A Nearby Smith Mystery

 Recently I discovered a Smith cousin from the 1800s who lived not far from me: John Henry Smith, a great-grandson of my fifth great-grandfather, Col. John Smith.

The cemetery is "Smith at Listening Hill" but it isn’t on Listening Hill Road. It’s on Bar Ridge Road—about a half mile down the road from our Polecat Creek Farm. During the late 1980s, my cousin and I used to ride our horses on this farm. Although, we would have ridden within 100 feet of this cemetery, but I never noticed the marker.  Most likely high grass obscured it.

Only three people are buried there, John Henry Smith (1840-1904), his wife Flora Margaret Ann Housman Smith (1851-1939), and their son Vilos Lanier Smith (1892-1919). 

John Henry’s father, according to the marriage register, is Robert Cunningham, and his mother is “Giddy” (actually Gilly) Smith. Gilly Smith, b. 1805, is my first cousin 5 times removed. Her father was Coleman Smith, son of Col. John Smith (my 5th great-grandfather). Thus, John Henry is my 2nd cousin, 4 times removed.

From Ancestry, I learned John Henry Smith was a Confederate veteran. On 20 May 1861, he served in Company D, 2nd Cavalry, and was hospitalized in Charlottesville with bronchitis during April 1863. As for his service, "1861-10-31 he was On rolls, Present; 1862-09-30 Detailed, As courier for Colonel Munford; 1862-11-15 Returned, Estimated day; 1863-07-15 Returned, Estimated day; 1863-08-15 Detailed, As courier for Col Munford; 1863-09-15 Returned, Estimated day; 1864-08-31 Detailed, As courier for Col Munford, NFR; 1864-10-31 Detailed, As courier for Col Munford." According to the application for a pension by John Henry's wife, he died suddenly of a heart attack. 

From Ancestry, I discovered a bit more about Gilly Smith's father: Coleman Smith, the son of Col. John Smith and Frances Mildred Haynes, was married twice—first to Tabitha Hatcher, then Rebecca Crosby. Coleman's children were Samuel, John, Caleb, William, Mary, Phoebe, Annie, Nancy, Gilly, and Catherine. Coleman and his brother Samuel (who married Martha Hatcher) went to Greene County, Tennessee and then to Cocke County, Tennessee. [This info was from an old Rootsweb file.] Coleman's name might have been William Coleman Smith, but Col. John already had a son named William. 

I also looked at Family Search, where I found this info: "When Gilly Smith was born in 1805, her father, William Coleman Smith, was 33 and her mother, Tabitha Hatcher, was 30. She had at least one son and one daughter with Robert Cunningham."

I wish I could have found out more about about Gilly Smith and her son John Henry, but their lives remain a mystery..

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Note: Pictures are from the FindaGrave site, and they were taken by James Brooks.

Sutherland Place 2023

 The other day, I posted about the 2022 hay crop on the Sutherland Place. Here are some pictures I took on June 6, 2023, when about a third of the farm's 75 acres of hay had been cut. A lot of the hay this year is thick and lush:

The old hay barn still stands, but barely:

An old tree, mostly dead except for a bit of green midway up, stands near the barn.

William Milton Sutherland's cabin continues to deteriorate. The collapsing chimney has lost bricks, the windows are fallling out, and part of the roof has blown off. Hay was cut to within a few feet from it.

The uncut patch is where the hearth in the old kitchen was.

How long before the cabin is gone? Time will tell. . . .

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The F&P Railroad

From 1880 until 1932, the Franklin & Pittsylvania Railroad ran through what is now my front yard and slowed down at the Novelty Depot to grab a mailbag from a hook and toss off another. The narrow gauge railroad, which made its first run on April 16, 1880, ran thirty-one miles from Rocky Mount in Franklin County to Gretna (then called Franklin Junction and later Elba) in Pittsylvania County.

The rails probably went through this section of my lawn to the Novelty Depot in the distance.
The road at left was once the old Louis Island Road.

Nicknamed "the Fast and Perfect" by locals, it was neither neither fast nor perfect. Beset by many problems, it never even made a profit. But the stories about it are pretty interesting—and Tex D. Carter has done a commendable job documenting some of these stories, as well as giving a brief history of the railroad, in his 35-page self-published book, The Old Fast & Perfect. (He plans a larger book in the future.) Available from Carter when he does presentations and also from Amazon, the book gives an interesting glimpse into a part of local history. 

This page from his book features a photo of the locomotive:

. . . and pages 30-31 have photos from some of the depots along the line near where I live—the Glade Hill Depot, the Union Hall Depot, Novelty, and the Pen Hook (it used to be two words) Depot.

Carter relates some of the accidents that happened along the line. On page 12, he refences a January 1915 Lynchburg News article about wreck near Union Hall, in which the train "derailed and two passenger coaches rolled down a steep embankment. While the passengers were "shaken up," none was seriously hurt. Other accidents resulted in fatalities. Carter included a photo of a brief news article about this accident: "Frank Haley of Franklin Junction, hostler on the Franklin and Pittsylvania branch of the Southern Railway, was run over near Union Hall to-day, severing both his legs, from which he died in a few hours.He was thirty-five yers old and is survived by a wife and children." He briefly mentions another accident, in which conductor Nathan Rucker "was killed while inserting a coupling pin between two cars."

The train never ran over twenty-five miles per hour, but still had ome problems staying on track. A quote from the back cover:

Carter has used a collection of pictures, news articles, letters, and recollections to tell this interesting story of the railroad that cut through two counties. If you're from Franklin or Pittsylvania counties, you'll enjoy reading about this regional history. Even if you ain't from around here, and you're a railroad buff, you'll enjoy the book. Since Carter is planning a much more detailed book in the future, this one will give you a good preview of what to expect.

Tex D. Carter holding the proof copy.

I have enjoyed reading my copy of The Old Fast & Perfect. I think Arlo the cat did, too.

Arlo wonders how he can use a spike from the F&P as a bookmark.

`
At $5.00 per copy, this little book is a bargain!

Note: I mentioned Tex and the F&P in my earlier blog-post about the Penhook Pottery. Clay from Pittsville was hauled to the pottery via the F&P.

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Update: Tex has published a two-volume set about the railroad: https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-Tex-D-Carter/dp/1986824241/ and https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-II-Tex-D-Carter/dp/1987525671/ 

Pen Hook Pottery

Last year, I acquired some pottery that I think is from the Pen Hook Pottery which hasn't existed for over a hundred years. (The village is now Penhook, one word instead of the original two.) I'd wanted to learn more about the pottery, but I couldn't find much online.

From p. 64, Franklin County 1785-1980 

Tex Carter, who is writing a book about the F&P railroad sent me two pictures taken at the Franklin County Historical Society Museum:

The exhibit pictured above is from Dorothy Cundiff, who knows local history and has been head of the Retail Merchant's Association for many years. Like me, she lives a few miles from where the pottery was.

The info in the picture frame: 

"About 1873, Kit Carter built a store across the road from Clement Store (later home to Mr. & Mrs. J.W. Perdue). Carter made pottery here about 12 years. In 1882, Wade Johnson began making pottery in back of what is now Blair's store (once Blair & —er's). The clay came from Pittsville. His [potters? partners?] were Elly Johnson and a Mr. Siegal.

"Janey Smith provided these pictures of pottery owned by her grandmother, Fannie Macenheimer Smith, who lived on Novelty Road at Penhook near the Pottery manufactory."

From an article on pages 45-46 in Franklin County 1785-1979 Yesterday & Today,  published by the Retail Merchants Assn, I learned this about the pottery: About 1879, a narrow gauge railroad was established to run from Rocky Mount to Franklin Junction (now Gretna). Since the railroad came through Pen Hook, where a store had been since the 1850s or earlier, the little town underwent a boom and a pottery shop opened in the 1880s. No trace of the pottery shop exists today, but it was apparently on a hill between what became Blair's Grocery (the building still remains) and Hodges' Store (which no longer exists).  Mr. C.L. "Kit" Carter founded the pottery business, and "his pottery bcame a fashionable item as well as a useful one." Clay for the pots came from Pittsville in Pittsylvania County and was delivered by train. It's possible that some local clay might have been used, too. Among his helpers at the pottery were A. J. Ramsey and Mary Ann Muse.

From p. 116 (a story by Miss Starn Carter of Gretna, VA): "He [Kit Carter] was a highly successful merchant at Pen Hook, manufacturer, and real estate operator. He operated a pottery keel [kiln?] and made many of the vessels still found around the county such as urns, churns, jugs, and jars. These were hauled by wagons into neighboring states and wagonloads of merchandise brought back to the store. The old Carter store stood on the hill in the vicinity of the home now owned by Mrs. Emmitt Jefferson."

Christopher ("Kit") Lawson Carter
Photo provided by his grandson Tex Carter

Pictured below are the pottery pieces I have. I don't know if all of them came from the Pen Hook Pottery or not. Some jugs are glazed in what is called the tobacco spit glaze because—although it was made from wood ash and not tobacco—it looks like chewing tobacco spit.

None of the pottery has a potter's signature, but I've been told that potters didn't want to be identified with their jugs that might be used for whiskey. I don't know if that's true or not.

The piece with a 2 is one of the few that have marks. I assume 2 stands for two gallons.

A few pieces appear to be salt-glazed with plume decorations.

Here's a view looking down.

All the pieces appear to be utilitarian. Nothing fancy here. Some are missing handles or show wear around their rims. Likely they were used for many years.

The paper towel roll will show the size of one of the larger jugs.

If anyone knows more about the pottery, I'd be glad to hear from you. Meanwhile, I'll keep researching.

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What Was Once

. . . The Wilson James Wright Farm Is No More

Less than a mile down the road from me, the rabid clear-cutting so popular lately in Franklin County has revealed what used to be the Wright Farm. The cemetery and what's left of the house and barn are now exposed—and their remains now expose a way of life that's gone.

 

In the picture above, the fenced cemetery is in the foreground.  To its right, in the background, is the barn's roof. To the right of the barn is what remains of a two-story farmhouse.

Only a few graves are in the little cemetery. This was the easiest to read:

 

I'm not sure what kin Ina J. Dudley was to the Wrights. A daughter, perhaps? The parents graves are side by side. The father's stone is leaning.

 On the stone inscribed "Father," most of the information has worn smooth.

The mother's stone is only slightly more readable.

Outside the iron fence is a small plot.

Little Nelson Wright was born sometime in 1922 and died in 1923.

It looks like someone has been removing lumber from the farmhouse, but its framework is still visible.  To the left of the farmhouse, a chimney stands. No doubt that marks the spot where the kitchen once was.

 

The house isn't very far from the barn, so it was convenient to tend the stock. Also, the closeness no doubt made it easy to keep an eye on things.

 

The barn, at least from a distance, still looks sturdy.

 

But the farm itself is no more. 

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UPDATE: Thanks to ancestry.com and the Franklin County Genealogy Facebook group, I now have more info. The Wrights buried in the cemetery are Wilson James Wright (1860-1940) and Ada Ammon Dudley Wright (1864-1921. They were married 16 October 1885: Here's their picture:

Ada's death certificate was signed by their neighbor, Dr. George O. Giles, who lived second house from where I live now.

 

Ina J. Dudley was their daughter, the wife of S. T. Dudley. She and her husband lived on Jamison Avenue in Roanoke.  Her death certificate:

 

Nelson Wright died when he was only seven months old of "cholera infantum." He was the son of Charles William and Ethel Lee Brooks Wright. Charles—known as Will—was the son of Wilson and Ada. Nelson's death certificate:

Wilson and Ada had eight children: Ina J (1887), Elmo S. (1889), Annie W. (1891), Claude Leonard (1893), Henry Joseph (1895),  Gladys B. (1898), Charles William (1899) and Early (1901). No wonder they had such a large house.

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The Wright Cemetery can be found online here: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2644492/memorial-search?page=1#sr-180592932