Evening star., 1940-02-04
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
LYNCHBURG, Va, Feb. 3.-Pat-
rick Henry's great-granddaughter is
planning to sell her ancestors ia
nous old Staunton River estate, Red
Hill, so the United States Govern
ment can move in-and she's not SO
sorry.
She says that the Revolutionary
hero left 16 prosperous children be-
hind him-and descendants from
Maine to California continually
swamp her with request for records
of their great ancestor
But now President Roosevelt has
signed bill authorizing an ap-
preparation of 100000 to buy the
estate from Mrs. Matthew Bland
Harrison, so she says she is going
to sail for the Riviera as soon as
practicable.
The Government will get the
clapboard law Offices of Patrick
Henry, the weed-choked site of his
mansion, burned two decades ago;
an old Clipped gravestone above the
statesman's remains. and 1000 sur
rounding acres planted in corn and
tobacco. 1t probably would have
given $25,OO0 more for all this if
Representative Schafer, Wisconsin
Republican, hadn't objected and cut
the bill from its original sum OF
S125,0OO.
Lives in the Law Office.
Patrick Henry's great-grand-
daughter lives in the law office,
which, she says, can never be kept
warm in winter" but which is filled
with mementos of the man and his
age. Most of these are antique, but
some are decidedly not.
One wall is plastered with news
paper photographs of the men in
national affairs who are, to her,
modern Patrick Henrys These in
clude Albert Einstein, Herbert Hoo
yer, number of musicians and
Senator Carter Glass, who spon-
sored the bill to buy the home.
Placing a finger on his picture, Mrs.
Harrison said:
"I keep this here to amuse me in
bad weather"
Mrs. Harrison has her troubles.
AS her ancestor said IN his most
famous speech, in ITS, Gentlemen
may cry peace, peace-but there is
no peace"
Among her troubles is the Gov
ernment crop-control program,
which she says has taken all the
fun out of farming.
In winter Red Hill is often cut
off from the world by heavy snow;
mails come once week, and horse
back is the only method of trans
portation, she says.
Tourists Irritate Her.
In summer, on the other hand,
tourists flock to the place, ask in
Vulnerable questions and irritate her
failing health, so she has no joy in
talking of family history.
Now Government men come over
the estate, taking test borings with
gimlets on the trees, to determine
their age. Mrs. Harrison displays
a long, smooth cylinder of wood
from the bole of a mock orange tree
which puts its age at 200.
Newspapermen come, too.
Once, during the Hoover admin
istration, two Washington reporters
investigating rumor that so miners
were starving at a place named Red
House, 20 miles away, were referred
to Red Hill when the rumor proved
unfounded. At Red Hill they not
only borrowed photographs which
were never returned, but failed to
send Mrs. Harrison a copy of the
articles they said they were going
to write She has never forgiven
them, but cannot remember their
names.
Looking forward to the day when
the place will become a national
shrine, with it's buildings and Colo
nial atmosphere restored, Mrs. Har-
rison has carefully preserved the
outlines of the foundations of the
mansion that burned and cared for
the 130-year-old boxwoods that
surround the site of the old home.
Mrs. Harrison is herself the
daughter of William Writ Henry