Other Yancey Homes in the Area *draft*

The Yancey's have been in the Shenandoah Valley since the 1700s.  It is beyond the scope of this site to go into detail where Yancey's have lived throughout the valley.  One could easily devote an entire book to the subject.

Instead, the next few entries will focus on the area just south of Elkton, VA, where Captain William Layton Yancey settled. Let me start by saying that documenting the existence of houses and their locations more than 200 years ago is not an exact science.  New roads are built, old roads stop being used, houses are abandonded, etc.  Add  the fact that records are lost and/or destroyed, and you end up with a very imperfect set of data from which to say with certainty "this house existed at this location and was occupied by this individual on this date."

Layton received a large tract of land from his father-in-law, Thomas Lewis, brother of Andrew Lewis for whom Lewisburg, WV and part of I-81 is named.  Lewis named Layton in his will, and noted that Layton was already living on the land at the time the will was written.  Lewis died on January 31, 1790, so we know at least that Layton was living on the land prior to that date.

Layton and Fanny were married in December of 1788, and according to cousin Reba's book, the couple built a house on the land given to Layton by Lewis, and the house faced a large spring.  This may have been one of several sites located on land now owned by Merck, just downstream of the river from Hilltop.  Several old maps show dwellings in that location, and as recently as the 1960s many of those dwellings, although abandoned, still stood.  This is where evidence is lacking as to the actual location.  The map below, supposedly from 1864 (although the date has not been verified and is likely much earlier given how few dwellings are shown), shows two sites of import.  The first is that which is labeled "Rogers".  It is in the approximate location of Hilltop.  In the mid-late 1800s Hilltop changed ownership, so perhaps it was then owned by the Rogers family.  The second is that which is labeled "Yancey."  There is no longer a dwelling in that location, but it could well be the original home of Layton and Fanny.

I asked my father if he knew where the large spring referenced above was located, and he immediately responded that it was located where Merck built a pump house behind the existing plant.  The map below is a current aerial view of the upper right quadrant of the above map.  The red circle indicates the location of the pump house, which is almost exactly where the Yancey dwelling is located on the map above.  This lends credence to Reba's account of the original dwelling existing downstream of hilltop (note: the Shenandoah river flows Northeast).  On the map below, hilltop is located on the right where the blue dot is.

Original House

It is believed that the house was originally constructed in 1810.  Although clear evidence does not exist that points to this date other than family history passed down over the years, there is also no evidence to the contrary.  There is also some question regarding which parts of the house are original, and which were added over the years.

In Rebecca (known as cousin Reba to her close family) Yancey's book, Ancestors and descendants of Capt. William Layton Yancey and his wife Frances Lynn Lewis, 1600-1900 she notes the following regarding Hilltop:

"Like Tuckahoe the new house was in the form of an H. Each of the parallel sections had its own front door facing upstream. In one section, the first floor was devoted to parlors. with handsome mantels, and ornamental plaster designs in the ceilings. Doors above opened onto a long verandah approached from an outside stairway. The other section had a long dining room with large fireplace opposite the entrance."

She then goes on to write that the house was later converted to a L-shape, which is how it remained until recently. As much as I've tried envisioning the house as being like Tuckahoe, I cannot imagine the house being in such a configuration and then altered to an L-shape.  For starters, a significant portion of the house would have had to have been dismantled, and there is simply no evidence of a former foundation.  Thinking about how life would have been in those days, and the amount of manual labor required in the 1800s to do much of anything, I think she may be mistaken here.

However, it could be a matter of her description of the original structure being off, or perhaps a difference in terminology of the "H" shape.  It could very well be that the two original lower rooms each had their own front entrance which would have indeed faced upstream.  In fact, if you were to remove the siding from the front of the house revealing the interior structure, you would see two rooms stacked on top of one another, adjoined by the center hall, essentially forming an H.  This is all just conjecture of course.

We believe that the house originally consisted only of the first four rooms, two downstairs and two upstairs, with a central staircase and hallway.  The front door is located in the center of the house, with another exterior door opening onto the front porch roof.  The sketch below depicts what is believed to have been the original structure.  At the rear of the front two rooms are two doors with question marks by them.  We have no definitive proof as to whether these doors existed, however, in the left room there is a door leading to the present dining room (see further down for the floor plan with the dining room), and the hinges and door style are the same as the door that opens to the center hall.  On the room to the right, the area where the back door is there was a window that could have possibly been a door at one time to preserve the symmetry in the original structure.

On each end of the house is a chimney, which allowed for four fireplaces, one in each room.

At some point, probably in the 1840s or thereabouts, the back of the house was extended to give the house an L configuration.  This addition consisted of a formal dining room and kitchen on the lower level, with two additional bedrooms on the second story.  We have good reason to believe this was an addition and not part of the original structure.  Reasons for this are as follows:

- the foundation on the original part of the house is dry-stacked fieldstone, whereas the remainder of the foundation contains mortar
- trim work is different in these sections of the house, with the older part of the house having smaller and thinner trim
- door hardware, especially hinges, is different
- the doors themselves are different - different proportions, doorways are siginificantly different in height

One interesting thing to note about the rear extension was that it added two exterior porches - one upstairs and one down.  This added a number of exterior doors to the structure.  At one point there were eight exterior doors!  Below is a depiction of the first floor showing the exterior porch.  The second floor is essentially the same, but the rooms are all bedrooms.

A New Chapter

Welcome to Hilltop!  Constructed ca. 1810, this Federal style farmhouse is located near Elkton, VA, in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.  Layton Yancey, a Revolutionary War veteran, built the house, and with the exception of a short time in the late 1800s, the house has remained in the Yancey family and owned by direct descendants of Layton.

My wife and I have had the extreme fortune of coming into possession of the property, and this site is dedicated to recounting its history.