Hickory Bottom

This site was lost to history when
Hanover County razed it on February 17, 2016.

In 1824 John Dudley George Brown (1786-1867), a native of Caroline County and a surveyor, married Harriet Isabella Sheppard of Scotchtown and bought from her father the 400 or more acres that was called "Hickory Bottom." This name evidently came from the stand of hickory trees that grew along Needstone Creek.

At once Brown began to build the handsome house which sat in the midst of ample farm lands. Completed in 1825, part of the dwelling is an earlier log structure whose walls lay beneath the later weatherboarding.

Involved in local politics, Brown served in 1845-46 as a member of the House of Delegates from Hanover County.


An ardent Confederate who underwent several difficult encounters with the Yankee soldiers during the Civil War, Brown in his will bequeathed his "undying hatred and everlasting malignancy forever" to anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Hickory Bottom was later owned by the Taylor family. Other owners were Mr. L. E. Williamson of Charlotte County, and Captain Parker Cherry, US Army Retired, who married into the Taylor clan.

Hickory Bottom was torn down by Hanover County on February 17, 2016.





Sources
Old Homes of Hanover County Virginia, 1983, pages 130-131
Hanover County Virginia: A Retrospective, 1993, page 9