University of Virginia Library

COCKE.

James Powell Cocke, of Henrico, went to Augusta County
in 1783, and bought from Rev. James Waddell, the blind
preacher, Spring Hill, the old Patton place, that lay at the
west foot of the Blue Ridge. In 1787 he came over to Albemarle,
and purchased from Robert Nelson, son of President
William Nelson, sixteen hundred acres, situated where the
south fork of Hardware breaks through the mountain, one of
the tracts patented in the name of Mildred Meriwether. He
fixed his residence on the east side of Fan's Mountain, and
the west edge of the Eppes Creek valley, on the place recently
owned by J. Henry Yates. He first built the mill which has
ever since continued in that vicinity, and which for many
years went by his name. His death occurred in 1829. He
was twice married, first to Elizabeth Archer, and secondly to
Lucy Smith, and his children were James Powell, who married
Martha Ann Lewis, but died without children in 1811,
Smith, who died unmarried in 1835, Chastain, who also died
unmarried in 1838, Mary, the wife of Dr. Charles Carter, and
Martha, the second wife of V. W. Southall.

Charles Cocke, a nephew of the elder James P., came from
Southampton County in 1815, and bought from Rezin Porter
the farm about two miles west of Porter's Precinct, on which

he lived during his life, and which is now in the possession
of the Lane brothers. He was a physician, though it is believed
he never practised in this county. He was an active
politician, and from 1822 to 1843 was at times a member of
the House of Delegates, and afterwards of the State Senate.
He was appointed a magistrate in 1819, and was serving as
Sheriff at the time the Constitution of 1850 became operative,
and the office of Justice of the Peace was made elective. It
is said he sued the county for the salary which would have
accrued, had his term reached its usual end; but it is hardly
supposable the sovereign power of a popular convention could
not cut short any office. After some change in his politics,
he was defeated as a candidate, and at a Fourth of July dinner
occurring shortly after, the circumstance gave rise to the
following toast: "Dr. Charles Cocke, of Albemarle, a dead
cock in the pit, killed in wheeling." His wife was Sarah
Taylor, and he had one daughter, Charlotte, who became the
wife of William Gordon, of Nelson.

The distinguished and eccentric General John H. Cocke,
of Fluvanna, though never a citizen of this county, was yet
much interested in its affairs through his connection with
the University. He was prominent among those who labored
for its establishment, and was one of its first Board of Visitors.
He was an earnest promoter of the cause of Temperance,
and in his efforts to this end, especially to guard the
students from temptations to inebriety, he purchased nearly
fifty acres of land on the south side of the University Street,
extending from the corner near the Dry Bridge to the Junction
Depot, and built a large hotel in which no liquor was to be
allowed, and which he named the Delavan, from his eminent
friend and coadjutor in the cause, of Albany, N. Y. The
hotel had a wall in front, flanked with heavy pillars, and
covered with stucco stained with the tawny hue of the Albemarle
clay; and from this peculiarity it acquired the popular
soubriquet of Mudwall. The hotel has long since gone, but
its site is occupied by the Delavan Colored Church; and to
this day there is a struggle for the pre-eminency between the
names of Delavan and Mudwall. The public-spirited scheme

of the good General was premature; like many other well-laid
plans of mice and men, it went agley.

Another person of the same name, prominent in the Greenwood
neighborhood, was John S. Cocke. He was settled in
that section as early as 1824. In 1827 he bought from Elijah
May the tavern which had been well known from the beginning
of the century under the conduct of Colonel Charles
Yancey and May, but which under Cocke's management
became still more widely celebrated for its admirable fare
among the throngs journeying to the Virginia Springs. As
in the case of many noted hostelries in the county, the advent
of the railroads destroyed his business. He was a magistrate
under the old system, and was active in public affairs.
Pecuniary troubles overtook him in his old age, and his last
days were spent in Charlottesville, where he died in 1879.