The Painter Chapel

This monument, erected in 1996, is in memory of The Painter Chapel. Located on Catawba Road in a curve, it recognizes the legacy of my ancestors, Jacob and Mary Painter.

They once owned a large portion of the Catawba Valley, including the area where Catawba Hospital is now. That was even before it was Red Sulphur Springs.

They owned the property in the early 1800s (it used to belong to the McAfee's, hence the famous "McAfee's Knob" on the Appalachian Trail) and at some point they donated the land where this monument stands so that a church could be built. "Painter's Congregation" met in a wooden structure for a number of years and the building was used by Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodists.

The legacy of my ancestor's donation continues to this day, although in another site, and as I understand it, in a divided congregation that now worships in two different churches.

Jacob Painter was a gunsmith and it is said that he passed this on to his son, John, who made guns for the confederacy. Through his wife, Mary, I am related to my husband (we are fifth cousins), with a set of sixth-great grandparents in common. We were unaware of that when we met. What goes around comes around, I guess.

Jacob died in 1834. He and his wife were among the first settlers in Catawba. His first house was a log home built into a side of a hill, and a second log house was built near the entrance to Catawba Hospital. It was razed in 1964, a year after I was born. Jacob was a prosperous farmer, with a grist mill and a sawmill.

He and Mary had 10 children. A number of their descendents still live in the area. The family went on to settle Botetourt and Roanoke Counties. Some of these descendents went on to be judges in the circuit court, superintendents of schools, and at least two are writers (including myself).

My biggest regret is that the hundreds of acres of property has been sold and divided and sold again, with a great share being sold to the cement plant up the road. How sad it is that such a great swath of wonderful land slipped into the grasp of such a corporation.