I've hit so many brick walls in my research that I started to feel like the Kool-Aid man. Every path I took, forward or backwards led me to dead ends or cul-de-sacs regarding the history of the house, the street, and the neighborhood.
Week before last, I had planned a day of research, but ultimately ended up with two. Day one left with me with the same information I had before. But my second day of research was spontaneous, and provided me with new information.
You see, one of the trust deeds on the property was incredibly daunting to read. W. P. Robinson and his wife Blanche -- who actually controlled the personal property and store they owned -- had accrued massive amounts of debts. In this particular trust deed, it listed every single person to whom money was owed and how much. Because of this, I tended to skip over that information because I really didn't care how much they owed to National Cash Register. This time, however, I looked closely enough to notice that the house and land were not included as there was a previous trust deed taken out on the property.
Because of this, I was led to a new name: F. X. Burton.
Unfortunately, I was unable to pursue it anymore. But I knew that the name F. X. Burton had to be my key. After a week at my parents house, I finally got to investigate.
Now we're back to today. I decided that since almost everything pertaining to the house was replicated in Danville, I would just go downtown and get the information I needed there. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours of circular research and dead ends I found nothing. At about 3:00, I decided to head to Chatham. It was pouring down rain when I left the courthouse, but the sun was shining. I took this as a good sign. In any event, it certainly made me happy.
When I got to Chatham, I immediately got to work searching for land that F. X. Burton may have sold around the time he purchased the land which contains Ms. Gott's house, but found nothing.
I had thought to look at land records while in Danville, so I KNEW that J. E. Perkinson had acquired the land by 1906, so I looked him up in the index and found a deed from Molly Mays in 1905. From there, I found that she bought the house from Alice Burton, the widow of F. X. Burton, in 1904.
Re-reading the county landbooks show that in 1885, a building worth $600 was listed on the property. The same value is listed in subsequent landbooks in both Pittsylvania County and Danville.
Thus, the chain of title was completed:
Robinson -> Burton -> Mays -> Perkinson -> Keeling -> Grasty -> Breeden -> Gott
It's interesting, to me, that J. E. Perkinson bought the land the year before his brother was listed as living in the area and 11 years before he would buy the land across Carolina Avenue and sell it to his brother for $10.
My next entry will deal more with the people of the house, how they came to get it and how they came to lose it. For now, though, I shall leave it with this. I've decided that a reward is in order...and I want ice cream! :)
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| And then I threw two weeks of notes into the air and scared the crap out of my orange cat, Trio. |
