The Jacob Funkhouser Place

Location: One and one half miles west of Fishers Hill, on Tumbling Run.

Built: circa 1740

Owners:

On Jan. 9, 1752, John Funkhouser obtained a grant from the proprietor's office for a tract of land containing 400 acres. On Dec. 28, 1762, another tract containing 294 acres. Another grant, partly written, as follows:

"The Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, Proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, granted unto John Funkhouser, of Frederick Co., a certain tract of waste and ungranted land on the drain of Funk's Mill Run, by survey thereof by Robert Rutherford, containing 129 acres, charge the fee of rent of one shilling, sterling money, for every 509 acres."

"Given at my office in the county of Frederick under my hand and seal the 3d day of July, in the year of our Lord 1769."

"Signed: Fairfax"

13 Jan 1804: Will of Jacob Funkhouser, son of John Funkhouser. "I direct that my wife Fanny shall have peaceable possession of my plantation .... and my daughter Elizabeth her lifetime.. both of them to have liberty of water from the spring, etc.... And devise that my son, Jacob Funkhouser have all my plantation whereon I now live containing about 316 acres." Will Book F, page 224

(William Jacob Funkhouser and another Jacob Funkhouser, (1870-80). Records seem not to fit in here - connection not accurate.)

27 Jan 1928: William J. Funkhouser bequeaths to his daughter, Barbara E. Hockman all his real estate consisting of 156 acres about one and one quarter miles west of Fishers Hill. At her death the same shall descend to her children... Will Book 37, page 471

Carrol Hockman owned the property in 1937

Physical Description

This two story house is square, in shape, with a long, one story wing and a metal roof with four chimneys, two brick and two stone. There are fourteen windows with twelve 10x12 panes and shutters with half movable slats. There is a portico in front with round railing and square balusters, and also a long back porch.

There are ten large rooms with eight and one half foot ceilings. A fine spring house takes the place of a cellar. The walls are plastered and papered, and the floors are of wide pine boards - twelve to fifteen inches wide. There is one mantel, of walnut and cedar paneling.

Historical Significance

From "The Funkhouser Family" published by Jacob Funkhouser in 1902, Harrisonburg, Virginia: "At a distance of about one and one half miles from Fishers Hill, I came to the ... traditional home of John Funkhouser, my great-grandfather, which commands the veneration of a long line of his descendants. There, at the base of a hill where the ground slopes to the south, merging into level bottom land, he build his residence, in the year 1740. On the southwest is the large spring by a large willow tree..."

This home was used as a hospital during the Civil War. The front door has bullet holes in it. General Early was crippled in battle on or nearby Buck Hill and was brought to this house where he died. (This was NOT Jubal Early, as a handwritten note on the original document states)

Source: Virginia W.P.A. Historical Inventory Project, 1937



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Created October 17 2001