USA > Virginia > Halifax County > Halifax County > Halifax County, Virginia: a handbook prepared under the direction of the Board of supervisors > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Prevailing wind direction, Spring N. W .; Summer S. W; Autumn S. W .; Winter, N. W .; Annual, N. W.
Throughout Halifax County, the rolling contour of the land, together with its elevation and distance from the sea, cause ranges in the monthly and seasonal mean temperatures as well as in the daily range and variability of temperature. Sharp and sudden temperature changes, though not frequent, occur and most often in the autumn and winter.
58
HALIFAX COUNTY
An increase observed in the daily range of temperature seems to be due to a convectional circulation of the air, caused mainly by the physical conditions of the region. It is greatest in the western part of the county.
[U. S. Weather Bureau, Richmond, Va.] E. A. EVANS, Director, Climatological Service.
TAXES.
[Sce Laws for capitation tax.]
A. $1. 15 on the $100, (Red Bank District $1.25.) Apportioned as follows:
a. For State purposes .. $0.35
For County purposes, [schools . 10; other purposes
. 45.]. 55
For District purposes, [schools . 10; Roads . 15.]. . 25
Total $1:15
B. Incomes taxed 1 per cent on amounts over $600.
C. Corporations liable as under A.
TELEPHONE COMPANIES AND LINES.
A. Dan River Telephone Company .-- Operating between the Dan River and the Virginia-North Carolina line. Head office, South Boston.
B. South Boston Telephone Company .-- South Boston .*
C. Virginia-North Carolina Telephone Company .- Operating mainly along the line of the Norfolk and West- ern R. R., the middle region of Halifax County from North to South.
D. Virgilina Telephone Company .- Virgilina.
*The South Boston Company has been absorbed by the Dan River Company.
59
HALIFAX COUNTY
E. West Halifax Telephone Company .- Operating in the West and North of Halifax County. Head office, Ingram.
TOBACCO.
By the census of 1900 tobacco was reported as grown in Virginia by 44,S72 farmers who obtained from 184,334 acres a yield of 122,884,900 pounds. This shows an increase in production of 74,362,245 pounds, or 153.3 per cent in the ten years from 1890 to 1900. The average area for each farm upon which tobacco was grown was 4.1 acres. In the production of tobacco, by the census of 1900, Halifax, Pittsylvania and Mecklenburg counties contributed 34.7 per cent of the total acreage for the State and 30.5 per cent of the total production.
The following table is interesting, giving the per cent of gross income from the farms in Virginia on the total investment in farm property:
Hay and grain, (not fed to live stock) 18.2 per cent. Vegetables. 33.5 "
Fruits.
25.8 "
Live Stock 17.6 “ Dairy Produce .18.8 "
Tobacco 43.2 "
While the capital invested in tobacco lands is relatively not excessive and while allowance must be made for ex- penses, the figure 43.2 is startling.
PART II.
HISTORICAL. $
63
HALIFAX COUNTY
I. 1676-1752.
The River Dan flows through the Land of Eden. That is what Colonel Byrd called this country a hundred and seventy-five years ago. It must be remembered that Pittsylvania and Franklin and Henry were only districts of Halifax in the beginning. Colonel Byrd had gone through this country in 1727, as Virginia Commissioner to run the line between the colony of Virginia and that of North Carolina. As reward for his distinguished services the Council of the Colony of North Carolina presented him with 20,000 acres of land lying just on the border, to the south of what was to be Halifax County twenty-five years later. In 1733 the Colonel came surveying on his own account. He was so greatly pleased with the land, as one of plenty and promise, that he called it Eden.
The red, untutored savage had disappeared from the south side of Virginia before 1733, or if he was found there in that year and later he was harmless. Young Nathaniel Bacon had broken the power of the tribes of Meherrin, Appomattox, and Nottoway in 1676 .* Bacon and his men solved the problem, notwithstanding the gallant, touchy old Sir William Berkeley. After 1676 the Indians were never strong enough in the region south of the James to molest the planter. Such security enabled the pioneer to get farther and farther away from the pleasant tide- water shires. After 1720 the establishment of counties to the west went forward rapidly. When Colonel Byrd pitched his tent on the Dan and the Hyco those were no mean rivers of Brunswick County.
This was Colonel William Byrd of Westover, compan- ion of the mad Lord Peterborough, the witty, sprightly,
*Bacon came as far as the banks of the Staunton. See, Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 307.
6-4
HALIFAX COUNTY
travelled, Colonel Byrd, most cultivated of Virginians. The Colonel took along with him in the expedition of 1733 Major William Mayo,* who had been the Surveyor for Virginia in the Commission of 1727. Major Mayo came also on his own account, for North Carolina had endowed him as well as the Colonel. He was to survey first Colonel Byrd's land and then his own -- a goodly estate of 10,000 acres. The surveying party was made up of Colonel Byrd, Major Mayo, and some ten assistants. The Colonel writes: "The weather now befriending us, we despatcht our little affairs in good time, and marcht in a Body to the Line. After a March of 2 miles we got upon Cane Creek where we saw the same Havock amongst the Old Canes that we had observed in other places. and a whole Forest of Young Ones springing up in their Stead. [No doubt the work of a freshet]. We pursued our Journey over Hills and Dales till we arrived at the second ford of the Dan, which we passed with no other Damage than sopping a little of our Bread and shipping some water at the Tops of our Boots."
They came within sight of a great body of Indians, Catawbas so they thought. Along the Irvin River they found grass as high as a man on horseback. Keeping west the party reached Hatcher's Creek. "Near the Banks of this Creek we found a large Beech Tree with the following Inscription cut upon the Bark of it-'J. H., H. II., B. B. lay here the 24th of May, 1673.' It was not difficult to fill up these initials with the following names, Joseph Hatcher, Henry Hatcher, and Benjamin Bulling- ton, 3 Indian Traders, had lodged near that place 60 years before, in their way to the Sauro Town."
1
"The Mayo River was named for Major Mayo, and the village of Mayo in therefore called after him.
65
HALIFAX COUNTY
Coming back, the party followed the Hyco for some distance, a branch of which they called Jesuit Creek because it misled them. "We eneampt upon Hyco* River pretty high up and had much ado to get our House in order before a heavy Shower descended upon us* * *
* About a mile below the Mouth of Hyco lives Aaron Pinston,4 at a quarter belonging to Thomas Wilsont upon Tewahominy Creek. This man is the highest Inhabitant on the South side of the Dan, and yet reacons himself perfectly safe from danger." And he would be safe, the Colonel adds, if bears and wolvest were as harmless to stock as the Indians.
Some where in this region the Colonel lost a pair of gold buttons. He says: "I paid for violating the Sabbath by losing a pair of gold buttons." This classic party of explorers appears to have forded the Staunton about MeClean's Mill. Colonel Byrd's Land of Eden began at the southwestern corner of the present Halifax County. The bounds of that Eden were: in length 15 miles-3 miles broad at the west end-and 1 inile broad at the Est. The Colonel spelt as he pleased.$
II.
1752-1776
During the nineteen years that followed after the Survey of Eden great progress was made in the settlement of the country west of the Staunton-Aaron Pinston began to
*ilyco must be an Indian name.
"Aaron's Creek doubtless gets its name from Pinston the Pioneer.
İThomas Wilson was a member of the surveying party.
¿Pinston may have had a Wolf Trap south of the Dan, ir those days. ¿See, Westover Manuscripts .- Journey to the Land of Eden, pp. 14 ff. September, 1733.
1
66
HALIFAX COUNTY
have neighbors and the bears and wolves moved fartber west. In 1746 Lunenburg County was set off from Bruns- wick, and six years later the populations along the Dan and the Staunton had increased sufficiently to warrant a division of Lunenburg. Pinston may have lived to see his frontier cabin successively in the counties of Surry, Bruns- wick, Lunenburg, and Halifax, as the genealogical table for the county of Halifax will show :-
-
Isle of Wight (1634. one of the eight orig- inal shires of Vir- ginia).
Surry (1652)
Brunswick (1720) Lunenburg (1746) Halifax (1752)
Halifax was named for the Earl of Halifax, one of the distinguished. family of Montagu, who was First Lord of the Board of Trade about that time and as such interested himself greatly in the welfare of the Colonies. The ear- liest records are not only valuable but are good reading also. They beign -- " At a meeting of the Justices appointed for Halifax County at Hampson Wade's House the XIXth
67
HALIFAX COUNTY
day of May in the XXVth year of the Reign of our Sov- ereign Lord King George the Second, and in the year of our Lord Christ one Thousand seven hundred and fifty- two a Commission of the Peace was produced from the Honorable Robert Dinwiddie, His Majesty's Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia bearing date at Williamsburg the twenty-eighth day of April in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred and fifty-two and directed to William Byrd,* William Wynne, Peter Fontaine, Jun", James Terry, William Irby, Nathaniel Terry, Robert Wade, Hampson Wade, Andrew Wade, Hugh Moore, and Sherwood Walton, Gentlemen."
At this first Meeting the usual oaths were administered. Nathaniel Terry was sworn Sheriff; George Currie, Clerk of the Court; Thomas Nash, Surveyor; and Clement Read (of Lunenburg, later of Charlotte) King's Attorney. John Light, Joseph Faris, and Abel Lee were appointed Con- stables. Nicholas Hayle, Robert Jones, and James Irwin were recommended as Justices. A deed from John Owen to Thomas Stovall was acknowledged, and a license from Lunenburg County was produced by John Boyd to keep at his house a ferry over Dan River. It was prayed of Lunenburg County, through Clement Read, that the bonds for a bridge over Banister River be assigned to Halifax County. Further, it was ordered that William Irby and Andrew Wade take lists of Tithables from the Point of Fork (Dan and Staunton) up to Buffaloe upon Staunton; James Terry to take the lists from the mouth of Buffaloe Creek up Stanton River to the extent of the County (i. e. as far as the Piedmont Country) ; and Hugh Moore from the mouth of Miery Creek up Dan River. Ordered, that the Sheriff forthwith agree with workmen to build a prison twelve feet square at the place appointed
*Son of Colonel William Byrd of the Survey of 1733.
68
HALIFAX COUNTY
for the next Court to be held. Ordered, that the next Court be held at Richard Dudgeon's "where Thomas Wilson now lives."
At the July Court, 1752, "George Currie cameinto Court and proposed to Run a Line from the mouth of Aaron's Creek a dew west course twenty-five miles up and to strike the centre of the County* as near as can beestimated and as the convenience of water will admit of, at his own cost and charge, and that he will also at his farther cost and charge build a Court house, prison, stocks, and pillory as soon as conveniently he can." Sworn as Justices: Richard Eckhols, Thomas Calloway, Richard Brown, William Irby, Merry Webb, Peter Wilson, William Wynne, John Guilligtine, and John Owen.
In 1753, at the March Court, the Honorable Justices fixed important rates. "Pursuant to an Act of Assembly the Court set and rate the following Prices of Liquors, Diet, Lodging, Fodder, Provender, Stablage, and Pasturage at and for which the several ordinary Keepers in this county are to entertain and sell the ensuing year-viz: -
For Good West India Rum pr.
Gallon. £0-10 shillings-0 pence New England Rum pr. Gall 0- 2 -6 French Brandy pr. Quart ... 0- 5 -0 Virginia Peach or Apple Brandy pr. Gallon. 0- 7 -6
*Near Callands in Pittsylvania. Before 1767 the Court House was moved to the east-the name "Court House Branch," near County Line Church, indicates the site. The Pittsylvania line, run in 1767, came so near this Court House that the seat of government was moved about 1769 to Faulkner's Crossing about three miles N. N. E. of Houston. In 1792 the Court House was placed at Banister which became Houston in 1890, with the advent of the Norfolk and Western Railway. There is little in a name, but there is less in some names than in other names.
69
HALIFAX COUNTY
Whiskey pr. Gallon [undecipherable] French Claret pr. Quart .. 0- 1 -0
Portugal or French White
Wine pr. Quart. 0-3 -6
Madeira Wine pr. Quart ... . . 0- 2 -6
English Strong Beer, pr.
Quart Bottle 0- 1 -6
Quart
Virginia Strong Beer pr. [undecipherable]
Diet the Meal for a Break-
fast 0- 0 -8
A Hot Dinner 0- 1 -0
Lodging in Clean Sheets,
for each man 0- 0 -6
Stablage and Fodder for a Horse, 1 Night 0 -- 0 -6
Pasturage for each horse,
24 hours. 0- 0 -6
Indian Corn pr. Gall. 0- 0 -4
We pay a little less today for a gallon of corn than was by law demanded in the year 1753. John Boyd's Ferry charges at this time were, four pence for a man; four pence for a horse; wheel carriages, four pence for each wheel.
At the 1753 March Court a Grand Jury was appointed, "good and lawful men of the county,"whose namesare inter- esting-John Bates, Foreman; John Kerby, Edward Parker, William Lawson, Edmund Floyd, Hance Hen- driek, Robert Wilkins, Robert Moore, Francis Kerby, Peter Wilson, William Armstrong, Daniel Green, Daniel Smith, Richard Dudgeon, John Hanna, David Lawson, Alexander Irvin.
The following May (1753) Court was held at Punch Spring which is called the Court House. This is probably
-
70
HALIFAX COUNTY
Callands, but during these years Court was frequently held at "Hilton's," which is confusing. From 1753 to 1755 several Captains of foot companies were appointed: Thomas Calloway, Thomas Dillard, Andrew Wade, Francis Lawson, Hugh Moore, and Peter Wilson.
In 1763 the Justices present at a Court were: George Watkins, Thomas Green, James Roberts, Robert Wooding, Theophilus Lacy, John Coleman, George Boyd, Matthew Sims, Elijah Hunt. There were present at the March Court, 1774: Nathaniel Terry, Thomas Yuille, Walter Coles, and Isaac Coles.
It is remarkable how persistent names have been in the county, only corroborating the statement so often made that the South is the genuine America-where the English stock is to be found. Observe the names of the Burgesses from the county-1753-1776:
Nov. 1, 1753
John Bates, William Harris.
May 1, 1755
Aug. 5,1755
Samuel Harris, John Bates.
March 0, 1758
Sept. 14, 1758
Jan. 12, 1764
Oct. 30, 1764.
Nathaniel Terry, Edward Booker. Edward Booker,
1765-176S
Edward Booker, Walter Coles.
May, 1769 Nathaniel Terry, John Lewis.
Nov. 1769-1772.
Feb. 10, 1772
Nathaniel Terry, Isaac Coles.
May 5, 1774
Nathaniel Terry, Walter Coles.
June, 1775 .. . Nathaniel Terry, Micajah Watkins.
* * * *
There was a time when all of Halifax belonged to the Established Church. "When Halifax County was divided
Robert Wade, Nathaniel Terry.
1765.
71
HALIFAX COUNTY
from Lunenburg in 1752 it comprehended all that is now Pittsylvania, Henry, Franklin, and Patrick. Antrim Parish was coextensive with the county" .* There were probably no churches or chapels in 1752 within the limits of the county. Several gentlemen were allowed to have services in their own houses, doubtless for the benefit of their neighbors as well as for that of their own families. Pigg River, Franklin County, was a reading station. William Chisholm, a candidate for orders, was given title to Antrim Parish in 1752. but Mr. Chisholm set out for London to be consecrated by his diocesan, the Bishop of London, and nothing more was heard of him. The Rev. Mr. Proctor was allowed 2,000 pounds of tobacco, in 1753, for services by him done and performed for Antrim Parish. The Rev. Mr. Foulis was in the parish until 1759, when he went away and was not heard from thereafter. In 1762, Thomas Thompson, a very old man, served in the parish for a few months. The next spring Alexander Gordon a Scotchman, was inducted. He continued until 1775, when being disappointed with the new order of things he retired and spent his old age near Petersburg.
Wars are commonly thought to be a great part of history. History is made more in peace than in war. The following is a list of old vestrymen of Antrim Parish, from 1752 -- James Terry, Richard Echols, Thomas Dillard, Thomas Calloway. Richard Brown, William Irby, Merry Webb, Peter Wilson, William Wynne, John Guilligtine, John Owen, Nathaniel Terry, George Currie, Samuel Harris, Andrew Wade, James Dillard, Robert Wooding, Archibald Gordon, John Bates, Edward Booker, Hugh Junis, George Watkins, Alexander Gordon, Thomas
*Bishop Meade: Old Churches and Families of Virginia, Vol. II, ch. XLVI.
72
HALIFAX COUNTY
Tunstall, John Donaldson, Evan Ragland, Benjamin Dickson, William Thompson, George Boyd, Moses Terry, William Sims, Walter Coles, Edward Wade, Isaac Coles, John Coleman, William Terry, Michael Roberts, John Ragland, Armistead Washington, Joseph Hobson, George Carrington, Thomas Davenport, John Faulkner, Edmund King, Joseph Sandford, Thomas Theawt, John Ervine, Daniel Wilson, Thomas, Clark, Evan Ragland, Jr., Joseph Haynes, Thomas Lipscomb. John R. Scott, Francis Petty, Daniel Parker, George Camp, William Thomas, John Wattington, Achilles Colquett, Hansom Clark, John A. Fowlkes, Charles Meriwether, Adam Toot, Edward Boyd, Thomas Clark, Beverly Sydnor, Joseph Hewell, Samuel Williams, Littlebury Royster, Benjamin Rogers, Chilton Palmer, John Haynes, Screevor Torian, Robert Crute. Granville Craddock, Edward Carlton, William Fitzgerald, Isham Chasteen, Icare Torian, Isaac Medley, John R. Cocke, William Scott.
Bishop Meade cites, as influential in the revival of the Episcopal Church in Halifax, the Bruces, the Ligons, the Greens, the Wimbishes, the Leighs, the Banks, the Logans, the Borums, the Edmundsons, the Fontaines, the Carring- tons, the Baileys .*
III.
1776-1830
The Rev. Alexander Gordon, Parson of Antrim Parish for thirteen years, a Scotchman, being disappointed with the new order of things in 1775 retired from the Parish.
*An old Episcopal Church at Meadsville was sold some twenty years ago; an old church stood at Catawba, which was moved to Clarkton. When St. John's Church was built at Houston, old St. Mark's Church was sold to the Methodists.
-
73
HALIFAX COUNTY
Other natives of North Britain retired. The hand of the Scotch merchant was hard upon the planter before the Revolution. The Magistrates were upright and judi- cially minded men. It must have given more than one of them great pleasure to sit in judgment upon a factor, reasonably charged with disaffection to the cause of the colonies. At a court held for Halifax County in 1776 -- Present, Nathaniel Terry, James Baker, Walter Coles. Isaac Coles, John Coleman, Elijah Hunt, John Arrell 'Tunstall, and William Terry-"for the purpose of exam- ining several natives of North Britain (subjects of George the Third, King of Great Britain) residing within the county and being supposed to come within the Statute Staple of Twenty-seventh of Edward III, Chapter the seventeenth ---
The Resolution of the Assembly and Statute Staple aforesaid was read:
Donald MeNichol (a native of North Britain and Factor for James Murdoch and Company, Merchants in Glasgow. and was so at the first day of January, 1776) appeared and on considering the disposition and conduct of the said Donald, touching America and Great Britain, the Justices are of opinion that he ought to depart as directed the said Resolution". Also, James Steven, John Calder, Hector McNeil, John Smith, Walter Robertson, Thomas Hope, and James Calland,* all Scotchmen, were found "of a dis- position and conduet" to make their departure salutary.
This exodus of the Scotch merchants meant business. It meant that George the Third (no longer our "Sovereign Lord"), so many of whose counsellors were Scotchmen. was being defied by his American possessions. The Clerk of Halifax County in 1776, Paul Carrington, Sr., was one of
*Perhaps Callands in Pittsylvania, where the first Halifax Court House stood, gets its name from James Calland.
74
HALIFAX COUNTY
the foremost men of the colony in adopting the measures that looked to a separation from the British Empire. Paul Carrington's estate, "Mulberry Hill" lay partly in Halifax and doubtless that is the explanation of his Clerk- ship of Halifax from 1764 to 1776. Judge Carrington was a member of both Committees of Safety (1775 and 1776) ; and a delegate to the Conventions of 1774, 1775, 1776, and 17SS. He was a member of the first General Court of Virginia and became its Chief Justice. In 1779 he was elected a Judge of the Court of Appeals, which position he held until his resignation in 1807. In his letter of resig- nation, written to Governor Cabell, he says: "I think it time for me to retire from public business to the exalted station of a private citizen." Judge Carrington's house at "Mulberry Hill" presents almost the same appearance today as when it was built in the year 1755. He was a public man from his youth. During his time, he was King's Attorney of four several counties, and he held any number of offices besides.
George Carrington, a son of the elder Paul Carrington. succeeded his father in the Clerkship of Halifax. George Carrington held the office from 1776 to 1797. He lived at "Oak Hill," an estate just across the Dan River from South Boston. In the Revolutionary War. he was 1st Lieutenant of Armstrong's Troop Cavalry]. He and Armstrong won the battle of Quimby Bridge, a fierce skir- mish where the British cavalry charged across the bridge, part of which had been taken up, and had a desperate battle with the colonial troops .* George Carrington was a General of militia and a brilliant man. He was a delegate
*See, Washington Irving: Life of Washington; and Hugh Blair Grigsby: Virginia Convention of 1776.
75
HALIFAX COUNTY
from Halifax in the Convention of 17SS, and was later a member of the State Senate, of great popularity and influ- ence.
Another son of Judge Paul Carrington, Sr., Edward Carrington was an officer of Lee's Legion. General Lee speaks of him in the highest terms.t It is still remem- bered in this region how Major Carrington got Greene's army across the Dan on the retreat before Cornwallis, preceding the battle of Guilford Court House (1781). On the 15th of February Greene had just succeeded in crossing the river Dan when Lord Cornwallis appeared on the opposite bank. At this point Cornwallis gave up the pursuit and turning to the South established himself at Hillsborough, North Carolina The battle of Guilford Court House, one of the decisive battles of the Revolu- tion, followed on March 25th, after which Lord Corn- wallis retreated across North Carolina towards Wilmning- ton. His next important engagement was at Yorktown, where he surrendered to General Washington, Oct. 19th.
Thus, it appears that Greene and Cornwallis passed through Halifax County twice in the month of March, 1781. The armies followed what is known as the "River Road," from Milton to Blank's Ferry [Irwin's Ford?]- wheret Greene seems to have crossed and then recrossed, on the track of the southward moving noble lord. There is a tradition that Cornwallis made his headquarters at an inn (the building is still in existence) which stood on the River Road, about two miles to the east of Turbeville.
iSee, Henry Lee: Memoirs of the War in the South.
#It is possible that both Colonel Byrd and Lord Cornwallis crossed the Dan at the old Skipwith Ferry, above Clarksville, at the lowest point of union before the final junction of the two rivers. Again, it is reliable tradition that Irwin's Ford was a mile or two above South Boston, and that here the armies crossed. This was where Major Carrington lived.
76
HALIFAX COUNTY
In 1781 Tarleton raided the country along the Staunton River very near the Halifax line, just above Brookneal. Tarleton took much the same course as that followed by the Tidewater Railroad and for much the same reasons.
Only a short time ago a penny was found on Dan River, in the county, dating from 1730 in the time of "Our Sover- eign Lord George the Second."
There is vague talk of a roster of soldiers furnished by Halifax in the Revolution. This lacking, more peaceful records must be employed to supplement the brief account given above, in filling out the Revolutionary and post- Revolutionary period. Follows a list of delegates from the county to the General Assembly, from 1773 to 1830, when the new constitution went into effect:
Session of 1778 Nathaniel Terry and Micajah Watkins.
Session of 1779 Micajah Watkins and John Coleman.
May Session 1781 James Bates
May Session 1781.
Ocotber Session 1781
May Session 1782.
John Coleman
October Session 1782.
Isaac Coles
Sessions 1806-07.
May Session 1782
Daniels and Walker
June Session 17SS
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.