USA > Virginia > Albemarle County > Albemarle County > 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 > Part 9
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operation from the beginning. In 1828 the faculty by their formal action invited Rev. F. W. Hatch and Rev. F. Bow- man, the only resident ministers in the town, to preach alternately every Sunday at the University. In 1830 a Tem- perance Society, holding regular sessions, was formed among the students. Its first officers were J. W. C. Watson, Presi- dent, Thomas H. Hamner, first Vice President, Socrates Maupin, second Vice President, and Samuel Scott, Secretary, and a hall was erected for its special use in 1856. About 1830 a chaplain was chosen by the faculty to officiate regu - larly in the institution, and for more than sixty years this office was statedly filled, and supported by the voluntary contributions of the professors and students ; and in 1854 a comfortable house was built on the University grounds as the chaplain's residence. During the period when the scenes of greatest disorder occurred, a weekly prayer meeting was maintained among the students by the energetic zeal of such men as Dr. Frank Sampson and Rev. Dennis Dudley, then prosecuting their academic studies ; and later a Young Men's Christian Association was formed within its walls, which was the first organized body of the kind in the country.
In those early days the students of the University wore a uniform. It consisted of a suit of grayish cloth, called Ox- ford Mixed, specially imported from year to year by John Cochran, the coat braided on the collar, and the pantaloons striped at the sides. This badge of distinction gave rise to an extensive industry in Charlottesville. From a hundred to a hundred and twenty journeyman tailors were engaged in its manufacture, and the firm of Marshall & Bailey, Shoemakers, employed from thirty five to forty hands in their business.
The Public Hall annexed to the Rotunda, and destroyed by the fire of 1895, was commenced in 1851, and in 1859 Daw- son's Row was erected. These buildings were constructed with the proceeds of a farm devised by the will of Martin Dawson, a citizen of the county, who died in 1835. By the sale of this farm, the sum of fourteen thousand dollars was realized. The Chemical Laboratory was erected in 1870, .
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the Brooks Museum in 1875, and the buildings of the Mc- Cormick Observatory in 1881. In 1859 a parcel of land be- longing to Mrs. Sophia Johnson, containing several springs, and lying in a ravine north of Observatory Mountain, together with the right of way for pipes, was condemned for the use of the University. A reservoir was formed in the ravine to furnish the institution with a supply of water.
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CHAPTER V.
The only reference to the war of 1812 in the records occurs in 1866, where an enumeration of the family of James Michie, Jr., was presented to the Court. It was there stated, that in that contest that gentleman was a corporal in the company of Captain Estes, of the Virginia militia, and that a land war- rant for one hundred and sixty acres was issued to his descendants on that account. It is ascertained upon inquiry that a cavalry company from the county commanded by Colonel Samuel Carr, and of which Dr. Frank Carr was Surgeon, and an infantry company of which Achilles Broad - head was Captain, were also called into service. From the same source it is learned that William Wertenbaker was a private in Captain Estes's company, and Henry Turner, the father of the venerable William H. Turner, served in the cavalry. To what point these troops were marched is not known; but as the enemy never landed on the soil of the State, no occasion happened for their employment in action. In a letter dated September 1814, and written by William Wirt, who commanded an artillery company in camp on York River, he says, "Frank Gilmer, Jefferson Randolph, the Carrs and others, have got tired waiting for the British, and gone home."
Captain Estes above mentioned was Triplett T. Estes, who for many years kept the Stone Tavern on the square on which Lipscomb's livery stable stands. In the appointment of Processioners in 1811, he is designated as Captain of the militia company in the district immediately south of Char - lottesville, and to which the inhabitants of the town belonged. He was unfortunate in his business affairs. He purchased the Stone Tavern with its surrounding square, but was un- able to make the payments. At one time he also owned the farm on Biscuit Run which Martin Dawson afterwards devised to the University; but that together with all his property
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was sold under deeds of trust. About 1819 he removed from Charlottesville to Fredericksburg, and in 1832 was living in Dinwiddie County, probably in Petersburg.
In 1816 the County Court received a communication from the State authorities, requesting a survey of the County to be made in order to the preparation of an accurate map of the State. In compliance with this request they appointed Dabney Minor, Dr. Frank Carr and Dr. Charles Brown to arrange for the survey; and in answer to their overtures William H. Meriwether proposed to undertake the work. It is supposed he carried it into effect; but no details of the time or manner of its accomplishment have been found. The results of this and other similar surveys throughout the State, were committed to John Wood, an eminent engineer of the day. He however died in 1822, before the completion of his task. The fruits of his labors, with all the materials which had been collected, were then entrusted to Herman Boye. By the contract entered into with him, the map was to have been finished on the first of April 1824, and in all likelihood it was published during the course of that year. A well preserved copy formerly hung in the University Library in the Rotunda, but it no doubt perished in the fire of 1895. Two or three other copies in private hands, much defaced by time and want of care, have been met with in the county.
The Legislature passed an act in January 1818, establish- ing the town of Scottsville on James River. This point had been well known from the beginning of the county. In its proximity the first courthouse had been located, and for seventeen years was the centre of public business for all the surrounding country. It can hardly be questioned that the people of the neighborhood looked upon it as a heavy blow, when the seat of justice was removed, and they were obliged to repair to Charlottesville in discharge of their public functions.
It continued nevertheless to be a place of considerable notoriety. As Scott's Ferry, it was a point of chief impor -
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tance in crossing the river James, and maintaining the ineans of communication between the inhabitants north and south of that stream; and as Scott's Landing, it was a station of some consequence in the business of its navigation. When the Tobacco Warehouses were established at Milton and the mouth of Ballenger's Creek in 1792, liberty was also given for the erection of one on John Scott's land at Scott's Ferry, but restricted by the conditions, that the proprietor should construct an edifice of brick or stone, with roof of slate or tile, and with gates of iron, and that until the County Court entered upon their records the fact of such construction, no tobacco should be received, and no inspectors appointed. As no fact of the kind was made a matter of record, it would appear the proprietor regarded the conditions too burdensome to fulfil.
The desire for the founding of a town at this place was un- doubtedly stimulated by the progress of the James River im- provement, and the further extension of the canal. An abortive attempt seems to have been made in 1816 by private efforts of the Coles family, who sold a number of lots with that end in view. Two years later the sanction of the Legisla - ture was obtained for the project. Fifteen acres of land be - longing to John Scott were vested in Samuel Dyer, Sr., Samuel Dyer, Jr., Christopher Hudson, Tucker Coles and John Coles as Trustees, to be laid out in half acre lots, to be conveyed to purchasers, and to be called the town of Scottsville. Thirty- three lots and four outlots were sold the same year for upwards of thirteen thousand dollars. About 1830 an addi - tion was made on its western boundary by Peyton Harrison, who had since its origin purchased the Belle Grove planta - tion, which lay just above the town, and on which the old courthouse formerly stood.
In 1824 the Staunton and James River Turnpike was com - menced, and Scottsville was its river terminus. Because of its fine shipping facilities, it was not long before great num- bers of huge, old-fashioned wagons thronged its streets, large consignments of produce from the west, and of merchan- dise from the east, filled its warehouses, and it became the
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emporium of a busy commerce, and rapidly rose to great prosperity. A tobacco warehouse was now successfully established. and its first inspectors were James B. Holman, James Thomas, Fleming Moon and Richard Omohundro. It enjoyed the brightness of these palmy days until about 1850, when its flourishing trade was greatly diminished by the advent of the railroads. It continued however to possess the benefits of the canal, and when that was relinquished, those of the railway which succeeded in its stead.
No newspaper was published in Albemarle during the first seventy-five years of its existence, nor until the fifty-seventh year after the establishment of Charlottesville. People de- pended on Richmond and Washington for information of events transpiring in the world, and as in those days the mail was received but once a week, it is probable but few dailies were taken. At the close of the last century the Courts di- rected their orders to be published in the Virginia Gazette in Richmond, and after the beginning of the present century, sometimes in a paper of Staunton, and sometimes in one of Lynchburg.
But in a county where so much of intellectual cultivation existed, where Charlottesville Academy had merged into Central College, and Central College was merging into the University of Virginia, it was high time that a step so in- dicative of mental and literary activity should be taken. The first paper issued in its bounds was the Central Gazette, its first number appearing on the twenty-ninth of January, 1820. Its proprietors were Clement P. and John H. Mckennie It became the medium of advertisements for this and the contiguous counties. Some original communications were contributed, but the main part of its literary matter consisted of extracts from other papers, setting forth the political events of the day, and the news from foreign countries. After a time Thomas. W. Gilmer was associated with its editorial staff. It is not certainly known how long its publication continued, but it probably ceased about 1827 or 1828. A number of its volumes bound, and running perhaps through its whole course, were deposited in the University Library,
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but all except the first were unfortunately consumed in the fire of 1895.
The Virginia Advocate was the next journal that appeared. It began simultaneously with the cessation of the Gazette. Its first editors were Thomas W. Gilmer and John A. G. Davis. Nicholas P Trist subsequently took part in its management. It then passed into the hands of Dr. Frank Carr, and was sold by him in 1830 to E. W. Reinhart. After an interval of some years it was under the control of William W. Tomp- kins and Alexander Moseley, the latter of whom afterwards became the distinguished editor of the Richmond Whig. Later it was conducted by Robert C. Noel, William J. Shel - ton and James C. Halsall, and still later it was edited succes- sively by John L. Cochran and James C. Southall.
In the meantime, about 1829 or 1830, James Alexander came to Charlottesville from Massachusetts through the agency of Colonel T. J. Randolph, to undertake the printing of Mr. Jefferson's correspondence. When that work was completed, Mr. Alexander commenced in 1836 the publica - tion of the Jeffersonian Republican, avowedly as a Demo - cratic organ. Some years before the opposition to General Jackson had assumed positive form, and between the Whig and Democratic parties lines of demarcation had been dis- tinctly drawn. The Advocate had taken sides with the for- mer, and to further the interests of the latter the Jeffersonian was set on foot. Mr. Alexander was the ostensible editor as well as publisher, though he was constantly supplied with articles written by such active members of the party as Col- onel Randolph, Frank Ruffin, Shelton F. Leake and others. These two papers ran side by side until both were suspended by the disorganizing influences of the civil war. During their continuance a periodical of some sort, exhibiting the title of The Idea, was started by Thomas W. Michie, but apparently it proved ephemeral in its duration. A few months before the war began, a new journal appeared under the name of the Charlottesville Review, but owing to the disas- trous pressure of the times it survived but a short season. A religious paper, the Christian Intelligencer, was published for a time in Charlottesville by Rev. James Goss.
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All papers had discontinued their issues by May 1862. While the period of suspension lasted, orders of Court were directed to be published in Lynchburg or Staunton. In Oc- tober 1864 James C. Southall commenced the publication of the Chronicle, and in 1868 disposed of it to Bennett Taylor and John W. Foster. They were succeeded by Littleton Waddell, and he, by H. B. Michie. Some years after the war the Jeffersonian Republican was recommenced by R. P. Valentine, with A. R. Blakey as editor. It was afterwards transferred to James Blakey, who conducted it several years. The present paper of the county, the Progress, was launched as a Daily in 1890 by J. H. Lindsay, and it was not long before it absorbed both of the other papers. The Chronicle was published as a Tri-Weekly, and all the other journals mentioned except the Progress as Weeklies.
Besides the Correspondence of Mr. Jefferson which has been mentioned, a Gazetteer of Virginia was published in Charlottesville in 1835 by Joseph Martin. It was an octavo of more than six hundred pages. It contained a collection of statistics, valuable at the time, a description of each county, with an enumeration of its post offices, a history of Virginia, written expressly for the work, and a map of the State as it then was. Quite a corps of collaborators was engaged in its execution. William H. Brockenbrough, a member of the Albemarle bar, and subsequently Judge of the United States District Court of Florida, was editor, Moseley and Tompkins printers, Joseph Martin binder, and E. C. Morse general aid.
In early periods the people of the county seem to have been animated by a stronger public spirit than prevails at present. This was manifested in their frequent co-operative action for attaining important results. For sometime prior to 1820 the Albemarle Agricultural Society was accomplish- ing a successful work, its members publishing accounts of their individual experiments, maintaining a correspondence with kindred bodies, and holding annual exhibitions of their products, with the award of liberal premiums to competitors who excelled. An idea of the powerful influence it exerted
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for good, may be formed from the list of those who took a leading part in its affairs. James Madison was its Presi- dent Its first Vice President was Thomas Mann Ran- dolph, its second, John H. Cocke, its Treasurer, Nimrod Bramham, and its Secretaries, Peter Minor and Dr. Frank Carr. Its Committee of Correspondence were T. M. Randolph, James Barbour, Dr. Thomas G. Watkins, Wil- liam D. Meriwether and Peter Minor, and its Committee of Accounts, Dabney Minor, Dr. Thomas E. Randolph and John J. Winn. Among the excellent disquisitions published on these subjects, Colonel Randolph described his experiments with clover, John H. Craven how he reduced the great gullies with which Pen Park was furrowed when it came into his possession, and Peter Minor the results of different methods of corn-planting on high lands. At one of its yearly exhibitions, the first premium for the best tilled farm in the county was assigned to John Rogers, and the second to John H. Craven. On these occasions George W. Kinsolving and William Woods, Surveyor, displayed their fine blooded horses, the latter supplying his stables with purchases from the choice stock of John Randolph of Roa- noke. Beyond question the agency of this Society gave a powerful stimulus to the improvement of the live stock of the county, as well as to the better cultivation of its soil.
In those days a Colonization Society existed, of which Jonathan B. Carr was Treasurer, and which held an annual meeting on the first Monday of October. In furtherance of its objects Rev. Francis Bowman preached a sermon on the Fourth of July 1824, and in May 1830 the ladies of Char- lottesville and the county held a fair at Fitch's Tavern.
The Albemarle Bible Society was organized in August 1828. Nathaniel Burnley acted as Secretary when they first convened, and the first Monday of August was appointed as the time of the annual meeting. A full staff of officers was elected for a thorough canvass of the county, and for the energetic prosecution of its work. Hugh Nelson was Presi- dent, John Kelly, Vice President, Rev. F. W. Hatch, Secre- tary, Rev. F. Bowman, Treasurer, and Dr. Hardin Massie,
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William Woods, Surveyor, Nimrod Bramham, G. W. Kin- solving and John Rogers, Managers. Agents were likewise chosen to awaken interest in the different battalion districts. George Wood and Allen Dickerson served in the first bat - talion of the Eighty-Eighth Regiment, John J. Bowcock and M. Fretwell in the second, Dr. Harris and John B. Hart in the first battalion of the Forty-Seventh, John L. Thomas and Matthew Pilson in the second, and Dr. H. Massie in the towr of Charlottesville. It is a matter of interest to know who at that time were leaders in so praiseworthy a cause.
A Debating Society was maintained in Charlottesville, which, besides kindling the talents and directing the studies of the young men of the town, quickened the patriotism of the community by occasionally celebrating the Fourth of July. On that day 1830, they assembled in the Presbyterian Church, where Dr. Frank Carr read the Declaration of Independence, and Nathaniel Wolfe, a member of the bar, delivered an oration.
In 1830 the Albemarle Temperance Society was formed with Dr. Frank Carr as President, Dr. H. Massie, Vice Presi- dent, J. W. C. Watson, Secretary, and Edward S. Watson, Treasurer.
Nor should it be omitted, that as a means of promoting the mental life and culture of the community, a meeting was held in 1823 for the establishment of a public library. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution, and another consisting of Mr. Jefferson, Rev. F. Bowman and John Ormond, a member of the bar, to prepare a catalogue of appropriate books for purchase. The next year the Albe- marle Library Association was organized. V. W. Southall was its President, John J. Winn its Vice President, Ira Garrett its Secretary, William Wertenbaker its Treasurer, and William H. Meriwether its Librarian. Its doors were to open Mondays and Fridays, from eleven A. M. to three P. M. Like many other beneficent projects, it has passed away among the things that were, and its books scattered to the four winds. Occasionally an odd volume may still be met with, marked with the label of the Association.
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The visit of Lafayette to this country occurred in 1824, and Albemarle was particularly honored with his presence. In November of that year he came from Richmond to exchange greetings with Mr. Jefferson. Special preparations were made for his reception. At the Fluvanna line a troop of cavalry, named in his honor the Lafayette Guards, met him on Thursday the eleventh, to escort him to Monticello. The officers of this detachment were John H. Craven, Captain, George W. Kinsolving, First Lieutenant, Richard Watson, Second Lieutenant, and Thomas W. Gilmer, Cornet. On its arrival at that point, the carriage containing Lafayette was halted, and he was addressed by William C. Rives, who in the course of his remarks mentioned, that he was held in lively and affectionate remembrance by the people of Virginia, and that not far from where they stood there remained a memento of him and his gallant services in their behalf dur- ing the Revolution, as the road by which he led his army to protect the old Court House from Cornwallis's approach, still bore the name of the Marquis's Road.
When the cortege arrived at Monticello, the troop was drawn up, on each side of the southern lawn. Lafayette aliglited a short distance from the portico, from which Jef- ferson descended with tottering steps to meet him as he approached. As they drew near, the one exclaimed with choking emotion, "Lafayette," and the other with the same tender pathos, "Jefferson," and for a season they were locked in each other's embrace, while tears freely coursed down their cheeks. So affecting was the scene that there was scarcely a dry eye among all the spectators. At length the venerable friends turned and entered the house. Before they were seated however, word was brought to Lafayette that a company of youth, styled the Junior Volunteers, who had been a part of his escort from the Fluvanna line, wished to offer him the tribute of their respect. He immediately returned to the portico, where he was saluted in an admirable and manly address by Egbert R. Watson, then fourteen years of age. When the conclusion was reached, he ap- proached the youthful orator, and taking both his hands in
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his own, assured him and his companions of his hearty appreciation of their reception.
On Friday the twelfth, he was conveyed to the Central Hotel in Charlottesville, where he was addressed by Thomas J. Randolph. A public reception followed. At noon a procession was formed and marched to the University, where on the portico of the Rotunda he was again addressed by William F. Gordon. In the Rotunda, then in an unfinished condition, a large number of guests sat down with him to dinner. According to the programme, Governor Randolph was to have presided on the occasion; but being necessarily absent, his place was happily filled by V. W. Southall. At six o'clock Lafayette returned to Monticello, accompanied by Jefferson and Madison, with whom he quietly spent the interval until Monday the fifteenth. On that day he was again taken in charge by the Guards, and conducted as far as Gordonsville on his way to Montpelier.
At this period, and for some time previous, many persons visited the county to obtain the sight of Monticello, and its distinguished occupant. They came from all parts of the country, and even from foreign lands. Mr. Jefferson was obliged largely to pay the penalty of greatness. Some of his visitors were animated by a just admiration of his brilliant gifts and services, others moved by a curiosity both low and annoying. An Englishman, who spent some time in the country toward the end of 1824, left on record his great delight with the aged statesman, with Charlottesville, and with the whole state of Virginia ; and as an instance of the unbounded hospitality he had experienced, he states, that the evening before his departure from Charlottesville he was obliged to sup with three different families. Another stranger, in a letter dated March 1825, expresses himself in the following enthusiastic terms over the beauty of Albemarle scenery :
"The site of the village [Charlottesville] is upon the sumn- mit of a gentle elevation which begins to rise from the foot of Monticello. It contains a courthouse, a half finished church, and three or four taverns, which constitute the whole
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of its public buildings. It covers a limited portion of ground, and from its appearance, though I cannot positively affirm the fact, may number six hundred inhabitants. When a traveller arrives in the village, he is struck with the sublime, beautiful and picturesque scenery which everywhere sur - rounds him, and he pauses to contemplate with eager curi - osity the magnificent prospect which meets his view. He forgets there is such a place as Charlottesville in existence, when he casts his eye upon mountain after mountain rising in regular succession, and whose lofty summits mingle with the sky till they are lost in the distance. At one time the tops of these lofty kills are enveloped in clouds, and at others when the glorious King of day sinks behind them, and tinges with golden rays their elevated heads, it calls forth an unfeigned burst of admiration. The pure, unadulterated air which descends into this village, surrounded with these mountains, gives infallible token that the best of all earthly blessings, health, dwells among them."
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