People of interest or influence in the town and surrounding region. Family histories, notable individuals, and historic figures.
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Dr. James Turner Barclay
Minister and Missionary Dr. James Turner Barclay was a trained pharmacist, medical doctor, and the first minister of the Scottsville Disciples of Christ church in 1846, now the home of Scottsville Museum. Dr. Barclay continued his ministry and lived next door in the Barclay House until 1851 when he went to Jerusalem as his Church’s…
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Baptist Sunday School Children
Baptist Sunday School children pose for a photograph on Harrison Street in Scottsville. The image below identifies some of the children by name: Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our Heritage, CDB6Roll5Neg22A.tifRoll5Neg22A.jpgRoll5Neg22A.psd
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Reverend Peyton Harrison
Scottsville Presbyterian Church Elderand Church/Parsonage Donor In the late 1820’s, there was a resurgence of religion in southern Albemarle County, VA, and a six-member Presbyterian congregation was formed in the nearby village of Warren, just west of Scottsville. Peyton Harrison, a lawyer and owner of Belle Grove (later Valmont Farm), influenced the congregation to move…
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Scottsville Methodist Sunday School Class
The Young Man’s Sunday School Class poses with Mrs. Sprague, their teacher, just outside Scottsville Methodist Church. Top Row Standing, left to right: Bottom Row Seated, left to right: The top photo is part of the Robert R. Hunter collection. Robert resides in Richmond, Virginia, and is the son of Albert Cushman Hunter and Eva…
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Reverend James Ellison Daniel ~ Methodist Minister
Reverend James E. Daniel came to Scottsville with his wife and son in about 1920. He served as pastor of the Scottsville Methodist Church until ill health forced him to retire in 1925. Although officially in an inactive status, Rev. Daniel officiated at countless weddings, baptisms, and funerals in the years that followed. When this…
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Disciples of Christ Church
Wishing to revive the pure Christianity of earlier times, a group of local Baptists broke away from their church in the early 1830’s. They formed the Disciples of Christ or Christian Church in Scottsville and chose as their first minister, Dr. James Turner Barclay. Although Dr. Barclay was a trained pharmacist and medical doctor with…
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Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Saint John’s Episcopal Church is located at the north corner of Bird and Harrison Street in Scottsville. This white frame church with Gothic windows and a scrollwork vergeboard was built in 1875 and was the second church in Saint Anne’s Parish. The photo above is from an early William E. Burgess postcard; at right, Saint…
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Mt. Zion Methodist Church ~ Esmont
Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Esmont began as a log meeting house built by the slaves of Benjamin Childress in 1828. When it was finished, Mr. Childress donated the house to the Methodist Conference. Later the congregation erected a brick building but because of a defective foundation, the church became unsafe, and the central part…
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Union Baptist Church
Union Baptist Church is the oldest black congregation in the Scottsville area and was organized in 1865 by the Reverends Henry Smith and J. A. Doll. According to Virginia Moore in her book, Scottsville on the James, the first pastor was Rev. Smith, and the congregation held prayer meetings in homes until they bought two…
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Scottsville Presbyterian Church
The congregation of the Presbyterian Church was organized first at Warren with six members on October 18, 1927, as part of the West Hanover Presbytery. The elders of the church were John B. Hart and Samuel Harris, and by 1830, this church had grown to sixteen members, thanks largely to the influence and support of…
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Robert Lee Bryan ~ Printer and Newspaper Man
Robert Lee Bryan was born on 21 January 1909 in Charlottesville, VA, and was the son of William Whitaker Bryan (1880-1930) and Addye (Beattie) Bryan (1886-1955). William Bryan ran a print shop called the Virginia Printing Company, and his son, Robert, started helping his father by running printing errands for him when he was only…
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James Franklin Dorrier ~ Scottsville National Bank
James Franklin Dorrier began his banking career as a cashier at the Scottsville National Bank, an independent organization, when it was started in 1901. In 1919, he left banking for 15 years and engaged in the construction business with Lane Brothers Construction Company in Esmont, and also on his own in West Virginia, Kentucky, and…
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Thomas Ellison Bruce ~ Community Leader
Thomas Ellison Bruce, Sr., owner of Bruce’s Drug Store in Scottsville, was a popular and successful community leader. He served four terms as Mayor of Scottsville (1935-1943) and played an important role in attracting new business to an economically disadvantaged community with a declining population. When more rayon cord was needed for military tires during…
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Private Samuel Moon ~ Twilight Tours 2017
Less than a week to the 2026 Twilight Tours! We’re posting highlights from past Tours to put you in the mood for this season of spooks and spirits. Get details and tickets here: The Moon family’s history in Scottsville is broad and deep, dating all the way back to the colonial era. Descendants of Littleberry…
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Pitts Market on Main Street
Shown above in this 2026 photo is the former Pitts Market (operated on the first floor at the left of this building from 1937-1962) and home of the William Robert and Ruth (Kent) Pitts family at right behind the porch and in rooms behind the store. In the 1950’s, Scottsville had four grocery stores. One…
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The Old Apothecary Shop
The Old Apothecary Shop, located at 510 Valley Street, was built ca. 1832. The two-story brick building served as an apothecary where town doctors prepared drugs and medicinal compounds for their patients from 1876 – 1908. As business grew, Dr. Luther R. Stinson and Dr. Benjamin L. Dillard, two practicing physicians in Scottsville, found it…
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The Beal Building
The Beal Building, located at 380-398 Valley Street, was built circa 1841-1850 on Lot 148. In 1850, Joseph Beal purchased the east half of this lot on which this large brick building with a slate roof stands. Mr. Beal began his mercantile business in this building, and many Beal businesses were housed here over the…
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Miss Hannah Moore’s Boarding House
Miss Hannah Moore built her Boarding House (the brick house at the right of this photo) in 1910 on the east side of Valley St. She opened it as a boarding house in 1911, and for years, Miss Willie Hitchcock lived there. Miss Willie, cousin to Wild Bill Hitchcock, taught the Lewis children in the…
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Hatton Post Office
The Hatton Post Office began operation at Brown’s Landing (now called Hatton) in late 1883. The postal facility sat just inside the front door of Brown’s Store and contained walnut mail boxes (shown above) for its customers and a wooden window through which mail and stamps were dispensed. Although a post office most often assumes…
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Scottsville Volunteer Fire Department’s 75th Anniversary
by Marianne Ramsden Scottsville made a concerted effort to keep the town safe from fires since the beginning of the 1900’s. A bucket brigade formed in 1905, and the town fire hydrants were installed in 1916. That same year, the volunteer fire fighters raised enough money to buy two fire hose reel carts. These carts…
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Scottsville Brick Company at Snowden
The Scottsville Brick Company was once located on Snowden’s low grounds, just across the James River from Scottsville. Snowden’s long frontage along the James River contained rich siliceous sand which produced superior quality bricks. The initial company, Scottsville Sand and Silica Co., Inc. was formed on February 21, 1920, and, later that year on December…
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Traveler’s Rest Hotel
The Traveler’s Rest was a wood-framed hotel built about 1909 by Jacinto V. Pereira, who was also the President of Fidelity Nationial Bank on Valley Street. The leading hotel in Scottsville for 67 years, the Traveler’s Rest contained nineteen hotel rooms with two bathrooms on each floor. The dining room sat approximately sixty people at…
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Jack Manahan ~ Twilight Tours 2017
Less than a week to the 2026 Twilight Tours! We’re posting highlights from past Tours to get you in the spirit in this season of spooks and spirits. Get details and tickets here:https://www.scottsvillemuseum.org/2026/09/09/twilight-tours-2026/ Jack Manahan, portrayed by Ralph Lewis, was University of Virginia professor of history and genealogy, and well known around Scottsville for his…
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Irene Langhorne Gibson ~ Twilight Tours 2017
Just a week to the 2026 Twilight Tours! We’ll be posting highlights from past Tours to get you in the spirit in this season of spooks and spirits. Get details and tickets here:https://www.scottsvillemuseum.org/2026/09/09/twilight-tours-2026/ For the 2017 Twilight Tours, Irene Gibson, portrayed by Miranda Burnett, was one of the famous “Gibson Girls” of the 1890s. Charles…
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Isaac A. Coles ~ Twilight Tours 2017
Less than two weeks to the 2026 Twilight Tours! We’ll be posting highlights from past Tours to get you in the spirit in this season of spooks and spirits. Get details and tickets here:https://www.scottsvillemuseum.org/2026/09/09/twilight-tours-2026/ For the 2017 Tours, Kit Decker portrayed Isaac A. Coles, a true native of Southern Albemarle from the prominent Coles family.…
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Snowden Dairy
In January 2014, Angela Erickson of Lexington, N.C., contacted Scottsville Museum to tell us that she and her husband had been digging around an old railroad track in the Lexington area. Quite by surprise, they uncovered an old milk bottle, which was slug-plated “Snowden Dairy, Scottsville, VA,” as shown in the above photo. Angela said…
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Dr. J.P. Blair’s Dental Office
Dr. Blair operated his dental office on the second floor of this white building, located beside Mink Creek on the south side of Main St. The creek ran under this bridge on Main Street, and, as Mayor Raymon Thacker remembers, everytime Mink Creek flooded, the Blair and Moon (next door) buildings filled with muddy water.…
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Scottsville Town Council ~ 1900
This Scottsville Town Council, like others before and since, was made up of prominent local businessmen. Shown above are the following council members: Top Row (L to R): Dr. Joseph P. Blair, Tom Heath, Jackson Beal, Thomas A. FoxBottom Row (L to R): Jacinto V. Pereira, Peter Foland, W.E. Moon Jacinto V. Pereira was President…
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Jacinto V. Pereira ~ Bank President
Jacinto V. Pereira was an Englishman, who operated the Fidelity Bank in Scottsville. Shown here in his bank office, Mr. Pereira also served on the Scottsville Town Council and built the Travelers’ Rest Hotel on Main Street, where he resided until his death in January 1925. In 1940, the old Fidelity Bank and two other…
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Jefferson Mills
Jefferson Mills, located on the Hardware River approximately three miles northeast of Scottsville, was built about 1800 and is a brick structure with four floors supported by huge handworked wooden beams. The mill originally was run by an overshot wheel that was fed from a stone dam twenty feet above the riverbed. Jefferson Mills’ original…
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The Viscountess Lady Astor ~ Nancy Langhorne Astor
Nancy Langhorne began her life in 1879 in a crowded house in Danville, VA, the fifth of her parents’ eleven children. The Langhornes of Lynchburg had been wealthy before the Civil War, but, like so many others, faced straitened circumstances in the post war period. Nancy’s father, Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, was working as a tobacco…
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Doctor Percy Harris, Sr.
Shown in this 1915 photo, Dr. Percy Harris, Sr. stands beside his Maxwell car on West Main Street with Valley Street behind him. The building just behind his right elbow is W.F. Paulett Lumber and at the photo’s left is a three-storied, white building called the Travelers’ Rest Hotel. Percy enrolled in the Medical College…
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J.B. Tindall’s Groceries
James Benson Tindall, Sr., began his career as a businessman at Brown’s Landing (now Hatton) in 1906 when he rented Brown’s Store and renamed it ‘J. B. Tindall’s Groceries.’ In 1914, Tindall purchased the store from Brown’s descendants and managed it until his death in 1945. This store was built on a strong foundation comprised…
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Scottsville Flour Mills
The Scottsville Flour Mills was a five-story building, located at Main and Ferry Streets in Scottsville. It was a state-of-the-art mill that was built about 1910 and ran with steam. Arthur Thacker managed the mill for Captain John Pitts, its owner, from 1911-1917, until his health worsened due to breathing flour dust in the mill.…
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Butler’s Harness, Coffin, and Casket Store
This photograph shows Butler’s Harness, Coffin, and Casket Store at 440 Valley Street in Scottsville. The building was also known as Butler’s Funeral Home because of its coffin/casket services. John Wesley Butler ran this business and made caskets, harnesses, and other leather goods at his store. The store sign, posted on the tree in front…
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William Edward Burgess ~ Scottsville’s Photographer
William Edward Burgess (1871-1935) was a photographer and historian, who lived his adult years in Scottsville, Virginia. He was known to all as ‘Willie’ and worked out of Idylwood, his combination home and photo studio located in the eastern part of Scottsville that lies in Fluvanna County. An avid photographer since his teenaged years, Burgess…
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Piedmont Berry Grower’s Association
Members of the Piedmont Berry Grower Association pose in front of their headquarters at the northeast corner of Page and West Main in Scottsville. This association marketed their dairy produce and fresh berries (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries) for about three years, operating out of an old house on Lot 166. After the Association went out…
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Scottsville Carriage and Repair Works
Philip Palm, an immigrant from Sweden, operated the Scottsville Carriage and Repair Works in the early 1900’s. In addition to making and repairing carriages, Palm upholstered furniture, repaired shoes, and made frames. He also made coffins and served as the town’s undertaker. By 1914, Phillip Palm and two business partners, L. Gordon White and Thomas…
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C. B. Harris and Co.
The C.B. Harris Co. was a men’s clothing store operated by Charles Bascom Harris, Jr. in Scottsville. Charles (1883-1959) was the grandson of Miletus Harris, a merchant and wheelwright, who owned this three-storied Harris Building by 1860. Miletus also operated a mercantile store in this building, located across the street from the Scottsville Methodist Church…
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Tending the Bank Books
Susie was the wife of Dr. Joseph P. Blair, a Scottsville dentist and Town Council member. Lucy was the youngest of the four Power sisters and never married. For many years the Powers family ran the Scottsville Hotel on Valley Street. Copyright © 2018 by Scottsville Museum Image Located On: Capturing Our Heritage, CDB12B05cdB12.tifB05cdB12.jpgB05cdB12.psd
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Scottsville’s Post Office and Postmasters
The Masonic Building was built in 1914 and hosted the town’s post office on the bottom floor from 1915 until 1964 when the post office moved to its next location on West Main Street. Sam Gault served as Scottsville’s postmaster from 1893 to 1939. He was succeeded by Ashby Mayo in 1939, who retired as…
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Charles Thomas Moon’s Grocery Store
The Charles Thomas Moon grocery store sat between the Masonic Lodge and the very edge of Mink Creek on Scottsville’s Main Street. On its first floor was the small store owned by Mr. Moon, Charles T. Moon Grocery, and this building’s second floor hosted a small apartment. Mr. Moon operated his grocery roughly between 1900-1920.…
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Little’s White Oil ~ Scottsville, VA, 1837-1866
Shown above are two bottles that were once filled with Little’s White Oil, a patent horse liniment compounded and patented by Theodore Wallis Little of Wayne County, NY. This liniment was manufactured and sold by the drug business established by Theodore with his brother, Charles Ebenezer Little, between 1837-1866. During this time period, Theodore also…
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The Harris Sisters
The Harris Sisters – Florence, Nannie, and Etta – were the daughters of Martha J. (Minor) Harris and Lafayette Harris. After Lafayette died in 1856, Martha supported the family by operating a millinery and dry-goods shop in what is now known as the Harris Building, at 474–476 Valley Street. The building, constructed about 1840 with commercial…
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The Harris Building
The Harris Building, located at 474-476 Valley Street, was built circa 1840 as a commercial building with living quarters on the second floor. When her husband, Lafayette Harris, died in 1856, Martha J. (Minor) Harris began a millinery and dry goods store here to support herself and her three daughters, Florence, Nannie, and Etta. The…
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William ‘Billy’ Samuel Beal
William ‘Billy’ Samuel Beal was born in 1846 in Scottsville and was the son of Joseph R. and Mary E. (Flannagan) Beal. Growing up in Scottsville, Billy worked as a clerk in his father’s general store, located in the Beal Building at the south corner of Bird and Valley Streets. When his father died in…
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Colonel Henry Gantt of Valmont
by Richard Ludlam Nicholas “On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Henry Gantt bravely led the regiment assigned to Garnett’s Brigade of Pickett’s Division up Cemetery Ridge in the battle of Gettysburg – arguably the most famous charge in American history.” Perhaps the most overlooked and forgotten man in Scottsville’s history is Colonel Henry Gantt,…
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Buckingham Lining Bar Gang
In a rich baritone voice, John Laury chanted these words during his June 4th visit to Scottsville Museum with the Buckingham Lining Bar Gang: “I got a gal who’s long and tall Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall.” Mr. Laury served as the “caller” for this African-American work song during an…
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Twilight Tours 2026
Follow a lantern guide on this historic tour exploring Scottsville’s past. You will meet:Nancy Anne Lewis JeffersonA River BoatmanColonel Gantt’s CampaignThe Harris SistersAn Employee of the Tire Cord FactoryLocal Musicians This event is a partnership between Scottsville Museum and Scottsville Center for Arts and Nature The hour long tours will feature actor portrayals of characters…
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Auto Endurance Test on Valley Street ~ 1914
Dr. L.R. Stinson owned the first car in Scottsville, a two-cylinder, bright-red, 1910 Maxwell. Soon these ‘motorized carriages’ were rattling the plank floor on the new town bridge. Cars altered Scottsville’s way of life greatly, wiping out the ferry, carriages and carts, and the blacksmith shop and stable on the corner of Valley and Main…
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The Covered Bridge at Temperance Wayside
“We rattle through the Hardware River’s old-timey “rabbit burrow” bridge,” wrote Virginia Moore, talking about life in Scottsville between the wars. This was the covered bridge built about 1850 at Temperance Wayside where Highway 6 crosses the Hardware River. Sheridan’s departing troops had clattered over it in 1865. A painting by Cornelia Burgess Dorrier shows…
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Getting Off the Cars from Richmond ~ ca. 1914
Riding the ‘cars’ in 1914 was still a popular mode of travel, as shown in this photo at Scottsville Depot. Burgess captured the William Day Smith family arriving on the Richmond passenger train. Note the throng of townspeople gathered at the depot to watch the train arrive, a Scottsville custom that may date back to…
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The Nicholas Section Crew
The crew members in this photo are (L to R): C.C. Hill; J.W. Wood; C.E. Ballowe; Alfred Davis; C.W. Schumaker, section foreman; and E.D. Thompson. The Nicholas Section crew maintained the six-mile section of Chesapeake & Ohio track just east of Scottsville. This six-man crew worked 40-hour weeks and were lead for many years by…
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By Canal and By Stagecoach: A Journey from Nelson County to Staunton
Shown above is Elizabeth ‘Bettie’ Nicholas Cabell with her daughter, Annie Barraud Cabell in 1858. Bettie attended Virginia Female Institute in Staunton for the 1849-1850 school year. In August 1849, fifteen-year-old Bettie Cabell left her home at Liberty Hall in Nelson County to attend boarding school, the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton. On the first…
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The Hatton Ferry
Photo above, Hatton Ferry, ca. 1910 Hatton Ferry is a poled ferry that crosses the James River at a site named Hatton about three and one-fourth miles south west of Scottsville, Virginia. James A. Brown, a storekeeper, began operating a ferry at this location in the late 1870’s. In 1906, James Benson Tindall of Buckingham…
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Rural Mail Carriers in Scottsville ~ 1915
On a crisp autumn day, four rural mail carriers pose in front of the Scottsville Post Office, the town’s social gathering point. More than any other invention, ‘motorized carriages’ altered Scottsville life the most. With mass production of the Model T Ford, cars were readily available and rapidly acquired by admiring Scottsville customers. Gone were…
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Dr. Stinson Attends to His Practice
Born across the James River in Buckingham County, Virginia, Dr. Luther R. Stinson graduated from the University College of Medicine in Richmond (later called Medical College of Virginia) in 1900. He set up his practice in Scottsville, and wishing to succeed, Dr. Stinson asked Sam Gault, Scottsville’s postmaster, “Sam, how can I show’em I’m a…
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Biking Through Albemarle with John Jones in the 1800s
Linda Listmann of Santa Cruz, CA, is transcribing her great grandfather’s journals, which began in 1875. His name was John Jones. In the summer of 1882, John was one of two astronomers, who came with Ormond Stone from the Cincinnati Observatory to oversee the building of McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. Stone became…
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Tutwiler’s Boat Yard
The painting above by J.W. Tutwiler depicts the Tutwiler Boat Yard in Scottsville which was owned and operated by Wesley Clark Tutwiler until his death in 1871. After his passing, Wesley’s wife, Amanda Marie (Moon) Tutwiler, operated this boatyard that built and repaired canal boats for use on the James River and Kanawha Canal between…
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Barclay House
Name: Barclay House Date: ca. 1900 Image Number: B02cdB19 The Barclay House is a small townhouse on Scottsville’s Lot 31 and is next door to the Disciples of Christ Church (now Scottsville Museum) on Main Street. John B. Hart purchased this property without a structure in 1830 and resold the lot six months later for…
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Edith Taggart ~ Scottsville Central Switchboard Operator
Edith Taggart served as Scottsville’s central telephone operator from 1911 until her retirement in 1950. She was our ‘Central.’ Every Scottsville telephone call outside a subscriber’s party line was placed through her. A caller turned the crank of a magneto telephone and generated a ringing current at Edith’s switchboard. Edith would tap into the calling…
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Twilight Tours 2015
Twilight Tours is a partnership between Scottsville Museum and Scottsville Center for Arts & Nature (SCAN). Follow a lantern guide on this historic tour exploring Scottsville’s past. This hour long tour features actor portrayals of characters throughout different periods of Scottsville’s history. Walking Tours take place on Friday & Saturday nights in October. First tour…
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Bruce’s Drug Store
Bruce’s Drug Store began on November 1, 1908, under the name of Scottsville Drug Company. Dr. Luther R. Stinson and Dr. Benjamin L. Dillard, practicing physicians in Scottsville, maintained a small medicine shop in the town’s old apothecary shop on Valley Street (now 510 Valley Street). Finding it inconvenient to keep their shop open as…