TERRIFIC! At least one Perkins has located the family of my Maachi Perkins. I searched Henrico Co Perkins and Patrick Co Perkins; but didn't look at Buckingham/Albemarle where many of my other lines originate! Many, many thanks for your help in discovering the parents of Maachi Perkins. I looked everywhere, I guess, except in the intermediate stopping off place between Henrico and Patrick Co VA/Surry Co VA, the area of North Carolina where my family was born. I was born next door in Stokes Co at the foot of the Sauratown Mountains that grace the area. Below is a Perkins story I hope you will enjoy. I do not have the exact citation because I never thought I'd use it like this, but gratitude knows no limits. The book from which this excerpt came from is an anthology of stories about people who lived in the area around Danville, Virginia. If anyone knows the name of the book and author, please let us know. The author deserves credit for telling this story about our Perkins family. Hope you enjoy it -- and if you can add anything more to my search for Maachi Perkins, and now Harden Perkins - please don't feel that my search is done. Joyce Browning ____________________ THE PERKINS HOSPITALS, 1781 Four Pittsylvania plantation homes were suddenly converted into hospitals following the battle at Guilford Court House, (North Carolina) on March 15, 1781, in order to care for the wounded of General Green's Southern Continental Army. One of these plantation homes, "Berry Hill," is standing today, a small stoutly built frame house with end chimneys which looks out across the Dan River Valley as bravely now as it did near two hundred years ago when it was built by Peter Perkins as a home for his bride. It is the one visible reminder of the Valley of the honorable part borne by our forefathers in the struggle for the freedom and independence which we enjoy today. The outlook for the American cause was dark and forbidding in the early springtime of 1781. George Washington was far in the north with the Northern Continental Army, Generals Phillips and Arnold had landed a large enemy force in eastern Virginia and were systematically laying waste this rich tidewater section. The small and ill equipped Southern Continental Army under General Nathanial Greene had fled northward before Cornwallis' superior force, across the Carolinas and into Virginia. The enemy was now on the very doorsteps of Dan Valley homes. As you know, after Greene's army had been re-inforced and equipped with arms, the General marched back into North Carolina and offered battle to Cornwallis near the present city of Greensboro. That dread day of battle was remembered well by Barton Stone, then a lad of nine years, whose widowed mother had recently moved down from Port Tobacco, Maryland, and settled in Dan Valley with her family and servants. Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland, was her husband's brother. Barton Stone, one of the founders of the Church of the Disciples, wrote in his autobiography: "We knew that General Greene and Lord Cornwallis would shortly meet in mortal combat not far from us. The whole country was in great anxiety and bustle. Nothing was secure from the depredations of the Tories. My mother had some valuable horses needed for the use of the farm, and she sent me and my two older brothers to conceal them in a thicket of brushwood not far distant from home. This was to me a gloomy day. It was the day Greene and Cornwallis met at Guilford Courthouse about 30 miles distant from us. We distinctly heard the roar of the artillery and awfully feared the results." But the god of battle was with the patriots on that eventful day, and though claiming a victory, Cornwallis withdrew with his forces toward eastern Carolina. Greene decided to pursue, but first his wounded must be cared for. It is probable that General Greene called a meeting of his officers to devise plans, and one of these officers was Colonel Peter Perkins of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, who had commanded a regiment of Virginia militia in the battle. The Colonel was a man of ability and leadership, and an ardent patriot. Fully aware of the General's need of a safe retreat for his wounded, we may suppose that Colonel Perkins offered his plantation home, "Berry Hill," for a hospital, which was gratefully accepted. For the record shows that a general hospital for Greene's Southern Continental Army was maintained at Col. Peter Perkins' home in Dan Valley for three months, following the battle at Guilford Court House. When the stout wagons bearing their precious burdens of the wounded rolled into the yards at Berry Hill, there must have been great excitement on the part of the family -- children standing about wide-eyed with interest; servants running here and there, carrying out directions; while the mistress, Mrs. Perkins, was meeting innumerable calls and demands from her husband, the officers, and the doctors of the hospital-to-be. The Perkins' home was undoubtedly the center of a great number of out buildings, such as are necessary to plantation life, but with every available space used, there were many more patients than could be cared for, so the wagons moved to the nearby plantations of Constant and Nicholas Perkins, brothers of Colonel Peter, and to the home of William Harrison, a neighbor. The hopsitals were under the charge of Dr. Daniel Brown of New York State who had formerly served as surgeon in the Northern Continental Army, and there had gained valuable experience. One of his assistants was Dr. Elijah Gillett. We gain some idea of the size of the hospital's staff from an item in the Claim's Record, when one Thomas Carey is paid for shoeing "43 hourses belonging to the officers and doctors of the General Hospital kept at Col. Perkins' home." With so large a staff we judged the number of wounded was correspondingly large. An official report of Dr. Daniel Brown, written from Guilford, April 2nd, 1781, reads: "General Stevens set off for home today. Nothing I would urge could influence him to stay longer. The wounded at this place will not recover so fast from badness of wounds. We are, both hospitals, in the greatest want of Paper, hope you will have a ream sent us. While the Hospitals at Perkins are and will be well suppplied with rations, at this place I am afraid we shall suffer from Ignorance and Inaction of a Mr. Hunter who was appointed to supply us." Colonel Perkins himself acted as Commissary for the hospital, providing the necessary supplies. There was a large depot of supplies some twenty-five miles away, at Peytonsburg, but these were collected for the armies in the fields. It was necessary for Colonal Perkins to gather his own provisions. He appointed a number of young men as his assistants, James and Nicholas McCubbin, Charles Oaks, and Daniel Roberts among them. Wagons were sent far and near to collect food stuffs. William Norton was sent to Cumberland court House to bring up flour. The Colonel contributed generously from his own plantation. After the successful close of the war, courts of claims were held and the people were reimbursed for their assistance to the patriot cause. Colonel Perkins' account reads: [# = pounds sterling] "For Commisary to the General Hospital at his home for 90 days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #45.00 "For Rent of houses, beds, etc. for the use of the General Hospital at his home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #50.00 "Damages sustained by the Gen. Hospital kept at his home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #50.00 "To five horses.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #89.00 To 322 lbs. bacon, 1128 lbs. pork, 6 sheep, 60 lbs. tallow, 12 lbs. beeswax, 2 wagons, and teams for 102 days each and 105 lbs. Bar Iron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .#142.00 His entire account was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #3376.00 However, money had little value at this time, as there was the customary inflation of wars. The other gentlemen, Mr. Harrison and Colonel Perkins' brothers were also paid #50 each for damages, and #50 for the rent of houses and beds for the use of the hospitals. The mistresses of these four Pittsylvania homes which were so suddenly converted into war hospitals, were as true patriots as their husbands and sons on the battlfields. Colonel Perkins had married a girl of the neighborhood, Agnes Wilson, a daughter of Captain Peter Wilson who began pattenting lands in the Valley in 1746. The following year, March 1747, a road was ordered to be laid out leading down Dan Valley, and Captain Wilson was appointed surveyor of the road from William Bean's plantation to the mouth of Sandy River, which lies just outside the city limits of Danville. The early and historic highway led down the north side of the river, passing the now well known plantations of Bachelor's Hall, Oak Hill, and Dan's Hill. It is said that Captain Wilson and his wife Alice were Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania. Their daughter Agnes was reared in Dan Valley, where from earliest memory she was surrounded by an atmosphere of public interests and activities. Her father took an active part in the life of the new community, serving as a justice of the peace, and as a vestryman of the Established Church, with many civic duties to perform. During the French and Indian War he commanded a company of Virginia militia which ranged across the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of hostile Indians. Upon her marriage to young Peter Perkins, Agnes found herself still in an atmosphere of public life, for her husband was equally as active in the affairs of the community as her father had been. He too served as a presiding justice of the courts, member of the colonial vestry, and as a sheriff of the county. He represented Pittsylvania in that important convention of 1775, which took over the government of Virginia upon the break with the Mother Country. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution he was equally as active in military affairs, serving as a member of the county Committee of Safety which organized Pittsylvania for defense. He served as captain of one of the militia companies in the Indian campaign of 1776, ranging the far western frontiers. As we have seen, he commanded a regiment at the battle of Guilford. When apprised by her husband that their home was to become a military hospital, we can be sure that Agnes accepted it as a matter of course, and cheerfully cooperated. Peter Perkins and his brothers, Constant, Nicholas and Thomas, were the sons of Nicholas Perkins, Sr. of Hanover County who purchased lands along Dan River in 1755. Their sister, Elizabeth Perkins, married during the Revolutionary War Colonel William Letcher, and became the great grandmother of the distinguished soldier, General J. E. B. Stuart. Constant Perkins inherited his father's home on the south side of the river. Today there are traces of an old roadway that once led up the south side of the river, in the great bend that is made by the Dan. The poet tells us that an old road has a soul, fused of all the souls that have passed that way, those roads hold out beckoning fingers." Then the old roads that lead up Dan River on both sides, the north and the south, must be fraught with the hopes and dreams of the patriotic men and women of the Revolutionary era! Constant Perkins married Agatha Marr, the daughter of Mr. Gideon Marr, a distinguished lawyer of Goochland and Ameila Counties, who purchased lands along Dan River in 1768. Agatha was either a bride or a grown young lady when she came to Dan Valley to live. There were no children in her home.* Nicholas Perkins, the third brother, maried Leah Pryor, the daughter of Mr. John Pryor of North Carolina. Leah was a member of a large family, and was reared in historic old Orange County, of which the picturesque town of Hillsboro is the county seat. In a tax list of 1782 Nicholas Perkins is listed as the owner of 26 taxable slaves (that is over 16 years of age), Constant Perkins as owner of 18 slaves, and Colonel Peter as the owner of 25 slaves. It was not until the turn of 1800 that those large slave-tobacco plantations developed, for which the section was well known. The first separate Baptist Church in Virginia was built upon land given to this new faith by Mr. Nicholas Perkins in the year 1767. This church, known as the Dan River Church, was the mother church of all the Baptist churches in the state. The early records of the church are extant, and while they do not show that the Perkins family became converts, we can be sure that Mr. Perkins often entertained members of the congregation at Sunday dinner, for it has long been a custom in rural Virginia to combine social and religious observances. There were many children in Leah's home, and in later years her's was one of the many families which moved from Viginia to the newer lands of Tennessee. William Harrison, whose home also became a military hospital, was a recent settler along the Dan River, having purchased a thousand acres from William Bean in 1770. We have noted that Bean's home was the point from which the first road was ordered to be surveyed down Dan Valley. Bean was a hardy soul, a true pioneer, and was now moving out to the Tennessee country. The historian Robertson says that , "With the erection of Bean's cabin on the Watauga began the history of Tennessee." William Harrison had married in 1763 Anne Payne, the daughter of Josias Payne of Goochland county, whose brother, John Payne, was the father of the lovely Dolly Madison. Thus, Anne Payne Harrison of Dan Valley and Dolly Madison of the White House were close kinswomen. When her home was converted into a hosptial, Ann Payne Harrison was surrounded by a large family of young children. In that long gone springtime the martial note of the bugle, awakening the hospital's staff to their daily ministrations, mingled with the clang of the farm bell, summoning the colored folk to the fields, for crops must be planted and tended whether or not wars are waged. The busy days passed in quick succession, the balmy air of April and May merging into summer's June, which brought the hospitals to a close. The last of the wounded had returned to their homes, except those few who had found a final resting place in the Valley. Farewells were said; then doctors and officers rode out of sight down the Dan River roads, as the scene of warfare moved eastward, inexorably toward Yorktown. "Note: A very beautiful hand carved walnut mantel ws salvaged from this early home of 1755 when it was being torn down some 150 years later, giving proof that pioneer life in Virginia was not always crude.