For Henrico, ‘one of the most important days in the history of our county’

Henrico County has agreed to purchase one of the most historically significant parcels of land in the United States, county officials announced during a public hearing and press conference Wednesday in Varina.

The county will spend $17.25 million to buy the 2,095-acre Varina Farms along the James River, the site on which John Rolfe developed a new strand of tobacco whose proliferation saved the failing Virginia Colony at Jamestown in the early 1600s and gave rise to the birth of a nation. County officials said Wednesday that they intend to preserve the land and will consider in the coming years ways through which to make it available to citizens.

The site, owned by the Stoneman family for more than a century, is where Rolfe lived with his wife, Pocahontas, whose image adorns the Henrico County seal and flag. The county itself traces its roots to the site, where the village of Varina was established following Rolfe’s death in 1622 and where the county seat was established a decade later and remained for 120 years.

Varina Farms also served as a headquarters for Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler during the Civil War and as one of two primary prisoner-exchange locations in the South during the war.

The purchase agreement – authorized by a 5-0 vote of the Henrico Board of Supervisors during a brief public hearing at the site Wednesday morning – made Jan. 17 “one of the most important days in the history of our county,” board chairman and Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson told a crowd of several dozen people gathered inside a tent at the site.

“Clearly, today’s announcement has a lot to do with our history,” Nelson said, “but in a way, it’s really about securing our future – a future that we hope reflects our values, our priorities and our aspirations. If any property is worthy of preservation, it is the one that we stand on.”

“Without exaggeration, Varina Farms represents the birthplace of Henrico and is ground zero for Virginia’s success and prosperity.”

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said county officials have not started the process to determine future uses for the site.

“We’re going to be working through all of that,” Vithoulkas said. “Right now, the first step was acquiring the property. Ultimately this is going to be property for the people of Henrico County. . . Today is a very special day for our county, our residents and future generations of our county.”

Added Nelson: “Our only intent was the purchase and preserve and one of the most historic properties in the United States. . . For us, this is about the long term, not the short term. We’re going to be slow and methodical about what we’re going to do.”

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Early last year, Henrico County had purchased the historic home on the site, known as Varina on the James, and about 5.6 acres of associated land for $1.3 million. On Wednesday, it took a much larger step.

The day was one of mixed emotions for members of the Stoneman family, 17 of whom own the property jointly. Their sale agreement with the county provides them access to the land for five years to hunt, fish, and store and retrieve items, among other uses, and also authorizes them to continue farming the site for the same period of time. The family has leased the farmland to Engel Family Farms since the 1980s.

Varina Farms “has been a joy to us for 100 years. It has been a comfort to us in those sad times, a source of comfort,” Wilmer Stoneman, III, said Wednesday. The site offers sweeping views of the James River and today lies beneath the Varina-Enon bridge, which carries Interstate 295 across the river. About half its acreage is farmland and the other half forestland that is actively maintained, Stoneman said.

Stoneman’s grandfather, Wilmer Stoneman, Sr., who purchased the farm and later served on the Henrico School Board and board of supervisors, “instilled in all of us a sense of community and giving back to this community, Henrico County and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he said. “We’re proud of that, and we’re all involved in some form or fashion in our community.”

The elder Stoneman was an innovator as a farmer, his grandson said.

“Practices adopted by farmers all over the world were first introduced here,” he said, noting that officials from Virginia Tech and elsewhere had established agricultural research buildings on the site years ago, honing practices that have helped create sustainable farming efforts.

Stoneman recalled the efforts of his mother, Gatewood Stoneman (who lived at the farm for more than 65 years until her death at 89 in 2018) to encourage agricultural education for youngsters and others. The family’s home often hosted symposiums for Henrico teachers to learn about environmental issues, he said.

“We are very proud of our connection to this house,” Stoneman said, recounting the site’s role in history. “Blood was shed here to repair a broken nation. This is a historical moment for this county, it’s a historical moment for our family. We’re turning a page, but I think it’s a good page.”

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The county’s purchase of the site is the latest in a series of preservation efforts in Varina. In 2018, a partnership between Henrico, the Capital Region Land Conservancy and state officials permanently protected the 486-acre Malvern Hill Farm, and today Henrico oversees the overall 900-acre Malvern Hill site.

In 2019, the county spent $10 million to purchase Wilton Farm, a 1,184-acre parcel farther west along the James River in Varina that it intends to consider using as open space and park land, a tourist attraction, a business corridor and a school or schools, among other possibilities.

Vithoulkas credited Nelson and fellow supervisors with challenging county officials to help tell Henrico’s story.

“Today, this morning, just now, our board of supervisors took an action that is a ‘forever’ play,” he said.

In response to a question from an attendee at Wednesday’s announcement, Nelson said it was possible that the farmhouse on the site could be turned into a historical museum but that such a museum (long sought by historians and preservationists in the area) might end up on another parcel of land instead and could be funded through a coming bond referendum.

The story of the site’s history – and of the role it played in that of the region and nation it helped birth – is at once inspiring, uncomfortable, violent, awe-inducing, and sad.

Rolfe’s tobacco “quite literally, provided the jolt that continues to fuel much of our economic success in this county, this commonwealth and this nation,” Nelson said.

It also helped save the Jamestown settlement, which was collapsing amid famine, disease, a lack of crops to sell in Europe, and from attacks by Natives who were defending their hunting land. Tobacco quickly became that cash crop, prompting the arrival of thousands more settlers from Europe – and also the documented kidnapping of Africans, who were taken to Virginia against their will and enslaved to harvest the crop, ushering in an era of slavery in the colonies.

The success of the crop soon was driving the colonial economy and eventually helped lead to the Revolutionary War, through which the colonies won their independence from Great Britain. But as slavery grew in the South, it became a flashpoint issue in a divided nation, ultimately leading to the U.S. Civil War – in which Henrico again played a prominent role. Henrico and Dinwiddie counties are home to the most Civil War battlefields in any locality in the nation.

Now, the site of so much of Henrico’s history is in the hands of the county that it helped spawn.

“We are here today to place the future of Varina back into the hands of the people,” said Julian Charity, the director of History, Heritage and Natural Resources for Henrico Recreation and Parks. “This is a possibility, an opportunity, that only comes about once in a lifetime.