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A Rockbridge County woman died following a fire at her house Friday afternoon.
According to Kevin Moore, Rockbridge County Fire Rescue deputy chief, first responders were called to the 500 block of Old Buena Vista Road, across from The Ponds subdivision, for a house fire with an elderly woman inside about 2:24 p.m. The call had come from a neighbor.
While the fire inside the single-story dwelling was not extensive, there was a lot of smoke and heat when firefighters arrived. Knowing that the woman was inside the house, first responders searched for and located her. She was in cardiac arrest and first responders tried to resuscitate her before transporting her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The woman was identified as 83-year-old Katherine “Peggy” Ford.
The fire, Moore said, was limited to a portion of the interior of the house with the exterior of the house unaffected, but there was smoke and heat damage throughout the house.
He called the fire more of a smoldering one, due to the large amount of material inside the house. Firefighters spent several hours “overhauling” the scene, tackling hot spots within the various materials.
Responding to the fire were Lexington Fire and Rescue, Kerrs Creek Fire, Buena Vista Fire, Buena Vista Rescue Squad, Rockbridge County Fire He was not trying to evade the law, he argued, but believed the estate had sufficient funds to pay the debts, arguing that Tapscott’s land should be sold to satisfy debts so that the enslaved people could be free. Henry asked the court to require McDowell to “state whether he has not threatened to take your orator into his possession forcibly & to sell or hire him out.” The complaint requested an order restraining Rowand and McDowell from depriving him from his liberty.
Rowand answered that after Henry Tapscott’s death Duncan Henry “left the lower country clandestinely & came to Rockbridge County in which he has been aided by a brother who had purchased his right to freedom.” As executor, he needed to sell some of the remaining slaves to satisfy Tapscott’s debts, and would exercise that discretion with “justice and humanity.”
Rowand claimed he could not sell Alexander, Duncan’s older brother, reasoning that Alexander had remained and provided labor to the estate while Duncan ran away. Duncan Henry had an “aging mother, his brother, his sister, & his other kindred.”
Rowand argued that being a healthy young man, Duncan Henry’s value was three times that of his female relatives. Therefore, it would not be “as humane as he seems to think to emancipate one person; it necessarily follows that it is more to emancipate three.”
Robert Douthat and William Caruthers put up a $750 bond to keep Duncan out of custody. The judge declared him free unless the defendants could show it was necessary to sell him to satisfy debts. The defendants did not do so, and finally free, Duncan Henry appeared in tax records for the first time in 1816.
Living with him in 1820 were his wife and two sons under 14. He registered as free on April 18, 1821, described as 5’ 6,” with “a large Roman nose, freckled face, hair almost straight, emancipated by the will of Martin Tapscott dec. of Westmoreland County, & his right to freedom confirmed by a Decree of the Staunton Chancery Court.” H e last appeared in tax records in 1833.
Williamson Henry (c.1786-1850)
By 1812 Williamson Henry was living as free in Rockbridge County, reflected in tax records as living with Robert Douthat, who operated the Stone Castle Tavern on Plank Road, two miles northwest of the Natural Bridge on Cedar Creek.
Two years later Williamson Henry was also subjected to legal measures by Tapscott’s estate to re-enslave him. In 1814, he and Thomas Henry, probably a relative, filed a lawsuit in Staunton Chancery Court against Andrew Moore and Reuben Grigsby. Williamson and Thomas had lived as free men, but in 1813 Williamson learned that Andrew Moore claimed to have purchased him from Tapscott’s estate, and Reuben Grigsby had purchased Thomas. The two men sought court protection from seizure until an investigation was performed to determine if their sale was necessary to satisfy Martin Tapscott’s debts.
Andrew Moore was a graduate of Liberty Hall Academy, a general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Virginia legislature, delegate to the 1788 Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution, and served in both houses of Congress. He answered that in 1812 he planned to hire Williamson and Thomas, and was told that Grigsby planned to purchase one of them. Moore, “influenced by the character he had heard of the said W. & Thomas Henry” asked Grigsby to purchase one of them for him.
Moore went to Maj. Robert Douthat’s house and “in the presence of witnesses offered to give bond with sufficient surety,” promising that the two men would “not be removed from the county until their claim for freedom was decided.” Moore added that he “has no wish to retain them as slaves if entitled to freedom.”
Grigsby conditionally purchased Williamson and Thomas in 1813 for $500 each. The money was not to be paid until the following winter, and in the meantime, he intended to “satisfy himself as to the truth of a report that those men Williamson & Tom were entitled to freedom.” He met with both men and told them “he would be glad if they would procure & exhibit to this respondent some evidence of their right to freedom.” Grigsby met with the executor in December 1813, who said Williamson and Thomas did not have a “shadow of right to freedom.”
The Chancery Court held in 1817 that Williamson and Thomas Henry “are entitled under the will of Martin Tapscott deceased to their freedom, and that they cannot be deprived of the same unless it be necessary to sell them for the payment of the debts.” The defendants failed to provide proof, and at long last, in 1819, Williamson and Thomas Henry were free.
Williamson Henry’s first wife was a free woman of color and their children were free. He made a deed of trust to his brother Duncan on Oct. 13, 1824, to secure a promise to pay him in the amount of $125. The property pledged as security included “one mare one yoke oxen two milch cows one yearling calf eleven hogs – two beds & bedding on burrow (bureau) – one book case – one cupboard twelve chairs – two trunks – one bed sted – four head sheep two… plows,” and household goods.
Henry registered as free in 1836, age 55, described as 5’ 7,” with “long curly hair inclined to be grey.” In 1844 Sarah Price made an emancipation deed for three children of Williamson Henry and his wife Mary, who was deceased. The children had been raised by him, and all three registered as free a few days later. Judith was 21, Mary Jane 17, and Joseph 14.
Later that year the family moved to Ross County, Ohio, where many free Blacks had settled, including some from Rockbridge. Williamson Henry died in 1850, and his son-in-law, Griffin Jean, was administrator of his estate. He has many descendants, including some living today.
Williamson Henry’s greatgrandson, Walter Jean (1898-1961), graduated from Chillicothe high school and attended the University of Missouri and Heidbelberg University. After serving as a captain in World War I, he was named football coach at Bowling Green University. In 1925 and 1926 he played for the Green Bay Packers, the first Black player for the Packers - 25 years before the man given credit for that distinction. In 1927 Jean joined the Portsmouth Shoe-Steels as a player and assistant coach to the great Jim Thorpe, and became coach when Thorpe left.
Walter Jean successfully navigated a world that denied opportunities to Black people by passing for white, and sometimes, Cherokee.
