Early Charlottesville recollections of James Alexander, 1828-1874. Reprinted from the Jeffersonian republican |
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February 11, 1874 |
 | Early Charlottesville |  |
February 11, 1874
Market Street.—The house[69]
on the corner of Market
and First [East 7th] streets, now the residence of
A. R. Blakey, Esq., was, in 1828, occupied by the Rev.
Frederick W. Hatch, rector of Christ church[70]
in this
Charlottesville, officiating two Sundays in the month in
each of these churches. He was a good classical scholar,
and taught quite a large number of the youth of that
day. Although not popular with the masses, he was a
sterling Christian man, generous, benevolent and plain
spoken, and he had in him a vein of dry humor. On one
occasion a stranger preached in the Courthouse on a
week day evening, who was, we think, an Englishman.
In his discourse he had much to say respecting clergymen,
and used some severe criticisms respecting their
lives and luxurious living, rolling about in costly fourwheeled
chariots and coaches. "If," said he, "the vail
[sic] that covers the bottomless pit could be lifted, the
audience would see these robed clergy, in company with
the devil and his angels, enveloped in the flames of hell."
A person who was present repeated these remarks to
Mr. H., who in the dryest humor said the preacher could
not possibly have meant to describe him, as he had never
owned any other carriage than a wheelbarrow, and he also
remarked that he had told his brother, the Presbyterian
minister, Rev. F. Bowman, that possibly he might
be meant, as he owned and rode about in a one-horse
two-wheeled buggy.
It is reported that a man having a basket with chickens
on his arm stopped in front of the residence of Mr.
H., and hailed him thus: "Can you marry me?" "Yes
sir," said the parson. "Will you take chickens for the
marriage fee?" "Certainly," was the answer. The
hailed a woman who was standing a short distance off,
"Come on, Sukey, he says he'll take chickens for his
pay." The marriage ceremony was performed, the bride
and groom standing in the yard, and the parson on the
door steps.
Another story about this clergyman is, that he rode
some distance from town to perform the marriage ceremony,
and the groom said, after it was over, "Look-ahere,
Parson, I've got no money; won't you take gourds
for pay?" The gourds were tied together and thrown
across the horse of the minister, and he rode to town with
them dangling on either side of his saddle, to the no
small amusement of the people along the route. Rev.
Mr. Hatch had good vegetable gardens in which he was
fond of working in the early morn and at evenings, and
here he might be seen using his carriage, the wheelbarrow.
The first fig tree we ever saw which bore fruit
was reared by Mr. H. The ministrations of Mr. Hatch
continued for about five years, when he removed to the
State of New York, where he died several years since.
On the opposite side of the street was a small brick
house in which Mrs. Davenport, sister to Alexander and
Ira Garrett, Esqs., resided. This house was afterwards
enlarged, and is now the Piedmont Female Institute.[72]
here and built a two-story wooden tenement for his mercantile
business. This building was in later years used
for a female academy by Rev. S. H. Mirick, a Baptist
clergyman, now in Washington city; and when he enlarged
the brick house to its present dimensions, the
wooden building was removed down the turnpike road,
and is at this time the residence of Mr. C. L. Thompson.
Rev. Mr. Mirick had a large and flourishing school here
for several years when he was succeeded by Col. Richard
Wyatt, and he by Miss Annie Leaton, now Mrs. R. K.
Meade, who is the principal at this time of the Institute.
The Blue Ridge Turnpike Company,[73]
in 1828-29,
opened the road to the Meriwether bridge, a short distance
from the Secretary ford. The old stage road up
to that time was through Carlton,[74]
the farm of Col.
and came out a little below the residence of S. W.
Ficklin.
A former resident of the little brick house was Mr.
Jacob Wimer, a blacksmith, an industrious, hard-working
mechanic; he was the owner of no real estate, but by
his business acquired a sufficiency to rear and educate his
family, and lived in comfortable circumstances. He
was respected and trusted by his neighbors. He had a
son by the name of John, who had been reared by his
father to habits of industry and hard work in his shop.
John Wimer was bright, intelligent and of quick parts.
His education was of the kind usually to be acquired in
the private schools of that day in this vicinity. In the
year 1829-30, Mr. Jacob Wimer and family emigrated
to the West, to better their condition, and made St.
Louis, Mo., their home. There the old business was
their labors. The son improved his mind by study, and
conducted himself in a way to secure the respect and
confidence of his neighbors and the citizens of St. Louis;
he became popular, was elected Mayor of that city, in
which capacity he served several years, was judge of one
of the courts and President of the Pacific railroad. In
the late war he was Colonel of a regiment in the Confederate
Army and was killed at Hartsville, Ky.
The next lot is the Old Stage Yard[75]
of the late J. N.
C. Stockton, Esq. West of this, where Dr. John Thornley
resides in his beautiful house,[76]
once the Farmers'
Bank of Virginia, stood a two-story wooden building,
40 by 20 feet, which connected with a mansion in the
centre of the lot which, in the early days of the town, was
kept as a hotel. This property for 50 years belonged to
the family of Mr. Butler, a cabinetmaker, whose widow
L. Fowler,[77] and who, with his half-brothers, Alexander
and James Butler, sold it to the Farmers' Bank and to
the late John B. Dodd.
In the year 1781, the Legislature of Virginia held its
sessions in these buildings, when Tarleton with his cavalry
made their raid into the town to capture Mr.
Thomas Jefferson, the members of the Legislature and
the 6,000[78]
British and Hessian prisoners of Gen. Burgoyne's
army, who were encamped on the farm now belonging
to George Carr, Esq., six miles northwest from
Charlottesville. Tarleton failed in his expedition to
capture Mr. Jefferson and the Legislature,[79]
and the
the British colonel to make the attempt, with the force
he then had under him, to capture them. By the way,
the negroes at Monticello still deceive visitors by showing
them the marks on the floor of the hall in that building
which they say were made by the hoofs of the horse
Tarleton rode into the dwelling of Mr. Jefferson. Col.
Tarleton never was at Monticello; he stayed in town,
and his lieutenant-colonel, McCloud, had charge of the
squad sent up there, and he would not permit any of his
men to enter the house of Mr. Jefferson or destroy the
property.
The old Stone Tavern, or, as it was called, the Central
Hotel,[80]
built in 1806 by the late James Monroe, the 5th
President of the United States, occupied the lot opposite
the Fowler residence, and in 1858 was kept by
Mr. Joel W. Brown. At that time he boarded his
guests and furnished them with lodging rooms at eight
dollars per month. The late Mr. Thomas Grady was his
bar-keeper and chief manager. In after years the fourstory
brick building now known as the Monticello house
was built and attached to the Stone Tavern, which attracted
a large traveling custom till the advent of railroads,
female Seminary. During the late war the Monticello
House was used as a hospital for the sick and wounded
of the Confederate army. In 1852 [1862?] the stone
building was destroyed by fire, while occupied by the
sick soldiers, and since the war the stone materials were
used in the erection of the Charlottesville Milling and
Manufacturing Company's building.
The wooden house that for several years stood on the
lot on the corner of Market and Union streets was
brought up from Milton, when that place ceased to be a
business mart, and this was the house that the late Martin
Dawson, Esq., made his fortune in a large part of
which he bequeathed to the University of Va., and the
counties of Albemarle and Nelson, for educational purposes.
Last year the house was again taken down and
put up near town on the Scottsville Road, on land that
was part of the farm of Alexander Garrett, Esq.
Now the residence of Dr. W. D. Macon, 200 East 7th Street.
Diagonally across from this house stands a frame cottage, 213 East
7th Street. This is one of the transplanted Milton houses, of which
we have the following record: The lot, No. 9, was surveyed in
Anderson's Addition, April 2, 1819 (Albemarle County Surveyor's
Book 2, p. 149). In the same year Edmund Anderson purchased
the lot from John Waymann. Anderson sold the lot, May 13, 1829,
to Charles Everett (Deed Book 28, p. 312), and in 1848 Richard
Matthews bought from Everett the "house and lot" at this location
(Deed Book 48, p. 278). This shows that Everett put the house
there. Dr. Everett had lived on High Street and practised his
profession for a short while at the beginning of the century; he
then removed to his county estate, Belmont, adjoining Edgehill
near Milton. Persistent tradition has held that the house was
brought from Milton, and Mr. J. S. Fitch, who a few years ago
restored it, states that it had evidently undergone that experience,
being built of re-used material such as is distinctive of those houses.
It is now owned by Miss Therese Molyneaux.
This building was of brick in colonial style, with deeply recessed
porch, and pillars. Turning its back on High Street, it
faced into its own churchyard, brick-walled and ivied, and containing
a few graves. It was erected 1824-25, and was the first
denominational building in the village. The plan was furnished,
though not designed, by Mr. Jefferson, and the church owns the
prayer book used and autographed by him and containing the
whole of a hymn which he copied. Being outgrown by its congregation,
this church, which stood on the present site, was demolished
in 1895.
Now the Children's Home, 710 East Market Street. We do
not now know the name of the school conducted by Mr. Mirick.
Under Mrs. Meade, and later the Misses Meade, an Episcopal
school named the Piedmont Female Institute was conducted successfully
here for two generations. It closed in 1905. See Mrs.
Jennie Thornley Grayson, "Piedmont Institute Catalogue, 18571858,"
Papers of the Albemarle County Historical Society, Vol. II
(1941-42), pp. 9-[16].
The Blue Ridge and Rivanna Turnpike, built by a local corporation
of which Opie Norris was Secretary and Treasurer. It
ran from the Woolen Mills west, varying from the old Three
Notched (stage) Road in its course through town, but joining and
largely co-inciding with it to its destination at Brooksville, near
the foot of Afton Mountain. Tolls were taken. The east end of
this turnpike is the present East Market Street. Woods, Albemarle
County, p. 70.
On March 12, 1812, Richard Overton conveyed 800 acres
lying on a spur of Monticello and on both sides of Moore's Creek
(Deed Book 18, p. 27), to Charles L. Bankhead and wife. Overton
had bought the land a few years earlier, a part from Edward Carter,
the larger portion from Nicholas M. Lewis of The Farm. Its
eastern line joined Monticello "near a remarkable hole in the
ground." Young Bankhead was the son of Dr. John Bankhead of
Caroline County, Virginia, and in 1808 had married Anne Cary
Randolph, daughter of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph of Edgehill
and granddaughter of Jefferson. They built Carlton, the name
presumably being formed from that of the owner. Charles Bankhead
was not a successful manager, and in 1815 Dr. Bankhead was
appointed trustee and resided with his son.
In 1833 Carlton was purchased by Judge Alexander Rives of
the Castle Hill family. He was a prominent lawyer, serving in
both houses of the State Legislature, as member of Congress, and
as Judge of the United States Court for the Western District of
Virginia, following the War between the States. Under his care
this was a beautiful place. In 1874 (Deed Book 68, p. 486), he sold
to B. H. Brennan of Buffalo, New York, who for a short time conducted
a private bank in Charlottesville. Mr. Brennan at his own
expense made a $75,000 private macadam road from Market Street
to Carlton, one of the first examples of this method of road-building
in the county. This is now Carlton Ave. Later, Carlton was the
home of R. H. Rawlings. The house was burned, 1894-95; a second
house was built but is no longer standing, and the site has become a
cemetery, the Monticello Memorial Park.
This was one of the earliest building sites, Joel Terrell, who
died in 1773, having had his home here. The Mr. Butler mentioned
was an Irish political refugee.
Dr. John Thornley, Surgeon in the U. S. Navy, brought his
family to this home in 1867, where they resided until his death
in 1887. He was born in King George County, Virginia, commissioned
in 1841, and saw service, in the old sailing vessels, through
the Mexican War and in many seas. He was a vestryman of
Christ Church for nearly twenty years, and a warden at the time
of his death. He is remembered as having appeared before the
Town Council to protest the building of a livery stable in the heart
of the town, stating that long observation had led him to believe
the fly to be one of the greatest enemies of the human race. Being
well ahead of his day, his warning was disregarded and the
stable erected.
A story survives of Mr. C. L. Fowler's childhood which
should be of general interest. As a small boy it was his custom to
sit on a gate post at this home, and he would frequently speak to
Mr. Jefferson as he rode past. A friendship developed and it was
a common sight to meet the old statesman on his way around town,
with the child "riding behind." After some years he obtained for
his protege a berth on a ship of the navy, but as the boy was only
twelve years old, his mother refused her consent.
Woods, Albemarle County, p. 46, says: ". . . It is a
question of some interest where the Legislature held its sessions.
. . . No authentic tradition in regard to it has been handed
down. It has been claimed, that they convened in the tavern which
stood on the corner of Market and Fifth Streets, where the City
Hall now stands. The same claim has been made respecting the
old Swan Tavern. The house [no longer standing], which is
situated in the rear of the late Thomas Wood's, and which is said
to have been removed from the public square in front of the court
house as a cottage of the Eagle Tavern, has also been pointed out
as the building; but it is not likely that the Eagle Tavern was
built as early as the Revolutionary War. The strong possibility
is that the courthouse was the place of their meeting. It may have
been this circumstance that brought Tarleton's vengeance on its
contents; and for nearly fifty years subsequent to that date, it
afforded accommodation to almost all the public assemblies of the
town, both civil and ecclesiastical."
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