Last in a series

By Dr. Ray A. Gaskins

Professor Emeritus

If the State Teachers College (STC) had not purchased Longwood Estate in 1928, there never would have been a Longwood Golf Course. How did the Jarmans arrive at the idea of purchasing the Longwood Estate? Since Mrs. Jarman died suddenly on Jan. 27, 1929, timing was critical.

On Friday evening, Jan. 29, 1926, a large number of men and women from Farmville, Worsham and Hampden-Sydney were invited to meet at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Jarman to organize a branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA). Mrs. Jarman had been appointed by the State APVA Central Committee in Richmond as “Director of the proposed branch in Farmville.” When everyone had arrived, the director requested Joseph D. Eggleston (1867-1953; HSC 1886) to take the chair and explain the purpose of the association.

No two people in Prince Edward were more interested in local history than Mrs. Jarman, wife of the STC president, and Joseph D. Eggleston, former president of Virginia Tech (1913-19) and president of H-SC (1919-39). After President Eggleston explained the purpose of the association, the “Farmville and Prince Edward Chapter” of the APVA was organized. Those elected were: Mrs. James Luckin Bugg, secretary, and Mrs. Genevieve Holladay, treasurer. Mrs. Jarman was elevated to regent and President Eggleston was appointed chairman of the all-important Landmark Committee.

Joseph D. Eggleston was the first to put his money where his heart was. He agonized over the deplorable condition of the Johnston family graveyard plot at Longwood Estate. The graves were unmarked and had been plowed over. He convinced H-SC treasurer, P.T. Atkinson (H-SC 1907), and H-SC activist alum, R.K. Brock (H-SC 1897), to join with him and purchase the neglected Johnston plot, and to give it to H-SC for safekeeping.

As chairman of the Landmark Committee, he wrote a report titled “Prince Edward Historical Places Worthy of Appropriate Markings.” He sent this report, dated Dec. 23, 1926, to Regent Jarman. In this report, he recommended that “a monument should be erected over the grave” of Peter Johnson Sr. at Longwood Estate.

It was this 1926 report that got President and Mrs. Jarman in the notion of purchasing the Longwood Estate. After the STC bought it in 1928, H-SC deeded the Johnston family plot to the STC, with the understanding shrubs and trees would be planted on the graveyard plot, a memorial stone erected and a wall built to protect it. Shrubs and trees were planted on the Johnston family plot, but — due to the untimely death of Mrs. Jarman — a memorial stone was not erected until years later, when a marker was “given to the college by several of [Peter Johnston’s] descendants.” This marker was dedicated on Saturday, March 15, 1958, with several of his descendants in attendance. If a protective wall was ever constructed, it has since been taken down.

After turning from Longwood Avenue onto Johnston Drive, as you enter the gates at Longwood Estate, the Johnston memorial stone is on your left, under a spruce tree. Since the words are hard to read, we will reproduce them here.

“Peter Johnston: Born at Annan, Scotland, November 10, 1710, emigrated to America in 1727 and settled at Osborn’s Landing on [the] James River near Petersburg. In 1765 he moved to Prince Edward County, Virginia, where he named his home Cherry Grove, later to be known as Longwood.

“Merchant and planter; Justice of the County Court 1766 and 1772; Vestryman of the Episcopal Church; member of [the] House of Burgesses beginning in 1769; one of the original trustees of Hampden-Sydney College, donating in 1775 the land (98 acres) where the college buildings now stand.

“His sons were Peter Jr., Andrew, Charles and Edward. He died at Longwood December 6, 1786, and with his wife, Martha Butler Rogers, lies buried near this spot.” 

What the marker does not say is that their son, John Johnston (1764-1765), is buried beside them. (The words on this memorial stone are remarkably similar to those used by Joseph D. Eggleston in an October 1944 article in The Hampden-Sydney Alumni Record.)

Across the street from the Johnston memorial marker is a second cemetery — the Venable family cemetery. This second cemetery, behind the cabin, is said to have contained 28 graves. All have been removed except one — the brick tomb of Mrs. Eliza C. Scott, who died March 24, 1850, at age 53. She is buried in a brick tomb beneath a 6-foot marble slab. The inscription reads: “What saith the happy dead; She bids me bear my load; With patient steps; Proceed and follow her to God.” Rumor has it that Eliza Scott, a relative of Mrs. Mary Embra Scott Venable, died of a disease thought to be communicable and — all those many years later, when the graves were being dug up and moved, — workers refused to touch her grave. There are enough bricks beside her tomb to have supported a second brick tomb. There is enough periwinkle around Mrs. Scott’s tomb to support the notion this was at one time a large family cemetery.

In addition to the Venable family cemetery and the Johnston family cemetery, there was a slave cemetery on the Longwood Estate, but its location is unknown.

Poplar Hill did not escape the notice of the Landmark Committee. “Nor should the grave of Madam [Elizabeth Woodson] Venable’s sister, Agnes Woodson, who married Francis Watkins, be overlooked. She lies at Poplar Hill, built by her father Richard Woodson. She was a woman of undoubted genius, and as bold in action as she was able. When a deserter from Tarleton’s troops threatened her in her own home, she took from the wall a rifle, in the use of which she was proficient, and only precipitate flight saved his worthless life. Shall we erect all the monuments and memorials to men, when we have such instances as these, of the patriotism and courage of our women!” Even with these words of encouragement, the graves of Agnes Woodson Watkins (1748-1820) and her husband, Francis Watkins (1745-1826), remain unmarked in the main cemetery at Poplar Hill.

Unlike the situation at Longwood Estate, we know the location of the slave cemetery at Poplar Hill and, although none of the graves are marked by anything other than fieldstones, we know the names of two of its occupants. Kate Jackson was purchased before the Civil War by Capt. Knight to act as a nurse. The captain gave her to Mrs. W.G. Dunnington. Kate died July 15, 1905. Rev. Cheek conducted her funeral. Mrs. Dunnington survived her nurse by 55 years.

After slavery was abolished, the slave cemetery at Poplar Hill was used as a burial place for farmhands. William Anderson (1892-1920), a farmhand who died April 16, 1920, is buried there. He was only 28.