Embedded Files
Andy Willis (R) and his band
Contact Mitch Willis to be invited to tree
Fryling Ancestry to another level
Take a look at the Ted and Floss Willis
Homestead as it was in the 1940's
A Virginia B&B and Romantic Inn (c.1859)
Orange, Virginia
THE WILLIS PLANTATION
Construction on the Mayhurst Manor House began in 1859, just two years before the Civil War. Undoubtedly it was the most fashionable home in Orange county at the time. The house was built in the latest style, Italianate. It is not known who designed the four story Italianate home. An educated guess is a Baltimore architect, Mr. Starkweather, who designed Camden on the northern neck. The similarities are remarkable; even to the marble mantles and the elaborate window and door trim.
Colonel John Willis, great nephew of President James Madison, was 50 years old when he built the mansion for his family of 8 children. It would be his "full tide of prosperity", said his daughter. The Willis plantation raised corn, cattle, hogs and horses. Fifty enslaved African-Americans worked the fields, and tended to the needs of the Willises. The very fertile Davidson soil provided bountiful harvests and the plantation prospered.
Unfortunately, Colonel Willis lost his home and at least 1700 of his 2500 acres in 1868. He had supported the Confederacy very generously and was unable to pay taxes. It was purchased by a Northern carpetbagger sent by the Federal government to administer the county. An original 110 year old copy of his obituary, found in the attic in 1996 and now hanging in the front hall, states "He bore the loss of his wealth with a philosophical fortitude that almost amounted to indifference, and no one can say that they ever heard a murmur escape his lips that having been rich he had become poor." He is buried at Montpelier.
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