I102404: Elizabeth R. BROOKS (26 Apr 1804

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George Blake Cosby, Jr, b Sept 7, 1866, Chico, California m April 30, 1902, Mary Elizabeth O'Neill, dau of the late Arthur W. O'Neill of Sacramento. There were no children of this marriage

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"V. Frances Fielding Lewis((5)) (Fielding((4)), Warner((3)), John((2)), Robert((1))), daughter of Fielding Lewis and Agnes Harwood, his wife. Married Archibald Taylor, of Norfolk, Va. Issue: " ^[S2693]

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Robert Brooke's home: "In 1801, the house was purchased by Thomas Reade Rootes, a local lawyer. It was Rootes who named the property "Federal Hill," presumably reflecting the then heated national debate between Federalists and Republicans. Rootes, an ardent believer in a strong central government, may also have been making a strong political statement, knowing that Robert Brooke had been Virginia's leading Republican or Anti-Federalist.

Rootes lived at Federal Hill with his wife, Sarah, and seven children for a decade. (The 1810 census also noted seven slaves at Federal Hill.) The death of his wife and his daughter Mary in 1811, however, brought winds of change. The following year, Rootes remarried and moved part of his family to Richmond, the home of his new wife. By 1812, a young ladies' school had opened in Federal Hill.

In 1815, Rootes and his neighbor, Daniel Grinnan, subdivided their contiguous properties to create a new suburb, called New Town. At this time, Hanover Street was finally extended westward through the grounds of Federal Hill until it merged with George Street. Federal Hill and five surrounding lots sold quickly in 1815. By 1818, all of the New Town lots had been sold.

Federal Hill passed through several owners over the next four decades. On the eve of the Civil War, it was purchased by Howson Wallace, a young self-made merchant who lived there with his wife and two children.

On December 13, 1862, thousands of Federal troops marched by Federal Hill on Hanover Street, stopping in Brooke's old "meadow" before their attacks on the stone wall by Sunken Road. At least one artillery battery - the 1st Rhode Island, Tompkin's Battery A - "had a good position near Hanover St., in the suburbs, and [Capt. Arnold] used his rifle guns effectively in silencing different [Confederate] batteries." (Official Records, Series I, Vol. 21, p. 264, Washington, 1888). The house itself was used as a field hospital for Union soldiers, the drawing room serving as the operating room. Later owners, the Lanier's, recalled digging thousands of musket balls, cannister shot, and cannon balls out of the house's plaster and beams. They uncovered not only evidence of 125 direct hits, but of floors stained with blood and burned by coal fires used to sterilize instruments (Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/17/1968). Outside, defensive trenches were left at the crest of the hill west of the house.

Across the mill race, defending the Sunken Road, was Major General Thomas R. Rootes Cobb of Georgia, grandson of Thomas Reade Rootes. Ironically, his brigade was firing in the direction of the mansion where his mother, Sarah Rootes Cobb, had grown up. He was mortally wounded in the afternoon of December 13, almost certainly by shrapnel from Union artillery firing from the town (see David L. Preston, "The Death of General Cobb," in Civil War Regiments, Vol. 4, No. 4, Campbell, Cal.: Regimental Studies, 1995).

In contrast, Howson Wallace survived the war, though Federal Hill was scarred. By 1870 his household had grown to include six children, and he managed to pay off his mortgage during the depressed economic period of Reconstruction.

Wallace sold Federal Hill in 1887. It again passed through several hands in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century before being purchased by Mrs. Harriet W. Wight and her daughter, Theodora, in 1905. Theodora married John May Keim of Philadelphia in November of 1905, and Mrs. Wight purchased her daughter's share of the property.

Mrs. Wight proved to be an owner dedicated to renovating and improving her home. Over the next twelve years, she undertook numerous projects, adding a second story to the addition at the south end of the house, converting the attic of the main house into a livable third floor by installing four roof dormers, enlarging a first floor kitchen, and moving the gazebo in the yard to a new location. Harriet Wight died at Federal Hill on May 3, 1917. She was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, by the side of her husband. In her will, she left the property to her executors, only "for the use and benefit of my daughter Theodora for and during her lifetime, absolutely free from any dominion or control of her husband or husbands." Theodora and John Keim resided at Federal Hill until his death in 1945. A year later, citing the fact that Theodora had no children and the house was beginning to deteriorate, the executors sold the property to Dr. & Mrs. Richard Lanier.

Born in Milledgeville, Georgia in 1896, Richard Lanier moved to Fredericksburg in 1913 when his father, the Reverend J. J. Lanier became rector of St. George's Episcopal Church. Richard Lanier and his wife Elizabeth Graves, returned to Fredericksburg in 1922, a year after he received his degree in dentistry from the Medical College of Virginia.

A practicing dentist, he served on Fredericksburg City Council, and led "a virtual one-man campaign to secure a new memorial in Fredericksburg to Confederate Sgt. Richard Kirkland, `the angel of Marye's Heights'" (obituary, The Free Lance-Star, 4/13/1964). His wife managed his dental office. Both Mr. & Mrs. Lanier were very active in civic affairs.

Their greatest love, however, was Federal Hill itself. They devoted themselves to restoring the deteriorating mansion to its former beauty and elegance. They removed porches on the east and west facades added in the nineteenth century, engaged in structural repairs of the foundation and interior beams, added more dormers on the roof, and replaced radiators with radiant hot water pipes embedded in the plaster."

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5 Cleo C. TINSLEY b: 1845

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Some loose Tripletts Grouped here for Research purposes - relationship of kids on this card to each other is not determined yet, but each ones descendants are. please write [email protected].

My Southern Family

Elizabeth R. BROOKS

26 Apr 1804 - 28 Jan 1866

ID Number: I102404

Sources

Abigail CAWSON

ABT 1710 - ____

ID Number: I1765

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Frances CONERLY

1783 - ____

ID Number: I35155

Sources

George Blake COSBY Jr.

7 Sep 1866 - ____

ID Number: I79218

Notes

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Roberta Leona GUERRANT

24 Jul 1900 - 9 Dec 1962

ID Number: I31834

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LEONOR de GUZMAN

____ - ____

ID Number: I104774

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William Henry HODGES

26 Feb 1855 - 31 Aug 1933

ID Number: I27918

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Frances Fielding LEWIS

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I70530

Notes

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Sarah MOSELEY

ABT 1770 - ____

ID Number: I68984

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Fanny Lee PEARSON

Thomas Reade ROOTES II

1763 - 1824

ID Number: I60359

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Cleo C. TINSLEY

1845 - ____

ID Number: I83134

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Sources

(RESEARCH FAMILY GROUP) TRIPLETT

____ - ____

ID Number: I22551

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