FLUVANNA COUNTY, VA - SURVEY – “Free Hill” ----¤¤¤---- Source: Library of Virginia Digital Collection LVA Titled Files: Survey Report, Free Hill: 1937 Aug. 3 Research made by Susie V. Shepherd Location: “Free Hill” is in the western part of Columbia, Virginia, with the most western street, St. Andrews, passing through it. Fluvanna County DATE: It is likely the colored people whom their master had freed, and had given land, began to settle in the western part of the town, soon after the town was laid out in 1788. OWNERS: Within the memory of the parents of the oldest people living here, these free colored people lived in that portion of the town, upon the land given them by their masters. These lands have never belonged to anyone else except these free people. DESCRIPTION: The dwelling houses were small and inconvenient, with little yards and gardens. The majority of the original houses have fallen into decay, or have been thoroughly remodeled. Some of the older settlers have left their descendants here, carrying on the family name, others have married with the onetime slaves, and yet others have moved away, or have their dwelling places beyond the “Free Hill” bounds. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: There is a log church on “Free Hill”, and it is thought to have been there in slavery times, although the colored people had their own places in the galleries or back pews, of the white churches. The free people seem to have held themselves aloof from the slaves, and formed somewhat of an aristocracy, so they may have had their own church. Uncles Burton Langhorn and Scott Huckless were pastors of that, and succeeding churches there, and were loved and respected by lack and white alike. In earlier days, when masters wished to free slaves, they bought them homes, and perhaps, these grew into communities of freed people. Some time before the Civil War, it became illegal to free them to live in a slave-holding state, but they must be sent to a non-slave-holding state, and established there. That accounts for there being no additions to this settlement within memory of the parents of the oldest living inhabitants. There seems to have been no problems in connection with this settlement. Mr. S. F. Seay and his wife, Joanna, lived on the edge of “Free Hill”, and knew these people well. Mrs. C. C. Amos, their daughter, remembers them through her parents, and whose memory extends long years back, tells some interesting things about them. Aunt Betsy Mayo lived in the midst of the main part of town, on Fayette Street. She was freed by the Mayos in Cumberland County, in perhaps, the early 1800’s. There were the Cousins, several,; William and Mary Duncan, and their children; Gus and Harriet Banks; Scott and Jane Huckless; Uncle Burton Langhorn and ?; Dick and Betty Stuart’ Joe and Creasy Poindexter; William and Millie Nicholas. Some of these had grown children before the Civil War, and some small children, but the younger ones perhaps, of the second generation, or more were born during, or afterward, yet the population never seemed to be crowded, for many of the children went away. Aunt Anne Nicholas Purvall’s son, Charlie, went north, and during Cleveland’s presidency, served in entrance hall at receptions. Mrs. Amos tells of their cows running away, and Aunt Mary Duncan milking her own cow, and giving all of the milk to Mrs. Seay, and insisting that she should pay nothing for it. Later incident, was the killing of her pet cat, yet she knew not what had become of it, but the free people told her, they would give her a chicken apiece for a pet, if she would stop crying. A chicken apiece was cheaper for them, than losing chickens by a chicken killing cat, but this was really done out of the kindliness of their hearts, which seems inherent in the Negro race. Uncle Burton Langhorn, long while pastor of the “Log Meeting House”, as it was called, saw a child and his nurse attacked by a mad dog. He went to the rescue, and placed the child upon the railing of a nearby bridge, so the child had a minor injury, but Uncle Burton was bitten twice on the ankle, for which he had to be treated a long while in a city. Soon after the Civil War, the writer visited the John F. Shepherds here, and the children and their playmates showed the visitor everything of interest. The colored people were holding a “Big Meeting” in an arbor near the “Log Meeting House” on “Free Hill”, and we would be there whenever time came for singing. The fine quality of their music, its rhytem, and the motion of their bodies in unison, come to mind whenever I hear colored people sing. Uncle Burton Langhorne was very likely their pastor then. The “Free Hill Burying Ground”, given by Mrs. Anna Payne “to the poor”, but used by everybody, until long after the Civil War, lies to the east of “Free Hill”, and next to the main part of town. Perhaps it was among those beautiful white oaks that the arbor of memory was placed. Aunt Anne Purvall, who is about ninety years old, told me of a visit George Washington made to Columbia, as related by her parents. He dined at the “Old Tavern”, as it was called then, but is now Columbia Post Office. The greatest honors the town could command, were given him. When he entered the tavern, sheets and table cloths were spread for him to walk upon. Time, soon after Revolutionary War. About 1810 or 1815, Mr. David Ross, a large land proprietor, owner of hundreds of slaves in this section of Virginia, and the father of that distinguished divine in the Presbyterian Church (Rev. J.A. Ross), built, at his own expense, for the benefit and use of his slaves, a Presbyterian Church, near the village of Columbia. This church building was, for many years, used as a place of worship by the colored population. Then it was moved by the citizens of Columbia, to a site nearer the village, and, for some time, was used by all denominations as a “free *meaning union) church”. The above being true, it is very reasonable that, when Ross sold land for the town of Columbia, he should have given the land in the western portion of the town, to those of his slaves, whom he wished to free. It is evident he had then trained in some lines for making a livelihood, for they have never been “poor” negroes, and it is true, they still own their land, and are among the most prosperous negroes in town. Lydia O’Hare Nicholas, teacher for many years in St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission School here, was born of parents, who were slaves in Kentucky, but her father had gone to Ohio, and married there, so she was born after freedom. This school has an enrollment of about 55 children of slave and free people, who pay what they can for tuition, whatever may be their church connection. She married Uncle Fred Nicholas, of the “free” people. She is well educated, and of sound judgement. She told me in confidence, knowing of the use I was going to make of the knowledge, that those whose parents had “always been free”, did pride themselves on their free birth, but that, as a teacher, she knew that the children of slave people excelled in true culture, mentally and morally. I have been able to learn no more about the “Free Slave Law”. There must be something to it, or I would not have gotten that vague impression on my mind, and to have it renewed by Mrs. Eugene Payne, inadvertently. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Informants: Aunt Anne Nicholas Purvall, Columbia, Virginia Mrs. C. C. Amos, Columbia, Virginia Aunt Willie Reid, Columbia, Virginia Mrs. Eugene Payne, Kent’s Store, Virginia Lydia O’Hare Nicholas, teacher of St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission School, Columbia, Virginia Rivanna Presbyterian Church Records, W. N. Walmsley, Wilmington, Virginia ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joan Renfrow NOTICE: I have no relationship or further information in regards to this family. ___________________________________________________________________