Russell Holman Willis 1918 address to VPI (Virginia Tech)

The below was posted for several years, than for a time it had been taken down. The URL remained unchanged. The original content is available here.

Address to Graduating Class

Delivered by the Honorable R. Holman Willis, of Roanoke, May 27, 1918

My interest in V. P. I. came through my work in the General Assembly. I became convinced that for every dollar spent, the State comes nearer getting one hundred cents worth of education than from any other similar work to which she contributes. For your president, faculty, and board of visitors, I have the most unbounded admiration. Though limited in the means with which they are to work they have kept bravely on without a murmur. Each year they have come back and in straightforward direct language told the General Assembly what the State needs to carry on this work.

When, however, for causes which sometimes could not be understood, these appropriations were not made, there was no sulking, but always a readiness to accept the result like good sports and go to work like good soldiers to accomplish the most with the materials at hand. I am here to bear witness that no set of men have ever faced a trying situation with a more cheerful mien or more fixed determination to make the most of it.

During all this time the alumni have been the second line of attack. If any man needs a witness to the efficiency of this institution, then let him observe the undying loyalty of its alumni. No alma mater whose work was not of the best could have engendered such feeling in her sons. Time forbids that I should dwell on the testimony furnished by the work done by these men.

But I have been honored by a request to make the commencement address to the Class of 1918. Any audience cares to hear but one subject; any speaker cares to address himself to but one subject; there is but one subject to-day. Within that subject are embraced as many variations as there are chords in a great musical composition, but always the great theme to which it ever tends is that of crushing from this world the loathsome power of the Hun.

We are told, on every hand, of the outrages committed by the Boche, of the necessity of crushing him, but lest the false and empty proposals of peace should lead some of us astray, it is well that we should be firmly grounded in our knowledge of the issues. Every man should know the inherent difference between the Hun and a decent citizen of the world.

If I read history aright, the Hun has had ingrained into him one all-pervading idea, which renders him an unfit neighbor, so long as he retains it, and that is the belief that war is a profitable occupation. In the sixteenth century Sigismond gave to the Hohenzollern family the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Shortly thereafter the king of Poland gave to them certain rights in the province of Prussia. From that time to the time of the “Great Elector,” and from the “Great Elector” to Frederick the Great, there was one succession of acquisitions of power. By acts of craft, which we denominate theft, and by acts of violence, which in law to-day would be robbery, this Hohenzollern family added to their power and domain.

But no matter how the pelf was gotten, the doctrine was preached to the Prussian people that “war pays.” Insidiously there was whispered into the ear of the Prussian that his destiny was that of a professional warrior; that work was well enough for women and conquered nations, but for him the gods of war had ordained a universe from which he could look with disdain on such dull, drab shades of life.

Then arose Otto von Bismarck, the strong man of Prussia, and Von Moltke, his right arm. By an appeal to her pride he induced and cajoled Austria into joining with Prussia in a war against Denmark, as a result of which Schleswig and Holstein were raped from the little kingdom, and that largely by the loss of Austrian men. True to form, Prussia seized the fruit of the theft. The Hapsburgs accepted the challenge, as they were forced to do if they were to maintain their position as leaders among the German states.

The result is only too well known. To the amazement of the Austrian generals they found the Prussian army thoroughly equipped with the breech-loading rifle, known as the needle gun. A short decisive war lost to the House of Hapsburg forever the place of arbiter of German destinies, together with the South German provinces.

But the great outstanding fact of these two wars was that the Hohenzollerns were able to go back to the Prussians with the spoils in their hands, and say again, “War not only pays us in prestige and renown, but it yields great financial dividends. Our wars are short, decisive, and costly only to the enemy. It is so because we are a military nation, we are prepared; great is Hohenzollern preparedness!”

To the Prussian mind the crowning demonstration of the value of the plunder to be gained was in the Franco-Prussian war. Just twelve weeks from the firing of the first gun, Bismarck was collecting dividends from the bloody investment. Alsace and Lorraine were taken under claim of an ancient right. Without any claim except of sufficient bayonets to enforce the edict the boundaries of Lorraine were so “readjusted” as to take from France her vast deposits of iron. By this device Bismarck thought to transfer the iron industry of continental Europe to the Rhine cities. To provide working capital for the enterprise, a billion dollars of indemnity was wrung from prostrate France. William Hohenzollern was crowned Emperor of all the Germans in a French palace.

To the pomp and prestige of a victor was added the glamor of a successful robber. Again a Hohenzollern returned to Prussia and proclaimed the financial benefits to be derived from war. To the practical Teutonic mind the argument was without an answer. For had not war paid? Had not the Hohenzollern in each case returned laden with spoils and valuable concessions, almost before the phlegmatic subject knew that a war was on?

Then it was that the Prussian beast began to crouch for its final spring at the throat of the world. With consummate skill combined with force Bismarck drew the Germanic states together into the zolverein, or tariff union, by which Prussia held not alone the military power but the purse strings of Germany. This was beyond question the master stroke of Bismarck’s career.

Nietzsche and his disciple, Treitschke, preached the doctrine that the world and the good things thereof are for those with the will and the strength to take it. The epitome of German philosophy came to be “the will to power,” by which was meant largely the equivalent of the American slang “willing to cash in.” The German officer was willing to cash in his honor, his solemn word, his signed treaty, and if need be his own brother, in return for world domination, with the attendant right to rob the world. Von Bernhardi then wrote his doctrine of blood and iron. The world read it and thought it to be the child of a disordered mind. The German secret service filled the world with spies and plots and schemes. They stirred up hatred against all nations other than Germany and her confederates. These things came to the chancelleries of the allied countries, they were reported to their governments, but the nations refused to believe that Germany had deliberately chosen to become an outlaw nation; it seemed incredible that any ruler in the twentieth century would solemnly make his choice and choose the life of a robber. With the open mind of one who intends no evil they suspected none and actually paid millions for the dyes which were a by-product of Germany’s munition factories; we paid the bill for the powder that would murder the finest of our young manhood. Italy, burdened with poverty and a debt inherited from poverty-stricken ancestors, slept on. England—business, humdrum old England—pursued her business. And France—gay, debonair, chivalrous France—danced in the shadow of her doom.

When the Hohenzollern had encompassed the earth with the slimy tentacles of his system of espionage, when his generals reported to him that the last soldier was ready to the last cartridge, then he gathered together the captains and the kings of the finances of Germany. He gathered them at Potsdam and showed them the world spread out before them. To one he was to give the exclusive privilege of trading in iron and steel in India, to another the wool industry of Australia, and thus he parcelled out the utmost part of the earth. The price was to be that they should finance the royal pirate’s venture; that they should fall down and worship at the shrine of the god of war.

These things are not mere imaginings. They are all set forth in the revelations of August Thysson, the German merchant prince, who was there and took his part of the supposed pelf. With true Teutonic exactness it was all written down, and the promises were to be fulfilled not later than December, 1915.

Then the storm broke. We know as well as the human tongue can tell, as well as the human mind can grasp, the sickening, bloody, tragic story since August, 1914.

We have been told of the anguish of the Belgians, who stand today as they did two thousand years ago—the bravest of them all. We know the agony of La Belle France. We know of the mothers who saw the last morsel of food taken from them and in frantic desperation saw their helpless little broods about them crying for food, but knew that those little ones who were nearer to them than life would starve before their eyes. We know of the miles of road in Poland along which sat children dull and sick with starvation. The whole anguishing picture has been shown us again and again.

But I would turn from the horrid picture and look for a moment on a brighter side.

A certain measure of success has attended me in the practice of the profession I love, but I would rather be one of you men, starting out to-day with a training in the applied sciences, than to be where I am. For the man who can look into the future, there is a world where the weaker nations have been freed from the intolerable peril of a bullying force, where the sinister German influence will have been withdrawn. To you the waste places of the earth will be open. Mountains of iron and manganese will be taken from the mines of South America and converted into steel products by American engineers. The limitless plains, covered with grass, will be bought by men from V. P. I. to produce beef for the world. Tractors, made in America, will draw plows across fields many miles in length. And American wares will supply the demand for manufactured goods. Indeed it is a golden day for the young man who knows how to produce.

President Wilson has said:—”To-day our young men sail across a sea strewn with the white up-turned faces of the dead, not for glory, nor spoils, nor pelf, but that the world may be a better and happier place in which to live. To-morrow they will come back, empty handed, except that their hands will be filled with their dead and wounded, but on that morrow we will look on a new world and all men shall say that the gain was worth the price.”

——–

From the Bulletin of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute — The State Agricultural and Mechanical College, Commencement Number, Vol. 11, No. 4, October 1918, pp. 6-10.

Russell Holman Willis was a Roanoke attorney and banker, a member of the Virginia General Assembly, representing the City of Roanoke as a delegate from 1914-1923. He was president of Rockydale Quarries Corporation from the 1930s until his death. He was born in Marshall, MO. on January 12, 1880, and died on August 9, 1954.

Willises, Garnetts moving to Saline in 1852 and before…

I have discovered that Benjamin Franklin Willis, one of the sons of Isaac Willis, went to Marshall Missouri on a wagon train in 1852 with apparently a great number of Willis, Gordon and Garnett cousins. “Anna Garnett Willis, who came to Saline County with a wagon train of people from Culpeper County, Va., around 1852.” Apparently 1852 was one of the busiest years for westward expansion. 

I found a page with a few bios, and there is some information of others that are listed on this site– these apparently from a book titled “History of Saline County, Missouri 1881“. This is about one half generation before John Milton Willis headed west.

In the book, Owen Thomas Willis is credited as being one of the first settlers in the area of Marshall Township.

Owen Thomas Willis, P. O., Slater. Was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, February 20, 1821, where he was raised and educated, and assisted on his father’s farm until his sixteenth year, then lived with his grandfather, Isaac Willis, and managed his business for twelve years. His father, Joshua Willis, and his mother Ava Willis, formerly Garnett were both natives of Culpepper county, Virginia. He was married December 10, 1844, to Miss Sarah Ann Garnett, daughter of Larkin and Elizabeth Garnett, of Culpepper county, Virginia. He continued farming in Virginia until 1850, when he came to this county, and bought 120 acres of land, two and one-half miles south of the present site of Slater. After building and moving to his farm, he lost his dwelling house by fire, which, with its contents were valued at $1,000. After this, he sold out to his uncle, Bobert Willis, and bought the farm now owned by Reuben Eubank. Selling this to Mr. Eubank, he purchased the farm he now lives on, adjoining the town of Norton on the east, containing 160 acres of land. From 1853 to 1866, he ran a saw mill, six miles east of Miami. Mr. Willis’ children are as follows: Evelyn P., now Mrs. David C. Morrison, of Saline county; Alice, now Mrs. Theodore Haynes, of Slater; Oswald T., Ida B., now Mrs. E. H. Head of Quincy, Illinois; Harry C., William P., Melbourne, E., Price, Owen Shelby, and Sarah E., all living. Mr. Willis has been a member of the Baptist Church since his eighteenth year, and has been connected with Bethel Church [This being one of the two churches where Russel Holman Preached] for over twenty years.

I was especially excited to read the below, as R H Willis has turned up in many of the documents and maps I’ve been looking through over the years. I’m glad to get a bio on him, as well as understand that he is definitely, in fact, one of the Culpeper Willises.

Robert H. Willis, P. O., Marshall. Was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, on the 15th of December, 1837, where he was reared and educated. In 1860, he came to Missouri, and settled in Saline county. In 1861, he joined Capt. Ed. Browns’ company, in the M. S. G. and served six months, the time of enlistment. In December, 1861, he started south with Robinson’s body of recruits, and was captured with them December 19, 1861, on Blackwater, taken to St. Louis, and then to Alton, Illinois, where he remained three months; was then released, on taking the oath, and returned home. In 1864, as Gen. Price’s army passed through Saline, Mr. Willis again enlisted in the Confederate service, in Gen. Marmaduke’s escort company; remained in the service to the end of the war, and surrendered in 1865, at Shreveport. He participated in the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Booneville, Dry Wood, and Lexington. After the war, he settled down on the farm, northeast of Marshall, which he soon after purchased, and resided there until 1875. In 1874, he was elected sheriff of Saline county, and in 1875, moved into Marshall, the county seat, to assume his official duties. Mr. Willis is a democrat, and was again elected sheriff, in 1876. In 1879, Mr. Willis engaged in the grocery business, in Marshall, with Mr. Ben Naylor, until 1881, when Naylor sold out to Wm. Nordyke, and the firm is now Willis & Nordyke. They do a leading business in their line. In 1861, Mr. Willis married Miss Mary E. Cox, daughter of Jesse Cox, a lawyer and an old settler of this county. They have had ten children, eight of whom—two sons and six daughters—are living. Mr. Willis came to Saline poor, but by his industry and management is now in easy circumstances.

This is a bio of E P Garnett’s brother in law. This couple is mentioned in the article linked above. The home that Anna Garnett build with her husband at the age of 26 is still standing. 

WILLIAM PHILIP CASEBOLT, P, O,, Slater. Mr. W. P. Case-
bolt, postmaster of Slater, was born Februar}- 1.5, 1842, in Pocahontas
count}-, Virginia. His father, William Casebolt, was a native of Poca-
hontas county, Virginia, and his mother, Mrs. Ellen Casebolt, formerl}-
Lowe, a native of Braxton county, Virginia. He came to Saline county,
Missouri, with his parents, in 1844, and settled near Miami, where he was
educated. At the age ot’ seventeen years, he engaged as clerk in a
general store in Carrollton, Missouri. In the year 1865, he moved to
Vienna, Maries county, Missouri, and engaged in business. March 4, 1868,
he married Miss Roberta Anderson, daughter of Thomas and Mira
Anderson, of Tennessee. Two children were born to them, and both died
very young. Mrs. Casebolt died on the 13th of February, 1873. In March,
1875, he opened a general store at Petra postoflice. Saline county, and in
1876, was appointed postmaster. In September, 1878, he removed to
Slater, continuing as postmaster, and his business, and building the first
store-house, southwest corner of Main and Front streets, which was
burnt in January, 1881. In the summer of 1879, he disposed of his mer-
cantile stock, and has since given his entire attention to the duties of the
postoffice. In 1879, he built a two-story brick building, with metal roof,
on the east side of Main street. Mr. Casebolt was one of the first citizens
of the present city of Slater, and has aided not a little, by his energy and
enterprise, in its rapid growth, Mr. Casebolt was married, December
25, 1.S79, to Miss Celia Helen Graves, daughter of the late Edward
D. Graves and Martha Ann Graves, formerly Garnett, of this county.

THOMAS GARNETT, deceased. Was born in Culpepper county,
Virginia, in 1810. His early life was spent on a farm and in acquiring an
education in the public schools of his native county. While in Virginia, after
becoming of age, he was engaged in farming, on a grand scale. Was married to
Miss Lucy H. Gordon, of same county, by whom he had nine chil-
dren, seven of whom are living: Anna M., Lucy H., wife of Jas, A.Jordan*
A. C, Laura V., wife of Giles R. McDaniels; T. T., Edmonia J., Joseph
H. In 1852 Mr.Garnett moved to this state and count}-, locating where
his son, A. C, and widow, now reside, on a splendid farm, well adapted to
the raising of all kinds of produce, or stock. Mr. A. C, who now man-
ages the farm, makes a specialt}^ of handling fine stock. The subject of
this sketch died in 1880, having been an active and consistent member of
the Missionary Baptist Church for forty-five years, acting in the capacity
of deacon for several years previous to his death. He died at the ripe age
of seventy years, living the full time allotted to man, leaving behind him a
record of which his descendants may well be proud.

GEORGE WILLIS, P. O., Orearville. Was born in Orange county,
Virginia, June 14, 1834, where he was reared and educated. His father,
Joshua Willis, was a native of Madison county, Virginia, and a farmer.
He was married to Ara Willis, a native of Culpepper county, Virginia,
and daughter of Isaac Willis. They had seven children, five of which
are living: Owen T., Benj. F., George, Mrs. Betty T. Lewis and Mrs.
Mary Ish. Joshua Willis died and was buried in Culpepper county, Vir-
ginia; his wife survived him, died and was buried at Mt. Horeb, in Saline
county, in 1865. George, the fourth son, after stopping school, devoted
his time to the management of his mother’s business on the farm. In the
fall of 1857, he, wath his mother and family, moved west, settling in Saline
county, Missouri, where two of his brothers had already located some
years previous. They traveled by land in wagons, and brought some
twenty or thirty slaves with them. They first settled on what is now
known as the Richard Durrett farm, two miles south of the present city
of Slater, where he farmed until 1859. In April, 1859, he was married to
Miss Margia Ish, of Saline county, a daughter of W. L. Ish. They have
two children: Ortha L. and Etha G.; and in the same year he moved to
the farm on which he now resides, five and one-half miles south of Slater,
where he owns eighty-eight acres of first-class land. In the fall of 1864,
he enlisted in company G, Williams’ regiment, Shelby’s division, as a pri-
vate, and was in the battles of Independence, Big and Little Blue, West-
port and near Ft. Scott. He was discharged in 1865, and returned to his
farm.
In the same book, there is a history of the Rehoboth Church, which was moved, and is now the current Slater Baptist Church:

CHURCHES IN SLATER.
BAPTIST CHURCH.

This church was formerly called Rehoboth Church, and the house of
worship was located half a mile north of town, but on the building of the
town the old structure was taken down and the material worked into the
new church at Slater. Rehoboth Church was organized September 1,
1850. The original members were Daniel Hickerson, W. W. Field, W.
E. Thomson, R. Y. Thompson, R. Johnson, Willis Holloway, B. Hamp-
ton, I. N. Graves, Claiborne Hill, Maria Hickerson, Francis Hickerson,
Francis Hampton, Lucy T. Thompson, Anna L. Hampton, Lucy A.
Thompson, Lucy A. Field, Martha Johnson, Rachel Hufi. The old
Rehoboth church was built in 1850; the new (Baptist Church of Slater)
in 1880. The old church building cost $2,000. Noah Flood dedicated it
on the fifth Sabbath of July, 1853; Rev. W. Pope Yeaman dedicated the
new one August 29, 1880. Rev. Thos. Fristoe was called as first preacher
of the old organization, November 1, 1851. Jos. S. Conners was first pastor
of the new. The present membership is about one hundred. During the
war an association was being held at Rehoboth. The militia arrested all
of the ministers present and put them under bonds.

The question remains: Why did some of the Garnetts arrive in Saline in 1840, and many Garnetts, Gordons and Willises show up together, on a wagon train, in 1852?!

RH Update 2- Brown University

So, I think I’m just going to continue a series of short successive posts on this information for this go round of Russell Holman.

Brown University

So, brown had no medical school in the 1830’s. The medical department was completely shut down in 1827, and the medical faculty joined other organizations such as the Rhode Island Medical Society. They did continue to educate, mentor and teach students, but not in a formal setting.

I have found and read the University Catalog for Brown for every year from 1834-1842, and Russell Holman is only mentioned in one catalog: the 1836-1837 shows him as being a Junior, but notates that he was dismissed. Upon closer inspection, the journal previously referencing his class from Brown does, in fact, record that he did NOT graduate from Brown!

There is no doubt in my mind that from his lifelong demonstrated clerical abilities he was certianly capable of completing school, but he was also not listed as having ever been a Freshman or a Sophomore there. It begs the question then, where did he get the rest of his education? How is it that so many assumed and recorded that he graduated from Brown in 1838? Why is it there is little to no record or mention of any part of his young adult life before he left Rhode Island to go to Kentucky?

As so often happens, more research has only lead to more questions…

Russell Holman: Updates Coming

Lewis Walker And The Creeks/Cherokees

I have finally gotten my hands on the audio recording of Lewis Walker recanting his knowledge of Willis family stories and oral histories. From his recollections he seemed to have done quite a bit of historical research as well.

I think it is important to note that discrepancies in oral histories in no way belittle or disrespect those that pass them down- on the contrary, it is extraordinary that so much information can be remembered and passed on from generation to generation. Lewis Walker’s passion for history and love of the people that cared for him are the only reason that we have a place to start documentable research. He was in the twilight of his light recanting tales from his childhood-from people in the twilight of their lives recanting tales of their childhoods! on top of that, far from the convenience of the internet, he had to write a letter and wait for a response every time he needed information he could not find in a library. My goal is to create a documentable, factual historical timeline to establish the truth to the best of our ability… I’d like to think that if Lewis could have made it through a few more decades he’d be using Google to do the same thing now!

In the recording Lewis does say that Russell Holman graduated from Brown Medical School and went as a medical missionary to the indians, however he referred to not the Creek Indians specifically but to what he calls the “Creek Nations” and states the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Creeks- what are actually referred commonly to as the Five Civilized Tribes- they had no formal alliance between them.

Lewis then goes on to saw that in the Creek Nations, Holman was particularly fond of the Cherokee, and states clearly that the Cherokee had a written language that Holman translated. He does not mention a bible, and states that he does not know where he heard this piece of information. He recants a tale of Mary Holman (Willis), explaining that she came downstairs one night at their home in Alabama and saw teepees in the yard, and heard Russell Holman talking with indians all night long. She said that she was a young girl, about 6 or 7 years old when this happened.

Russell Holman’s first tenure as the corresponding secretary for the mission board was from 1845-51, then he spent five years in New Orleans supporting the First Baptist Church there. his second tenure as the corresponding secretary began in 1856, and his letters and records show that the primary concern of the mission board was supporting the Pottawatomie mission that had been established in Oaklahoma. There were, however, many other tribes including the Cherokees and the Creeks that had missions supported by the board, whom Holman was actively corresponding with at the time. One must address also that though none of the afore mentioned tribes utilized teepees before they were forced west, they did adapt the teepee once on the plains. All this being considered, it may never be known specifically what tribe was visiting or why, but it was almost certainly either Cherokees paying a friendly visit to an old friend, or Pottawatomies or another tribe coming to discuss matters relating to missions in the field.

Russell Holman’s Childhood

There is almost no recorded history or oral tradition around Holman’s childhood, but I have been able to uncover a few more nuggets. There were a few major events going on in Warwick MA as he was growing up, and they likely would have had a major effect on his childhood.

A group of Utopian Unitarians attempted to start a community revolving around a glass factory around the time Holman was born. They were so zealous to pay great wages to improve the lives of the people they brought in that the whole thing was bankrupt by the time Holman was a toddler.

When Holman was 11 years old, a major tornado came through the area and a few young girls, one Holman’s age, were killed. It did major damage to several farms and homes, and the community had to make significant adjustments and take up a collection to assist those affected. It was a small community, and this likely had a major impact on Holman’s worldview as a child.

I have found record via the census and the Warwick Historical Society that Holman was actually the oldest of several siblings, but was 5 years older than the next youngest. By the 1830 census, at 18 years of age, he was no longer living with his family, and from what I can gather, never returned home.

The record at Brown University records that he was actually from Grafton MA, which is a suburb of Worcester. It is likely that Holman was sent to live with relatives there to attend a school in an urban setting of more prominence, but unfortunately at this time only the names of heads of households were recorded on the census, so it may never be possible to establish if this is the case.

Unless we can find a school record…

Location of Law Office of RH Willis and H Willis Robertson

From The National Register of Historic Places 

 

“128 West 21st Street. Peoples Bank of Buena Vista. 1907. 103-5055-0001. CB. The Classical Revival two-story brick building with parapet shed roof has recently (2008) had a modern façade removed to reveal the original front. The front features blond brick on the first story, red brick in the second story, and a blond brick parapet with decorative lozenge panels outlined in red brick. The first story has three elliptical archways, each with cast stone voussoirs. Originally the left and right archways were large windows with the center archway containing recessed entries to the building’s various commercial and office spaces. The center arch has traces of the painted words “The Peoples Bank.” Behind the arches are a partly recessed and angled aluminum and glass wall (almost flush in the west archway) and a raised flagstone pavement.

At the northeast corner, facing the alley, is a baskethandle archway created in the 1960s. In the second story front are three tripartite windows with cast stone lintels with keystone motifs. There are traces above the first and second stories and at the top of the parapet of former pressed metal cornices. Other features include painted brick on the side and rear elevations, 1/1 sashes, a brick-veneered cinder block rear addition for a bank vault, and parging on the west side where the former Lehman Building once adjoined. The Peoples Bank of Buena Vista, Inc., was chartered in February 1906 and soon opened at a temporary location.

The bank purchased the site in early 1907. When its bank building was completed later in the year it also housed the post office, which had been deprived of its location in the Colonnade Building across the street when that building burned in March 1907. Advertisements in a 1909 newspaper noted that the building also housed the offices of dentist Dr. R. W. Williams and lawyers R. H. Willis and A. W. Robertson. After the post office moved out a millinery shop occupied the vacated space on the east side of the building. Later occupants were a doctor office and Mildred’s Beauty Shop (both on the second floor) and Central Fidelity Bank (after 1974). The façade was first altered before 1955. In the 1960s the building’s first story was given a modernistic arcaded treatment and a windowless tile façade was added above. The building flooded in the mid-1980s and has stood vacant since that time. It is currently (March 2009) in the process of rehabilitation as the Buena Vista branch of Community Bank. ”

Locust Grove Plantation

Owners:

Built by John Willis c. 1735, William Willis and Isaac Willis both were born here and lived here most of their lives.

Locust Grove was left together with an adjoining 180-acre parcel by Isaac to his daughter Elizabeth Willis Garnett.

In 1878 Elizabeth Willis Garnett sold the house and 418 acres to her son-in-law, James Hugh Goodwin.

Goodwin was in the VMI Class of  1867 and was a private in Company C during the VMI Action at New Market. VMI Has his family information listed as follows:  ” James Hugh Goodwin, Class of 1867: New Market Cadet; Private, Co. C. Genealogy: Father- James Robert Goodwin; Mother- Elizabeth Boxley. Pat. Grandfather- John Chapman Goodwin; Pat. Grandmother- Annie Rhodes Thompson. Mat. Grandfather- Bejamin Boxley; Mat. Grandmother- Nicie Hawes Goodwin (niece of John Chapman Goodwin). Married- 1st: Nora Garnett, 1870; 2nd: Ellie Hutt, 1885. Children- 1st Marriage: 1st: James Milton; 2nd: Elizabeth; 3rd: Grace. 2nd Marriage: 1st: Hugh; 2nd: George; 3rd: Jack. Career: Farmer. Died- February 9, 1906. “

More information on the Goodwin family can be found here

The property remained in the Goodwin family until 1970, when Mr. and Mrs. John C. Womeldorph, purchased the dwelling and 130 acres. The Womeldorphs restored the home to its present condition and added a garage and some small additions. The home is furnished largely with early 19th century pieces.

Location:

Locust Grove is registered as a National Historic Place but is currently a private home still belonging to the Womeldorph family. The house is located just to the east of the town of Rapidan, VA.

Western Virginia in the Early to Mid 1700’s

Encyclopedia Virginia has an excellent article on what Virginia was like at the time that Locust Grove was first built:

Backwater Frontier of Colonial Virginia

Click here to see the full 1755 Fry-Jeferson map

Locust Grove Approximate Location C. 1755

The following details of the life of Isaac Willis come from United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, in regards to Locus Grove Plantation in 1985 (special thanks to the Womeldorph Family):

See the original document for the application for The National Register of Historic Places

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

Located along the Rapidan River in southwestern Culpeper County, Locust Grove is a rare example of a middle-class farmer’s house of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The 2 story log and frame building exhibits a complex evolution. Begun in the 1760s or 73s and gradually expanded until about 1840, it illustrates the gradual improvement in living conditions enjoyed by many Piedmont farm families over the course of the early Republican period. The earliest section of the house, which remains largely intact within the expanded structure, is a one-room plan unit built of hewn horizontal planks (i.e., squared logs) joined by dovetail corner notching. Subsequent phases of building over the next half-century – all in mortice-and-tenon frame construction – created an unpretentious weather boarded structure with a two-room plan main block and lean-tos on three sides. Possibly the oldest documented building of its size in Piedmont Virginia, it displays several unusual architectural features, including full-dovetailed plank walling; a central chimney floor plan; remnants of its crude original detailing; and a recessed, segmental arched wooden entry porch that may be unique in Virginia. The building’s well-documented history enhances its interest. Inhabited continuously from 1774 to 1867 by Isaac Willis, it remained in the hands of Willis descendants until the 1970ts, when the present owners purchased and restored it. Locust Grove is significant both because of its rare and well preserved architectural features, and because it graphically illustrates the austere living conditions prevailing among even prosperous Piedmont farm families of the Federal and antebellum periods.

HISTORY OF THE HOME

Locust Grove was erected by a member of the Willis family on land patented by Governor Alexander Spotswood in the 1730’s. Though best known for his political career and exploration of the Virginia frontier, Spotswood was also an acquisitive landowner and entrepreneur; as such, he was a leading figure in the colony’s westward expansion into the Piedmont during the first decades of the 18th century. Through a series of shrewd maneuvers during his last years in office, Spotswood managed to accumulate a vast tract of some 85,000 acres on the western frontier, including the 40,000-acre Spotsylvania tract straddling the Rapidan in what is now Culpeper, Orange, and Spotsylvania counties.

To satisfy mandatory land-seating requirements, Spotswood and his heirs granted attractive long-term leases on the Spotsylvania tract – some extending a full generation or more – to some one hundred farm families unable to afford tracts of their own. Locust Grove Farm probably originated as one of these leases. In April 1767 William Willis, the likely builder of the house, purchased a tract from the executors of John Spotswood, son of the governor. This may well have been the same leased land that his father, John Willis, had conveyed to him earlier in a will of 1761

Although the original portion of Locust Grove may possibly have been erected as a tenant farm dwelling before 1760, the architectural evidence suggests that William Willis (1743-1802) built the one-room plan log house shortly after he purchased the parcel in 1767. The obituary of subsequent owner and occupant Isaac Willis (1774-1867), son of William Willis, states specifically that Isaac “died in the house in which he was born’-an unusual statement that implies the building was standing before 1774.

This pre-1774 house was a 16′ x 20′ squared-log or plank structure with full-dovetail corner notching. It had a sleeping loft, but no basement, and was heated by a large brick chimney containing a cooking fireplace. The interior was barren, having neither paint, plaster, nor sheathing, and the loft was reached by a simple ladder stair. Though extremely crude by present standards, by the standards of its day it was relatively large and well built, a fact that accounts for its survival to the present. The center piece of a roughly 300-acre farm, it was from an early date surrounded by a number of small out- buildings, farm structures, and slave cabins. Of these, only one – an antebellum smoke- house – survives.


Original Antebellum Smoke House

The Locust Grove property appears on the state’s first tax list under the name of Joshua Willis in 1782. In an 1802 deed of gift, William Willis conveyed this same tract on the Rapidan River to his son Isaac, who acquired an a joining 308-acre parcel from his father in 1816, after William had moved to Kentucky.

Beginning in 1820, the year that the county land tax books began listing the value of buildings separately from land, the house and its outbuildings were assessed at $500, a sum consistent with what might be expected for a house the size of Locust Grove in its expanded, two-room planform. In 1840,a census year, the value of buildings dropped to $300, remaining at that general level until the 20th century. This suggests that no substantial improvements were made to the property after that date.

Isaac Willis owned and occupied the house from at least 1802 until his death in 1867 at age ninety-three. Family tradition states that Isaac was a member of the Virginia militia during the War of 1812, but he appears to have held no county or state offices. His obituary states that “he spent nearly the whole of his life on the premises” of his farm; that he had been a prominent member of the local Baptist church which he joined at age twenty-five; and that he had “lived in great harmony with his neighbors enjoying the confidence and esteem of all who knew him.”

The first statewide personal property tax, levied in 1815, shows that Willis owned fourteen adult slaves as well as nine horses and fifteen head of cattle. He appears to have owned few luxury household items, however, being taxed for only a chest of drawers and one “work of metal” (probably silverware or a clock) valued at over fifty dollars.

Tax records show that Willis continued to own between fifteen and twenty adult slaves from the 1820s through the 1850s. In 1852 he was taxed on nineteen slaves, 150 cattle, hogs and sheep, a “pleasure carriage” worth $40, and $120 worth of household furniture. A statistical sample of the local tax records shows that of those of assessed wealth Willis ranked among the upper ten percent of Culpeper taxpayers. On his death in 1867, two years after the Civil War, he left land valued at $11,198, as well as $1,123 worth of livestock, field implements and household furnishings. This was a substantial legacy, especially considering that over half his wealth – in the form of slaves – had been lost two years earlier following emancipation.

Willis’ wealth in slaves was consonant with the size of his farmstead. He gradually doubled his holdings from 608 acres in 1816 to 1,522 acres in 1844, a figure that remained constant into the 1850s. During this same period Isaac built or purchased a grist mill on the Rapidan. Standing in 1835 or before, it was valued at $400, a figure that suggests it was a modest frame structure of average size. Willis probably employed one of his slaves as the miller, and no doubt ground corn and wheat for neighboring farmers.

The historical record, together with the surviving architectural evidence provided by the house, shows that Isaac Willis, like most upper middle-class Virginia farmers of the Federal and antebellum eras, lived in surroundings that would be considered modest by 20th century standards. That he owned fifteen or more adult slaves (each valued, on the average, at a figure higher than that of his house and farm buildings) suggests that he could easily have afforded a larger and more pretentious dwelling had he wanted one. Instead, he remained content with the same sort of dwelling that most of his slaveholding peers inhabited. All the same, Willis made substantial improvements to the house during his tenure, adding new interior detailing and enlarging it from a two- or four-room house to one with eight smallish rooms (counting the four lean-tos and two upstairs loft chambers). It is important to realize that while Isaac Willis and his nine-member household lived without show, they lived in much greater comfort than had his father’s generation, as is demonstrated by the original one-room unit of Locust Grove.

Left to right: locust trees to the rear and east of the house, view of the house from the south fields, view of the south fields from the house.

In his 1867 will, Isaac Willis left the Locust Grove home tract, together with an adjoining 180-acre parcel, to his daughter Elizabeth Willis Garnett. In 1878 she sold the house and 418 acres to her son-in-law, James H. Goodwin. The property remained in the Goodwin family until 1970, when the present owners, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Womeldorph, purchased the dwelling and 130 acres. In the late 1970s, the Womeldorphs hired two highly respected Virginia architectural firms specializing in restoration to guide the renovation of the house. The job was completed in 1979, and today Locust Grove stands as a rare, representative example of a Federal period Piedmont farmhouse.

Cemetery beyond the south fields where Eilizabeth Willis Garnett, James H. Goodwin, Nora Garnett and others are laid to rest.

ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS

The main house at Locust Grove occupies a slight rise near the center of a 130.5-acre farm encompassing a U-shaped bend in the Rapidan River one mile east of the village of Rapidan. Situated at the center of a shaded, four-acre yard, the house affords a view of the surrounding flat cultivated fields on both sides of the river. Willis Road (VA Rt. 736), a little-traveled gravel-surfaced road, passes east-west in a straight line bout seventy-five yards north of the dwelling. The house itself faces east. A modern garage-cum-workshop and a mid-19th century smokehouse stand side-by-side behind the house to the west. About 250 yards west-southwest of the old dwelling stands a two-story frame tenant house built in the late 1930’s. Though of modest size, the main house at Locust Grove is the result of four or more building campaigns spanning two centuries. Today, the house is a if-story weather boarded structure whose main block features asymmetrical four-bay fenestration. Covered by a steep gable roof pierced by two modern Colonial-style dormers, the main block is flanked by end lezn-tos dating to the late 18th century or early 19th century. At the rear (west) elevation, a modern oar-story lean-to and a two-story ell replace an earlier full-length lean-to. The house rests on low rubble stone foundations, and lacks a basement, although a small cellar serves as a furnace room under a 20th-century rear addition.

The main block features a two-room plan centered on the original axial brick chimney. (A chimney fire in the mid-20th century destroyed part of the roof and upper part of the chimney, which was rebuilt in modern brick.) Flanking the main block are small single room lean-tos about seven feet in width. The modern rear additions, including a single story shed-roofed kitchen and a two-story dining room wing, exhibit a more complex plan. Exterior detailing dates largely to the 1970s, although original weatherboards and trim were retained wherever salvageable. The two front windows to the right of the doorway are of mid-19th century vintage, while that to the left of the door is earlier, though probably not original. The most interesting exterior feature of the house is its recessed front entry shelter with wooden segmental-arched ceiling. This entry was reconstructed in 1978 based upon careful examination by restoration architect Milton Grigg when the house was being stripped of its interior and exterior sheathing. Most of the interior detailing is early, but dates to various periods of occupancy between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The main-floor room of Unit One features early pine flooring, exposed joists with beaded edges, a Federal plain-board dado, and a large fireplace that was narrowed to its present 4′-1″ width in the early 1800’s. The present fireplace surround is of Federal style, with a plain architrave surround and molded shelf. The batten door at the front entry has been reconstructed; other doors are early.

Interior detailing in the other ground-floor room of the main block is similar, but part of the Federal dado was taken in the 1970s from a nearby antebellum Willis family house named Quiet Shade. The Federal-style mantel in this room is somewhat fancier and perhaps later than that in Unit One. In this room too, the joists have beaded edges and were originally exposed (they were later covered with plaster, but were re-exposed by the present owners). Early six-raised-panel doors and wide pine flooring also remain in this room.

Front Entrance

Each main-block room opens into a gable-end lean-to containing early Federal-style trim. These small rooms have narrow four-over-four-light sash windows and were probably originally unheated, being used as sleeping chambers and/or storage rooms. A boxed stair with ninety-degree turn stands at the northwest corner of the original room, being approached from a narrow passage linking the two rooms of the main block. Probably erected before 1825, judging by the use of wrought rather than cut nails, it leads to a finished loft containing two rooms. The stair terminates on the second floor with a simple railing of rectangular balusters and chamfered posts extending to the ceiling. The south loft room, with direct access to the stair, features an early Federal mantel with tall molded shelf, and a low attic closet sheathed with wide unpainted pine boards. The north chamber contains similar early-19th-century detailing. The rear additions to the house are modern, but in the kitchen the rear (west) log walls of the original house have been exposed to view. These logs, along with some of the strips that originally covered the interstices, are also visible in the stair closet in the original room.

Locust Grove is important architecturally both because of the rarity of its small original unit, and because its expansion illustrates the trend among Virginia farmers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries to gradually expand their dwellings to include more (and more specialized) rooms. For this reason, the remainder of this architectural description will detail the complex evolution of the building.

The house began as a 16′ x 20′ single-bay structure constructed of carefully-dressed 31″ x 10″ pine planks joined at the corners by full-dovetail notching. The walls of this structure were probably neither sheathed nor painted on the exterior, though the wood shingle roof may have been tarred originally. The house was heated by a large interior brick chimney with rubble stone base, located on the north gable end of the house and containing a cooking fireplace. The building lacked a cellar, the walls being supported by low rubble stone piers or foundations.

The interior of the house was extremely plain, with no paint or whitewash on the walls, and no interior plaster or other sheathing. To reduct drafts, 3″ x 1″ pine strips covered the narrow gaps between the hewn logs. A simple ladder stair led to the loft. Windows were smaller than those presently lighting the house. Indeed, there may have been no windows at either longitudinal facade: structural evidence from 1970s restoration suggests that opposing doorways at the front and rear of the house were the only openings there.

A decade or two later the house was doubled in size by a one-room plan mortice-and-tenon frame addition at the north end (chimney end) of the building. This expansion created the present central-chimney main block. The recessed, segmental-arched front entry was probablp built at this time, and the original log unit was sheathed with weatherboards to match the expansion. This new north unit was approximately the same size as the original log house, but it had two rather than one front openings, and featured higher ceilings and plastered interior walls.

Between the late 18th or early 19th century and ca. 1840, four lean-to units were added to the house. Available architectural cvidence does not indicate which one is earliest, or whether more than one shed was erected at a time. but one historical source asserts the soutb gable lean-to was added before its north counterpart. Oral reports and 1970s photos suggest that the lean-to running across the entire rear of the main block was also built in two campaigns, both probably before ca. 1840, and possibly ante 1800. All of these additions were of heavy-timber frame construction covered with weatherboards; none contained livable loft space.

During the 19th century, the house underwent at least two major internal remodelings. The earlier of these, ca. 1825, saw the replacement of the original ladder stair by the present boxed one. The fireplace in the original main room was reduced in size, and at this same time or slightly later the north room was fitted with its present Federal-style mantel, and the upstairs loft rooms were finished off with plaster, mantels and closets. Much of the door and window trim – which varies throughout the house – was added in the early 19th century. Also, about this time, a plaster ceiling was added in the north room of the main block. In a post-Civil War remodeling, the early recessed segmental-arched entry was replaced by a simplified Greek Revival-style doorway flanked by side-lights and set flush with the front wall of the house. This new, more up-to-date entry opened into a small vestibule in front of the chimney. Several windows in the house were also moved or enlarged at this time.

Later, in the early 20th century, the rear lean-to was extended at either end to cover the entire rear of the house. Single-bay porches (since removed) were added at the front and rear entries. Interior partitions were altered in the rear lean-to, and the roof of the north gable lean-to was raised. About this same time two large shed roofed dormers were added at the front of the house to increase space and light in the loft.

The house at Locust Grove remained unchanged from the 1930s to the late 1970s, when the present owners remodeled and enlarged the house, restoring the main block and its early gable-end lean-tos. Since the house had been built in several stages, no attempt was made to return it to any single period. Nevertheless, the house today looks largely as it did ca. 1870 or before. The only major changes made were the addition of modern Colonial-style dormers, the shortening of the south lean-to to its original form, and the replacement of the rear lean-tos by a modern kitchen dining room wing.

An unusually early and well-preserved farm dwelling, Locust Grove illustrates the marked improvement in housing that accompanied the general rise in living conditions for middle-income farmers in late 18th and early 19th-century Virginia.

ENDNOTES

1. Paula S. Felder, Forgotten Companions: The First Settlers of Spotsylvania County (Fredericksburg, Va: Historic Publications of Fredericksburg, – 19821, pp. 6-33; Richard L. Morton, Colonial Virginia, Vol. 11: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960), pp. 472-85; and Ulysses Joyner, “Map of the Early Patents of Orange County” (Orange Historical Society, Orange, Va., n.d. [ca. 1970~1).

2. Culpeper County Deed Book E, p. 271. This 1767 deed describes a 265-acre parcel along a river – presumably the Rapidan. Orange County Will Book 2, p. 323. This 1761 will refers to “the lott in Culpeper”, but does not mention the acreage. According to historian Ann Miller of the Orange County Historical Society, the term “lot” generally refers to a leased tract, rather than to a freehold. In studying several other properties that were once part of the Spotsylvania Tract, Ms. Miller has found that leased property was, as a rule, later purchased by the lesee or a member of his family once parcels began being sold off the Spotswood patent in 1767. Given the circumstantial evidence, she feels strongly that the property William Willis bought in 1767 was at least part of the land that his father John had leased and occupied before 1761. (Personal communication, Orange, Va., June 1985).

3. The high quality of workmanship in the original unit of Locust Grove suggests that the house was built as the main dwelling on a freehold rather than a leasehold. This, and the fact that a house of this size built before the mid-18th century is unlikely to survive, provides a terminus ante quem of ca. 1767.

The architectural evidence, moreover, tends to support the pre-1774 date indicated by the historical record (see Note 4, below). The original portion of the house probably dates to at least the third quarter of the 18th century, since it was expanded in at least three subsequent campaigns ante 1825. If Locust Grove follows the pattern of other houses of its type and period in Virginia (e.g. Perkinsons in Chesterfield County, DHL File #20-390), these expansions probably took place gradually over the course of at least two generations.

4 Obituary in the Religious Herald, Richmond, Va. (Jan. 2, 1868), p.3, col. 5.

5 That the original Locust Grove was a well-built house of average size is evident by comparison with documentary records on Maryland tenant houses of the 1760s analyzed by Gregory Stiverson in Poverty in a Land of Plenty: Tenancy in Eighteenth-Century Maryland (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), pp. 58-84. Stiverson shows that 80 to 90 percent of Maryland tenant farmers lived in one- or two-room plan dwellings averaging between 278 and 558 square feet in plan. (Locust Grove is 320 square feet in plan.) Surviving Virginia houses comparable to Locust Grove include the Perkinson House and Muleshoe in Chesterfield County; Pear Valley in Northampton County; the Ball-Sellers House in Arlington County; and the Frederick Cline House in Augusta County. The first three of these houses are of frame construction. Located in the northern Piedmont, the Ball-Sellers House (ca. 1750-80) is of log construction, but it is far more crudely built than Locust Grove. The Frederick Cline House, now in ruins, was probably originally a two-bay, one room-plan structure of squared logs (not planks), with full-dovetail corner notching like that at Locust Grove. Dating to the late 18th or early 19th centuries, it is among the oldest dwellings recorded in the Valley of Virginia. (Jeffrey M. O’Dell, Chesterfield County: Early Architecture and Historic Sites [Chesterfield, Va.: Chesterfield County, 1983 1, pp. 97-107; Ann McCleary, “Historic Resources in Augusta County, Eighteenth Century to Present”, VHLC report, Harrisonburg, Va., 1983, p. 126; and NRHP reports for Pear Valley [DHL File 1/65-52] and Ball Sellers House [DHL File #OO-91, Richmond, Va.)

6 Culpeper County Deed Book 10, p. 100ff. This deed mentions a “cole-kiln” on the property, indicating that the Willis family was making charcoal – possibly for blacksmithing or use in some local industry. Due to irregularities and omissions, the land tax books for this period do not show a direct transfer of the 300-acre parcel between Joshua and William Willis.

7 The $300 figure accords with the architectural evidence. The drop probably indicates that some of the buildings were old and/or in poor repair. The value of buildings on the Willis tract dropped to $200 after the Civil War, then rose again to $300 late in the 19th century. The first substantial rise in assessed value occurred in the late 1930s, when the present two-story tenant house was erected on the property.

8 Historic Culpeper (Culpeper, Va.: Culpeper Historical Society, 1972), p. 100.

9 Religious Herald, op. cit.

10 Culpeper County Personal Property Tax Book, 1815. It is possible that Willis owned more highly-valued articles or furniture than that for which he was assessed, since tax assessors were often lax or arbitrary in their recording.

11. Based on a sampling by the writer of eighty other taxable persons listed consecutively in the Culpeper County Personal Property Tax Book of 1815.

12 Culpeper County Will Book 2, p. 327. Besides land and personal property, which Willis divided more or less evenly among his seven surviving children, he left seventy three shares of stock in the Orange and Alexandria Railroad Company to his grandson Edward I. Willis.

13 According to the entry on Locust Grove in Historic Culpeper (op. cit.), the house was used as a storage depot during the Civil War.

14 This grist mill, known as Willis Mill, disappeared in the second half of the 19th century. The exact site is not known, but an early 20th-century deed description places it about a half-mile downstream from the house,  along – the northwest bank of the Rapidan. (Personal communication, Elizabeth Womeldorph, Rapidan, Va., June 1985; and Eugene M. Scheel, Culpeper: A Virginia County’s History Through 1920 [Culpeper, Va: Culpeper Historical Society, 19821, p. 156).

Bibliography

  1. Dorman, John Frederick, comp. Orange County, Virginia, Will Book 2, 1744-1775. Washington, D.C.: privately printed, 1961.
  2. Farrar, Emmie F. Old Virginia Houses: The Piedmont. Charlotte, N.C.: Delmar Publishing, 1975
  3. Felder, Paula S. Forgotten Companions: The First Settlers of Spotsylvania County …. – and Fredericksburgh Town. Fredericksburg, Va.: Historic Publications of Fredericksburg, 1982.
  4. Garnett, Elizabeth V., “Capt. Isaac Willis,” 1-page typescript, 1971 (copy in Locust Grove file, DHL, Richmond, Va.).
  5. Historic Culpeper. Culpeper, Va.: Culpeper Historical Society, 1972.
  6. Joyner, Ulysses. “Map of the Early Patents of Orange County.” (Orange County Historical Society, Orange, Va., n.d. [c. 1970~1).
  7. Miller, Ann. Letter to Richard Cote of VHLC, Richmond, Va., Feb. 15, 1984. (Copy in Locust Grove file, DHL office, Richmond, Va.)
  8. McCleary, Ann. “Historic Resources in Augusta County, Virginia, Eighteenth Century to Present.” Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission report, October 1983.
  9. Morton, Richard L. Colonial Virginia, Vol. 11: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-1763. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.
  10. O’Dell, Jeffrey. Chesterfield County, Virginia: Early Architecture and Historic Sites.
  11. Chesterfield, Va.: Chesterfield County, 1983.
  12. “Locust Grove, Culpeper County, Virginia: Architectural Description and Historical Notes,” 9-page typescript, August 1984. (Copy in Locust Grove file, DHL office, Richmond, Va.)
  13. Orange County Will Books
  14. Religious Herald — (Richmond, Va.), January 2, 1868.
  15. Scheel, Eugene M. Culpeper: A Virginia County’s History Through 1920. Culpeper, Va.: The Culpeper Historical Society, 1982.
  16. Schlotterbeck, John T. “Plantation and Farm: Social and Economic Change in Orange and Greene Counties, Virginia, 1716-1869.” PhD Diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1981
  17. Scott, W.W. A History of Orange County, Virginia. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1974. (Reprint from 1907 ed., Richmond, Va.)
  18. Smith, Baird. “The John Womeldoroh Residence. ‘Locust Grove’, Ra~idan. Virginia.” .- (blueprint architectural plans and elevation drawings), J. Fauber Architects, Lynchburg, Va. 1978.
  19. Stiverson, Gregory A. Poverty in a Land of Plenty: Tenancy in Eighteenth-Century Maryland. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.
  20. “Willis, Garnet t and Gordon Families Hold Reunion,” clipping from unknown 1935 Virginia newspaper. (Copy in Locust Grove file, DHL office, Richmond, Va.)
  21. Womeldorph, Elizabeth K. “Index to Deeds,” 1-page typescript, May 1985. “Tax Records” (selected Land Tax Book entries for Locust Grove property, 1833-1960), 3-page typescript, May 1985.
  22. Womeldorph, Mr. & Mrs. John C. Interviews, July 1984, and May and June 1985, Culpeper County, Va.

-Edited for Digital Format by Hunter R. Willis

Isaac Willis Letter

1830 Letter 

     In or about 1805, Isaac’s father William Willis moved along with, at one time or another, members of the Waggener family and Robert Garnett, Isaac’s wife’s father, to Kentucky to take up land granted to him from his service in the Revolutionary war.

    Robert Garnett’s son Captain William Garnett had served and died during the revolutionary war, and Robert received a large tract (2002 acres it is said)  for his service. Another son Oliver had already departed for Kentucky in 1815, and Robert Garnett left Orange and traveled to Kentucky in 1824 to join him; lore has it the whole trip was made on horseback at the age of 88 years.

    Isaac purchased all of the Garnett’s land in Orange (the Horseshoe Farm). Robert Garnett died December 30, 1830, and this letter was written to Oliver Garnett, Isaac’s brother-in-law and Robert Garnett’s son, in August of that year.

FRONT:

Pg_2_web

LETTER:

pg1-1-2

1830 Letter to his father in law, Oliver Garnett (click for hi res); contrast has been added for easier reading.

Transcription:

Orange Ct House 19 Aug 1830

Oliver,
Inclosed you will find a check on
the MS Bank at Lexington [KY] for $600, which
you will place to my credit, on the week
of this, you will wright to me, acknowledging
the receipt of the [draft], and [inclose] me
my obligation which I gave you, to the
post office Orange Ct House VA and very
much obliged [& very] very respectfully

Isaac Willis

Special thanks to Oliver’s descendant and their ancestors
for preserving and contributing this family history for all of us to enjoy.