#U82 "Westham Locks Va" James River Kanawha Canal station manuscript cancel

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#U82 envelope with and extremely desirable Henrico County, Virginia manuscript marking "Westham Locks Nov 26 1871" James River & Kanawha Canal and Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad maintenance facility cancel addressed to William Fanning Wickham (Sr.), father of Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham (who was called “one of the most stubborn and desperate fighters of the cavalry of the South"). The letter is not present, you are purchasing the postal portion only, which is considered collectible because of both the stamp, the postal markings and the history involving the sender and addressee. This item was sent to William Fanning Wickham (the son of John Wickham (Aaron Burr's defense attorney and General Wickham's father)). The destination of this item was Hickory Hill plantation outside of Ashland, VA near Hanover Court House. Very VERY minor edge bumping, but otherwise excellent. You can learn much more about this Famous Virginia Family--especially General Wickham at these Internet Sites: http://freepages.genealogy./~jwickham/williams.htm http://ead./vivaxtf/view?docId=vhs/vih00017.xml /books?id=rzgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=henry+taylor+wickham#v=onepage&q=henry%20taylor%20wickham&f=false Here is a condensed history about the family, it's home and a condensed (if you can believe it), history mostly about General Wickham, but these covers to his father have to involve the context of his son. I have consolidated from the above-cited sources (credit and appreciation given to them and their authors), especially Joe Wickham who wrote the page at Brigadier-General Williams Carter Wickham was born in Richmond, Virginia on September 21, 1820 and died at his desk while working for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad on July 23, 1888. He was the son of William Fanning Wickham (Sr.) and Anne Butler Carter. The Wickham family of Richmond and Hanover County, known as the "Hickory Hill Wickhams," was founded by the celebrated post-Revolutionary attorney John Wickham (1763-1839). The most notable family line is through John Wickham's his eldest son, William Fanning Wickham (1793-1880) and his most notable son: Williams Carter Wickham (1820-1888). After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1842, Williams Carter Wickham--the grandson of John Wickham who was Aaron Burr’s defense attorney in the Alexander Hamilton’s murder trial--became a lawyer but then opted to be a farmer, running a huge 3,200 acre farm in central Hanover County, Virginia: Hickory Hill. The Hickory Hill property was long an appendage to Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, much of it having come into possession of the Carter family by a deed dated March 2, 1734.The Carters were among the First Families of Virginia. Robert "King" Carter (1663–1732) served as an acting royal governor of Virginia and was one of its wealthiest landowners in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Robert Carter the younger gave 500 acres of land known as Hickory Hill to his daughter Ann Butler Carter and her betrothed on the occasion of her wedding in 1819 to William Fanning Wickham. William Fanning Wickham, though a Richmond lawyer, soon adopted the life of a Planter, raising wheat as his cash crop and he and Ann eventually grew Hickory Hill to encompass 3,300 acres. Once Hickory Hill became their modest home, the frame dwelling over an English basement grew with the plantation, eventually becoming a brick, Greek Revival mansion. Her sister, Anne Hill (née Carter) Lee, was the mother of Robert E. Lee. The Lee family visited often, before during and after the War Between the States. General Lee's daughter Mary was proposed to by her childhood sweetheart Orton Williams in Hickory Hill's large parlor. She declined, never disclosing her reasons, but it is thought that the war had so hardened the sweet boy she had known, that he was gone and a angry, hard man had taken his ... read more

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