On a Spring-like day in early March, the finest that 1995 had offered, we set out to the land north of the Banister River in Pittsylvania County. We turned off highway 29 and traveled down the old Lynchburg Stage Road (State Road 640; known today as the Spring Garden Road) toward Riceville.

The village of Riceville sprang up on high ground near the falls of the Banister River. Early navigation ended here where the river breaks through the triasic White Oak Mountain range. Footprints of dinosaurs have been discovered in the ancient rock in this area.

Colonel Morgan lived and died just across the river at his plantation, which he called �Whitefalls.� Below the falls, exported goods could float down stream to the Roanoke River, then on to the Atlantic Ocean near Roanoke Island in North Carolina.

As Captain Starkey and I traveled down the road, he named the long-dead land owners and the names of their plantations. Many of the families along the way were his cousins: the Neals, Mustains, Owens, Paynes, to name a few. Some of the plantation houses were well kept, some falling down, and some gone completely.

We took the northwestern fork at Riceville and crossed the Banister River just south of the old Whitefalls Mill. This old road once crossed the Banister on Clark�s Bridge and was the earliest road from Danville to Lynchburg. The northeastern fork from Riceville, which now is a dead end, once led directly northeast and forded the river several miles downstream, then by the old Joel Hubbard home near Hermosa, and a short distance further, crossed into Halifax County at the Starkey brothers� birthplace. The Joel Hubbard home, a very large house with many additions and out buildings, is one of the oldest in Pittsylvania County.

The Starkey brothers, B. C. and Jim, were born southeast of Mount Airy, Virginia, in the old Hermosa Store that sat astride the county line dividing Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties. The long-gone store building had two bedrooms. Jim was born a Halifax County native in one bedroom and B. C. was born a Pittsylvania County native in the other.

Their ancestors once owned thousands of acres north and south of the Banister River in both Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties. Sadly, we found that the old Starkey plantation house, where their great-grandfather lived, had burned since the fall of 1994.

Not to be discouraged, we continued our journey through Captain Starkey�s boyhood neighborhood in our search for the grave of Col. Haynes Morgan. After crossing the Banister River, we turned northeast on State Road 677. At the crest of the hill, we arrived at the old home of Edmond Fitzgerald. The first home burned early and the present replacement was built in 1828. Edmond Fitzgerald, who was born in 1788 and died in 1866, is buried in a rock-walled cemetery near the house.

We met Aubrey Nuckles, who like his grandfather Fred Stone and great-grandfather Sam Stone before him, lives in the Fitzgerald house and owns the Haynes Morgan home tract. Aubrey Nuckles� children are the seventh generation from the Fitzgerald-Stone family to live on this land.

With a keen interest in the history of the area and an eagerness to help, Nuckles guided us less than a mile up the road to the western side where a small mound of earth and foundation stones remain. This spot was pointed out to Aubrey Nuckles by his grandfather Fred Stone as the home site of Colonel Haynes Morgan. Fred Stone, now past ninety years old, was shown the location by his father Sam Stone. On the eastern side of the road was a small rock-walled cemetery complete with a surrounding stand of periwinkle. The small cemetery with a thick rock wall is about 4 feet by 12 feet inside and would have held no more than four graves. Since Colonel Morgan�s descendants left the area and one of his children died before him, the small size of the family cemetery reinforces the fact that this is the last resting place of the old Revolutionary commander.

It is unfortunate that the grave of Colonel Morgan is unmarked. Groups which identify graves of Revolutionary Soldiers will not accept the location without some kind of documentation to describe the exact location. He was one of Pittsylvania County�s earliest, highest ranking, and most important Revolutionary War officers. Little has been written about him and his long service to his country during a difficult time in history. The little rock-walled graveyard might someday be scattered and lost completely as so many others have.

  Col. Haynes Morgan

Pittsylvania County

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