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Elmwood Circa 1840
Elmwood is a country estate located a mile off Highway 158 about ten miles from Roxboro, N.C. and about two miles from historic Leasburg, N.C. Situated in a serene pastoral landscape, it can be reached via a one-hour drive from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport and about a half-hour drive from the Virginia state line. The mid-nineteenth century farmhouse, recently restored and renovated, has a fully equipped modern kitchen, two modern bathrooms, three bedrooms, and verandas on both levels overlooking the natural landscape. The house is fully furnished with antiques, oriental carpets, and a grand piano. Other structures on the property include an old well-house dating back to 1800 and an early twentieth century corncrib, presently used for storage. A private airstrip and hangar provide access for small planes. Two ponds on the property attract Canada geese throughout the year, and the setting provides an idyllic place of refuge from the hustle and bustle of conventional urban life.
A Brief History
The farm presently known as Elmwood was at one time inhabited by Indians—evidenced by arrowheads, stone tools, etc. which until recent years could be dug up in the surrounding fields. The first deed to the property was issued to the Van Hoeks (anglicized to Van Hook), a family of Dutch descent who migrated from New York to North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. They owned over 1600 acres, a part of which was a 231-acre tract purchased for $1800 by James and Eunice Winstead in April of 1879. The first buildings on the property were constructed around the turn of the nineteenth century. The only one still existing is the well-house, from which water was drawn for an “ordinary” or tavern inn operated by the Van Hooks. This 25’ X 40’ structure, which became the first home of Kendall Van Hook (born around 1800), was later attached to the 1840s house and served as the kitchen and entertainment room for the Winsteads until its removal in the 1980s.
The house, originally a two-story structure with four rooms, was constructed in the early 1840s by Kendall Van Hook in anticipation of his marriage to a Leasburg debutante, who later called off the wedding plans and married another man. Kendall died a bachelor, leaving the property to Stephen Morton, from whom the Winsteads purchased the farm in 1879. In addition to rearing six sons and a daughter, James and Eunice raised tobacco, corn, and wheat as well as vegetables and animals for their subsistence. A decade after purchasing the property, the Winsteads moved the tavern inn up to the south side of the house and added two rooms on the north side. Until the recent renovation / restoration of the house, it was thought that the two-story addition had been built on the property; however, when the interior walls were removed, the contractor observed that the structure was older than believed, indicating that it too had been moved from another location. The space between the structures was closed in on both the upper and lower levels (still hallways). The position of the staircase was moved from the north-side rooms to the hallways—evidence of which is still visible in the floor of the upstairs bedroom.
In 1890 James Winstead died of pneumonia, leaving Eunice with seven children, a lot of land, and little money. Being a very frugal and thrifty person with a great mind for business, she managed to hang on to the property and acquired even more land. At her death, each of her children inherited a farm of 140 acres or more, with the present one going to her youngest son Harvey. When Harvey was 12 years old, Eunice married Clemmon McGilbert Wagstaff, an uncle of her first husband, both of whom had served in the Civil War, and the newly-weds took a honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls. Eunice also survived her second husband, who died in the 1920s.
In 1925 Harvey brought his bride, Mary Emma Watts, to live in the home and gave the property the name Elmwood because of the abundance of elm trees. Unlike her mother-in-law, who resided with them until her death in 1949 at the age of 95, Mary had a much more artistic sense of decor and used her limited resources to continually improve the appearance of the home. With a five-dollar gold piece given to her by her uncle Will, she bought and planted a pecan tree, still standing in front of the house. Home improvements were made throughout the history of the house from the installation of carbide lights in the late nineteenth century and electricity in the early twentieth century to indoor plumbing and a bathroom in the mid-twentieth century.
Before Mary’s death in 1991 the property was divided among her seven surviving children, with the house going to her youngest daughter, Laura Winstead Webster. In the 1990s Laura sold this property to her nephew, Michael Elgin Rudder, who initiated the restoration / renovation project in 2004. Michael’s goal was to preserve as much as possible the original architecture while incorporating modern comforts for convenience. This included the construction of a new kitchen, an upstairs bathroom and a walk-in closet, and the front porch was extended around to the north side of the house.
The home was the venue for a large number of births (including all eight of Harvey and Mary’s children) and deaths (including Eunice and her mother, Martha Banks Bradsher Jacobs Davenport, in the west room [where the grand piano now sits] and Harvey in the east room [presently the larger salon]). Resting in the family cemetery on the northeast side of the house are James, Eunice, Harvey, and Mary Winstead as well as other members of the four generations of Winsteads who were all part of the Elmwood heritage.
(special acknowledgment to Mary Linda Winstead Janke for the history of Elmwood)
To view the enlarged photos, click on each row of thumbnails and scroll down.
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