By Tom Perry
In the early days of the twentieth century, young George Elbert “Shug” Brown made his way to school along the old farm road that still exists today, running from the Ararat Highway across the Ararat River and up Rabbit Ridge to the J. E. B. Stuart School. Brown saw two aging veterans of the War Between the States sitting on the porch of a large white frame home in the bottomlands once owned by the Stuarts. They were trading tales of their experiences of The War Between The States within sight of William Letcher’s grave.
Albert Harvey Jarrell (1835-1923) was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, and enlisted in Company A, 2nd North Carolina State Troops in Wake County on September 5, 1862. After being captured on May 3, 1863, he was exchanged ten days later, only to be captured again on November 7, 1863, near Kelly’s Ford, Virginia. He spent several months in prison at Point Lookout, Maryland, before being exchanged in February 1865. He married Jane Tickle and lived along the Ararat River on land previously owned by Archibald Stuart. Many of his descendants still live in the area, including world-famous Bluegrass musician Tommy Jarrell and his great-grandson, Dr. Eric Jarrell, who was educated at the University of Virginia.
The owner of the house was his neighbor, William Alvis Mitchell (1838-1915), who hailed from Mississippi, lost two fingers in the War, but found himself in Company A, 2nd North Carolina State Troops at Appomattox in April 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant. His copy of Lee’s General Order #9 was a treasured possession of his grandson, William Taylor Mitchell (1920-2011), and his wife, Maydee Ellen Watson Mitchell (1926-1998). Their two children, Melissa, who married Wesley Collins and then Mike Straka, and Alan Taylor Mitchell, who married Linda Gammons, gave William and Maydee four grandchildren: Chris Collins, Amy Manuel, Kevin, and Randall Mitchell.
After the Stuarts sold the Laurel Hill Farm in 1859 to Robert R. Galloway and Dr. Joseph Hollingsworth, except for the possibility of a few tenant farmers, the land mainly sat idle for the next twenty years. In 1879, Samuel Hill Taylor (1820-1892) purchased about half of what was the Stuart homeplace. Samuel, a prominent businessman from the area, was involved in road construction and hotel development in Danbury and Mount Airy, North Carolina. He also served as a clerk of the superior court and, at one time, was sheriff of Surry County. Samuel was married to Eliza Jane Davis (1821-1900). Down through the years, the Stuart land was broken up and sold, and eventually owned by several well-known families in the area, including Pedigo, Hatcher, Jarrell, Brown, Dellenback, and Mitchell.
In 1905, Thomas Brown purchased a portion of the farm, and it was through his son, George E. “Shug” Brown, that the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust was able to acquire seventy-one acres in 1990, which included the site of the Laurel Hill home where James Ewell Brown Stuart was born.
William Aaron Mitchell (1838-1915) purchased 169 acres of the Stuart farm about 1891, which included the site of the old William Letcher home. Much of this property, with its fertile bottomlands, was along the Ararat River. Mitchell, who was from Mississippi, was born in 1838 and served in the War Between the States. He surrendered with Robert E. Lee at Appomattox as a soldier with the 2nd North Carolina State Troops. When the War ended, William and a comrade walked back to Mississippi. Later, he would travel by train back to Mount Airy, purchase plug tobacco, wagons, and mules, and return to his home state to sell the items. While in Mount Airy, they stayed at the old Blue Ridge Hotel, which Samuel Hill Taylor owned. It was said that young J. E. B. Stuart also stayed at the hotel. While staying at the hotel during his trip, Williams would continue to court and eventually marry the young lady he met after the War. The young lady was Lucy C. Taylor (1848-1933), the daughter of Samuel Taylor.
About 1896, William Mitchell built a large two story farmhouse on the site. Local lore held that the Mitchell Family tore down adjacent structures that may have dated to the Stuart or Letcher era and used the lumber to construct their home, but later evidence showed that was not the case. The Mitchell Family farmed some of the same land that William Letcher and the Stuarts had years earlier. William A. Mitchell died in 1915, and the land passed to his son, John Taylor Mitchell (1878-1950). He worked at a hardware store in Mount Airy and also ran the commissary store for the Kibler and Kay lumber operation in Kibler Valley, which served the Mount Airy and Eastern Railroad, known as “The Dinky.” John married Lillie Smith (1893-1946) about 1918, and continued to farm his part of Laurel Hill for the next thirty-five years, where he raised livestock, tobacco, and wheat using a three horse team, while Lillie sold milk, butter, and eggs. John and Lillie Mitchell had two children, the above mentioned William and Evelyn, born in 1926, who married Ed Richardson and had two children, John and Kitty.
The Mitchells’ time at Laurel Hill ended when John sold the 169-acre house to Charlie Dellenback in 1949. The Dellenback Family will be the subject of the next article in this series.
The William Letcher site is part of five acres on the Laurel Hill Farm owned by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc. It includes the site of the Mitchell-Dellenback House, which is located on the south side of the Ararat River.
Tom Perry can be reached at freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com and the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace’s website is www.jebstuart.org.
