Sweet Briar House, Signora Hollins, and Sweet Briar Crops

Sweet Briar House

            The big, yellow house that is so familiar on campus today went through many changes in its lifetime. When the original farmhouse was built is unknown, most likely in the early 1800s, although it is known that it was built by the Crews/Crouse family and auctioned off in 1830 as Locust Ridge. Elijah Fletcher, of course, bought this house and the surrounding plantation and renovated it into an Italian Villa. This renovation was of great interest to his two daughters, Elizabeth and Indiana. He also mentions in his letters that he hires white workers for the first time to complete this job. The two, three story towers were added on during renovation, as well as the balcony that spans the front of the house, and the yellow paint. Mostly, the house’s design has been untouched since 1851, although the main entrance had to be redone after a fire in 1927.

http://www.tusculum.sbc.edu/SweetBriarPlantation/NationalRegister_SweetBriarHouse.pdf

http://www.tusculum.sbc.edu/SweetBriarPlantation/history_FletcherLetters.shtml

           

Signora Hollins

            Very little is known about the African American individuals who lived at Sweet Briar before and after the war. One individual we do know about is Signora Hollins who came to Sweet Briar as a young girl in 1874. Her Aunt had been hired as a cook for the Williams. Signora recalls her time at Sweet Briar as very isolated. She was friends with the only other person her age: Daisy. After Daisy’s death she moved to the north, but returned years later. She has been present during two famous encounters with Sweet Briar ghosts. She claimed to have seen Miss. Indie many times while she was a cook at Sweet Briar. In 1916, Miss Indie apparently told her that the silver was hidden in the walls of one of the bedrooms. Sure enough, there was silver there. Signora was also on campus during the dedication of the Daisy Williams Gym, when the medallion of Daisy was found. She died in 1954 at the age of 88.

http://www.tusculum.sbc.edu/africanamericans/bio_SHollins.shtml

Barefoot, Daniel W. Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities. John F. Blair, Sept. 5, 2004. Pg. 172. Web. http://books.google.com/books?id=Jk1G91Gp2CIC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=%22Signora+Hollins%22&source=bl&ots=UB3FFx_7cY&sig=aOLBo65-F2wGYdTgGbVnU3-I-PI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ifeqULO5DKiy0AGJ64C4Cg&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Signora%20Hollins%22&f=false

           

What Did Sweet Briar Produce?

             Often plantations are thought to produce only one crop. At Sweet Briar, and many other plantations, however, a large number of crops were produced. The main ones Elijah mentions in his letters are corn, wheat, and tobacco. The plantation was also home to a multitude of animals. There were riding horses, carriage horses, plow horses, cattle which migrated from mountain pastures to Sweet Briar pastures throughout the year, chickens and ducks kept by Elizabeth, and pigs. These animals were fed some of the corn harvested at Sweet Briar. Most crops were sold in Lynchburg, though Elijah took care to always have a good supply on the plantation for his family and slaves. Animals were also slaughtered in the middle of each month, some meat was sold and some went to members of Elijah’s family, such as his brother Timothy. It is evident through Elijah’s detailed letters that the prices of these commodities were constantly shifting based on scarcity. Sometimes a wet summer or early freeze drove prices up, while nice growing seasons kept the prices down.

http://www.tusculum.sbc.edu/SweetBriarPlantation/history_FletcherLetters.shtml

SBC Ghost Stories

            I was pleasantly surprised by the old ghost stories the Chung Mungs put together. I came into the experience expecting it to be overly dramatic and slightly spooky, but most of the stories were sweet and not creepy. Looking back on it, I suppose I should not have been surprised, especially since I knew the stories were from the college’s early years. It makes sense that these stories weren’t creepy due to the college’s rural location—I’m sure no one wanted to start promoting weird stories that would scare people away. During the early years, Miss. Indie and Daisy were probably thought about and mentioned even more than they are today. These days they are simply people who passed away a very long time ago, figures from our history books, but to the faculty and students of the newly founded Sweet Briar, Miss. Indie, at least, would have been a woman some people actually knew. I am sure these ghost stories were a way of keeping the memories of them alive.

            There was a fairly good amount of historical accuracy within most of the stories. Daisy’s harp, which we still have, was mentioned in quite a few of the stories, along with her portrait still hanging in Sweet Briar House, and her garden. I think that the death of Miss. Indie had happened so recently that people might have found it disrespectful to use untrue historical references. The stories themselves, whether the authors really believed they happened or not, were not disrespectful to the deceased. I saw them as a way of honoring Daisy and Miss. Indie, a way that showed that the members of Sweet Briar still saw the spirits of their founders living on.