Prepared by the staff of lightridgenews.com for the Lightridge High School Dedication Ceremony on June 3, 2021
Loudoun County derives its name from John Campbell, the fourth Earl of Loudoun, the Scottish noble who was the commander of British forces in the American colonies and the governor of the state of Virginia from 1756 to 1759. Because of this, the county flag takes its inspiration from the coat of arms of the Earl of Loudoun’s family. However, the flag deviates from this traditional heraldry in one significant way, and that derivation ties in to long-time Loudoun County residents, the Light family and, subsequently, to Lightridge High School.
In 1929, twenty year old Rumsey Light Sr. started renting a 430 acre dairy farm outside of Aldie, Virginia. It wasn’t easy going. There was no electricity in the area, so Light Sr. had to milk each of his 30 cows by hand. He would take the milk by horse drawn wagon to meet a truck that then would transport the milk into Washington.
In 1946, Light’s brother-in-law returned from a stint in the Navy and together the two men purchased the farm. When Rumsey Light Sr. suffered a heart attack and died in 1968, the farm was milking around 60 cows. Rumsey Light Jr., who had grown up on the farm, took over its operation.
He expanded operations, with the farm growing at one point to cover almost 3000 acres. Rumsey Light Jr. didn’t just expand the business geographically, he also expanded the focus, moving the farm more solidly into the business of breeding registered Holsteins. When dealing with purebred cattle, a farmer has to register every cow born with the breed association for that type of cow. This assures the quality of the cows being bought and sold.
“I had to have a registered prefix at the beginning of the name,” explained Light. “Every cow born has to be named and then the prefix has to be added to the front for registration purposes. Because the farm sits on a small ridge, I chose the Light-Ridge prefix.”
Light also implemented a more scientific approach to the business, hiring a nutritionist to help him formulate the feed that the cows ate. The farm used a proprietary mixture of corn grown on the property, vitamins and minerals. This approach paid big dividends.
“Because of that,” said Light, “I had cows that set Virginia state records.”
Every year, a representative of the Holstein Association of America sent in an expert to rate the Light-Ridge cows. The HAA rates cows poor, fair, good, good plus, very good and excellent.
“I’ve never had a cow rated below good,” said Light. “When I had my final sale, I had fourteen cows rated excellent.”
According to Light, when the family decided to sell off their herd in 1993, the average price per cow was one of the highest in the state of Virginia at the time.
“The most I ever received for a single cow was $50,000,” said Light. “I had to deliver it across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge! Believe me, I was nervous until she got to her new home.”
Over the years, the farm sold cows all over the world, including countries as far away as Morocco, South Korea and Taiwan. Yoko Ono, the wife of the Beatles’ John Lenon, once bought three of the Light-Ridge cows for the farm they owned in Stanley, Virginia.
The farm, now down to a still-respectable 338 acres, remains the last working farm south of Route 50 and east of Route 15 in the county. It has 200 head of Black Angus cows, makes around 10,000 square bales and 600 round bales- each weighing around 1200 pounds- a year, and runs a computerized sawmill that the family uses to saw lumber and fencing.
“Someone is actually building a house for himself out of the lumber we have sawed,” said Light. “And at the farm museum in Sterling, we have given lumber for repairs.
In 2017, the Loudoun County School Board planning committee made the recommendation that High School-9 be named Lightridge High School, in honor of the street that the school would be built off of- Lightridge Farm Road- and the Light family itself.
“My whole family was elated, misty-eyed, bursting with pride when we found out the name chosen was Lightridge High School,” said Light. “We look forward to coming to the athletic games and joining the booster club.”
“Loudoun County has evolved over the years from farms to houses, especially the part east of Route 15,” explained Light. “There used to be over 400 dairy farms in this county. Now there is only one.”
“My advice to students is to take advantage of all the education you can, “said Light. “Work as hard as you can, go the extra mile and get the best grades you can, be a good citizen and always be kind to everyone, especially those less fortunate than you.
The Loudoun County flag may be mostly based on a Scottish lord’s coat of arms, but it pays tribute to the Light family, and to other Loudoun county farm families. The flag is edged with a green field with white spots that represent drops of milk and Loudoun dairy farmers’ contributions to the economy and culture of the county. While that legacy may be disappearing, the Light-Ridge Farm name, and the contributions of one of Loudon’s farm families, will live on in the name of Lightridge High School.
