More than 40 family members, friends, county leaders, businessmen and local historians attended the marker dedication of the Cosby Family Farm March 26 in Glen Allen. The farm is significant for its ownership by one African-American family dating to the late 1800s.

Mercer Hugh Cosby built the farmhouse in the 1880s on 52 acres. He grew tobacco and had an orchard on the property. In 1952, the farm passed to his youngest son, William Darl Cosby Sr., who became a prominent educator in Henrico County, following his service in World War II. He worked as a teacher and principal through the period of school desegregation in 1969.

Until his death in 2006, Cosby was the curator of the Virginia Randolph Museum, a National Register Landmark. (He and his wife, Hilda Cosby, pictured above, with their son) were profiled in a 2004 Henrico Citizen article "For the Love of One," which detailed their efforts to help bring an elementary school student to Henrico County from Prince Edward County to be educated, following the closure of schools there. Read the article here.)