John Baxter Hill Sr. of Key West passed away after a long struggle with Parkinson’s and dementia on Aug. 3, 2021. He was predeceased by his wife, Shirley, and is
Ferguson was born free and of mixed-race ancestry in February 1810, probably in Richmond. His parents’ names are not recorded. Ferguson learned the barbering trade, probably by beginning as a porter boy, whose duties usually included shining shoes and making lather. On April 7, 1831, in Henrico County, he married Harriet F. Crump, a free woman of color. Both had learned to read and write and signed their names on legal documents. They resided in Richmond’s Jefferson Ward and had three sons and three daughters before her death on January 9, 1854.
Early in the 1850s Ferguson was one of more than a dozen free black barbers working in Richmond, a profession that placed him among the elite of free black society in the city. He owned three slaves by the time he reached age twenty-two, and throughout his life he held several slaves who worked probably in his barbershop or as domestics. In addition to shaving clients and cutting and dressing hair, antebellum barbers performed simple med
Early Years
John Taylor Chappell was born on May 18, 1845, the son of Samuel Chappell, a Richmond butcher, and Eliza B. Gentry Chappell. Before his fifteenth birthday he began an apprenticeship to a coachmaker. The Civil War intervened, and in May 1861, against his mother’s wishes, Chappell enlisted in Company H of the 23rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, also known as the Richmond Sharpshooters. He took part in the Rich Mountain and Cheat Mountain battles in western Virginia before being discharged on October 12, 1861. Early the next year he joined Company A of the 10th Virginia Cavalry and fought in the Peninsula Campaign. Chappell also served in the Confederate States Navy aboard the ironclad