Posted by Marian Coleman Eshbaugh
on 9/5/2005, 9:55 pm, in reply to "Five Forks"
68.205.41.170
Burnt Quarter, in the 1960s was the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.P.G. Gilliam, Five Forks, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. It is the oldest known Coleman home in America that is still standing. It has a wonderful history. While Tarleton was on his way to Charlottesville, in his effort to capture Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature, he visited this home. The family was storing grain for the Continental Army, and Tarleton burned the grain quarter. That is how it got its name Burnt Quarter. At the close of the Civil War, the home was in the line of fire at the battle of Five Forks. Letitia Coleman, widow of Robert Coleman, willed the property to her daughter, Mary, who married Colonel Joseph Goodwyn. Mary Elizabeth Coleman Goodwyn, the 20th child of this couple, inherited the property from her mother. She was born at Burnt Quarter 25 December 1812, and died there on 16 June 1884. She married John William Gilliam, the only son of Samuel and Susan Gilliam, on 24 April 1832. As a child, I toured this home. At the time of my visit it was still owned by the Gilliam family. However, last year, I visited Five Forks and was told that it was now a private home and not open for tours.
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