The first 50 years

Camden Hall in the 1940s

Dr. T. Ryland Sanford (my grandfather) had the idea for a private school in Chatham, VA. As the pastor of the Chatham Baptist Church, he had little money, but an active idea. Mr. J. Hunt Hargrave, was a well-to-do local tobacco farmer, who lived in a large house near the church, on the northeast side of the road to "Whittletown." Mr. Hargrave was agreeable to investing some money in the idea, and thus Chatham Training School (CTS) was born in 1909.

My grandfather was president from the founding until Aubrey H. Camden became the second president in about 1920 (I am not positive of the year). Col. Camden held the job until 1950. When I came back to Hargrave to discuss my becoming a cadet, it was with Col. Camden in the spring of 1949. Col. Cosby took over in the fall of 1950, and was responsible for guiding the school through the process of rebuilding after the fire of 1950.

During the period that Dr. Sanford was president, a large "President's House" was built from a Sears & Roebuck kit on a site at approximately where the Cheatham Chapel now stands. Dr. Sanford's daughter, Eleanor (my aunt) was the first woman to attend Hargrave, as a day student living in the President's House. The Sears Kit house was used as the President's House until well into the 50's (or later).

Several of my uncles attended Hargrave (or CTS) and upon my father's graduation from the University of Richmond in 1929, he became the Athletic Director at Hargrave and Head Coach for everything for the next 13 years. I was born in Danville, and grew up on the campus of Hargrave until 1942, when my father became Athletic Director at Randolph-Macon in Ashland, VA. We lived in apartments in the Junior Department and the third floor of Sanford Hall, a big house which still sits on Main Street, and a school-owned house down in the "bottom" adjacent to the house built by Mr. Bell - the Head of Maintenance. My mother taught Math and English in the Junior School for several years.

It was while I was a cadet in 1950, that we had the big fire (it began during study hall, in a second floor area immediately below my room over what is now the Main Entrance - as it was then). That cold February 20th night, most of us lost everything we owned - most evacuated in our shirts, without the thought of grabbing a coat. Initially, everyone just thought is was "drill," but the size and speed of the fire made it impossible to go back and get much, if anything.
The Chatham townspeople really did themselves proud in the way they collected displaced cadets and took them to their homes to a nice bed, and gave them some warm clothes and a good breakfast the next morning. Almost everyone in Chatham mobilized to help. Many of us stayed with townspeople for several days until the school was officially closed for a period, and we were sent home. I don't remember exactly how long it was before we returned to occupy doubled up dormitories and the use of every available space to house cadets. Nonetheless, we finished the school year, had graduation in the auditorium in Sanford Hall, and during the summer, much work was done to rebuild the campus.

In fighting the fire, the Chatham water supply was pretty much exhausted, and the firefighters parked one or more pumper trucks down beside the swimming pool in the bottom, inside the circular drive, and pretty much pumped it dry, it being the only available water supply. Hargrave could very easily have died that night. Col. Cosby became the next president, and refused to let Hargrave die. He did wonders at raising money and getting assistance. I was in college at Wake Forest and not involved directly, but remained very aware of what was happening.

Taylor H. Sanford, Jr.
thsjr@juno.com
Class of '50