Cooperative Living January 2019 - 32

Crossroads | Story and photos by Audrey T. Hingley, Contributing Writer
A
wonderful
place to
grow up.
MILFORD, VA
Milford
T
rains still rumble through
Milford daily, but passenger
trains no longer stop in the
community, once the largest
and longest-surviving freight
and passenger station among
five stations on the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac
Railroad in Caroline County.
Two miles west of Bowling Green,
just north of the Mattaponi River
coming from present-day Virginia
Routes 207 and 722, Milford was
established in 1792 by an act of the
Virginia General Assembly.
Once known as " Doguetown, " the
Signs at the intersection of Route 207 and
Route 722 point the way to Milford.
30 | Cooperative Living | January 2019
area of the Mattaponi River headwaters
was home to Dogue Indians, and the
Mattaponi was navigable, allowing
colonists to transport tobacco and other
cargo by boat. Chartered to build a
railroad from Richmond to the Potomac
River, the Richmond, Fredericksburg
and Potomac Railroad reached Caroline
in 1836. Incorporated in 1887, Milford
became an important transportation
center after passenger and freight stations
were built in 1891-'92 and commodities
were shipped into or out of Milford.
Troops and supplies moved through
busy Milford stations during World War II,
but passenger traffic declined post-war.
In 1955 the passenger station closed and
was demolished. The freight station, still
standing today, closed in 1973. Now
unincorporated, Milford has an
expanded zip code that includes areas
miles away from the original " old "
Milford. But buildings and businesses
remain, as do residents' memories of
once-booming Milford.
" Milford's a ghost town now, in
comparison to when it was a thriving
commercial center, " says Herbert
Ridgeway Collins, 86, author of Country
Crossroads: Rural Life in Caroline County,
Virginia (2015), available for sale at the
Caroline County Library. " Milford had
the distinction of having the first telegraph
office in Caroline. There was a hotel, bank,
Blatt's Chevrolet dealership, ice plant,
Blatt's Store, Miller Sumac Extracting
Company and Lang's Pickle Factory.
During World War II, troops were
transported through Milford and
temporary quarters were set up there. "
Collins, who grew up in Caroline's Green
Falls area, spent over 30 years working
at the Smithsonian Institution and has
known U.S. presidents and first ladies but
admits, " My heart always remained in
Caroline. " After retirement, he returned to
the county he loves and has an almostencyclopedic
knowledge of history in
general and Caroline County in particular.
He's written over two dozen books.
About Milford's sumac company, he
writes, " I carried the sumac leaves to
Milford, where they gave me so much
money per pound. The sumac extract
was used in tanning light leathers and
as a dye fixadent to fasten colors in
textile fabrics. "
Born and raised in Milford, Betty
Gouldin, 86, worked 33 years as an
administrative officer at nearby Fort A.P.
Hill before retirement. After her husband
John died in 2014, she sold her home
and moved into a newly built apartment/
addition at her daughter Tana McDonalds'
Milford home.
" Milford was a busy place at one time,
with five grocery stores. People brought
cucumbers from their gardens and sold
them to the pickle factory, " she recalls.
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Cooperative Living January 2019

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