Poplar Hill
Dunnington, India Knight (Granny)
Dunnington, Walter Gray died February 12, 1849
Dunnington, Walter G. Jr. died April 2, 1999
Dunnington, Walter Jr Received The Distinguished Service Cross. date of action July 14 - 15, 1918
Dunnington - July 27, 1860
Dunnington, Walter Grey, attorney
Dunnington, Walter Grey (son of the above)
Dunnington, Dr. John Hughes and his wife Mrs. Dunnington, Genevieve Parker
Dunnington, Allen Gray
Some history of the Poplar Hill
Poplar Hill Photos
Poplar Hill Golf Course
Poplar Hill - Hampden Sydney article in Farmville paper May 2005
Knight
Knight Family (Granny)
Shields
Some history from the Shields family
Brumfield, Betty Shields
Shields, Ann Kingdon
Chamberlin
Cherokee
Dunnington, James William
Dunnington, Kathryn Chamberlin
Orgain, Dolly Dunnington
Sprye, India Dunnington
Whidden, Sally Ann Dunnington Sydnor, Kathryn Dunnington
Sprye, Skip
Sprye, Trey
Goebel, Kathryn Sprye
Hagler, Katrina Goebel
Goebel, Peter
Index of people on this site
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Poplar Hill Project Home Page
Article about Granny, India Knight Dunnington who lived to 103
Poplar Hill - Photos
Poplar Hill - Golf Course
Poplar Hill - Article about Hampden Sydney
The Farmville Herald, Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Poplar Hill --Victorian-Era Home of the Tobacconist Family the Dunningtons
It is ironic and poetically just that the latest (and presumably the absolutely final) “starting date” for the Poplar Hill Development is in August this year, because August 1st in 1922 was the death of Walter Grey Dunnington, whose ownership name on that property is still the identifiable one for many people in this area...even though the property has passed through several owners in the 82 years since Walt Dunnington’s death.
Many newcomers to our county are not even aware of the existence of this grand old plantation house, which is barely – and quickly (and dangerously!) – visible to vehicular traffic proceeding southward along Route 15. It’s off to the left before one gets to those new storage sheds that are along the Farmville Lake Road. Many folks still call it “the old Dunnington place,” although more recent residents of our county may refer to it as “the Bolt place.” A certain generation still calls it “the old stump farm,” which was its name about a half century ago, after there had been a major cutting of its old growth timber, with dozens of massive stumps being left to rot out there on the rolling hillsides.
My former neighbor, Mrs. Virginia Dowler Dickoff, has pleasant memories of growing up on the old Dunnington place, when her father had come to Prince Edward County from Canada, to help tend and develop the field crops; presumably her brother Tommy, who still lives near there, has memories of the same. My late church member, Roy Fore, also had delightful memories of his father’s association as a Dunnington employee who tended the large gardens on the farm; Roy also attributed his own love (and great skills!) for growing vegetable to what he had observed and absorbed from his father’s labors there in the Dunningtons’ family gardens.
The Dunnington Tobacco Company was organized in Farmville in 1870 by Walt Dunnington’s father, James W. Dunnington. This business concentrated at first just on dark-fired tobacco, but it gradually expanded to bright lead as well, as this latter variety of tobacco “took off” with the enormous expansion of the Virginia and North Carolina cigarette manufacturing business at the end of the 19th century. Walt Dunnington joined his father’s business in 1872 and eventually established an international reputation for this family firm, connecting this Prince Edward business with tobacconists in Italy and Austria and, especially, in Norway. According to Herbert Bradshaw’s history of our county, there was one famous day in 1902 when a train of thirty cars loaded with tobacco left from Farmville, all consigned to Norway, via the shipping docks at the end of the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks in Newport News. W. G. Dunnington was also involved in Farmville’s First National Bank and was a co-owner with Walter H. Robertson in the manufacturing of fertilizer under the firm name of the Virginia State Fertilizer Company. Beginning in 1897, he also served our county’s wider community for many years as a member of the Hampden-Sydney College Board of Trustees.
Walter and India Knight Dunnington moved into their Poplar Hill plantation home in 1897. For decades prior to his, there had already been an 18th century house there that was known as “the Wood Plantation home;” in fact, the Dunningtons built their enormous Victorian house around the central core of the Woods’ family house. One of the prior residents of that original house was the Prince Edward native Susan Wood, who as a young woman had met her eventual fiancée, Moses Drury Hoge, while the latter was attending Hampden-Sydney and Union Theological Seminary; Mrs. Susan Wood Hoge eventually became one of the major female religious figures of Civil War Richmond and for the remainder of the 19th century.
Much of Prince Edward County’s (white) business and social life during the late 19th and early 20th century centered around this Dunnington home (now the Poplar Hill Land Development property) a truly grand old manor – equal to the most sumptuous fare one might have imagined in Virginia’s antebellum ear...only now it happened with electricity and running water! Our present-day investors and developers of this property envision something on the same scale. It reminds me of the radio announcer’s voice at the beginning of each episode of the old “Lone Ranger” broadcasts, when he excitedly set the stage: “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesterday! From out of the past come the thundering hoof-beats of the great horse, Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!”
We shall see. At their best this new development of this great old property will become a major positive force for all.
MEMORIES SHARED
By Kathy Goebel - Christmas Day - Servants open the dining room door and we see a HUGE Christmas Tree with presents. It wasn't the presents, it was the tree that generated memories each year. Many family members there. Lunch was servered and wonderful. Then some of the adults would enjoy a game called craps. When my great grandmother died when I was in the 5th grade, this tradition stopped. But it will never be forgotten.
Stawberry season - Some cousins and I would go out and pick strawberries (only the ones we were eating) and I have had strawberries only once since that tasted that fresh and sweet.
White sweet potatoes, country ham, beaten biscuits, hershery kisses - some of the foods remembered
Granny would talk about the Civil War
Uncle Jack and Uncle Watt would come to town some. That was always a pleasure.
Granny was still going to get her hair done until she had a stroke and died about a week later at the age of 103.
The tall trees lining the long drive from the highway to the house
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The Annual Spry Family Reunion is held the 1st Sunday in October in China Grove, NC. Details for reunion
Enoch Spry history
Fisher family line
The General Armory
Marriage Certificate Enoch Spry and Mary Lingle
Carter Creek document
Death Certificate Thomas Spry
Letter to Johnsie from Helen Kurfees
Hill Spry Photos
Children of Elzavan Monroe Spry
Lineage Papers
Older Spry Pictures
1920 School Picture Liberty School
Letter To Annice Allsobrooks from President Nixon
1926 Spry Family Reunion
Lois's 92nd birthday party 1988
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