Writer Recalls Growing up in a Great Community – Doe Hill, Virginia
I lived my first six years in a house nestled among hills and ridges. There were trees and hills in every direction you looked. When the family moved from Pendleton County to Highland County, Virginia, the landscape took on a whole new look. As far as you could see there were open fields for miles, spreading out in the valley that ran north and south. There was Jack Mountain to the west and what I always heard referred to as Cave Mountain to the east. The house we lived in was on a hill and you could see the homes in Doe Hill and the surrounding community. The lights at night pointed out where every home was.
Doe Hill at one time was a prosperous and thriving place. The Doe Hill Academy was just outside the town to the north. There were two stucco buildings while in operation. One large building was still standing when I started school at the one-room school in 1947. The Doe Hill School was located along the Brushy Hill Road to the west.
The Doe Hill Bank was in the center of town next to the home of Dr. J. F. Stover and his office building. Minnie Pope lived just across the road from the bank in a very big house. To the right of the bank was the first two general stores that called Doe Hill home.
Roy and Bertha Johnson were running the store at the north end when we moved to Doe Hill. A boy by the name of Dale Harman was living with the Johnsons and he was Bertha’s son. They had a daughter by the name of Dolly Kay. The Johnsons moved to Staunton, Virginia, and as a young man, Dale Harman became the bus driver for the famous Statler Brothers, a position he held for many years. Dale was a schoolmate, a playmate and a friend of mine. Bertha’s brother, Virgil Simmons, took over the running of the store and stayed there until he married and moved to Franklin. His widow and sons still live in Pendleton County.
The second store was at the south end of town and was owned by Charles and Virginia Wheeler. One corner of the store served as a post office. Charlie took care of most of the mail and you could send money orders as well as receive packages there. A large stove furnished the heat for the long building and a bench sat to either side where customers would wait and visit. The Wheelers had a large customer base as you could purchase basically everything needed right there. Wheeler’s Store was a big, much needed, part of Doe Hill and Charlie and Virginia owned and operated that store for a long time. A number of people have purchased the property over the years but have failed to have a successful business. I haven’t been in that building now for a long time.
Doe Hill was also home to a telephone switchboard that was just across the road from Wheeler’s Store. Lena Snyder was the operator and responsible for getting phone calls sent and received. With the forming of telephone companies and modern telephones, people could dial numbers for themselves and the local switchboard was gone. Operators for the phone companies were available to help place calls long distance. Modern technology now allows us to make our own long distance calls.
Those of us lucky enough to have lived in the Doe Hill community have a wealth of history from this small community. A small town rarely is home to an academy and the teaching it offers and a bank out in the middle of the country almost unheard of. Dr. Stover’s office was turned into a workshop and Claude Reedy made some beautiful wood items. The Doe Hill Bank became the Doe Hill Post Office, and I believe mail can still be left there for pick-up. Minnie’s house is being remodeled after standing empty for many years and much destruction to the interior from recent tenants. The store across the road from the post office is in a bad way and I don’t know if it is any longer usable. The Doe Hill Firehouse is located between the post office and the schoolhouse that is now a beautiful home.
The large farms are very much the same although the people who began farming them are all gone. Younger family members continue to work and improve their land. I think the grandfathers/fathers would be proud of the way the younger generation is taking care of what they once worked hard to have. Alfred Armstrong and Lee Blagg are probably the two oldest people continuing on with the farms of their parents.
My brother-in-law, Tom Jones, and Linda, continue to keep the farm of his grandfather going. Linda’s contribution is keeping the books as she was forced to have both legs removed due to health problems. Not to worry, keeping accurate farm records is very important. My brother still farms the land he bought from Leta Hiner and Laura Hooke and the land my daddy worked on for many years. Eddie Moyers farms the Hiner homeplace, and his brother farms their grandfather’s/father’s farm. Burton Hooke, Laura’s husband, raised Southdown sheep while he lived. Although these sheep were not very big, they were quite aggressive. Carroll Mitchell continues to farm the land his family bought and on which the Doe Hill Academy stood. There are smaller farms that surround Doe Hill, and I don’t mean to take away from their importance. Farming is a hard, full time job regardless of the acreage and every farmer needs to be recognized for their achievements.
The Doe Hill of the 19th and 20th centuries is not what you see today when visiting or passing through. There is no academy, no bank, no school, no doctor, and only one store that from time to time might be open. The business parts of the town are no longer there, but the farms remain.
Violet R. Eye
February 2023
