The Kinnaird Place

(Extract from the book "My Rappahannock (Virginia) Story Book by Mary Elizabeth Hite - 1950)

About one mile south of Woodville is the old "Kinnaird Place." Living here now are two descendants of this ancient Scottish family - Miss Emily Berry and her brother Rufus. Miss Emily tells in a fascinating manner the story of the coming of her ancestors to this part of the world.

The Kinnairds of "Castle Kinnaird" in Scotland came in the early days of Jamestown. George Kinnaird and his brother David, with their Thornton friends sought homes in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Kinnairds (brothers) found a well-built log house, and near it a beautiful orchard with no one to lay claim to it. This to them must have seemed a wonderful discovery for they were not rich in lands. George finally established a claim and made here his home, boarding over the logs, a way of dressing up a log house which seemed popular in that day. David moved onto find for himself elsewhere. At this time they travelled in wagons and on foot.

The sons of George Kinnaird were educated at William and Mary College. This was in the period immediately following the Revolution. Only one of the children of George and his wife were left at the "Kinnaird Place". A daughter, Jeanette, had married Joseph Johnson, son of their neighbor. Lucy, daughter of Joseph Johnson and Jeanette, his wife, married Churchill Berry. Jordon, son of Churchill Berry and Lucy, his wife, are Emily, Rufus and George.

John A Kinnaird, son of George Kinnaird I, of "Kinnaird Place" was a pioneer of West Virginia. He was called the "Daniel Boone" of that section of Virginia.

In the War Between the States, the Confederation Calvary from West Virginia used the old "Kinnaird Place" as their headquarters. Four sons went from this home to serve in the Southern Army.

Sitting on the foot of her grandmother's bed, little Emily listened to the "Tales of a Grandmother", and now she passes them on to us. Her grandmother told her of the days of her youth when she would don her riding-habit, with its skirt touching the ground, and ride her horse through the woods to F. T. Church, ten miles away.

NoteKinnaird Worldwide Family number 37.