Meeting Notes: September 18, 2024

The September 18, 2024, meeting was held in the Westhampton Room, Heilman Dining Center, at the University of Richmond. Members of the University of Richmond’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute also attended.

Bill Welch announced that the Roundtable has recently received the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt organization status under IRC Section 501(c)(3) as a public charity. Donations to the Roundtable are tax deductible.

The evening’s program speaker was Cody Youngblood, MA, who serves as the Director of Historic Preservation & Collections at Red Hill, a home of Patrick Henry now owned by the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation. Henry owned the property from 1794 until his death in 1799. Mr. Youngblood is steward to a collection of over 3,000 artifacts and documents relating to Patrick Henry and participates in archeological activities on the property. Red Hill is located about two miles southeast of Brookneal, Virginia. See https://www.redhill.org/ for further information.

Mr. Youngblood’s presentation, “Unveiling the Past: New Discoveries at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill,” focused on the current (and planned) archeological projects at Red Hill. Red Hill was one of Patrick Henry’s 13 homes and was the one in which he lived last. Originally, the farm consisted of 2,965 acres, on which tobacco, wheat, and corn were cultivated and alcoholic spirits distilled.

Over the years, ownership changes have occurred. This resulted in later buildings being constructed and garden additions, most notably beginning in 1905, those by Lucy Gray Henry Harrison, a great-granddaughter to Patrick Henry. The property was eventually acquired by the Foundation which restored Henry's law office and preserved his grave. It also reconstructed his last home and several dependencies. A new museum was built to provide for interpretation of his life and place in 1976. The museum houses what is now the largest collection of Patrick Henry-related artifacts and memorabilia in the world, representing those acquired by purchase and those acquired by archeological digs. The purpose of this collection is to aid in educating the public about the life, times, philosophy, and contributions made by Henry to America’s posterity.

Mr. Youngblood summarized recent archeological efforts and how those efforts are woven into the Foundation’s interpretive fabric, touching on: test pits, site reports, field data, artifact data, spatial data, and data visualizations.

For a more in-depth account of Patrick Henry, Mr. Youngblood recommended For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry's Final Political Battle by John A. Ragosta, University of Virginia Press.

Patrick Henry is buried at Red Hill alongside his second wife Dorothea Dandridge Henry.

Fred Sorrell

Secretary