"Adjoining the Grigsby property, on lands which he had acquired by grant for his military service, John Anderson, Captain in the Revolutionary War, for saking his first settlement in the “Narrows” of Anthony Creek, erected in 1794 a house known at that time as the “Anderson Mansion.” About two and one-half miles east of Lewisburg, it stands on rising ground surrounded by large trees, and facing the Greenbrier River, which a central walkway extending from the front door to the old dirt road. The present Route 60 may be seen as it crosses the bridge at North Caldwell. No doubt, at the time of its construction, this substantial stone house truly seemed a “mansion,” as log buildings were still housing most of the settlers, there being only a few stone houses in the country, and none of brick.

The oldest part is of stone quarried from the near-by mountain, the walls measuring two feet in thickness. Originally there was one story above ground, and one consisting of hallway and three rooms partly below ground. Each basement room has a large stone fireplace, and two of these rooms and the hall are plastered and have wooden floors. The third room has a dirt floor only and may have been used as a kitchen or weaving room. There is a brick addition of later date (built by the son-in-law of Captain Anderson) which added another story to the house, both sections being subsequently covered over with plaster. Finally, large upper and lower screened porches were added across the entire front, entrances were changed, and other alterations made in the interior plan, so that today one would have no conception of its original appearance, were in not for photographs in the possession of descendants, which show the house before any changes were made. Undoubtedly it was then all that its name implies, as well as a stricture capable of serving as a depending fort in case of Indian attack.

Mr. Anderson’s only daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry B. Hunter in 1810. After the death of his wife, Captain Anderson deeded the property, comprising about four hundred acres, to the newly wedded couple, although he continued to make it his home until his death in 1817. The house and its acres remained in the possession of the Hunter family for eighty years, and for that reason is more familiarly known as the Hunter Farm.

Mr. Carter B. Hunter, grandson of Henry B. Hunter, and later owner of the estate, now lives near Old Sweet Springs and is an interesting man with an extensive knowledge of people and events over a long period of years. He has a cabinet filled with Indian relics founded along the Old Seneca Trail, as well as other objects of historic interest. In the same room is also a case filled with guns and horse-show ribbons- and he delights to recall good hunting he has had and the fine horses he has owned.

Mr. Hunter is the possessor of very large and extremely handsome mirror, with elaborate carved gold frame, which was purchased in Virginia before the Civil War by his grandfather, Henry B. Hunter, who brought it part way by canal and the rest of the distance to Greenbrier by ox team. It adorned the walls of his home. Anderson Mansion, until his death, when it was sold at auction in the settlement of the Hunter estate. Later, at another auction, it found its way back to the Hunter family through its purchase by the present owner. The Mansion, so near the old James River and Kanawha Turnpike, witness the construction of that road in 1824. When the Civil War came, It saw the passing of armies with all their equipment; it was in sight of the fighting near the old covered bridge, and saw the bridge set on fire by the retreating Confederates. After the war the Hunter family operated a ferry until another covered bridge was built, which in time the old house also saw demolished to make room for one of steel. It saw the houses and stagecoaches disappear, and finally the new Route 60 constructed and filled with constant stream of motor cars. What a transformation from the days of 1808, when Colonel John Stuart, Colonel Charles Arbuckle. And Captain Anderson enjoyed the distinction of owning the only three carriages in Greenbrier County!

In 1899 the C & O Railway, contemplation construction of a spur through this farm, purchased the property. The plans were changed, however, and the farm was not used. Although it is still owned by the railway company and the house occupied by its tenants."

Images above provided by the Greenbrier Historical Society. 

Military Mansion

White Sulphur Sentinel
Friday, November 15, 1940
By
Mark Hankins

“The four hundred acre farm on which this old house stands has property of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company since 1899. The tract was purchased in connection with the construction of the Greenbrier Sub-Division, which extends northeasterly for one hundred miles across Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties.

The railroad was to turn through the approximate center of the property, and the farm was acquired in its entirety as a prospective industrial site.

On, January, 7 1761, John Anderson was married to Elizabeth T. Davis. With the outbreak of the revolutionary war, he volunteered in the Colonial Army and was ultimately raised to the rank of Captain. For the services thus rendered the Government saw fit to give him a large tract of land in what was then Augusta County, Virginia, between the nearby settlements of Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs.

A modern brick building has a lifetime of fifty and seventy-five years, yet they stand willing at North Caldwell has withstood the buffetings of wintry winds, the successful periods of ice and snow that are found at an elevation of nineteen hundred feet in the Allegheny Mountains and remains a remarkable state of preservation after the passage of century and a half. As this written, the old mansion comfortably house is the family of the farmer who leases it from the Railway Company, and who busily engages himself in the cultivation of the farm.

 Cole's “History of Greenbrier County” records that “Captain Anderson built at this place a stone house with the walls of sufficient strength and thickness to withstand an assault of the Indians, who were still a foe to guard against. In the yard in front of this place is an Indian mound which has never been opened… Here he spent the remaining years of his life, dying in 1817 his wife preceding him in 1811.

Few alterations have been made in the original plan of the house, although a section of the brick has been added at the rear. Three stories in height, the bottom story is now used chiefly as a basement for storage purposes, whereas during the slave holding area served at a kitchen. Including the basement floor, there are nine rooms. all of generous proportions, and each provided with an open fireplace. There are five porches the second and third story porches in the front commanding a sweeping view of Valley and the beautiful Greenbrier River. 

The sight selected is on a slight promontory, near the front of a long mountain that rises gracefully in the rear of the house for a distance of several hundred feet.  The outside stone walls measure a full two feet in thickness, so construction in order to provide a proper defense against the possibility of Indian attacks, and through these is at hand no record of any such unpleasantness with the Red Men, the same walls now  provide perfect insulation against the cold blast of winter or the heart of the summer sun.

Delving further into the history of this old home, we found that Elizabeth Grafton Anderson, a daughter of Captain Anderson, was married to Henry B. Hunter of Augusta County on January 31, 1810, and then Captain following the death of his own beloved wife in the years following, deeded the property to the newly wedded couple. The house and it's acres remained in the possession of the Hunter family for the rest of the century and for this reason is still known as the hunter farm. The James River and Kanawha Turnpike was being extended across the mountains from Lexington, Virginia, eventually reaching its final terminus at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, at the junction of Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. In the light of our present day system of highways running in every direction it is easy to lose sight of the importance of the turnpike that provided the first real means of transportation to a rapidly growing West. That it was well located is attested by the fact that U.S. Highway 60 follows the name route almost identically. And so the Hunter family saw this turnpike, largely built by slave labor, pass within a stone's throw of their house in the year 1824.  Forty years of tranquility ensued.  The year 1864 brought War Between the States, when the blue and gray clad armies pursued their courses alternately up and down this heavily travel trade route.

The rapid tread of marching feet was followed by the louder rumbling noises created by the passage of the heavy wheels of artillery, ammunition cassons  and supply trains as they passed over the old wooden, covered bridge in view of the Hunter domicile.

On one occasion the bridge was burned in an effort to halt a Federal advance on Lewisburg, and after the war a ferry was operated by the Hunters until a second covered wooden bridge was erected. This, too, has recently given way to the present structure of concrete and steel that serves to bridge the gap of time and also the clear and sparkling waters of the Greenbrier that flow serenely onward, unmindful of the occasional turbulence of the course of human events. Meanwhile, the ownership of the estate has become vested in the two sons of the next generation. Both enlisted in the Confederate Army, where Henry reach the rank of Commissary General and served with distinction of throughout the war. Narrowly escaping death upon numerous occasions. 

 John Anderson Hunter, a graduate in medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, had enlisted as surgeon, but his outstanding qualities and persistent attention to duty, led to his being appointed Medical Director.  Henry Fielding Hunter became the father of 2 sons and two daughters. One of these, Carter Braxton Hunter now makes his home a few miles away in Virginia and Sweet Chalybeate near Old Sweet Springs. Another son Frank Hunter of Marlinton W. Va., now deceased, and Mrs. B. L. Traynham  of Sweet Springs, W. Va. and Mrs. B. F. Eakle of  Fort Worth Texas.

With a memory undimmed by the passage of time and a mind replete with the pleasant recollections of his early life spent in the beloved… Greenbrier.. Valley, Carter B. Hunter has very kindly furnished the information for this article.---Author 

The above article was used with the permission of the.. C&O Lines Magazine for November.”

During the ongoing research of the Anderson Mansion and piecing together bits and pieces of information. One document titled “Letter from Mrs. Bell”. (See below) provided by the Greenbrier Historical Society has proven extremely beneficial in unlocking three major hidden secrets. It mentions a book titled “A Southern Home in War Times” written by Rose Harlow Warren, the daughter of a Confederate soldier who spent eighteen months in a federal prison camp, grew up in Lewisburg and married George William Warren of Union. In 1914, Rose published " A Southern Home in War Times," in which she describes to my understanding what her mother's life was like living on the plantation mansion (The Oaks/Anderson Mansion) during the Civil War. Rose Harlow Warren (1881-1949) was born in Lewisburg, daughter of Benjamin Franklin Harlow and Henrietta Clay Renick Harlow, on January 4, 1868. Her father was a lawyer and founder of The Greenbrier Independent, a weekly newspaper published in Lewisburg.

In addition to the discovery of the book, the Anderson Mansion went by an additional name, The Oaks. This is key information to understanding an additional book mentioned within the letter titled “Renick’s of Greenbrier” which lists the Genealogical record of many that had associations or even yet been born at “The Oaks” with small biographies. By mentioning the book “Renick’s of Greenbrier” we can find a photograph (see above) of Dr. Henry Fielding Hunter, his wife Mary Caroline Renick, and her parents.  

Click below to read her book for free. 

Click the button below to be redirected to the Hunter Cemetery page. 

Below is a pin location of the approximant location of where the Anderson Manion sat before it was razed.