FPEHS, March 2022 Newsletter

MARCH 2022

FARMVILLE - PRINCE EDWARD HISTORICAL SOCIETY Monthly Newsletter Our Next Meeting

The March meeting of the FarmvillePrince Edward Historical Society will take place at 7pm on Tuesday, March 15, at the Historic Farmville Train Station. The historical society board will meet at 6pm.

This meeting will be Trivia Night!

Form a team of up to 6 and answer trivia questions on Farmville and Prince Edward County history. Lots of fun and lots of prizes! We hope to see you all there.

Local History Encyclopedia

We are in the planning stages of an exciting new project to develop a comprehensive and up-to-date online local history encyclopedia. Our first goal is to compile a list of everyone and everything that should be included in the encyclopedia. You can help us by submitting names, places, events, etc. that you want to be included.

Where's the register?

While researching the history of the Prince Edward Hotel for this issue of the newsletter, I found in the bibliography of resources used to produce the special edition of The Farmville Herald from October 22, 1948, a citation: "Register of the Randolph House, 1860-1863." Can any of our members tell me if this register still exists today? If so, I would love to see it!

Volunteer Opportunity!

We are looking for volunteers to help us organize historical society archival collections. There is a significant number of backlogged collections as well as many new collections that need to be organized, described, and made accessible to the public.

If you are interested in helping us accomplish this goal, please contact Benedict Chatelain by email at: chatelainbg@longwood.edu or by phone at: 434.395.2448.

Check out our website!

For the latest news, information about the historical society, the archives, and Prince Edward County history, visit our website.

MARCH 2022

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On March 2, 1964, a crack formed in the rear wall of The Prince Edward Hotel, causing a 45 foot section of the building to collapse. The hotel had been undergoing a comprehensive renovation and was approximately 30% complete at the time of the disaster. While the hotel's owner, Joseph E. Wood, briefly entertained hopes that a portion of the building might be salvaged, engineers hired to examine the wreckage came to the conclusion that the structure was too unsound to be saved and on March 5th the remainder of the building was razed. In an effort to mitigate his substantial loss, Wood held an auction wherein much of the furniture, furnishings, fixtures, and other equipment from the hotel were sold.

Thus, with a very literal crash, ended a history which began just one year after the founding of Farmville, when in 1799, Thomas Morton began construction of a tavern. Morton's Tavern changed hands twice before George and Sarah Jeffress purchased it in 1834 and changed the name to The Eagle Hotel. In 1859 the hotel was purchased by the Farmville Hotel Corporation for $5,500. They greatly expanded the structure and changed the name of the hotel to The Randolph House. In those years, and throughout the Civil War, the hotel was under the management of Col. Richard Anderson Booker.

The most notable occasion in the long history of the hotel occurred on April 7, 1865 when General Ulysses S. Grant made the hotel his headquarters while the Union Army came through Farmville in pursuit of The Army of Northern Virginia. It was from his room in the Randolph House that Grant penned his note to Robert E. Lee, asking for his surrender to prevent "any further effusion of blood." As well, it was from his view on the hotel piazza that Grant was witness to a spontaneous torch lit parade of the 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

The furniture from Grant's room at the hotel was preserved by Col. Booker and was inherited by his son Elliott Booker and his wife Jessie Whitmore Booker. Their daughter, Harriet Booker Lamb later donated the furniture to her alma mater, State Teachers College (now Longwood University) in 1954. To this day, this incredible piece of history holds pride of place in the Grant Room in the university's Alumni House.

It Happened in March...

3-1-1841 Blanche Kelso Bruce, first black U.S. Senator (elected from Mississippi), was born in Farmville.

3-1-1899 Gov. P.W. McKinney died at his home in Farmville.

3-1-1917 Farmville Guard returned from Mexican Expedition.

3-3-1884 Farmville and Powhatan Railroad chartered (narrow-gauge line to James River).

3-4-1903 Tobacco factory known as "Dunlop's" burned, half million pounds of tobacco lost.

3-4-1913 Farmville Guard marched at Woodrow Wilson's Inaugural.

3-4-1949 East wing of State Teachers College burned, displacing 46 students.

3-5-1839 Farmville Female Seminary established by local supporters (official birth date of Longwood University).

3-5-1846 The South Side Rail Road chartered.

3-6-1935 Barbara Johns, organizer of 1951 student strike at Moton School, was born.

3-7-1884 Virginia General Assembly passed law establishing State Female Normal School to train teachers at the already-existing "female seminary."

3-7-1886 State Female Normal School incorporated.

3-7-1921 J.B. Wall purchased The Farmville Herald.

3-8-1938 Farmville Rotary Club organized.

3-10-1816 Judith Randolph, Farmville's "matriarch" died in Richmond, far from Bizarre plantation.

3-12-1896 Farmville Chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy organized.

3-12-1956 "Southern Manifesto" introduced in U.S. Congress as regional attempt to offset effects of Brown v. Board of Education.

3-13-1926 Devastating fire on Main St. burned 8 buildings in seven hours.

3-15-1781 Peter Francisco and dozens of Prince Edward volunteers supported Continental Gen. Greene at Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina.

3-15-1924 Star Warehouse burned to the ground.

3-17-1917 Garden Club organized.

3-19-1872 Last session held in 118-year old county court at Worsham.

3-20-1775 Patrick Henry delivered "Liberty or Death" speech in Richmond.

3-20-1821 Hampden-Sydney trustees began plans for Cushing Hall.

3-21-1891 Gen. Joseph Eggleston Johnston died in Washington D.C. 3-22-1807 Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr spent night as prisoner at Prince Edward tavern on the way to his trial for treason.

3-23-1861 The tobacco factory of Peters & Blanton burned.

3-23-1902 "Billy" the Farmville Herald's office mockingbird found dead.

3-24-1975 Amtrak's first stop in town. "The Mountaineer" made the pull.

3-27-1837 Farmville and Danville Railroad Co. chartered.

3-28-1962 Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Farmville in support of reopening the public school system.

3-29-1897 McDaniel family opened Prince Edward County's first private school for black children.

3-29-1957 Hampden-Sydney College's McIlwaine Hall burned under suspicious circumstances.

3-31-1938 Farmville Rotary Club chartered.