Caswell County North Carolina: Dr. Jacob Thompson House (Leasburg, NC): William Cogbill Ham

Dr. Jacob Thompson House (Leasburg, NC): William Cogbill Ham Purchased Interior Trim

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The Dr. Jacob Thompson House in Leasburg, Caswell County, North Carolina, is a one and one-half story frame federal house of eccentric design, considerably altered. Originally two-story. It features extremely ornate trim includes pierced dentil cornice, window caps with geometric gouge work and fluted corner blocks. Much of the interior trim has been sold, including the mantel with 23 stars which once was said to have been bought by the Winterthur Museum of American Decorative Arts. However, the mantel went to a private home in Martinsville, Virginia.

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And, pictured above is the famous mantel and the person who purchased it and moved it to Martinsville, Virginia, William Cogbill Ham (1912-1970), nephew of Thomas Jones Ham, Jr., (1896-1967), long-time Yanceyville pharmacist and owner of the Yanceyville Drug Company (the drug store on the square in Yanceyville) who affectionately was called "Old Doc Ham."

The Dr. Jacob A. Thompson house in Leasburg was built around 1814 by the Lea family. The parlor had a federal mantel decorated with the Great Seal of the United States that displayed 23 stars. Maine, the 23rd state, attained statehood in 1820, which helps date the mantel. Since being removed from the house in the late 1950s, the mantel had been a local mystery, but see the 1957 newspaper below. Photograph courtesy Karen Avants.

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The house from which the mantel and other items were removed purportedly was built by William Archer Lea. The next owner was Benjamin F. Stanfield. Whether this was the senior or junior Benjamin Franklin Stanfield is not known. Dr. Jacob A. Thompson was the next owner, and he lived there for some fifty years until his death. James Albert Wade was the next owner and apparently owned the property until it was sold at auction and purchased by William Cogbill Ham for purposes of removing the interior woodwork.

Tar Heel Tradition Being Transplanted in New Virginia Home

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A Treasure House: Bid at Auction Opened New Life

By Dorothy Cleal (Special to the Times-Dispatch)

Martinsville, July 23, 1957 --

"Virginians say that native Richmonders, wherever transplanted, never seem to lose an inborn love of the South's proud memories. The William C. Hams, who moved to this south-central Virginia city in 1949, are proving the point by planning a home that will be a blend of two centuries, complete with its own built-in memories.

"Born and reared in Richmond, Virginia and Bill Ham have always enjoyed country antique-hunting, and found the Virginia-North Carolina border area an especially happy hunting ground. Las year they discovered a venerable Leasburg, N.C., house about 60 miles from Martinsville which they have dismantled and carried across the border piece by piece for incorporation in the Williamsburg-style home to be built this fall.

"When the first saw 'the old Thompson place,' an original bid of $2,000 -- merely to secure one of the four fine mantels -- had already been made. However, taking advantage of a North Carolina state law stipulating that a first bid may be upset within 10 days, the Hams boldly offered a tentative $2,500.

"'I'm not very familiar with auctions,' said Mrs. Ham, 'but before the gavel had descended on the last going . . . gone, 'going . . . gone,' we were suddenly the owners of an ancient house, one acre and one-tenth of land, one smoke house, one chicken house and two outhouses.'

"Their proudest acquisition is a massive hand-carved mantel, said to be the only one of its kind in the United States outside of the White House.

Heart Pine Used

"The Hams have spent many hours getting the mantel's surface down to the original solid heart pine. The mantel is painstakingly hand-carved in beautiful detail and centered with the American emblem of eagle and shield, surrounded by twenty-three stars.

"'I couldn't resist consulting my daughter's history books to date the mantel,,' Bill Ham confessed. 'I would tentatively say it must have been made in the year 1820.' This date is substantiated by a fragment of an old letter found in the house, as wall as a piece of a ladder with the same year scratched in it. A door taken from a later addition to the house gave up a was of yellowed newspaper date-lined Milton, N.C., 1836, wherein the editor described a trip to Washington where he met but did not admire Daniel Webster and Andrew Jackson.

"'Every single part of this house was laboriously made by hand to stand for centuries,' commented Ham, pointing out the handmade clapboards, and the four-inch beams joined together with wooden pegs.'

"'Most people think the prefabricated house is a new idea. This is the original 'prefab.' They used L-shaped pieces to form the corners of the house and all cross pieces are mortised and held with wooden pegs.' When his workmen called his attention to some odd marks, the found that each joint, where the pieces came together, and been identified with Roman numerals for matching purposes.

"It is obvious that whole trees must have been sacrificed to secure some of the beams -- floor beams are 4-by-12 inches, as compared with the usual modern 2-by-6's.

"'I should like to use the random-width floor boards and random width _____ boards,' Ham said. 'We'll probably not be able to use the fan-shaped transom windows, though their hand-blown glass with its characteristic bubbles is certainly worth preserving.'

"The old buried treasure fever dormant in most breasts cropped as a result of countryside rumors, Ham commented. 'It was hard to tell who got up the stairs first when one of the boys shouted over the discovery of a blackened and moldy leather saddle-bag upstairs.' Though it produced only the yellowed daguerreotype of a lady of some by-gone era the find meant another addition to a growing collection of mementos of Leasburg in its heyday.

"Dr. Jacob Thompson, a surgeon in the Confederate Army and beloved general practitioner in the North Carolina community for many years, owned the house until his death, when J. A. Wade bought the place. When he died 40 years later, it was sold at auction.

"Virginia Ham is an accomplished portrait painter, is also a lover of antiques, and with his complete wood-working equipment, her husband plans someday to make furniture, using some of the wainscoting removed from the old house; single boards two feet wide were used. A beautifully detailed dining room breakfront on which he worked over a period of two years will doubtless be the subject of admiring comment as an heirloom of future generations."

Historic Find -- "The William C. Hams will have an historic mantel centerpiece in their Martinsville home when they complete dismantling the old house they bought in Leasburg, N.C. This beautifully carved emblem, once almost obscured by countless coasts of paint, is said to be almost identical to one over a White House fireplace. The 23 stars suggest it was made about the time of Andrew Jackson's presidency."

Rustic But Not Rusty -- "Carefully salvaged from the century-and-a-quarter-old Thompson home in Leasburg, N.C. and refurbished for use in a Martinsville residence is this handmade hardware. The hinges, locks, nails, even the hammer, were made in the 1820s."

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 24 July 1957.

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Please be aware that the statements made by Helen Graves with respect to the Lea family should be considered very carefully. Many have confused the various members of the Lea family with the given names William, James, and John. Here are the troublesome excerpts:

The first settlers in this part of the country were James and William Lea, who came here in 1750 from the Eastern part of Virginia," she went on. "It was William Lea's son, George, who planted the present fine oak grove here with acorns brought from England.

The old house was built by George Lea's son, William Archer Lea, who lived and died there. His stone in the family cemetery bears the dates 1786-1845. William Archer Lea was the great uncle of Solomon Lea, who was the first president of Greensboro College for Women, and afterward conducted the Somerville Female Institute in Leasburg for over forty years. After Lea's death, Ben F. Stanfield lived in the house for about 20 years, following which it was purchased by Dr. Jacob Thompson, a surgeon in the Confederate Army and beloved general practioner in this community, who lived there nearly 50 years. After Thompson's death, J. A. Wade bought the place and lived there about 40 years until it was sold at auction.

She states that the first settlers in the Leasburg area were James and William Lea, who appeared on the scene in the 1850's. Yes, but which James Lea and which William Lea?

The two brothers who generally are considered as founders of the Leasburg area became known as James (Kilgore's Branch) Lea and William (South Hico) Lea. This was in an attempt to differentiate them from the other members of the Lea family with the same given name. However, another William Lea moved from Virginia to the Orange-Caswell area in the 1850's. He became known as William (Cobb's Creek) Lea. While one is possible (and even likely), no family relationship has been established between this second William and the brothers James and William.

To complicate matters further, both William Leas had a son named George. But, only one of these George Leas had a son named William Archer Lea.

Helen Graves also states that William Archer Lea was the great uncle of Solomon Lea. This appears to be incorrect, and results from confusing the two William Leas. And, this connection suggests that the William Lea to whom she referred was William (South Hico) Lea.

If William Archer Lea was the great uncle of Solomon Lea, he would be a brother of a Solomon Lea grandparent. Solomon Lea's relevant Lea grandparents were: Gabriel Lea (paternal) and Anness Lea (maternal). Note that Solomon Lea was related to both William (South Hico) Lea and James (Kilgore's Branch) Lea. However, no record has been found showing that either Gabriel Lea or Anness Lea had a brother named William Archer Lea. Moreover, if (a) William Archer Lea was indeed the great uncle of Solomon Lea, (b) William Archer Lea was a grandson of William (South Hico) Lea, and (c) the father of William Archer Lea was George Lea, there are generational problems that seem to make it impossible for all three of these to be true.

Anness Lea did have a brother named George Lea, who was the great/grand uncle of Solomon Lea. However, ignoring the generational problems, no record has been found indicating that this George Lea (who moved to Georgia) had a son named William Archer Lea. Moreover, there is the record showing that the mother of William Archer Lea was Jane Douglas. No record has been found supporting a Jane Douglas as a wife of the George Lea who was the son of William (South Hico) Lea.

While not absolutely clear, the best evidence indicates the following ancestral outline:

William (Cobb's Creek) Lea m. Mary Unknown
George Lea m. Jane Douglas
William Archer Lea m. Susan Cochran

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the William Archer Lea who built the house with the famous mantel (became known as the Dr. Jacob Thompson House) was not the grandson of William (South Hico) Lea and was not the granduncle of Solomon Lea. He was, however, the grandson of William (Cobb's Creek) Lea, who was early on the scene in the Leasburg area.

Query which George Lea (if either) planted the acorns!
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Here is a photograph of the Dr. Jacob Thompson (or what remains of it) today: