More Genealogy - December, 1987

Issue: December, 1987

HENRY SOUTHER - Born 1712, Lived in Culpepper County, Virginia. Son Jacob Souther - Born 1755, Married Catherine Wayland, Died Kentucky. Had a son Jacob who married Elizabeth Stonecypher.

This deed was for the older Jacob Souther. The Jacob Souther home near Ruth, Virginia.

In a deed described June 22, 1797 to Jacob Souther for 33 acres of land, sold to him by William Tate for 10 pounds current money of Virginia, the house and other buildings were mentioned, therefore the house has been standing since 1797. The house is made of very large logs, all hand hewn and one and a half stories high. A door opens from a small front porch into each room.  There is a boxed stairway going upstairs. The upstairs rooms are very small, with windows of four panes in each, on each side of the chimney. There is a chimney at each end of the house made crudely of large rocks. The fireplace in each of these old chimneys will easily burn five foot logs. The mantles are very plain. The ceilings downstairs are all ten feet high. The rooms are plastered and the floors are made of very wide boards and thick, notched to fit the sill.

This quaint little house is located on Hatters Run near the foothills of a pretty little level spot with green meadows in the East and a mountain range (German Mountains) in the West.

There is a very large old spring which rises out of the rocks. There is a sign of where some old slave cabins were. There were about 350 acres in this tract originally, but after many years of cultivation, has run down considerably.

It was on this land on Hatters Run the old field school was located with a large rock chimney and a fireplace. The seats were made of split chestnut logs, hand hewn. This has been gone since just after the Civil War.

Hatters Run is only a spring branch, so to speak, and empties into the White Oak Run just below the old Ruth Post Office. This place is standing (1961), but is in a very dilapidated condition, one mile south of the present Ruth Post Office on Route 656.

In 1961 it was owned by Janice Marks, Ruth, Virginia.

Are there any more Southers living in Virginia today? If so I would like to correspond with them about gathering family history.

W.B. Dryer
607 N. College St.
Cedartown, GA 30125