Meet The Family

My name is Richard Blick (age 50). My children (ages 14-Lillie, 17-Richard Harrison, 19-Richard Spencer, 20-Elle) are about the 11th generation of Blicks on this land & the 9th generation in the house. My father is Earl (age 76), and his grandfather was raised here and is buried out back in the cemetery, along with his parents, and his parents.

 

My father Earl was brought to this property when he was around 5 years old (1952) by his father, George Richard, but they could not find the cemetery. Then, they lost track of the house itself. Earl worked at Brunswick Correction Center for 27 years until it closed and would drive around looking for it his entire career. A young Earl and his father were the first paid fisherman to fish at the local lake when it was created from remnants from what we now know was part of the Blick plantation. Uncle George used to fish there frequently. The plantation was once believed to be around 1,000 acres. After multiple subdivisions over the last 200 years, now it’s just 10 acres left. Slaves were a part of the fabric here, and we are researching that history now. As many as 55 enslaved people were documented as living on the plantation on several US censuses. Preservation Virginia member Logan Parham believes that he identified two possible mass burial sites on the property. A lot more research is needed including utilizing resources like ground-penetrating radar to say for sure. 

 

I would look for the cemetery haphazardly every few years. I had an old map from family documents (the Lucy documents) that had the homeplace marked on it. However, the road was not shown. Using technology and internet mapping I made a big push to find it in 2012, which is when I identified the road that I suspected it was on. My uncle George was the family historian and he passed in 2015. I inherited his genealogy files, so I began to look harder. I did more internet research and found the cemetery and photographs on findagrave.com but no location was given. Having young kids involved in sports and scouting then life got in the way. Last summer, July 2023, my father was getting long in the tooth so as a bucket list item for us both, we set out to find it once and for all. I overlaid the old map with an older civil war map found online with current digital google maps. We drove around and all we saw was woods and thick brush, but we did see a for sale sign near where the map showed the cemetery to be. Being a REALTOR by trade, I decided to look up the listing and dig deeper. Thinking it was a land only listing, I saw an aerial photograph on the listing of an abandoned house, and I immediately recognized the odd window spacing of the upper windows from an old photograph that I had seen in my uncle’s files c1900. I told my parents right then that we had found it. 

 

I contacted the listing agent, signed a waiver, and got permission to enter. She was unaware of any cemetery but said she had not walked the property which was now only 10 acres. I did not tell my dad, but I got up at daybreak and went to the house. I had to climb inside but immediately felt a pull, that I was welcome and supposed to be there. UNTIL I heard footsteps and a woosh. I scrambled and got out of the house only to look up and see a vulture sitting on the open upstairs windowsill. I snapped a photo of the vulture. 

 

I needed to confirm it was THE property, so I went straight to the courthouse clerk’s office and spent a couple of hours digging thru deeds and the only thing I found were later deeds referencing my great-great grandfathers name as the “estate/lands of Geo. Blick”. I knew I was close to finding confirmation. The clerk suggested to look in the Wills, and she helped me find the correct books, and there it was. I found his will that said the plantation was to be auctioned after his death. He died in 1909 and the extensive plantation auction occurred in 1919. That is when the property left the Blick family until we reclaimed in Nov 7, 2023. 

 

The hunt for the cemetery officially began. I discovered the photographer who had been to the cemetery and documented it was the brother of my high school classmate, Eric Fleshood. I emailed him but did not hear back right away. I kept looking. After 3 visits walking around the property, and striking out each time, even after asking a neighbor, I decided to bring all 4 of my children to help me look. I received a message from Eric and he marked on a map where the cemetery was. We headed back to property and within 15 minutes they spotted it! It is literally in the woods without any significant boundary fence. After discovery, I hatched a plan to get my mobility-challenged father back to the cemetery so for the first time in his life, he could see his grandfathers and great-grandparents headstones. We used his riding lawnmower to get to it. Once there and your eyes adjust, I felt there were a lot more graves than meets the eye. After having Logan from Preservation Virginia come out to see the cemetery, he felt the cemetery was much larger, possibly between 100 and 300 graves. Only the newest 4 (1900’s) are marked with headstones, some are marked with field stones, and most are most unmarked. All grave chambers are covered in thick Periwinkle groundcover and are situated in a grove of holly trees.  

 

Internet research turned up many generations of transcribed Wills leaving the Brunswick County land to the next generation dating back to the 1730’s when the Blicks arrived in Brunswick from Dinwiddie County. On a side note, Brunswick County was formed in 1720. February 2024, I recently found a brick with 1761 or 1781 written into the clay. That date range matches the erection year range that was estimated based on trim and construction techniques uncovered.  Eric from Preservation Virginia came out and agreed this was the likely date range as well. On the Virginia Department of Historic Resources application, I put 1770 as the estimated date which ironically is right in the middle. I hope to have Colonial Williamsburg help read the 18th century writing.