March, 1943 - Jefferson County, WV

Elsie B. Murphy deeds to RJF, (Claymont). Deed Book 158, P. 255.

"Last March he bought Claymont Court, one of four estates which formerly belonged to members of George Washington's family. By acquiring the adjoining plantation and several farms, he expanded his barony to 1050 acres, the approximate area of the original Washington holdings. Then, while most rich Americans were pulling in their belts and saving for taxes, Funkhouser happily faced the task of re-creating Claymont's ancient grandeur, of freeing the formal gardens from wild growth, fixing washed-out roads and the tottering slave quarters, restoring the thirty-four room mansion that had been built about 1820 by Bushrod Corbin Washington, grand-nephew of the Father of his Country.

"Always in character, R. J. threw 125 men into the job. He hauled topsoil for the lawns; he cut lumber from a 3000-acre tract he owns in the near-by Blue Ridge for miles of high whitewashed fences; he dammed a large pond, built a swimming pool, erected arbors, laid a patented $8000 tennis court - he o chambers of her new home.

"Today, a thriving plantation with freshly painted barns and silos, Claymont shelters a population of seventy-five, white and black, including family, servants, field hands and tenants.


"Massa Funkhouser governs all with the paternalism of a Biblical patriarch--but a kindly patriarch, not too strait-laced, and good to his people.

"When he butchers a hog or a Hereford steer, part of the meat goes into his eighteen-ton quick-freezing unit and theplantation feasts on the rest.

"Ten pedigreed Guernseys supply milk, butter and cottage cheese for all. The vegetable gardens cover many acres, for the master intends that Claymont shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible.

"A pillar of the United Brethren Church, an indigenous sect of the eighteenth century, Funkhouser says a long and fervent grace before meals and conducts family prayers at the drop of a hat. Once adept at snatching souls from the burning fires, he still likes to testify at protracted meetings. He never swears, dislikes even to hear profanity, and sometimes rebukes associates who use strong language. "Now, friend," he will say reproachfully, "you have a better vocabulary than that."

"And yet his creed is sufficiently elastic to permit him to boast that his butler's mint juleps are the best in the Shenandoah Valley. And his piety obviously accords with poker playing, a strictly functional table built for that purpose occupying one corner of his game room. This room he himself designed and decorated, as well as a closed veranda equipped as a bar. In the bar are two slot machines, the gross take of which goes, by Mrs. Funkhouser's direction, to the Red Cross and the British War Relief. It amuses the master that a gambling device enables his wife to be a leading Jefferson County contributor to those worthy causes.

"In a vine-clad building, standing beside the big mansion, Funkhouser conducts the affairs appropriate to a retired industrialist and a candidate for governor. He shares the quarters with a bookkeeper and Miss Kitty Linthicum, his private secretary, who calls him R. J. and is forever picking up his spectacles when they fall and slipping them over his ears while he goes on talking. The only wall decorations are an O'Sullivan poster and a lithograph of the thirty-four-story O'Sullivan Building, Baltimore's tallest.

"Funkhouser's aggressive antipathy toward the New Deal contrasts with his private manner, which is unfailingly kindly. One of his first acts upon taking title to Claymont was to unbar the gates, long closed to the neighbors. People now come and go without hindrance. A guest may arrive for overnight and still be showing up regularly for meals five days later without having heard any hints that his room is preferable to his company.

"The number of week-end guests often reaches twenty-five or more, and on Sunday afternoons it is Funkhouser's happy fancy to herd everyone sound of limb into a ball game on the diamond in front of the mansion. All on the plantation, white and black alike, are bidden to join or watch. It is likewise Funkhouser's fancy to wind up the game with a hymn-singing bee. And when the master's voice soars into Beulah Land, the family looks around for exits. Unless quelled, he is likely to launch into prayer and a sermon.

"The Negroes on the place shine in the songfest. Funkhouser's paternalism is accentuated where the colored folk are concerned. He is building six cottages for them in a park-like glen. Equipped with electricity, bathrooms, porches, screens and modern kitchens, the cottages are costing him $3500 each, exclusive of the land. The great scheme for Claymont calls for a chapel, and Funkhouser has picked the site and ordered plans drawn. He expects to lead his own worship and have a bang-up colored choir. When someone suggested that he retain Hall Johnson to train the choristers, Funkhouser made a note of it.

"Like the chapel, much of Claymont is still unbuilt. Funkhouser projects a grand canal, three quarters of a mile long and thirty feet wide, for canoeing in summer and skating in winter.

"Ground has been broken for horse barns, a practice track and paddocks for jumping. This establishment is designed for the plantation's saddle mounts and son Justin's string of Thoroughbreds.

"A golf course is also planned. In fact, Funkhouser intends eventually to make Claymont so entertainingly sell-sufficient, with everything from chapel services to steeple chasing, that it will magnetize the young folk.

"He and Mrs. Funkhouser have eight children, her three coming from a previous marriage. Already he can boast of seven grandchildren, which he regards as merely a start toward the patriarchal brood he envisages tumbling about Claymont.

Photos: Ruth Funkhouser in car; Carroll Jones, RJF's driver; Lucy Jones praying; and family portrait: RJF and Flora Owens (Peggy Morningstar) RJF's third wife, center.