Page 42 - Discover SPRING 2022

Family Tree CONTINUED

a 300 acre farm, and 200 acres were going to Gibson Girls. One of them married Gibson.
be covered by water, and they couldn’t make a Another eventually emigrated to England
living out of 100 acres.” and married John Jacob Astor, Jr., eventually

becoming Lady Astor and serving as the first
Of course, few realized the potential upside
woman in the House of Commons.
of owning waterfront property, and Charlie
tells an amusing anecdote about Joe and According to Joe, she had a famous
Lib’s young cousin, whose family owned the encounter with Winston Churchill at a

land that would eventually become Saunders dinner party. During an argument, she told
Marina. the Prime Minister, “Winston, if I were
married to you, I would put poison in your
“AEP had gone around
tea.”
and put stakes in, to

show the entire perimeter Churchill’s famed
where the water line response: “Madam, if I
would be… and C.D. were married to you, I
Saunders’ daughter… and would drink it!”

her girlfriends, they went
In late 1859,
around, ‘cause they were
another descendant,
natives here, and they
Vincent Witcher, had a
weren’t pleased about what
granddaughter who was
was happening… they
suing her husband for
pulled up the stakes,” he
divorce. The troubled
chuckles. “They thought
marriage was the impetus
if they did that, the water
for the Witcher –
wouldn’t come there!”
Clement feud. Witnesses

Charlie Walker is were being deposed in
very active in the lake a general store in Sandy
community. He lives in Mayberry Hills, and Level, and an argument ensued. The husband,
Charlie always seems to find himself in the one of three Clement brothers, reportedly

middle of bustling activity, his ever-present became belligerent and started a knife fight,
camera at the ready. His photos grace the bringing the proceedings to a close.
pages of a number of area publications.
They continued about three months
Joe Jefferson is retired, and actively later, in the back room of Dickinson’s Store,

researches the family genealogy. The line of but again, there were heated arguments,
one ancestor, William Witcher, an officer in devolving this time into gunplay. When all
the American Revolution, holds particular was said and done, all three Clement brothers
interest. His descendants included five great- lay dead, and all the Witchers who were
granddaughters, all of whom modeled as present stood accused of their murders.

40 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SPRING 2022