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
directions to campus and a 