The Muse October 1999

Letter from the President

This is our first newsletter since the resignation of the Museum Director, Mr. Mike Morrell, on August 6, 1999, and it's my chance to acquaint you, our members, with changes at the museum.

First, volunteers - LOTS of volnuteers! Including our twelve board members, we have 33 volunteers. While we've reduced the hours, we are open 12-4:30 Tuesday through Friday, and we are open all day, 9:00-4:30 on Saturday. We are able to do this with a rotating two-week roster of volunteer workers who are staffing the museum. There are usually two volunteers per day and four on Saturday; that's 16 volunteers working regularly to keep the museum open.

In addition, we have volunteers working in the gift shop, the genealogy library room, and in the accessions areas. New displays are going up, again with volunteer help. Do come and see the display of Blue Ridge Pottery that Ann Whitley has put in the hall cases. Grants are being written with volunteer help. A federal grant for a much needed new computer and printer has been submitted, and others are being researched.

So -- we are here and moving forward, and want you to VISIT and PARTICIPATE in YOUR MUSEUM!
Leona Wilkins

House Tour - November 20

Dr. and Mrs. Duncan Augustine, members of the Amherst County Museum & Historical Society, have graciously agreed to open their home for a tour on Saturday, November 20^th. Their three-story mansion in located in the Town of Amherst on the corner of Garland Avenue and Main Street.

Begun in 1790, with additions circa 1820 and 1972, it was a school known as the Higginbotham Academy, and later a private residence for several prominent families; it is often referred to as "The Old HarrisonPlace." Judge Taylor Berry and his wife Martha, who lived in the house during the Civil War, named it "Edgewood." The original brick house has ten rooms, with an elliptical staircase, nine fireplaces and carved woodwork. The drawing room murals, done by an itinerant painter, show vivid scenes of a tiger hunt, elephants, and exotic people.

This tour will be for members only -- at no cost. Put it on your calendar NOW! Encourage others to join our organization so they can enjoy this event with you. Memberships will be available at the door. Bring your friends!

MuseBulletin

The Open Hosue on September 26^th was a rousing success! Thanks to all who participated and worked so hard to make it a wonderful occasion!

Driveway Paving

Museum Members Active at Fall Festivals

Museum volunteers were at the Ruritan Club's Sorghum Festival in Clifford on October 2-3 and will be at the Garlic Festival at Rebec Vineyards on October 9-10. Gift shop items, doll house tickets, and the new gravestone inscription book are selling well.

Future Exhibits

If you, your organization or your neighborhood would like to present a temporary exhibit using a room or rooms in the museum building, please outline your proposal in a letter to the museum executive board. Your ideas will be reviewed at the monthly board meeting following your request. Let us konw about your hobbies, collections, or places of interest in your area of Amherst County. Historical exhibits will be given first priority, but the museum is open to your ideas.

A Salute to the Village Garden Club

Everyone who visits the museum enjoys the flower beds that change with the seasons through the efforts of the Village Garden Club. Their time and talent are gifts from the heart which turn from outdoors to indoors for the museum's holiday decorations.

Doll House Tickets are Ready

The printer is finished. The tickets are ready, and you might be the winner of the doll house and furniture on display at the museum. The doll house was built by Jack Sutler and furnished by Mary Frances and Bill Olinger. Tickets are $1.00 each or six tickets for $5.00. All proceeds benefit the museum, so stop by to see the doll house. Tickets may be ordered by mail or be telephone (946-9068).

Amherst Woman's Club to Provide Tree

AWC plans to decorate a tree to add to the Village Garden Club's holiday decorations at the museum in December. The Amherst Woman's Club selected the museum at its Community Improvement Project for 1998/99.

Genealogical and Historical Queries

Seeking information on the "Rucker-Dearing Feud" which resulted in the death of WIlliam Dearing on 12/30/62.
Christopher Rucker
8511 Valley Falls Road
Spartanburg, SC 29316

Wish to know the parents of Mary Pauline (Polly) Attaway Bolling who married William Ludlow Gilbert, son of Henry Gilbert and Judith Crenshaw in 1811. William Ludlow Gilbert was from Amherst County.
Margaret Patterson
145 Hermitage Road
Newport News, VA 23606

To submit your query, please use a 3x5 index card (one query per card). Please be clear and concise. Your query may be edited to shorten it. Include name and address so that readers may contact you directly. No electronic submission will be accepted for this service. One free query is permitted from Amherst County Museum and Historical Society members. Additional queries appearing in the same issue are $1 per member. Queries from non-members are $2 each.

New at the Museum

In addition to the exhibit of children's clothing which includes garments worn by Daisy Williams, daughter of the founder of Sweet Briar College, the museum is currently featuring a display of equipment from the Amherst Fire Department and Amherst Rescue Squad, and an exhibit of colorful Blue Ridge China. Blue Ridge China, a regional art form hand-painted by women from the mountain areas of Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia from 1920 until 1957, ceased to be made after the market was flooded with less expensive foreign products during the 1950s.

Membership Notes

If you know anyone who is a dues paid member of the Amherst County Museum & Historical Society and not receiving the museum newsletter, please ask that person to contact the museum. If you address changes, please inform the museum, also. Thank you!

Summerhill

The following is an excerpt from THE HISTORY OF SUMMERHILL: 1902, by Charles L. Hamble, the present owner of SUMMERHILL. It is continued from the last issue of The Muse.

Chapter Two: Sterling

Our saga now has new blood, Sterling Claiborne and his cousins, Thomas and William.

The three Claiborne names began to appear in deeds in Amherst County in the early 1800s. The Claibornes were not brothers but, most likely, cousins. Colonel Augustine Claiborne of Sussex County, Sterling's grandfather, had sired fifteen children.

I could not find any information on Thomas A. Claiborne. There was a William R. Claiborne who married Mary B. and raised an orphan Cornelia Roane, and probably their own children as well. I could not discover percisely where Thomas and William resided, either, except that they lived in Amherst County. William R. Claiborne is interred in St. Mark's Episcopal Church graveyard.

Sterling Claiborne was easier to know. He was born to Major Buller and Patsy Ruffin Claiborne in 1784 in Dinwiddie County. Sterling moved westward at around the age of sixteen to seek his fortune. The fortune he found was Jane Marie Rose.

Sterling arrived in the Piedmont in 1801. His father apprenticed him to a merchant in Lynchburg.

Sterling and Buller Claiborne, Dinwiddie County, contracts to Samuel Irvine. Sterling Claiborne, with approval of his father, Buller Claiborne, binds himself to Samuel Irvine until age 20 to learn the art and mastery of mercantilizing. Terms are pay of 20 pounds for first year, 30 pounds for second year, 40 pounds for third year, and 50 pounds for fourth and last year.

We find our next trace of Sterling in Amherst County in late 1803. On 1 January 1804, Sterling Claiborne of Lynchburg received a deed of trust from Thomas Mitchell, Amherst County, for $1.00 and a woman slave and a girl slave. Again, on 1 January 1805, Sterling Claiborne of Campbell County negotiated another deed of trust from Daniel Burford, Jr. of Amherst County for $1.00 and 500 acres.

On 13 July 1805, John Lynch and wife, Mary, sold to Sterling Claiborne for 100 pounds a one-half acre lot in Lynchburg on Fourth Street opposite lot number 88 of Thomas W. Cocke. Furthermore, on 26 July 1806, Sterling, now listed as living in Amherst County, received a deed of trust from Samuel Hill for $1.00 and slaves to secure a debt of Hill's to William Cabell, Patrick Rose, and Norvell Spencer. Thus, Sterling was a resident of Amherst County and he had made contact with the Rose family.

Meanwhile, Sterling was learning the art and mystery of mercantilizing. By a decree of the Lynchburg Corporation Court of Chancery, he was forced to sell his lot on Fourth Street to his mentor, Samuel Irvine, for 64 pounds. A witness to the transaction was William R. Claiborne. Perhaps it was as a result of this experience that Sterling then took up lawyering rather than mercantilizing.

Sterling Claiborne married Jame Marie Rose, daughter to Charles Rose on 5 May 1808. On 16 October 1808, Sarah Rose, executor of Charles Rose, sold to Sterling Claiborne more than 20 slaves for 100 pounds. By 1809, Sterling had acquired the GEDDES house for Gustavus Rose. One may assume that Sterling's marriage to Jane Rose eased his way to GEDDES. Sterling and Jane Claiborne had three childre, all born at GEDDES: William Sterling, born 1809; Charles Buller, born 1811; and Martha Ann Ruffin, born 1813.

Sterling Claiborne hung out his shingle and became an attorney, a very good one. A contemporary lawyer claimed Sterling Claiborne made more money than any other country lawyer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Sterling used his earnings well and initiated a plan to acquire much of the land of the home plantations of the Rose family. Between 1810 and 1812, deed records show his purchases of additional property near GEDDES. With most of the original 1800 acres of the GEDDES tract in his control, Sterling then consolodated his acquisitions.

12 February 1812. Sterling Claiborne to sons William Sterling and Charles Buller Claibirne, love and $1.00 - 1200 acres, GEDDES tract bought be me of Gustavus Rose, Thomas Aldridge, Anderson Moss, Norvell Spencer, John Marr, and Charles R. Rose. Lines: road leading from BELLEVITTE from the ford at present used on Piney; as road meanders around foot of GEDDES mountain; Norvell Spencer's blacksmith shop on main road where the same crosses Naked Creek; road to New Glasgow; tract allotted Emily Rose on division of Hugh Rose's estate; James Franklin; Thomas Landrum; Patrick Rose; William Mosss' estate; to Piney River.

Sterling and Jane settled into the GEDDES house and raised their children and managed their property while Sterling persued the law, negotiating deeds, writing wills, and representing the local humanity in its frail dealings with one another. This period of tranquility lasted until the fall of 1821, when Sterling purchased the BELLEVITTE tract of 1800 acres from the Rose grandsons. Then he moved on to acquire the Moss plantation, SUMMERHILL.

2 January 1822. Willis Franklin and wife Polly (Moss) to Sterling Claiborne, $2610 for 260 acres -- mansion and residence of William Moss, dec'd -- lot of grantors in 260 acres.

Sterling Claiborne, as with many of his contemporaries, was not immune to financial difficulties. Within a few months of buying SUMMERHILL, he used SUMMERHILL as collateral to cover a debt to William L Bell & Company. Then, in a surprise move, he sold SUMMERHILL to Sarah Ann and Midlred Rose, spinsters sisters of his wife, Jane. This sale may have been made to secure a loan to Sterling, also, since later deeds and surveys show him in possission on SUMMERHILL.

All in all, Sterling and Jane Claiborne retained for their lifetimes most of the property they had acquired, including the mansion houses at BELLEVITTE, GEDDES, and SUMMERHILL. By 1830, they had moved into BELLEVITTE and relinquished GEDDES and SUMMERHILL to their two sons.

The story of SUMMERHILL will be continued in a later edition of The Muse.