**This research was first published in the May 27, 2026 edition of the Chatham Star-Tribune newspaper as part of Kyle Griffith’s weekly segment entitled “Heritage Highlights.”
Dr. Edward Dandridge Withers and wife Louisa Coles Withers circa 1900
In 2023, while browsing a local antique shop, I spotted an old photo for sale for a couple dollars. It showed a distinguished older man with a long white beard seated beside his wife, both dressed in the fashion of around 1900. Fortunately, someone had labeled the back of the photograph, and that small detail led me into the story of Dr. Edward Dandridge Withers. His middle name caught my eye, and I suspected he could be related to notable figures. After some investigation, it became clear that the name Dandridge came down through Withers’s maternal line. His great-grandfather was Nathaniel West Dandridge of Elsing Green, a member of one of colonial Virginia’s distinguished First Families. Nathaniel’s first cousin, Martha Dandridge, became the wife of George Washington. Nathaniel also married a daughter of Alexander Spotswood, colonial governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722 and the namesake of Spotsylvania County. Through this connection, Governor Spotswood was the great-great-grandfather of Dr. Withers. His paternal line was notable as well, including his first cousin, U.S. Senator Robert Enoch Withers (1821–1907).
Dr. Edward Dandridge Withers was born in Campbell County, Virginia, around 1825 at “Ivanhoe,” a home that still stands near Rustburg. His father served as a Justice of the Peace and passed away in 1849. Census records from the following year show the young physician in Pittsylvania County. He lived with his wife, Elizabeth Wilson Withers, her brother Dr. John Wilson, and their parents at “Laurel Cliff,” a home about seven miles west of Danville. The Wilson family residence, Dan’s Hill, was not far away. Elizabeth died at only twenty-four years of age, around the time their son George Washington Withers was born. Dr. Withers eventually remarried to Louisa Payne “Lou” Coles of another notable family. Lou was a granddaughter of U.S. Congressman Isaac Coles who established Coles Hill (a few miles from the Sheva community). She too had been widowed in 1856. Her late husband, John Rice Miller, was a brother to Nathaniel Crenshaw Miller of Sharswood.
A few years later, Withers entered into business with C.J. Simmons to purchase the Tunstall House, a noted hotel in Danville. Advertisements in the Richmond Whig trace the changing partnerships, listing Simmons & Withers in January 1857 and Withers & Trueheart by September (Vol. 59, No. 59). He also served as director of the Danville Savings Bank until 1858. When the Civil War began, Dr. Withers enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant for the 18th Virginia Infantry, Company A, CSA. He also served as a post surgeon tending to soldiers hospitalized in Danville.
Dr. Withers lived out his later years at Laurel Cliff with two of his daughters and several grandchildren. During the 1970s, one of those grandchildren wrote about some of her early memories at Laurel Cliff. Mrs. Lizzie Seay Britt published an article in the Danville Commercial Appeal (Vol. 34, No. 12) describing the ornate architecture, secrets in the attic, and the surrounding cabins. By then, the house had already burned, and the old cabins were gone as well. She shared several anecdotes about the formerly enslaved people she knew as a child, including one short story worth sharing here concerning one well-respected man. “Uncle Henry was sent to Danville each week with fresh vegetables to sell to the townspeople. He drove a horse and spring wagon, and on one occasion, his horse died in town. Everybody knew dear Uncle Henry. The fire department gave him an old horse called ‘Whitefoot Charlie’ that was too old to pull the horse-drawn fire engine. Uncle Henry was so pleased. The next week, he was in town again with vegetables to sell with Whitefoot Charlie pulling the wagon. Just as he was driving down Main Street, the fire alarm went off. Charlie made a dash and away he went to the fire station, spilling the vegetables in every direction. He was stopped by the firemen, and Uncle Henry was scared to death.”
Dr. Withers lived to the impressive age of ninety-two and was buried at Danville’s Green Hill cemetery in 1917. Thanks to a handwritten label on the back of his photograph, these interesting details about his life could be uncovered and remembered today.