Chimney Remains
Graystone Community, Henry County, Virginia
by: James C. Hankins

This is all that remains of the 1st home of William Daniel Hankins & his wife Bessie Claire Rice. However, it's unknown if Willie built this home or if it was once lived in by an earlier relative. It was located about 1/4 mile off the main road, slightly NW of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church. It was very near a largish ravine, that separated the fields from a sloping treeling, and the ravine shallowed out as it approached the spring about 300 yards away. It was so remote that their home was overlooked in the 1910 census. Since 2001 the chimney has completely fell. Dotted along the ravine are Hedge Apple trees. I recall always wondering about the green, hard, and knobby softball size fruit of this tree as I'd never seen it before; I've since learned that it is indigidous to Texas, but with the largest and oldest strangely living in Virginia, and that the wood is quite valuable <yellowish>, and the hard green fruit is as close to coal as anything can get. The house was essentially one room on the ground floor, porch, chimney fireplace, and a narrow stairway on the East wall to the attic area that was used for sleeping. At night, it was a very dark and quiet area; as a youngster, while sleeping at the tobacco barn during curing time, it was a bit scary knowing that there was no one else living closeby. The significance of this chimney is that it's where my Dad's next older brother, Danuel Conrad, as a toddler had his nightshirt catch fire and he died. Grandma was in the latter stages of her pregnancy with my Dad, and Willie was probably out on the farm. Grandma needed water from the spring, so she left the eldest, Emma, about 6, to look after her brother until she got back. The room was small and somehow Danuel got too close to the fireplace; his gown caught fire, and before Grandma could get back, he had died. Grandma told how she heard Emma calling, but her pregnancy slowed her return and she was too late. Late in Emma's life, while invalid and with dementia, her daughter Kitty told me that she'd heard her mom say "I was too young", and we presume she was referring to the time when her brother died from the fire. Oddly, Grandma blamed my Dad for Danuel's death, and plainly told us that she held it again my Dad for many years, and Dad remembered the blame too as he was growing up. Such heavy burdens to carry throughout one's life.