Notes
This photograph was taken for a newspaper article published in the “Lynchburg Daily Advance” on September 7, 1954. The photograph shows Elvira Henry Miller (1850–1955), great-great-granddaughter of Patrick Henry and the oldest alumna of Hollins College, standing with Henry Morrell Smiley (1913–1997), then the current owner of Hollins Mill, and her great-great-nephew, Robert “Bobby” Doyle (1941–2021). They stand together, presenting an original millstone from Hollins Mill, which was used to grind grain. John (1786–1859) and Anne Halsey Hollins (1795–1864) donated the money generated by this mill to the Valley Union Seminary in 1855, which later became Hollins College to honor their contributions.
Henry Smiley donated the stone in accordance with the wishes of his late father, William Knight Smiley (1872–1953), who had owned the Hollins Mill property. The elder Smiley had planned to use the stone as a tribute to John and Anne Hollins, but was unable to fulfill his plan due to illness. Elvira Henry Miller, the college’s oldest alumna, supported the idea of the stone going to the college as a memorial. The stone was placed in a temporary location on campus, with plans to put it in the garden near the library once it was completed.
Elvira Henry Miller descends through Patrick Henry’s last son, John Henry (1796–1868), through John’s daughter, Margaret Ann Henry Miller (1827–1881). She is the daughter of Margaret Ann Henry Miller.
This photograph was gifted to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation on October 23, 2024, by Jane Gammon Shore (1942–living), a descendant of Patrick Henry, through his youngest son, John Henry (1796–1868). She descends through John’s daughter, Margaret Ann Henry Miller (1827–1881), through Margaret’s daughter, Rose Cabell Miller Gammon (1868–1954), and finally to Rose’s son, Dr. William Miller Gammon (1900–1970). Jane Gammon Shore is the daughter of Dr. William Miller Gammon.