By Tom Perry
Over the last thirty years, I have found many historical nuggets relating to the Stuarts and Laurel Hill. Archibald Stuart (December 2, 1795, to September 20, 1855), the father of J. E. B. Stuart, has been the subject of many interesting topics.
Archibald, a one-term Congressman who rubbed shoulders with the titans of his time, men like James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and John Marshall. He held almost every political office in Virginia to which the people of Patrick County could elect him. One biographer of his famous son points out that Archibald Stuart had as much political experience as Abraham Lincoln did before he was elected President of the United States of America.
Earlier this year, I attended the Carroll County Genealogical Society meeting at the high school in Hillsville. One of the presentations was by Delilah Brady, who spoke about the Carroll County Digital Heritage Scanning Website that she works on. I asked her if she had ever found anything about the Stuarts. https://www.ccva.digital/
Here is one of the items she sent me from the Court Order Book 1, Page 21, for Friday, July 1, 1842. Archibald Stuart was awarded a contract to help build the courthouse and jail in Hillsville, Carroll County, Virginia, along with William Lindsey, Madison D. Carter, and Mahlon Scott. Archibald served as Commonwealth Attorney for Carroll County during his long career as an attorney.
Archibald and Elizabeth Letcher Pannill Stuart moved to Laurel Hill in the mid-1820s. Mrs. Stuart inherited the property from her grandfather, William Letcher. Archibald Stuart was a prominent local politician who served as Commonwealth Attorney for several local counties, both houses of the Virginia legislature from Patrick County, and for one term in the United States Congress.
Patrick County Order Book #3 states that Archibald Stuart was in Patrick County by October 1823 and began to practice law. He paid taxes on three enslaved people, a horse, and a “chariot” valued at $300 that year. The courthouse records show him present for the next thirty-two years. One can imagine Archibald Stuart in his one-person buggy, riding to Patrick County Court House as he began to build a life for his wife and children.
The Stuarts built the house at Laurel Hill in 1831, as the property tax records show that the county appraised it at $300 more than a “new house.” Little is known about the house from biographies of J. E. B. Stuart, which describe it as a large, comfortable house in a grove of oak trees, with a beautiful flower garden and a fine view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Descriptions of cherry and pear trees near the home exist, and today, a Royal Ming tree, not native to the area, still flourishes near the house site. No known photos or drawings of the home exist, which makes rebuilding it impossible.
Next door to the Stuarts was the home of Lewis and Sarah Pedigo, and their many children brought many oral traditions about Laurel Hill to the present day. Carolyn Susan “Carrie Sue” Culler, who lived to be 107. Her grandmother knew the Stuart children and told me many interesting stories. One of these states that Archibald Stuart taught law to several local boys in a log cabin, including the Pedigo sons and others, such as Jack Reeves and George Duncan. Another tells of Victoria Stuart Boyden giving Mary Pedigo a picture and a hat. Carrie Sue told me about a local school for the local children, including the Pedigos and Stuarts, taught by a teacher named Monday.
Many counties in Southwest Virginia have evidence of Archibald Stuart’s legal career and his vices. In the Grayson County Law Order Book, officials indicted Stuart for gambling in a poker game. He pled guilty and paid a $2.00 fine. The Grayson County Order Books mention Stuart as early as August 1826 and in legal proceedings in 1833, 1835, and 1842. Henry County records show that Archibald received $10 as early as 1827 for prosecuting John Montgomery.
On March 1, 1831, Archibald Stuart took the oath as Commonwealth Attorney in Floyd County. A few days later, officials appointed Stuart to a commission to locate the county seat. Floyd County Attorney and Historian Gino Williams researched Archibald Stuart in Floyd County and supplied information that Stuart served as Commonwealth Attorney from September 20, 1831, until September 26, 1837, and was appointed by his brother-in-law, Judge James Brown. Later, Stuart replaced Jubal Early temporarily in the same position in March 1847. As late as December 1854, Stuart served on a committee “examing” the Clerk’s Office.
The fire that destroyed Laurel Hill in the late 1840s consumed most of the papers of Archibald Stuart. The “sad disaster” hurt our knowledge of the man who called Patrick County home.
Archibald Stuart died on September 20, 1855, at Laurel Hill with only Elizabeth L. P. Stuart in the room. She buried her husband at Laurel Hill in Patrick County, where he rested until members of the Stuart family in 1952 moved his remains to Saltville to lie beside his wife.
Even after his death, Archibald Stuart left historical breadcrumbs. In a Bounty Land Claim in the National Archives, dated January 26, 1856, by Patrick County Justice of the Peace J. C. Taylor, and witnessed by Stuart’s neighbors Lewis and D. Floyd Pedigo, Stuart’s widow, Elizabeth, received 80 acres near Christiansburg, Kentucky, in 1857 for his service in the War of 1812.
J. E. B. Stuart’s biographer and Chief of Staff, Henry B. McClellan, from 1863 to 1864, said of Archibald Stuart, “J. E. B. Stuart’s first biographer, H. B. McClellan, spoke of him this way: “Archibald Stuart was known far and wide, both for his splendid talents and his wonderful versatility. In addition to these gifts, he was one of the most charming social companions the state ever produced. Possessing wonderful wit and humor, combined with a rare gift for song, he at once became the center of attraction at every social gathering. Among the people of the counties where he practiced, his name is held in great respect, and his memory is cherished with an affection rarely equaled in the history of any public man.”
Tom Perry can be reached at freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com, and the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace has a website www.jebstuart.org.
