Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-06-23
BeLmEAD SOLD FOR $4,000.
A House of AristOcratic Proportions and
AppoIntmen,s-A Model system
a EnrrlAIIif.-

OF Farming.
Correspondence Of the Richmond Dispatch.l
PoyHATAN COUNTY. June 20.-To-day e
week ago Belmead the former residence
and estate of General Philip st. George
Cooke, and more recently of his son, Ma
jor John Bowdoin Cooke, deceased, was
sold at public auction OF this place. It
was sold to satisfy a mortgage to secure a
debt Of $4,000, and it only brought the
amount of that secured. 1t almost seems
to be incredible that an estate of upwards
of LOCO acres of land, 375 of which are the
unrIvalled James-river bottom lands. with
buildings which cost upwards of $4,000,
with a stone mill which manufactures the
highest grade of flour and meal, should
have been sold for such sum. General
Cooke bought this old Logan" planta-
ton about 1s45. and it was then without
any buildings of any value and the high
land worn out by injudicious farming,
having been rented out for many years.
IMPROVEMENTS.
With the eye OF an experienced engineer
and graduate of West Point, he appreciated
the great advantage Of the low grounds,
which are higher than usual and not so
subject TO damage by food, and bought it
rather than the Morson and Seldom estates
at Dover, which were then for sale.
Having constructed barns, stables, and
are of the Mexican adobe and covered
with slate, he commenced to build his resi-
dence upon hill commanding an extern
sIve view of the river and the opposite
highlands for miles.
GRAND RESIDENCE.
His home is of the modern Gothic or Nor
man style of architecture, and with tower
which can be seen for long distance from
the Richmond and Allegheny railroad and
the surrounding country. 1t was a mag
nlfcent building. The spacious hall OF en-
trance was Of almost cathedral proper
tions; the walls adorned by life-sized
paintings, including one of his father, Cen
eral John II. Cooke commanding his brigade
in the war of 1912 mounted on his famous
Roebuck horse. Also one of Marshal
Soult, which Hon. Andrew Stevenson
brought with him from Europe when he
came back from his mission to England.
The portraits of his immediate family hung
on the walls of the parlor. and the por-
traits of his ancestors on the walls of his
dining-room.
A FARMING SYSTEM.
The fields were divided by stone fences,
and by his system of taking 100 acres of
wornout land and by bringing it up to the
tobacco point the first year he had brought
back all the high land TO the highest state
Mississippi cotton plantations and several
tobacco farms in Brunswick, he was able
TO spare no expense in making Belmead the
finest estate in Virginia or the South.
GONE DOWN.
OF course since the emancipation of the
slaves and without his splendid executive
talent, as he died the second year of the
war, his model farm has gone down very
much, but the depressions of the country
and even the slow course of time cannot
destroy the magnificent alluvial low
grounds or the fire-proof houses and mill,
or destroy the grand view of James river
and the railroad. with its numerous trains
circling the border of the Goochland hills.
SAD. INDEED.
II is q sad commentary upon the state of
the times that such an estate, so valuable,
80 adapted to the prosecution of successful
agriculture or rearing of stock. and SO well
suited for the country residence of even
the wealthiest gentleman in the United
States should be sold for so pitiful q price.