Column: Shorelines

KAREN DILLON | Special to Laker Weekly

Volunteers (from left) Phillip Sheridan, Jim Miller, Steve Dorr and Lowell Skelton and Red Barbour take a break while working on reconstructing Jubal Anderson Early's law office on the site of his homeplace in Franklin County.

As temperatures soared into the 90s with the humidity pushing the heat index into nearly triple digits, members of the Smith Mountain Lake Lions Club managed to forge on with their current service project -- reconstructing a replica of Jubal Anderson Early's law office on the property of his childhood home off Virginia 116 near Windy Gap Mountain.

"It's going to look like an old building even though we're using a lot of new materials," said Phillip Sheridan of the Jubal A. Early Preservation Trust, whose goal is to preserve the home as well as provide programs of historical interest to the public.

A facade of rock that was found on the property hides the structure's cinder block foundation. Old wooden siding taken from a house in Salem obscures the Tyvec house wrap and treated lumber framing. Old plank boards and salvaged flooring complete the interior. All that's original to the structure is the chimney.

"The chimney that's still standing here is part of the history of the house," said Lion Lowell Skelton. Other Lions working on the project include Ralph Long, Steve Dorr, Larry Iceman, Jim Miller, Tom Scott, Gerry Lewis and Rick Carroll. Carroll is a fellow Lion and member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church, who brought along church members Gardner Simpkins, John O'Neil, Gerry Adcock and Perry Adcock.

"We have limited funds so the Lions are helping make it possible," said Red Barbour of the trust. "It's a wonderful project for the Smith Mountain Lake Lions."

Getting this far has been a labor of love for members of the trust and for others involved with acquiring and restoring the Early homeplace. Restoration began in 1995. The house has long since been finished, so the next project on the group's radar was to build Early's law office, even though Early never practiced law there. He had a practice in Rocky Mount and later, after the war, in Lynchburg.

It was the late Pat Briskey who first got the Lions involved in the reconstruction of Early's law office.

"Pat agreed that the Smith Mountain Lake Lions would participate, and time passed while the preservation trust raised the monies required for the building materials," said Long. According to Sheridan, this particular project cost roughly $10,000 in labor and materials.

Once the office is complete and as more funding becomes available, Sheridan said the next big project is locating the site of a carriage house that once stood on the property. For the immediate future, the trust plans to add landscaping and create a designated parking area before officially opening it to the public.

The house is, for the most part, empty now but will eventually feature information on different eras of Early's life. For example, one of the large rooms in the house will be dedicated to Early's childhood while another will be devoted to his military career.

According to the trust's website, after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1837, Early returned to Franklin County to study law. He began his practice in 1840 and served as a prosecutor for Franklin and Floyd counties.

Trust member Barbour recalled a story about when Early defended a black woman who was accused of killing a white man, whom she'd said tried to rape her. Early successfully defended the woman, something not often heard of in those days.

"He got her her freedom," said Barbour.

There are more stories about Early than there are hours in which to tell them, and that's primarily why the trust wants to preserve Early's homeplace and the history of it.

"The trust is committed to restoring and preserving this house and the grounds as a living memorial to Southern heritage," the website stated.

To find out more about the Jubal A. Early Preservation Trust, visit www.jubalearly.org. Information about the Smith Mountain Lake Lions Club is available at www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/SmithMountainLake.