Historic Sandusky, Lynchburg, VA

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Property Background: Sandusky, Major George Christian Hutter's "beautiful home," may well be Lynchburg's most historic house. One of the earliest and loveliest examples of formal Federal style architecture in the Piedmont, it is also the preeminent site associated with the Civil War Battle of Lynchburg. Having been a private home for most of its 200 years, it is now poised to become a museum–a fitting tribute to its place in history. Charles Johnston, whose father arrived in Richmond from Scotland, built the fine brick house in the first decade of the nineteenth century, ca. 1808. He named it Sandusky to commemorate a narrow escape. In 1790, while navigating the Ohio River on his way to Kentucky, Johnston and his companions were captured by a party of Shawnees and taken to an encampment near lake Erie, near a frontier settlement called Sandusky. A French-Canadian fur trader ransomed Johnston, who eventually made his way back to Virginia, stopping in New York to give George Washington an account of his adventure. By strange irony, a later occupant of Sandusky, Virginia, would also come to be held captive near Sandusky, Ohio. (text courtesy: Historic Sandusky Foundation)

Project Goal: The primary goal of the project was to confirm the ownership of the Sandusky property prior to its 1818 sale by Charles & Elizabeth Johnston to Christopher Clark with an end goal of narrowing Sandusky's date of construction. A HistoryTech (then Antiquaries) team member also independently compiled a historic structure report as a separate project.

Project Findings: The house site was largely included within a 248 acre tract patented by Phillip Morris in 1761. In 1789, William Terrell was granted 450 acres, which included the land granted to Morris, along with a portion of land granted to Charles, Christopher, Edward, and John Lynch in 1759. William and Mary Terrell, along with other prominent Quakers in the area, participated in the westward migration to Ohio. In 1806, they sold 282 acres of the 1789 grant to John Timberlake. Two years later, the Timberlakes sold a slightly smaller tract to Charles Johnston for $2,808.00.*

In 1813, Johnston insured the buildings of “Sandusky” with the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia for $6,550.00. Insured buildings included the two story brick dwelling house, a one story brick kitchen, and a one story brick smokehouse. Johnston reinsured the property in 1817 for $8,000.00, noting that a one story brick office had been added to the collection of insured structures. In late 1818, Charles and Elizabeth Johnston conveyed the property, which then consisted of 279 acres, to Christopher Clark for the not inconsiderable sum of $33,000.00.

The house (and its name) has long been attributed to Charles Johnston, which makes sense. It is highly unlikely that John and Molley Timberlake sold a 282 acre tract with a house as sizeable as Sandusky to Johnston for a mere $2,808.00. Johnston purchased the land from the Timberlakes in September of 1808, making a date of 1808 (which is the popular date) for the completion of construction unlikely.

The Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia began writing policies in 1796, and it was not uncommon for owners to insure their buildings immediately upon completion. If this is the case, it might be inferred that Sandusky was built circa 1813. The only useful information provided by land tax records begins in 1820, when assessors were required to separate out the value of buildings, but this is too late to be of consequence in this study. Short of locating a collection of personal records, dendrochronology is the most accurate method of dating the house to a specific year between 1808 and 1813.