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Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

Chapter 16

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"Then don't do it for me," she said. "I didn't give you that money to get it back. I gave it to you so you'd have something of your own. Turns out you've got something of ours."He picked up the phone and called Gerald Whitmore back. "The reserve isn't for sale," he said. "Thank you for the offer."Then he did something he should have done weeks earlier: he stopped trying to do everything alone.The next morning, he called the Virginia Cooperative Extension Office in Independence. The agent there listened to his story, then gave him a name: Dr. Evelyn Brooks, a plant scientist at Virginia State University in Petersburg. Virginia State was a historically Black land-grant university, and Dr. Brooks had spent years studying heirloom crop varieties.Marcus called her that afternoon. When he described the sacks, the tags, and the ledger, the line went quiet."Mr. Hollis," she finally said, "what you're describing could be one of the most important seed collections in this state. Please don't plant any more of it on your own. I'm driving out this weekend."That Saturday, Dr. Brooks arrived in a university van with two graduate students. She spent hours in Grandma Ruth's kitchen studying the ledger and examining the seed sacks.When Marcus showed her the rotted kernels from his failed test, she nodded. "This isn't unusual," she said. "Old seed can survive a very long time if it's kept dry and sealed, but it has to wake up slowly. Cold, wet clay is the worst place to try it. We'll test it properly in a greenhouse: warm soil, controlled moisture, gradual rehydration. Then we'll know."That same week, Harold Jennings came up with an idea of his own. He had read Josiah's ledger cover to cover, and he kept returning to one line on the map: Vault 4: Land records."If that vault holds the cooperative's original deed and survey," Harold said, "it could settle this whole boundary dispute. I'm going to ask the judge to allow a supervised excavation of that one vault: county surveyor present, historical society present, everything done by the book."In January, the judge agreed. The excavation was set for a cold morning in February 1992.The county surveyor came, along with a member of the county historical society, and Dale Pruitt with his attorney. Harold Jennings stood beside Marcus in a long wool coat. Grandma Ruth sat in the cab of Marcus's truck with the heater running.
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Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

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