Bridge End Farm
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What a find! Family treasure comes home
A Hampton woman's purchase turns out to be a notable find as it once belonged to her namesake.
As Eleanor and Bill Brown sat down at their new dinner table, they pulled out the table's drawer and read from the note taped to the bottom:
"Drop leaf table given to me by my grandfather Leonard R. Campbell in 1923. Table belonged to his mother Eleanor Floyd Campbell. Table must be from 1860s. Signed Lavinia Foster McCracken."
Eleanor Brown, five generations removed from her namesake, Eleanor Floyd Campbell, sat stunned.
"We all have goose bumps every time we think about it," she says beaming and a holding up the handwritten note. "To think that this table would make its way back into the family is just amazing."
When the Hampton couple decided to stop in the Rooms, Blooms & More consignment shop in Newport News that December afternoon, they weren't looking for a dining table.
But when they drove away, all Eleanor Brown could think about was the little pine table buried at the back of the shop. The dusty drop-leaf table was marked half-off after sitting in the showroom for six months. And at $150, it was too good to pass up.
So the Browns headed back to the Hilton Village shop they'd left a few minutes earlier. They didn't know that the yellowing note taped to the table's underside would identify Eleanor Brown's great-great-grandmother and namesake as the original owner. In fact, they didn't know there was a note taped to the table at all.
They found the note after loading the table into the car, but were so excited to rearrange the furniture in their small, waterfront apartment, they forgot to read it for several hours.
"The first night we had it we ate fresh oyster stew," Brown says. "And Bill was saying that my great-great-grandmother, Eleanor Floyd, probably ate oyster stew at this table, too."
Rooms, Blooms & More shop owner Karan Mulkey says a member of a different Hampton family brought the table in for consignment, but she isn't sure how it came into their possession.
When Brown spotted it, the typical 90-day consignment period had long passed on the little pine table. Mulkey had pushed it against a back wall, stacked some other items on top of it, and marked it with a red sale dot.
"It was like someone was calling out, 'please rescue our table,' " Mulkey says, pointing to the ceiling. "It was just one of those goose-bumpy things."
As for Floyd, she theorizes that McCracken's brother, Elwood, ended up with the table, which was sold in an estate sale to the person who later consigned it.
"I was really close with Lavinia, my mother's first cousin," Brown says. "We're an old Hampton family, but we're a small family, so we're all really close."
Aside from her name, and now, the little pine table, 49-year-old Brown has a few other things in common with her great-great-grandmother. They both married men named William, and they both had houses in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore.
"Hopefully this table won't get out of the family again. We're hanging on to this thing," she says, laughing.
What a find! Family treasure comes home
A Hampton woman's purchase turns out to be a notable find as it once belonged to her namesake.
As Eleanor and Bill Brown sat down at their new dinner table, they pulled out the table's drawer and read from the note taped to the bottom:
"Drop leaf table given to me by my grandfather Leonard R. Campbell in 1923. Table belonged to his mother Eleanor Floyd Campbell. Table must be from 1860s. Signed Lavinia Foster McCracken."
Eleanor Brown, five generations removed from her namesake, Eleanor Floyd Campbell, sat stunned.
"We all have goose bumps every time we think about it," she says beaming and a holding up the handwritten note. "To think that this table would make its way back into the family is just amazing."
When the Hampton couple decided to stop in the Rooms, Blooms & More consignment shop in Newport News that December afternoon, they weren't looking for a dining table.
But when they drove away, all Eleanor Brown could think about was the little pine table buried at the back of the shop. The dusty drop-leaf table was marked half-off after sitting in the showroom for six months. And at $150, it was too good to pass up.
So the Browns headed back to the Hilton Village shop they'd left a few minutes earlier. They didn't know that the yellowing note taped to the table's underside would identify Eleanor Brown's great-great-grandmother and namesake as the original owner. In fact, they didn't know there was a note taped to the table at all.
They found the note after loading the table into the car, but were so excited to rearrange the furniture in their small, waterfront apartment, they forgot to read it for several hours.
"The first night we had it we ate fresh oyster stew," Brown says. "And Bill was saying that my great-great-grandmother, Eleanor Floyd, probably ate oyster stew at this table, too."
Rooms, Blooms & More shop owner Karan Mulkey says a member of a different Hampton family brought the table in for consignment, but she isn't sure how it came into their possession.
When Brown spotted it, the typical 90-day consignment period had long passed on the little pine table. Mulkey had pushed it against a back wall, stacked some other items on top of it, and marked it with a red sale dot.
"It was like someone was calling out, 'please rescue our table,' " Mulkey says, pointing to the ceiling. "It was just one of those goose-bumpy things."
As for Floyd, she theorizes that McCracken's brother, Elwood, ended up with the table, which was sold in an estate sale to the person who later consigned it.
"I was really close with Lavinia, my mother's first cousin," Brown says. "We're an old Hampton family, but we're a small family, so we're all really close."
Aside from her name, and now, the little pine table, 49-year-old Brown has a few other things in common with her great-great-grandmother. They both married men named William, and they both had houses in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore.
"Hopefully this table won't get out of the family again. We're hanging on to this thing," she says, laughing.
