This home at 636 Holbrook Avenue, at the corner with Paxton Street, is named in part for Edwin Edmunds Bouldin. Born in Charlotte, Virginia, in 1838, he was the youngest of four children born to James Wood and Almeria Read Kennon Bouldin.
Mr. Bouldin was 23 when the war began. He enlisted and rose quickly in the ranks. He served with distinction throughout the conflict, serving as Captain of the Charlotte Cavalry. Indeed, many books have been written regarding the events of the Civil War in which his name appears.
At the end of the war, Mr. Bouldin returned to Charlotte where he studied law. Eventually he and his brother Powhattan B. Bouldin relocated to Danville where they were living as bachelors together in 1870 (the 1870 Census does not give a specific address). It must have been at some point in this juncture that Edwin met the beautiful Miss Lucy Lyne Edmunds, ten years his junior. They married in 1871, and she joined him in Danville. A year later they welcomed James Wood Bouldin into their family, the first of nine children.
According to Gary Grant in his book, Victorian Danville: Fifty-two Landmarks, Their Architecture and History, it was in 1875 that Bouldin bought the lot of land between Paxton and Gray Streets, having purchased it from the widow of John G. Jefferson. In 1875, Jefferson’s widow sold the lot of land between Paxton and Gray Streets. The house was likely built in the year to two following. By the 1880 Census, Mr. Bouldin was in residence and the lot was divided and a portion of it sold to Paul C. Venable who built the house at 622 Holbrook Avenue.
Mr. and Mrs. Bouldin shared the house with their seven children (they lost one, a boy named Lewis, in infancy) and even rented rooms out to borders. The 1900 census lists thirteen people in total residing in the house, including Joseph L. Edmunds, a 41 year old tobacconist. In 1902, Lucy died. Despite being a decade younger than her husband, she had been beset by ill health for some time and suffered from several unnamed diseases. By contrast, when Mr. Bouldin died suddenly in 1912, his death took his friends, his family, and even the public by surprise. He had been seen to be walking and appeared in good health and spirits the day before.
Following Mr. Bouldin’s death, the home was purchased by tobacconist John Mabrey Edmunds, cousin of former lodger, Joseph Littleton Edmunds with whom he worked in partnership. John, born in 1872 at “Elm Hill” in Birch Creek, Halifax County, was the fifth of nine children born to Thomas Barksdale and Ann Gordon Coleman Edmunds. The Edmunds family were of pioneer Virginia stock and lived for many generations in Halifax County, but by the age of 18 John was living in Danville. He started his career in tobacco with Dibrell Brothers and during his time with that company made a serious study of the tobacco industry. Having acquired a broad knowledge of the business he rose to the position of director and vice-president of the International Planters Corporation. In 1925, he established his own firm of J.M. Edmunds and Company and had offices on Bridge Street and later on Linn Street. Mr. Edmunds travelled extensively studying tobacco
In 1907 John married Mary Agnes Hughes. The couple had eight children. In 1938, at the age of 66, Mr. Edmunds died after an operation following a heart condition. Mrs. Edmunds remained in the house for some time, but by 1945 the property was the home James McCollum, and for about forty years from 1960 until 2000 Peyton W. Barbour called the house home. For the last many years, the property has been vacant. It is presently the property of Gary Lee Johnson of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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
