Graves Mill Memories endure

Susan Hull – known to most in the community as Sue Anne Haney – grew up attending services at Graves Chapel in Graves Mill.

Back then, Hull lived with her family in a large, white house on Graves Mill Road, known as the “Estes home.” The post office, a general store and a blacksmith’s shop were among the buildings that used to sit along the roadway, which led to the chapel where services were offered on a regular basis.

Much has changed since those days – but Hull, who now lives in Earlysville, is hoping to bring some life back into Graves Mill’s spiritual community.

Earlier this summer, the former Madison County resident, who is a licensed lay preacher through the Episcopal Church, started offering a Sunday evening prayer service at the chapel along Bluff Mountain Road (Route 615).

Hull’s mother – the late Lillian Estes Haney – had always hoped her son, Larry Haney, would eventually lead services at Graves Chapel, according to Hull. And although that never became a reality, the former Graves Mill resident thinks her mother would be pleased that her daughter has revived the historic chapel’s gatherings.

“I think [she] would be happy that I’m trying to do something to serve the community,” Hull told The Eagle.

The turnout at the first service she offered at the chapel in July surprised her, she said.

“I had thought maybe five or six people would come,” Hull said. Instead, close to 40 people showed up that evening, convincing the lay preacher to offer an evening prayer service regularly on the fourth Sunday of each month.

History inspires book

The Earlysville resident is currently in the second year of a program at Richmond Hill, an ecumenical retreat center, pursuing a certificate as a spiritual director.

“It’s something like therapy but to address spiritual and religious issues,” she said.

Besides pursuing her religious endeavors, Hull spends much of her time writing poems and short stories. Her schedule recently opened up following her retirement earlier this year after teaching high school English for more than 30 years.

Hull’s years as a teacher – first at Madison County High School, then Albemarle High School and finishing her career at Western Albemarle High School – didn’t afford much time for her creative side.

“Being an English teacher is not conducive to writing,” the former teacher explained.

Even so, Hull has found a way to get multiple samples of her writing published over the years – including short stories, poems and a play titled “Mountain Home.”

While working toward a master of fine arts degree at the University of Virginia, Hull started writing poems about the experience of some Madison County families being forced from their homes to make way for Shenandoah National Park. The displacement of the families struck a chord with the former Madison County resident due to her upbringing on the park’s boundaries, she said.

“I loved our home in Graves Mill so much I couldn’t imagine how awful it would be to have the government come and take your home,” she said.
Although the play is written in the voices of fictional characters, her writing is based off of stories she was told during her childhood.

The play was first produced by the drama department at Western Albemarle High School and later at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park.

Imagination nurtured

Hull’s upbringing in Madison County, with her parents, Wade Haney and Lillian Estes Haney, nurtured her creative side.

With her only sibling eight years her senior, the writer was somewhat isolated from other children, she said.

“My brother was so much older than I…so I would invent games for myself and make stories up in my head, I was pretty imaginative,” Hull told The Eagle.

As a young child, she was a frequent visitor to the Madison County Library where she developed her love for reading. Hull spent so much time at the local library, the librarian at the time, Margie McLain, “was like a second mother to me,” she said.

Initially, the community library was a “tiny little room with not very many books” in the War Memorial building.

“[McLain] was instrumental in making the Madison County Library a real library,” Hull said of the former Madison County librarian.

Growing up, books in the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder were among Hull’s favorites – “with her use of detail, she could put you right there in the scene,” she said of the author’s writing.

Hull also remembers the first time she studied one of her other childhood favorites – “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It was during her eighth grade English class at Madison County High School, the same year the school completely integrated, according to Hull.

“The high school itself was overflowing, most classes in the eighth grade were in the auditorium because we just didn’t have enough room,” she recalled. “I was just amazed that [my teacher] was able to get across a love for the English language in that setting.”

Although Hull herself witnessed few racist remarks, she was “aware of the tension,” she said. “I remember thinking how hard it must have been for the African American students.”

Despite the ongoing struggles related to the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam, growing up in the 60s was “an amazing time,” according to Hull.
“I wouldn’t change when I grew up at all…it was a powerful time to be around,” she said.