By Taylor Boyd
An eight-foot granite monument was placed at the JEB Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc. site on Feb. 9 in Laurel Hill to honor James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart, a Confederate States Army general during the Civil War born in Patrick County.
Ronnie Haynes, the organization’s president, said the memorial contains two bronze plaques.
“One plaque depicts young James at the age of twelve, a rendition done by the late Allen F. Weidaas, a local artist from Patrick County. J.E.B. Stuart VI posed for the image a number of years ago,” he said.
The monument also contains a number of quotes from Stuart’s letters written in later years speaking of his desire to return to his birthplace of Laurel Hill, Haynes said.
The idea for this monument began after the Trust was formed in 1991, but was tabled for many years due to cost and other considerations at the site, Haynes said.
“In 2018, the board felt it was time to fulfill this commitment and the long-awaited monument is now in place,” he said.
While some may feel that today’s political climate does not lend itself to new monuments, the group believes the opposite is true.
“Monuments to all our collective history and heritage should be erected and preserved” in locations where they will be “appropriately maintained, honored, and contextualized,” Haynes said.
That belief was evidenced by the group’s application to obtain the JEB Stuart statue that resided on Monument Avenue in Richmond to move it to the Laurel Hill site. The bronze sculpture was created in 1907 and is the only statue to depict Stuart on a horse.
“Legal counsel for the trust, as well as for the Stuart family in Richmond, have been working diligently to make this happen. To date, there are as many as 22 applications by other groups and organizations to acquire the statues that were taken down in Richmond this past July,” he said.
Following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests in May 2020, monuments and memorials associated with racial injustice were removed. The statue is currently being housed at a wastewater treatment plant south of Richmond.
“The trust submitted on Jan. 4 what we hope to be the last questionnaire/proposal to acquire the statue. Our sincere hope is that the Stuart monument will be located at the site of his birth, Laurel Hill,” Haynes said, and added he does not expect a decision on the application until mid-summer.
