Paxton Origins
In his excellent book, If Streets Could Talk (available on Amazon), Dr. R. Lee Wayland tells much about the Paxton family. John W. Paxton was born in Rockbridge County in 1786. As a young man, he learned the jewelry art and trade in Lexington, Virginia. He arrived here in the area then known as Wynn’s Falls in 1812.
John W. Paxton opened a silversmith shop on the north side of Main Street just above Market Street. He also was an owner of the Red Castle Tavern located at the corner of Main and Union Streets.
In 1815, he married Sarah Coleman Price and with her had four sons and two daughters. Two of those sons, Daniel James Paxton and William Coalter Paxton, would one day operate their father’s silversmith shop.
In 1833, John W. Paxton was among the twelve men elected to the governing body of the Town of Danville – one of our founding fathers. Two streets were named in his honor – Paxton Avenue extending from Jefferson Street to Holbrook Avenue, and Paxton Street from Holbrook to South Main Street.
In 1858, he conveyed two acres of land with 355 feet on Main Street to his son William Coalter Paxton. That land is now numbered 815 through 847 Main Street. John W. Paxton passed in 1865.
In 1852, William Coalter (W.C.) Paxton married Harriet H. Ware Burton, a widow who had a son from a previous marriage – one F.X. Burton. On the parcel of land from his father, W.C. built a home at 821 Main Street – the location of the present Episcopal parking lot. Together, W.C. and Harriet had five children including John Wardlaw Paxton in 1866.
John Wardlaw Paxton, D.D.
John Wardlaw (J.W.) Paxton (1866-1934) was a grandson of Danville’s founding father. After achieving his Doctor of Divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary and his missionary training, he began his missionary service in China in 1892. As the most populous country in the world, China was a target for the missionary movement despite its resistance to such efforts. Paxton’s work there was supported in part by the Old West End’s First Presbyterian Church, then in their building at 200 Jefferson Avenue. He also received assistance from his sister-in-law, another devout Presbyterian, the wealthy Alice Shelton Burton at 723 Main Street.
Other Presbyterian missionaries to China at the time included Absalom Sydenstricker and his wife Caroline. They arrived with their 4-month-old daughter Pearl, who also served as a missionary there until 1934. Pearl is known to us today by her married name, Pearl Buck, and as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”
J.W. Paxton married another missionary, Una Edith Hall, in China in 1898. While J.W. and Una were on leave because of China’s Boxer Rebellion, and while making their way to Danville, their only son, John Hall Paxton, was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1899. Though born in Illinois, Hall Paxton, as he was called, also considered himself a Danvillian.
The Boxer Rebellion violently attacked foreigners in China as well as Chinese who were Christian converts. An estimated 189 protestant missionaries (including children) were killed as well as 2,000 Chinese Christians. An eight-nation force, including U.S. Marines, crushed the rebellion in 1901.
During his time in the United States because of the rebellion, Rev. Paxton addressed many Presbyterian congregations about his missionary work including Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. He also served as a supply (temporary) pastor to Presbyterian congregations in the United States. He began at the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington, North Carolina, in October 1900. From there, he, his wife Una, and son Hall, served at the supply pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Selma, Alabama, from March through June 1901. Interestingly, the Selma congregation called Rev. William R. Laird, then serving in Danville, to permanently staff their pulpit. The Paxton family returned to Danville briefly before departing again for China.
By 1921, J.W. and Una adopted a daughter, Virginia Ware Paxton, born in 1910. She first married Gordon Matlock in 1930 and had two children. She then married William McClenahan and had a son William Hall Paxton McClenahan named for her husband and her brother.
When China again became torn by communist revolutionary strife in 1927, missionaries J. W. and Una Paxton retired here to Danville, purchasing a home at 284 Carolina Avenue after a total of 37 years abroad.
Rev. Paxton remained active as a speaker until a stroke in 1932. Heart failure claimed him on December 21, 1934. Una Hall Paxton passed on July 12, 1955. John and Una are together in Green Hill Cemetery.
Read Part 2 — The Young Hall Paxton.
Very interesting-