Newington

Newington - Home of Lawrence Sanford (II) and Lucy Henshaw Walker, his wife (and an unrelated ghost)

Located in the old Everona community of Orange County not too far distant from Unionville this home burned to the ground about 1959.

From information gleaned from a book entitled Virginia Ghosts by Marguerite DuPont Lee, Newington was built by the Taliaferro family about 1758 and was their home until William Taliaferro’s death in 1798. The author says that for seventy years prior to 1910 this property was owned by Mr. Lawrence Sanford, from whom it was bought by Mrs. J. P. Walters who relates her remarkable experience one night in the fall of 1914 which led to Newington’s inclusion in this book.

Mrs. Walters describes the ‘greate’ room as beautifully wainscotted in walnut and at one side a built-in desk adds a note of interest. About one hundred yards distant from the house is the ancient burial ground shaded by many beautiful trees.

The ghost story continues in Mrs. Walter’s and the author’s words:

  “There was a very unsightly space overgrown by bushes in the garden back of the graveyard. Mr. Walters told an old man who had worked on the place fifteen years, to clean off this rank growth, and plow the land. The man replied: ‘It can’t be done.’ He said he had done this every year, and had ‘several times tried to plow, and every time the swingle-trees would snap off as fast as I put them on. Then we tried iron swingle-trees and the mules dropped in graves every few steps, so we left it alone!’”

One day Mrs. Walters ordered some plowing done in the garden and while this work was in progress the horse sank into a cavity. Upon investigation, this was found to be a grave containing a skeleton! That night at about eleven o’clock she was awakened by a loud noise apparently in the yard. Careful investigation revealing nothing out of the ordinary, Mrs. Walters once more retired to bed. Very soon this noise was heard twice in quick succession, and presently the figure of a woman appeared at the

foot of her bed! This apparition spoke calling Mrs. Walters by name, and giving her own name as Ethel Cavanaugh. She asked her not to be afraid; that the grave disturbed in the garden was hers; “Newington’ had been her home long before it was that of the Sanford family, that she made periodic visits to her old home, and had died in the room above the spiral stairway.

Mrs. Walters writes: “You want to know why I mention one special room that Ethel died in. She told me what room she died in, and where she was buried. I said: ‘ I have never seen your grave in the enclosed graveyard.’ She smiled and said: ‘No, only the Sanford family are buried in the enclosed lot. I was buried in the garden. You see I lived here years and years before the Sanfords ever owned this place, and I died in the room upstairs over the room you now use as the dining room.’”

 

Mrs. Walters continues her story with a description of Ethel and her dress and concludes with her statement that she visited the County Clerk and discovered that a number of years prior to this event there was a family by the name of Cavanaugh living in that neighborhood. Thus ends the story of the ghost of Newington.

If indeed Lawrence Sanford owned Newington for the seventy years prior to 1910 it would appear that he owned it before his marriage to Lucy Henshaw Walker on May 22, 1844. And from the Sanford History by Walter E. Sanford, Jr.:
 

  Lawrence Sanford resided in Orange County, Virginia at “Newington” located some twelve miles Southeast of the town of Orange on Mountain Run. He owned the property for more than seventy years having acquired it about 1840 from Elizabeth, the second wife and relict of William Taliaferro. The old burying ground lies about one hundred yards distant while the site of the first Court House erected in Orange (of which merely a trace can be located) is but another hundred yards removed. A feature of “Newington”is its striking hall and stairway.  

We know that Lawrence and Lucy raised five children at Newington of which Walker Sanford was the only son and the ancestor to our Sanfords of today.

Children of Lawrence and Lucy (according to Sanford Family Bible):

1. Jane B. Sanford - (March 10, 1845-July 11, 1923, married James W. Row of Caroline County on Dec. 8, 1868 (1) Carleton Row - b. Oct. 20, 1869 (2) L. Sanford Row - b. Oct. 2, 1871 (Note: According to information gathered by Richard Sanford “This seems to be the sister of Grandfather Walker Sanford. She lived at Unionville next door to the Methodist Church. Her stone in the Rhoadesville Baptist Church Cemetery has the word ‘Mother” on it.”)

2. Mary Susan Sanford - b March 26, 1847, married R. T. Walker on Dec. 20, 1871, She died Aug. 3, 1873 (1) James Walker 1872-1879 (2) ? Walker Aug. 3, 1873 - Aug. 25, 1873 (Mary Susan Walker and her two children were buried at at Newington)

3. Wallace Walker or Walker Wallace Sanford - b. April 22, 1851 d. Jan. 17, 192l (For more of W. W. Sanford - see Woodley)

4. Lizzie H. Sanford - b May 21, 1859, married Preston Brooks Emanuel on Dec. 10, 1879 (1) William Sanford Emanuel b. Oct. 20, 1880 (2) Lulie Preston Emanuel b. Dec. 10, 1882 (Both born in Marleborough Co. SC)

5. Lulie F. Sanford - b. Apr. 12, 186l d. Sept. 28, 1880 ( Lulie was buried at Newington)

Among the papers in the Sanford Family Bible is Walker Sanford’s Diploma declaring him a graduate of Randolph Macon College in the School of Chemistry dated June 24, 1969. Also included in these papers are several Certificates of Distinction in various subjects earned by Walker. Apparently the girls, or at least the two younger ones, Lizzie and Lulie, attended Bowling Green Female Seminary as there are various Certificates of

Distinction in different subjects. Only one diploma remains among the papers and that is granted to Miss Lulie Sanford for “having undergone a thorough and satisfactory examination in the School of Physical Science” on June 12, 1878. It appears that she died two years after her graduation.

Newington Cemetery

Lawrence and Lucy were buried in the graveyard at Newington and also two of their daughters, Mary Susan and Lulie, and Mary Susan’s two children, James and Marion Walker. Plans were made to have these remains moved to Graham Cemetery in Orange but this writer doesn’t know if this has been accomplished.

Oak Grove Site -Home of Benjamin Walker and his wife Elizabeth V. (Betsy) Henshaw

This home place was located across the public road from Newington on a site which is now the location of the extensive Battlefield greenhouse operation and was the home of Lucy Henshaw Walker who became the wife of Lawrence Sanford. For more information on Benjamin and Betsy Walker see the write-up which is with a picture of Benjamin Walker. As far as known to this writer no picture exist of this home.

Prior to the construction of green houses there existed a Walker cemetery on this place where Benjamin and Betsy, as well as Benjamin’s second wife and some of his children were buried. As your writer understands it these graves were relocated to Graham Cemetery in Orange when the greenhouses were built.