" Nathaniel Ragsdale Coleman attended V.M.I.. As a Confederate
soldier he was captured and imprisoned by the Federal forces for
sixteen months. He met his future bride at the railroad station
and drove her to his sister`s home, "Banister Lodge", where the
funeral of William Clark, the latter`s father-in-law was going
on. He fell very much in love with the Charlottesville live-in
teacher and drove her here and there about the countryside. He
had the piano tuned so that she could play for him. Anne too was
in love. "Oh, you little goose", she made fun of herself in her
diary. In 1869 his mother, Martha Ragsdale Coleman, deeded
"Riverside" to the already married couple. Anne Nelson Page was
more urbane than rustic Nathaniel, but she quickly learned to
manage the plantation. When they attended Grace Church, if men
were confounded not to control a horse hitched to a tree, she
said, "Stand backeverybody", and quickly mastered the unruly
horse. Nathaniel was often to be found playing checkers with his
negro friends, as companionable with them as a man as they had
been at childhood games, remarks a neighbor who was living after
1902 at "Creekside" nearby - Miss Edith Pottage." (1) (1) From
"The news and Record", South Boston, Va. March 11, 1985.
