THE HISTORY OF LAUREL HILL

The land along the Ararat River was home to Native peoples speaking a variation of the Siouan language long before anyone related to Jeb Stuart ever set foot in North America. Artifacts from these peoples have been found and are displayed as part of the interpretation at the site.

The story of Jeb Stuart begins at Laurel Hill in the year of 1778 with the marriage of William Letcher and Elizabeth Perkins in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Soon after the wedding, the couple presumably decided to go west in search of a new home. West in those days, generally meant Kentucky, so during this journey, which undoubtedly was most difficult, one could readily surmise that when they came to the foot of the mountains, and saw the beautiful, pristine stream that is today the Ararat River, they decided to settle upon its banks. It is possible that Letcher moved to the area to be source of leadership for the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.

Letcher, along with the slaves that he owned at during the family's occupancy built his home and began a subsistence farm. The names of the slaves that worked building and planting at various times have come down to us. They were: David, Ben, Randolph, Craft, Nann, Look, Abraham, Will and Dick. The home is believed to have been situated on the west bank of the Ararat River across from the site of Stuart's birthplace. There is no evidence that William Letcher ever owned the property, and if he did the deed was never recorded.

On March 21, 1780, a daughter Bethenia was born to William and Elizabeth Letcher. Tragedy would soon strike the young family, for on the second day of August 1780, William Letcher was shot and killed by one "Nichols' a Tory or British sympathizer. Of the many oral and traditional accounts of the murder, which vary widely, it is generally agreed that his murder was politically motivated. Nichols was subsequently apprehended and paid for his crime with his life. Later Elizabeth would take her young child and return to Henry County where she would later marry George Hairston of the Beavercreek Plantation, who was by all odds the richest man in Virginia of his time. By 1800, Bethenia married David Pannill, by whom she bore two children William and Elizabeth named for their maternal grandparents. Elizabeth would become the mother of James Ewell Brown Stuart.

Through a series of complex land transactions, William and Elizabeth Letcher Pannill found themselves the owners of approximately 1500 acres of land, which was to comprise the future plantation called Laurel Hill. In a series of land swaps, Elizabeth traded with her brother William, certain land she held in partnership with him in Campbell and Pittsylvania counties, and she became the sole owner of the Patrick County property.

In 1817, Elizabeth Pannill at the age of 16 married Archibald Stuart. Archibald, age 22 was just then beginning a career in politics and in law. After the marriage the family lived in Campbell County Virginia where Archibald was elected to the state legislature for the first time. In the ensuing four years, the Stuarts had produced three daughters and a son, none of whom were born on the Patrick County property. By October of 1823, Archibald had journeyed to Patrick County where he was granted a license to practice law, and may have begun arrangements to bring his family to Patrick County.

It is not certain just when construction started on the home that was to be called Laurel Hill, however most agree that it was completed by 1830. It was in this home that the first child of Laurel Hill was born, William Alexander Stuart. Six more children were to see the first light of day at Laurel Hill including the seventh child and youngest surviving son, James Ewell Brown Stuart, who was born at eleven a.m. on the 6th of February 1833.

The Laurel Hill home has been described as a comfortable, unpretentious farmhouse Unfortunately the home was completely destroyed by fire in the winter of 1847-48, and no contemporary detailed descriptions of the house have survived. James himself in a later letter described the fire as a "sad disaster". After the fire, Archibald along with his son Dr. John Dabney continued to live in the outbuilding that had served as the family kitchen for several years thereafter. Archibald passed away in 1855 and was buried at Laurel Hill, and remained there until 1952 when he was moved to Saltville, Virginia to lie beside his wife. By 1859, Elizabeth sold the property to two Mount Airy North Carolina men and the property passed out of the Stuart family hands forever.

In 1845, some two or more years before the catastrophic fire, James had left Laurel Hill and moved to Wytheville, there to go to school and work for his brother William Alexander. In 1848, he matriculated at Emory and Henry College for two years, until Representative W.D. Averitt appointed him to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Graduating in 1854, in a class filled with latter day Civil War luminaries, James began his career in the United States Army.

James spent seven years mainly with the First United States Cavalry in Kansas before resigning in May 1861 to offer his services to Virginia. During this time, he would rise in rank to Captain; dabble in real estate, law and other ways to supplement his income. He married Flora Cooke, daughter of Phillip St. George Cooke, and had three children with her. In 1859, he was in Washington selling a patent of an invention to the War Department when John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry occurred. Stuart offered his services to then Colonel Robert E. Lee and accompanied him to put down the insurrection. During his time in Kansas, he offered to purchase part of Laurel Hill from his mother, and sent money for a church in the community.

He would rise to fame as the commander of Robert E. Lee's cavalry in the Civil War, but his heart was always at Laurel Hill. He wrote while still at West Point that he had not appreciated how beautiful a place in which he had grown up and longed to ramble "over the dear old hills of Patrick amid all the pleasures of a mountain home for a lifetime." Stuart died in Richmond on May 12th 1864 after being wounded in the Battle of Yellow Tavern, but his spirit lives on at the place of his birth and the place he had hoped to return to had not the Civil War ended his life too soon.

The J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc. purchased the property in 1992 for the express purpose of preserving and interpreting the birthplace of General Stuart. The College of William and Mary performed an extensive archaeological survey of the property locating the remains of the buildings as well as other valuable archaeological information.

The Trust was able to purchase an additional five acres containing the grave of Stuart's great-grandfather William Letcher and the probable site of the Letcher home. In addition, the Trust has outlined the important locations with white granite posts connected by stainless chain as well as placing interpretive signs at each location. The graveyards have been restored and fenced with wrought iron.

To celebrate the life of General Stuart a Civil War reenactment is held each year on the first weekend in October. Laurel Hill was placed on the Virginia Landmark Register in 1998, and included on the National Register of Historic Places later that year.