Here’s Part Two of Scarlett Stahl’s pilgrimage to Olde Virginia. You can get caught up with Part One HERE …Rick
TAKE ME BACK TO OLD VIRGINNY, PART TWO
By
Scarlett Stahl
I belong to the Frances Bland Randolph DAR Chapter in Petersburg, Va. She was my cousin. The Regent (President) Pattie Arwood has become a good friend and took me for lunch to the Library of Virginia for the classic grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and tomato. Of course I had to visit the gift shop and the sales clerk was kind and let me borrow some reading glasses, as I had left mine in the car!!! I did remember to return them before we left. Their Southern courtesy was certainly appreciated by me…..
At the John Marshall house, which Pattie also took me to see, I was dismayed to see that the house was not open on Mondays but seeing a light in the basement, I took a chance and rang the bell. To our surprise and my delight, a docent answered my ring and graciously gave us a small tour of the house, after I explained that he was my cousin. It is a large gracious house with the largest collection of Richmond Federal period furnishings. Marshall is best known as the “Great Chief Justice” for his role in creating the modern Supreme Court. He is the longest serving Chief Justice of the United States, serving from 1801 until 1835. Preservation Virginia maintains the John Marshall House, which is available for rental for private functions.
There appears to be some controversy as the American Civil War Museum is new, created in 2013 as an “umbrella” organization that is responsible for all operations at three sites: The Museum and White House of the Confederacy and Historic Tredegar in Richmond, and The Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox. Pattie and I went to visit the Museum of the Confederacy and the White House of the Confederacy. At the Museum of the Confederacy there were three levels and I particularly enjoyed the one at the lowest level. After puzzling over this, I realized that I didn’t like to see weapons and battles but preferred seeing pictures of Robert E. Lee, clothes, dolls, etc. We visited the White House of the Confederacy with a guided tour and learned different points of interest. It had been a private house, which was purchased with bonds of the Confederacy for President Jefferson Davis and his family. His wife, Varina Howell Davis, was a granddaughter of New Jersey Governor Richard Howell. The original owner of the house probably received nothing as the bonds were worthless after the War. In that day and time spouses had separate rooms but as Jefferson Davis needed a room for his office, he had to share a room with his wife, which was not comfortable for either and was considered improper in that day. Not all the furniture is original but was found elsewhere to represent what was original. The guide said that the Yankee Army did not destroy the house or the furniture and only took small size portable items, such as the books, etc.
All four Davis sons died without sons, so there was no one to carry on the Davis family name. Only one of their two daughters, Margaret Howell Davis Hayes had children. With his parents’ approval, Jefferson Addison Hayes, the eldest grandchild of Jefferson Davis, assumed the name of his grandfather by an act of the Mississippi legislature, becoming Jefferson Hayes-Davis in 1890. The Davis family now lives in Colorado.
Another day my friend, Sandi and I rented a car and drove to Kippax in Hopewell. An article in the Hopewell News, dated July 23, 1943, stated that Pocahontas and John Rolfe’s son, Thomas Rolfe, as well as his daughter, Jane Rolfe Bolling, were lying in unmarked graves at Kippax. Attorney and Mrs. Thomas Brown Robertson arranged with Dr. Hamilton James Eckenrode, Director of History and Archeological for the Virginian Antiquities to mark the graves before the site was lost for all time.
Kippax Plantation is considered to be a well-preserved archaeological site that is also well documented. Archaeologist Donald W. Linebaugh, of the University of Kentucky, located the remains of Col. Bolling’s house in Hopewell, Virginia in 2002. The land has been sold to the Archaeological Conservatory to preserve it from development.
I had read that the house there had no connection to my ancestors but that the owners did not mind visitors to the burial site. I had also learned that the two markers could be seen about 100 feet to the east of where Bland Avenue ends and 25 feet from the side of the driveway. I parked the car at the dead end of Bland Avenue and Sandi and I looked to find the markers. Sandi was the first to spot the markers at a tree along the path and I admit that there were tears of joy at finding the markers. The icing on the cake was a marker there of my own society, Colonial Dames of the XVII Century.
From there we drove to City Point aka Hopewell. The land that forms Appomattox Manor, at the confluence of the Appomattox and James rivers, is one of the oldest extant estates in America; the property was patented in 1635 by Francis Eppes and remained in the Eppes family until 1979. The area around the plantation was first settled in 1613 and was first known as Bermuda City and later as City Point. Though I had already visited it, Sandi had not so we took the tour again with the Park Ranger. Grant stayed there during the last ten month of the Civil War so this is one of important sites of the War. Appomattox Manor is now administered as a historic house museum by the City Point Unit of the Petersburg National Battlefield. There were Eppes, who married into my own Bland family. And a half block down the street at the corner of Prince Henry Ave. is Number 19 the City Point/Hopewell Walking Map. Number 19 is the Christopher Proctor house, which belonged to my Proctor family. Prince Henry Avenue was the original main street of City Point and its west side was settled the earliest. It was called Main Street when City Point was a town. Various businesses and the post office were located on the street. The Avenue is home to several “architecturally significant” buildings, including the Cook House, St. John’s Rectory, and the Christopher Proctor House (608 Prince Henry Ave.), which are on the National Register of Historic Places and can not be torn down. However it appears that the lovely home is falling apart. Later I did contact the docent, whom I had met at the John Marshall home in Richmond, for advice and was able to learn that there is a court date in Jan 2015 to see if the present owner will restore the home or sell it to someone, who will.
Our next stop was Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va to visit my Proctor family graves and visit the beautiful Blandford Church with its Tiffany stained glass windows. This was not my first visit but it was Sandi’s. To my dismay I learned that Kings Barbeque on Crater Road, open since 1946 and family owned, was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays! However the lady at the Blandford Cemetery Gift Shop gave us directions to the Dixe Restaurant in Petersburg, which has been open since 1939, as she said she knew we wanted home style Southern food. We dined on homemade pimento cheese sandwiches and spoon bread. I was too full for anything else but if I could have managed, I really wanted to also have a Southern style vegetable plate of collard greens, corn cakes, black eyed peas, etc. It was in a historic building with a lot of charm and the staff was helpful and courteous. Next door was an interesting gift shop.
We had planned to continue onto Jamestowne as Sandi hadn’t been there before and I would have liked to look in the gift shop for any Pocahontas and John Rolfe 400th wedding anniversary memorabilia. However we really didn’t want to be on strange highways after dark, especially if the rain began. So instead we drove back to Richmond. Still too full for a dinner, I managed to force myself to finish a slice of pecan pie at the Tobacco Company Restaurant, across from the hotel. I had to have pecan pie at least once while I was in Richmond. We had dinner there previously and found it very satisfying in a unique atmosphere as it was once an abandoned old tobacco warehouse.
Sandi and I also attended a couple of very special evenings. One event was a musicale or an evening listening to an orchestra, while the dress code was either period costume or cocktail attire. I had suffered bringing a hoop skirt from the west coast to the east coast on the airplane and was determined to make use of it, so I was in period costume. How did I get it on a plane, you may ask. I twisted it in a figure eight and stuffed it into the front pocket of my carry on. They had me take it out and lay it on top in the luggage compartment of the aircraft. I really don’t think it was good for my hoop skirt and was afraid it wouldn’t make the trip. Also I found I needed more room to sit without spilling onto others.
Sandi chose cocktail attire and appeared more comfortable than I did. The photographers liked me, at least. I had to have an aisle seat as I needed more room for my hoop skirt. I was enjoying the lively music, when I had that feeling that someone was looking at me. I glanced across at the other aisle and saw that not just one but quite a few people were looking at me. At the same time I also became aware that my hoop skirt was bouncing, while my feet were tapping to the music. Sandi commented later that I was like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind in the scene where she was dressed in mourning attire and was leaning on the counter, also tapping her feet to the music while her hoop skirt bounced in rhythm~~ Another evening we attended a formal cocktail party and enjoyed a guest speaker, who talked about the history of Virginia.
All in all I had a wonderful time and encourage others to go and visit the lovely historical sites, enjoy the food and hospitality of Virginia and its people.
http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/richmond?gclid=CJr-4KP26cICFQaDfgod218ADw
http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/
http://www.pamunkey.net/reservation.html
http://www.hollywoodcemetery.org/
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/
http://www.moc.org/
http://preservationvirginia.org/visit/historic-properties/the-john-marshall-house
http://www.hopewellva.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/appendix-c-streets-of-city-point.pdf
http://www.craterroad.com/oldblandfordchurch.html
http://www.kingsfamousbarbecue.com/
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/49/1612398/restaurant/Richmond/Dixie-Restaurant-Petersburg
http://www.thetobaccocompany.com/about.php