In 1808, Charles Johnston built the a home, in Lynchburg, Virginia, that he called the Sandusky House, as a reminder of a narrow escape he had after he was captured by Shawnee Native Americans, while navigating the Ohio River on the way to Kentucky. The Shawnee brought him to the Sandusky frontier settlement where a French-Canadian ransomed for Johnston’s freedom.
After Johnston’s escape he moved back to Virginia where he built the home and met his neighbor Thomas Jefferson who owned a house in the nearby “Poplar Forest”. Charles Johnston handled many of Jefferson’s tobacco transactions and invited him to dine at the Sandusky House in 1817.
In the year 2000, the house was sold to Liberty University and the structure was turned into a historic home museum.
