July August Chamber Magazine FINAL
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Feature<br />
Feature<br />
FOOTPRINTS<br />
of our past<br />
100 YEARS OF OUR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LEADERS<br />
By Dawn Haun & Elizabeth Bruhl<br />
The Fredericksburg Regional <strong>Chamber</strong> of<br />
Commerce is rich with the influence of our past<br />
leaders: notable business owners, college presidents,<br />
and high-ranking politicians just to name a few.<br />
Our chamber reflects on the thousands of man hours<br />
contributed to our success, guided through economic<br />
hard times so that our quality of life would be enhanced<br />
and hopes the future generations would feel a sense of<br />
pride for past accomplishments and decisions.<br />
The following biographies were chosen based on the<br />
available archives. Also documented is the first female<br />
chamber member and president.<br />
THE EARLY YEARS<br />
Dr. J. Garnett King<br />
First Fredericksburg <strong>Chamber</strong><br />
President-1916<br />
The Fredericksburg <strong>Chamber</strong> of Commerce<br />
was originally chartered in 1916, Dr.<br />
J. Garnett King served as the first president.<br />
He, along with other<br />
notable business leaders<br />
in Fredericksburg:<br />
H.F. Crismond, Edgar<br />
Young, J.P. Rowe,<br />
S.M. Janney, and R.<br />
Stuart Royer were<br />
the spearheads of the<br />
business organization.<br />
J. Garnett King<br />
Ten years earlier,<br />
the businessmen had<br />
first come together in<br />
1906 and formed “The Fredericksburg Businessmen’s<br />
Association.<br />
Dr. King was energized. He said the <strong>Chamber</strong><br />
would make Fredericksburg a “bigger and<br />
better” city, so he set in motion a challenge for<br />
Fredericksburg to win the world’s record for<br />
most members for cities under 10,000 residents.<br />
The record to beat was 292. They had<br />
seven recruitment teams, who together beat<br />
the record by nine members, and enrolled 301<br />
members at the start. The occasion turned<br />
into a celebration, complete with a parade,<br />
headed by bands, marching boy scouts and<br />
noisemakers.<br />
Dr. King was a dentist. His dental office was<br />
located at 906 Main (now Caroline Street).<br />
He and his wife Nannie lived on 1011 Prince<br />
Edward Street in Fredericksburg.<br />
Morgan Lafayette Combs<br />
<strong>Chamber</strong> Director 1924-1941<br />
Dr. Morgan L. Combs’ 17 years of leadership<br />
for the Fredericksburg <strong>Chamber</strong> of<br />
Commerce was during unstable economic<br />
times: The stock Market Crash of 1929, War<br />
in Europe, World War<br />
II, and the Great Depression.<br />
Combs had connections<br />
politically and<br />
held impressive credentials.<br />
So much in fact, he<br />
was appointed college<br />
president of the Mary<br />
Morgan Lafayette<br />
Combs<br />
Washington College<br />
(MWC) at the age of<br />
thirty-five.<br />
During Combs’ presidency<br />
at MWC he created dramatic growth<br />
in the institution. It grew from three buildings<br />
to 36, from 60 acres worth $500,000 to 381<br />
acres worth $25 million and changed its mission<br />
from being a teachers’ college to a liberal<br />
arts college in 1935 and changed its name to<br />
“Mary Washington College” in 1938. In 1944,<br />
it was designated the Woman’s College of the<br />
University of Virginia.<br />
In addition to the directorship of the Fredericksburg<br />
<strong>Chamber</strong> of Commerce from 1924<br />
to 1941, he was also involved in the Kiwanis<br />
club from 1930-1933, and the Inter-Racial<br />
Commission. Combs received the B’nai<br />
B’rith Valuable Citizen award in 1953 and was<br />
named “Fredericksburg Citizen of the Year” in<br />
1952. Combs Science Hall at Mary Washington<br />
University is named in his memory.<br />
He died in October 1955, at age 64, after a<br />
long illness and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery<br />
in Fredericksburg.<br />
Benjamin “Bennie” T. Pitts<br />
President 1934-1938<br />
Bennie Pitts was fivetime<br />
president of the<br />
Fredericksburg <strong>Chamber</strong><br />
of Commerce and served<br />
a two-year term as director<br />
of Virginia <strong>Chamber</strong><br />
of Commerce. He was<br />
also director of Farmers<br />
& Merchants State Bank.<br />
Bennie T. Pitts<br />
Pitts was a state senator<br />
representing Fredericksburg,<br />
Spotsylvania, Orange,<br />
Goochland, and Louisa<br />
counties from 1944 until poor health forced<br />
him to resign in 1958. He was a member of<br />
the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School<br />
for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton and was<br />
described in his obituary as being “a staunch<br />
Democrat.”<br />
Earlier in his career, he was appointed to<br />
Fredericksburg’s City Council in 1933, filling<br />
the unexpired term of Dr. J. Garnett King Jr.<br />
His appointment to Council was followed by<br />
his election in 1936 and his reelection in 1940.<br />
He started his career in 1909 with a small<br />
local movie house, which culminated to a<br />
chain of movie theaters across the state. He<br />
owned 37 successful movie theaters, including<br />
JULY/AUGUST 2016 Fredericksburg Regional Business 5
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