The town of Eleanor took possession of the Red House, or Ruffner House as its commonly called, in January of 2001. Earliest records from the Eleanor town website say that the structure was home to the Samuel Earl Gibeaut family in the 1890s. In the 1920s, it was owned by Frank Fitzsimmons, then passed to his brother Chris and family. While Chris and his family briefly moved out of state, a family of Boldens lived in the Red House. Chris returned to the home, and then sometime it was acquired by the C.H. King family. C.H. King and his wife Ruth had a large family and farmed the land. The King family was living on the property at the time of the New Deal, and the home was acquired by the Federal Government. In 1946, the government deeded the title over to the Washington Homesteads for use as an administration building, and later, it came into possession of Dr. Lyle Moser.
With a long and somewhat incomplete history as to ownership of the house, legends of this structure abound. One legend states that a slave was murdered on the uppermost staircase landing. Another legend states that tunnels run from the house to the nearby Kanawha River, as part of an Underground Railroad stop. To date, evidence of such tunnnels has never been found. However, one legend DOES seem to make itself known to employees and visitors. That legend is the ghostly overseer, protector, or guardian angel of the Red House. Employees have dubbed him "Sam," and say that Sam likes to be heard, but not seen.
In recent years, however, it appears as if Sam, or perhaps some other resident ghost, DOES like to be seen! Eleanor citizens walking along the town's sidewalks past dusk have been reporting seeing a man standing in one of the upper windows of the Red House.
*Photos by Theresa. Additional historical details provided in the comments below!*
As a descendant of the builder and original owner of Red House, I would like to share the following information:
ReplyDeleteThe Red House Plantation was built by my paternal grandmother's great-grandfather, Charles Brown (1770-1849), in the early 1800's (exact date unknown). He was married to Elizabeth Slaughter. When Charles Brown died in 1849, the plantation was turned over to his son, Tallyrand Perigord Brown (1809-1881), who had married Sophia Hampton Forquran (1816-1882) in 1833. During the Brown's ownership of the house, the surrounding plantation comprised some 2000 acres and had over 100 slaves working the land. My paternal great-grandfather, Benjamin Harriman (1830-1910), was married at Red House in 1852 to Susan Brown (1836-1923). When the slavery issue became very serious and the western part of Virginia was threatening to break away from Virginia and form a new "free" state, Tallyrand Brown saw the handwriting on the wall and in 1854 freed the slaves, sold the house and plantation, and moved west to Minnesota. The buyer of the property is believed to have been Benjamin Ruffner. My dad, who died in 2009, fondly remembered the many interesting stories told to him by his grandmother, Susan Brown, who grew up in Red House when it was a very prosperous plantation.
Bruce W. Harriman
bwh1119@gmail.com
Hi Bruce,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Anne Bottimore Miller and my grandmother was Ellen Peery Moser, my step grandfather was Dr. Lyle Moser, who occupied Red House as I am sure you know. Their children grew up there and as grandchildren, my two brothers and I spent many a fond Christmas, holiday, and summer vacation at Red House. Lyle and Ellen’ s son (my Uncle), is quite the historian. I will pass this information to him in case you haven’t been in touch. I will send this via your email address as well.
Anne Bottimore Miller
CORRECTION: It has come to my attention that the information I posted above (on Aug 2, 2018) is incorrect. My ancestors referred to their home on the Kanawha River in the Winfield/Eleanor area as "Red House," but an astute researcher (thank you, Martha) has convinced me that their home could not have been the Red House featured in Theresa's article. Therefore, please disregard my previous post.
ReplyDeleteBruce Harriman