Two Gold Rings and the Legend of Tall Tree

Jacob Harris left England in 1770 with a tenthousand-acre land grant in Virginia and gold, given to him by the king. Seeing the virgin trees, he fell to his knees and named the place Tall Tree. He spent twenty years clearing the land and building a brick house before taking a bride, having one son, William. Slaves were treated as equals; and Ezra, a gigantic black man, was loved by all. The Civil War took its toll on the family, causing the disappearance of two special wedding rings for eighty-one years before making their return to add to the legend of the beautiful plantation of Tall Tree.

Thomas Daniel Payne, a.k.a. Tuck, is eighty-seven years old, was born in 1924 in Charlottesville, Virginia, lived in the Depression years, and was a high school graduate in 1942. He is a veteran of the Army Air Force in World War II, honorably discharged on February 1946. He married Ella, his only love, from Buckingham County, Virginia on January 1945. As Tuck said, she spoiled him for fi ftynine years before passing away. Together they shared their love with three boys and two girls. He worked as a master plumber, retiring in 1989. In 1968, they built a fi ve-room cottage on the Chickahominy River for boating and fl y-fi shing for bass. He woke up one night in 2007 having a great urge to write. He is trying to fi ll that urge with one fi nger and a laptop.