James Pleasants SA17
James Pleasants was born on 24 Oct. 1769 at his home, Contention, located two miles south. A Quaker, Pleasants served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1796 to 1810, and in 1803 was elected its clerk. He sat in the United States House of Representatives from 1811 to 1819, and in the Senate from 1819 to 1822. First elected governor of Virginia by the General Assembly in 1822, he served two consecutive terms until 1825. He last held office in 1829-1830 as a member of the State Constitutional Convention. He died on 9 Nov. 1836, in Goochland County, esteemed for his public service and private virtues.

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Home of John Goode K132
Home of John Goode Here is the home of John Goode, political leader born 1829, died 1909. Goode was a member of the secession convention of 1861; of the Confederate Congress, Solicitor General of the United States; President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901.

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Blanks Crossroads CC12
This intersection of the Old Main Road, or Ridgepath, and the road from Soanes Bridge to Kennons, derives its name from an eighteenth-century tavern owned by the Blanks family. Blanks Tavern was one of a few licensed ordinaries in colonial Charles City County. Other landmarks have included an Oldfield school, Manoah Baptist Church (1848-1933) and the first Methodist Meeting House (est. 1791), also known as Charles City Chapel. Prominent area homes have included Ballardsville and Sunnyside, the home of Charles City County physician Dr. Gideon Christian. Soldiers Rest, the home of Revolutionary War soldier Fighting Joe Christian, was also located in this vicinity. Area resident Lemuel E. Babcock was Charles City County’s delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1867 and William Page, a freedman, became a major landowner here in the years after the Civil War. Charles City County, Virginia

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Paul Carrington M9
Member of the House of Burgesses, 1765-1775, of Virginia Conventions, 1774-1788, including Constitutional Conventions, of first Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. A founder of Hampden- Sydney College. Lived and is buried at Mulberry Hill nearby. Virginia State Library, 1961.

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William Grayson's Grave PWC5
William Grayson, lawyer, member of the Continental Congress, Constitutional Convention and U.S. Senate, is buried nearby on property formerly part of Belle Air the family plantation. In 1774, Grayson organized Prince William County’s first revolutionary militia unit. He commanded a Virginia regiment and served as aide-de-camp to Washington. Prince William County Historical Commission - 1986

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Alexander Henderson VA688
Alexander Henderson, colonial merchant, born Glasgow, Scotland 1738 came to Colchester, Va. 1756. Moved to Dumfries 1787, where his home still stands. Served as vestryman Pohick Church, Magistrate of Fairfax and Prince William Cos., member Virginia General Assembly, Virginia delegate to Mt. Vernon Conference - 1785 which led to Constitutional Convention 1787. Died Nov. 22, 1815. Buried here with his wife Sarah Moore Henderson (1751-Dec. 14, 1816). Their son, Archibald, (1783-1859) was Commandant of the United States Marine Corps for over 38 years.

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Dr. William Fleming A64
Physician, soldier, and statesman, Dr. William Fleming (1728-1795) studies medicine in his native Scotland before practicing in Staunton from 1763 to 1768. His home stood at the crossing of New Street and Lewis Creek. Dr. Fleming’s career included periods as commander of the Botetourt Regiment, Commissioner for Kentucky, member of the Continental Congress, delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, and Acting Governor when the Virginia General Assembly met in Staunton in June, 1781. Department of Conservation and Historic Resources, 1987

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Mercer's Home B28
Aldie was the home of Charles Fenton Mercer (born 1778, died 1858), liberal statesman. Mercer was a congressman (1817-1839) and a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30, in which he advocated manhood suffrage. His attempt in 1817 to establish a free school system in Virginia nearly succeeded. He was a leading advocate of the colonization of free blacks in Liberia.

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John Day UM48
John Day, a free African American cabinetmaker and brother of Thomas Day, cabinetmaker and builder, was born in Hicksford (present - day Emporia) on 18 Feb. 1797.  Licensed in 1821 as a Baptist minister, he sailed in December 1830 to Liberia, where in 1853 he became pastor of Providence Church in Monrovia, the capital.  In 1854 he established Day's Hope High School.  He was a delegate to Liberia's constitutional convention, a singer of its constitution and its Declaration of Independence in 1847, and the second chief justice of its supreme court.  Day died in Monrovia on 15 Feb. 1859.

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Josiah T. Walls FL217

Born in 1842 to slave parents in Winchester, Va., little is known of Josiah T. Walls' early life. After a short term of Confederate service, he enlisted in the Third Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops in 1863. Transferred to Picolata on the St. Johns River in 1864, he married Helen Ferguson of Newnansville and in 1865 moved to Alachua County after he was mustered out. After passage of the U.S. Military Reconstruction Act of 1867, Walls entered into Florida politics; as a delegate to the 1868 State constitutional convention, followed by election as a State representative and later senator from Alachua County. The 1870 nominee of the Republican Party for Florida's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Walls defeated Silas Niblack after a bitter contest, riddled with charges of fraud and intimidation. Josiah T. Walls thus became the State's first black congressman. Although unseated by the House near the end of his term, Walls was re-elected in 1872. In another contested election in 1874, Walls defeated J.J. Finley, a former Confederate General, but, in 1876, was again removed from office. Walls was elected to the Florida Senate that year. After 1879, Josiah Walls concentrated on his farming activities. He had first acquired land near Newnansville in 1868 but in 1870 had moved to Gainesville. In 1871 Walls bought for their home the western half of the block now bounded by University Avenue on the south and N.W. 2nd Street on the west. In 1873 he purchased a 1175 acre plantation on the west edge of Paynes Prairie. In that year he acquired the weekly newspaper, THE NEW ERA, and was admitted to the Florida Bar. Remaining active in local politics, Walls served at various times as mayor of Gainesville, a member of the Board of Public Instruction, and County Commissioner. A highly successful and prosperous farmer through the 1880's, he suffered financial ruin as a result of the severe freeze of the winter of 1894-95. Walls moved to Tallahassee to become the farm director at the school that is now Florida A. and M. University. He died in Tallahassee in 1905.

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