By Tom Perry
Webster’s dictionary defines mentor as “a person who gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person, especially in a professional or academic context.”
In about a month, Patrick County, Virginia, will kick off the American 250 celebration leading up to July 4. I have been thinking a lot about O. E. Pilson in anticipation of the upcoming celebration. He would have loved to be part of the weeklong events in his native Free State of Patrick.
He was a mentor to many of us because he did not hoard history; he shared it and his knowledge of it. I know this because when I was in my twenties, Mr. Pilson took me under his wing. Many Saturdays, I would meet Mr. Pilson, and he would take me around in his big blue Chevrolet.
These excursions usually included lunch at Clarence’s on 220 between Martinsville and Ridgeway, where he lived. He had one house where he lived with his wife and daughter, Jane, and another house where he kept all his historical papers, which today reside in the Bassett Historical Center, in the O. E. Pilson room.
Mr. Pilson took me around to places such as all the Hairston homes he knew about, including Beaver Creek. He took me to where he thought Fort Trial and Fort Mayo were located, when George Washington visited before he became the “Father of our country.”
He came to Ararat, and we walked Laurel Hill and J. E. B. Stuart’s Birthplace, including a lively discussion with George Elbert “Shug” and Icy Bowman Brown. Mr. Pilson’s favorite place at the site was the grave of William Letcher, where we will kick off our America 250 celebration on June 29 at 6 p.m. at the Letcher grave, the oldest marked grave in Patrick County.
I will never forget the time he took to start me on my journey into local history and all he shared about it. He lived to see Laurel Hill saved, and I think the last time I saw him was at the dedication of the marker at Letcher’s grave, placed by the Sons of the American Revolution.
On June 29, I will speak on J. E. B. Stuart’s great-grandfather’s in the American Revolution at William Letcher’s grave, coming full circle with the man who mentored me all those years ago. If we do not share our history, how can we expect the next generation to know where they came from?
