Local author shares love of early Orange history

Little did Patricia LaLand know that it would catch her and hook her by surprise, but it did.

 Being hooked on early Virginia history and caught by the charming and pleasant demeanor of town folk and visitors, LaLand was enticed to learn all she could about the state.

LaLand is the author of the recently released “Orange County Chronicles Stories from a Historic Virginia County.”

LaLand came to Virginia from Washington with her husband, U.S. Army Lt. Col. George LaLand.  She accepted a position at Colonial Williamsburg as a tour guide, and became “…hooked on history,” before later moving to Orange.

“When I was in Williamsburg, I could relate our history to the people I was talking to because I took them to [colonial] houses on the tours,” said LaLand.

The history was more than just facts and numbers in a book. 

Encompassing more than just history dates into her tour delivery made it real for her and visitors to Colonial Williamsburg.

Pointing out conversational information such as a street where Thomas Jefferson jogged each morning as a student, opened up a door of interest for both LaLand and the visitor. 

“People can relate to it; it makes it real,” she said.

After several other positions dealing with Virginia history, LaLand moved to Orange County where she worked at Montpelier.

“I really loved living in this little town and the people I met were so open and giving and so charming and so pleasant…I was getting to meet them through my job…so I started interviewing them to get the history,” said LaLand.

At the suggestion of Rapidan historian Alan Shotwell, LaLand created a 30-page booklet about Orange history that was available for the public.

After being contacted by the publishers of the Chronicles series, LaLand used her freelance articles for OC Magazine and her booklet stories to create the current “Chronicles.”

Over a three-year time span, “I took the stories that gave the best well-rounded version of the local history and characters of people and characters of the town and area,” she said.

LaLand was influenced by Duff Green, “…who knew not only how to write a story, but how to tell a story,” and Ellen Donnelly, who provided much Rapidan history.

The stories in “Orange County Chronicles” range from the history of the newspaper and the opening and closing of the Silk Mill to the expansion of the railroad and challenges at the Gordonsville Exchange Hotel, one of 39 rail line hospitals. Readers experience Green’s storytelling ability as well as tenacity shown in both the creation of Freetown by George Lewis and his friends to the making of a home by George Gilmore, a former slave of James Madison, who was freed at the age of 90. The stories about riding the dual-use school bus and one-room Rapidan school house and the African American school house at Shady Grove give readers a glimpse into the not-so-distant past.

This book of stories allows the reader to learn about our quiet town, and its “…short but powerful history.”

LaLand continues to write and is involved with Virginia Press Woman and The Arts Center photography club. She enjoys writing, photography and traveling, and has been on every continent except Antarctica. 

LaLand said, “I am most pleased with having been able to meet people all over the world and make friends, even if only briefly, and see into other people’s lives and see the differences and similarities in humanity.”

We are all connected, and we can all learn from one another’s experiences so that history does not have to be numbers and facts in a school text book; we can all become hooked.