In March 1949, Charlie Melton Dellenback Sr. became owner of a 169 acre tract that was a small part of the original Laurel Hill farm, including the farmhouse built in 1895 by William A. Mitchell and his son John. The farm contained structures dating back to the Stuart occupation, and possibly to William Letcher's time. Charlie, a World War II U.S. Army veteran, married Thelma Roseleaf Dennis in 1943, and together they raised nine children on this self-sustaining farm. Four of those children were veterans themselves: three sons served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, and one daughter served in the U.S. Marine Corps during Vietnam and later in the U.S. Army Reserves and U.S. Army Active Guard Reserve. Tobacco was the main cash crop, with corn, oats, hay, and a large vegetable garden also supporting the family, while hogs, chickens, and dairy cattle were part of the operation. The old Volunteer Gap Road and another farm road intersected the property and were used extensively to move goods out of the area. In the early 1950s, when descendants of William Letcher wanted to move his remains elsewhere, Charlie Dellenback insisted that the grave would remain on the farm, helping preserve Laurel Hill. Charlie Melton Dellenback died in 1998, and the family continues to farm this fertile bottomland along the Ararat River. In 1995, a family member sold a 3-acre tract including William Letcher's grave, the Mitchell-Dellenback home, and the probable site of William Letcher's cabin. It is believed that archaeology work conducted by Radford University in 2009 discovered the foundation of Letcher's cabin. That land, together with the site of J.E.B. Stuart's birth, totals 75 acres and is a small part of the original 1500-acre Laurel Hill farm now owned, maintained, and interpreted by the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc.