Thank you   Paul Drake and Mason Woodson

If I might add  my notes to this interesting  discussion re Powder
Mills and Benjamin Clement.

========================================================
Mr. Benjamin Clement lived on Staunton River at "Clement Hill" (now
owned by John Hurt, Jr.), and was an old man of some seventy five
years. Captain Clement and Col. Lynch were neighbors, and together
succeeded in producing a gun powder of good quality. And since the
first efforts to make it were at "Clement Hill," it is more than
probably that the mill that turned out 50 pounds a day was also
located there, and on Sycamore Creek, which divided the plantation.

Captain Benjamin Clement, born 1700, was the son of William Clement
of King William County, who in 1735 patented
1,225 acres in Amelia County and moved with his family to the latter.
William Clement was justice of the peace and
sheriff of Amelia.

Benjamin Clement married Susanna Hill, daughter of Col. Isaac Hill of
King and Queen Co. and moved with his family to
Pittsylvania (then Lunenburg) in 1748, establishing his home at
Clement Hill, a sharp knoll overlooking Staunton River.
The knoll was an excellent site for a pioneer settlement in the
wilderness, for its elevation commanded a view of the river
and countryside around and could be well defended against marauding
bands of Indians. Captain Clement died in 1780
and is buried at the foot of Clement Hill; his estate was appraised
at L27,604.

The old mansion house at Clement Hill, with its corner fireplaces,
typifies a very early period of architecture. Charles
Clement, a son of Adam and Agnes Clement inherited the place; in 1803
he married Miss Nancy Hanby of Patrick and
made his home there. The property passed into the possession of John
L. Hurt, through his marriage with Nannie
Clement, granddaughter of Charles Clement, Sr., and daughter of
Charles Clement, Jr., and his wife Lucy [Ann] Hunt.

 From "The Writings of Maude Carter Clement":

When Halifax was cut off from Lunenburg in 1752, Clement Hill lay
within the new county, with the county seat
Peytonsburg, only about twenty miles distant. Benjamin was so named a
justice of the peace with the duty of presiding
over the monthly county courts. In 1756 he was reappointed and
ordered to take the list of tithables (i.e. the tax list), in his
own district, as he had formerly done.

 From the Mann Collection:

Clement Hill changed hands in 1869, when it was bought by the husband
of one of the several heirs, Nannie Clement. He
was John Lynn Hurt, then clerk of the Circuit Court, with the title
of Major. He had a colorful nephew, also named John
L. Hurt, who inherited the property in 1920 and developed the village
into a full-fledged town. Later he deeded Clement
Hill to the town of Hurt, if it became incorporated. This took place
in 1967, and the property is now open to the public
  =================================================
pjd
11/24/05


On Nov 24, 2005, at 8:14 AM, Mason Woodson wrote:

> I thought this information might be interesting.
>
> This information was completed by the WPA of VA. HISTORICAL
> INVENTORY #156
> several pages plus photographs, but none of the photo's I have show
> this
> building.
>
> At Hurt, VA. on Route #29 in Pittsylvania, County.
>
> At the rear of the house lower down on the hillside is a unique little
> house built back in the hill. The front is built very attractively
> of rock
> with a tiny wooden door, the inside walls are brick with a concrete
> floor.
> A small iron pipe over the door gives ventilation. this room is
> thought to
> have been built for a storage room for gun powder.
>
> HISTORICAL MARKER
> L 32
> CLEMENT HILL
> THE HOUSE ON THE HILL THREE HUNDRED YARDS TO THE WEST WAS THE HOME OF
> BENJAMIN CLEMENT,WHO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MAKERS OF GUNPOWDER IN
> VIRGINIA,1775. THE LAND GRANT WAS MADE IN 1741.
>
> Mason
>
>
> --
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