Person:Joseph Halsey (4)

Joseph resided in Hopewell, Dutchess Co., New York, until 1834 when his family removed to Morris Co., New Jersey.

The following information about Joseph Jackson Halsey and Mildred Morton Halsey was found by Kay Fenton at the following website which is a "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" found here: http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Orange/068-0131_Lessland_1999_Final_Nomination.pdf

Scrolling way down on this form gives a description of the property called 'Lessland', it's historical significance, detailed architectural description, even this bit of info about it's owner: Joseph Jackson Halsey. If you love old homes, it is fascinating reading! The following is only a small portion of the info available.

Location: Bushy Mountain Road, Orange, (now Culpeper) County, Virginia

About Lessland : "Lessland, situated in north-central Orange County, is an excellent example of a post-bellum Italianate plantation house. Built in 1871 by Joseph J. Halsey, a New Jersey-born lawyer who had settled in central Virginia in the 1840s and married into a prominent local family, the present Lessland dwelling replaced an earlier house on the site which burned. . . . "The present Lessland house was built in 1871 by Joseph Jackson Halsey on property that he had purchased from his father-in-law Jeremiah Morton in 1854. A large landowner and important political figure in the region, Morton lived at his nearby plantation The Hall (locally known as Morton Hall). . . According to family tradition, Morton christened the 441-acre tract Lessland because in contained 'less land' than his other properties Moreland and Stillmore. "A New Jersey native and an 1842 graduate of Princeton University, J. J. Halsey came south to accept a teaching position in Fredericksburg at the Classical and Scientific Athenaeum and taught and lived at the Farmers Hotel. He married Jeremiah Morton's daughter, Mildred, on Sept. 3, 1846, was admitted to the bar in 1847, and moved to Lessland, where he managed the farm as well as practiced law. "There was a one story wooden dwelling house on the property when Jeremiah Morton purchased it from John Porter in 1848. By 1860, J. J. Halsey had remodeled and enlarged this house into a two story stuccoed frame structure and had added further improvements . . . which still stand on the front lawn at Lessland. "J. J. Halsey adopted the lifestyle of the Morton family, and supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. During the conflict, he was a Captain in the 6th Virginia Cavalry, Company I (the Orange Rangers). . . "Following the deaths of Mildred Morton Halsey in April 1906 and Joseph J. Halsey in February 1907, their grandson Franklin Steams Halsey purchased Lessland from other family members in May, 1907."

Following the above is a continuation of the genealogy of Franklin Steams Halsey as he and his descendants have continued to own the property.

1. ↑ Website: Nomination of Lessland to National Register of Historic Places www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Countie.

   Location only

2. ↑ Hayden, Horace Edwin. Virginia genealogies : a genealogy of the Glassell family of Scotland and Virginia: also of the families of Ball, Brown, Bryan, Conway, Daniel, Ewell, Holladay, Lewis, Littlepage, Moncure, Peyton, Robinson, Scott, Taylor, Wallace, and others, of Virginia and Maryland. (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.: E.B. Yordy, printer, 1891)
   pg 35.
3. ↑ Email from Kay Fenton jfenton add the at vcweb add the dot org.

   New York Births and Baptisms, Southeast Region, 1660-1916 at ancestry.com

4. ↑ Website: Nomination of Lessland to National Register of Historic Places www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Countie.
5. ↑ Email from Cheryl (Chatfield) Thompson.
6.   Rootsweb chart of Cheryl Thompson: Chatfield's - 1450 to Present wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi op GET db cha.
7.   Www.fordyce.org/long island/ NY Births and Baptisms, Hopewell Dutch Reformed Church, Hopewell, Twp of East Fis.