20th Century Kittiewan Plantation
Kittiewan In The Modern Era
The twentieth century at Kittiewan was a time of upswing and conservation. The mansion house had been allowed by absentee owners to fall into a horrible state where windows were broken, parts of the foundation had collapsed, and the roof was in bad shape, all of which is evident from exterior photographs. Kittiewan was bought by a family who lived in it and brought it back to habitability over the years and made it a home.
Local farmer William T. Pointer purchased Kittiewan Plantation in 1897. After being neglected by the non-resident landowners for over 34 years, he moved into the dilapidated manor house with his wife, four daughters and one son. The photograph with the Pointers and the house is the oldest known photograph of the house. Window panes were broken and missing, roof shingles were missing, and the southwest corner of the cellar entrance (lower left) had collapsed into the yard, all of which was visible in the photograph.
In 1904, Pointer sold to James Christian and Littlebury Haxall 125 acres of marsh land, which is now a nature preserve. Christian and Haxall also purchased one acre directly on the bank of Kittiewan Creek three hundred feet upriver from the mouth of Mapsico Creek, on which they built a hunting cabin and called it the Kittiewan Hunting Club by the 1930s. This club is not the same as the current Kittiewan Hunt Club, which has been at Kittiewan since 1952.
Lockie Pointer, daughter of William and Annie Pointer, married John T. Wade before 1900, and in March 1909, they bought 125 acres on the north side of Kittiewan Plantation and built a wood frame (Wade/Coulborn) house now used as a tenant house. What was about to be claimed as the largest black oak in Virginia two years ago, and now only the sixth largest, still stands behind the barn at the Wade/Colbourn house.
In June 1909, William and Annie Pointer sold the by-then 525-acre Kittiewan Plantation to Loren Melvin and Nellie Stevens Clark from Cass County, Michigan. The Clarks brought their infant daughter Wilma down to live in the house in January 1910, who basically lived her entire life at Kittiewan Plantation . Some time later, Nellie Clark's mother, Carrie Melchor/Melcher Stevens and Nellie's brother Frank Stevens joined the household. Frank drove his Reo down from Michigan and received the first car license in Charles City County. Frank also received a pilot's license and owned a boat named "Kittiewan". The Clark's had a road and bridge business. Their 1930's steel-wheeled roadgrader is at the Wade-Coulborn house barn. In the summer of 1910, Frank and Cortelle Hutchins floated a houseboat up the James River, chronicling many of the historic sites along the river, including Kittiewan. The manor house and outbuildings were a quaint contrast to the larger brick plantations of Westover and Berkeley. Having only been there for less than six months, Loren and Nellie Clark must have been pleased to have their home comprise an entire chapter in a published book!
The National Park Service took photographs and made measured drawings of the house and grounds in 1931. This honor was accorded to only the best of America's buildings.
After his death between 1910 and 1920, John Wade's wife Lockie Pointer Wade married Harry Colbourn, brother-in-law to Gracie Shockley of New Berlin, Worchester County, Maryland. Gracie's grandson Bill Cropper would come to the Colbourn house and visit, and during one of these visits, he met the neighbor girl, Wilma Cropper . In 1948, Wilma Clark married Bill Cropper and in 1956, the Croppers purchased the Wade/Colbourn property, bringing it back into the Kittiewan Plantation, and the current boundaries of the plantation were set.
Bill and Wilma Cropper made Kittiewan their home for the rest of their lives and rejuvenated the house. He shared his knowledge of the house and property with tourists who saw the signs on Rt. 5 and ventured down Weyanoke Road to Kittiewan.
In later years, Bill and Wilma began to collect local history items, such as the doors from the old Charles City Courthouse jail, a pew from the Mapsico Church, as well as artifacts from their respective families. Wilma Clark Cropper passed away in 1985, and Mr. Cropper dedicated the remainder of his life to preserving Kittiewan Plantation and family belongings, showing it as a museum for many years. In 1983, he enlarged the basement where the built a museum to show many of the artifacts they had collected, including family heirlooms, local historical pieces, and an array of other historical items.
Wanting to continue the legacy his wife's family has started at Kittiewan in 1909, Mr. Cropper established contact with the Archeological Society of Virginia where he was a Life Member. His vision of Kittiewan was that it was to be a showplace for the house, the extraordinary interior woodwork, his collection of historic objects and all of the history encompassed on the property. He built the Visitor's Center before his death in 2005. In his will, ASV became the caretakers of the property and the Kittiewan Plantation legacy and will be fully engaged in Bill Cropper's vision as a place to educate the public about the past.