Travels with BobxLiz: Success in Halifax!

October 17, We leave Staunton and drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains. They are aptly named because every time we have seen them, they have a bluish cast.

After a three-hour drive, we arrive in Halifax, VA, in time for lunch at the Packhouse, which the geneaologist at the courthouse recommended. I had Tobacco Road chicken salad (dried cranberries and almonds were added), Bob had crispy chicken salad, and we share a piece of homemade sweet potato pie! Yummy, and we enjoy trying the local Southern specialties.

Off to the Courthouse...where we want to determine if Olive and George Foster lived there, etc. Yes, the 1792 marriage record that online shows George marrying Allie Turner is actually Olive Turner as I suspected, although her name in one place definitely looks like Allie. Then on to the land deeds, and George Foster and his wife, Olive, are buying and selling land. George is a tobacco Inspector, which means he is well-regarded, and a processioner which means he is one of the men who walk the boundaries of the land parcels with a surveyor, again a respected community member. There appears to be just one George Foster, but we are going to study the records more closely. He has lots of land. It appears that poor George has some bad luck and loses everything. He dies in 1827, but we find no will and do not know if he has left for Kentucky or died in Virginia. We do know that Olive and the children are in Warren County, KY, by 1830. It is not likely that they went alone, so what happened? Why did they go to Warren County...they must have known someone there, and with whom did they travel? The geneaologist tells us that there were many financial reverses in the early 1800s and many left for Kentucky. You only had to have one bad year of crops to take you down. Tobacco was the main crop and it depleted the land.

We still have not found a document that proves my great great grandfather, Coleman Foster, was the son of George and Olive, but I feel sure that he was. Need to prove it, though! A will would help, but have not found one. School records...no public schools in that area at that time...only schoolmasters hired by plantation owners. Church records...there does not seem to be any.

We drive to South Boston and find our motel on the far side of town, a Fairfield Inn, one of the Marriott associates. Our room is spacious, actually a mini suite. Off to enjoy Italian food tonight, as that is the nearest restaurant and Italian sounds good for a rainy night. Tomorrow back to the courthouse and maybe we will visit Charlotte County Courthouse where the geneaologist feels is the place we might find George's parents.

Actually we went to Mexico Viejo and had a delicious dinner there. We are very lucky today as we dodged rain showers throughout the day.

October 18, we return to the Halifax Courthouse and ask some questions of the local genealogist, Lawrence Martin, who has a wealth of information about this area. Tobacco was taken to a prizery, so called because they "prized" the tobacco, pressing it layer by layer into hogshead barrels weighing up to a thousand pounds. He told us how they packed the tobacco in a hogshead using a giant screw that the slaves turned to pack the tobacco tightly. Our ancestor, George Foster, was a tobacco inspector in 1817 at Meadsville. They took the tobacco to either Petersburg or Appomattox to be certified. They either loaded the tobacco on a bateau on the Bannister River or rolled it down the road on an axle pulled by an ox with a man walking beside the ox. The tobacco had to be certified at either of these two cities. Then it was stored and could be used to pay a bill, like money in a bank.

We check some records and then drive 50 minutes to Charlotte Courthouse, county seat of Charlotte County, Virginia, where Lawrence thinks is the home of George Foster's parents. After lunch, we look at the wills of Fosters from 1770 to 1840. We are not able to determine if any belong to our ancestor, but these people are all related and maybe are our relatives. We make notes, visit with Stuart Fallen, Clerk of the Ciruit Court of Charlotte County, and stop at the library before driving back to South Boston where we have barbecued pork, hush puppies and coleslaw for dinner at Ernie's and spend the night at the Fairfield Inn.

The courthouse at the town called Charlotte Courthouse,Virginia

Patrick Henry and John Randolph had an important debate here at this courthouse in March 1799 on States Rights. Henry denied the right of a state to oppose oppressive federal laws. Randolph affirmed that right. It was Henry's last speech as he died three months later. It was Randolph's first speech.