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 > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.7/181 - Release Date: > 11/24/2005 > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the > instructions at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html