Home Site- Nelson County, Virginia
The property was part of Dr. William Cabell’s original holdings, which were turned over to his son Nicholas along with Dr. Cabell’s home Swan Creek/Liberty Hall. Midway was located around Routes 626 and 743 in Nelson County, Virginia.
Architecture
Little has been found regarding Midway, William H. Cabell’s farm where he resided from 1801-1810. Mutual Assurance policies describe the house as being a two-story wooden structure that was 36 feet long by 34 feet wide with 14 x 8 foot porches on each side plus an 8 x 8 foot porch at the end. The policies also list a smokehouse that was 10 feet high by 10 feet wide and a 24 x 18 foot stable. The 1802 policy also showed a corn house.
Nicholas Cabell, Sr.’s grandson, Nathaniel Francis Cabell (1807-1891), wrote that most of Nicholas’s papers were burnt at Midway House. However, no description of the house has been found. The house burned sometime before 1891.
Timeline of Midway Ownership
- 1799 -1809: In May 1799 Nicholas Cabell, Sr. gave 800 acres of his property to his son, William H. Cabell, to build Midway.
- When William H. Cabell married Elizabeth in 1795, the couple first lived with her parents, Col. and Mrs. William Cabell II at Union Hill.
- But in January 1801, William H. and his wife moved to Midway. Elizabeth died the following November.
- In 1805, William married Agnes Sarah Bell Gamble, and they resided at Midway when Cabell was not in Richmond serving in the government. In 1809 or 1810, Governor William H. Cabell moved directly across the James River to Repton/Montevideo in Buckingham County which he had purchased from his first cousin Joseph Cabell.
- 1823- Midway was sold to Joseph Carrington Cabell for $15,000 to pay off debts of William H. Cabell.
- Joseph never lived at Midway, and upon dying childless in 1856, he left the farm to William H.’s son, Dr. John Grattan Cabell.
- 1856: Dr. John Grattan Cabell owned Midway, Grattan Cabell did not live in Midway for any significant period of time as his practice and family were in Richmond.
- Before 1891: Home burned
