Portrait of James D. Estes as a military physician during the Civil War

James Dabney Estes was born on 31 January 1836 as the first of seven children to Benjamin Harrison Estes and his wife Eliza Miller Dix Estes. His father was one of about fourteen children from Bedford County, Virginia. Census records indicate that the Estes family had moved to Pittsylvania County by the year 1820. Through their mother, Eliza, the Estes siblings descended from an early colonial settler named James Dix (a brother to Col. John Dix, of Dix’s Ferry on the Dan River). Throughout the 1840’s and 1850’s, the young and fortunate James D. Estes grew up on his father’s productive tobacco plantation near Cascade Creek and helped raise his younger brothers and sisters. In addition, there were more than twenty enslaved people living and working there to raise and cure tobacco during the Antebellum era. 

James acquired an interest in studying medicine, which he likely witnessed at an early age from his neighbor Dr. Henry Anderson Watkins (1822-1902). The 1860 census shows that James had finished medical school and moved to the community of Ringgold to practice as a physician. Back in Cascade, his parents still lived with six of their children on the plantation. The 1860 Slave Schedule reveals there were four buildings to serve as quarters for the twenty-five enslaved people at that time.

In 1861, James enlisted in the Confederate Army and served with Company I of the 18th Virginia Infantry, which was known as the “Spring Garden Blues.” He became an assistant surgeon and learned to administer anesthetics like ether and chloroform to wounded soldiers for surgery on the battlefield. Three of his brothers also fought in the Confederate Army. Joseph H. Estes served as a Captain in Company K of the 38th Virginia Infantry Regiment, known as the “Cascade Rifles.” He was wounded during the Battle of Seven Pines and again during the Battle of Gettysburg, but he returned to duty a couple months later. Another brother, Edward Harrison Estes, also served in the Cascade Rifles as a 2nd Lieutenant. Finally, their younger brother, Benjamin F. “Ben” Estes, served in Company C of the 5th Virginia Cavalry as a Private. The fifth son, Elisha R. Estes, was too young to serve in the military. 

Their sister Lucy married Samuel Hairston of the prominent Virginia family in January 1872. A couple months later, their sister Emma passed away unmarried at the age of 26. She worked as a teacher and lived at home with her mother and brothers. Lucy also passed away later in the same year having bore no children from their marriage.

Dr. Estes married Nannie J. Steele on June 26, 1878, in Richmond, North Carolina. Together, they never had biological children, but they kept a busy household. The 1880 census shows J. D. Estes as the first entry in the “Village of Cascade.” However, he was not the only country doctor in the village at that time. Nearby, Dr. Sidney Armistead Powell (1829-1898) kept the community healthy as well. Across the four pages of the Cascade census, a chunk of the population worked in tobacco factories. The majority of others worked as farmers to grow tobacco or as laborers on local farms. The village had two grocers, a general merchant, a teacher, and a handful of skilled tradesmen. Many of the families had been settled for a couple generations and married locally, which led to a tight-knit community. 

To quote a lengthy article written at the time of his death, the writer stated that “there were few families in the Cascade section who had not ‘had’ Dr. Estes as the family doctor, and there are many men and women now in the prime of life who were ushered into the world under his skillful supervision.” The article continued with more about his legacy: “Dr. Estes, at the heyday of his career, enjoyed a practice of exceptional size. Some of the older men in Danville today who came from Cascade and recall him in their boyhood days say that Dr. Estes’ name was a household word from Danville to Stuart and from Madison to Altavista. He was perhaps the very last of the old school of country doctors in this vicinity–men who had little rest and who braved all sorts of weather to carry out errands of mercy. For years he followed the general practice of the country doctor who had a stout horse which not only carried his master, but also the well-filled saddlebags in which the instruments of the day and medicaments were carried. It was customary for doctors not only to operate at the home of the patient, but to compound the medicines they prescribed. Hence he was a doctor and drug store combined and his life was a hard one.”

Through the Estes marriage, they did not have biological children, but Dr. Estes adopted his nephew and namesake James Dabney “Jim” Estes (1880-1952), a son of Edward H. Estes. In addition, they also adopted two nieces, Lucy Dix Estes (1899-1990) and Emma Bell Estes (1900-1995), daughters of Ben Estes. The two girls became orphans before the age of ten. 

1910 census record showing the J. D. Estes household

The 1910 census shows there were six members of the Estes household. A cousin, Mrs. Mary Estes Stone, was the same age as James. Her daughter of the same name was about ten years old, which was the same age as Emma and Lucy. In addition, the family hired Lizzie Tinsley, a 30-year old African-American woman who worked as a cook for the family. Several homes away, J. D. Estes, Jr. had moved away and worked as a Rural Free Delivery mail carrier. 

Dr. Estes died on 30 January 1928, at the age of 91. His obituary stated the following: “News was received here today of the death last night at 8 o’clock of Dr. James Dabney Estes, one of the best known practitioners in this section of Virginia. Had he lived but four hours longer, he would have been 92 years of age. He succumbed to the infirmities of old age, having become increasingly feeble during the past three or four months… Doctors who were with him said that he passed away peacefully simply from old age. His funeral will take place at noon tomorrow at the old family home at Cascade and burial will be made in the nearby graveyard. The obsequies will draw, it is expected, a great outpouring of friends and of families tied to him not only by friendship but by that linked forged by long professional service.

Until two years ago Dr. Estes was active for a man of his years and he stopped practicing medicine not more than 10 years ago. He was a close friend of the late Dr. John James, who in their days were apostles of progress, for it is current among doctors of today that Dr. James and Dr. Estes were the first surgeons in the South to adopt ether and chloroform, which was viewed when first discovered by many doctors as something to be avoided.” The obituary continues, “Dr. Estes, however, will be equally well remembered for his old time hospitality and his Chesterfieldian manner. It is still recalled how at the close of a hard shell Baptist revival at Cow Creek, Dr. Estes invited the company to eat with him and carried a staggering crowd to his home to the dismay of his wife, who preceded him to the grave many years ago. Despite his age, Dr. Estes maintained a lively interest in his profession and followed the startling developments in surgery and medical science during recent years.” The article closed with a mention of how the news of his death “spread last night through the Cascade section and many people went to the old home to mourn the passing of a gentleman of the old Southern school.”

In the mid-1990’s, historian Danny Ricketts purchased the original business ledger that belonged to Dr. Estes. He recounted in a social media post from 2013 that the book “came from the upstairs of an old house in Cascade.” He also added, “there were lots of books and papers, but I think this is the only thing that I could get.” In 2024, the ledger was given to me (Kyle Griffith) by Danny’s son, Bobby Ricketts. It contains about fifty years of records between 1872 and 1921. The cover has a lot of obvious wear, but the pages remain intact and legible.

The following section contains a list of about 275 people who are named in the ledger of Dr. Estes, many of whom lived within Cascade and nearby communities of Pittsylvania County.