University of Virginia Library

May 6, 1874

Random Row, North Side.—At the foot of Random
Row now West Main street, when we first recollect
it, stood two small wooden buildings, the property of
Joseph Bishop's heirs. It was on this lot that Gen. Parsons,
of the Confederate army was born. Between the
years 1830 and 1834, the present brick store and dwellings,[139]
with the exception of the one east, which was
added to the others since Wm. Cox purchased the property,
were erected by John D. Craven and Henry B.

Fry, who, also owned and carried on the tannery[140]
in the
rear, where for many years the late James Bishop conducted
the same business. The first store room, now occupied
by A. D. Cox, grocer, was for several years occupied
by Thos. Draffin, who did a large trading business
in country produce brought from west of the Blue
Ridge by mountain wagons, six horse teams; the animals
were often decorated with ribbons, and having bells
around their necks or under the bellies. We often saw
the premises around the store crowded with these mountain
wagons. This thriving trade after a few years
came to an end, by the failure of Draffin & Co. The
next store, now occupied by Samuel Comer, for groceries,
and dry goods, was from October 1835 to September
1844, the place where the Jeffersonian was published,
established October 1835, by the present Local,
and his family residence was over the office. In 1844 he
built the house on the corner of Union [4th] and Main
streets, where the Jeffersonian office continued till sold
to its present proprietors in April, 1873, when it was removed
to its present location on Union street, opposite
the Post Office. The next house west to the property of
William Cox, is a brick dwelling, occupied by J. A.
Frazier,[141] tailor, and the next brick structure is occupied
by Wingfield & Utz,[142] carriage makers; in the lower
story are the finished vehicles, and the upper story is
used for their manufacture. This building was erected
by John L'Tellier. Stephen R. Sullivan and John
L'Tellier, carriage makers, carried on business on this
lot for many years, but their workshops were on the
west side of the lot, in range with the present blacksmith
shop of Wingfield & Utz. The two-story brick dwelling
house[143] with portico in the centre, is said to be the first
brick building erected in the town, and was built by William
Dunkum for Joseph Bishop, who owned all the
land adjacent, as his farm. As Mr. Dunkum is said to
have built the Wayt house, and the one occupied by
Lewellen Wood on the Public Square, perhaps these
houses were put up about the same time, either at the
end of the last or early in this century. John L'Tellier,
after the dissolution of the firm of Sullivan & L'Tellier,
carried on business by himself for several years. He had
three sons in the Confederate army, William, a lieutenant
in the 19th Va. Reg't, was killed at Gettysburg;
Joseph, of the 49th Va. Reg't, was mortally wounded
near Petersburg, at the close of the war, and died in that
city after the surrender; Capt. John H. was also very
severely wounded, but recovered; he was before the war,
and is now, a very successful teacher of languages and
mathematics, and resides in Texas. On the Cox lot adjoining,
three persons, who were born there, a general, a
captain, and a lieutenant, also lost their lives in the Confederate
army. The next brick store and house, and the
adjoining one, as well as the one on the opposite side of
the street, were erected by George Toole,[144] who carried
on the business of tailoring on the Public Square many
years, and afterwards, in connection with his nephew,
Jeremiah Toole, now of Petersburg, did a grocery business
in the house J. B. Andrews, grocer, now occupies.
Mr. Toole in the later years did business in his dwelling,
on the south side of the street. Jerry Toole was a
printer, and acquired the business in the old Advocate
office in this town; he was a great reader and well versed
in European history, and especially of Ireland, his native
land. We have often listened by the hour to hear
him talk about the Irish patriots, Thomas Addis Emmett
and Daniel O'Connell. Another nephew of
George Toole, brought up & educated by him, who was
a very intelligent man, became an artist of considerable
merit; some of his portraits are excellent likenesses and
finished with a master hand. He was a distinguished
Mason, and after his death a handsome marble obelisk
was erected by our citizens over his remains, commemorating
his virtues. The house next to Andrews' store,
for many years was the residence of the family of
George Toole, and for many years the late Mrs. C. Y.
Benson resided there. The wooden tenement west, has
been occupied for, perhaps, thirty years, by a colored
woman, Susan Kennedy, who has sold ginger horse
cakes from that time to this. The brick building now occupied
and owned by F. D. Brockman,[145] was built by
John Neilson, an Irishman, who with Wm. Dinsmore,
were contractors in the erection of the University. Mr.
Neilson resided till his death in this house. It was, when
we first knew it, occupied by Fleming Boyd, of the
firm of Fleming & John Boyd, who did business in the
store on the corner of Court and Market streets,[146] recently
remodelled by John McKennie. Fleming Boyd
afterwards occupied the "Midway" at the head of Random
Row for a public hotel; his wife died there; she is
interred in the old cemetery, and an iron railing surrounds
the tomb, and marble tablet. Mr. Boyd soon
after removed to the West. The next house was built
by Clement P. M'Kennie for his residence; he was at
first editor and proprietor of the Central Gazette [18201827]
the predecessor of the Virginia Advocate, edited
by the late Geo. [omission] Th. W. Gilmer, Prof. J. A.
G. Davis, Nicholas P. Twist [Trist] and Dr. Frank
Carr. Mr. M'Kennie afterwards opened a bookstore
near the University, east of the present University
Bookstore, now owned by his son, Dr. Marcellus
M'Kennie. The residence of Mr. M'Kennie was the
one now occupied by Dr. M'Kennie. The widow of C.
P. M'Kennie is still living, who has always been fond of
rearing and cultivating beautiful flowers, shrubs and
exotic plants, and having fine gardens; she is a noble
hearted, kind, charitable and hospitable Virginia lady.
Long may she live and enjoy health and the association
of her descendants and friends. The M'Kennie house[147]
on Random Row is now the property of J. M. Ferguson,
the baker, who erected an addition on the east end
of it, which Mr. M. Goldsmith occupied for the sale of
dry goods. The wood tenement at the west end of the
house is the grocery and dry goods store of G. W. Clark.

The next house, brick, was built by William Garner,
and since 1845 has been occupied by George Moose, for
the sale of groceries and liquors. The adjoining building,
now occupied by George Booth & Bro., boot and
shoe makers, was built by Allen Hawkins for Dr. Rice
G. Bailey, who kept the Farmers' Hotel[148] there for several

years; he sold to Peter Harman, the butcher, who
also kept a hotel in it, and had a livery stable. F. M.
Paoli during the war kept this as a public house. It is
now owned by F. Hartnagle, as well as the next brick
house, which house was erected ere 1828, and was occupied
as a residence by Albert Chewning, and not as
we stated last week, the one Booth & Co. occupy. It
was built, we learn, for Mrs. Burnley. The next stores,
were, we believe, built since the war by Wesley Cox &
Bro., one is occupied by N. B. Lillienfeld for the sale of
groceries, &c. The bar room adjoining is the place of
business of John Houchens. An alley way, about eight
feet wide, leading to Commerce street, north, occurs
here.

Here properly ends Random Row, called by many
"Vinegar Hill." The first name was probably obtained
from the random way the houses were put up, without
reference to the old town lines; at the head of the hill
the street is much narrower than at its foot. Mr. J.
Frank Fry tells us that the name "Vinegar Hill" was
given to it on account of the illicit trade carried on in the
sale of distilled liquors[149] by persons doing business as
grocers; they labelled the casks containing spirits,
"Vinegar." We have often heard this street called purgatory,
as it was a very bad road to travel, rough, rocky
and steep; accidents to carriages and vehicles often occurring.
Since the street became a part of the town, the
authorities have graded and macadamised it, and now it
is in as good condition as the rest of our streets.

The small wooden tenement west of the alley is occupied
for a grocery by A. Weil, and here begins University

street; between this and R. F. Harris' warehouse,
for agricultural implements, are nine or ten
houses, the most of them have been put up since 1828.
The stuccoed building was, we are informed, put up in
part, by a Mr. Huntington, a merchant who came from
Connecticut, and who kept a dry goods store where R.
L. Meade & Co. now have a cigar and tobacco store, on
the corner of Church and Main streets. This stuccoed
house, William Garland once kept as a grocery and
liquor store. He is said to have opened the street at the
eastern end of the house to the county road, north of the
present gas house. Mr. Garland removed to Mississippi,
and all his family, except Dr. William P. Garland, of
Jackson, Mississippi, are dead. Lewis Sowell, carriage
maker, in later years owned this house, and resided here
till his death, a year ago. One of his sons, Benajah, and
Wm. J. Duke, teacher in the public schools in this town,
reside here at this time. The handsome brick residence
owned and occupied by John C. Wood,[150] with the beautiful
flower garden around it, was, we learn, built by a
Presbyterian clergyman, when the University was being
erected, by the name of Paxton, who married a daughter
of Major Garland Carr. This gentleman, in after
years, travelled in the East, and published a work on
Palestine. On his return he settled and became pastor
of a Presbyterian church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and
afterwards resided in the State of Indiana.

In our next article we shall have to commence at
"Mudwall" and return to the foot of Random Row.