None.

The Store and location now owned and occupied by B. Ney and Sons, is said to have been the home of Henry J. Gambill, for so many years, clerk of the Courts of Rockingham County, from 1809 to 1847 and the B. Ney & Sons is used because they are the present owners and for identification purposes.

I am not able however, to definitely establish from the records that Henry J. Gambill occupied the old house as his town residence, neither am I able to establish by whom it was built and when. Chalkley a conveyance by Thomas Harrison, November 25, 2024 to Elizabeth McNeal, widow, of Rockingham, who a little later married James Martin who soon thereafter became deranged and disappeared. She remained in Harrisonburg until 1798 when she made a will devising the land to one James Brown, whom as a boy she had taken to raise.

In her will the lot is described as on a "corner opposite Mr. Thom. Scott’s lot, fronting on Irish Street and Elizabeth Street and further known as lot No. 2, the square not given, but being a part of the 1290 acres etc.

On May 13, 1817, James Brown and Nancy of Licking County, Ohio, deeded this lot to William McMahon of Harrisonburg. From the description given in the conveyance and also in subsequent conveyances, the location seems to be definitely identified.

A part of the old house still stands and forms a part of the B. Ney & Sons store, who now own the property, but so many changes have been made that no description can be given.

My purpose in writing this place is to establish the home of Henry J. Gambill. Mr. Gambill as stated, was clerk of the courts for a period of 38 years—from 1809 to 1847 or until his death. From 1817 to 1847, he was clerk of both the County and the Circuit Courts. Aside from his excellent record as clerk of the courts, he was a man of excellent character and prominent in the affairs of the community and a good Mason, being a member of No. 27 Lodge of Harrisonburg and standing high in that organization.

Mrs. Maria Graham Carr in her "My Recollections etc." speaks of this old house as a log house with a porch in front, painted yellow, and in which Mr. Gambill lived until the building of his brick house about two miles North of Harrisonburg, when he sold his town house to Jacob Yost. Unfortunately the record of this deed with so many others, was burned in 1864.

In one of the conveyances of this property it is spoken of as being known as the Abraham Smith house. Abraham Smith was a son-in-law of Henry J. Gambill, but I fail to find in the Index to deeds any conveyance of this property to Smith, altho he conveys it to Mary M. Henkel in 1870. It is possible and I think probable, that he bought it from Col. William McMahon tho I can not find the record.

Court Records; Mrs. Maria Graham Carr; Chalkley, Houston Harrison.