Lucyville

MJ-5

The Rev. Reuben T. Coleman, enslaved at birth, became an entrepreneur after the Civil War. About 1.5 miles north of here he established Lucyville, named for his daughter, which in the 1890s featured a bank, post office, newspaper, and mineral springs resort that drew visitors from afar. Coleman, who challenged segregation, was the pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church and a local Republican leader and officeholder. His brother-in-law Shed Dungee, formerly enslaved, represented the area in the House of Delegates (1879-1882) and aligned with the Readjusters, a biracial coalition that achieved major reforms and supported public education. Many Lucyville residents left during the Great Migration.

Department of Historic Resources, 2023

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Daily State Journal, 1 June 1872. Richmond Daily Dispatch, 31 May, 2 July, 15 Nov. 1879. Staunton Valley Virginian, 11 Dec. 1879. Winchester Times, 17 March 1880. Richmond Planet, 28 July, 18 Aug. 1894, 18 Sept. 1897. Richmond Times, 13 Nov. 1901. The Central Call (June 1940). Alexander H. Lorch III, “Reuben Turner Coleman, 1844-1909,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography vol. 3 (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006). Marilyn Mildred White, “We Lived on an ‘Island’: An Afro-American Family and Community in Rural Virginia, 1865-1940,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1983). Marianne Julienne, “Shed Dungee, 1831-1900,” Encyclopedia Virginia (22 Dec. 2021). Cumberland County Historical Society, Biographies and Family History in Cumberland County, Virginia, and Its People (Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing, 1983).