OLD.
John Old came to Albemarle from Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, in 1769, and engaged with John Wilkinson in
establishing a forge for the manufacture of iron. This
was erected in the gorge of the south fork of Hardware,
a short distance south of Garland's Store. In 1782
he bought from William Hamner nine hundred acres
on the north fork of Hardware, at the crossing of the
old Lynchburg Road, and there built another forge.
This was a widely known point in its day. Mr. Jefferson
mentions it in his Notes. The road to it was spoken of
as the road to Old's Forge oftener perhaps than as the Lynchburg
Road. This property he sold in 1793 to Henry Weaver
and his brother James. He died in 1809. He and his wife
Sarah had a son John, and a daughter Sarah, the wife of
Edward Garland. John married in 1785 Elizabeth, daughter
of Benjamin Dod Wheeler, and died in 1812. His children
were Nancy, the wife of Thomas Eubank, who removed to
Monroe County, Kentucky, Elizabeth, the wife of Reuben
Eubank, Ann, the wife of Joseph F. Wingfield, Thomas J.,
George W., and probably Abijah. Thomas and George
removed to Campbell County. Abijah married Sarah Fretwell,
lived in the neighborhood of Old's Forge, and died in
1840. His children were James A., John, William, Martha,
Mary, the wife of John B. Douglass, and Sarah, the wife of
Samuel Norvell. The most of the last family removed to
Missouri.
James Old, brother of the first John, came to Albemarle
several years after his brother. He had been a Revolutionary
soldier, was in the unfortunate expedition against Quebec,
and fought in the battle of Long Island. His home was on
Black Walnut Branch, between Mount Olivet Church and
Garland's Store. He built the mill two miles east of Red
Hill Depot about 1804. He died unmarried in 1821, devising
the mill to George M. Woods and James Old Walters.
