Buckingham County Houses: Rich Bottom, Part II
Rich Bottom. Courtesy Historic Buckingham.
In 1936, when Rosa G. Williams surveyed the Buckingham County property, “Rich Bottom,” she neglected a description of the dwelling house, focusing on a remarkable grave marker preserved in the family cemetery, describing it as follows:
The cemetery is in a body of oak woods, only one marker, there are other graves, but they are supposed to be slaves of the Langhorne family. This is a very large marble slab with the inscription on the back. Although this slab has been up about one hundred years, it is in perfect condition, and it is as secure in the ground as it ever was.
The inscription on the marker reads:
Sacred
to the memory of
Elizabeth J.
Consort of
John R. Bennett
and daughter of
Rev. Mariace [sic] M. and Ann Langhorne
Born July 29, 1810
Died December 26, 1837.
She embraced religion in her ninth year and joined the Methodist E. Church in her thirteenth year in which she lived a faithful member and devout follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep, from which none ever wakes to weep,
A calm and undisturbed repose, unbroken by the last of foes.
The informants for the survey included: Miss Fletcher Smith and Mrs. Garnett Smith, both of Dillwyn, and “an old slave of the Smith family” named Ned Payne.
Recognize Ned Payne? Please comment below.
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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