If James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart came back to his birthplace, Laurel Hill, along the banks of the Ararat River in Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia, there is only one thing he would recognize: the grave of his great-grandfather, William Letcher.
It is appropriate that we begin Patrick County’s 250th celebration of America on June 29 at 6 pm at Letcher’s grave, the oldest marked grave in Patrick County. In fact, Letcher was one of the first men from Patrick County to give his life during the American Revolution, when Patrick County was still Henry County. Letcher was shot in front of his wife, Elizabeth, and baby daughter, Bethenia, on August 2, 1780, by a Tory, a pro-British sympathizer. Corporal Letcher was a member of Daniel Carlin’s Henry County Militia and a strong supporter of the Patriot cause.
The parallels between Letcher and his great-grandson are many. Both died in what they thought were their wars of independence around the age of thirty. Stuart did not see his country as the United States. He saw Virginia as his homeland. His letters have multiple comments on this, such as “I believe the north will yield what the south demands and thereby avert disunion. I go with Virginia.” or “For my part I have had no hesitancy from the first that, right or wrong, alone or otherwise, I go with Virginia.”
It is easy to view a person from over 160 years ago through today’s opinions or lifestyle, but a real historian looks at a person in their own context, from their time forward, not through our viewpoint looking backward. You should walk a mile in a person’s shoes before judging them by modern standards. People in the past did not know how things would turn out. Letcher and Stuart did not know they would give their lives for their beliefs, but they dared to stand up for what they believed, whether we agree with them or not.
George Hairston came and took Mrs. Letcher and her daughter back to Henry County with him. He married Mrs. Letcher, and Elizabeth Perkins Letcher Hairston became the mother of a dozen children at Beaver Creek, which still stands in Martinsville, Virginia. She was the mother of Robert, George “Old Rusty,” Hardin, Samuel, Henry, John, Nicholas, Constantine, America, Ruth, and Marshall, the father of Bettie Hairston, whom J. E. B. Stuart pursued romantically while at West Point.
Bethenia Letcher married David Pannill and had two children: William Letcher Pannill, whose descendants started Pannill Knitting, and Elizabeth Letcher Pannill, who married Archibald Stuart and had eleven children, including Major General J. E. B. Stuart, who was born at Laurel Hill on February 6, 1833.
J. E. B. Stuart grew up on a 1,500-acre farm where, every day, he could see the military tradition of his great-grandfather, as his grandmother, Bethenia Letcher Pannill, had placed the white marble slab from a Richmond stonecutter named Montjoy over her father’s grave. Stuart was keenly aware of the sacrifice his family made for the independence of our country.
We started trying to preserve Laurel Hill over thirty years ago. Today, 75 acres are preserved as a park on the Virginia Landmark Register and the National Register of Historic Places. It is meant to be an outdoor classroom with interpretive signs, walking trails, and exhibits on the history that was there before the Stuarts, such as indigenous peoples who lived in the Yadkin River watershed, and on the history after the Stuarts, such as the Mount Airy and Eastern Railroad, “The Dinky.”
It is not a place that glorifies slavery, as Governor Spanberger recently intimated when she signed a bill that took away the property tax exemption for the property in an attempt to bankrupt organizations that have any connections to Confederate history. It is a place that glorifies history, including taking on the troubling past by talking about slavery and the enslaved people who lived there and are honored with a granite marker to their lives at the site of the slave cemetery.
It is a place that remembers the families who lived at Laurel Hill on and beside the Stuart land, such as the Browns, Pedigos, Mitchells, and Dellenbacks, who saved Letcher’s grave from being moved in 1952, when Archibald Stuart was moved to Saltville to rest beside his wife, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart. So, I invite you to come on June 29 and learn about the history of Laurel Hill and its many histories, and the rest of the time you can learn on your own or walk your dog.
It is a place that you can learn about the life of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, whether you like or dislike his life choices. They were his choices, and before you judge him, take a long look in the mirror and think about how future generations will look at us when we are gone. History is for each of us to study and make up our own mind about the complicated past we share. History can also be celebrated as we will on June 29.
