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William Beavers (1844-1919) is buried near his Beavers’ Park home place next to his wife Ella Wilson Beavers (1853-1937). The large cemetery is well maintained by the family. Beavers’ Park is northeast of Danville on the Old Richmond Road (highway 360). The graves of the Oliver family, who were cousins, are together with the Beavers.

Paul Oliver, who you might say was in the “beverage business”, lived about midway between our Danville home and Beavers’ Park when I was a child. Just after the end of World War II, my dad moved our family to Danville from the farm in Blairs where I was born, which was across the hollow from the Beavers. We lived in Danville where my parents ran the C & G Café on Craghead Street in the Warehouse District, but they loved to visit the farm. My dad and grandfather would stop by to make a purchase of Mr. Oliver's beverage on their way to our farm in the mid 1940's. As a small child, I was a non-participant in these business transactions. If Mr. Oliver was not at home, his regular customers would go into the woods and replace the beverage with the purchase price. The women grumbled and suspected, but the men loved to go to the farm.

William Beavers married Mary Ella Wilson in 1873. It is probably no coincidence that the Wilson family owned a large plantation many slaves and that they lived on the land adjacent to the Beavers’ Mill tract. Both were born in slavery times and it is likely that their names came from these landowners.

William Beavers (b 1844) and his wife Mary Ella Wilson Beavers (b 1853) were both born during the time of slavery in Virginia. Both William and Mary Ella are described as Mulatto in census records. It is unclear whether they were born slaves or free. There may be a connection in that adjoining the Beavers’ Mill tract on the east was the large estate of Col. Nathaniel Wilson (1780-1857), son of Col. John Wilson (c1740-1820) of Dan’s Hill. Nathaniel Wilson established a large home plantation of 965 acres bounded by Dan River on the south side. North east ran the road from Danville by Keen’s Mill on Beaver Pond Branch and on by Beavers’ Mill on Sandy Creek. Part of this very old road was renamed for Wendell Scott who was the first Black NASCAR race car driver. His home and shop was here in Danville.

Col. Nathaniel Wilson was an county militia officer during the War of 1812. In 1823, he built his "Belle Grade" plantation house at the crest of the hill above the present Piedmont Mall. His home was surrounded by "one of the best wheat and tobacco growing plantations in the county of Pittsylvania." The nearly 1000-acre tract fronted about a mile on Dan River and had about 250 acres of original growth timber, 300 acres in second growth and about 400 acres of cleared land. This large estate required intensive labor to operate. After his death more than 80 slaves were documented in his estate papers. Slaves, some of which were appraised by the court, were:

Joe$1,000, Whit $750, Parson $600, John $1,100, Oliver $1,000, Alex $900, Clifford $950, Billy, old man $950, Miles $1,000, Allen $1,000, Manford $1,000, Robert $700, Simon $400, Ennis $600, Billy, gardener $1,000, Ezinah $750, Ben $1,050, George $1,000, Tazewell, $1,000, Ludwell $1,000, Jake $900, Melville $750, Garland $600, George $600, Jack $300, Adam $425, Charles $800, Ted, old man $800, Gabril $500, Burwell $200, Wallace $500, Lurngstar $450, Granville $425, William $800, Brister, old $800, Frank, old $50, Lafayette $1,200, Ferdinan $900, Lewis $325, Robert $325, Joe $375, Daniel $50, Nat $300, Little Sophia $800, Winnie $750, Paulina & child $1,000, Moses child of Paulina, Betsey & child $1,000, Willis child of Betsey, Lucy Ann $650, Jenny $350, Willie $650, Sally Ann $850, Litle Paulina $350, Ruth $400, Delia & child $1,000, Edward child of Delia, Adaline & child $1,050, William child of Adaline, Arney & children $1,200, Child of Arney, 2nd child of Arney, Martha $750, Eve & child $650, Child of Eve, Jack $275, Old Sophia $100, Phube $400, Charity $250, Agness $150, Delphia $650, Creasy $850, Jaire (Sabie?) $350, Silvia $250, Marcia $400, Candus $150, Rachel $250, Rose $100, Polly, old $100, and Nancy $250.

A woman slave named Willie was listed in the estate of Col. Nathaniel Wilson, Deceased in a document dated 31 December 1858 in Danville. At the same time six unnamed slaves were sold at an auction house in Richmond, including a man named Allen Fuller, who sold for $1,170. In another appraisal dated February 1858 was "one half Negro man Haynes" valued at $575. Sometimes ownership was shared.

Nathaniel Wilson grew up in one of the most prosperous families of Pittsylvania County. During the Revolution his father Col. John Wilson was in charge of all the military affairs of the county. After the War, in 1791, midway of his first term, President George Washington came south visiting many of friends of Revolutionary days. Nathaniel, then a child of eleven years old child, is likely to have dined with the president. 1791, President George Washington came to eat with Col. John Wilson at Wilson’s Ferry.

The family graveyard at "Belle Grade" was near the intersection of Piney Forest Road and Coleman Street. In 1968, Judge A. M. Aiken signed a court order allowing the removal of the burials to the Grove Street Cemetery. There were seven hermetically sealed iron caskets with glass windows for viewing. Col. Nathaniel Wilson could be seen just as he was buried more than a hundred years before. He had a black string tie and beard. His skin looked like parchment and he appeared to be perfectly preserved.