USA > Virginia > Washington County > Washington County > History of southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870 > Part 57
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A number of the citizens of this county served in that war under Captain Cummings, while General William E. Jones and Lieuten- ant John Preston Johnston did valiant service for their country, Johnston losing his life in the service.
In the spring of the year 1847 the County Court of Washington county, Virginia, authorized the building of a new courthouse for the county in the town of Abingdon, which courthouse was completed by the year 1850, the court occupying a house of the late James White as a court-room from the year 1847 to 1850.
Herbert M. Ledbetter was the undertaker of said building, and William Fields assisted in the completion of the building. Upon the completion of the courthouse Connally F. Trigg and Jacob Lynch were appointed commissioners to secure tables and chairs for the new courthouse and to have the courthouse bell removed and hung therein.
It was also directed that the portico to the new courthouse should be enclosed with an iron railing; that the public lot should be en- closed and suitable pavements provided. The floors of the court- house were ordered to be carpeted.
At a meeting of the stockholders of the Exchange Bank of Vir- ginia, held at Norfolk, Va., in the month of May, 1849, a branch bank was ordered to be established at Abingdon, with a capital of $100,000, and during the same month this branch bank was organized at Abingdon by the election of the following officers : President, Dr. Daniel Trigg; cashier, Robert R. Preston ; directors, John C. Greenway, David Campbell, Beverly R. Johnston, Jacob Lynch, Isaac B. Dunn and Thomas L. Preston.
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This was Abingdon's first bank, and the town has not been with- out a bank since that time, with the exception of a short period in the fall of the year 1893.
Upon the 30th of May, 1850, a peculiar order was entered by the County Court, which was as follows :
"It appearing to the Court that there is now no overseer of the streets and alleys in the western end of the town of Abingdon, and that there is at present no Mayor in said town who could appoint an overseer, and it further appearing to the Court that the street in said town called Slaughter or Butcher Street south of the Main Street is in such bad repair as to render it unsafe to pass over it with a vehicle of any kind or for man on horseback ; it is therefore ordered that Norman Crawford be and he is hereby authorized and directed to proceed and cause the said street to be put in such repair as to render the passage along the same safe and convenient for wheel carriages and horsemen, and that the expense thereof be levied out of the next county levy."
On the 24th of April preceding. James H. Dunn, with ten other prominent citizens of the town, were elected Mavor and councilmen, and why this order was entered cannot be ascertained from the records preserved.
In the year 1856, the Mayor and Council of Abingdon appointed E. M. Campbell, W. J. Deady and John C. Campbell a committee to have Slaughter street graded and macadamized, which was ac- cordingly donc.
At the April term, 1853, of the County Court of this county, the court appointed John M. Preston, Peter J. Branch and Beverly R. Johnston a committee to plant trees in the public square north of the courthouse, which duty was performed and the trees thus planted remained in the square until the year 1902, when they were cut down and removed from the premises.
On the 31st day of March, 1856, a fire of considerable proportions consumed a portion of the western end of the town. A descrip- tion of the fire and the damage done, as given by the "Virginian" at the time, is here copied.
"On Saturday morning last, about ? o'clock, our town was visited by the most destructive fire that has occurred here since 1812. The hour at which it commenced, when the whole population was buried in slumber, and the place, in the midst of the largest collection of
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combustible material in the town, rendered it but the more resistless and disastrous. It broke out in the extensive coach factory of Mr. Henry Sinon, and in the course of an hour five large buildings, four of them wood, were consumed, besides numerous out-buildings that were either burned or torn down. Mr Sinon lost his dwelling, his shops and every building upon his premises, besides everything they contained, except a portion of his furniture. Some forty-odd new carriages and buggies were destroyed, as well as all his lumber, tools, materials, books and papers, involving a total loss of every- thing he possessed, except his family and part of his furniture and apparel.
"The house recently purchased for the Gift Enterprise was also re- duced to ashes, and the buildings of Mr. William Rodefer, adjoin- ing, were demolished to arrest the progress of the flames. On the opposite side of the street Mr. Michael Shaver lost two tenements, one his old family residence on the corner, and the other a new two-story brick, recently erected.
"The wind, coming from the west, for a time threatened the de- struction of the whole town, as the flames broke out at various times and places upon the roofs of many of the neighboring buildings. Under all the circumstances, the dryness of the weather, the stiff northwest breeze, the combustible material of the buildings, the in- flammable contents of the large, well-filled coach shop, the hour of the night and consequent relaxation of the muscles and energies of the people, and the scarcity of water, the wonder is that the destruction of property was not greater, but when the people did get there and had their blood warmed up, they put forth all their energies and fought the devouring element manfully. The whole population was out, men, women, children and servants, and all performed their duty.
"The loss is a heavy one, probably between $30,000 and $40,000, and the whole is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. A negro girl of Mr. Sinon's, who had previously forboded or threat- ened evil to the family, is now in jail under suspicion.
"Messrs. Crawford, Ellis, Joseph A. Brownlow and H. B. Tunnell are the other persons whose families were left without shelter, all of whom, so rapid was the progress of the flames, lost a portion of their household property. A broad expanse of blackened earth
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with a number of tall, ghost-like chimneys, is all that is left of the best improved portion of the west end of Abingdon.
"In addition to Mr. Sinon's loss of carriages, Mr. Greenway lost four, Mr. Robertson two, and Messrs. T. L. Preston, B. K. and M. H. Buchanan, Thos. G. McConnell, J. M. Rose and others one each.
"On Saturday evening a meeting of the citizens was held for the purpose of relieving, as far as possible, the destitution of the suf- ferers, at which John M. Preston, Esq., was called to the chair and John G. Kreger appointed Secretary. The Chairman ex- plained the object of the meeting and appointed Revs. McChain, Baldwin, Diekey, and Barr and Wm. Y. C. White, Esq., a com- mittee to wait upon the people for such aid as they might be dis- posed to contribute. The last we heard of the effort, upwards of $1200 had been raised, which, for the citizens of town and vicinity, is exceedingly liberal."
By this time the Virginia and Tennessee railroad was approaching Abingdon, and on the 1st day of April, 1854, the Council of Abing- don passed an ordinance allowing the Virginia and Tennessee Rail- road Company to enter the town and to use the streets and cross streets of the town, provided they place their depot in the town or at the eastern end thereof, and the citizens of the town presented a petition to the authorities of the new road asking that the same be located at the Knob Road, or the eastern end of the town.
In addition to what the Council of the town did to secure the depot of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company, the citizens of the town petitioned the railroad authorities to place their depot at the eastern end of the town, but Thomas L. Preston agreed to give the railroad three acres of land at the present location of the Norfolk and Western depot. and the depot of the railroad was estab- lished at that point, the railroad being completed as far as Abingdon by the year 1856.
John D. Mitchell, the Mayor of Abingdon, departed this life on Tuesday morning, March 15th, 1859, and on the following morn- ing the Council of the town convened at the courthouse and ap- pointed Dr. E. M. Campbell, S. W. Carnahan and James C. Green- way a committee to draft and report suitable resolutions, which committee reported on the evening of the same day. The resolu- tions were as follows :
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"Whereas; It has pleased Almighty God to call suddenly from our midst. John D. Mitchell, Esq., our worthy officer and esteemed citizen, therefore :
"Resolved, That it is with deep regret we have heard of the sud- den death of our Mayor and friend, John D. Mitchell, Esq., and that in his death the community has lost a long tried and faithful - public servant and an esteemed and worthy citizen, and this body an efficient and honored presiding officer.
"Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family of the deceased.
"Resolved, That the members of the Council and its officers wear a badge of mourning for thirty days.
"Resolved, That this preamble and these resolutions be entered upon the record of the Council.
"Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings be transmitted to the family of the deceased.
"Resolved, That the editors of the 'Virginian' and 'Democrat' be requested to publish the foregoing preamble and resolutions in their respective papers."
This is the only death of a Mayor of the town while in office in the history of the town.
Nothing further of importance occurred previously to the spring of 1861, the opening of the war between the States. In the spring of this year the following officers of the town were elected :
Mayor, Samuel W. Carnahan; Councilmen, James K. Gibson, Thomas S. Stuart, Milton Y. Heiskell, Jacob Lynch, John G. Kreger, Isaac Benham, Newton K. White, William Keller, John W. Johnston and William Rodefer; Sergeant, B. C. Clark.
The charter of the town was amended by Act of the Assembly on the 18th of March, 1852, and by this charter the town was au- thorized to construct water works for the town, but the question had to be submitted to the voters of the town for their approval or disapproval.
By an order of the Council an election was ordered for the second day of July, 1853, which election was held, but the result cannot be given, as no record of the same has been preserved. It is probable that the vote was adverse, as the question is not mentioned again in the records.
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At the first meeting of the new Council, on the 9th of July, 1861. the following orders were entered :
"Ordered that the Mayor appoint a patrol of the citizens, re- gardless of age, to patrol the town of nights, who are able to render such service."
"On motion the Mayor is directed to appoint a committee to wait upon those who sell liquor in the town and request them not to sell liquor to the soldiers in and about Abingdon."
"On motion it was made the duty further of said committee to request of officers permitting their men to come to Abingdon to require of them to leave their side-arms in their camp quarters."
The record of the town government from this time until the summer of 1863 has not been preserved.
At a meeting of the Town Council on the 18th of August, 1863, the Mayor was appointed a committee to ascertain at what price a negro man, suitable for work on the streets, could be purchased by the corporation. The committee reported on September 1st, 1863. that a negro man suitable for the purpose could be pur- chased of Mr. Seabright for $1.800. Thereupon. it was moved and seconded that the negro man be purchased, upon which mo- tion a vote was taken and resulted in a unanimous vote against the purchase of the negro, otherwise we might now have to record the corporation of Abingdon as a slave-owner.
At the same meeting of the Council, C. S. Bekem and E. M. Camp- bell were appointed a committee to select a suitable piece of ground outside of the present enclosure of the Sinking Spring Cemetery as a burial ground for Confederate soldiers, to ascertain the cost of the same, and report to the next meeting of the Council, but this committee was discharged on the 18th of April, 1864, without reporting, and a resolution was adopted requesting Captain M. B. Tate, post-quartermaster, to make some arrangements as to a proper location for the burial of Confederate soldiers and enclosing the same.
Quite a number of Confederate dead are buried in the Sinking Spring Cemetery, and their graves to-day are unmarked, and not the slightest effort has recently been made to keep green the graves. or fresh in memory the brave souls who died in defence of their country, and, as they were taught to believe, in a righteous cause. Could these brave men again appear in the flesh and see their
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surroundings, how justly could they reproach their fellow-soldiers, descendants and kinsmen, for their failure to discharge such an obligation to the worthy dead .*
By the latter part of August, 1863, numbers of wounded soldiers and officers were in Abingdon, and the enemy not thirty miles distant, and on September 1st, 1863, the owners of carriages in and around Abingdon lent every assistance in transporting the sick and wounded to Washington Springs.
On the 25th of September, 1863, this community was threatened by an invasion of the Federals from the west. An account of the situation, as it was in Abingdon at that time, is here given :
"On Saturday last, great excitement prevailed all over this county, in consequence of the apprehended approach of the Yankees from Kingsport, Tenn., in this direction. The particulars, as accurately as we can obtain them from the mass of contradictory rumors and accounts, are these: Two companies of Col. Carter's 1st Tenn. Cavalry had been resting and recruiting their horses for a few days on Netherland's Island, near Kingsport, after their suc- cessive skirmishes with the enemy near Cumberland Gap, when they were suddenly attacked by a Yankee Brigade under General Ross. Carter threw his few men on this side of the river and made a stand at Vance's Ford of Reedy Creek, opposite the upper end of Kings- port. After holding the enemy in check awhile, a very large force was seen crossing the river above the island, for the purpose of flanking him. Carter's men then fell back, taking the Holston Springs road one mile this side of Kingsport, and being separated from the rest of the command, they proceeded to Bristol on Sat- urday. The Yankees kept the Reedy Creek road to Morell's Mill, and thence to Bristol. A large portion of Colonel Carter's men, from frequent skirmishing and falling back, became much scattered, but the small number, about one hundred and fifty, who were led by the Colonel in person, fought gallantly and made a stand when- ever and wherever there was a chance to hold the enemy in check.
"The enemy reached Bristol about the middle of the day Satur- day, and committed some depredations, among which were the burning of the commissary house with, some say a hundred, and others three hundred, barrels of flour, a small amount of bacon
*Since the above was written a neat wire fence has been placed around the square containing the bodies of the Confederate dead.
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and some dozen boxes of ammunition, rifled Gugginheimer's store and d'espoiled the houses of a few citizens. This latter was done by a few stragglers who had been left behind and who were in- toxicated.
"The enemy then started in this direction, and Carter again gave them fight at Millard's Mill, one mile this side of Bristol, farther than which they did not come in force. Foraging parties scattered out as far up perhaps as Col. John Preston's, but no par- ticular damage was done that we have heard of. They all then retired beyond Bristol, and, on Sunday morning, proceeded towards Zollicoffer, where they were met by General Jones and got more than they bargained for. The fight lasted several hours, with, it is said, a loss to the enemy of nine killed and about thirty wounded, and to us of two killed and seven or eight wounded. General Williams pursued the enemy to within two and one-half miles of Blountville and only returned when called back by a dispatch from Gen. Jones. "All day Saturday most intense excitement prevailed in Abing- don. The company recently organized in town was under arms all day, together with various squads from the country, in support of Davidson's Battery, then stationed in this vicinity, with the Provost Guard, and also a portion of Colonel Carter's cavalry, and Col. Chenneworth and his command. From the position of our forces, a fair view of the road towards Bristol was had for a mile or two, in which direction all eyes were constantly turned. Ever and anon, when a cloud of dust produced by flying refugees, men, women, negroes and stock, rose in the distance, Captain Davidson could be seen to look sternly, and the fingers of the undrilled infantry pressed upon the triggers of the charged muskets. Had the Yan- kees approached, many saddles would have been emptied, for de- termined resistance was depicted in every countenance.
"Had it not been humiliating it would have been amusing to see citizens and strangers stampeding through town with as much haste and excitement as if the Yankees had been at their heels, when the latter were quietly regaling themselves at Bristol, without a thought of proceeding another foot in this direction. As night approached, scouts brought the information that the enemy had gone in the opposite direction, when 'quiet once more reigned in Warsaw.' "*
*Abingdon, Virginia.
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From this time until the summer of 1864, the officers and citi- zens of Abingdon were kept busy guarding the town, nursing the sick and wounded and burying the dead. To add to the troubles of the people, in the month of June, 1864, small-pox was dis- covered in the town, which caused a great deal of uneasiness and annoyance.
Such was the condition of the people of the town in the month of December, 1864, when General Stoneman, in command of about 10,000 Federal troops, arrived at Abingdon on the evening of the 14th. By order of General Stoneman, the depot of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company, the Government Commissary (Hurt's store), in charge of Captain Williams, the issuing depart- ment of the Quartermaster's Department (Sinon' & Co.'s brick carriage factory), in charge of Major Crutchfield, Quartermaster's storing department (Musser & Co.'s carriage factory), in charge of J. E. C. Trigg, the county jail and the barracks opposite the jail, on the corner of Court and Valley streets, were destroyed by fire, the Federal officers strictly enjoining the destruction of any other than government property. After the destruction of this property, the Federal troops resumed their march to the east, but had not left the town more than two hours before a renegade by the name of James (Tites) Wyatt, who had formerly been an apprentice to Gabriel Stickley, being in the town on horseback, proceeded to fire all the property on both sides of Main street from Court street to Brewers' street. He succeeded in firing the courthouse and other buildings on the north side of Main street and had fired all the buildings on the south side of Main as far west as the present storehouse occupied by Honaker & Sons, when he discovered the presence of a number of Confederate soldiers and undertook to make his escape, passing down Main street to the west with all possible speed, hotly pursued by the Confederate soldiers, being hard pressed all the time. When he reached Hayes Street he turned to the south at the eastern gate of Stonewall Jackson Institute. At this point he fell from his horse and was left for dead, but was afterwards carried into the former residence of Gov- ernor Floyd, where he soon died.
The fire that he thus started destroyed the courthouse of the county and all the buildings west as far as the present residence of S. N. Honaker. All the buildings on that side of the street
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were of brick and almost all were three stories high. On the south of Main street every building, without an exception, was destroyed. from Court street on the east to Brewers' street on the wesl. The fire might have been stopped sooner, but, at the time, in Abing- don was hardly an able-bodied man, and about the only witnesses of the destruction of the town were old men, women and children.
Thus the people of Abingdon were to a great extent rendered homeless, with starvation and sickness on every side and their country in the hands of the enemy. Such was the condition of the town when peace came, in 1865.
The fall of 1865 and spring of 1866 were used by the people in collecting and preserving such property as had been left after four years of desperate fighting.
The first meeting of the Town Council of Abingdon, after the surrender, was held at the office of Dr. W. F. Barr on March 3d, 1866, with the following officers present: Mayor, G. R. R. Dunn ; Councilmen, Norman Crawford, Charles J. Cummings, John G. Clark, David G. Thomas, William Rodefer, Milton Y. Heiskell and W. F. Barr.
The first order entered by this meeting was one repealing the by- laws in so far as the same referred to the punishment of slaves and free men of color, and the Mayor was directed to refer all viola- tions of the laws of the town by freed men or freed women to Lieutenant Woodward, superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau of this district.
At the same meeting a committee of five was appointed to petition the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company to locate the new depot on or near the Knob Road leading from Abingdon, or at the eastern end of the town, and on March 16th, 1866, a committee of three was appointed to ascertain what ground could be procured for a depot and what subscription could be raised to aid in build- ing the depot, and on June 21st, 1866, a resolution was adopted, requesting the directors of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company to send a committee to Abingdon to discuss with the Council the question of the location of a depot ; but, notwithstand- ing the efforts of the officers and the people of the town of Abing- don, the depot was built upon the location of the old depot.
The Council and people of Abingdon from this time hencefor- ward lent their every energy toward the upbuilding of the town.
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and in a few years the damages suffered by the town as a result of the war were completely obliterated.
Pursuant to the proclamation of the Governor, the courts of the county and circuit were held in the Temperance Hall until the county could build a new courthouse.
The County Court of Washington county, in November, 1866, awarded the contract of building a new courthouse to the follow- ing persons : To Messrs. James and David Fields, the brick-work and plastering; to Mr. Hockman, of Harrisonburg, the carpentry- work; to Messrs. Keller & Grim, the tin-work; to Messrs. Morri- son and Vaughan, the painting. The courthouse was completed by the beginning of the year 1869, and at the time was said to be the handsomest courthouse in the State.
On May 10th, 1873, Valley street, from the residence of Martin Keller to the west gate of the residence of G. V. Litchfield, was ordered to be macadamized, G. V. Litchfield paying a large part of the costs of said macadamizing.
We here give a description of the town as it was in 1875, written by the late Charles B. Coale.
"Abingdon was endowed with its name anterior to 1776. The streets, of which there are seven, intersect each other at right angles, three east and west, and four north and south, with an equal number of alleys running in the same direction. The streets are sixty feet wide and the alleys sixteen. The main street is MacAdamized, as are several others partially, with brick pavements on either side, from one end of the town to the other. There is no place of its size in the State more noted for fashion, taste and morality, with its usual proportion of loafers and gentlemen of leisure; and, like all other places where there is or has been considerable wealth, there is a right smart sprinkling of what some people would term aristoc- racy, but which, in reality, is nothing more than a decent observance of the conventionalities of life. Many of the private residences, as well as the public buildings, are of brick, large and tasteful, and a number of them three stories high. They are generally neat, some of them approaching elegance, and but few dilapidated, though one here and there may look as if it had been rocked by an earthquake, or had danced to the piping of a hurricane, at some period in its history. We claim to have one of the most capacious and convenient courthouses in the Commonwealth, and by some it
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