Stone Genealogy

John Stone (1750-1827)    William Stone (1772-1856)

Gallimore House and Stone Cabin on Chestnut Creek


This page needs some work towards the bottom where descriptions of pictures are missing. And another visit was made this summer in the middle of the bad weather brought to the East coast by Left Coast Linda & Luke. Never heard of a derecho - me either - ask Linda for an explanation.
Fritz 19Aug2012

The Gallimore House and Stone Cabin foundations were located and photographed by Fritz & Sara Reuning in March 2011. See the Gallimore-Stone Cemetery page for the story behind the discovery.

The house foundations and cemetery are located a few miles North of Galax, VA in Carroll county and about 2 miles East of the Grayson/Carroll county line. Carroll county was formed from Grayson county in 1842 so the property was orginally in Grayson county.

The following information, stories and old pictures were shared with me by Linda Amrein whose family descended from John Stone b.1800.

The original owners of "the property" were the Nobletts who acquired it under Thomas Jefferson's hand. The Nobletts sold it in 1822 to John Stone b.1800 [Linda's ggg grandfather] when he was single. He built the log cabin probably with the help of his brothers (Joel age 26, James age 24, Franklin age 17, William Jr. age 12 [Fritz's gg grandfather], father William age 48) and then married Sarah Leonard b.1806 (age 17, John age 23) in 1823. All of his nine children were born in the Stone cabin between the years 1828-1848.

Thomas J. Stone b.1830 was the eldest son who was interested in education. He was an excellent student and later taught at several colleges. He was married in 1851 in Carroll Co. [county formed in 1842] and moved his family to Meigs Co. TN between 1856 and 1859 to teach at the local college (I can't remember off hand which one). His only son John Wesley Stone b.1856 died there at age 4 of Scarlet Fever and my great grandmother was born there. When the Civil War broke out, three of John Stone's sons went off to fight: James O. b.1836, Virgil M. b.1837, and John LeGrand b.1842. James and Virgil died as a result and John L. was MIA. John L. turned up later in Arkansas and moved to Texas. Now, back to the story.

John b.1800 the father had no help on the farm with all the boys gone, so he sent for his son Thomas b.1830 to come back home. Thomas and his family lived in the Stone log cabin with John and whomever was left of the family at that time. I don't know exactly when TJ [Thomas b.1830] Stone and family moved to Franklin Co. [TN], but it was well after daughter Victoria b.1859 eloped with Riley Emerson Gallimore b.1859 (that is a story in itself) in either late 1877 or very early 1878. The elopement went over like a lead balloon with TJ [Thomas b.1830] and his wife, and Victoria was disowned for awhile. At some point she was forgiven and her husband was allowed to build a home adjacent to the log home TJ [Thomas b.1830] and the rest of the Stones were living in. Since my grandfather was born in Austinville in Oct 1878, the home was built between then and the next child Arthur who was born in Jul 1881. Sorry about the length of this story but maybe it will help you to make sense of the whole thing. Anyway, both families lived on "the property" for several years before TJ, wife and the remaining daughters took off for Franklin Co. One of the daughters, Emma Florence Stone, died there in Aug 1893 so the family arrived in Franklin Co. and bought a farm east of Rocky Mount. TJ died in Rocky Mount in 1903. Both Emma and TJ are buried on the family farm. During our trip to VA in 1995, we located the graves in a cow pasture and took photos. The photos are not digital but I'll take a photo of the photos and email them to you.

I really don't know how all the other Stones that lived on Chestnut Creek fit in with the original property purchase. They may have lived on the other part of the land that ended up being where John's son James lived around 1860. I have some books here that I will look through to see what I can find. I've looked in the 1820-1850 censuses and can see that William and his son Joel lived in separate dwellings on Chestnut Creek in 1820 (what exact location I do not know). In 1830 many of the sons had their own dwellings but again, you can't tell exactly where. Perhaps a check of the land purchases would shed some light on the exact locations. One of the books I have shows the early landowners but there are no Stones listed. The Nobletts are listed so I can see the land John Stone purchased. If the rest of the Stones just rented, then there wouldn't be a record showing where exactly they lived. For all I know, William Sr. or Jr. lived in John's cabin for a few years (between censuses). Back then that was common for several families to live under one roof. So, if multiple families lived there, perhaps there are more graves at the cemetery. I would love to be able to ask my dad if he remembered any places at the cemetery where there were piles of rocks or other disturbances to the ground.

The John Stone b.1800 / Sarah Leonard b.1806 log cabin was built circa 1822.
The Riley Emerson Gallimore b.1859 / Victoria Josephine Stone b.1859 house was built circa 1880.


 
1 - Riley Emerson Gallimore house in foreground. John Stone cabin in right rear. It appears as if there is only one house, but the two houses are only 6 feet apart. Picture circa 1930. 2 - Gallimore chimney from outside the house.
3 - I believe this is the same view of the Gallimore house as the first photo above. The left side of the house looks the same as in the first photo. The right side is where Fred Gallimore made his addition (as seen in the first photo). There are at least two children sitting on the porch in white (maybe my dad and Howard). It looks like there is a person in the doorway (maybe Elverda Gutshall Gallimore). Notice the cow grazing to the left of the house. If the kids are my dad and uncle, then the photo dates to about 1920-24. I think the stream is the one you photographed and probably leads to the spring house.
4 - I don't know when this was taken but obviously way after Emerson Gallimore died in Dec 1932 (I'd say 40s or 50s). The Stone cabin is to the left. Recognize any of the foundation?
5 - Riley Emerson Gallimore and his second wife Elverda Gutshall Gallimore circa 1920. Picture taken near the houses.
46 - Gallimore chimney from outside the house. Looks to be pretty close to pointing due north. 47 - Gallimore chimney from outside the house.
40 - showing more of the old foundation which I'm now thinking is that of the Stone cabin. 41 - slightly turned to the left from pic 42 viewing old foundation. 42 - old home site. Chimney to the right. Foundation rocks (of either Gallimore house or Stone cabin) to the left.
43 - Another shot of the chimney. These pics were taken around noon, so the shadows are pretty close to north-south direction. 44 - taken pretty close to spot where 43 was taken, turned a little to the left. Note the 3 rocks in the foreground in both pics. 45 - up-close shot of chimney from inside house angle.
49 - the house is to my back and I'm looking in the direction of where I hear running water. 50 - I've walked on down towards the area of running water and am standing in very mushy with water area looking back with the house being slightly out of site on the right. You can see the small creek running towards me. 51 - I've turned a little to my left from pic 50 and am looking at the creek.
52 - I've turned more to the left and am looking towards the spot that the creek is running into. This is the mushy area I referred to earlier pic 50. This could be the spring house location. 53 - ? 54 - pile of rocks where the Stone cabin was located.
55 - While looking for the cemetery we ran across lots of piles of rocks (pic 55) and a rock wall (pic 56) that seemed to run for some distance. 56 - interesting rock wall.
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