Stedman-Rainey-Savage House

The Stedman-Rainey-Savage House
ca. 1853

The Stedman-Rainey-Savage House was probably commissioned by William and Olivia Stedman around 1853 with John Dietrich Tavis as the builder.

Olivia Gibson was born in Germanton around 1829 to William N. and Eliza Gibson. William Gibson belonged to one of Germanton's wealthiest families and was the son of Jeremiah and Rachel Nelson Gibson. William graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1820 and he was a medical doctor. The 1830 census records William heading a household of four free whites and 13 enslaved persons while his father, Jeremiah, owned 25 slaves, making Jeremiah one of the county’s larger slave owners. William Gibson died in 1831, when his daughter, Olivia, was about two years old. Although Eliza Gibson, Olivia’s mother, was still living, Jeremiah became his granddaughter’s guardian.[1]

Tavis often used broad pediments on his gable ends.

On December 16, 1848, the Raleigh Register recorded the marriage of Olivia Gibson and Dr. William W. Stedman[2] in Clemmonsville (southwest Forsyth County).[3]

Jeremiah Gibson died in 1849, leaving 404 acres in Germanton to his granddaughter, Olivia Stedman. This property included at least two houses (John Pepper’s, probably located about where the Baptist Church is today and purchased by Gibson when Pepper defaulted on debts, and Joshua Banner’s, probably located to the south, closer to Buffalo Creek and purchased by Gibson after Banner’s death).[4]

By 1850, William and Olivia were living in the Richmond District of Forsyth County (northwest Forsyth County). William was a physician, the family included five-month-old William G., and the family’s worth was an impressive $4,000. In 1853, Olivia completed the purchase of the land she had inherited (Jeremiah had not fully paid for the Banner and Pepper properties before his death, so Olivia settled that debt before taking ownership of the land.) That same year and again in 1855 and 1857, the Stedmans made land purchases in Germanton that added about 200 acres to Olivia’s 404 acres.[5]

Tavis' signature asymmetrical sidelights.

While Olivia’s property included at least two other houses, it is likely that the young family constructed this house around 1853, when they appear to have moved to Germanton: stylistically, the house appears to date from the 1850s, other buildings by the same builder date from the mid-1850s, the Stedmans were investors in one other project by the same builder in the mid-1850s, and the subsequent owner referred to the property and house as having been Dr. Stedman’s.[6] No other buildings associated with the Stedmans’ ownership of the property remain, but presumably, their farm included barns, outbuildings, and housing for enslaved persons.

On April 12, 1857, William Stedman died. Dr. Stedman, like Germanton’s other prominent white men, including his Gibson in-laws, were members of the Masonic Lodge and upon Stedman’s death, the Masons issued a proclamation of mourning that described him as affable, efficient, and in the prime of his career. The Masons planned to wear mourning badges for 30 days and drape the lodge in crape. Dr. Stedman is buried with Olivia’s other family members at the Methodist Church cemetery.[7]

In late 1857, Olivia advertised the sale of 14 “likely Negros” at auction on January 11, 1858. The advertisement noted that the enslaved persons were from the estate of Dr. William W. Stedman.[8] The term “likely Negros” does not mean people who are likely to be African American; it means they are likely to be good workers.

By 1860, Olivia was living in Salem with her young children, William G, Eliza, and Fannie and in 1861, she married the prominent newspaper publisher, John W. Alspaugh.[9] Eight years later, Olivia Alspaugh sold 7 tracts of land containing about 600 acres to Thomas Rainey, of the “Kingdom of Brazil.”[10] The acreage still included the old Banner house, and among several interesting notes, one tract included the “Race Grounds.”

Thomas Rainey never lived in Germanton, but he was a successful businessman and one of the primary advocates for construction of the Queesnboro Bridge in New York City. In his memoir, Rainey recalled moving many times in Caswell County and the Danville, Virginia, area, chasing his unlucky father’s fortunes and running from his losses. By the time Rainey purchased the Stedman farm, his father was deeply in debt and elderly. Rainey installed his father and siblings here and described the property as being purchased from Dr. Stedman and called Capitol Hill. Over time, the Rainey family moved the bodies of several deceased family members to Germanton’s Methodist Church cemetery, which probably started as a Gibson family cemetery.[11] 

By 1907, Thomas’ brother, Virgil Rainey, owned the property and he sold 446 acres, including this house, to B. J. Savage. B. J. Savage was a successful and colorful farmer and his son and daughter-in-law, Kemp and Ruby Savage, owned the house into the early twenty-first century. The Savage family replaced the original stair in the central hallway with a classical-revival staircase and columns around 1910. They replaced the original double-tier portico with the current porch and added the one-story kitchen wing on the northeast side in the 1940s.[12]

Sarah Woodard David, 2015 

To learn more about the builder of this house, John Dietrich Tavis, click here. 

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[1] Olivia Gibson’s birth year can be calculated from census records and it is recorded on her gravemarker at Salem Cemetery in Winston-Salem. Several deeds (Stokes County deed book 11, page 520, and deed book 13, page 336) and Jeremiah Gibson’s will (N.C. State Archives, Raleigh, NC) confirm the family relationships. Gravermarkers for Jeremiah Gibson and William Gibson are in the Germanton Methodist Church Cemetery. 

[2] Very little is known about William Stedman. He was a doctor and received his M.D. from the University of the City of New York in 1842. (New York University was chartered as the University of the City of New York in 1831.) His parents and birthplace are unknown. He may be the son of William Winship Stedman, a wealthy Gates County planter with ties to Chatham County who had several sons who remain unknown.

[3] Carrie L. Broughton, ed., Marriages and Death Notices from Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette, 1846-1855 (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Library, 1948), 438.

[4] Jeremiah Gibson’s will and estate papers (NC State Archives, Raleigh, NC); John Pepper to Jeremiah Gibson, Stokes County deed book 15, page 446, October 10, 1845; and Jeremiah Gibson to Olivia Gibson Stedman, Forsyth County deed book 1, page 734, October 17, 1853.

[5] U. S. Census, Population Schedule, 1850, and Stedman land purchases, Forsyth County deed book 2, pages 222, 223, and 611.

[6] Thomas Rainey Memoir, written around 1901 and published on the Caswell County Historical Association website, ncccha.blogspot.com/2009/12/Thomas-rainey-1824-1920-memori.html, accessed December 2, 2014.

[7] William W. Stedman grave marker at Germanton Methodist Church, and “Tribute of Respect,” published in the (Raleigh) Weekly Standard, April 22, 1857.

[8] Greensboro Patriot, December 18, 1857.

[9] U.S. Census, Population Schedule, 1860, and Stedman-Alspaugh marriage noted in the Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, March 25, 1861. Olivia died in 1869 and her children disappeared from obvious public records, but they may have ended up in Fayetteville where other Stedman relatives may have been living. The youngest child, Fannie, married a minister from Fayetteville and she eventually resurfaced in Germanton to sell Gibson property in the late 1800s.

[10] John and Olivia Alspaugh to Thomas Rainey, Forsyth County deed book 4, page 577, September 4, 1868.

[11] Thomas Rainey Memoir.

[12] Virgil Rainey to B. J. Savage, Forsyth County deed book 85, page 168, 1907. See also Stokes County deed book 586, page 833.