Fletcher family holds 2015 reunion at Sweet Briar

The Fletcher descendants are entwined with the history of Sweet Briar College. In 2010, members of the family attended a dedication ceremony at the slave cemetery on campus, where some of their ancestors are believed to be buried.


The descendants of James and Lavinia Fletcher gathered last week at Sweet Briar College, the site of the former plantation where the couple had been enslaved, for the Fletcher Family Reunion.

It was not the family’s first reunion on campus; it’s been held there periodically since 2008. In recognition of the fact that it wouldn’t be the last, the family this year honored several people who are not blood relatives, but who are now also part of the story of Sweet Briar College.

According to an article in the Lynchburg News & Advance, an award ceremony was held Saturday honoring those who helped in the fight to keep the College open after the previous board of directors announced that it would close this summer.

Among those recognized were Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer; District 2 Supervisor Claudia Tucker, who represented the Amherst County Board of Supervisors; Sweet Briar President Phillip Stone; and Elizabeth Jane Hemenway, representing Saving Sweet Briar.

The family also presented Lynn Rainville, the director of Sweet Briar’s Tusculum Institute, with the James and Lavinia Fletcher Family Achievement Award.

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