M i d d l e b u r g M i d d l e b u r g
Déjeuner, Parler, Tour et la Célébration de l'Amitié Franco-Américaines
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Hostess Caroline Collomb presented the fascinating history of Oakwood
Jennifer Moore, director of administration for the MHAA
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Oakwood
Photos by DOUGLAS LEES
Tracy Gillespie acted as a docent for the Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII bedroom.
Janna Leepson with Richard and Betty Gookin
Mary and Manuel Johnson
Betsy Manierre and Robert Boucher with Childs Burden, president of the MHAA
Liz Whiting , president of Loudoun Museum is shown with newspaper article on Lafayette from 1824
Marc Leepson spoke about his book, “The Marquis de Lafayette: Hero of Two Worlds and an Inspiration for the French-American Friendship”
www.middleburglife.net • July 2015 www.middleburglife.net • April, 2013
he Mosby Heritage Area Association recently held a luncheon at Oakwood, the Fauquier County home of Caroline and Bertrand Collomb. The occasion was a celebration of French-American friendship most appropriate given the Collomb’s French affiliations. Author Marc Leepson spoke on his book about The Marquis de Lafayette. Mrs. Collomb gave a brief history of Oakwood, which dates to 1735, and the Revolutionary War connections with Col. Martin Pickett, then to his daughter Elizabeth upon her marriage to John Scott. Robert Eden Scott (b. 1808), the son Robert Taylor Scott and Fanny Carter Scott later lived at Oakwood. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates as a Whig and as a congressman to the Confederate States House of Representatives. Although he did not fight in the Civil War, Scott was killed by Union stragglers in May 3, 1862 at Meadowville, which today can be seen along Rt. 17 near Warrenton. “My mother always said General Scott was killed on the front door step,” said Helen Wiley, whose mother, Polly Howard, owned Meadowville along with Fritz Howard 1955- 1994. After The War, Oakwood went to Robert Eden Scott’s daughter Ann Morson Scott who married Alexander Dixon Payne. Upon Payne’s death, Oakwood was sold to a relative of the Scott family, Sylvanus Stokes. His daughter, Madge Stokes Stone, married sportsman Sterling Larrabee, a master of the Warrenton Hunt and founder of the Old Dominion Hounds. The first two years of the Virginia Gold Cup where held here before it later moved to Broadview Farm and then to Great Meadow in 1985. Notable visitors at Oakwood have included Wallis Warfield Simpson, who stayed in 1925 while seeking a divorce from Simpson. She came again when married to the Duke of Windsor in 1941. A hunt breakfast was held in their honor the following morning and that bedroom is now a point of interest.
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