Two historical markers to be unveiled in Richmond region

Two historical markers denoting Virginia's diverse history will be unveiled this week in the Richmond region.

One marker at 20th and Main streets in Shockoe Bottom commemorates Richmond's earliest Quakers and the meetinghouse they built around 1797. It is being dedicated today at 11:30 a.m.

"It's important to document all kinds of history," said Betsy Brinson, a historian for the Richmond Meeting of the Society of Friends.

Brinson said Quakers have a long history in Richmond and Virginia, with the earliest members of the Religious Society of Friends settling in the state in 1655. The meetinghouse was the city's second house of worship after St. John's Church. The meetinghouse no longer exists.

"Richmond Quakers advocated religious freedom, worked to make the prison system more humane and as pacifists, usually refused to bear arms," the marker reads.

This is the first marker in the city to recognize the Quakers' legacy. The marker, which cost about $1,360 to produce, was sponsored and funded by the Richmond Friends Meeting.

The other highway marker, recognizing the Monacan Indian town of Mowhemcho in Powhatan County, will be unveiled Sunday at 3 p.m. The sign will be at Manakin Episcopal Church, 985 Huguenot Trail.

Mowhemcho was a Monacan Indian town noted by Captain John Smith on his 1612 map of Virginia. Text written on the marker says that the "Monacan homeland encompassed all of Virginia's Piedmont."

Today, the Monacan Nation has a headquarters and ancestral museum at Bear Mountain in Amherst County.

The marker is part of an ongoing initiative by the state Department of Historic Resources to create markers that represent "the rich diversity of Virginia's historical legacy," department spokesman Randy Jones said.

During this decade-long endeavor, dozens of highway markers honoring people, places and events in the history of Virginia Indians, African-Americans and women have been erected.

Contact Jeremy Slayton at (804) 649-6861 or .