House Has Seen Many Families, History Over The Years

In doing historical research of Bristol for more than 50 years, I have learned much of the houses here and their former owners, as well as the current occupants.
Often, as I drive or walk by them now, memories come flooding back to me. I delight to share them with you. Here I will write of the charming old house at 422 Lee St., Bristol, Va. It is currently the home of my good friends, Dr. and Mrs. James Otis.
This is one of those houses that grew – that is, composed of two different buildings that were erected several years apart.
The southern and oldest portion was erected around 1870 by Capt. John F. Terry. The northern and most of the upper portion was erected in 1910 by Bristol attorney J. Cloyd Byars.
Byars was a descendent of William Byars who built the beautiful and historic Brook Hall in Glade Spring, Va. It should be noted here that the Terry portion of this house is among the oldest surviving structures in this city.
Capt. John F. Terry, a noted early Bristol pioneer, came here about 1856, as an employee of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. During the Civil War, he became a captain of the Goodson Rifles, a division of the 37th Virginia Infantry Regiment, CSA. After the war, he returned here and continued to work for the railroad for a few years.
In 1875, he became mayor of Goodson, Va., and served for 11 years. During that time, his home street, that was first called Edmond, was renamed Terry Street. At some point, it again took the name Edmond and so remains to this day.
In 1886, he was defeated for the mayor’s office by A.F. Miles. It is amazing how political popularity can rise and fall. In 1889, he again tried for that office and received only one vote!
A short time later, he and a fellow veteran of the Civil War were standing on the corner of Main (now State) and Lee streets, sharing memories of a battle in which they had engaged. During that conversation, he suddenly fell dead.
Soon after his death, his wife and family moved back to their native area (some say Bedford, Va., some say Lynchburg). She died shortly after this move.
When the Terrys moved, they left a fine Victorian bed leaning against a tree in the yard. J. Cloyd Byars soon bought and moved into the house. The bed was kept and used by the Byars. Their daughter, Virginia Byars Caldwell, later displayed it for years in an upstairs bedroom of the famous and recently restored Deery Inn, Blountville, Tenn.
Virginia was born in the older portion of this house in 1901. I have heard her tell that her mother was very sick with typhoid at the time of Virginia’s birth. It was not expected that she, nor the baby, would survive.
Mr. Byars called in four of the town’s leading doctors. I remember two, maybe three of the names she told me. There was Dr. M.M. Butler and Dr. N.H. Reeve, and I think one was Dr. Joseph S. Bachman. Beaver Creek was in flood stage, causing these doctors to walk the railroad crossing Mary Street in order to reach the Byars’ home. Fortunately, both mother and daughter did survive.
At about the time Virginia was born, the wife of a lawyer living two or three blocks away gave birth to twin girls, but she refused to nurse them. Mrs. Byars learned of this situation and volunteered to take them on along with her newly born daughter. She knew she was capable of producing enough nourishment for all three baby girls.
Old timers told that one could set watches by the regular trips the young lawyer made carrying those twins to the Byars’ home. The door was left unlocked, and a light kept burning at night for his convenience. A daughter of one of the twin girls was of great help to me a few years, but that is another story.
A few years ago, I learned this house was once a wedding gift. In her extreme old age, I had the privilege of interviewing Mrs. Fred C. (Estella) Bonham.
She told me that her father once owned the house and when she married it was given to her as a wedding gift. She and her husband occupied this house for several years.
Her father was the late J.O. Susong who built the fine office building that yet stands on the northwest corner of State and Lee (now the home of Java J’s). 
The Otis’ bought this house in 1976. They have done a splendid job of making it a beautiful and well-preserved home.
To show my readers how real estate values have changed in the past 32 years, I will tell that at the time the Otis’ bought this house, I was offered the two-story home immediately north of it for $8,000.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.