University of Virginia Library

SALTVILLE VALLEY.

The location of the Saltworks in this county was surveyed by John
Buchanan, a deputy surveyor of Augusta county, for Charles Campbell,
on December 12, 1748, and in the plat that was returned with
the survey,[15] the words "Buffalo Lick," are written, and a patent for
the same was procured from the Governor of Virginia in 1753.
Charles Campbell was the father of General William Campbell, of
King's mountain celebrity, and, upon his death, General Campbell
became the owner of this tract of land, but the presence of salt water
upon this property was not discovered until about the time of the
death of General William Campbell, which occurred in 1781.

General William Campbell left two children, Sarah Buchanan
Campbell and Charles Henry Campbell, the latter dying at the
age of five years, and Colonel Arthur Campbell and Colonel William
Christian, upon the death of General Campbell, qualified as
guardians of his children, and they proceeded to improve this
property to a considerabe extent.

When the General Assembly of Virginia voted Charles Henry
Campbell five thousand acres of land in consideration of the distinguished
services of his father, Colonel Arthur Campbell, his guardian,

entered this grant in the name of Charles Henry Campbell on
lands adjoining the Salt Lick tract, and this land passed, upon
the death of Charles Henry Campbell, to his sister, Miss Sarah
Buchanan Campbell, afterwards Mrs. General Francis Preston.

Some years after the death of General Campbell, his widow married
General William Russell, who moved with his family to the Salt
Lick in February, 1788, and built what was afterwards known as
the "Madam Russell" house.

General Russell dug a well on the margin of the flat in front of
his house, obtained salt water, and built a furnace and salt houses;
the furnace was an open shed, and the kettles were the camp kettles
of that day, of a capacity of from eight to ten gallons.

A dispute arose between General Arthur Campbell and General
William Russell, and, in 1789, the court appointed Colonel Thomas
Madison, an uncle of Sarah Buchanan Campbell, her guardian in
the place of Colonels Campbell and Christian. In 1790 Colonel
Thomas Madison removed to the Salt Lick, built a log cabin upon
the location of what was afterwards known as the Preston House,
and, digging a well, began the manufacture of salt, and continued
to manufacture it at this place until the marriage of his ward to
General Francis Preston in 1793.

In the meantime General William Russell had died at the home of
his son, Robert L. Russell, in Culpeper county, on the 14th of January,
1793.

In 1795 General Francis Preston built an addition to the log
cabin of Thomas Madison, and, in 1797, upon his retirement from
the Congress of the United States, moved with his family to the
Salt Lick, and made his home there until the year 1810, when he
removed to Abingdon.

Soon after General Preston located at the Salt Lick, he had
another well dug near that of Colonel Madison, and enlarged the
furnaces and the kettles.

In 1795 William King bought 150 acres to the west of the Preston
tract, and in 1799 erected furnaces and other buildings thereon and
began the manufacture of salt. On the 20th of February, 1801, he
rented the Preston Salines for the period of ten years, for $12,000
per year, and manufactured salt with great success until the date of
his death, which occurred in 1808. From that time until the year

1819, the works were carried on by James King, William Trigg,
Mary King, Charles S. Carson, executor of James King, and Lilburn
L. L. Henderson, executor of William Trigg.

On the 17th of June, 1819, the Saltworks were leased to John
Saunders for five years from August 1, 1819, at an annual rental
of $30,000, but Saunders, during the following years, assigned his
lease to James White, who renewed the lease and continued his
operations until September 2, 1833. The Saltworks were then leased
to Alexander McCall and William King at an annual rental of
$15,972 for the King Saltworks, and $16,000 for the Preston
Salines, during the life of Mrs. William Trigg, and they continued
in possession of the property until 1845, when Thomas L. Preston
took charge of the Preston Saline, and King and McCall and Findlay,
Mitchell & Company took joint possession of the King Saltworks.

In 1846 Thomas L. Preston rented the King estate from the
court at an annual rental of $16,000 for five years, and at the
expiration of his lease, Wyndham Robertson became the lessee
thereof for the period of five years, and was in turn succeeded by
Thomas L. Preston, who, in the year 1858, rented both estates to
Spencer, Ackerman & Company. In 1863, Stuart, Palmer and
Parker purchased the Preston property, and in 1864 a joint stock
company of the two estates was formed under the title of the Holston
Salt and Plaster Company, and this company continued business
until 1893, when the present proprietors of the Mathieson Alkali
Works became the owners of the two estates.

The King Salines, in the year 1819, produced from 90,000 to
100,000 bushels of salt per year, and in 1861-1865 the production
of the Saltworks was many times greater than in the year 1819.
The larger portion of all the salt used in the Southern States during
that time was supplied from the Saltworks, it being a common thing
to see as many as a thousand salt wagons at one time at the Saltworks
during the period mentioned.

Since 1893 the present company have manufactured soda and
other alkalies upon an extensive scale, and employ hundreds of
hands.

In the eighteenth century, and soon after the discovery of salt
water at the Salt Lick, the bones of a mammoth, the king of the
land animals, were dug up by the laborers at the Preston Salines.

They were from three to seven feet below the surface of earth, and
furnished convincing proof that the mammoth was formerly an
inhabitant of this country.