For three generations, the Thomas A. Fox family owned and operated one of Danville’s most prominent businesses.
Thomas Fox the elder was born in Campbell County, Virginia in 1817. At the age of seventeen, he took employment with Sampson Diuguid, a cabinet maker and undertaker in Lynchburg. In 1841, he married Martha R. Talbot of Lynchburg, the couple would have seven children together.
A year later, in 1842, Thomas struck out on his own and established a cabinet making and undertaking business in Halifax Court House. When war broke out between the states, he enlisted and served for four years under Colonel Stovall as a courier.
Fox arrived in Danville in 1874 and set up business. He and his family resided at 521 Main Street, and it’s probable that the business and his home occupied one building, as was often the case for undertakers at the time. By 1920, Mr. Fox was operating his business out of the commercial level of the Leland Hotel.
Apart from his funeral enterprise, the elder Mr. Fox served in the Virginia Sate Legislature and held memberships in the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the First Baptist Church. When Mr. Fox passed away in 1890, son Thomas Sr. took over the business. Thomas was born at Halifax Court House in November of 1859 and was assisting his father in the cabinet shop and undertaking business by the time he was 14.
The younger Mr. Fox married Willie A. Raines of Danville in November of 1881. Miss Raine’s father was a confectioner and a tailor. She attended the Baptist Female College, later know as the Roanoke Female College, now Averett University. The family, including their five children, lived on Rison Street. It was Thomas, Sr. who had the funeral chapel built at 631-633 Main Street in 1922. The structure still stands today, though it has been partially enclosed by the present building. The cross that sits atop the crest of the former façade is still visible above the present roofline. The building was situated next door to Townes Funeral home and it was not uncommon for the two enterprises to assist each other in their business, which proved to be more profitable than standing in competition of one another.
Thomas Sr., besides his full time career as funereal director, was a director of the Union Mutual Building & Loan Association of Danville, the Virginia and National Funeral Directors Associations, and the state Board of Embalmers. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and for fourteen years he served on the Danville City Council.
Thomas Sr. passed away in 1931, leaving the business to his son, Thomas A. Fox, Jr.. Thomas, Jr. was born in Danville in 1894 and attended high school a the Danville School for Boys (later known as the Danville Military Institute). He went on to study at Richmond College (now University of Richmond) from which he graduated in 1920. He prepared himself for the undertaking business when he attended Ranouard’s School of Embalming in New York City. For several years he occupied an apartment at the Watts Apartment Building at 860 Green Street.
Thomas Jr., served in the first world war, enlisting in 1917 and was in stationed in France for eleven months. He received an honorable discharge in June of 1919. Upon returning home, he rejoined his father’s business as partner. Thomas, Jr. Married Mattie Viola Litton of Duffield VA in November of 1927.
For a time, in the 1930’s, the funeral home was located on Loyal Street. The Main Street building became a flower shop in 1934. The 1941 city directory identifies Fox Jr. as the director of Wrenn-Yeatts funeral home. Eventually Fox’s enterprise merged with Swicegood (now Swicegood-Barker Funeral Services) and they consolidated their location at 564 West Main Street in the former home of C.M. Weber.
Sources include:
Virginia: Rebirth of the Old Dominion, Philip Alexander Bruce, 1929
Swicegood-Barker History
