Daily Statesman. He covered the construction of the capitol for the newspaper and became acquainted with the Walker family, Susie in particular. Phoebe Peyton Hanson Born 1921, San Antonio, Texas; Susie’s granddaughter and daughter of Phoebe Satterfield Peyton “Grandmother and Calvin Satterfield [1861-1936] had Virginia in common, but met in Texas. He was a University of Virginia law graduate and located in Texas to become managing editor of Austin’s Daily Statesman. The young Walker ladies apparently were quite social. There are family stories that the famous writer O. Henry was a guest at their home and courted my aunt Tyee, whose name was Lindsay. He was said to be bashful, but smitten with Tyee.” Calvin Satterfield grew up in Greensborough (now Greensboro), Maryland. His father, William C. Satterfield (1822-1896) taught school and ran a store before he joined the gold rush to California. He found no fortune in gold and returned home to become a wealthy man. He had a mercantile business on the Choptank River, ran schooners that traded in the West Indies and South America, owned five thousand acres of farmland, milled timber and was a preeminent grower of peaches. His wife, Phoebe Allen, was a granddaughter of Ethan Allen of Vermont and Green Mountain Boys fame. Charged as a traitor by the British, Allen was freed in a prisoner exchange. He later was accused of treason, but was never charged because his mission to force the Continental Congress to recognize Vermonters’ land claims was upheld in court. Phoebe Peyton Hanson “Grandmother and Grandfather were married June 30th, 1886. [Susie’s obituary states they were wed in Greensboro, Maryland.] The next year Grandfather was appointed Texas Post Office Inspector. Some time later, they returned to Grandfather’s home in Maryland to help with the family business before settling eventually in Virginia. They raised four children: Rose, Fred, Phoebe and Calvin Jr. “Rose, the eldest, had just graduated from Hollins Institute in 1906. Rose was the star of the family. She was the smartest, the most beautiful. Susie was very proud of her. Rose was engaged to be married, and Susie arranged a party on a boat on the James River near Richmond. That night changed lives forever.”
O. Henry's Girl ¢ Celebrated short story writer O. Henry (1862-1910) moved to Texas in 1882 from his native Greensboro, North Carolina to help combat a persistent cough. Back then he was known as William Sidney Porter, a bon vivant in young social circles enjoying music and theater at home salons. O. Henry was a pen name invented when the writer was first achieving fame for his style of surprise endings. In Austin, Texas he took a fancy to Lindsay “Tyee” Satterfield, pictured above with friend and fellow equestrian, Julian Morris. The famous writer and Tyee socialized on several occasions. Phoebe Peyton Hanson
Helena Lefroy Caperton (1878-1962) Editor of Social Record of Virginia, from her 1940s booklet, ‘The Chalfonte’ “One moonlit summer night, Mrs Satterfield took a party of young people in a small launch down the James River for an evening’s picnic. Her young daughter was among those who sang to the accompaniment of a banjo and guitar. During the evening Rose and a young man climbed up to sit on the roof that covered the cockpit of the launch. Still later in that evening the lights of the side-wheeler Pocahontas, the steamer that plied between Old Point Comfort and Richmond, were sighted. The wash from her stern rocked the small vessel precariously, but the laughter and the singing continued, stimulated by blasts from the steamer’s whistle. In the darkness and confusion of merriment, there was no hint of tragedy, as the launch continued on its way. When it reached its destination, horror fell upon them. Rose and the young man were gone. They had been swept overboard by the wash from the passing steamer Pocahontas, and in the darkness, and because of the gay singing, their cries for help had not been heard. That was all, all but the solemn booming of the gun that at last brought to the surface of the river all that was left of the youth and beauty and love. “Such an unspeakable bereavement would have caused the average mother to retreat from normal living or go into permanent shock, but Susan Pleasants Satterfield was not average, but a character of determination, fire and wit. “Susan Satterfield bought the Chalfonte not with the idea of profit, but because she wanted hard work, so that she would be able to submerge a devastating loss with labor. Labor so unremitting that at last the blessing of sleep might come to her.” Susie could not get over losing Rose. The tragedy devastated her. She set about to lose herself in the loss of Rose. The belles of Richmond and their families had a long tradition of summering in Cape May. In the days before the Civil War, wealthy Virginia planters traveled by steamboat, bringing with them servants, even their horses and carriages, to make statements of ego and wealth on the beachfront. Later families traveled by train to Philadelphia and transferred to Cape May, or they caught a ferry in Delaware and sailed across the bay to the resort city. Lost in her grief, Susie decided to get away from Richmond, Southern Belle Goes North
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