Dig a Little Deeper
For 2023, I’m writing responses to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Days prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow on her ”Generations Café” website and Facebook page.
“Gold Fever” in the United States didn’t begin with the 1849 California Gold Rush. The first authenticated discovery of gold in the United States occurred in North Carolina in 1799. North Carolina was the leading producer of gold in the California discoveries. A lesser-known fact is that gold was also discovered in commercially viable quantities in Virginia in the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson noted this discovery in his Notes on the State of Virginia, where he wrote about the discovery of gold in Fauquier County, about 50 miles north of Hanover County. My 6th great-granduncle, Robert Anderson (1699-1782), lived on Goldmine Plantation (named after nearby Goldmine Creek) in Hanover, and I haven’t found evidence that there was a lot of gold on his land. However, the name of the creek and the associated history of gold in Virginia suggest that he and the people around him “dug a little deeper” in their efforts to search for gold. I haven’t written about Robert Anderson yet in this series of essays, so I’m stretching a bit to write about the Andersons of Hanover County this week.
We all know the story of the earliest settlers in the Americas, who explored in the name of “God, Glory, and Gold,” and how they expected to find their own El Dorado to match what the Spanish had found in South America. This didn’t happen for the 17th- and 18th-century explorers and settlers in North America, although they never stopped looking.
In looking for information on the Anderson property in Hanover County, I came across this reference, which contains details about the original land patent and subsequent tax and land records that show it belonging to the Anderson family – and specifically, the specific location of this land. Here’s the link to this article; if you’re interested in early colonial land grants, you’ll find some interesting items here. https://whenceicame.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-anderson-
goldmine-creek-property.html
Before I go on, I want to note that I was a teacher in Louisa County, Virginia, in my first year out of college, 1969-1970. Tim was in Law School at the University of Virginia. My school was about 30 miles northwest of the location of Goldmine Plantation. I now live in Williamsburg, Virginia, about 1 ½ hours southeast of Goldmine. My sister, who lives in Madison, Virginia, near Charlottesville, and I have lunch together once a month in an area west of Richmond called Short Pump; this area is less than 10 miles from Goldmine.
Another side note – the school where I taught was severely damaged by an earthquake (we don’t get many earthquakes in Virginia) in 2011 and had to be demolished.
The Anderson family provides me with a couple of interesting connections to American history. Through Robert Anderson’s grandfather (and my 7th great-grandfather), also named Robert Anderson (1640-1712) I am connected to Jefferson Hunt (1804-1879), my 3rd great-granduncle, who was one of the leaders of the Mormon movement to Salt Lake City in 1846. His story is very well-documented by the LDS, and that means that his non-Mormon ancestors are also well-documented. Jefferson Hunt is the 3nd great-grandson of Robert Anderson 1640, and the documents that support his lineage also support mine. Thanks, Jeff.
This family also connects me to one of the most significant events of the American Civil War, the 1861 attack on Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. If you have ever learned about this attack, you have heard of Major Robert Anderson (1805-1871), the commanding officer at Fort Sumter at that time. When the Confederate forces started bombarding the fort, Anderson held out as long as he could but surrendered on April 14 after 34 hours of constant shelling. Despite the fact that he ultimately surrendered, his courage made him a national hero and he was promoted to Brigadier General. We all know what happened after that – this attack and subsequent defense of the fort signaled the onset of fighting in the Civil War. General Anderson soon fell ill, however, and retired from the Army in 1863. When the South surrendered in 1865, General Anderson was detailed to raise the American flag over Fort Sumter exactly four years after he was forced to surrender it. He died in 1871.
Major (and then General) Robert Anderson was the 3rd great-grandson of Robert Anderson 1640 and thus my 3rd cousin 6x removed. His renown means that his family is well-documented, which means that my family is also well-documented. Thanks, Bob.
There are Robert Andersons across many generations of this family. I’m referring to them by their birthdate. My 8th great-grandfather is Robert Anderson 1640, my 2nd great-grandfather is Robert Anderson 1663), and the Robert Anderson who received the grant to Goldmine Plantation is my 6th great-uncle, Robert Anderson 1699. The army officer who defended but ultimately surrendered Fort Sumter (see below) is my 3rd cousin 6x removed Robert Anderson 1805. It all gets very confusing.
I was interested to discover that he was born in Kentucky, as my direct line (which descended from Diana Anderson, the daughter of Robert Anderson 1663 and the sister of Robert Anderson 1699). Diana married into the Hunt family (see above) and they had all migrated to Kentucky by 1800. Interestingly, Diana’s grandson, my 4th great-grandfather John Hunt (1757-1781), was captured after the siege of Charleston in 1780. I don’t know if Robert Anderson 1805 was aware that his 4th cousin had been involved in the Revolutionary War battle 75 years earlier.
Another side note: when I was trying to figure out how Robert Anderson 1805 was related to John Hunt 1757, my tree identified them as being generational peers – both of them were 3rd great-grandsons of Robert Anderson 1640. But they were born almost 50 years apart from each other – how were they generational peers? A quick look at how each family line moved – when the direct ancestors in each line were born – showed me that this was probably accurate.
The children of Robert Anderson 1640 on my two relevant lines were born only two years apart. But the next generation shows that on my line, Diana Anderson was born in 1693, 19 years before her cousin on Robert Anderson 1805’s line, Richard Anderson (1712-1781).
In the next generation, Diana’s son Christopher was born in 1728, whereas Richard’s son (also named Richard) was born in 1750 – 32 years after his generational peer.
And then Christopher’s son, John, was born in 1757, while Richard’s son, Major Robert Anderson, was born in 1805 – 48 years after his generational peer.
All of this is the product of families that have many children over the course of decades, creating a generational gap among siblings. This served as a reminder that it’s always a good idea to double-check something that just doesn’t look right. Sometimes it actually is correct, but often it doesn’t look right because it is in fact wrong.
By “digging a little deeper” into gold mining in colonial Virginia, I have also dug much deeper into my family’s complicated (but engaging) history.
So interesting, Karen. Great stories!
Great stuff. Very interesting. I always enjoy learning about the history surrounding our ancestor’s lives.