Category: Commerce
Businesses and commercial enterprises.
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Life of a James River Batteauman
Text and photos by Barry Long The James River has been a watery highway of boat transportation since before John Smith sailed into its mouth in 1607, whereupon he was greeted by people traveling in dugout canoes. It remained the single most important avenue of transportation in the Colonies for hundreds of years, not only…
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Laying Cornerstone of Scottsville Plant
Date: May 24, 1944 Image Number: RT01cdRT02 Scottsville Plant was built in 1944 by the Defense Plant Corporation to help the nation’s war effort. It was designed and constructed to provide tire fabric and was operated by the Textile Division of the U.S. Rubber Company. The cornerstone-laying ceremony for this plant was sponsored by the…
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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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Let’s Roll a Hogshead!
by William E. Trout, III,Virginia Canal Museum, Madison Heights, VA A picturesque phase of tobacco marketing in the Colonial and Early National period in Virginia was the practice of rolling the hogshead of tobacco from the plantation to the place of inspection and sale. Transportation of tobacco in this manner was considered by William Tatham…
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Boyd, Edmond, and Davenport Packet Boats
Scottsvillian Jack Hamner, an experienced ‘dirt fisherman’ (relic hunter), unearthed this packet boat baggage tag near an old stone chimney between Keene and Esmont. The tag’s front reads “BE&D Packet, 8.” Engraved on the tag’s back is “John Robbins, Boston.” In the mid-1800’s, such small metal tags were attached to a traveler’s personal luggage and…
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1865 Report to Stockholders of James River and Kanawha Canal
In the above photo, mules pulled a canal boat along the James River and Kanawha Canal near Richmond, Virginia, in the early 1860’s. The canal served as a very successful means of transporting produce from the Lynchburg area all the way to Richmond during the 1840-1880 time period. However, bad weather impacted the canal’s operation…
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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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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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