuable tract of land in said deed mentioned, known as "CARTER'S GREEN," containing 289 1/2 acres -- be the same more or less. The land is of good quality, well wooded, watered and enclosed. Upon the farm there is a comfortable DWELLING HOUSE and necessary out buildings. It is in a good neighborhood, adjoins the farms of Mr. Wise and Capt. James Purcell and about six miles from Gainesville, a station upon the Manassas Division of the Virginia Midland R.R.

Terms of Sale - Five hundred dollars in cash; the residue in one, two and three years. For deferred payments the purchaser will be required to execute bonds, with approved personal security, to bear interest from the day of sale, and secure the same by deed of trust upon the aforesaid premises.

N.B. - Being empowered to make private sale of said premises, In invite propositions. My address is Warrenton, Fauquier County, Va.

R. TAYLOR SCOTT, Trustee, &c., &c.
Robt. Coons, Auct'r.
nov 1-eots

Friend of Friends Friday: Nellie Robinson

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, VA)
March 25, 1874

Old aunt Nellie - Nellie Robinson - a colored woman about ninety years of age, died at the residence of her former master, ex Mayor George Wise, in Prince William county, yesterday.

Travel Tuesday: Never Before on Train

Manassas Journal
February 7, 1913

NEVER BEFORE ON TRAIN

Mrs. Susan Whitmer Makes First Trip on Cars from Harrisonburg to Nokesville

Mrs. Susan Whitmer, seventy years old, after driving several miles over muddy roads from her home in Milnesville, Augusta county, to Harrisonburg last week, she boarded, for the first time, a railway train for a hundred and twenty mile trip to Nokesville, this county, where her daughter, Mrs. N. Wise, who accompanied her, resides, and with whom she will spend the remainder of the winter.  Mrs. Whitmer came to Manassas on train No. 14 which gave her a little time to breathe easy, after her thrilling experience in winding around the curves in the Blue Ridge and Bull Run mountains behind a prancing steam horse, whose blood-curdling shrieks at the touch of Engineer Amos, was anything but comfortable to a novice in rapid transit.

She was also afforded an opportunity to see something of our town before she took the "second degree" in railway travel before reaching her destination.  When the conductor announced "All out for Nokesville," the good old lady doubtless felt relieved of the dreadful anxiety of what she had conceived to be a hazardous undertaking at her time of life.

Friend of Friends Friday: Reprieves and Pardons

Alexandria Gazette – December 28, 1857

LOCAL ITEMS. REPRIEVES AND PARDONS.--Among the cases of Reprieves and Pardons granted by Gov. Wise, we find the following cases, as given in his Message to the Legislature, on the 7^th inst.

… “Two slaves, Elias and Ellen, condemned to be hung by the county court of Prince William for the crime of murder [of George Green], were reprieved by me on the sixth of February last, and the execution of the sentence was ordered to be postponed until the 22d day of May, to enable me to consider deliberately what punishment should be imposed. In this case five slaves were implicated in the murder of their master. All were members of the same family; grand mother, mother, brother, and the two children, Elias and Ellen. They are twins, about 14 years old, and were supposed to be acting under the influence and instigation of the older slaves. The three oldest were executed, which I deemed sufficient for public justice and example; and in consideration of the youth and feeble intellects of the prisoners, I ordered their punishment to be commuted to sale land transportation beyond the limit of the U. States.”

Alexandria Gazette – February 21, 1857

… on page 106 of the Code of Virginia that the 19^th section thereof reads thus: “In the case of a slave under sentence of death, the Governor may order a commutation of the punishment, by directing that such slave be sold, to be transported beyond the limits of the United States. The Governor shall cause him to be sold, and the purchaser, before delivery to him of the slave, shall pay into the Treasury the price agreed, and enter into bond, approved by the Governor, in the penalty of one thousand dollars, conditioned that the slave shall within three months be transported beyond the limits of the United States, and shall never afterwards return to the State.”