Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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| A metal box yields papers from the past |
The signature of Thomas Jefferson is believed to be on the bottom right of this page. |
| More Photos |
Thursday, September 3, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Auctioneer Steve Dunkley and his friend Mike Edwards were astonished at what they recently found in a metal box inside the drawer of a wardrobe.
There were hundreds of faded documents dating as far back as the 1700s, including slave records and land grants, one of which appears to have been signed by Thomas Jefferson when he was Virginia’s governor.
According to Dunkley, after he and Edwards opened the box, Edwards said, “You’re never going to believe what I found.”
At that moment, Dunkley noticed the land grant apparently signed by Jefferson and told Edwards with more emphasis, “You’re never going to believe what I found!”
When he returned home later, his wife, Barbara, said, “I was as white as a sheet,” he recalled.
He and Edwards found the documents when they went to a house on Hardin Reynolds Road in Critz to take photographs of furniture to be auctioned there at 9 a.m. Sept. 26. The documents also will be sold then.
Dunkley said Joey and Jimmy Martin are selling the house and contents that belonged to their late uncle, James Tatum, who died in January. Tatum had lived in the house with his sister, Lois, a former postmaster in Critz.
The land grant apparently signed by Jefferson dates to 1781 — seven years before Virginia became a state.
Technically, “it was still a colony” of England at that time, noted Dunkley, who lives in Axton.
Jefferson served as governor from 1779 to 1781. He became the nation’s third president in 1801.
The grant details land in Henry County that William Poor bought for two pounds sterling (British currency). However, the document mentions the land’s location being near Poor House Creek, which is in Patrick County.
Patrick and Henry counties were one county before splitting in 1790.
It appears that the Jefferson document is on paper and the other land grants are on leather-like parchment. All of the documents found in the box have been yellowed and tattered by time, and the ink on some of the documents has faded, making them hard to read.
Other land grants that Dunkley found were prepared in 1759 and 1790 in connection with sales of land to Joshua Hutson and Moses Reynolds.
Dunkley said he does not know who Poor, Hutson or Reynolds were. But he speculated that Reynolds may be related to the late tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds because Tatum’s house is near the Reynolds Homestead in Critz.
Admitting that he is not a history expert, Dunkley said the documents seem authentic. He said people with whom he has consulted who know more about history than he does think so, too.
Other documents he found that date to the 1700s and 1800s include records of slave transactions and medical services provided to slaves.
One reveals that two black women belonging to “Rich and Murphy” — no first names were given — were auctioned for their services for a year. The slaves were to be returned to Pryor Tatum, listed as the “guardian for Rich and Murphy,” at the end of that year, the document shows.
Another document is a list of 20 slaves belonging to the estate of John Tatum. The list gives each slave’s value, with a total value of $11,177.
There also is a $37.50 bill from Dr. John L. Cole for slaves’ medical care.
Many of the documents are small slips of paper showing that someone owed someone else money. In addition, there is a freight bill from the former Danville & Western Railway — often referred to as the “Dick & Willie” — from 1927.
Dunkley guessed that because the wardrobe drawer in which the metal box was found was extremely hard to open, James Tatum might not have known the documents were inside.
The Martin brothers plan to keep some documents pertaining to their family or give them to the Patrick County Historical Society, Dunkley said.
They are selling the others because they need the money to pay the medical bills of a family member, he said.
“I have no idea” how much the documents will sell for during the auction, said Dunkley, but there is “no question” the one with Jefferson’s apparent signature should fetch the highest price.
He added that documents of lesser importance could be grouped together for sale.
For more information about the auction, call 650-7097. |
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