The Julius Kaufman House, 136 West Main Street

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The timeline of 136 West Main Street begins in 1898, when Eugene Withers, substitute trustee for Thomas B. Doe, sold two tracks of land to M.I. Hessburg of Richmond, Virginia, likely as an investment. In 1909, Hessman sold the latter home nominally to Mattie H. Kaufman, whose husband was local merchant, Julius Kaufman. The Danville Register and Bee of March 28 announced the event.

Mr. Kaufman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 18th of December 1860 to Elias and Babette Kaufman. He spent his childhood in Philadelphia and attended Philadelphia City College with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He was persuaded to quit law school, however, by an uncle, Jonas Kaufman, who persuaded him to come to Danville to join his uncle in his business as a clothing merchant. Julius started out as merely an assistant in training, but his uncle, impressed by his “vigor and industry”, soon made him a partner and changed the name of the store to J & J Kaufman. Upon retiring, Jonas relinquished his part in the business to Julius and retired to Baltimore, where he died in 1917.

During his time in Danville, Mr. Kaufman served on the City Council and was even chairman of its finance committee. His obituary of March 1, 1919 described him as a man of “more than unusual attractiveness” with a wide understanding, “agreeable manners and his conversational powers winning [him] welcome and appreciation wherever he was present.” Undoubtedly it was those characteristics that won him the respect and affection of Martha Hirsh whom he married in 1886.

Mrs. Kaufman was born Martha Hirsh in October of 1866 in Philadelphia, PA to Henry and Bertha Strause Hirsh. During her life in Danville, she was on the board of managers for the Ladies Benevolent Society of Memorial Hospital, in which organization she was a devoted member. She was also a member of the Wednesday Club and of the Ann Eliza Johns Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She and her husband were members of Temple Beth Sholem.

Mr. Kaufman passed away on the 30th of April 1919 after a month-long illness.

In 1921, after Mr. Kaufman’s death, Mattie sold the home in preparation to build a new home near Lady Astor Street on property purchased from Harry Ficklen.

The new owner of 136 West Main Street was Nannie W. Bustard, a married woman holding separate estate. Like Mrs. Kaufman, it’s possible that the deed was in her name to protect her husband’s business property from any liens or suits filed against his professional interests, but that is not certainly the case, as Nannie was from a distinguished family and this was her second marriage.

Mrs. Bustard was born Nannie Graves Womack at Sumter Hill, in Caswell County, North Carolina on the 1st of October 1858 to Thomas Jefferson Womack and Anne Elizabeth Yancey Womack and was the grand-daughter of Bartlett Yancey from whom Yanceyville was named.

Mrs. Bustard first married Lewis M. Neal of Caswell County in 1890. Mr. Neal died in 1904. On the 8th of September 1920, she married John Bustard, and the couple moved to Danville.

Born in 1858 in Huntingdon, Quebec, Canada, John was the son of Irishman James Bustard and Margaret Cameron Bastard, a native of Scotland. Mr. Bustard came to the United States when he was 12 and came to Danville in 1880 where he lived continuously after that time excepting a two year stay in Cuba where he was sent as a representative of the American Tobacco Company. Later in his career, he was the supervisor of sales of the Danville tobacco market.

Mr. Bustard was also twice married, firstly to Vina Clarke of Halifax County whom he wed in 1889. She passed away in 1916.

On the 1st of April, 1928, just two years after Nannie’s passing, Mr. Bustard passed away in his sleep, having died of a heart attack.

After the death of Mr. Bustard, the house passed to Nannie’s sister Sallie W. Wiggins. Sallie, upon receiving the property, sold it to Augustus and Emma Lea Booth who would reside in the property for the next nearly thirty years.

Augustus Arsell Booth was born on the 11th of December 1878 in Richmond to Walter Temple Booth and Ann Christian Arsell. He attended Richmond public schools and then went on to study business before taking a job with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1892 where he remained until 1918. That year he decided to make a career change and try his hand in tobacco, moving to Danville and taking a position with George A. Lea & Co., probably at the persuasion of his wife and father-in-law, George Addison Lea. He spent five years in his fahter-in-law’s firm before striking out on his own to become an independent dealer, traveling widely in representation of his leaf products.

In 1910, before moving to Danville, he married Emma Thursby Lea of this city. Mrs. Booth was a graduate of Averett College and went on to study at Meredith College in Raleigh before marrying Mr. Booth. She was a member of the Wednesday club, the Music Study Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution and chairman of the library committee. The couple had three children.

In 1924, Mr. Booth decided to change direction in his career once again and began a foray into politics under the auspices of the “Good Government Club” whose activities he managed for a time before accepted the secretaryship of the Danville Chamber of Commerce where he continued for 13 years. In the years prior to his death in 1962, he was trustee of Stratford College. He passed away on the 13th of march 1962 at the age of 83 of heart failure. Emma would live until 1975, when she died at the age of 91.

Well before that, however, in October of 1954, the Booths sold their home to Henry C. and Mary T. Nelson for $15,000. The Nelsons owned the home only briefly however, before they sold it to P. Holt Lyon for $22,000.

Mr. Lyon was born on the 29th of September 1884 in Danville to Phillip Thomas and Sallie Holt Goodson Lyon. He started his business career in banking, working for First National Bank. In 1933, P.H. Boisseau was up for reelection, and Mr. Holt ran as a challenger and won. He served seven successive terms. In the course of his 8th term, with health failing, he decided he would retire. He spent his last day, on the 31st of December 1965, preparing himself to enjoy that retirement when, at 9:30, he suffered a sudden circulatory collapse due to cerebral thrombosis and passed away just two and a half hours shy of the finish of his last day as City Sergeant of Danville. He left behind a wife, Elizabeth Meeks, whom he had married just five years prior. Having no heirs, the home fell back to American National Bank and Trust as executor and they sold it to MDBK Corp, ending the home’s career as a residential property.

In 1972, MDBK sold the structure to the Memorial Hospital and it has been a medical office of one kind or another since that time. In 2008, it was purchased by Piedmont Health, and Danville Pittsylvania Community Services took possession in June of 2009. More recently, it was acquired by the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority in 2023 and a year later was purchased by Good Living Group, LLC who owns it presently.

Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.orgImages and vital information, including biographical sketches found at FindaGrave.comDeath 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