The Phoebe Anne Community House

Phoebe Anne Community House

Halifax, Halifax Co, VA

The family of Silas Baker and Winnie (Haley) Carr lived in the Phoebe Anne Community House near outside of Halifax, VA. The house was owned by the Episcopal Church located down the road. The family was very active in the Episcopal Church and helped to run the community house. Notice the dog stretched out on the front porch? There always seems to be a dog somewhere in the family's pictures.

Elton Davis Carr, daughter of Baker and Winnie, wrote about the history of the this community house in her scrapbook. It reads as follows:

The Phoebe Anne Community House

A long time ago about 1840 or somewhere along there a poor widow with several daughters lived in a log cabin at this old place when the widow died and the daughters married and moved away. Mr Dabney Cosby bought this place and built a saw mill here and rented and finally sold it to Mr Milton Booth who built a small frame house here he married twice and lived there till the mill was blown up. He never finished paying for it and it Mr Dabney Cosby bought it back and sold it to his daughter Mrs Van Bluthuysen [?spelling] who built the present house when the old one was burned down. She painted it red. She sold it to Mr Henry Edmunds when she moved to Richmond. He painted it gray and had an orphan home made of it and named it after his mother "The Phoebe Ann House". Then he gave it to the church and called it the "The Phoebe Ann Community House". The big oak tree which stands out in the yard now at the mail box Mr Dabney Cosby cut it down for a post years ago and that is the reason it ________ and pretty now. Mr. Van [Bethuysen] came out here during the Civil War and meat up with Miss Cosby and married. He was the nephew of Jefferson Davis and that was his name.

By Elton Carr

Information from Mrs. M L C Edmundson

Both the Community House and the Episcopal Church still stand today. The church is today called the Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The Phoebe Anne Community House is a private residence and the intervening years have not been kind to it. The outbuildings are no longer there and the large building attached to the right side of the house is gone as well. I wonder if today's residents have any idea of the house's rich history.

Phoebe Anne Community House as it stands in 2010.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church 2010

Tombstone Tuesday Sarah Owen Talbott

Sarah Owen Talbott

1 Dec 1812

19 Jul 1910

Sarah Frances Owen Talbott was my great x 3 grandmother and the wife of John B Talbott. She is buried at Pleasant Grove Christian Church near Halifax, Va.

This is a historic church founded in 1803 with a very large cemetery. It is well tended and many old stones are still there. There are a number of graves marked only by a field stone. The church provides a cemetery directory which is located at the entrance to the cemetery. What a pleasant surprise!

An Update on William Haley

It does appear that William Henry Haley and George W Haley are in fact the same person. (See my post here for the background on this mystery.) William (or should I say George?) has a daughter-in-law still living who has confirmed that his name was George William Haley. No one seems to know when the name "Henry" appeared or why. Interestingly, he's not my first ancestor to alter his name.

Confederate Cross

I had a great time this weekend "touring" where my Talbott ancestors lived, worked and were buried in Halifax County, VA. I heard lots of stories and took lots of pictures. Now I look forward to processing all I saw and learned. I'll be sharing more about my trip in future posts. In the meantime, I introduce you to my great x 3 grandfather John B Talbott.

John B Talbott was born 20 Nov 1836 and died in Halifax County, VA 24 Jan 1924. He is buried in the cemetery at Harmony United Methodist Church in Alton, VA. Above is a picture of the Confederate Cross that sits on his grave. A church member told me that my ancestor's Confederate Cross is the only one left in this cemetery. Apparently there were many more in the cemetery at one time. However, many were stolen over the years.


This is John B Talbott's gravestone. It pays tribute to his service in the Civil War and provides the name of the unit to which he belonged: Wright's Co, VA Heavy Art, CSA. Interestingly, there are no dates on this stone.

I have to say this was a lot of excitement before 9 in the morning!

Treasure Chest Thursday Elton Davis Carr Finley

Elton Davis Carr was the second child and oldest daughter of Silas Baker Carr and Winnie Davis Haley. She was born 27 Nov 1912 in Clarkton, Halifax County, VA. I was fortunate enough to have known my Aunt Elton. She always wore a smile just like in the above picture.

Aunt Elton was a scrapbooker long before it became the popular hobby it is today. It is through her scrapbook I have come to see glimpses into her life as a young woman.

Aunt Elton used what appears to have been an old Halifax County public works book from about 1925 for her scrapbook. In it she pasted photos and newspaper clippings of family and friends including movie stars of that day. I found many obituaries of her many cousins among the pages. A family historian's dream! In the front cover of the book she wrote as this interesting title:

The crape book of deaths and funny thing by Mrs S. B Carr and daughter Elton

Halifax Virginia

Phoebe Anne Community House

July 1, 1927.

I really like the following page documenting her meeting of her first husband Beverly Dixon.

Unfortunately, Beverly was killed in an automobile accident shortly after he and Elton were married. Aunt Elton did go on to live a very full life, eventually marrying William J Finley. Elton passed away 2 Feb 2000 in Kernersville, Duplin, NC.

Wordless Wednesday Joanna Lyons White

Joanna White

Abt 1852-6 Jun 1910

Wife of Thomas Jefferson White

Of Surry County, NC

Is George Really William or William Really George?

It's time for another update on William H Haley (1861-1948), my great-great grandfather and current "favorite" mystery man.

Up to this point, I believe I have determined that William's parents were S C (Stephen Case) Haley and Mary Ann Tribble. They were married 13 Nov 1860 in Halifax County, VA. They were living in Staunton, Halifax, VA in both the 1870 and 1880 census records. In fact, they were living next door to Mary Ann's parents. In the 1870 census the family has three children listed: George (9), Ellen (5), and John (1). William was born in Dec 1861 and would have been 9 years old during this census. But where is he on this census listing? Was he perhaps George William?

By 1880, the family of Stephen Case and Mary Ann have the following children in the home: Jennie (13), John (10), Emma (6), and Robert (3). No George or William listed. William would have been about 19 and likely out of the household. Sure enough I found a George W Haley (18) still in Staunton, Halifax Co, VA living with the James Guthrie family as a servant/farm laborer.

Also, of note, in 1880 William's future wife Clara Holt is living in the same district in the household of her father Branch W Holt. Clara and William were married in 1883. It is on the marriage registration that William listed his parents as SC and Mary A Haley.

So....is George really William? I tend to think yes. Putting the primary source of William's marriage registration record along side of the census records, I think the case can be made that George and William are the same person. If so, why the name change? Ah...another mystery! He certainly would not be the first ancestor I've had to change a name.

I confess while I think I am correct, there's still a element of doubt.