By Beverly Belcher Woody
Sixth grade U.S. History students from Martinsville Middle School recently visited Carter Bank’s headquarters, located on the site of the former Beaver Creek Plantation in Henry County. As part of Virginia SOL USI.5c, students are comparing daily life from the perspectives of different groups during this time in American history—large landowners, farmers, artisans, clergy, merchants, women, indentured servants, and enslaved and free Blacks. Beaver Creek provided a powerful and authentic setting to examine these lived experiences.
Prior to the visit, students studied plantation owner Ann Hairston’s ledgers, reading each enslaved person’s name aloud so they would never be forgotten. It took thirty minutes of non-stop reading to speak every enslaved name from Beaver Creek in 1850.
At the plantation, students toured the grounds with Carter Bank employee and local historian Jarred Marlowe. Marlowe shared the history of the property, which was originally built in 1776 by Colonel George Hairston and later rebuilt in the 1830s after a devastating fire. Students visited the separate brick kitchen—constructed from the original home’s bricks—and the small ration house where enslaved workers received their daily food allotments.
Marlowe also pointed out several remarkable natural features on the property. Students learned that the Osage orange trees, not native to Virginia, were saplings brought back from the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805. Thomas Jefferson kept selected specimens for examination before offering others for sale—leading to these trees being planted at Beaver Creek. Students also observed boxwoods original to the site, brought from England, which later provided clippings used during the landscape restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Another notable landmark was the magnolia tree where Bettie Hairston reportedly sat with her suitor, future Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, during the 1850s.
The experience concluded with a visit to the Hairston family cemetery, where students placed flowers at the graves of Surry and Esther—two enslaved house servants whose names they first encountered in Ann Hairston’s ledger.
Students and staff expressed deep appreciation to Carter Bank for opening the grounds and to Jarred Marlowe for generously sharing his extensive knowledge of Beaver Creek’s history and the lives of the people who lived there.
