Records of Details on Building the Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA For homes built in the late 18th and early 19th century, most materials and labor were acquired locally. A landowner, who did not build his own house, might commission a carpenter or brick mason to perform his craft as well as manage the work of others. In other situations, the same homeowner could play the role of contractor and convey his needs to the hired craftsmen. Mosby Sheppard and his son, John Sheppard, built Meadow Farm in phases. Both men carefully documented the purchase of building materials and labor for work done in 1810, 1820, 1845 and 1858. - The Nature In Us

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Living history working farm with animals and historic buildings on 150 acres. Visited on July 22, 2012.

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Dr. John and Virginia Sheppard - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
The Shepphard family lived at Meadow Farm during the Civil War. Dr. John Sheppard, a physician and farmer, his wife and 9 children all felt the impact of the war. Alexander Hamilton, Dr. Sheppard's oldest son, was a guard at Libby Prison, a Confederate prison for captured Union soldiers. Since the Fall of 1863, the Confederate Government required farmers including Dr. Sheppard to turn over 1/10 of all their crops and meat as a tax in kind "for the common defense and [to] carry on the government of the Confederate states." The loss of needed crops, shortages of basic consumer items and escalating inflation all contributed to the deteriorating quality of southern life.

View of Meadow Farm Museum - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA

Records of Details on Building the Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
For homes built in the late 18th and early 19th century, most materials and labor were acquired locally. A landowner, who did not build his own house, might commission a carpenter or brick mason to perform his craft as well as manage the work of others. In other situations, the same homeowner could play the role of contractor and convey his needs to the hired craftsmen. Mosby Sheppard and his son, John Sheppard, built Meadow Farm in phases. Both men carefully documented the purchase of building materials and labor for work done in 1810, 1820, 1845 and 1858.

First Phase of Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
Mosby Sheppard had the first section of the farmhouse Between 1809-1812, Mosby Sheppard, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth, built the first section of a small farmhouse on the Sheppard family property, completed as a story and a half wood frame structure on a raised basement.

Second Phase of the Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
He doubled the size of the house with an addition to the west side between 1819-1820. Mosby Sheppard had a story and a half addition constructed on a raised basement making it identical to the first section and giving the home a central hall plan. Mosby and his wife, Mary, ran the farm, raised and educated their children and participated in community affairs. Mosby served as a Justice of the Peace and Sheriff of Henrico County. Together, they supervised the household and farm work of 21 slaves. At the time of Mosby's death in 1831, he left the majority of his estate to his wife Mary, not a typical practice for the time. He wrote that "he just as soon have the estate under Mary's control as that of any other person."

Third and Fourth Phase of the Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
With a thriving medical practice and a successful tobacco crop, Mosby's son, John, built a Greek revival porch on the facade and later added a two-story wing to the rear of the house. In the 1920's Sheppard Crump enclosed the shed addition on the eastside of the house.

Pre-1600 Virginia Indians at Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
The native people occupying Meadow Farm prior to English settlement were tribes of Algonquian Indians who had migrated from the Northeast around 1500. Stone tools and pottery fragments from Meadow Farm sites reveal that early inhabitants hunted and later cultivated the land. This period of Indian settlement is known as Late Woodland. These tribes established villages with a complex social structure and depended on extensive gardening for most of their food. The planting was done by women and elderly men using digging sticks. They practiced crop rotation and harvest 5-20 bushes an acre. The three major crops were beans, corn and squash.

John Mosby Sheppard & Virginia Young Sheppard - 1845 to 1913 - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
Mosby and Mary's third son, John Mosby Sheppard earning his medical degree from the Univ. of PA in 1840 and returned to Meadow Farm to practice general medicine. In 1843, he purchased Meadow Farm from his mother who had managed the property since 1831. John tended to the medical needs of his patients, while an overseer operated the farm. The overseer supervised the labor of 17 slaves cultivating wheat, corn, oats, hay and a tobacco crop between 1855 and 1860. The Sheppards also regularly sold butter at the market in Richmond. Mickleborough Sheppard, the 2nd eldest son of John and Virginia, became owner in 1889. He remained at Meadow Farm with his wife Lizzie until his death in 1917.

Records of Details on Building the Farmhouse - Meadow Farm - Glen Allen, VA
For homes built in the late 18th and early 19th century, most materials and labor were acquired locally. A landowner, who did not build his own house, might commission a carpenter or brick mason to perform his craft as well as manage the work of others. In other situations, the same homeowner could play the role of contractor and convey his needs to the hired craftsmen. Mosby Sheppard and his son, John Sheppard, built Meadow Farm in phases. Both men carefully documented the purchase of building materials and labor for work done in 1810, 1820, 1845 and 1858.

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