The house at 826 Green Street was built in 1893 for John A. Yancey. Mr. Yancey was born in 1867 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, the third of five children born to Roland and Salina Francis Harris Yancey. It’s uncertain when Mr. Yancey arrived in Danville, but he was a young man when he and his brother formed a grocery partnership which operated on Patton Street. In 1893, when he had his home on Green Street built, he was merely 26. His brother, Thomas, was four years his junior.

The brothers, it seems, struggled with depression, and in 1897, Thomas took an overdose of the alcohol and opiate mixture laudanum and died. Two years later, in March of 1900, John did the same, leaving behind his wife, Kate, of only two months. Following her husband’s death, Kate sold the Green Street home to Samuel D. Rickman.

Born in 1866, Mr. Rickman spent his early years in Patrick County, Virginia. In 1899 he married first generation American Nannie Grace Friedell whose parents came to the United States from Germany. The couple had two children while living in the Green Street home, Bertha Friedell Rickman and Samuel Dobyns Rickman, Jr. Mr. Rickman was employed as a dispatcher for the Danville & Western Railroad, affectionately known as the “Dick and Willie”. On November 7 of 1919, Mr. Rickman was walking late at night along Main Street at the corner of Jefferson when a car, blinded by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, ran onto the sidewalk and struck him. Mr. Rickman, suffering from a fractured skull was taken to the hospital where he died two months later.

Following Mr. Rickman’s death, his wife sold the home to John and Hettie Hutson. Mr. Hutson, born in 1868, was a native of Danville and was employed as a leaf tobacco dealer in an enterprise he held in partnership with his several sons. On August 4, 1926, Mr. Rickman’s wife, Hettie, fell suddenly ill as a result of some sort of toxic poisoning, the source of which was never identified. She passed away later that afternoon. Following her death, the property passed to her son who sold it two years later to Moss W. Turner.

Moss Wesley Turner was a native of Henry County, Virginia. It’s unclear when he arrived in Danville, but the 1900 census identifies him living on Jefferson Street with his family. In 1904 he married Dora Simpson. The couple had one child, Russel H. Turner, with whom they shared the house. In 1958, Mrs. Turner died suddenly and the house was sold and became rental property for the many years that followed, changing hands and occupants often until the house was at last condemned for demolition following a fire. In 2007, the home was rescued from demolition by architect Richard Morris. In 2013, the house became the property of Bill and Liz Hagan who have maintained the beautiful home since that time.

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 archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe