Southern Belles, Pig Iron, and a Cherokee Chief

(Where do I come up with these titles?!?)

Travelers, if you simply go from city to city, to the hospital and back home, you've put yourself into a box.  Ever heard the term, "You've got to get out more!"  Well, that's you.  You are missing life - past and present!

I've lived in Texas 99% of my long life, so I guess you could say I was a Southerner.  But Virginia must be the most "Southern" place I've ever been.  Everywhere we go the men are gentlemen and the ladies seem to have never heard of the feminist movement.  (Yea-a-a-a!)  It's a very gentle society.  These ladies would be very much at home in the frilly finery of a by-gone era.

We moseyed up to Lynchburg to see what we could see, and we liked what we saw.  It had it's Civil War battle as most places in Virginia did, but even so, it sure is a pretty town.  Beautiful old architecture, graceful and yet solid enough to withstand a century of time.

The Lynchburg Museum had some nifty stuff and nifty information.  I found out how "pig iron" got it's name: when iron became molten at the foundry, poured into a channel known as a sow, then into molds of sand, the cooled bars looked like a litter of baby pigs feeding off the sow.  (Talk about trivia!!  Somone should make a game show called, "How terms got their names.")

Virginia, of course, is tobacco country, and I discovered chewin' tobacco used to come in "twists."  Folks would braid and then twist tobacco leaves together before curing them.

A twist was about 8" long.  When it was cured, men would bite off a chunk.  (Eewww.)  Later on, folks began chopping the tobacco into really fine pieces and that's when they began to smoke it.  On our way home we passed one of the many, many, MANY old two-story log buildings.  This one had a door open, and we could see racks of tobacco leaves hung up to dry.  It is so easy here to have my imagination carry me back to the 1700 - 1800's...

We also had the opportunity to tour a home known as "Point of Honor."  Some say the location got it's name from the way gentlemen used to settle issues involving their honor: duelling with swords or pistols.  This location was outside the city limits and so duelling was not illegal here.

The land was previously home to the Monacan Indians.  The Quakers are responsible for the first white settlement around here.  The home, Point of Honor, that we toured was completed in 1815 by Dr. George Cabell, Sr., and ultimately became home to some pretty impressive people.  Dr. Cabell was friends with the Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty, or give me death") and corresponded frequently with Thomas Jefferson.  The home is one of the most handsome old homes I've seen - and, trust me, I've seen a bunch of 'em.

Lest you get the idea Virginia women are shrinking violets, one of the residents was Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis who led the fight for women's suffrage (wanting the right for women to vote - black men already had that right.)  Being strong-willed does by no means prevent one from behaving like a lady.

Other residents of Point of Honor were a judge on the state of Virginia Court of Appeals from 1846-1865, a U.S. senator, a founding member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the original "Gibson Girl, the first woman elected to the British Parliament, and the wife of the president of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad who just happened to be the daughter of a Cherokee Chief.  Their son was Oklahoma's first U.S. senator.  Not a bad resume for a pile of bricks on a hill, huh?  Heritage must count for something...  I still think it's a beautiful home!