Historic Botetourt Home Was Once Scene of Armed Robbery
by Mrs. Rosa B. Hyde
  
An article that originally appeared in "The Roanoke Times" on Sunday, Dec. 2, 1937
and was reprinted in the "The Ballew Family Journal" in April, 1986.
 
Leonard Ballew, was born about 1802, probably in Virginia.  His mother, Sarah, was living with him at the time of the 1850 Census; she died in 1859.  Leonard owned property in Lynchburg, Virginia prior to marrying Miss Sarah Skidmore (who came from a well-respected family) in Botetourt County, Virginia.  He continued to live there until his death.

Buchanan, Dec 1

In northeast Botetourt County, along the tow path of the once famous James River Canal, stands a frame dwelling house. Now the property of Henry F. Stinnett, grandson of the former owner, Leonard Ballew, the old structure is about 200 years old.

Has Seen Much

The old home has seen much mirth and entertainment in its day, but it has also echoed to the cry of robbers, robbers!

Just as the lamps were being lighted on a twilight evening on October, 1866, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Ballew with dinner guests Misses Elizabeth Booze and Mollie Obenschain, Christopher Booze, and Jim Obenschain, had just seated themselves at the table for the evening meal.

Their attention was attracted by a knock at the rear door, then heavy footsteps in the rooms overhead, and the fierce barking of the pet dog. Ballew excused himself from the table to investigate.

When he reached the landing at the top of the steps leading from the dining room, Ballew came face to face with three men, one of them holding a drawn revolver. The armed assailant ordered Ballew to "hand over your money."

Ballew, a man of fearless nature, knocked the gun from the man's hands. It discharged, the bullet going through the floor as Ballew felled his assailant. A scuffle followed, but the other robbers helped overcome Ballew. The robber, who first had the gun, regained his weapon and shot Ballew in the chest just over the heart.

The three men then fled from the house and down the tow path along the river's edge.

Ballew's friends immediately went for aid and to spread the alarm. Booze took one horse and rode for Dr. Edwin Wood, Buchanan physician, and Obenschain, on another horse, raced up the highway shouting "robbers, robbers, robbers." Officers and citizens responded to the call, obtained a description of the men, and gave pursuit in the direction the three men fled.

When the posse reached a rope ferry several miles down the river, the ferry operator told of ferrying three men across the river. The officers were told that the men answered the description of the thieves. On the other side of the river, information came to the posse that a widow had been robbed on the same evening by three men of similar description.

Fugitives Caught

Several days later the fugitives were apprehended, but the exact territory in which they were caught is not known. Some descendants of the Ballew family say near Lynchburg; others say in the belfrey of the old Buchanan Trinity Methodist Church that at one time stood a few feet to the south end of the old covered James River Bridge, Route 43.

According to 80-year-old Rodney Stinnett and 72-year-old Harry Wilkinson, grandsons of Leonard Ballew, the wounded man identified the three captives as being the men who invaded his home. The men were lodged in the jail at Fincastle and were given many court hearings but were never convicted, according to the grandsons, Stinnett and Wilkinson.

The main clue that led to the arrest of the men was a piece of cloth torn from the trouser leg of one of he robbers by the Ballew pet dog. The piece of material fitted exactly into the torn trousers worn by one of the men and was of the same color and texture it is said.

Actually Ballew was a man of considerable money and land, owned many slaves, and reportedly kept a large sum of money in the house. He had in his possession at the time of the attack a medium-size leather-bound trunk that had belonged to a brother. In the ransacking of the house, the trunk was beaten and broken open by the robbers, only to find that it contained the clothes of a dead brother.

The trunk is now in the possession of a granddaughter of Leonard Ballew. The bullet pierced waistcoat worn by Ballew at the time he was shot is now owned by the grandson, Wilkinson.

Ballew remained bedfast from the wound, succumbing from its effect nine months later at the age of 64.
 

The original article included a picture of the house which was owned by a grandson, Henry F. Stinnett, as well as a picture of the trunk with a granddaughter, Mrs. Julia W. Lane, beside it. The rope bridge across the James River is still maintained today.