Scottsville lies on the tranquil Horseshoe Bend, between an old Indian ford and the mouth of Totier Creek.

It was here, in February 1745 that a meeting was held at the Edward Scott home to organize the new county of Albemarle, formed in September 1744, by an Act of the Virginia General Assembly.

On a high hill overlooking the river, the first Albemarle County Courthouse was built.

The courthouse is no longer standing, and its exact site on the hill has yet to be determined, but the old Edward Scott home has been restored and is now a private residence.

The courthouse was the center of local government until the Albemarle County seat was moved to the new town of Charlottesville, in 1762.

For a short time Scott's Landing became Scott's Ferry because a major ferry for crossing the James River operated here.

Then in 1818 the name was officially changed to Scottsville. Scottsville stands opposite the horseshoe bend on the north bank of the James River.

The canal ran through Scottsville beside the current railway, where the floodwall is now. In the middle of town, the canal was widened into a large basin where the canal boats tied to load and unload.

Only a small part of this basin is left, a triangle of low ground at the base of the floodwall.

Just across the street, facing the canal basin is the Scottsville Museum where today you can see a canal exhibit.

The large brick building at the floodwall is the Old Kanawha Canal warehouse or Farmer's Exchange built in 1830.

Early settlers along the Atlantic coast found three main river-carved passages through the Appalachians into the interior of Virginia.

One of these three, the southernmost, "led up the James, down the New and Kanawha Rivers and so on into the Ohio, the spot on the James River that lay at the hub of the wheel of exploration, commercial development, and cultural expansion, was a pleasant patch of land at Horseshoe Bend.

 Here at the northwest limits of the river's navigability, grew Scottsville, the principal port for river and canal traffic above Richmond and the destination of wagon and pack trains from the upper Shenandoah Valley across Rockfish Gap into Albemarle County.

General Banastre Tarleton

"So strategic was Scottsville's position that Tarleton threatened it, Lafayette defended it,

 Le Marquis de Lafayette and in another war... Sheridan and Custer occupied it."

The James River-Kanawha Canal project was in the 1830's and '40's, a time of rapid growth for Scottsville.

Hundreds of bateaux carrying freight, and packets carrying passengers, came in and left from the Scottsville port during the town's 19th century heyday.

"Scottsville received, exchanged, nourished, refreshed, and encouraged the traffic of the canal, which passed through it."

 Now the Kanawha Canal is the site of Scottsville's A. Ramon Thacker Levy, protecting the precious town from the mighty floodwaters of the James River.

There has not been a significant flood since 1985 thanks to the new dyke.

 If you look carefully as you leave downtown Scottsville going north up the hill on Route 795, known also as Hardware Street, you might notice an inconspicuous little cemetery on the right about a hundred feet or so from the road.

Almost lost among the trappings of modern residences on the side of the hill, the nearly forgotten burial ground represents a significant part of the community's history.

Scottsville is home to the Confederate Cemetery for the Confederate soldiers who died in a local hospital during the Civil War.

Available records indicate over 40 Confederate soldiers died in 3 make-shift hospitals and are buried nearby at the Confederate Cemetery on Moore's Hill.

Today, questions remain about the identities and exact number of soldiers buried at the Moore's Hill cemetery.

 There are currently four houses on the National Register of Historic Places: Mount Ida, Cliffside, High Meadows and Mount Walla.

 The James River and Kanawha Company

The Revolutionary War, with the attendant problems of transportation and communication required in the movement of troops and supplies in areas and over distances not theretofore appreciated, accelerated the demand for provision of such means.

Most of those involved in campaigning had been removed.

From a life limited in movement; exposed to conditions incidental to such removal; and awakened to opportunities abroad and available to those of willing disposition, and thus were loosened from home ties to travel westward and the development of trade.

Movement of individuals by horseback and family by light vehicles was easy over rough trails, but it was necessary to return the raw materials of trade by the simplest natural available routes, or waterways, leading to the improvement of these and to canals as the returning trade became bulkier and heavier.

The French writer, Michael Chevalier, in his "Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, Being a Series of Letters on North America", states in his letter XXI, Buffalo, September 7, 1835, "The spectacle of a young people, executing in a short space of 15 years, a series of works, which the most powerful States of Europe with a population three to four times as great, would have shrunk from undertaking is in truth a Able sight. T

he advantages which result from these enterprises to the public prosperity are incalculable."

Almost a century later Wayland Fuller Dunnaway, in his "The James River and Kanawha Company" observes, "In his investigation of this subject the author has been struck by the misconceptions existing on the part of such writers as have made reference to this enterprise.

It seems to be conceived of very generally as merely a canal project of small importance and is ordinarily dismissed as such with a certain unwarranted contempt."

For a period just short of a hundred years the James River Canal occupied the thought, the economy and the politics of the citizens of Virginia, varying from the idealistic to this single tangible project of prime importance in State financing.

Many water routes were spawned within this State, and enjoyed fleeting popularity in most instances, but the James River and its major tributaries reached almost entirely across the eastern part of the then political unit, while the Kanawha River with its eastern tributaries reached almost to the western of the James' branches, and could thus deliver heavy trade items down the Ohio and the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and the open sea lanes.

Much of the life and times of the James River Canal included attempts to wed the two great river systems, both lying in the same State until West Virginia established its own political entity.

Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spottswood, of the Colony of Virginia, after his explorations through the western country in 1716 suggested the connection of the Atlantic seaboard with the west via the James River, over the Alleghenies and down the Kanawha.

In 1748 George Washington, then a sixteen year old lad but surveying the holdings of Lord Fairfax in the valley of the Alleghenies, made a similar recommendation, and again in 1754 carried this idea to Governor Dinwiddie and his Council upon his return from contact with the French forts in the west.

The House of Burgesses in 1765 passed an act to improve navigation of the James River and Washington supported this objective.

In 1784 Washington, now a mature soldier, agriculturist and political scientist, strongly urged Governor Benjamin Harrison to extend transportation, communication and unification of this State by this means of development.

On recommendation of the Governor a charter was issued in 1785 to the James River Company with Edmund Randolph as acting President, vice Washington who declined to serve.

He over endorsed the 100 shares of the Company donated to Washington in recognition of his service, to the Liberty Hall Academy, in Lexington, Virginia, and the College, heir to the Academy, enjoyed the yearly dividend until the shares were retired by the State in the early years of this century.

Legislative conditions of 1785 provided for the collection of tolls; maintenance of navigation at all seasons for boats of one-foot draft; and outlined plans for improvements.

It did not include extension over the Alleghenies to the Ohio, but navigation was to be provided as far west as Crow's Ferry at the mouth of Looney's Creek (now Buchanan).

100 shares at once increased the first issue of 500 shares, at $200 per share,, probably the donation to Washington.

It was 1795 before the first seven miles, to Westham, was ready for navigation by boats of one-foot draft, and improvements for navigation to Crow's Ferry were reported by 1801, and a 3% dividend was declared.

Branches were extended from the James up the Rivanna and North Rivers over the next four years and full tolls collected, indicating acceptance of the work, and stock sold at par by 1806.

Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury, in his report of 1808, "Public Roads and Canals" referred to the James River Canal as one of the most successful internal improvements in the country, with a 25-foot canal width and locks 80 feet long with 3-foot depth, but he was quite critical of the maintenance on the River.

 It may be noted here and later on that canals were cut only as required and that improvements in widths and draft continued with the same criteria.

Subsequent to the Gallatin report, although probably not affected thereby, the State appointed a Commission to view and report on the extension of this route westward, but nothing was done.

A year later a 22-member Commission, including John Marshall as head, James Breckinridge, William Lewis, James McDowell, William Caruthers and Andrew Alexander, was appointed and began its travel by boat from Lynchburg September 1, 1812, to Crow's Ferry; to Dunlop's Creek, head of navigation; thence overland locating a road as they went; past Bowyer's Sulphur Springs (now White Sulphur); to Anderson's Ford at the mouth of Howard's Creek on the Greenbrier River, the head of western navigation, to its mouth; thence down the New and Gauley Rivers to the Great Falls of the Kanawha; which they reached September 28, 1812.

The report of this Commission rendered in 1816 urged this route, estimates of cost varying from $190,000 to $600,000.

The War of 1812 delayed action on the Canal for the duration but the James River Company was the strongest corporation in Virginia at this time.

The report of the Commission in 1816 led to an act to create a fund for internal improvements; establishment of a Board of Public Works and to empower it to appoint a Principal Engineer, a Secretary and such other administrators as deemed necessary. L. Baldwin, the first Principal Engineer, made a more detailed survey of the route traversed by the Commission, and the first report of the Board of Public Works recommended this project under the cooperative efforts of the Federal government, and the States of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Inhabitants along this route petitioned in support of the recommendation in 1817, and Washington College, recipient of George Washington's shares in the James River Company, joined, with the added request for a more efficient plan for the improvement of the James River itself.

The Attorney General of Virginia brought suit in 1818 against the Company to enforce the terms of the charter as to maintenance and improvements, although some work had been done on the branches up the Willis, Rivanna and North Rivers.

Thomas Moore was employed to make a more detailed survey of the route than had been by Baldwin, and was aided by Isaac Briggs as a consultant, and this extended from Richmond to the Kanawha. As a result of their report Governor Edmund Randolph urged action as " . . .

The subject is now mature for the decision by the Legislature" (House Journal 1819-24, page 144). The cost estimates submitted by the two engineers varied from $1,927,067 to $1,945,446, to include 3-foot drafts for boats; a road from Dunlop's Creek to the Great Falls of the Kanawha at $100,000; and ". . . ample accommodations to the trade on the south side of the (James) river.", (Virginia Acts 1819-20, Section II, page 40.) Provisions for toll charges to pay the 12% dividend for 12 years and thereafter 15%, were passed.

Although practically State owned because of State funding it was only in the Virginia Acts of 1822-23 that the charter was taken over by the State, with operations continuing in the hands of the James River Company.

Claudius Crozet, a former soldier under Napoleon, more recently Professor of Mathematics and of Engineering at the United States Military Academy and just appointed Principal Engineer, in 1824, of the Board of Public Works made an elaborate survey of the Canal routes assisted by Benjamin Wright, builder of the Erie Canal.

As a result of this survey and report the General Assembly authorized a canal through the Blue Ridge.

In spite of reports of completion and of work on the Canal only 34 miles had been completed, within the then specifications, and an imperfect road of 100 miles opened, and the clearing of the Kanawha River had been planned by 1824.

James Madison presided at the "Internal Improvements Convention", held in Charlottesville in July 1828, and while the Canal continued to be the largest corporation in the State and the extension to the Kanawha was the most important item on the agenda, no action resulted due to overriding sectional politics.

The turnpike from Dunlop's Creek over the Alleghenies to the Ohio was completed in 1829 at a total cost of $192,874.78 for the 208 miles of its length.

The cross section was a roadway 22 feet in width, with a crown in the center, and sloped ditches.

The bridges over the Greenbrier and Gauley Rivers were considered as excellent and cost $18,000 each.

Crozet took a strong position in support of railroads, then coming into use, believing that these would supplant water transportation through central Virginia.

Hatton Ferry

 His associate, Wright, took the opposing view holding that a combination of canal with railroad would serve best, and this difference confused the public, delaying action, and the James River Company languished.

By 1832 expenditures on the Canal had amounted to $1,349,709.57, and a joint venture of public and private funding was incorporated as The James River and Kanawha Company.

Under this new organization there would be a canal to Lynchburg, with railroad connection to an appropriate point on the Kanawha, thence improvements on the latter as far as the Ohio.

The standard cross section of the canal was to be trapezoidal, a 35-foot bottom width by 50 feet at water line and a depth of five feet, with suitable tow-paths.

A later recommended location was to extend the Canal to Covington (Dunlop's Creek). The Chief Engineer of the Company was Benjamin Wright with Simon W. Wright, Daniel Livermore and Charles Elliott as assistants.

Surveys were completed and 73 miles of canal construction advertised for bids to be opened in December 1835, anticipating completion by July 1838.

The 120 miles from Maiden's Adventure to Lynchburg were divided into 201 sections for construction and the end of 1836 let 161.

The turnpike to the Great Falls of the Kanawha being found in need of repairs, this was undertaken. Benjamin Wright resigned at this time his position as Chief Engineer to enter into private practice as a consultant.

Construction on the Canal continued in spite of the panic of 1837, strikes on the line and replacement of Irish labor by slaves.

Work was completed to Lynchburg by 1840, and continued onward towards Buchanan (Crow's Ferry), through the Blue Ridge, and its connection in Richmond to tidewater.

The Richmond to Lynchburg division of the Canal contained 58 locks, 11 aqueducts, 191 culverts and 133 farm and road bridges.

Committees from both Houses of the General Assembly examined the work and found it well done and economical and the administration conscientious, although it was criticized for initiation of the extension beyond Lynchburg before other stated priorities were underway.

The stockholders disregarded recommendation by the Legislature that administrative salaries be reduced. The greatest flood since that of 1795 occurred in 1842 breaking the Canal in 103 places and the James River overflowed its banks for 24 miles. The second auditor's report of 1844 showed the total accumulated costs to date to have been $7,153,370.79.

A controversial resolution for a continuous rail line versus a canal and railroad beyond existing construction was passed at a stockholders meeting in December of 1845, and while this brought about changes in the Company management through resignations of those not favoring the railroad.

State funds were made available to complete the tidewater connections in Richmond and to extend the Canal to Buchanan.

Connection at the latter location was completed in November 1847, adding 50 miles to the Canal and containing 38 locks, 4 stone and 7 timber dams on the River, 8 culverts and 48 square drains, 17 miles of towpath and 2 farm bridges, and a vehicular bridge in Lynchburg.

The cost of this division was $2,422,566.

The distance from Richmond was 196.5 miles with 36.75 miles in slack water navigation, costing $8,259,184 (no explanation is given for the divergence of total cost here with the sum of the costs of the two divisions except the figures came from two different researchers), exceeding the Erie Canal cost of $7,143,789 which had a section of 28 feet bottom width, a 4-foot depth, and a 40-foot water line width versus the James River Canal of 35-foot bottom width, 5-foot depth, and 50-foot water line width.

 The Company unwisely began work on the third division of 47 miles to Covington in 1851, and which had 10 locks, 3 aqueducts and a 1,900-foot tunnel in it.

The construction was abandoned in 1856 after an expenditure of $638,058.58 was made, practically a total loss to the Company. Several laterals along as many feeder rivers had been undertaken between 1837 and 1858.

The Kanawha extension suffered neglect under management of both Companies, expenditures on its improvements being $91,666.72 and $61,170.40 by the James River Company and The James River and Kanawha Company respectively.

Contracts for the work were loosely controlled in that "dog chutes", to permit draft, were zigzag regardless of currents or types of boats and passage in some places at limited water flows only.

Major freight on the Kanawha in 1854 was some 3,000,000 bushels of salt, worth $1,000,000, and in 1855, 20 coal companies near Charleston were shipping coal.

Boats for transportation were supplied by the user while the Canal Company provided the right of way, unsatisfactory at times, but profitable.

The turnpike road from Dunlop's Creek to the Big Sandy River, headwaters of the navigation westward, was an obligation of both Canal Companies since it was unnecessary link overland between the two river basins, but was never appreciated due to its costly administration and maintenance.

From 1852 it gradually decreased in importance as other overland routes developed.

In spite of the fact that beginning in 1854.-railroads made increasing inroads into canal freight haulage, as late as 1859 tonnage through the Canal was in excess of three times that of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, the most important rail line in the State at the time, and 2,500 tons more than the combined tonnage handled by the four railroads entering Richmond.

The James River and Kanawha Company was in 1860 still the most powerful corporation in Virginia, a State more dedicated to agriculture than industry, and to politics than to commerce.

The Company consistently made profits, and was as consistently ". . . handicapped by sectional animosities and jealousy of rival interests . . . (runaway, "The James River and Kanawha Company), and while almost entirely State owned, for this very reason was most sensitive to Legislature influence.

The users, but having to construct, criticized it and at times to operate on borrowed capital at high interest rates kept it heavily involved.

The continuous docks at Richmond were 4,100 feet long by an average of 100 feet wide. As contracts were activated under Wright's plans 1,400 were employed on the Maiden's Adventure Dam to Lynchburg division in 1836 increasing to 3,300 by 1837.

Most of the labor was by Irish immigrants, but a cholera epidemic on the section from Lynchburg to Balcony Falls caused a strike and although promised a 20% wage increase if they remained to completion, some 200 left for work in the west, and their places were taken by slaves although such work was far from as efficient.

Property of the Canal Company as the second division, from Lynchburg to Buchanan was completed, consisted of 75 deck boats, 66 open boats, 54 batteaux which required 425 mules and horses and 900 men to operate.

Freight rates were the same up or down stream at 6.5¢/ hundredweight. Six packet boats made the trip from Richmond to Lynchburg in 33 hours and the return in 31.5 hours; fare being $7.50 each way, including meals, berth and canal tolls; children and servants were carried at half fare; bar service was available on board; separation of men and women at night was by curtains across ship, with berths along the walls and mattresses on table tops.

Horses or mules were changed every 12 miles and while the rate was fixed at four miles per hour, with five miles if approved, this was often and illegally exceeded with races between boats, terminating at times in "free-for-alls" at canal-side grog houses where "fuel of strong stimulant stoked their pugilistic fires."

A pone of corn bread left by the winner at upper locks was an open invitation to continue the race with fisticuffs.

Among others of like temperance mind, Gen. John H. Cocke, of Bremo Recess, erected a pipe and delivery of cold spring water to the Canal side at Bremo Bluff, but this soon furnished "chasers" rather than taking the place of strong drink.

William Dean Howells made the observation "Canals in 1837 were a greater achievement than railroads in 1897."

Desmond Fitzgerald, early President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, says of the canal builders, "What they did not understand they conquered by diligent study, unwearied zeal and sound common sense."

These statements apply wholeheartedly and completely to this great Canal and its engineers and builders.

At about this time the Chief Engineer of the Company, E. Lorraine, called attention to the growing alienation of western Virginia due to the lack of communication between the east and the west, and by some authorities, it was thought that had eastern and south side Virginia suppressed their opposition and had proceeded with opening up transportation with the middle west, as had been dreamed of by Washington, Marshall, Madison, Breckinridge, and other statesmen, that with the completion of the Canal West Virginia might not have seceded and the Civil War been avoided, or otherwise ended.

In 1859 a French combine, owning 300,000 acres in western Virginia, proposed the purchase of the James River and Kanawha Company, and to complete the waterway from Richmond to the Ohio.

On March 29, 18 61, with the enthusiastic support of Governor John Leacher, the Legislature approved the sale of the holdings of the Company to the French combine, Virginia Canal Company, subject to certain controls.

The secession of Virginia from the Union on April 18, 1861, interfered with the consummation of the sale.

Negotiations resumed in 1866, with the Legislatures of both Virginia and West Virginia concurring in legislation to permit the sale but the French had lost interest.

During the first years of the Civil War the Canal rendered great service to the Confederacy, although the coastal blockade effectively cut off overseas trade.

Repairs became increasingly difficult in the second year of the War in spite of central government aid in funds, discount on purchase of equipment, and use of impressed and slave labor, until in 1864 when foremen and mechanics were called to active army duty the operations were practically shut down.

On March 6, 1865, General Philip Sheridan, U.S. Army, entered Scottsville and with the troops under his command proceeded to destroy the Canal works for some 90 miles, or to within 30 miles of Richmond.

The burning of this City after April 3, 1865, led to the destruction of roost of the Company records.

The new State of West Virginia had confiscated, on May 15, 1862, the portion of the works in that State, transferring ownership to the counties through which these passed, and although some attempt was made to improve navigation on the Kanawha it was ineffectual.

The Richmond Times of February 2, 1867, stated "The Canal seems to be gravitating from bad to worse with constantly increasing rapidity . . .

Half a century or more of thought, labor, and distinguished administrative and engineering ability has left it almost in the articles of death....

It has a talent for sinking into a state of hopeless bankruptcy . . .

A broken down, impoverished concern like the James River and Kanawha Company cannot afford to maintain this army of well paid officials."

This obviously had to do with attempts at reorganization and resumption of operations.

The 31st Annual Report of the James River and Kanawha Company carries indication of its search for continuity, "The argument for the constitutionality of the act erecting West; Virginia into a separate State is not convincing and would carry no more weight with people of any State today, in the event that a disgruntled minority should appeal to it.

Furthermore, it is difficult to see the difference in principle involved in the secession of a section of a Commonwealth and in that of a section of the country at large.

Wherein lies the force of the reasoning that it is right in one case and wrong in the other?"

Sale or transfer to private enterprise, with Virginia herself deeply in debt, the aid of the Federal Government was sought to complete an artery of communication so important to national development and welfare.

In 1868 the General Assembly of Iowa voted a memorial in its behalf; a national commercial convention, with representatives of 28 States met in Louisville, Kentucky, October 12, 1869, memorialized Congress in favor of completion of the all-water route; another of 1870 in Cincinnati, continued the effort; the Ohio Legislature, on April 16, 1870, strongly urged the President, Congress, and Governors of adjacent States to this support that same year; the States of Virginia and West Virginia joined in these petitions; Kansas, on January 17, 1873, added its voice; and President Grant, in his message to Congress in December 1870, and again in 1872, referred to the James River and Kanawha Canal as among the three routes best suited to reduce transport costs of agricultural products to the Atlantic.

Apropos to the several requests through Congress, Maj. W. P. Craighill of the Army Engineers, made a survey of a continuous navigation between Richmond and the Ohio and the report, referred to the Committee on Commerce of the Congress, on February 11, 1871, proposed a summit level tunnel through the high point of the passage through the Alleghenies at an estimated cost of $47,622,267.

Subsequently further surveys and Congressional hearings resulted in favorable references by the several Committees, with the final estimate of cost not to exceed $60,000,000.

The panic of 1873 closed this financial avenue.

The flood of 1870 had not aided in this decision.

Railroads continued to compete and reduce Canal tonnage after 1875, but the James River and Kanawha Company managed to obtain a charter for the Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company, on March 27, 1876, the location and survey being made by Maj. Peyton Randolph in May and construction beginning in 1877, utilizing a large force of convicts furnished by the State.

Then the flood of 1877 sounded the death knell of the Company although repairs were partially successful, until another flood in 1878 obstructed efforts once more.

The General Assembly of 1877-78 passed the act of incorporation of the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad Company authorizing it to purchase the property and franchise of the James River and Kanawh Company.

After legislative and political discussions and adjustments the James River and Kanawha Company holdings, including the Buchanan and Clifton Forge Railway Company were sold to the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad Company.

Most of the railroad tracks were laid on the towpath of the Canal-a sort of tragic justification of the recommendations of the fourth Principal Engineer, Claudius Crozet.

It was the first operating canal system with locks in the United States and a vital commercial link needed to bind the Ohio and Mississippi valleys with the United States, instead of with France or Spain.

One more important improvement remained to be completed.

The nightmare on the trip was still Balcony Falls. In this four-mile pass, the James River drops 200 feet and the channel is full of rocks.

The few bateau men who could take a batteau through "Bal-co-ny" were in much demand.

Pig Iron, a standard cargo in those years, was recovered in great quantities from the river bottom in this area.

Plagued by inefficiency, the company was taken over by the state and a new engineer, Claudius Crozet, was appointed.

A crew of mostly Irish and Scottish workers completed the Balcony Falls Canal in 1828.

The canal had been extended about seven and a half miles along the northern bank of the river in the James River Gorge through the Blue Ridge Mountains, just west of Lynchburg.

Virginia led in the adoption of the Constitution as it had in the revolution.

General George Washington

George Washington presided over the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. The Virginia Plan for the Union submitted by its delegation became the basis of the convention's work, and

Delegate James Madison

James Madison was perhaps the most effective member of the convention. Virginia's own ratification of the resulting document was, however, bitterly contested by the western small farmers group under Patrick Henry's leadership, and came by only a narrow margin on June 25, 1788, after commitments had been made to submit a bill of rights as a series of amendments.

Jefferson's election in 1800 initiated a quarter century of control of the presidency by the "Virginia dynasty" (Jefferson, Madison and Monroe) and fixed their liberal agricultural programs firmly in American political tradition.

Prior to 1800, the navigation of the James River was improved by the introduction of sluice navigation created by building wing dams two thirds of the way over the river to throw an increased volume of water over the best channels at the rapids.

During an 1808 report written by Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin of the Jefferson Administration on transportation,

 He stated that the James River Sluice Navigation was one of the best in the country. By 1816, sluice navigation was opened for batteaux as far upstream as Lynchburg.

Now the James River could be navigated as far north as Buchanan. Dr. Morse's Gazette, published in 1826, stated that boats drawing twelve inches of water could ascend to that point."

These improvements made continuous navigation possible for 220 miles west of Richmond.

At Buchanan, the river route connected with the Midland Trail over the Alleghenies which had been surveyed and opened by Andrew Lewis, a contemporary of George Washington and fellow surveyor, who had mapped out this part of the country for a land company owned by his father and other wealthy planters in the early 1750's.

This method of navigation also stepped up the movement of freight and the increase of trade and the encouragement of manufacturing and industry.

Not only did the batteau haul tobacco, but also iron from the new Oxford furnace, six miles down the river from Lynchburg.

This meant more batteaux building yards and a greater increase in the number of trained watermen.

The batteau lines were often manned by freedom loving, foot loose type of independent white men. Some of the free negros owned their own batteaux.

Toward the later end of the era some of the large freight lines were entirely manned by specially trained negro hands.

These men were experts in their work. It is clear from the James River Company's 1818 survey that "taking a loaded batteau down to Richmond was still hard, dangerous work with no guarantee of success".

For the next eighty years, batteaux and later canal packet boats and freighters dominated the moving of freight and people.

There were regular stop over spots on the James where batteau men from many batteaux would gather at dark around campfires.

Meals consisted of fixings made from salt pork and corn meal. Stories were told of the days' trials on the mighty James.

The men also made music, sang songs and danced. "These were colorful times", Porte Crayon, the pen name of David Hunter Strother, wrote in Virginia Illustrated magazine in 1871, "There are no boats on the river now. This cursed canal has monopolized all that trade.

I perceive, too, by that infernal fizzing and squalling, that they have a railroad in the bargain.

Ah me!

Twenty years ago these enemies of the picturesque had no existence.

The river was then crowded with boats, and its shores alive with sable boatmen, such groups!

Such attitudes!

Such costume!

Such character!"

So important was the transportation of the James River by batteaux that the disruption of this system of freight carrying caused local depressions and hardships.

The draught of 1808 caused a stoppage of transportation because of such complete low water in the James. By this time Lynchburg had already become a huge tobacco market.

The tobacco from the year before was hogshead rolled in from miles around to the overflowing warehouses. It could not be moved downriver so the buyers were shy about buying.

As the money for the tobacco was not to be had, the planters had no money to turn over to the factors and traders for supplies for their plantations.

Until the rains came again, it was hard times.

By 1816, Lynchburg's population was 3,087, and of that, about half were slaves.

The reason for the unusually high number of negroes, again had to do with tobacco.

Planters along the eastern part of Virginia no longer needed as many slaves to work in the fields because the soil had been all but exhausted.

 In Lynchburg and the surrounding area, there was plenty of need for labor to clear the land, plant crops and build stores and homes.

Residents of the area either leased or bought slaves from eastern planters.

In 1796, Virginia was considered to have the largest population and the leading income of the time. However, the state was mostly agricultural and there were few towns.

These trade figures came mostly from tobacco. By 1830, Virginia was third among the states in population figures.

Most of this loss was due to Virginia failing to make the most of her natural opportunities.

Virginia entered an economic depression beginning in 1820.

The exhaustion of Tidewater soils and the competition of the newly opened plantations of the fertile Mississippi Valley strangled agriculture, trade and commerce declined. For decades the population remained nearly stationary.

Thousands of slaves were sold off annually to planters farther south and west. Internal tensions within the state grew sharper, and in a constitutional convention in 1829, a determined effort was made by the small farmers of the Piedmont, the valley, and the mountain areas to obtain equal representation in the legislature and to move toward the gradual elimination of slavery.

The failure of this effort, and revulsion against a slave uprising in 1831 led by Nat Turner, resulted instead in a stricter slave code and a more rigid fixing of the plantation pattern.

In the 1850's, the general national prosperity, the coming of the railroads, and the large-scale introduction of wheat as a staple crop promised some recovery from the long stagnation.

By 1828, construction was approved for the Rivanna River and Rockfish Gap Turnpike, which made for easier overland freight passage from Staunton and Charlottesville to Scottsville.

Scottsville so benefited by the turnpike that rarely had a place of its size commanded such a volume of trade.

In the year 1830, Scottsville brokers handled more than 25,000 barrels of flour, 600 hogsheads of tobacco and 50,000 bushels of wheat as well as lumber, fibers, iron, and lead from the mines, all loaded onto batteaux at Scottsville's busy wharves for the trip to Richmond.

Scottsville was originally named Scott's Landing, after Edward Scott.

His land patent was dated 1732 and covered a considerable area along the James River.

Albemarle County was born here.

 A meeting was held in 1745 at the home of Edward Scott's widow and new county lines were established. Six magistrates were chosen to be the first officers of the new county.

These Virginia gentlemen were Doctor William Cabel who owned property (a grist mill, ferry and later several tobacco warehouses) at Wingina, Allen Howard, of Howardsville, Joshua Fry, Peter Jefferson, Thomas' father, Joseph Thompson and Thomas Bellew. 

In 1761, the General Assembly passed an act, dividing Albemarle County into three parts, which are now Buckingham County, Amherst County and present day Albemarle County.

This division left Scott's Landing no longer the center of a vast county, but merely one of the corners of a much smaller county.

If Scott's Landing lost out in the matter of prestige and political importance, it did not suffer when it came to trade. It was now Charlottesville, named for Queen Charlotte, the new bride of George III.

 King George III of England

 that became the new county seat. Charlottesville was the birthplace of George Rogers Clark, defender of Kentucky and conqueror of the Northwest Territory during the Jefferson Administration.

His father, John Clark, patented land in Albemarle County in 1733.

In 1832, the old James River Company became the James River and Kanawha Company chartered to do the final link between the Ohio River and the tidewater of the James by canal and roadway.

Joseph Carrington Cabell, active in Buckingham County, was president of the company for its first twelve years and was known as the "Father of the James River and Kanawha Canal".

Four years later the initial financing was completed and work on the new canal was started from Maiden's Adventure to Lynchburg.

Eight years later the canal was completed to Lynchburg in the fall of 1840.

There was a great celebration when the first canal boat, the General Harrison, arrived laden with passengers and merchandise from Richmond.

The excitement was so intense that the speaker of the day fell off his platform on the boat into the canal.

The first passenger boat, the Harvey, left Richmond on November 25, 1841 and covered the 147 miles to Lynchburg in forty hours.

During the next year a line of packet boats would leave Richmond every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:30am for a fare of eight dollars.

And two boats, the Joseph C. Cavell and the John Marshall would leave alternately for Richmond.

The packet boats took thirty to thirty six hours to go from Richmond to Lynchburg, a remarkable savings in time over the ten days consumed by a batteau.

Hundreds of boats of different sizes were moved over to the now competed canal to be pulled along its towpath by hand, mules or horses.

In addition to a number of batteaux, two major types of boats plied the canal: huge wooden freighters up to fourteen and a half feet wide and ninety three feet long that could carry a load, on average, of 60 tons; and the more streamlined packet (passenger) boats, at least six of them with iron hulls.

It took ten more years for the James River and Kaneohe Canal to reach Buchanan, 196 miles upstream from Richmond and cost $8,259,000.

The first packet boat, the John Early, left Lynchburg for Buchanan on November 11, 1851.

At every lock along the line crowds gathered, cheering. A hotel, newly erected was the site for continued celebrations with dancing until daylight.

Buchanan gave promise of becoming the metropolis of southwest Virginia and a boom in real estate values was enjoyed.

In just one year, it has become a prosperous community and its financial future seemed to be secure.

The 1850 census showed 1,804 dwellings, 26 paupers, 4 deaf and dumb, 4 blind, 3 insane, 4 idiots, 5,550 males, 5,208 females, 2,027 male Negro slaves, 1,710 female Negro slaves, 203 free Negro males and 211 free Negro females. 1,060 attended school and 825 over the age of 25 could not read or write. Buchanan's total population was approximately 15,000.

The final leg from Buchanan to Covington, 47 miles away was never completed.

Revenues from tolls on the canals in 1860 would substantially decrease because of the immense competition from the railroad.

It was no longer profitable to ship freight by batteaux.

By March of 1861 and for the next four years, Virginia was the principle theater for hostilities during the War Between the States.

The batteaux would again see a familiar use.

As the opposing armies were destroying railroad lines, batteaux were again used as fast, flexible military supply carriers that could travel down the rivers with or without use of the canals.

Most central Virginia and the northern valley of Virginia had been devastated in the fighting, and Richmond had been nearly destroyed.

The forward surge of the railroads caused the James River and Kanawha Canal to gradually fade out of the picture.

That expensive waterway, the dream of George Washington had capitulated to the new, faster railroad.

Badly battered during the Civil War and almost wrecked by a severe flood in 1877, its passenger packet boats and freight boats made their last trips in 1880.

George W. Bagby wrote in The Old Virginia Gentleman and other Sketches, "If the James River does not behave better hereafter than it has done of late, the railroad will have to be suspended in mid-heavens by means of a series of stationery balloons; traveling, then may be a little wobbly, but in all events, it won't be wet."

In the end, the canal was purchased by the railroad (now CSX Corporation), which laid its track on the towpath.

The Great Kanawha Canal Turning Basin in Richmond was filled in and used as a rail yard.

After the War Between the States and through the early 1900's, batteaux were used around the country as freight carriers where railroads and highways could not reach, but they would never again see the golden years as between 1785 and 1850.

It was stated by John Fontaine, a James River Basin water transportation researcher, "The dates of the sluice form of navigation in Virginia are from 1749 to 1850 when the canal stopped at Buchanan.

That means the system was used for one hundred years.

The canal was not finished to Lynchburg until 1840. The railroad was put down on the towpath and completed by 1882. Which form of transportation existed the longest?

 It is all right to get romantic about the canal.

It did improve the transportation on the James for both passengers and freight, but it was outmoded before it was built.

There has been a historical failure to give credit due by the Virginia historians to the dugout canoe and bateau forms of transportation."

In 1983, during a difficult excavation of the CSX rail yard for what is now the James Center in Richmond, the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society stood a steady vigilance.

At the excavated twenty-three foot level, recognizable remains of batteaux being uncovered rewarded them. Excavation would be halted for two weeks as volunteers from the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society and the Archeological Society of Virginia ventured down the muddy incline to record the discovery.

What they found from the depths of what would become a new high-rise office complex were sixty three sunken canal boats, most of them batteaux, which were sunk 150 years earlier in what was then the turning basin for the Kanawha Canal.

Complete batteaux skeletons were taken from their watery grave and stored for future research.

Drawings and measurements of others were recorded.

This was the first time, in this century, that there was enough detail to actually build a batteau.

Dr. William Trout from the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, while planning their annual meeting in Fluvanna County, introduced the findings of the excavation at the old Turning Basin to fellow society member and past president, Joe Ayers.

Joe encouraged local support in the form of donations, materials, time and labor given by the residents of the town of Columbia to build the first James River Batteau in modern times, the "Columbia".

Joe Ayers and his crew, many from the town of Columbia, took their new batteau on its maiden voyage from Lynchburg to Tuckahoe Plantation outside Richmond in 1984.

Joe was stricken with "Batteau Fever" and his dream became what is now the James River Batteau Festival, recreating the batteau era on the James River, which is uniquely significant to our American heritage.

The year 1985 found the new James River Batteau Festival, sponsored by the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, a reality.

The ten newly built batteaux that left Lynchburg for Tuckahoe Plantation were named "Columbia", "Minnie Lee", "Richmond Rockett", "Spirit of Amherst", "Grand Dame de le Forest", "CeeVeeSeaSea", "Appomattox", "Chief Powhatan", "Lord Chesterfield" and "Maiden's Adventure".

 The festival has continued to flourish and the year 2001 will mark the 16th annual festival.

We expect in the neighborhood of 17 boats will continue the rich tradition of tracing the route the original batteaux took in the late 1700's. By Dian McNaught, aka Captain Rose of Nelson.

 The Civil War In Scottsville

War! War!! So read The Scottsville Register's headlines on Saturday, April 20, 1861.

Three days earlier in Richmond, the Virginia State Convention adopted an ordinance of secession from the Union. That evening the Scottsville Guard, a militia unit commanded by Captain Henry Gantt, received a telegram ordering them to arms.

Their immediate assignment was to board a Charlottesville train destined to capture the weapons and storage arsenal in Harper's Ferry.

Although Gantt's unit could not reach Charlottesville in time, his men began drilling on Scottsville streets. By Saturday, the Howardsville Blues joined the Scottsville Guard, forming two companies of the 19th Regiment of Virginia Infantry.

Scottsville eagerly donated money to these soldiers, and women produced uniforms, tents, and knapsacks.

After days of drilling, these two militia units joined up with their regiment and departed for Manassas in early May 1861.

Their departure from Scottsville was accompanied by a tremendous public outpouring of celebration and grief.

By June 1861, the call went out for more soldiers to join the Confederate Army.

Although pressed to its emotional and physical limits, Scottsville produced another company, called the Scottsville Grays, with the help of a few recruits from neighboring Fluvanna County.

The Grays soon became Company D (later Co. E) of the 46th Virginia Infantry and were commanded by Scottsville's Captain James C. Hill, the proprietor of a local lumber company.

Hill's company left Scottsville for western Virginia in late June, receiving a more subdued farewell from townspeople, who perhaps realized by then that the war would be long and costly.

From Civil War letters and first-hand accounts, we have a fascinating glimpse of Scottsville life during the war.

Families and friends of our soldiers occupied themselves with earning a living in a largely agricultural environment with a male workforce consisting of boys and old men.

Eyes and hearts were always focused on our soldiers on the battlefront.

Spare food and clothing were sent to the troops at the front, supplementing the soldiers' meager rations in an army without a well-established supply infrastructure.

Many times the food sent to local soldiers meant meals were sparser on Scottsville plates.

Still, town thoughts were of its soldiers and aiding the Confederate cause.

On the front lines, Scottsville soldiers did their duty and thought of home. Occasionally, soldiers returned to Scottsville on leave or disabled; others returned in coffins.

As the war continued, many local boys coming of age ran off to join up with Confederate units such as the 19th VA and 56th VA Infantries.

Thirteen young men alone departed Scottsville to join Mosby's Rangers, including the under aged Henry H. Harris and Zach Jones.

After four long years of war, the enemy and devastation came to Scottsville.

On March 6, 1865, Major General Philip H. Sheridan's expedition of nearly 10,000 Union soldiers departed Charlottesville.

Their mission was to destroy the James River Canal and the Virginia Central Railroad.

The expedition separated into two columns with Sheridan and Brevet Major General George A. Custer leading the 3rd Cavalry southwest through North and South Gardens to destroy the railroad.

Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt and Brigadier General Thomas C. Devin headed south to Scottsville with the 1st Cavalry and orders to destroy the canal, bridges, mills, manufactories, and rebel food stores.

 The destruction of Scottsville began at 3 p.m. on that March day, as noted in General Devin's official report: "At this point, three canal boats were captured, one loaded with shell (9600) and two with the Government commissary stores and tobacco.

These were totally destroyed and burned, together with a large cloth mill, a five-story flouring mill, candle factory, machine shop, and tobacco warehouse.

Each of these buildings was crammed with products of its manufacture to a surprising extent, and all were totally destroyed."

The intense heat of the flourmill fire charred nearby homes, although no loss of life occurred. Canal locks and bridges above and below town also were destroyed or severely damaged.

The last of Devin's men departed Scottsville on March 7th and headed west up the towpath to continue their canal destruction duties and join Sheridan's column at New Market (Norwood).

On March 8th, Sheridan's united command moved back down the James River towards Columbia, arriving in Scottsville on Thursday night, March 9th.

The roads were horrible due to the spring thaw and heavy rains, and the soldiers were tired and hungry. Legend has it that Sheridan and Custer rested the night at Cliffside while Merritt commandeered Old Hall.

By this stage of the expedition, Sheridan's men were down to their last 'coffee and sugar' rations, and their horses suffered from fatigue and hoof rot.

They relied on the Scottsville countryside for 'subsistence and forage' and ransacked and looted homes, barns, and any potential hiding place for food, horses, and valuables.

Cliffside's carriage house and barn were torched, although the jewelry, which Mrs. John O. Lewis buried earlier near their chicken house, went undiscovered.

Yankees stuffed hams in their knapsacks and strapped dead chickens to their saddles.

At age 5, Fannie Patteson stood at a second floor window and watched her backyard fill with strange men, who upset their beehives and crammed honey into their mouths.

As the Yankees snatched up every horse they spotted, twelve year-old Luther Pitts hid two local horses in the basement of the Barclay House on Main Street. Miletus Harris and his son, Charles, beat back the flames on their Main Street store as the nearby Columbian Hotel went up in smoke.

Finally on March 9th, Sheridan's army departed Scottsville and continued along the James River to Columbia, leaving Scottsville charred and hungry. It would take forty years for the town's economy to recover.

St. Anne's Episcopal Parish

St. Anne's Parish was founded as a Church of England parish in 1745.

During the pre-Revolutionary war period, this parish was the center of sacred and secular life in Albemarle County.

The original parish church was "The Ballenger Church" near Howardsville.

North Garden Church, Forge Church and Broken Backt Church near Palmyra followed.

Our most famous parishioner of the Colonial Period was Thomas Jefferson.

Unfortunately, none of these pre-Revolutionary war buildings survived although historic signs near their locations tell their story.

Today, the parish is comprised of three beautiful active churches:

Christ Church, Glendower, Keene, 1832; St. John's Church, Scottsville, 1875; St. Stephen's Church, Esmont, 1914.

St. Anne, the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus, is said by an ancient Christian tradition, to have been married to Joachim.

For many years they were without children until finally they were blessed with a child, a girl, whom they called Mary.

They raised her in their own strong Jewish faith, and arranged her marriage to Joseph of Nazareth. However, before they came together, the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus, Son of God.

As grandparents of Jesus, Anne and Joachim were naturally involved in raising him and assisting his parents. They were close to the holy Child.

People throughout the ages have prayed to St. Anne as someone aware of family needs. Her shrines, churches and parishes can be found everywhere in the Christian world.

In the mid 1700's, good Queen Anne of England was very generous to many parishes in the American colonies.

She provided books for clergy and many churches now proudly display the communion cups and patens given them by Queen Anne.

Anglican Christians showed their love and affection for good Queen Anne by naming their churches and parishes in honor of the one saint that shared her name - St. Anne.

In the diocese of Virginia there are two existing parishes that are named St. Anne; ours in Scottsville and the other in Reston.

Our own parish founded in 1745, was probably named to honor both St. Anne and good Queen Anne.

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