The house which stands at 1035 Main Street stretches across four lots of land. The original Withers lot was bestowed to E.B. Withers by A.Y. Stokes in 1877, and indeed, Withers and the first iteration of his home appear on the Beers Map of that year.

Elijah Benton Withers was born in Caswell County, North Carolina on December 31, 1836, the sixth of ten children born to Elijah Keen and Nancy Bethell Lawson Withers. Elijah’s father was a planter by trade and had served in both branches of the North Carolina Legislature.

Elijah attended the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1850 with a law degree. His education was conducted under the auspices of Judge William H. Battle (who later served on the North Carolina Supreme Court) and Samuel F. Phillips (who would later be appointed as solicitor general of the United States). With the onset of the Civil War, Elijah was among the first to enlist and joined the Yanceyville Grays. In the course of his service he participated in many of the major battles, including the battle of Sharpsburg. It was there he was seriously injured when a shell struck the ground in front of him, penetrating the earth before exploding. He escaped the flying shrapnel but the shock of the blast left him paralyzed from the waist down, a condition that lasted, thankfully, for only a matter of a few days. His dedication and leadership won him several promotions, and at Chancellorsville he was finally elevated from the rank of Captain to Colonel when the regiment’s commanding officer could not attend the battle (for reasons undisclosed). Captain Withers fought in all the major battles of 1864, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox.

After the war, Withers returned to North Carolina to practice law where he served briefly in the legislature. In 1863 he married Mary Price. She passed away in 1868, and two years later he married her sister Lemma.

In 1876 Captain Withers arrived in Danville. Here he joined the partnership of Withers & Barksdale before forming an enterprise with the eldest of his five children. When Withers died at the age of 62 from dyspepsia (a chronic digestive ailment), that same son, Eugene, carried on the practice. (Eugene later became a member of the Virginia State senate.) Captain Withers’ illness, which was likely longstanding, was kept a secret from the public, and so the news was an unexpected shock to those who read of his passing in the newspaper.

Upon the death of Mr. Withers, the house passed to his wife, Lemma, who remained in the home until her death in 1907. The house then became the property of the Withers’ five children. Over time time several of the siblings transferred their interest in the home to Mary, the eldest daughter (and second child born to the family).

Mary Stokes Withers was born in the family’s Main Street home on January 22, 1881. She was educated in Danville’s public schools and later attended Randolph Macon Institute (now Stratford). She then went on to study at Gunston Hall in Washington, D.C.. She married Alvis Daniel Starling in 1905. Mrs. Starling was a prominent member of Danville society and had memberships in many organizations, including the Ladies Benevolent Society of Memorial Hospital and the West End Garden Club.

Al Starling was the third of eight children born to Thomas and Pamela Starling of Cascade. He came to Danville as a young man and found employment in a local hardware store. He studied the business and eventually formed the Virginia Hardware and Manufacturing Company which made harnesses, saddles, and traces for horse-drawn conveyances. Mr. Starling was considered apolitical and demurred from involvement in any political organization or from offering his opinion on such matters even when sought. He was nevertheless active in the community, offering his time and resources to the Danville Chamber of Commerce. He was involved in the Good Roads Committee and served as chairman in that organization for twenty years. As a part of his affiliation there, he was instrumental in the development of Highway 29.

The Starling family, which included one child, had plenty of room in the spacious Main Street home. Consequently, they partitioned off part of the house so that Mary’s brother, Benton, could have rooms there. For something over twenty years, Benton was a lodger in the family home.

Benton was born October 6, 1882 and attended Danville Military Institute as a boy, graduating with honors. Though he was interested in education and in nature, his business pursuits led him to follow after his brother-in-law in the hardware business, eventually serving as Vice President of the Virginia Hardware Company. On April 23, 1941, Benton, suffering a heart ailment, checked himself into the hospital. He never recovered, and six days later, he passed away.

In the years between 1939 and 1944, a series of pneumonia outbreaks visited themselves upon the residents of Danville. Whether Benton had suffered from the illness is unclear, but it is known that Al Starling was afflicted, and the disease (more virulent then than it is today) left him with a weakened heart. Just four years after his brother-in-law died, Al, too, passed away of a heart ailment that had slowly robbed him of his health and had removed him from the things in life he most enjoyed. When Mrs. Starling passed in May of 1953, also of heart disease, the house became the property of her daughter, Lemma. A few months after her mother’s death, Lemma and her husband, Lawrence Robertson, sold the home to Martin Donelson, a local physician who wished to open a family practice clinic in a part of town that was quickly becoming known for its doctors’, medical, and dental offices which inhabited the Old West End’s historic homes.

Dr. Donelson was born December 29, 1917 in Norfolk, Virginia to Dr. Martin Donelson of Memphis, Tennessee and Virginia Williamson Dance Donelson of Danville (of 137 Holbrook Ave). The couple met while Dr. Donelson, Sr. was stationed in Norfolk during World War I. Dr. Donelson, Jr. was the great grandson of Andrew Jackson Donelson, nephew of President Andrew Jackson.

Dr. Donelson’s father was a career naval officer, and, owing to that, young Martin lived all over the United States and even spent some time in Haiti. He attended Hampden Sydney college and then the Virginia Medical School from which he graduated in 1942. He then followed in his father’s footsteps and served as a naval flight surgeon during World War II. He retired as a captain in the Naval Medical Corps in 1968. In 1953, Dr. Donelson returned with his wife to Danville where they purchased the Withers home and opened a private practice there.

Dr. Donelson’s heart appears to have been with the impoverished. It is said he turned no one away, no matter their lack of means to pay, and he often received produce from local farms in lieu of monetary payment. He participated in many volunteer expeditions to poverty stricken countries, even flying his own plane in order to travel to places like Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Honduras. During the early 1960’s he worked with MEDICO to deliver medical aid to the people of Viet Nam.  He was an activist, as well. When the city closed the Danville Library (then located within the Sutherlin Mansion) Dr. Donelson spearheaded a petition with over 350 signatures demanding that the facility be kept open and that the city abide by desegregation laws. In 1976, he wrote a letter to the Register and Bee protesting that the new YMCA building (then on Main Street) was the only one in the state that continued to turn away minorities. The YMCA integrated within a month of receiving Dr. Donelson’s letter.

                     1915 Sanborn Map                                                               Current City GIS map

Dr. Donelson’s clinic, The Family Clinic of Danville, grew and expanded, eventually consuming the lots of land adjacent to it. Two homes at 1041 and 1043 fell victims to construction of new doctors’ buildings in 1968, and the 1880’s home of Kate Irvin, formerly the home of R.A. Bendall, was demolished sometime in the 1970’s to provide for parking. As you can see from the inset map, the house numbers were irregular from 1915 on when 1033 1/2 became 1029. The property presently occupies lots that included 1035 and 1029.

Dr. Donelson passed away August 13, 2005. The E.B. Withers House is currently home to four office buildings and six apartments.

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
Obituary for Dr. Donelson found at Legacy.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe