martinzoo

Being that it was a Federal holiday today, my dh had a chance to come with us on another field trip, along with my mil, 2 sils, and 2 bils. Today was a big, old family field trip. Everybody got homeschooled….LOL!

Flowerdew Hundred is a plantation in a neighboring city that is going to close up shop in a little over a week. Since it’s first owner (Temperance Yeardley) was a principal character in the historical novel by Connie LaPallo, “Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky,” we were anxious to see it before it closed. And many thanks to my sil, T, for suggesting it.

Temperance Flowerdew arrived in Jamestown in August 1609, just in time for the winter famine that followed. She lived through that harrowing winter, called the “Starving Time,” when over 80 percent of Jamestown’s residents died of sickness, disease, or starvation. In 1613 she married Captain George Yeardley, who later became the first Deputy-Governor of Virginia. In 1618 they built Flowerdew Hundred Plantation. It was the first building in a Colonial settlement to have a stone foundation.

This is the current home. It is not the original Plantation house and it is not open to the public, but it is beautiful. I took this picture from far away and in the guide’s moving vehicle, so it does not do this gorgeous house justice.

This one is an artistic rendering of the original home. The artist took a bit of artistic license, since there are stairs where the entry is supposed to be. But you can see the giant center fireplace that was evident at the excavation site. I couldn’t get a picture of the site because I was on the wrong side of the car.

Sir George paid 120 pounds to build the first windmill in British America in 1621. The plantation survived an attack by the Powhatan Indians in 1622, losing only six people. It remained an active private plantation unlike many others in the area.

I love this picture of GB climbing up into the windmill.

And the detail in this photo came out very nice, considering it was SO dark inside that windmill. The flash really caught a lot of the architectural details that we couldn’t see when we were in there.

Look very closely at the Cyprus tree in the center of this photo of GB on the James River. This is where General Grant’s army had a strategic crossing of the James River during the Civil War.

You can see this same Cyprus tree in the following photo. It is from 1864, during the Civil war. The Army Corp of Engineers were searching for a site where they could cross the James River and invade Petersburg. This was the site they chose. If you look closely at the picture you may be able to tell that it is many, many pontoon boats in a row. This formed a temporary bridge in which 115,000 soldiers were able to cross.

Isn’t it amazing how little that tree has changed? A year ago, the tree was tested by core sample and discovered to be at least 350 years old.