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Moving - Laurel Hill, Virginia

If you are looking for a local moving company to relocate you in or out of Laurel Hill, VA, we can help you.  Movers USA’s moving services include packing, crating, moving, and storage if you need some time to search for your new home.

To help familiarize you with this fine neighborhood, please read our brief history about Laurel Hills, VA.  It’s interesting.

A Brief History of Laurel Hill, Virginia

The land along the Ararat River was home to Native peoples speaking a variation of the Siouan language long before anyone related to Jeb Stuart ever set foot in North America. Artifacts from these peoples have been found and are displayed as part of the interpretation at the site.

The story of Jeb Stuart begins at Laurel Hill in the year of 1778 with the marriage of William Letcher and Elizabeth Perkins in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Soon after the wedding, the couple presumably decided to go west in search of a new home. West in those days, generally meant Kentucky, so during this journey, which undoubtedly was most difficult, one could readily surmise that when they came to the foot of the mountains, and saw the beautiful, pristine stream that is today the Ararat River, they decided to settle upon its banks. It is possible that Letcher moved to the area to be source of leadership for the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.

Letcher, along with the slaves that he owned at during the family's occupancy built his home and began a subsistence farm. The names of the slaves that worked building and planting at various times have come down to us. They were: David, Ben, Randolph, Craft, Nann, Look, Abraham, Will and Dick. The home is believed to have been situated on the west bank of the Ararat River across from the site of Stuart's birthplace. There is no evidence that William Letcher ever owned the property, and if he did the deed was never recorded.

On March 21, 1780, a daughter Bethenia was born to William and Elizabeth Letcher. Tragedy would soon strike the young family, for on the second day of August 1780, William Letcher was shot and killed by one "Nichols' a Tory or British sympathizer. Of the many oral and traditional accounts of the murder, which vary widely, it is generally agreed that his murder was politically motivated. Nichols was subsequently apprehended and paid for his crime with his life. Later Elizabeth would take her young child and return to Henry County where she would later marry George Hairston of the Beavercreek Plantation, who was by all odds the richest man in Virginia of his time. By 1800, Bethenia married David Pannill, by whom she bore two children William and Elizabeth named for their maternal grandparents. Elizabeth would become the mother of James Ewell Brown Stuart.

Through a series of complex land transactions, William and Elizabeth Letcher Pannill found themselves the owners of approximately 1500 acres of land, which was to comprise the future plantation called Laurel Hill. In a series of land swaps, Elizabeth traded with her brother William, certain land she held in partnership with him in Campbell and Pittsylvania counties, and she became the sole owner of the Patrick County property.

In 1817, Elizabeth Pannill at the age of 16 married Archibald Stuart. Archibald, age 22 was just then beginning a career in politics and in law. After the marriage the family lived in Campbell County Virginia where Archibald was elected to the state legislature for the first time. In the ensuing four years, the Stuarts had produced three daughters and a son, none of whom were born on the Patrick County property. By October of 1823, Archibald had journeyed to Patrick County where he was granted a license to practice law, and may have begun arrangements to bring his family to Patrick County.

It is not certain just when construction started on the home that was to be called Laurel Hill, however most agree that it was completed by 1830. It was in this home that the first child of Laurel Hill was born, William Alexander Stuart. Six more children were to see the first light of day at Laurel Hill including the seventh child and youngest surviving son, James Ewell Brown Stuart, who was born at eleven a.m. on the 6th of February 1833.

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