Albemarle County in Virginia giving some account of what it was by nature, of what it was made by man, and of some of the men who made it |
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 | CHAPTER III. Albemarle County in Virginia |  |
CHAPTER III.
A weather-beaten stone lies near the centre of Maplewood
Cemetery in Charlottesville, inscribed with the name of
Letitia Shelby, and the statement that she departed this life
on September 7th, 1777. This Cemetery was not laid out
until 1831. Previous to that time families of the town were
generally in the habit of interring their dead in their own
lots. A public graveyard however is said to have existed on
the road to Cochran's Mill, about where the residence of
Drury Wood now stands, and from this place this stone was
removed after Maplewood was established. It is declared by
descendants of the Shelby family, that this Letitia was the
wife of General Evan Shelby, and mother of General Isaac
Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky. A curious inquiry
arises how she came to be in Charlottesville, or in Albemarle
County, at the time of her death.
Evan Shelby was an immigrant from Wales, and at first
settled in Maryland, near Hagerstown. There his son Isaac
was born in 1750. In the year 1771 father and son were both
in southwestern Virginia, in the neighborhood of Bristol;
and there the home of Evan Shelby continued to be during
his life. It is natural to suppose that his wife, whose maiden
name was Letitia Cox, accompanied them to their new home
in the West. Whether she was visiting friends in Albemarle,
or was passing through on a journey, at the period of her
last sickness, it is perhaps impossible now to ascertain.
But the plain, well preserved inscription on her tombstone
leaves no doubt that this vicinity was the place of her death.
A tradition in the Floyd family states, that about 1680 a
Nathaniel Davis, who was also a native of Wales, married a
child of Nicketti, a daughter of the Indian Chief, Opechancanough,
the brother of Powhatan. Robert Davis was a son
of these parents, and an ancestor of Jefferson Davis, President
of the Confederacy; and a granddaughter of Robert Davis
account by the fact, that Robert Davis had a son named
Samuel, who would thus be the uncle of Letitia Shelby; and
Samuel Davis was the owner of several tracts of land in
Albemarle, on the north fork of Rockfish, on Green Creek,
and on both sides of Moore's Creek, adjoining the Carter
lands. At the time of her death, Mrs. Shelby may have been
visiting the family of this man.
General George Rogers Clark, the famous conqueror of
the North West Territory, first saw the light in Albemarle.
His grandfather, Jonathan Clark, of King and Queen County,
joined with Hickman, Graves and Smith, as already mentioned,
in patenting more than three thousand acres of land
on the north side of the Rivanna, opposite the Free Bridge.
In the division of this land, the upper portion fell to Clark;
and in a house situated a short distance from the present
residence of Captain C. M. McMurdo, John Clark, the son
of Jonathan, lived, and George Rogers was born. The wife
of John Clark, and mother of George, was Ann Rogers, a
sister of Giles, George and Byrd Rogers, all of whom possessed
land in Albemarle, in the Buck Mountain region.
The birth of George Rogers Clark occurred in 1752, and
when he was about five years of age his father removed to
Caroline, where a kinsman had devised to him a handsome
estate. It is not known that in his active and eventful life,
the General was ever again in the county of his birth but
once. In the fall of 1777 he travelled from Kentucky to
Richmond, to procure means for setting on foot the expedition
to Illinois, which he had already conceived, and which
he carried out the next year. His route lay through Cumberland
Gap, and the Holston country. He came down the
Valley, and crossed the Blue Ridge at Rockfish Gap, or one
of the gaps just above. He states in his diary that he spent
the night at a Mr. Black's, who was beyond question James
Black, a son of the old Presbyterian minister, who kept a
tavern on the place afterwards owned by Alexander Garrett,
and his son, Dr. Bolling Garrett. On his way to Richmond
next day he passed through Charlottesville, where he tarried
to Richmond he became acquainted with Mr. Jefferson, and
deeply impressed him with his vigorous and heroic qualities.
In a letter Jefferson wrote to Judge Innes, of Kentucky, in
1791, he says,
"Will it not be possible for you to bring General Clark
forward? I know the greatness of his mind, and am the
more mortified at the cause which obscures it. Had not this
unhappily taken place, there was nothing he might not have
hoped; could it be surmounted, his lost ground might yet
be recovered. No man alive rated him higher than I did, and
would again, were he to become again what I knew him.
We are made to hope he is engaged in writing the account
of his expedition north of the Ohio. They will be valuable
morsels of history, and will justify to the world those who
have told them how great he was."
William Clark, who was associated with Meriwether
Lewis in his exploring tour across the Rocky Mountains,
was a brother of George, but he was born in Caroline in 1770.
Albemarle was the place of residence of Doctor Thomas
Walker, one of the most remarkable men of his day. With his
expeditions to southwest Virginia were connected some interesting
and romantic facts of personal history. In the course
of these travels he made the acquaintance of William Inglis,
who married a Draper, planted the first white settlement west
of the Alleghanies at Draper's Meadows, near the present
site of Blacksburg, and subsequently spent his remaining
days at Inglis's Ferry on New River. Inglis and his family
suffered the common penalty of those who led the way in
peopling the wilderness. His wife and children were captured
by the Indians, his wife marvellously escaped the same
year, but his son Thomas was retained among them for a
period of thirteen years. Being in the plastic season of
childhood, the latter became so thoroughly inured to the
habits of Indian life, that it was difficult to break their power;
in fact, it never was wholly broken. However, when his father
penetrated the remote forests of Ohio to effect his ransom,
he seemed to feel the promptings of natural affection, and
native language, and the rudiments of learning, he was sent
to Castle Hill, and placed under Doctor Walkers's care.
Here he continued for three or four years, and made considerable
progress in the elementary branches of education.
But here he was also brought under a spell, which softened
him far more than all the endearments of parental love, and
all the mollifying influence of letters. He fell in love with
a young woman of the neighborhood named Eleanor Grills.
A John Grills in 1745 and subsequent years, became the
owner by patent and purchase of more than two thousand
acres of land in the county, part of it lying on Moore's Creek,
where he built a mill, and where one has continued ever
since, on the present site of Hartman's Mill. He was also
the original purchaser of Lot Eighteen in the new county
seat, the western half of the square on which Lipscomb's
stable stands. Although he seems to have sold his possessions
in Albemarle about the time Thomas Inglis came to the
county, it is likely he continued to reside here or in Louisa,
and that Eleanor was his daughter. At all events young
Inglis, when he returned to his father's house in 1772, was
bound to her by a promise of marriage. He was a Lieutenant
in Colonel Christian's regiment in the battle of Point
Pleasant in 1774; and the next year, crowned with the laurels
of successful warfare, he returned to Albemarle, and
secured the hand of his bride. He first settled on Wolf Creek
of New River; but unable to repress the roving disposition
contracted during his sojourn among the Indians, he soon
removed to Burke's Garden, where in an incursion of the
savages he nearly lost his wife, then to Knoxville, and
finally to Natchez in Mississippi, where at length he closed
his wanderings with the close of his life.
Another incident of personal history may be noted, illustrating
the progress of the early settlements, and the fortunes of
individuals. As previously stated, a Dennis Doyle patented
in 1741 eight hundred acres of land on the north fork of
Moorman's River, and from him the stream acquired its name.
In 1749 Doyle conveyed to William Battersby, the lawyer, a
hundred in North Garden, and another of eight hundred on
Totier Creek. He appears to have been a man of means,
and to have been still living in the county in 1760; as in
that year was born within its limits John Doyle, who was in
all probability a son of Dennis. At the age of eighteen,
John accompanied the march of General George Rogers Clark
into the North West Territory. Returning to Albemarle,
he joined the army, and served to the close of the Revolutionary
War. The year after the surrender at Yorktown, he
was a private in Colonel Crawford's disastrous expedition
against the Ohio Indians, but fortunately got back to the
settlements in safety. In 1786 he went to Kentucky near
Maysville, was a friend of Simon Kenton, and for three years
occupied the post of captain of scouts on the Ohio River.
He was in service with General Harmar in 1790, and under
Scott with General Wayne in 1794. He then settled in what is
now Lewis County, Kentucky, where he discharged the duties
of a magistrate for more than twenty years. But his active
and adventurous life was not yet ended. In 1813 he enlisted
again under General Shelby, and took part in the battle of the
Thames. He survived until May 1847, having nearly completed
his eighty-seventh year, and blest with the vigorous
exercise of his powers to the end. In all his long life he was
seldom sick, and in all his exposure to peril he was never
wounded.
The depreciation in the paper money of the country at the
close of the Revolution, was apparent in the enormous prices
paid for land. One hundred acres in the southern part of the
county, not far from Heard's Mountain, sold for five thousand
pounds, fifty acres on Buck Mountain Creek for four thousand,
and a hundred and eighty-eight acres on Moorman's
River for six thousand. Samuel Dedman sold to James
Lewis ten acres on the Ragged Mountains beyond the University,
for ten thousand pounds, while Samuel Muse sold to
Andrew Monroe, a brother of the President, two hundred and
seven acres at the head of Mechum's River for twenty thousand,
the same tract which two years before, also in war times,
before, with two hundred acres in addition, brought only
thirty-five. At the same time John Curd sold to John Coles
two hundred acres for fifty pounds "hard money," and
Matthew Mills, of Guilford County, North Carolina, sold to
William Leigh five hundred and seventy-five acres, not far
east of the Miller School, for two hundred pounds sterling.
All these sales took place the latter part of 1781. The story
is told by tradition, that George Divers rode from Philadelphia
to Albemarle, and broke down five horses in the ride,
to purchase Farmington with paper money, and that the purchase
had scarcely been consummated when the money became
worthless; but as this transfer did not occur till 1785, the
story may admit of some doubt.
A large part of the business of the County Court immediately
after the Revolution consisted in certifying to bills for
supplies furnished the army and the Barracks prisoners, to
the value of articles taken for public use, and to pensions for
soldiers disabled in the service. The location of the prison
camp in the county proved a great pecuniary benefit to the
inhabitants. From a long distance in the surrounding country
they carried thither, and to the different places where the
officers lodged, quantities of corn, flour, meal, beef, pork and
wood. In the prostration of business, and the consequent
hard times occasioned by a state of hostilities, the demand
for these commodities afforded a convenient market, of which
most other parts of the country were destitute. It is said
that Colonel William Cabell mainly paid for the fine Oak
Hill estate in Nelson with the various kinds of produce furnished
the Barracks, the land having been confiscated because
the former owners were alien enemies. Colonel John Coles
was allowed three hundred pounds for horses taken by Baron
Steuben. Hastings Marks received remuneration for horses
and wagons employed in the service. Joseph Morton was
allowed five pounds, six shillings, and eight pence for his
gun, "taken for the militia in 1781," and Edmund Woody
was recompensed for his, "taken during the late invasion."
Captain John Martin was awarded an allowance for conducting
Frederick, Maryland. The detachments of the army mentioned
as having been supplied in this vicinity, were Baron
Steuben's Command, Colonel Armand's Legion, and Captain
Walker's Company. John Burton and Richard Marshall
were assigned pensions at the rate of forty dollars a year.
For the purpose of establishing proper lines of inheritance,
it was certified that Charles Goolsby, corporal, and James
and John Goolsby, privates, died in the service, Charles
and James having been taken prisoners at Germantown, and
that William Hardin was killed at Ninety Six, and John
Gillaspy, of the Ninth Virginia, at Germantown.
The statute guaranteeing religious freedom having been
enacted, the law which required all marriages to be solemnized
by ministers of the established Church was abolished,
and the courts were authorized to license ministers of all
denominations to perform that ceremony. In accordance
with this provision, William Irvin, Presbyterian, was licensed
to celebrate the rite in 1784, and Matthew Maury, Episcopalian,
and William Woods, Benjamin Burgher and Martin
Dawson, Baptists, the next year. The first Methodist minister
mentioned as receiving such a license, was Athanasius
Thomas, who lived near the present site of Crozet. This
occurred in 1793, and was followed in 1797 by the licensing
of William Calhoun, Presbyterian, and John Gibson, Methodist.
John Shepherd, Methodist, was licensed in 1798.
The migratory spirit which characterized the early settlers,
was rapidly developed at this period. Removals to other
parts of the country had begun some years before the Revolution.
The direction taken at first was towards the South.
A numerous body of emigrants from Albemarle settled in
North Carolina. After the war many emigrated to Georgia,
but a far greater number hastened to fix their abodes on the
fertile lands of the West, especially the blue grass region of
Kentucky. For a time the practice was prevalent on the part
of those expecting to change their domicile, of applying to
the County Court for a formal recommendation of character,
and certificates were given, declaring them to be honest men
to the people of Georgia, were James Marks, one of the
magistrates, Abraham Eades, William Sandridge, Christopher
Clark, Bennett Henderson, and William and Samuel
Sorrow. James Marks was not long after followed by his
brother, Colonel John Marks, who removed during his incumbency
in the office of Sheriff. An act of the Legislature
was passed in November 1788, which recited that no sale of
lands in Albemarle County delinquent for taxes for the years
1786 and 1787, was legally possible, because of John Marks,
Sheriff of said county, removing some time within those
years to Georgia, and which therefore authorized William
Clark, one of his deputies, to make such sales.
The increasing business of the colonies, the desire to
develop their resources, and perhaps the threatening aspect
of their relations with the mother country, led to early efforts
to manufacture iron in this county. Three men from Baltimore,
Nathaniel Giles, John Lee Webster, and John Wilkinson,
bought land for this purpose in the latter part of 1768.
Giles and Webster disappear after the first purchase. The
next year Wilkinson was joined by John Old, from Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, and they made further purchases along
the Hardware in the vicinity of North Garden and the Cove.
In 1771 the Albemarle Furnace Company was formed, with a
capital of two thousand pounds, the following gentlemen
being stockholders, James Buchanan to the amount of three
hundred pounds, Dr. William Cabell of two hundred,
Colonel William Cabell of two hundred, Joseph Cabell
of one hundred, Edward Carter of three hundred, Allen
Howard of two hundred, Thomas Jefferson of one hundred,
Nicholas Lewis of one hundred, John Scott of one
hundred, John Walker of one hundred, and Dr. Thomas
Walker of three hundred. Larger areas of mineral land were
purchased on the lower Hardware, and among the Ragged
Mountains. As far as can be ascertained, three furnaces
were built, one about a mile below Carter's Bridge, giving to
a colonial church erected near by the name of the Forge
Church, another where the old Lynchburg Road crosses the
the third on the south fork of Hardware below the Falls, and
south of Garland's Store. The last still remains in a tolerable
state of preservation, though covered with a thick
growth of bushes and small trees. Local traditions yet
linger, that ore was excavated near North Garden and the
Cove during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Jefferson states in
his Notes, that among the iron mines worked in Virginia at
the time of their composition, was "Old's, on the north side
of James River in Albemarle." The enterprise however appears
not to have been successful. Colonel Old soon became a
farmer, instead of an iron-master. A suit instituted in the
County Court under the style of Cabell v. Wilkinson to wind
up the affairs of the Company, was determined in 1796, and
Andrew Hart and Samuel Dyer as Commissioners made sale
of all the lands, Nicholas Cabell becoming the purchaser.
Of all the mines opened by Wilkinson and Old, the only one
now remaining is that known as the Betsy Martin Mine in
Cook's Mountain, near North Garden; and though its ore
seems rich and plentiful, it has not been worked for a number
of years, because of some foreign ingredient which impairs
its utility.
In 1789, and the years succeeding, an eager ambition was
manifested to build up towns in the county. At the first
mentioned date an act of the Legislature was passed, vesting
one hundred acres of the land of Bennett Henderson at a place
on the Rivanna called the Shallows, in Wilson C. Nicholas,
Francis Walker, Edward Carter, Charles L. Lewis, William
Clark, Howell Lewis and Edward Moore, to be laid out as a
town, and sold in half acre lots, and to be called Milton.
More than twenty lots were sold in the next ten years. The
first disposed of was bought by Christian Wertenbaker, and
among others who became lot holders were Joel Shiflett,
Edward Butler, Richard Price, James and John Key, William
Clark, Jacob Oglesby, George Bruce and Joseph J. Monroe.
The village was soon in a thriving state, rapidly growing,
and transacting a prosperous business. Up to the war of 1812
it was the chief commercial centre of the county. Except in
Rivanna, and became the shipping port of perhaps three-fourths
of the county, and of a large section of the Valley.
Some who have but recently been gathered to their fathers,
could remember the long lines of wagons that formerly passed
over Swift Run and Brown's Gaps, and crossed the South West
Mountain at Hammock's (Thurman's) Gap, bringing their
loads of grain, flour and tobacco to the warehouses of the
newly erected town. The brook on the north side of the
river, which at first bore the romantic name of Mountain Falls
Creek, became at this time Camping Branch, from the multitude
of wagoners who camped with their teams along its
banks. Milton was the seat of a public Tobacco Warehouse,
called Henderson's, long after the Henderson family had
removed to Kentucky, and regularly equipped with a corps
of inspectors; for many years William D. Fitch, Jacob
Oglesby, John Fagg and Richard Gambell discharged the
functions pertaining to that office. A large merchant mill
was also erected by the Hendersons. A number of firms
conducted the trade of the place, and in some cases laid the
foundation of large fortunes; among these were Fleming and
McClanahan, Henderson and Conard, Peyton and Price,
Divers, Rives & Co., Brown, Rives & Co., Martin Dawson,
William and Julius Clarkson, David Higginbotham & Co.
Its business gradually declined as Charlottesville grew; and
when the town of Scottsville was established, and the site of
the University fixed near the county seat, its prestige was
completely broken, and it quietly subsided into the straggling
hamlet which now crowns the river hill.
About the same time Warren was projected by Wilson C.
Nicholas on James River, at the mouth of Ballenger's Creek.
A few lots were sold and a few houses built. An extensive
mill and distillery were erected and carried on for some years
by Samuel Shelton & Co. A large stone tavern was built by
Jacob Kinney, afterwards of Staunton, rented for some time,
and finally sold to William Brown, under whose management
it made a prominent figure in its day. At this village was
located another Tobacco Warehouse called Nicholas's, which
as Henderson's. The first inspectors were Clifton
Garland, Abraham Eades, Samuel Childress, Robert Moorman
and John T. Holman. Beyond these enterprises Warren
never made much progress.
About the beginning of the century plans were outlined for
four other towns, of which even the memory has perished
from among men. One was North Milton, laid out by
Thomas Mann Randolph on the north side of the Rivanna,
opposite Milton. It was established by the Legislature and
placed in the hands of trustees. Those appointed to that
office were Francis Walker, William D. Meriwether, Edward
Moore, James Barbour, William Bache, George Divers, Hore
Brouse Trist, Edward Garland and David Higginbotham.
It appears the only lot ever sold was Lot numbered Eight,
and that was conveyed to John Watson in 1802. Still another
Tobacco Warehouse was established here, and for a short
period conducted under the same inspection that had the
oversight of the warehouse at Milton. But the place was
over shadowed by its neighbor across the river, and from
all indications, never had more than a name.
The other three attempts were private speculations.
Travellers' Grove, a name suggestive of refreshment and
repose, was planned by Colonel John Everett at the junction
of what are now known as the Lynchburg and the Taylor's
Gap Roads. Four lots formally numbered, but apparently
unmarked by improvements of any kind, were sold to a Paul
Apple, and subsequently underwent two other transfers.
There their history terminates. Not long after Colonel
Everett disposed of the environs of the new town, and removed
to Cabell County. He was succeeded in the possession of
Travellers' Grove by James Kinsolving, Jr., in whose time
the name was changed to Pleasant Grove. In later years
the place was purchased by the Methodist churches of the
adjacent circuit for a parsonage, and though held now by
other hands, it still goes in the neighborhood by that name.
Another of these mushroom creations was New York, or
as it was colloquially spoken of, Little York. It was established
hundred yards north of the present road to Staunton. At
the time it was laid out, the road passed along its main
street. Like Charlottesville it was divided into lots and out
lots. Its first inhabitants were for the most part Germans
from Pennsylvania, Greegors, Spieces, Hallers, Landcrafts.
Its manufactories were a smith's shop, and a tanyard. It
was once the seat of a postoffice, and had a meeting house.
More than that, it had a place on the map of Virginia,
published in 1824. At present no sign of buildings or streets
can be seen, its very ruins have disappeared, and its site is a
fertile field, on which a late proprietor raised the most abundant
crop of corn he has ever gathered.
In some respects the most remarkable of these temporary
municipalities was Morgantown, a place well known, but not by
that name. It was a pretentious city on paper, laid off into at
least two hundred and fifteen lots, and wood lots, as they
were called. It was situated on the main road to Staunton,
about a mile west of Ivy Depot. It was planned by a man
named Gideon Morgan, and sold by lottery at the rate of
fifty dollars a ticket. The special attraction was Lot One
Hundred and Seventy-six, on which were built a large brick
house and stable, and this attraction had such power that
tickets were purchased by persons, not only in Albemarle,
but also from the surrounding counties, Frederick, Shenandoah,
Rockingham, Bath, Augusta, Rockbridge, Fluvanna,
and even places as far distant as Henrico and Lancaster
Counties, and the city of Philadelphia. Among those who
participated in the affair from Augusta were Chesley Kinney,
Jacob Swoope and Judge John Coalter; while from Albemarle
were Peter and John Carr, Isaac Miller, Elijah Garth,
Richard Gambell, Andrew Kean and Thomas Wells. The
fortunate ticket-holder was George Anderson, of Greenbrier,
who sold the place to Benjamin Hardin. In 1821 Anderson's
widow, then living in Montgomery County, conveyed her
interest in the property to Hardin, to whom Morgan also sold
his remaining land. Hardin kept tavern there down to 1827
or 1828, when the place was sold for his debts. As the
Mountain, the owners most probably quietly abandoned
them, and allowed them to lapse into Hardin's possession.
In 1814 however, Micajah Woods and wife conveyed to Hardin
two lots which had been drawn by William Davenport,
and Taylor and Newbold, of Philadelphia, conveyed to him
another in 1821. Altogether one hundred and nine persons
bought tickets, and Morgan derived from his few acres,
nearly twice as much as the county derived from the thousand
acres on which Charlottesville was built. Intoxicated
by his success, he went over to Rockingham and projected
another town not far from Port Republic, which he named
New Haven; but in this attempt he was not so highly
prospered. The last heard of him, he was living in Rowan
County, Tennessee. As will be readily conjectured, the brick
house and stable are still standing, the same that Francis
McGee occupied as a tavern after Hardin, and that was
recently the residence of his daughter, Mrs. John J. Woods.
It may be stated, that another town, called Barterbrook,
spread itself in the books more extensively than it did on the
face of the earth. Its situation was on the west side of the
road to Stony Point, just where it crosses the branch opposite
Liberty Church. It contained a tanyard, and a tavern,
which had the significant appellation of Pinch'em-slyly. A
muster ground was contiguous, where the militia company
of the district assembled to perform their exercises, and
where Joshua Key, a neighboring magistrate, was often
called upon to exert his authority for the preservation of the
peace. According to the records, Lot Fifty-Six in Barterbrook
was conveyed by William Smith to Thomas Travillian's
heirs, by said heirs to Pleasant Sandridge, of Green
County, Kentucky, and by Sandridge to Dr. John Gilmer,
when it became a part of the Edgemont estate. A successor
in some sort, possessing the same name, and consisting
principally of a tanyard conducted by Bernard Carr, was at
a later date located in the western part of the county, near
Mechum's River.
An impression has prevailed with many, that the celebrated
once a visitor in Albemarle, and while here purchased a plantation
for his son. There is no real ground for this impression.
A Benjamin Franklin did live in the county in its
early days, but he came from Orange, and died in 1751.
Franklin, the philosopher, appears never to have been South
but once, and then he visited Charleston, South Carolina, making
the journey most probably by sea. He had but one son
who lived beyond maturity, who in all likelihood was never
South at all, and who was the Tory Governor of New Jersey,
obliged at the close of the Revolution to leave the country,
never to return. But it is true, that a grandson of Franklin
came to Albemarle, bought property, and resided on it for a
short time. His name was William Bache, the son of Franklin's
daughter, and already referred to as one of the trustees
of North Milton. In 1799 he purchased from James Key the
farm which is known as the old Craven place, and which
still bears the name of Franklin. The letters of the Jefferson
household about that period make mention of him and
his family. His son, Benjamin Franklin Bache, a distinguished
surgeon in the navy, is stated in Appleton's Biographical
Cyclopedia to have been born at Monticello,
February 7th, 1801. William Bache was evidently not blest
with prosperity. He incurred many debts, was harrassed
with many lawsuits, gave a deed of trust to Thomas Mann
Randolph to sell Franklin, and left the State. He was a
physician by profession. His place was sold to Richard
Sampson in 1804. Dr. Bache while here also invested in
Charlottesville lots. He bought from David Ross Lots
Forty-Three and Forty-Four, now cut in two by the track
of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad; and in 1837 they were
conveyed to Dr. Hardin Massie by his son B. F. Bache and
his wife, and his daughter Sarah and her husband, who was
Rev. Dr. Charles Hodge, the eminent professor of theology
at Princeton.
John Blair, Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
was also a land owner in Albemarle. The old Michael
Woods place, Mountain Plains, at the mouth of Woods' Gap,
a resident, the latter part of his life, of the Pasture District
of Augusta County. Adams, who died in 1788, made title
by his will to this and other parcels of land he had bought
in the neighborhood, amounting to nearly a thousand acres,
to Judge Blair—"To my honorable friend, John Blair, Esq.,
Chancellor, all the lands he purchased of me in Albemarle
County, known by the name of Mountain Plains, and for
which he has long since honestly paid me." From him the
place has since acquired the name of Blair Park. Judge
Blair devised it to his two daughters, through whom it came
to their two sons, James P. Henderson and John Blair
Peachy. In 1831 Peachy sold his interest to Henderson.
After Henderson's death in 1835, it passed into other hands.
A still more distinguished jurist, Chief Justice Marshall,
owned land in the county. He was once the proprietor of
the old D. S. place. He purchased it from Henry Williams
about 1809, and in 1813 sold it to Micajah Woods.
When the county was organized, settlements had been
making within its present limits for twelve or thirteen years.
Williamsburg being the capital of the colony, and its public
business being transacted there, it was natural that the first
great roads of the country should tend in that direction.
There can be little doubt that one was opened along the river
James; but that leading to the more northerly portions of the
county was the Three Notched Road. It was cleared on
the track it pursues now, following the watershed between the
South Anna and the James, and still bearing the name,
though the tree-marks on account of which it was given,
have not been seen for three or four generations. It passed
the county line where it does now, not far from Boyd's
Tavern, came up the Rivanna on its north side, crossed at
the Secretary's Ford, coincided with what is now the main
street of Charlottesville, crossed Ivy Creek and Mechums'
River where it does still, but at that point diverged from what
is the main road at present. It continued in a straight line
to Woods's (now Jarman's) Gap, instead of striking the
Ridge at Rockfish Gap. At the mouth of Woods's Gap was
years the chief route of travel passed over it to the Valley.
In the diary of Thomas Lewis, dated 1746, in which he
describes his journey to Orange County to join the surveyors
appointed to run the line between the Northern Neck and the
rest of the colony, he states that he crossed from Augusta at
Woods's Gap, and stopped with Michael Woods both on his
departure and return. As late as near the close of the Revolution,
when Rockfish Gap was much used, the prisoners of
the Convention army, as already mentioned, were upon their
removal taken across the Blue Ridge at Woods's Gap. The
Three Notched Road was the dividing line between the parishes
of Fredericksville and St. Anne's.
Another road had the name of Three Notched in early
times. It was the cross road leading from Carter's Bridge
to Red Hill Depot. At present it is only a neighborhood
road; but when the county seat had its location near Scottsville,
being the highway thither for all the northwestern
part of the county, it occupied a place of the highest importance,
and was one of the earliest cleared. As settlements
extended up the James in what is now Nelson and Amherst,
they necessarily sought a way of access to the Court House.
Accordingly one of the first roads established was that
which was known as the River Road, crossing the Rockfish
at Limestone Ford near Howardsville, and at another higher
up, called Jopling's, and proceeding along the brow of the
river hills to the county seat. In 1746 Rev. Robert Rose
petitioned the County Court for the clearing of a road from
Tye River to the Rockfish.
The Buck Mountain Road was made in the primitive
times. This name was applied to the series of roads which
start from Rockfish Gap, bend along the base of the Ridge
and Buck's Elbow to Whitehall, pass over Moorman's River
at Millington to Free Union and Earlysville, cross the north
fork of the Rivanna at the Burnt Mills, and enter the Barboursville
Road at Stony Point. It still follows the route
on which it was originally laid out, except slight deviations
for short distances to avoid some obstacle, or gain an easier
much as it does now. Just after the county was formed, old
David Lewis was appointed Surveyor of the road from his
place south of Birdwood to Lynch's Ferry; at that point
the Rivanna was crossed, instead of as now at the Free
Bridge. This road must have intersected the Three Notched
Road some distance west of Charlottesville, the existence of
which at that time had not entered the thought even of the
most sagacious. The hill at the old Craven place was in all
probability always ascended where it is at present. The
trade of the upper part of the county, and the adjacent sections
of the Valley, being then carried on with Fredericksburg,
both of these roads, and the Three Notched also as far
as the fork at Everettsville, possessed in common the name
of the Fredericksburg Road. In early times the Barboursville
Road was continued down the river on the eastern side,
and probably ran across the hills through the Haxall and
Pantops plantations to the Secretary's Ford.
When the Court House was removed to Charlottesville, it
of course became the centre of the county roads. The Three
Notched Road running along its main street, afforded a
ready approach both from the east and the west. One outlet
towards the north was the Barboursville Road by way of
Lynch's Ferry. Another was by a connection with the
Buck Mountain Road at David Wood's old place, which was
at or near the late Colonel Bowcock's. The road making
this connection left the west end of High Street, ran to the
foot of the hill near Clay Michie's, thence over Meadow Creek
past the place recently occupied by the late Harvey Hull, and
crossed the south fork of the Rivanna at Carr's old Ford on
the Carrsbrook plantation. Shortly after another road was
opened, branching from the last mentioned north of Harvey
Hull's, crossing the south fork at the Broad Mossing Ford,
and continuing thence to the Burnt Mills.
The Barracks Road was laid out during the Revolution,
and has since been a noted way, though much deflected from
its original course. It started from the west end of High
the present road near Kellytown—remains of the stone
fences lining it can still be seen—passed over Preston Heights
not far from the mansions of Colonel Preston and General
Rosser, forking on the summit with the road to Carr's Ford,
continued past Colonel Duke's and the colored settlement of
Georgetown to the ridge east of Ivy Creek, and descended to
the ford of the creek past the old Ivy Creek Church. Near
town a branch of the Barracks road diverged from its main
course on the eastern slope of Preston Heights, and ran into
the Three Notched Road not far from the Junction Depot.
The present location of the Barracks Road immediately west
of Charlottesville, was fixed about the beginning of the Century.
A contention respecting it arose between Isaac Miller
and John Carr, Clerk of the District Court, owners of the
adjoining lands. After several views and reports on the
subject, it was finally determined according to the ideas of
Mr. Miller, whose residence at the time was either at Rose
Valley, or near the house of Mason Gordon.
The course of the road from Brown's Gap was always much
the same as it is at present. It crossed Mechum's River
where it does now, coming down through the rocky defile on
the west, then known as the Narrow Passage. After passing
Ivy Creek, it turned southeast and ran over to the Three
Notched Road—passing in its way the old D. S. Church—
entering it where the old Terrell, or Lewis's, Ordinary stood,
the location of which must have been near the site of Jesse
Lewis's blacksmith shop. This road went for many years
by the name of Rodes's Road. The connecting link between
Rodes's and the Barracks Roads was made about the first of
the century. It wound round Still House Mountain as it
does now, and then turned south and continued down the
ravine in which the outflow of what was called Wade's
Spring was carried off. The old Poor House was built
immediately upon this road. Somewhat later Governor
Nicholas petitioned for the opening of a road from the D. S.
Church to his plantation on the Rivanna, the present Carrsbrook;
but it does not appear that anything was ever done.
The road that crosses the river at Rea's Ford was opened
about the close of the last century. The people of the northwest
section of the county petitioned for a more convenient
way to the courthouse. It was decided after several views,
that a new road should start at Fretwell's Store, which was
at or near Free Union, cross at Rea's Ford, fall into the
Barracks Road and continue with it to the top of the ridge
east of Ivy Creek, and there branching off run to Meadow
Creek at the plantation of Bernard Carter, now F. B. Moran's,
uniting at that point with the road from Carr's Ford.
The Richard Woods, or Dick Woods Road, as it was frequently
called, is one of the oldest in the county. It diverged
from the Three Notched just west of the D. S., passed
Richard Woods' place at the mouth of Taylor's Gap to the
little stream called Pounding Branch, crossed Mechum's river
at the Miller School, and continued thence to Rockfish Gap.
The place of Pounding Branch went in early times by the
name of Little D. S. A tanyard was located there, which at
first was named Simpson's, and afterwards Grayson's.
Near that point the road turned off, described in old deeds as
the road to Amherst C. H., the same that stills exists, running
through Batesville, and passing the Nelson line at what
was formerly known as Harlow's Tavern on Lynch's Creek.
Tradition relates that Richard Woods, in laying out the road
called by his name, followed a well marked buffalo trail, and
the fact of its being established by those sagacious engineers
of nature accounts for the gentle grade for which it has been
distinguished. It seems that the road through Israel's Gap
was not made till near the end of the last century. At that
time William Woods, Surveyor Billy, was summoned by the
County Court to show cause why he had not opened a road
from Israel's Gap into the Richard Woods Road.
The outlets from Charlottesville to the south were mainly
the same as now exist. The road by which the people of
Fluvanna south of the Rivanna reached the county seat,
passed through Monticello Gap, then called the Thoroughfare,
crossed Moore's Creek where it does now, and joined
the Three Notched Road at the top of the hill near the junction
for the Three Notched Road then came from the Secretary's
Ford along the ridge now followed by the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad, or over the low grounds of Moore's Creek in
the rear of the Woolen Mills. The road from town to Carter's
Bridge has always pursued the present route. It was formerly
described as passing by a place, well known as the
Colts' Pasture, and the Plum Orchard Branch of Biscuit Run.
The old Lynchburg Road has been in use from the first
settlement of the town. It commenced at the foot of Vinegar
Hill, reached the top of the Ridge beyond the Dry Bridge,
and continued along its crest to the branch at its south end,
then called Haggard's, and afterwards West's Saw Mill Run.
It crossed the north fork of Hardware where it does at present,
the place long known as Old's Forge, turned around the
end of Gay's Mountain past Andrew Hart's Store, and crossing
Jumping Branch and the south fork of Hardware as at
present, united with the present Lynchburg Road at the end
of Persimmon Mountain a short distance north of Covesville.
Near town it went by the name of Haggard's Road, from a
Nathaniel Haggard, who owned the land on its course from
the end of the Ridge to Moore's Creek. In those days the
present Lynchburg Road was a mere farm road bearing the
name of Wheeler's, from a family who lived at the head of
Moore's Creek.
The Secretary's Road has frequent mention in the early
records. It set out from Carter's Mill on the north fork of
Hardware, shortly above its union with the south fork, ran
on the north side of that river to Woodridge, and thence
pursued the watershed between it and the Rivanna to Bremo
on the James. From its lower terminus it was sometimes
called the Bremo, corrupted to Brimmer, Road. Near Woodridge
the Martin King Road branched from it, crossing the
Rivanna at Union Mills, and thence proceeding to Louisa.
The road which passes over the Green Mountain west of
Porter's Precinct was established at an early date. For
many years it was known as the Irish Road, as far as can
be ascertained from a man name James Ireland, who was a
patentee of land in that neighborhood.
The first turnpike in the county was built in 1806. It
crossed the Blue Ridge at Brown's Gap, descended Brown's
Cove, and joined the Three Notched Road at Mechum's
Depot. It was made and owned by William Jarman and
Brightberry Brown. It received a formal acceptance by
inspectors appointed by the County Court, though the tolls
were taken by the owners. In 1819 Jarman's share was sold
by James Jarman to Ira Harris; and in 1867 the title as
individual property was relinquished, and it lapsed into an
ordinary road of the county. It was known as Brown's
Turnpike.
About 1830, a few years before and after, a number of
turnpikes were undertaken. The first was the Staunton and
James River, having a charter of incorporation, and extending
from the place first named to Scottsville. It crossed the
Ridge at Rockfish Gap, and ran through Batesville and
Israel's Gap, following for the most part the course of old
roads. As far back as 1790 a lottery was authorized by the
Legislature, to be managed by Francis Walker, William
Clark, Nicholas Lewis, John Breckinridge, George Divers,
William D. Meriwether, Charles Irving and Isaac Davis, to
raise not exceeding four hundred pounds for the purpose of
cutting a road from Rockfish Gap to Nicholas's and Scott's
Landings; what was accomplished in pursuance of this act
is not known. The Staunton and James River Turnpike
was for a number of years the route of a heavy transportation,
passing from the Valley to connect with the James
River and Kanawha Canal. Later, when plank roads became
the fashion of the day, it was converted into a Plank
Road Company. Under its auspices some alterations were
made in the grades, particularly avoiding the hills between
Kidd's Mill and North Garden, and between Hart's and
Garland's Stores, and an inconsiderable portion near
Hughes's Shop was covered with plank; but the coming of
the railroads, and the temporary nature of the construction,
destroyed the public interest in its maintenance. The building
and support of good roads over which the produce of the
farm is to be hauled, and rapid and comfortable transit to
The Staunton and James River Turnpike was abandoned in
1867, and taken back by the county as a common road.
The next was the Blue Ridge and Rivanna River Turnpike,
which ran from Meriwether's Bridge on the Rivanna to
the Turnpike last mentioned at Brooksville. Its construction
occasioned the laying out of the straight road from the
Woolen Mills to the east end of Market Street. Not many
years before, Mrs. Mary Lewis, of the Farm, petitioned for a
more convenient approach from her residence to Charlottesville,
as previously her only way lay directly south to the
Three Notched Road. Opie Norris was the Secretary and
Treasurer of this Turnpike, and advertised for bids for
its construction. Its route west of town mainly coincided
with the Three Notched Road to Mechum's River,
and generally with the old road from that point to its
termination. Toll gates were erected and for some years its
business was regularly transacted. The first gate west of
town was immediately opposite the large oak tree on Jesse
Lewis's place, under which General Washington is said once
to have lunched, and which was blown down by a violent
storm in September 1896; its keeper was Patrick Quinn. In
1857 the road was purchased by the county for fifteen hundred
dollars, John Wood, Jr. being appointed to receive the
purchase money for distribution among the stockholders.
When this Turnpike was first projected, an urgent petition
was presented to the Legislature for the establishment of a
similar one from Meriwether's Bridge to Boyd's Tavern, but
nothing further was ever effected.
About the same time the present Lynchburg Road was
opened. The Legislature passed an act, granting permission
to the counties of Amherst, Nelson and Albemarle, to
co-operate in the construction of a road from Lynchburg to
Charlottesville, each county to make the road within its own
bounds. Amherst declined to engage in the work, but at the
request of the Albemarle Court reconsidered its action, and
decided to join forces with the other counties. John Pryor
surveyed the route, and William Garland made the roadbed
existing, but the line was then first run by way of the old Suddarth
Mill, and the Cross Roads, and on the old Wheeler
Road down Moore's Creek, instead of the east side of Dudley's
Mountain.
The Harrisonburg and Charlottesville Turnpike was laid
out shortly after. Col. T. J. Randolph, Alexander Garrett
and Achilles Broadhead, Surveyor of the county, were appointed
to determine its course, Dr. Gilly M. Lewis recording
his protest against its construction. It crossed the Blue Ridge
at Swift Run Gap, entered the county at Nortonsville, fell
into the Buck Mountain Road west of Earlysville, ran from
Colonel Bowcock's to Rio Mills, ascended the hill south of the
river by the present easy grade, and continued by way of
Rio Station and Cochran's Mill to town.
Many efforts were put forth about the same time to build
a turnpike from Scottsville to Rock Spring in Nelson, and
thence to the head waters of Rockfish River; but the project
was never consummated.
The first bridges, built within the present county, were
undoubtedly those over the main Hardware at Carter's
Bridge, and over its north fork, just above its junction with
the south fork. That river was the largest stream between
the old Court House and the greater part of the northern section
of the county; and the north fork, besides being crossed
by one of the great highways to the county seat, was passed
by many to reach Carter's Mill, one of the first erected in the
newly-settled country. Owing to the loss of the records, no
account exists of the original building of these bridges; but
when rebuilt towards the close of the last century, it is
recited that there had been one—and in all likelihood more
than one—before, at each of those places. Both have since
been often renewed, not so much because of use and decay,
as because of the freshets, which from time to time have
swept down from the mountains with terrible violence.
A great flood in James River and its branches occurred in
1771, so remarkable for its enormous and wide-spread
destruction as to become the special occasion of action by the
made for a writ of ad quod damnum in order to erect his mill
at Shadwell in 1795, he states that the former one had been
carried off by the flood of 1771. It is presumable the Hardware
bridges met the same fate. Certainly Carter's Bridge
was rebuilt in the years 1795, 1800, 1812, 1859, and 1876.
Inasmuch as these improvements are one of the chief signs
of civilization, and are so indispensable to the convenience
and prosperity of communities, experience teaches that it is
true economy to build them substantially, and put them
beyond the reach of all contingencies, in the first instance.
In such cases it is better to spend more once, than less often.
The first bridge over Moore's Creek was erected in 1798,
and it would seem its location was on the old Lynchburg
Road. In 1801 another was built over the same stream,
apparently on the Monticello Road. As far as appears, there
was no structure of the kind near Meriwether's Mill, now
Hartman's, till 1848.
The same Legislature which established the town of Charlottesville,
passed an act authorizing any person to erect a
bridge over the Rivanna near that town, and as a remuneration
allowing him to take tolls, the reason assigned being
that the river was often rendered impassable by freshets; but
no one availed himself of the permission. For many years
the passage of the stream was made either at the Secretary's
Ford, or near the Free Bridge by what was known according
to the amount of water as Moore's Ford, or Lewis's Ferry.
It was not until 1801 that the County Court took the matter
in hand. They then passed an order that George Divers,
Thomas M. Randolph, John Watson, Nimrod Bramham,
Joshua Key and Achilles Douglass should let the erection of
a bridge at the latter point, the cost not to exceed two thousand
dollars. Against this action Thomas Garth entered his
protest. Since that time it has been rebuilt in 1831, 1846,
1865 and 1870. It stood safe in the flood of 1877, but the
causeway on the western side with its stone retaining walls
was washed away, and the wooden approach on trestles which
still remains, was then constructed.
A bridge was built at the Woolen Mills in 1825 by William
H. Meriwether. Being on the line of the Three Notched
Road, the main thoroughfare through the county, it was at
once a great convenience and a desirable means of safety.
Some four or five years before in the month of May, a wagon
and six horses belonging to a Mr. Collins, of Augusta
County, in attempting to cross the river at the Secretary's
Ford on their return from Richmond, were swept down and
lost, the driver making his escape with the greatest difficulty.
It was most likely in consequence of this disaster, and the
constant threatening of others, that Col. T. J. Randolph soon
after sought the establishment of a ferry at that point.
Meriwether's Bridge obviated such perils, and proved a signal
benefit to the community for something like twenty years.
In 1843 the County Court was compelled to make some provision
by reason of the Free Bridge having been destroyed,
and deliberated whether to rebuild, or purchase the Meriwether
Bridge. They adopted the former alternative. In the
course of a year or two Meriwether sold his bridge to Thomas
Farish, and shortly after it was swept away by a flood.
The bridge over the south fork of the Rivanna near Rio
Mills was first erected in 1836. Those Mills had a few years
before been built by William H. Meriwether, and in 1833 the
Harrisonburg Turnpike had been located to cross the river at
that place. These were beyond question the constraining
reasons for the erection of the bridge. Previously the stream
had been passed from time immemorial at two fords near by,
one called Carr's Ford, and the other the Island Ford. Rio
Bridge has been built twice since, in 1860 and 1865. The
latter year G. F. Thompson and M. S. Gleason obtained
the contract for replacing it for nineteen hundred dollars, and
the Free Bridge also for twenty-six hundred and sixty.
The first bridge across the Rockfish at Howardsville seems
to have been erected in 1839. Prior to that time the river had
been crossed at the neighboring fords.
| CHAPTER III. Albemarle County in Virginia | |