CHAPTER 34

The Tracy Family History

Albemarle Dwellings

    It was in this region of the Piedmont of Virginia that our people became the first settlers. Soon the Scotch-Irish would come flooding into Virginia and the Carolinas. Most came from the sea.
    Who were our neighbors? There is a wonderful, rare book, titled Ante-Bellum Albemarle, with historical comments by Mary Rawlings. There are 92 sketches (drawings) of some of the more prominent mansions of the Colonial and later era done by H. Heyward and A. Robinson. The book was published by a local bank, Peoples National Bank in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was published in 1935, nearly 70 years ago. The book is not available in reprint. But it is available through the Interlibrary Loan system.
    I have copied a few of the drawings that I thought would be of interest to our Woods-Wallace cousins. You will notice on these sketches, and a few of the previous sketches, that I have a number in the top left corner. This is the page number of the sketch in the book. I use it for reference purposes. All of the sketches in the book come with an historical story of the dwelling owners. I use the same number to indicate this information is from the book. However, sometimes I use the historical notes in their entirety; Sometimes I edit and condense,  and sometimes I make comments.
    Remember that these dwellings stood as of 1935. Some may no longer exist today.