In September of 1881, Morris J. Fox transferred to the trustees of the Cottage Building Association of Danville, a lot of land on Chestnut Street in order to secure the funds to erect a home on said lot of land. It is safe to suppose, therefore, that the home was built by 1882.

Morris Fox was born Maurice James Fox on the 27^th of August 1828 in Frankfurt, Germany. He emigrated to the United States as a young man and was living in New York earning money as a “peddler” at the age of 19. By 1866 he was in Virginia where he met and married his wife, Jane Semon, who herself was originally from New York. The couple arrived in Danville that same year, and the following year their first child, Harry, was born. Five additional sons would follow.

Mr. Fox worked as a dry goods merchant in Danville and later as a tobacco buyer. The couple moved to the Chestnut street property from their home on Green Street.

The family resided in the home for about five years before Mr. Fox defaulted on the terms of his loan. The property went up for auction to be purchased by J.M. Neal, presumably as investment property. Neal sold the home in 1891 for $1,650 to Henry I. and Josephine Solomons. There is no record of the Solomons ever living here, so it is possible that it was, for them, an investment property as it was for Colonel Neal. Eight years after purchasing the home, they, too, defaulted on the loan, and the property once more went up for auction. The high bid went to Albert J. Perkinson, who owned the property for a mere eighteen months before it was sold to Mary E. Howard, who owned the property from 1901 until 1905. The property changed hands two more times in the six years that followed until, in 1911, it was purchased by Irma Lea Graves.

Among the renters of the property during the period prior to Mrs. Graves’ ownership and occupancy were Warren Dottamead Reese and his wife Leona Rodenizer Reese. Leona was the granddaughter of Caspar Rodenizer, an ironworker who found his success in Danville while supplying armory to the Confederacy during the Civil War. Rodenizer Street, off of the once busy Worsham Street, was named after him. Mr. Reese was a train engineer. The family were in the house only a couple of years before they moved to Capron in Southhampton County where the couple spent the rest of their lives.

James Murry, a local grocer, also lived in the home for a time around 1910. He shared the home with his wife Addie and their four daughters.

In 1920, the home was occupied by its first owner occupants on record since Mr. Fox’s residence. Irma Graves was an unmarried woman holding property of her own in 1911. A stenographer for an insurance company, she shared the home with her father, William, who, like Mr. Murry, worked as a grocer. Since the 1920 Census indicates that Mr. Graves was the owner of the home, it’s possible Irma was owner in name only, a legal device men of business often employed to protect their real property from the threat of loss should a business enterprise go under. It is probably no coincidence that the family moved here shortly after the death of Irma’s mother. Besides her father, Irma shared the house with her brother, Henry, a tobacco leaf dealer, her sister Mary, and niece, Adeline Harrison. The Graves owned the home until 1921, but the new owner, W.O. Williams, owned the home for only two years before he sold it to Thomas and Sula Edwards who acquired the property in 1923.

Thomas Edwards was 34 when he purchased the home. Not much is known about Mr. Edwards except that he was a railway man. The couple shared the home with their daughter Harriett Jo who spent her childhood there. The family lived in the home for just over seven years before hard times befell them. The home, finding itself once more in foreclosure, stood vacant for three years as it passed from one bank to another and was at last purchased in 1935 by Berkeley and Hettie Pollock, after which the house once more became rental property.

In 1942, the property became the home of Jesse and Carol O’Dell. The O’Dell’s came to the Chestnut Street property from 820 Green Street where they rented rooms along with four other families.

Mr. O’Dell was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina on September 10^th, 1889 and arrived in Danville when he was about eighteen. Mr. O’Dell worked in antique furniture, selling and restoring and reupholstering. The O’Dell’s occupied the home for many years. In 1957, Mrs. O’Dell died. Mr. O’Dell remained in the home until his own death in 1972. In the years just prior to his death, his niece, Bessie Sheridan moved in to help take care of him, and it was to her the home passed after his death.

In 1992, after many years of vacancy, the home was sold by Jacqueline Sheridan to Fred and Laura Meder who have meticulously restored this charming cottage.

* Be sure to read the companion piece on Dr. Ann Garbett (which includes after photos).

Sources:

Featured image by Lois MacFadden
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