It is unclear when the home at 869-871 Green street was built. The property on which the house stands was, prior to 1863, part of the estate of Nathaniel Green. Having died, and leaving his property to his children, he had meant to provide for their security. It’s likely he did not quite foresee the devastation that the Civil War would bring, with its infiltration of war wives and families, the arrival of thousands of Union prisoners, and these combined with the deprivation of the town’s resources which were already being taxed by want and disease. By 1863, the Green children were selling off portions of the property at the highest possible price, and getting it, too.
In 1866, James Wood, who had acquired a great deal of the Green estate property on Green Street, purchased the lot from James M. Walker, who may have acquired it as part of the 100 feet fronting Green street that George and Sallie Welsh Brown purchased as newlyweds from the Green heirs in 1860. The 1866 deed describes the property as “one certain house and lot of land lying in the county of Pittsylvania adjacent to the town of Danville … (and) a small portion of the said land lies in the boundaries of the said town.” Clearly by this description, a house was already standing at the time of Mr. Wood’s acquisition. Indeed, the Greens had several homes on the street which they both rented and occupied themselves, including 931 Green Street, which the unmarried Green children occupied, and 875 Green Street (also later owned by James Wood) where the family of George C. Brown rented and which home they eventually purchased from the Green heirs after their father’s death.
In 1880, Mr. Wood took out a loan from Mechanics Danville Building and Loan Association, which he soon after paid off, the purpose of which may have been to secure more property elsewhere or he may have, under pressure from surrounding neighbors, updated the facade of is house to reflect the Victorian style of the day. Ten years later, Mr. Wood took out another loan, this time to secure a sum of $1,300 for use of Lizzie Banes of New York City. But Mr. Wood died in 1894 before he could pay off the debt. The house, having been left to his children, went up for auction to pay off the loan. Lizzie, (a different Lizzie from Miss Banes) was the youngest of Mr. Wood’s children, and the only one yet unmarried (she in fact never married). It was she who purchased the house.
You will note Mr. Wood’s headstone pictured left, which says he died in 1896. Other sources say he died in 1886, but it seems a prior stone existed which was difficult to read, and this one was recreated. His death notice in the Richmond Dispatch was dated 30 November 1894 and indicates he died the day previous. Mr. Wood was born in Fauquier county, Virginia on the 7th of September 1831. He married Caroline Chambers on the 9th of January 1854 in Culpeper, Virginia. The couple had five children. Mr. Wood and his family arrived in Danville in 1865 where he took employment with the IRS as assistant assessor of internal revenue. He worked for the U.S. government until 1880 when he was elected City Sergeant.
Of Mr. Wood’s five children were Millard Wood who married May Stevenson Woodville in 1879, Florence Wood who married Charles Shuff in 1881, Landon who died in 1891, William Wood who married Kathurah Vandergrift in 1886, and the previously mentioned Lizzie. Two other children, James Jr. and Mary Caroline, died at a young age.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wood was the youngest of the Wood children. She was born in 1886 in Danville and died here in 1922 after an unsuccessful battle with cancer. “Her life, in her work and among her friends,” said her obituary of Sep 16, 1922, “was one of kindness and helpfulness, as well as usefulness. All of her associations have felt the impress of her sweet and gentle character.” Lizzie was educated at the Baptist College which later became Averett College (now University) and taught in the Schoolfield schools.
After Lizzie’s death, her sister, Florence, who, with her husband Charles Shuff, a bookkeeper, had lived in the home for a time, inherited the property. Florence was born in Culpeper, Virginia on the 8th of November 1856 and arrived in Danville with her family in 1865. Like her sister, she attended what would become Averett College after attending Miss Maria Green’s school (Maria Green lived at 931 Green Street).
In 1936, Florence sold the home to three sisters, Florence Collie, Elizabeth Harrington, and Elnora Wooding who each held a 1/3 share of the property and maintained the home as rental income.
Elnora died in 1961, and in 1965, the two remaining sisters, “for the natural love and affection” they felt for their brother, J. Willie Waller, deeded him the house and land. The Waller family would call the property home for the next thirty-five years.
John “Willie” Waller was born in Danville on the 31st of December 1898, the son of William Edward and Vidillia Mays Waller. He married Jennie Lou Averett in 1922 and ran the Waller Barber Shop. The couple had one daughter, Nellie. John died after a heart attack in 1966, but his wife, Jennie, remained in the house until 1970, when the house went up for auction to be purchased by Howard and Hallie T. Brown
Four years later, the Browns sold the home to Harwood and Teresa Wyatt who sold the home four years after that to John and Leona Elizabeth V. Darby. In 1989, the home became Elizabeth’s alone, and when she died in 2017, the house passed to her six heirs, William Bowe, Marsha, Darby, Janette Darby, Irene Mobley, Catherine Chandler, and Lucy Pearl Chandler who own the home today.
A few of those who rented the home in its over 150 years of existence are listed below:
Thomas and Ida Cobb lived here in 1900. Thomas was listed as working in tobacco in the 1900 Census, but his obituary of 23 March 1932 describes him as having been employed in the buggy and harness business. They shared the home with their two sons, a daughter, Thomas’s brother, and two servants. Sadly, Ida only shared the home briefly with her husband. She died in 1901. Mr. Cobb eventually left Danville. He died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1932, but he had identified Danville as his home to such an extent that he instructed that his body should be returned here and buried in Green Hill Cemetery.
Also living here in 1900 was the family of Garland E. Martin and his wife Mollie. Mr. Martin was an agent for a sewing machine company. Their seven children also lived in the home, two of whom, at the respective ages of sixteen and fourteen, were apprentices for the newspaper press.
In 1910, the house was home to Charles Miller, a studio photographer and his wife Carry. That same year, Oliver Hayes, a house contractor lived in the second unit with his wife, Carrie, and their daughter.
In 1927, eight year-old resident Billy Bray wrote a letter to Santa which was published in the paper.
Dear Santa, I am a little boy, eight years old, please bring me a moving picture machine and a toy gun and a writing desk, lots of candys and nuts and apples. I hope I am not asking for too much. Goodbye, Santa. I will try to be a good boy till Christmas.
Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.org
Images and vital information, including biographical sketches found at FindaGrave.com
Death notices and other information found in the Danville Register, Danville Bee and other newspaper archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe
