Cool Branch School Desk

Back in October  2017, I bought this little desk at an estate sale down the road. It came from the Cool Branch School which hasn't existed for decades.

The desk is so small, it must have been used by first or second graders. 

In the 2007 edition of Franklin County Virginia Yesterday and Today (that I also bought at the same sale), there's a picture of the school and some students from days gone by.

I wonder which child in the picture sat at the desk I bought. The boy on the far right? The little girl in the middle of the front row, maybe? Perhaps, at one time or another, they all did.

A former student of Cool Branch passed away in January. His obituary mentions that his education begn at Cool Branch. I wondeer if he used this desk. 

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Samuel Sutherland

Cabin on Sutherland planttion. A double pen log cabin covered in weatherboarding.

In 2016, I blogged about the Philemon Sutherland plantation in Union Hall. I thought Philemon’s story of fighting in the Revolutionary War and moving from Prince Edward County to Franklin County was pretty interesting. Recently Bill Sutherland, who lives in North Carolina and is researching Sutherland genealogy, saw that post and emailed me with a story about Philemon’s great-grandson, Samuel Sutherland. 

From a bit of searching on Ancestry.com, I learned Samuel (born November 15 1845) was the oldest son of William Milton Sutherland (1821-1899) and Angeline Semones (1820-1900). William was the son of Philemon Sutherland Jr. (1789-1824) and Mary “Polly” Berger (1787-1873).

A neighbor near the Sutherland place once told my husband and me that a Civil War soldier named William Sutherland had lived in the old house. 

A old kitchen once stood to right of center of this picture.

According to Find-a-Grave, Pvt. William Milton Sutherland “served in Company C, 57th Virginia Infantry, Confederate States of America Army. From 57th Virginia Infantry by Charles W Sublett, page 85, published by H E Howard Inc, Lynchburg VA, 1985: SOUTHERLAND, WILLIAM M.: Enlist 21 Oct 1864 at Camp Lee in Company C. Captured 1 Apr 1865 at Five Forks. Transported to Point Lookout MD 5 Apr 1865. Took oath and released 10 June 1865. 5 ft. 7 1/2 in. tall, dark complexion, gray hair, gray eyes. Residence in Franklin County VA.”

So, William was captured just before the Civil War ended and was a POW for a while. But his oldest son Samuel also fought in the Civil War, and therein lies a story. 

According to Bill Sutherland, “Legend has it that he [Samuel] was wounded so badly during his last battle that he was left for dead on the battlefield. The next day while gathering the dead, someone poked Samuel to check for signs of life and to everyone’s amazement he was found to be alive with half of his face and one eye missing. Without proper medical care, someone stuffed a bandanna into his eye socket to keep everything from falling out, and he eventually recovered. I am not aware that he ever married or had children and as far as I know lived out his remaining years in that home.”

From checking the census records, I could verify that he’d never married—and each census record except the last verifies that he lived alone as an adult. 

In the 1850 census, he was a five-year-old in his father’s home. Several other Sutherlands and Semones lived nearby, including William's brother Ransome who lives the household of a Mary Sutherland who is 11 years older. Could Mary be a sister?

In the 1860 census for the North Eastern division, Samuel is listed as a 14-year-old. His father’s real estate is worth $1500. The names of people around them are different, so William's family might be living in another area. Possibly William built the large cabin to house his growing family. Two properties adjacent are unoccupied.

In 1870, William and Angeline’s family has increased, and 23-year-old Samuel is still living at home where he works as a “farm laborer.” On the same page is William’s brother Ransome and his family.

In 1880, Samuel is not on the same census page as his father, and he is listed as single and living alone. 

The 1900 census is not available, but his father, William Sutherland Sr., died in 1899. He is buried in Northfield Cemetery in Union Hall. Did William's son William M Jr. take over the old house? 

In 1910, Samuel is still single and lives alone. He owns a farm that is not mortgaged. He lives near the farm of my great-uncle and aunt, John H(enry) and Bertha Smith,. (I know that John and Bertha Smith lived for many years near what is now Dillard’s Hill Road area, not far from where Appalachian Power Company built Penn Hall. I believe that Sutherland land extended up that far north.)

Samuel’s brother William M. Sutherland Jr. is farther down the page of the 1910 census and William’s farm (which he owns free of mortgage) is near the farm of my great-grandfather, Henry Silas Smith. It seems likely that William Jr. is the one living in the double-pen weather-boarded house on the part of the Sutherland farm that I own. Perhaps his wife Annie wanted to gussy the old cabin up by having it weather-boarded and painted white.

In 1917, Samuel applies for a rerating of his original disability pension. It’s hard to read, but it seems Samuel at age 66 is no longer able to work as a farmer and has “done no work for 10 months” because of a problem with “optic nerves and internal injury due to fall.” Doctor Giles, whose house is a quarter mile from where I live, signed the application.

Samuel had applied for a pension years earlier. According to Bill, “Samuel applied for and was awarded partial veteran disability benefits around 1902 and full disability around 1912. The files are in the Virginia State Library archives and available for viewing online in their digital collection. I had a hard time reading most of the handwritten content and only some of it could be legible. One application entry that I thought was interesting was that Samuel described his service history as ‘enlisted in 1861 and serving until Jacksons death’ then ‘being paroled after the surrender at Appomattox,’ so at some point along the way he was captured and imprisoned.”

In the 1920 census, Samuel “Sutherlin” is still living alone. William Jr. is still on the same page as my Smith relatives.

But in the 1930 census, something changed. Samuel (age 84), listed as “uncle,” is residing at 304 Maple Avenue in the Rocky Mount District 0013 household of George W. Sutherland. Also at the residence is a Henry Turnbull, listed as “servant.” Was Henry perhaps a caregiver for the elderly Samuel?

In 1931, Samuel dies of myocarditis, chronic nephritis, bronchitis, and influenza while in Richmond. 

Why is he in Richmond? Perhaps he’d applied for admission to the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers Home there. But did he get to spend any time there? At any rate, his body was sent back to Franklin County for burial in Northfield Cemetery where his brother and other members of his family are also buried.

Rest in peace, Samuel.

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Dangerous Roanoke

My hometown, Roanoke, has been ranked by Movoto as the most dangerous city in Virginia (or the 37th safest) if you want to put a positive spin on it. Recently, I read a couple of books about Roanoke that don't exactly contradict Roanoke's reputation, but they do add some interesting insight into Roanoke's past. Both were published in 2013 by History Press, and both are illustrated by photos and drawings.

Haunted Roanoke, by the late L.B. Taylor, contains ghost stories about Roanoke. I've been a fan of Taylor's for years and heard him speak at the Franklin County Historical Society in 2008. 

Haunted Roanoke contains 28 stories. Some aren't actually in Roanoke, though they're close. For instance, "The Man Who Was Buried Standing Up," is about Col. George Hancock's unusual burial arrangement at Fotheringay Plantation in Montgomery County. Another story is about the late John Reiley's ghost-busting adventures in Roanoke and surrounding counties. 

I'd heard version of a few of the stories before—for instance, the ghosts who inhabit the Hotel Patrick Henry and the woman in black who used to walk men home late at night in 1902, but some stories were new to me. 

Hidden History of Roanoke: Star City Stories, by Nelson Harris, is a collection of 15 little known happenings in Roanoke, and it has a few stories that show Roanoke's dark side. The 1949 story of the murder of Dana Marie Weaver at Christ Episcopal Church is one. You can read part of the "Murder at Christ Church" chapter here and you can preview the book here.

One of the events, albeit not a scary one, in Hidden History takes place on a street in Roanoke County where I lived for 26 years. Apparently I missed the excitement by nearly a decade. Bill Cobb, a guy with North Carolina political aspirations, lived a double life in both Morganton, NC, and Roanoke. When a July 1962 issue of Time Magazine spotlighted him for being one of the new breeds of southern Republicans and published his picture, folks in Roanoke noticed. It was interesting to read about happenings on a street where I'd lived. And the other events were interesting, too.

I enjoyed both books and highly recommend them. If you're from Roanoke or currently live in Roanoke or plan to visit Roanoke, you should read Haunted Roanoke and Hidden History of Roanoke. They'll show you a side of the city that you don't often hear about. And some of it is a bit scary.

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Phoebe Needles Book-signing

I've done three book-signings for Stuck this week, starting with a visit to Phoebe Needles Tuesday morning with fellow authors Sally Roseveare and Dan Smith, then a Tuesday night visit to the Piedmont Writers in Martinsville, and a signing this afternoon at Barnes & Noble at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke.

Phoebe Needles, which once was an Episcopal school, is located in the hills west of Ferrum. The view on the drive up Turner's Creek Road was stunning, including this farm (which, by the way, is for sale). Obviously, we were headed for a rural part of Franklin County.

Here's another view:

A mile or two past that farm was Phoebe Needles. Here's the main building that used to be the school . . .

. . . and three views from the porch of the building where we were:

The presentation at Phoebe Needles was part of the Center for Lifelong Learning. Our program was supposed to be "Four Authors: Four Viewpoints," but only three of us could make it.  Sally and I had been there before, but it was Dan's first time. What we three did was a combination reading/discussion/signing.

I read from Ferradiddledumday and Stuck; Dan read from  Saving Homer and Burning the Furniture, and Sally read from her two Smith Mountain Lake murder mysteries, Secrets at Spawning Run and Secrets at Sweet Water Cove. We also told a bit about how we write. Then the audience asked us some really good questions. Finally, we signed books.

We had a wonderful lunch—pork tenderloin and a salad with raspberry dressing—and then Sally and I looked around a bit. Tombstones and a plaque mark where the donators of the land are buried.

Here's a close-up of the plaque:

I asked John Heck, our tour guide and the head honcho at Phoebe Needles, about the two appendages to the main building. The tops weren't flat enough for them to be porches. He explained that they were old bathrooms (one side for women and one for men) that originally drained into the fields. Obviously, they are no longer used. He opened them so we could look inside.

Sally went down for a closer look.

John took us inside the main building where there's a portrait of Phoebe Needles, who died young. 

On the walls hang other pictures depicting the place in earlier days.

Obviously we had a good time at this reading/discussion/signing/luncheon/tour.

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