Portfolio Category: Hero Histories

During World War I Eldridge W. Quinian was an ambulance driver and after the war he tried to contact someone from Orange County because he was in possession of plaque from the ambulance that he drove.  The ambulance was donated by the people of Orange County.  Two letters to Mrs. Sarah Brady of Rapidan detail…

Hezekiah Clarence Turner served both in World War I and World War II.  The duties of an African –American abroad ships were very limited during this time of discrimination.  That did not stop this sailor to rise in the ranks.  After serving more than twenty-five years, he lost his life on Christmas Eve 1943. Contributed…

T/S Russell Kenneth Ellis was raised in the Lahore section of Orange County and went to Fork Union Military Academy.  In less than two years after enlisting in the army he was in thick of the D-Day landings on 9 June 1944 when his LST was hit and sunk by a German torpedo boat. Contributed…

William “Billy” Barton Mason, Jr., was born in Orange County and excelled on the athletic fields and in the classrooms of Woodberry Forest.  He graduated from the Naval Academy and entered the submarine service.  He continued in his character when he was honored by the Secretary of the Navy for bravery aboard ship during a…