Above is an advertisement for the Dearing Studio in Chatham, Virginia. The Dearing family’s home/studio was located behind the Chatham Post Office. Here is a view of Mr. Dearing and his camera:
And here is another interior view of the Dearing home (these pictures may be from the 1920s):
I am not sure who shared the Dearing advertisement with me. The photographs of the Dearing home/studio are courtesy the Virginia/North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society in Danville, Virginia.
The following description appeared in The Richmond Enquirer, Richmond, Virginia, on March 21, 1840. Who knew that Chatham (which at that point was not called Chatham yet) had piazzas back then? Probably most folks simply called them porches.
Chatham did have a number of taverns in the 1800s, as Frances Hallam Hurt and other writers documented. Some of these taverns were sites of murders, fights, and other crimes.
If anyone figures out who the Pigg River slangwhanger might be, please leave a comment!
I attended our court yesterday, and, as the boys in your street would say, we had some fun. The Whigs, ever active, were out in obedience to a call . . . It was suspected they intended to speechify for the purpose of getting up a hurrah for Harrison. About 12 o’clock, it was announced at the taverns that there was to be – not a Whig meeting – but speeches delivered, and all were invited to attend.
When I reached the designated point, I found a Whig meeting organized in a piazza. . . . After a short time, I heard the voice of the great Pig[g] River slangwhanger. . . . The aforesaid slangwhanger adopted pretty much the same style of blustering, self-confidence, he used seven years ago, when he returned from Richmond a Nullifier, and met with a memorable discomfiture.
He talked very large, and loud, and boastingly – Told what great things he could do in argument, and how easily he could convince the people, if they would hear him. (Forgetting that almost every voter in the county has heard him again and again, within the last seven years, and that he has talked to them more than any three men in the county.)
He went so far as to challenge his adversaries to meet him in argument. This challenge was promptly accepted. – For this, he seemed not to be prepared: He forthwith drew back . . . . Some sharpshooting and excitement followed, but no discussion. The meeting seemed to fail . . . It produced no animation, no hurrahs among the Whigs. One of the resolutions I heard announced, was, that every Whig voter in the county, should be placed on the Whig Committee of Vigilance. This is truly a committee of the whole!
I think not all of the children are identified (there is a scrawled list on the back of the photograph), but here are the names that are known. (Feel free to leave a comment if you know who the children are.)
Patsy Williams played Mary.
Charles Scott (as an adult, he became Rev. Charlie Scott) played Joseph (standing).
Other children: Lynn Hill, Betty Williams, Agnes Giles (probably some of the angels), and Jerry Archer, David Leigh, Henry Law.
Children in the back: Malcolm Woodson, Michael Harris, Lillian Scott, Johnny Ray Neal, Susan Marsh, Carolyn Roach, Irene Barker, Michael Motley, Tom Hodgin, Terry Moore, Kenny Geyer, Wanda Sue Roberts.
Probably in the very back row: Randolph Barker, Jean Shanaberger, David Roach, Debbie Younger, Jane Worsham, Sharon Taylor (hard to read, could be a different name).
From the Preston B. Moses collection. Special thank you to the Moses family for sharing this picture.
My Grandfather, JTW “Trubie” Mitchell, taught safety classes in Pittsylvania County (and shop, agriculture, foreign language, and other classes). As illustrations for his safety classes, he staged photographs of fake “accidents.” In the picture above, my father, Henry Helvey Mitchell, pretends to fall out of a chicken house (if you look closely, Henry is laughing).
Trubie also took photographs of real problems — car accidents, children with broken legs from farm accidents, maimed limbs from working with farm equipment, etc. (I may post some of these pictures later.)
Ann (perhaps Peters) and Betty (perhaps Coffman) with a xylophone. Probably taken in Pittsylvania County in the 1950s or 1960s by JTW Mitchell. Love the young ladies’ dresses and necklaces!
Eva Giles, Loretta Dallas, and Letitia James “Miss Pink” Adams Cox pose in the Spring Garden School’s cafeteria (Pittsylvania County, Virginia). Photograph by JTW Mitchell.
This photograph was taken by my Grandfather, James Trubie Wain Mitchell, in the early 1940s, probably in Pittsylvania County. People in the picture are unidentified. They were working on the tobacco harvest.
Hello Dad and All;
They have been drilling the heck out of us and for the last two weeks I have stood it so far, so I guess I can take the rest of it.
I like it better than I did at first. I realize that it’s a job to be done. I am going to do my best. I have had 20 years of my fun in a free country; I want my brother to have his in a free country too. I am going to do my part. I will fight till the finish.
Dad, I have had some pictures made. I will send you one so you can see how I look in a uniform. They look just like me.
Well, as news is short, I will close for this time. Tell all hello and to write soon.
I enjoy hearing from everyone. All be good and may God bless you. Love to all.
Pvt. Lloyd H. Gammon.
(Pvt. Gammon writes to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Gammon of Chatham, Route 4.)
Published in the Chatham, Virginia newspaper on Friday, April 23, 1943.
Dear Sir
Will you Please get me a elictric [electric] lamp and send it in tomorrows mail. I guess you know what I mean I dont know the name of them but I went the bell lamp like they have hanging in the stores in town. truly
yours Russell D. Dunn [?] Java VA[addressed to]
Mr. J.W. Whitehead
Chatham
VA
postmark Java July 9 P.M. 1913 Va.
Postcard is of Belle Grove Plantation, near Chatham, Virginia.
Electricity came to Pittsylvania County in stages. Some areas had it pretty early (presumably Mr. Dunn’s house in Java had it in 1913), and others did not get it until the 1930s (in fact, I have heard of houses being built without electrical service in the 1950s or perhaps even later).
Supposedly a powder mill was constructed near Sandy River in 1861. Does anyone know where exactly?
Obviously, a new powder mill would have been very helpful to the Confederate army. (Why the eminent opening of the mill was announced in a New Orleans newspaper is rather mysterious, though. Wouldn’t it have been better to keep the factory under wraps, so to speak?)
