The 376 acres of land on which the house sits was the subject of a land indenture from Jacob and Magdalena (Hite) Chrisman to their sixteen year-old son George on May 20, 1761. George Chrisman married Hannah McDowell a few years later, and by 1787, they had four sons and three daughters. The stone house was built sometime between 1761 and 1787.
Since George and Hannah Chrisman passed away in August 1816 and January 1817 respectively, there have been nine subsequent owners of the stone house as documented by public deed records. Although it appears to have changed ownership numerous times over the years, closer examination reveals that the stone house remained in the same two families, Chrisman and Shaver, for more than 150 years.
OWNERSHIP c. 1787 TO PRESENT
c. 1787: Captain George and Hannah (McDowell) Chrisman.
1817: Conrad and Elizabeth (Chrisman) Custer, purchased the house and 345 acres at public auction, in addition to 91 acres on another tract.
APR 06, 1829: George and Hannah (Sites) Shaver, Sr. purchased the house and 130 acres, in addition to 91 acres on another tract.
MAR 29, 1855: Jesse Burkholder purchased the house and 147 acres.
OCT 09, 1868: George W. Shaver, Sr. purchased the house and 130 acres, plus an additional 24.5 acres.
MAR 01, 1906: George W. Shaver, Jr. purchased the house and 130 acres, plus an additional 24.5 acres.
SEP 27, 1910: John E. and Jane A. Dovel purchased the house and 130 acres.
SEP 09, 1914: George W. and Lucy V. (Dovel) Shaver purchased the house and 130 acres.
JUN 08, 1948: Homer R. and Goldie M. (Summers) Kline purchased the house and 130 acres.
MAY 18, 1956: Frederick L. and Mary R. Holm purchased the house and 4.51 acres.
DEC 30, 2002: Dan and Susan (Klender) Pinnell purchased the house and 4.51 acres.
CHRISMAN-CUSTER
In 1799, Conrad Custer (b. 1771, d. 1845) married George and Hannah's daughter Elizabeth (b. 1779, d. 1835). The 1820 Rockingham County census lists Conrad Custer as head of household with his wife, seven children, and ten slaves.
THE SHAVER FAMILY AND THE "JOE'S CREEK PLACE"
Some valuable information has been obtained from two letters written by John G. Shaver (Muncie, IN) to Agnes Kline (Harrisonburg, VA) in 1969. Mr. Shaver's letters, which are on file at the EMU Historical Library, are dated October 4 and October 21, and are in response to Miss Kline's inquiries to him dated October 2 and October 13. Agnes Kline authored Stone Houses on Linville Creek and Their Communities, Rockingham County, VA, which was published in 1971, so this exchange of information was obviously research for her book.
Although the names of Burkholder and Dovel appear in the list of homeowners, the house remained in the Shaver family from 1829 until 1948, a span of 119 years. In 1831, Jesse Burkholder had married Catherine Shaver, and the Dovels were Lucy Dovel Shaver's parents.
As explained in the October 21, 1969 letter from Shaver to Kline, "The old stone house of the farm which my father sold in (1948) had been in the Shaver family for many years; as I recall, he indicated well over 100 years. There was a short span, he told me, of a few years, when, legally, it was recorded in the name of my maternal grandfather, John E. Dovel. My maternal grandparents came to live with my parents, but my grandfather would not agree to it unless he owned the farm. Thus, a sale was arranged from my father to him with a deed made back which was recorded upon my grandfather's death." As for the 1855 Burkholder purchase, John Shaver believed that Jesse Burkholder was a brother of his grandmother, Elizabeth J. Burkholder Shaver.
From the October 4, 1969 letter: "D B (Deed Book) 3, p. 157 - Jesse Burkholder and wife sell to Geo. W. Shafer, Oct. 1, 1868, for 12,000 ($) land on headwaters of Linville Creek...a tract on which Jesse and Catherine live now, adjoining land of Henry Moyers estate, late Chas. Spears estate, Breneman, and others...130 acres more or less, being part of the land conveyed to Jesse Burkholder, by George Shafer and Hannah, his wife, March 29, 1855, and embraces tracts which were conveyed to said George Shafer by Conrad Custer and wife by their deed of April 6, 1829 and by Chas. C. Spears and wife by their deed of June 8, 1833, "reserving the same privilege to C. C. Spears of making a dam and conveying water in pipes which was granted Spears by Shafer in his deed of 1833...also a tract on Green Hill. Jesse reserves for himself the use of the dwelling in which he now lives together with outbuildings attached to same until May 1869, also use of upper meadow, two lots, one in front and one in rear of the house, the orchard and hill field together with the mill and mill yard until March 1, 1869..."
The house was apparently in use into the early 1920s according to the 1969 letters from John G. Shaver. "My two sisters and I were born on the Joe's Creek place, and my memory is that my father was also." He and his sisters were born between 1909 and 1913, and their father was born April 30, 1873. John Shaver remembered Breneman-Turner Mill (less than 2 miles away): "I recall going by that mill many times when my father took wheat and exchanged it for flour. This would have been 1916 to 1922, or thereabouts."
At some point during the 1920s and 1940s, the house must have been unoccupied for an extended period of time, because at the time of the 1948 Shaver to Kline transfer, the house was in desperate need of restoration before it could once again serve as a family residence.
SHAVER FAMILY OWNERSHIP (1829-1948)
1829-1855: George Shaver (b. 1786, d.1866) and Hannah Sites Shaver (b. 1788, d. 1873)
1855-1868: Jesse Burkholder (b. 1811, d. 1896) and Catherine Shaver (b. 1809, d. 1907)
1868-1906: George W. Shaver, Sr. (b. 1832, d. 1906) and Elizabeth J. Burkholder Shaver
1906-1910: George W. Shaver, Jr. (b. 1873, d. 1959) and Lucy V. Dovel Shaver
1910-1914: Colonel John E. Dovel and Jane A. Dovel (Lucy V. Dovel Shaver's parents)
1914-1948: George W. Shaver, Jr. (b. 1873, d. 1959) and Lucy V. Dovel Shaver
According to the second of John G. Shaver's 1969 letters, his grandfather's older brother Peter Shaver (b. 1816, d. 1884), spent most of his life in Roanoke County, VA, but after the death of his father in 1866, Peter moved back to the home place to care for his 78 year-old mother. After Hannah Sites Shaver's death in 1873, Peter moved back to Botetourt County, VA.
No information has been found to date in regard to activity at the home during the Civil War (1861-1865), or what occurred on or to the property during Union General Philip H. Sheridan's devastating march on the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1864. Thousands of homes, barns and mills were burned by troops acting on Sheridan's orders in an effort to destroy what was considered the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy." No barn exists on the property today but surely the Chrismans, Custers and Shavers would have required such an outbuilding.
Above: New owners as of December 30, 2002. We finally moved in the following summer. One of the first things we did was pull out the overgrown boxwoods from the front of the house.
