Born on January 4, 1801, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to David and Bethenia Letcher Pannill, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart entered the world less than twenty years after the Treaty of Paris, which brought the United States of America into being. Eighty-three years later, she would pass on after seeing the nation nearly torn apart by the Civil War, and her youngest son would become famous because of it. Sadly, she would outlive all her children except one daughter, named Bethenia after her mother, and a son, William Alexander Stuart, who took on the mantle of family provider for many of his siblings, their widows, and his mother.
In the summer of 1817, she married Archibald Stuart on June 17. Stuart got the marriage license the day before, having it witnessed by Thomas G. Tunstall.
On March 24, 1818, around one in the morning, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart gave birth to her first child at her mother, Bethenia Letcher Pannill’s, home— a daughter named Nancy Anne Dabney Stuart, named for Archibald Stuart’s mother. Bethenia Pannill Stuart was born on September 10, 1819, as the second child of Elizabeth and Archibald Stuart at Seneca Hill in Campbell County, Virginia. The third child and third daughter of Elizabeth Stuart, Mary Tucker Stuart, was born on July 20, 1821, at the home of Judge Alexander Stuart near Saint Louis, Missouri.
The first son born to Elizabeth Stuart, David Pannill Stuart, came into the world at one in the morning on September 10, 1823, at Chalk Level in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. William Alexander Stuart was born at midnight on May 3, 1826, the first of the Stuart children born at Laurel Hill in Patrick County. John Dabney Stuart was born at dawn on November 15, 1828, at Laurel Hill.
Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart gave birth to Columbia Lafayette Stuart on May 28, 1830, at Laurel Hill. The eighth of Elizabeth’s children, James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, was born at 11:30 p.m. or a.m., depending on which version of the family bible you view, on February 6, 1833. A ninth child, a son, Daniel Patrick Stuart, was born on April 21, 1834, but died on July 17. This baby may rest near the grave of William Letcher, as the land records mention the graves of William Letcher and others. This child has a marker in the Stuart Cemetery near where Archibald Stuart was buried from 1855 until 1952, when he was moved to Saltville to rest beside his wife, the subject of this article. Virginia Josephine Stuart was born at Laurel Hill on April 20, 1836. In July 1838, Elizabeth gave birth to her last child, Victoria Augusta Stuart.
Four years later, in 1842, memorable events occurred at Laurel Hill. Young James and his brother, William Alexander Stuart, discovered the hornet’s nest that the latter would later make famous, recounting his brother’s aggressive nature, which would later be reflected in the future General’s character. Virginia Josephine Stuart died that May. Elizabeth Stuart lost many of her children, but this was the only girl to die at Laurel Hill. Archibald Stuart’s sister, Anne Dabney, the wife of Judge James Ewell Brown, also died that year. Death was an increasingly hard part of life for the Stuarts.
Three years later, in 1845, Bethenia Letcher Pannill, the daughter of “The Patriot” William Letcher and mother of Elizabeth Stuart, died at her home in Pittsylvania County. That same year, 1845, David Stuart Pannill, the oldest son, and Anne Stuart Peirce, the oldest daughter of Elizabeth and Archibald Stuart, both died, ironically, at the same time in the same place, Pulaski, Virginia.
Archibald Stuart died on September 20, 1855, at Laurel Hill. Elizabeth buried him there, high on the hill with a vista of the Blue Ridge, and began to move on with her life. In far-off Kansas Territory, James E. B. Stuart married Flora Cooke on November 14 at Fort Riley with the Episcopal Reverend Clarkson officiating.
On March 24, 1856, Elizabeth appointed Attorney Samuel G. Staples and her son, William Alexander Stuart, as her representatives in handling her affairs. She remained at Laurel Hill. The tax records report that eleven slaves over the age of twelve were living on the farm. There were seven horses worth $450 and household furniture listed at the same amount.
The following year, she wrote to a “Dear Friend” in September from Laurel Hill, stating that Mary T. Stuart Headen and William Alexander both came by, and Mary stayed, giving her a “great deal of company for me,” along with Victoria, who was also present. Mrs. Stuart was in mourning as, on August 2, Columbia Lafayette Stuart, the wife of Peter W. Hairston of Cooleemee Plantation in Davie County, passed away. Peter buried Columbia at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Elizabeth wrote to Bettie Hairston, “My home looked very sad when I came here, and the Yadkin will look still more so. Cousin Peter…felt is more depressed than ever…the longest summer I ever experienced.”
News from Lieutenant Stuart arrived at Laurel Hill. Elizabeth Stuart passed it on to Elizabeth “Bettie” Hairston, “I received a letter from James’s wife the other day, and she writes me that James had received a slight flesh wound in an attack against the Indians and in saving the life of a brother officer…the weather is now so warm and out Sulphur Spring is in full blast.” At this writing, The White Sulphur Springs is a wedding venue, having been revived after attempts to turn it into a housing development were made, following its long period of dormancy as a resort hotel throughout the twentieth century. Earlier that year remembering the spiritual matters of his former neighbors James wrote his mother, “I wish to devote one hundred dollars to the purchase of a comfortable log church near your place, because in all my observation I believe one is more needed in that neighborhood than any other that I know of; and besides, ‘charity begins at home.’ Seventy-five of this one hundred dollars I have in trust for that purpose, and the remainder is my own contribution. If you will join me with twenty-five dollars, a contribution of a like amount from two or three others interested will build a very respectable free church.” The future Confederate General showed interest in his birthplace, asking his mother, “What will you take for the south half of your plantation? I want to buy it.”
Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart was thinking of selling her ancestral home. In 1858, Victoria wrote in a letter dated April 17 that her mother was going to sell or “bargain her land”, Laurel Hill, to “a gentleman of Patrick Court House” and move to Wytheville in the fall, no doubt to live with or near William Alexander Stuart. The sale fell through, and it would be another year before Laurel Hill passed from her hands forever.
Marriage was in the air for the Stuart children. John Dabney married Anne Eliza Kent on January 12, 1858, and Victoria married Nathaniel Boyden on September 13. The family did not forget Archibald Stuart. Elizabeth wrote to James W. Ford about a portrait of Mr. Stuart, expressing interest in buying it. She mentions that her son, Lieutenant Stuart, will be in next summer (1859) and may wish to purchase it.
On July 9, 1859, Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart sold the 1500-acre Laurel Hill farm to Robert R. Galloway and Dr. Joseph Hollingsworth for $12,000. She reserved three parcels, including one acre on the Volunteer Road, “for the purpose of erecting a church,” remembering her son James’ offer of $100. The other two reserved parcels include the graveyard of William Letcher and “others,” as well as the graveyard of Archibald Stuart. The two new owners from Mount Airy divided the property into two halves, with Hollingsworth receiving the Elizabeth Stuart section and Galloway receiving the William L. Pannill section, which was added in 1828. Additionally, William L. Pannill acquired the Pittsylvania County lands of Elizabeth L. P. Stuart.
After the sale of Laurel Hill, before moving to Danville, local tradition holds that Elizabeth spent a week with her old friends, David Birnett and Margaret Saunders Hatcher, at what is now the Dan Valley Farm in Claudville. A relative of the Hatcher Family, J. O. Hatcher, brother of Alice Hatcher, whom this author interviewed, later owned Laurel Hill.
In 1861, Mrs. Stuart was in Richmond. On February 4, she wrote to her former son in law, Peter W. Hairston, with her left hand as her right was injured, about the approaching War Between the States. She wrote about being “alarmed at the prospect of Civil War” and thought the “panic” would push “Carolina and Virginia to go to war with each other.” A few months later, she wrote Robert E. Lee on April 23 about her son James Ewell Brown Stuart, telling Lee that, “As soon as he hears of the Secession, he will fly to place himself by your side. Can you save a place for him…educated under your eyes and was with you at Harper’s Ferry. He is greatly attached to you and to all of your family.”
The following year, 1862, she was in Danville, where she met Pere Louis-Hippolyte Gache, a Catholic priest detailed to Danville Hospitals. The former Chaplain 10th Louisiana Infantry wrote from Lynchburg on November 18, 1862, about the “wondrous events in Danville” “a place where Protestantism reigned with such absolute sway…notions which the local people have of Catholicism are derived from ridiculous and slanderous fables…people honestly and sincerely believe Catholics are low scoundrels…I met only one person there who was an exception to this rule, Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart, the mother of the general who has done such wicked things to the poor Yankees.” Gache described Mrs. Stuart as a High Church Episcopalian who visited the convent in Danville, searching for a book. She explained to Gache that she had once lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, and while there, she had read a book about St. Ignatius Loyola, which she now wanted to reread. The book was not at the Danville convent, but the Jesuit priest described her as a “marvelous old lady…charming.”
Gache stated that Mrs. Stuart told him she believed “most of the doctrines that Catholics hold, and the Protestants reject…I believe in miracles, in the Communion of Saints, and I also believe in confession.” Sadness came to the home of William Alexander Stuart in Saltville that year as his wife, Mary Taylor Carter Stuart, died on July 2. The following year, he married Ellen Spiller Brown, the widow of Judge James Ewell Brown’s son, Alexander Stuart Brown, on September 3, 1863.
In Danville in 1863, Elizabeth Stuart was the center of a humorous story involving the future mascot of Virginia Tech. Mrs. Stuart rented a house on Wilson Street in Danville. A visitor reported that she had a turkey gobbler tied to her rosewood bedpost to deter theft of food, as the food was becoming scarce in war-torn Virginia. Mrs. Stuart explained, “A friend from the country sent it to her for a Christmas turkey.” Elizabeth faced the death of her most famous child the following year with the death of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart on May 12, 1864, after receiving a wound at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.
The years passed, and by March 21, 1868, Elizabeth wrote to “Dear Cousin Kitty” from Lynchburg, stating that she had been ill in Baltimore. She told her relative that “one of the greatest miseries of poverty is that I cannot assist those that I would take the greatest pleasure in assisting.” The following year, she wrote to Marshall Hairston on January 5 from Saltville, offering to sell land inherited from “Uncle Robert,” valued at $3.66. Elizabeth had joined the family at Saltville. William Alexander Stuart kept the promise he made to his brother James that he would take care of their family, including his mother, his sister Mary, and his sister-in-law, Flora, at his Saltville home.
Mrs. Stuart visited her children. In February 1876, she made her way to the home of John Dabney Stuart, known as West End in Wythe County. The following year, John died on October 2, 1877, and rests today in Wytheville.
Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart died on August 20, 1884, at Elk Garden, Virginia, the home of William A. Stuart in Russell County. Her will divides her estate between her son, John (who preceded her in death), and her daughter, Mary, including a large bedstead, bureau, washstand, chairs, tables, feather bed, and a traveling trunk, along with a few exceptions, such as a gold watch to her grandson, J. E. B. Stuart Jr.
She rests in the cemetery named after Patrick Henry’s sister, Elizabeth Russell, in Saltville, along with many of her children. The family moved Archibald Stuart from Laurel Hill in 1952 to lie beside her. Her daughter-in-law, Ellen Spiller Brown Stuart, wrote in the family Bible that she was “one of the most intellectual and cultured women in Virginia.”
