So where exactly is the
property?
For those of you familiar with southwest Virginia,
the
property is near Dungannon, which is marked as a red star on the map
above.
You'll notice the green shading around Dungannon - there's some
lovely
National Forest not far from Dungannon. A beautiful place to hike
and
picnic.
The property is a short distance east of Dungannon,
on Sinking Creek. The Clinch River is very closeby.
This map shows the property boundaries. The
property
is approximately 60 acres and includes portions of Sinking Creek
(labelled
"Creek" on this map") and a smaller creek running up Barb Hollow.
The
open square within the boundaries is the barn. The closed square
is
what remains of the house. The two closed squares further up the
hollow
are houses not in use. The road on the northwest side of the
picture
is the main, one-lane, paved road - very low traffic. The dotted
line
road leading from that road to the property is a right-of-way, currently
nearly
unrecognizeable.
The white land is mostly wooded now, but with young trees.
The
green land is wooded with older trees.
The property is divided into four tracts. The
smallest tract in the center is the "dower tract" and includes the
house,
barn, and remains of a 100+ year old orchard. In the past, if a
man
died, his wife was not allowed to inherit any of his property. But
she was often given a dower tract - enough land to live on until she
died.
This was the dower tract of Worley Hillman's wife (I think),
reverting
back to the owners when she died.
