Marion Harland--(12 Dec. 1830-3 June 1922)

Born Mary Virginia Hawes at Dennisville about eight miles south, Harland was a prolific author, producing a syndicated newspaper column for women, many short stories, 25 novels, 25 volumes on domestic life, and 12 books on travel, biography, and Virginia history. Her Common Sense in the Household (1871) was the best-selling cookbook in America for more than fifty years, until the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the Settlement Cookbook became popular after World War I.