By TIM PRESTON - The Independent
LOUISA — Once started, memories of childhood and family tend to flow like a flood. Among the many people who have read with interest about the renovations at the old sandstone home along U.S. 23 near Louisa known as the Garred-Burgess House has been Victoria Derifield, one of the last people to own the home before it was recently purchased by Martin County entrepreneur Jim Booth.
The home and surrounding farm land hold many memories, Derifield said.
“It was really hard letting that property go. I sold all the other pieces (about 400 acres) and held on to that little piece with the house for several years ... in the hope that something wonderful could happen with it. I think it will under Mr. Booth’s ownership,” Derifield wrote.
Among many myths about the home, including a tale of buried treasure on the property, is the story about tunnels beneath the hand-cut sandstone structure.
“The tunnels are another manufactured tale. Uncle Frank (Francis) said the house was part of the underground railroad, which is a little strange since the family were slaveholders (these were the Garreds),” she said. “The Burgesses were actually further down the Mayo Trail (U.S. 23) at George’s Creek (named for George Revel Burgess).”
Many of the stories about the house and farm are accepted as true because they came from the source, Derifield said, although that doesn’t make them true.
“Francis loved attention and he'd make up anything to get it. The puzzlement is why anyone believed him. He suffered from PTSD (his navy ship was struck by a Kamikaze plane in WW2 — now I sound like I’m making stuff up) and he admitted himself for several series of shock treatments at St. Mary's in Huntington. I remember going to see him in the hospital when I was little.
“My parents “parked” my brother and I on the farm every summer. We followed Tom around and about the place. One time Billy and I played in the top of the silo for hours and scared the family silly. We got a little drunk, too, from the smell of the silage.
I recall Tom carrying me on his shoulders and putting me up in the bottom limbs of trees ... to gather leaves to put on the Thanksgiving table. Good memories.”
Dr. Burgess was known for a few of his unusual ways, although Derifield mostly recalls his love of storytelling.
“Francis was a ‘stay-in-the-house and smoke cigarettes’ kind of uncle. He and I would talk into the wee hours most nights I stayed there. He was a teller of tales even then. He had been an incredible physician, and there are great stories about him when he practiced, but that was mostly over by the time I was in high school (late 50s/early 60s),” she recalled.
Derifield said she still has a color photo of the oldest building on the property — although the structure may have since been torn down.
“If you stand where you took your published picture and turn to your left, there is a smokehouse, practically outside the back porch door. That building was built by the original Garred — probably circa 1835 or earlier.”
Derifield said the property exchanged owners a few times, although it tended to stay within a small circle of deed holders.
“At some point the Garred’s sold the property that the stone house sits on and my grandfather bought it back. The farm adjacent (now belonging to the Arrington’s) was also part of the original parcel belonging to the original Jarrett. The Arrington's place has stayed in family hands for the duration. They are the next property driving toward Paintsville. I don't know for sure, but I'll bet the old house there was David W.’s original. The years between the Garred’s ownership and my grandfather's repurchase of the “stone house” piece of property are a mystery to me.’
Even with a lifetime of knowledge and memories associated with the property, Derifield said she is still surprised to learn new facts about the place.
“Something I just found out in the last several years ... that my grandmother Victoria, married to Malcom ... was the sister of Jennie Garred, married to Lee Garred at the next door farm. Every day, my grandmother would walk to the line fence to visit with Jennie. My older cousin remembers going with her.”
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com.
