George Hairston | |
|---|---|
| Member of theVirginia House of Delegates forHenry County | |
| In office October 16, 1786 – 1787 Serving with John Marr | |
| Preceded by | John Dillard |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Cooper |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 20, 1750 Marrowbone plantation,Bedford County,Colony of Virginia |
| Died | March 5, 1825 Beaver Creek Plantation,Henry County |
| Resting place | Beaver Creek Plantation,Henry County |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Perkins Letcher |
| Relations | George Hairston Jr.(grandson) |
| Children | 10 including George Hairston |
| Parent(s) | Robert Hairston, Ruth Stovall |
George Hairston (September 20, 1750 – March 5, 1825) was a Virginia planter, patriot and politician in Virginia who served one term in theVirginia House of Delegates representingHenry County after serving as a Colonel in theAmerican Revolutionary War and later served as a Brigadier General in theWar of 1812. The first of three men of the same name to serve in theVirginia General Assembly, unlike the two other men (his descendants), he did not serve in the Virginia Senate, although this Hairston may be better known for buildingBeaver Creek Plantation, which remained his home and which he farmed using enslaved labor, or for helping to foundMartinsburg.
Born on September 20, 1750 to the former Ruth Stovall (1731-1808), and her planter husbandRobert Hairston (before 1724-1791) at theirMarrowbone plantation inBedford County, Virginia, (which latter became part ofHenry County, Virginia).[1][2] His paternal grandfather Peter Hairston had immigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania and had established several different farms, but moved to Goochland County, Virginia in 1739 with his three surviving sons, Andrew, Samuel, and this man's father Robert Hairston.[3] Through his mother, George could claim descent from early Virginia colonist and CaptainChristopher Newport (4th great grandson) andIlliam Dhone andFletcher Christian were distant cousins. He received an education appropriate to his class.
His father had establishedMarrowbone plantation in Henry County, which George inherited in 1791, and which would remain owned by his descendants until 1881.[4] Meanwhile, circa 1776 (also the year that the Virginia General Assembly established Henry County), this George Hairston establishedBeaver Creek Plantation, reputedly purchasing 20,000 acres for ten cents per acre.[5] Hairston (like his father) farmed using enslaved labor, owning 29 slaves at one plantation.[6] In the 1787 Virginia tax census, George Hairston owned 23 adult slaves, 31 enslaved teenagers, as well as 34 horses and a stud horse, plus 140 cattle in Henry County.[7]
Hairston also purchased numerous tracts of land in Henry and the later-formed but adjacentPatrick County, Virginia,[8] such that by his death, he owned more than 20,000 acres in several southwestern Virginia counties.[9]
In June 1791 George Hairston and James Anthony donated fifty acres of land for a courthouse and public buildings, which later became the center ofMartinsville, Virginia.[10]
By 1755, his father had become captain of the Bedford county militia, and in 1775, George began a similar path, as lieutenant under his father, who was one of the captains of the Pittsylvania county militia.[11] At the first meeting of the Henry county court when it was formed in 1776 (the justices of the peace jointly administering the county in that era), Hairston was appointed captain of the local militia, and will serve under ColonelAbram Penn and Major Waller at theBattle of Guilford Courthouse, when their unit came to the assistance of GeneralNathaneal Greene nearGreensboro, North Carolina.[12] Hairston again served under Waller during theSiege of Yorktown and was able to view the British surrender in 1781.
By the War of 1812, Hairston had attained the rank of major general in the Virginia state militia as well as held the rank of colonel in the North Carolina militia. He commanded the 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th Virginia and the 85th North Carolina (a colonel in NC) regiments, and participated in the engagement that repulsedRobert Ross (British Army officer) who burned Washington DC and was killed at theBattle of Bladensburg.[13]
His father had served as one of Henry County's first representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates. Henry County voters elected Hairston as sheriff,[14] and once elected him as their representative to the Virginia House of Delegates.[15]
Near the close of the Revolutionary War, Elizabeth Perkins Letcher and her 3 year old daughter had witnessed Tories ambush and kill her first husband, Captain William Letcher ofLaurel Hill Farm, as he arrived home to visit his sick wife. This man had gathered neighbors that tracked down those Tories, convicted them after a "drumhead" court martial (the spot in Patrick County later called Drumhead), and executed them.[16] Five months later, George married the widowed Elizabeth, on January 1, 1781, and the couple had twelve children. Their children were: Robert HAIRSTON (Apr. 1, 1783--Mar 7, 1852); Col.George "Old Rusty" HAIRSTON Jr. (Nov. 27, 1784-Oct 13, 1863); Harden HAIRSTON (Oct 23, 1786--Oct 23, 1862); Lt.Samuel HAIRSTON (Nov 19, 1788-Mar 2, 1875); Nicholas Perkins HAIRSTON (Oct 18. 1791--1824); Henry HAIRSTON (Jul 23, 1793--1825); Peter HAIRSTON (Jan 16, 1796--Oct 28, 1810); Constantine HAIRSTON (Dec 17, 1797--Feb 12, 1819); John Adams HAIRSTON (Mar 15, 1799--Sep 7 1849); America HAIRSTON (Feb 21, 1801--Mar 16, 1826); Marshall HAIRSTON (Jul 4, 1802--Jan 20, 1882) and Ruth Stovall HAIRSTON (Sep 6, 1804--Sep 20, 1838).
Hairston died on March 5, 1825, at his home,Beaver Creek Plantation, survived for a few years by his widow.[17] Both are buried at the Hairston Family Cemetery there. The last will and testament that Hairston wrote on 7 March 1820, was admitted to probate on 9 April 1827. During his lifetime, his son Samuel had continued the family's political as well as planter traditions by becoming one of the delegates representing Franklin County in 1789. Another son, George Hairston Jr., and grandson George Hairston III would also continue both the family's planter tradition, and expand on his political leadership, each representing Henry County in the Virginia House of Delegates, as well as Henry and adjoining counties in the Virginia Senate.
Some of General Hairston's military order books from the War of 1812 are held by the library of theUniversity of North Carolina.[18]
In 1836, his grandsons John and George Hairston III and (their first cousin) Peter Hairston formed the Union Iron Works Company to develop the small-scale iron furnace on the 20,000 acres in Patrick and Henry Counties known as the "Iron Forge" that John had inherited from his father. During the 1850s the company was managed by Samuel Hairston (son of George Jr.) who consolidated the actual forge with another parcel his father had acquired in Patrick County into a parcel of 4850 acres. George Jr. deeded the parcel to Samuel Hairston in 1862 and the following year Samuel Hairston sold it to John and Elisha Barksdale and John Stovall, who in 1903 sold the "Iron Works at Union Furnace" to Frank Ayer Hill and his wife Alice and Herbert Dale Lafferty and his wife Mary, who jointly renamed the area once known as Goblintown as "Fayerdale." By 1910 the mining and logging town grew to 2000 people and had a train depot, general store, post office, hotel and school, as well as warehouses and other company buildings, homes and a doctor. However, by 1921 the iron vein had worn out and Prohibition closed the whisky distillation and transport businesses, so circa 1925 Roanoke newspaper publisherJunius Fishburn bought out his partners in the successor corporation. In 1933 Fishburn donated 4639 acres to Virginia, which with the help of theCivilian Conservation Corps createdFairy Stone State Park, one of Virginia's six original state parks.[19]