What's in a Name?

When researching a house, the easiest way to get information is from names. If you know the names of past occupants, you can find out almost anything. Almost anything meaning you can easily find detailed family histories, but not necessarily useful information pertaining to the house. If you're really lucky, former occupants will have repeated graffitied the house in some way.

In the case of this house, it was done repeatedly. Writings on the basement wall that are not entirely useful and carvings in the brick posts in front of the house yielded the names of former occupants.

Basement Wall

Betty, Susan, Mommy

 

 

Robert Grasty, the son of a former owner

His name again, but carved in the bricks.

Through family trees, old census records, and newspaper articles I have discovered the relationship of all who carved their names into the brick, except for perhaps one. Robert, Louise, and Jimmy were all children of a woman who lived there in the 1930s and 40s. Craige, a neighbor. The name that baffles me, however, is Frank. Unless it is Frank Martin, who lived there in 1920, according the 1920 census.

But the name that has been the most fruitful was not carved into anything, but rather discovered buried in insulation in the attic: T. R. Perkinson. For six long years, that name plagued me. You'll recall from a previous post that the property being developed in the area was that of J. E. Perkinson. Well, on that map, the property opposite of my best friend's mom's house was listed as that of T. R. Perkinson. So why on earth was his name on a book cover in the attic, buried in insulation?! Why was it in the same place that I found an old trojan condom package, an empty pack of Liggett cigarettes, and a burlap sack?!

After six years, I think I got my answer. Thanks, in part, to the Danville Register archives, some time spent in the City Deed office, and my access to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps. T. R. Perkinson, the brother of J. E. Perkinson and father of business partner T. R. Perkinson, Jr. did not build that house until between 1915 and 1920. I believe, if I recall, they purchased the lot in 1914. The cost? $10.00. The best part of that find, however, were the words "with all the love" written in the deed to the property.

The question is, where did T. R. Perkinson and his family live before they built the house? According to his obituary, he moved to the area in 1901 -- seven years before the area was annexed by the city. Another hint of his occupancy of that house came from another deed, which revealed that J. E. Perkinson began buying the land in that area in the late 1800s. The biggest hint, however, is entirely on speculation.

According to the 1910 census, there were three families living on Virginia Avenue at the time. While the house is technically on Carolina Avenue, the majority of that area was completely unsettled in 1910. The oldest listed name I could actually find for Carolina Avenue is, believe it or not, West Virginia Avenue. Of the three families listed, one was M. R. Perkinson, who I am assuming is related to J. E. and T. R. Perksinon based on the last name, and the fact that they were the first to own a house in the neighborhood (based on the 1910 census). The other, T. R. Perksinon, and finally a mulatto family by the name of Kernodle. 

 

The house in which M. R. Perkinson and family lived still exists today, and backs up to the alley alongside of the house in question. The house other two families, however, I can only speculate. By using the 1915 map of Danville by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, there are but two houses on Carolina Avenue. My second mother's house, and a small square house. So, given the way of the world in 1910-1915, I surmise that T. R. Perkinson lived in the house opposite of the one he built in the late 1910s, and the Kernodles lived in the house down Carolina Avenue which has not existed sine the mid to late 1910s.