Montebello History

 
Four Generations of Storekeepers

Hansford Grant (12/25/1888) was the son of Nelson Grant. He lived in the Irish Creek area of Rockbridge County. He married Flora Seaman (1/10/1893-10/5/1968) daughter of Richard and Dolly Cash Seaman who ran a mercantile in Montebello. The couple had five children: (1) Richard married Essie Byers, (2) Eugene married Daisy Lane (3) Wilson married Madeline White, (4) Dolly married Richard (Dick) Bell,(2nd) Paul Seay (5) Agnes married Douglas McLawhorne (2nd) Thom Rohr. Richard Bell designed airplanes. He also designed the wrapper our bread is wrapped in today.

Hansford farmed and also worked in the timber business. When he had a heart attack at the age of forty his sons Richard and Eugene worked in the timber and Wilson drove a school bus to help make ends meet.

They lived in the Irish Creek area for a while in a large white house. Madeline Grant remembers when it was fashionable to white-wash the house and also the surrounding trees halfway up the trunk. "Everything looked clean and beautiful after this was done," Madeline said.

Flora was an enterprising lady of many talents. She not only delivered babies but delivered mail by horseback at Irish Creek.

In the thirties, Hansford and Flora bought the store and the two-story white house next door at Montebello from her parents, Richard and Dolly Seaman. Flora, as a second generation, mostly ran the store but when she taught school at Fork Mountain, Hansford and her Uncle Sam Cash took over.

The late Henry Campbell said he remembered how good Flora was to the mountain people. She helped them to read and write their correspondence, advised them when they had to go to court, etc. Madeline Grant, her daughter-in-law, said Flora kept a running account for the mountain people who needed it during the depression. Most of them paid her when they could but some never did.

Flora was the more social one of the two. She kept abreast of what was going on the community. Social activities sometimes centered around the vicinity of the store like Sunday afternoon ball games and tent revivals.

Hansford was quieter but as Madeline said, "Papa Hansford was a good, kind man. He would do anything for anybody."

After Flora and Hansford died the store was closed for a period. When Wilson retired from the Blue Ridge Parkway Service, he and Madeline moved back to Montebello to be near their children. R.W., Patty, and Charles.

Wilson Grant (4/3/1919 - 11/23/1998) was the third son of Hansford and Flora Seaman Grant of Irish Creek, Rockbridge County. Wilson attended elementary school at Irish Creek but had to quit for four years when Hansford had a heart attack. The boy with his older brothers, Richard and Eugene farmed and Wilson drove the school bus to help with expenses. He recalled building a fire under the bus to get it started on cold mornings.

When his sisters, Dolly and Agnes were ready for high school the family had a car. Wilson drove them and their friends, Irene Seaman, Gertrude Hoster and Margie Cash to Fairfield High School. He returned to school and received his high school diploma.

Madeline (2/19/1922) and her sister were put in foster care when her mother died. She was 2 1/2 years old. The two girls lived in various homes in Covington and then was sent to the Otha Jones home in Irish Creek. The work was so hard, the girls ran away. Madeline's sister went to Norfolk and worked in a Hot Shop until she met her husband. Madeline was placed in the Ernest and Laura Bell Grant home at Irish Creek. The Grants ran a store and Madeline remembers Bell giving her a five pound bag and allowing her to fill it with penny candy. "The candy lasted two or three weeks," Madeline laughed. "Bell always bought me a new dress for Easter." But the Welfare Agency stepped in again. Ernest made whiskey and stored it in his home. Madeline was placed with Richard and Dolly Seaman, Wilsons grandparents.

Madeline lost contact with her sister for years but eventually she invited Madeline to make her home with she and her family who lived in New Jersey.

"She sent me ten dollars to buy a ticket." Madeline said, but the Sunday I was to leave, Wilson whispered to me in church, "If you leave, I may never see you again." I decided to stay.

Wilson went to work in the shipyards and the couple were married in Newport News. When R.W. was nine months old, Wilson joined the Marines and served overseas for two years during WWII. Madeline lived with the Grant family. When Wilson returned home they lived at Irish Creek and had two more children , Patty and Charles.

The couple eventually moved to S. C. and then to Asheville, North Carolina where Wilson became Maintenance Supervisor for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Before he retired, he returned to Nelson County to help his son, Charles, build the Montebello Campground. First, it was to be financial help but Wilson and Madeline settled in the Montebello community and ran the campground and family store for 20 years after it opened in 1974. They made new friends from other places.

Patty, their daughter sums up their life in Nelson County. "We lived in other places but Montebello is the best. Salaries are low but neighbors are kind and caring, everyone looks out for each other."

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