DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker at the Yarborough Home tells it, and I'll let you be the judge of whether a house can carry that much history without the walls bowing out a little. Out in Henderson County, there's a home that's been holding stories since 1903. That's the year Charles Richard and Nannie Jane Spear Yarborough moved in, and that same year, the house welcomed its first notable arrival — a boy named Ralph Webster Yarborough, who would one day become a United States Senator.
The house had barely settled its foundation and it was already making history. Now Charles R. Yarborough, he wasn't just a father and a husband.
He was a justice of the peace, which meant that house doubled as something of a wedding chapel. Many a marriage ceremony was performed right there inside those walls, couples standing before C. R.
Yarborough, making their vows. That house witnessed a whole lot of beginnings. But some of the sweetest moments belong to Charles and Nannie Jane themselves.
On June 13, 1939, right there in that same house, the two of them celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Fifty years. And still in the same home where so much of their life had unfolded.
Then comes January 1, 1959. New Year's Day. And what happens in that house on New Year's Day?
Charles R. Yarborough, the old justice of the peace, the man who had administered oaths and witnessed vows for decades, stood before his own son and administered to Ralph Webster Yarborough the oath of office as senator of the United States. Father swearing in son.
That right there is the kind of moment a house remembers. Charles R. Yarborough died in that home on October 24, 1964 — aged one hundred years and eleven days.
He had come to that house in 1903, and that house held him to the very end. One house. 1903 to 1964 and beyond. Three generations of descendants.
Births, marriages, anniversaries, and a senatorial oath administered by a father's steady hand. Some houses just know what they're for.
What the marker says
Occupied since 1903 by Charles Richard and Nannie Jane Spear Yarborough and 3 generations of descendants. Birthplace in 1903 of United States Senator Ralph Webster Yarborough. In this house Charles R. Yarborough, as justice of the peace, performed many marriage ceremonies. In this house, he and Mrs. Yarborough on June 13, 1939, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Here on Jan. 1, 1959, he administered to his son the oath of office as senator of the United States. C. R. Yarborough died here Oct. 24, 1964, aged 100 years, 11 days.