In the early part of the 20th century, Louis Bolecek immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovkia. He settled in Pennsylvania where he met and married Mary Lopashovski also from Slovakia. Due to health concerns, his doctor advised him to move to the country. He and his cousin moved to the South River with their families but later Louis decided to purchase a farm of his own in 1919, he and his wife and three children bought Hunter’s Hill Farm on Route 2 north of Bowling Green. Eventually Louis and Mary had six children living on the Old Caroline County Fox Hunting Plantation as it once was called. Over the years, the girls married and moved away. Bill remained to help his parents, and after serving in the Army during WW II returned and married a local girl, Ann Michaliga. According to Gloria, the family tore down “the old rickety house and built a new one”. This home and land remained a Bolecek homestead until the house was taken down in 1985 when Gloria built her own home on the site.
Gloria Ann Bolecek – Rappelling Adventure
Gloria, her sister Barbara, and brother Bill grew up on this 150-acre farm that produced grain, corn, soybeans, and hay. In earlier years, tobacco was a main crop along with beef cattle. The children helped out on the farm with their special chores. Gloria helped with the gardening. She canned fruit and vegetable in season and at 15 years old, operated a tractor and other farm equipment and helped harvest hay during its growing seasons. The Bolecek grandparents continued to live with the family until the elderly grandparents moved back to Pennsylvania in the early 1950’s to be closer to their eldest daughter.
Gloria remembered when her niece, Emily, visited. On one warm evening they laid outside and watched the heavens. In the clear sky, shooting stars appeared and she recalls her niece saying, “Aunt Gloria you have a million stars over your yard.”
We often wonder what will happen to us when we complete our 12 years of education and focus on entering college or becoming part of the workforce.
Angela Edwards Roberts 1972
About 70% of the students who graduated from Bowling Green Sr. High School back in the 1970’s continued their education. Angela Edwards was one of them.
“Her parents taught her the importance of living up to her potential.” Angela completed high school in 1972 then entered Virginia Tech. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science in just three years graduating in 1975, then matriculated to law school at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia earning a juris doctor degree in 1980. She was an honor student throughout her educational years.
Adele Uphaus –Conner, a Free Lance Star reporter, interviewed Angela in 2018 and the following remarks come from this interview. “Angela still remembers the moment she decided she wanted to be a lawyer. It was in 1967 and she was in the seventh grade in Caroline County. She was flipping through a Scholastic Weekly Reader in social studies class when she saw a picture of Patricia Harris, the black female attorney who had just been appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by President Lyndon Johnson. That made Harris the first African-American women to serve as an envoy of the American government.”
“Seeing her picture and reading the article had a huge impact on me. It is so important for young people to see people who look like them in positions of authority.” From that time on, Roberts knew she wanted to be a lawyer and she never deviated from that goal.”
“In 1990 Angela made history herself when she became the first black women to serve as a judge in Virginia. She was elected by the General Assembly to the Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and served 26 years retiring in 2016.”
Angela Edwards Roberts – March 2018
“Roberts said she had a happy childhood growing up in Bowling Green. Her father, Edgar Edwards owned a cab company and her mother, Annie, was a stay-at-home mom…. Though Roberts has largely positive memories of her childhood, she does remember that it was a segregated community. Blacks and whites had completely separated social lives. Schools were still segregated when she started Kindergarten in 1960. They were integrated in 1968, when Roberts was in high school.”
According to The Library of Virginia, Changemakers files, she helped implement reforms to streamline court administration and improve case scheduling. She worked to reduce the reliance on detention for juveniles awaiting trial. In 2000, Roberts established an annual Adoption Day ceremony to celebrate the final adoption of children in Richmond’s foster care system.
“Roberts has served on numerous state boards and commissions and has received many honors for her work on an off the bench. The YMCA named her one of its Outstanding Women in Law of Central Virginia in 2005 and the Old Dominion Bar Association honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.” Angela continues to be a fervent supporter of educational opportunities for youth in the Commonwealth.
Judge Angela Edwards Roberts 2018
Encouragement and support are key to her remarkable career, her home and her private life. During the past thirty plus years, Angela’s husband Roscoe and two sons, Anthony and Justin, along with family and friends afforded her with the opportunities to pursue her profession and lifestyle. This year, the Caroline Historical Society honors Judge Angela Edwards Roberts as a 2021 Caroline Women in History.
Dale Brittle, Secretary Caroline Historical Society March 2021
Richmond Justice Stories and Portraits, “Judge Roberts”, December 16, 2016
Changemakers, “Angela Edwards Roberts (1953- )”, Library of Virginia, Feb., 2018
The Free Lance Star, “Caroline Native Earns ‘Strong Woman’ Award”, Adele Uphaus-Conner, March 4, 2018
Rosa Courtney Quash was a citizen of Caroline, beginning her life in the Reedy Church area. In February of 2016, days before her 96th birthday, Rosa received a Resolution of Appreciation by the Caroline Board of Supervisors, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding achievements. Sadly, on Monday, 5 February 2018, Rosa passed away, just shy of her 98th birthday.
Caroline Progress reporter Bridget Douglas interviewed Rosa Quash for Caroline Magazine’s March 2016 article. Rosa was a lifelong educator who taught first and second grades in Madison County, Sunshine Elementary in Woodford, Dawn Elementary for 22 years and finally, at Bowling Green Primary for seven years. Although she did not have children of her own, after school, education and activities continued with Rosa generously mentoring children under her tutelage.
According to this article, Rosa stated, “People said every time they saw me, I would have a load of children going somewhere. When I was teaching, the parents did not always take their children around, so I enjoyed taking them different places.” Rosa was active in the Caroline Education Association, the Virginia and National Education Associations, the Caroline Literacy Council, the Caroline Chapter of VSU Alumni and the Caroline Retired Teachers Association.
In addition to her love of education, Rosa was very active in her community, as a member of the Caroline Community NAACP, the Dawn Area Planning Committee, the Dawn Progressive Association, the Caroline Cancer Society, McGuire Hospital veteran volunteers, Caroline Emergency Relief through Volunteer Efforts Inc., and the Caroline County Library Board. She served as both a co-founder and one of two former Vice Presidents of the Dawn Library.
Harkening back to earlier times, Rosa had been a member of the Second Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Dawn from the age of six. There, she later became president of the senior choir, treasurer of the pulpit circle, member of the senior missionary society, and a member of the scholarship fund committee, as well as Sunday school teacher.
Rosa Belle Quash Recognized for Service to Caroline. Photo Credit: Mark Svare
I had the pleasure of speaking with a descendant of Rosa’s, her niece, Evelyn Dupree. Evelyn remarked that Rosa was indeed a generous person, and that Rosa served as Evelyn’s role model. Evelyn remembered Rosa as a mild-mannered person who would do anything for anyone – and that if anyone needed help, Rosa would either help them, herself, or facilitate help from organizations with which she was involved. Rosa is missed greatly to this day.
Clearly, Rosa Courtney Quash is an exemplary role model for so many, and her path to greatness began very early in life. It got me to thinking, who could Rosa’s early role models have been? I researched a bit for a possible answer. What I discovered was itself extraordinary.
According to delayed birth records, Rosa was born 25 February 1920 in Caroline to Mattie Lewis and Arthur Allen Courtney. Rosa’s paternal grandparents were Martha Ellen and William James Courtney, and Rosa’s great-grandparents were Sina (Nancy) Kay and John C. Courtney. It is often quite difficult to trace African American ancestry beyond 1870; however, Sina Kay and John C. Courtney were among the free black community of Caroline County, with records clearly identifiable, back to before 1830.
Sina Kay and John Courtney were married in Caroline on or about 11 March 1822, and had two sons and two daughters. In both the 1830 and 1840 Censuses, John and Sina Courtney were free. By 1850, John Courtney was running a farm of 50 acres, 25 acres of which had been improved. Livestock included three horses, two milk cows, other cattle and livestock, and the farm yielded 275 bushels of Indian corn, oats, and tobacco. In April 1859, John died, leaving a sizable farm to Sina, by then age 63.
With the Civil War quickly approaching, in 1860, Sina Courtney, born about 1796 and by then age 64, was a farmer by occupation. Living in the household with Sina was her daughter, Amanda, as well as her two granddaughters. Remarkably, according to the 1860 Agricultural Schedules, Sina owned and worked the family livestock, and planted and harvested 200 bushels of Indian corn that year, along with 40 bushels of wheat.
According to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Executive Producer, Writer, and Presenter of the series, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” approximately 90 percent of African Americans became free either during the Civil War or after the Civil War as a result of the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Rosa Courtney Quash served as a remarkable woman in Caroline’s history – as did her extraordinary female ancestors, all who made an indelible mark across time in Caroline.
Resources
Caroline Magazine, “Outstanding Citizen: Rosa Quash,” by Bridget Douglas, Caroline Progress Reporter, March 2016
Evelyn Dupree, personal conversation, February 2021
Ancestry.com, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 United States Federal Censuses (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., varying years)
Ancestry.com, U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010)
