John Vaughn Willcox, a wealthy Petersburg merchant, married the heiress to the Poythress estate in 1804. Adding to his wife's inheritance through the purchase of adjacent tracts of land, Willcox and his son, John Poythress Willcox, assembled a 1400 acre tract. By 1855 the Willcox property included the original 1000 acre land grant. Mary Jane McGowan Willcox exercised full control of the property after the death of her husband in 1857.

19^th Century: Civil War and Social Change

The tract became strategically significant during the Civil War. On June 12, 1864, Lt. Peter Michie of the United States Corps of Engineers surveyed three possible crossing sites on the James River near Fort Powhatan.

The site selected stretched from Weyanoke Point, 1,992 feet across the river to Flowerdew Hundred. By 4:00 p.m. on June 14th the pontoons had arrived and the bridge was under construction.

The entire Army of the Potomac was across the river by June 17th and the bridge was disassembled. Following their crossing of the James River, 115,000 men bivouacked at Flowerdew Hundred for three days. During this encampment, Mary Jane Willcox continued in residence with her two daughters and elderly mother.

Although the Civil War erased the old plantation society, Mary Jane Willcox successfully managed the property during and after the Reconstruction Period. Flowerdew Hundred remained in the hands of the Willcox family descendants until the early twentieth century.