Interview with Joseph Barlow, Jr.

The house they live in was the old farm house that has been/is being reconditioned.  Seems the house was built between 1780-1800.  House was built by a Godwin, possibly John Godwin in 1784.  Thomas Godwin built the Duff home in 1690.  In the 1600’s all of Cherry Grove Road was granted to the Godwins.  Seems that in the early 1600 at Wills’ Corner there stood what was known as the Castle.

There is a site of an earlier home out in the field.  Lots of artifacts have been found in the area.

Has found a few Indian artifacts in the area.

Tree in the yard is over 350 years old.

9:30  Joe talks about the snake in the garden and the old wives tale about hanging a snake up in the tree.

The Lawrences are buried at St John’s.

Old house was used to store grain in it when

16:00  Talks about the nails that were used in the house.  Something like cut nails.

House has not been lived in since the early 30’s.

Kitchen foundation is still intact and is separate from the house.

Lynn Rose has some of the furniture that came out of the house.

Ox yokes that he has were possibly owned by Robert Lawrence.  Ox were no longer used after about 1890.

One Lawrence son went on the Gold Rush and one died fishing off the pier.

The Corbell home was right across the creek.

Cotton Plains’ farm goes back to the late 1800’s and then it became the Lawrence farm.

One of Sarah Godwin’s kids married a Cotton  from Bear Town (might have been Sandy Bottom).

When Joe Barlow, Sr. bought the farm Mr. Batten was looking for someone who would really take care of it.  They built the new house in 1960 when Joe, Jr. was six months old.

Joe grew up on the farm and never wanted to do anything else.  Joe Sr. sent him to Va Tech but in reality he wanted to just farm, fix the house up, and live in it.

Joe Sr. liked cattle while Joe Jr. wanted to raise crops.

40:00  Joe talks about the new technology in crop farming.

General discussions about a variety of items.

60:00  Joe talks about what he likes about the farm and living here.

66:00  Gov. Godwin came by to look at houses that his relatives had lived in.  He died some two weeks later.

68:40  Joe talks about the packet wharf’s that were in the area.

73:00  Showed us the stencil when the farm raised potatoes would be used to paint on the barrel to indicate where it was going.

87:00  Joe talks about finding the place of the old Outhouse as it possibly contains some ancient relics.  Show us the window pane with a date of 1837 and several names.  Window pane found in the wall with a  date of 1784.  Had a Godwin name on it.

97:30  Trying to find out when the name Chuckatuck was first used in 1655 found in a book about Isle of Wight.

100:00  talks about a flint lock pistol with the name of London on it.

103:00  Talks about a Mills Godwin living at the end of Cherry Grove Road in 1812.  He also has an Assurance policy on the original house.

117:30  Talks about the Female Institute being next to Wesley Chapel