BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT VA‐### Kimballton vicinity Giles County Virginia
PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA MEASURED DRAWINGS
HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY National Park Service US Department of the Interior National Capital Regional Office 1100 Ohio Drive, SW Washington, DC 20242 HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT
HALS NO. VA-###
Location: The Big Stony Creek Historic District (BSCHD) is located along a one-and-three- quarters-mile stretch of Norcross Road (Route 684) in the vicinity of Kimballton, Giles County, Virginia, approximately one mile northeast of the New River and 3.25 miles northeast of Pearisburg, the county seat of Giles County. Coordinates are: latitude 37.370535, longitude -80.674879 (north corner of district boundary); latitude 37.366247, longitude -80.671977 (east corner of district boundary); latitude 37.351064, longitude -80.691319 (south corner of district boundary); and latitude 37.353837, longitude -80.693814 (west corner of district boundary). The coordinates were obtained on March 7, 2019, by plotting the location on Esri World Imagery aerial photography, dated March 28, 2013.
Significance: A 2016 survey noted that the BSCHD “exhibits the physical characteristics of a potential NRHP rural historic district, including a concentration of buildings that are united historically by their geography, date of construction, construction materials, and function.”1 The district comprises resources that share a common period of significance in a community that grew around the development of the Norfolk and Western (N&W) Railway (historically the Big Stony Railway [035-5126]), the rich industry of the lime quarry, and the natural resource of Big Stony Creek.2
Description: The BSCHD (Virginia Department of Historic Resources [VDHR] ID #035-5127) is a collection of diverse historical resources—farm houses, a church, a small cemetery, a railroad corridor, and an industrial mine—set amidst a rural, agricultural, and mostly forested mountain landscape that straddles the namesake creek, which flows southwestward to the New River. The district is located in Giles County, founded in the early nineteenth century as one of several counties in southwestern Virginia that make up a region known as the New River Valley. This fertile region attracted settlement, agriculture, and industry throughout history. Following the seventeenth-century explorations of frontiersmen from eastern Virginia, the first settlers trickled into the New River Valley in the mid-eighteenth century and gradually made their way to what became Giles County. Agriculture was central to life in this period and continued to be so through the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century. Industrial development in the form of a limestone mine reached the district in the mid-twentieth century. Agriculture and industry were vital to the regional economy and foundations for community
1 New South Associates, “Phase 1 Reconnaissance”. 2 Ibid. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 2
life into the twentieth century. The historical remnants of agriculture and industry in the BSCHD, while they may appear unrelated, are connected in the sense that they illustrate important phases in the story of southwestern Virginia.
DESCRIPTIONS OF RESOURCES WITHIN THE DISTRICT
The BSCHD (035-5127) contains seven previously recorded historic resources and four previously unrecorded historic resources, listed in order from north to south:
• Big Stony Creek Road (Route 635); • Norcross Road (Route 684); • Big Stony Railway (035-5126); • Caldwell House (035-5123); • Curtis Caldwell House (035-5122); • Caldwell Boarding House (035-5121); • Virginia Lime Plant (APG Lime Corp Plant #2) (035-5120); • Big Stoney United Methodist Church (UMC) (035-5119) and Cemetery (035-5139); • McDonald Place (035-5118); • Masters House (035-5117); and • Snidow Cemetery.
Big Stony Creek Road (Route 635)
Big Stony Creek Road (Route 635) is a two-lane paved road that passes through a mostly forested area located at the northern end of the BSCHD. Only approximately one-third of a mile of the road is within the district boundaries. The road appears to follow a tributary of the Big Stony Creek near the southwest slope of Butt Mountain. The road intersects Norcross Road (Route 684) and continues north to its intersection with White Rock Road (Route 613). The road terminates at its intersection with Virginia Avenue (Route 636). Big Stony Creek Road is depicted as an unpaved road in Kimballton east of Norcross Road on the 1937 Pearisburg, Va. USGS quadrangle map.
Norcross Road (Route 684)
Norcross Road (Route 684) is an unmarked, paved road that serves as the main transportation corridor throughout the BSCHD. The road has a northeast- southwest alignment and runs roughly parallel to Big Stony Creek, on the creek’s south side. Norcross Road is approximately 2.2 miles in length, beginning at the intersection with Big Stony Creek Road (Route 635) and terminating at the New River southwest of the BSCHD. A road with the same alignment of the present- BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 3
day Norcross Road is depicted on the 1891 Dublin, Va. USGS quadrangle map linking New River access to the Kimballton community. Two buildings are depicted flanking the road by 1891. The 1932 Pearisburg, Va. USGS quadrangle map depicts the railroad track adjacent to Norcross Road. By 1937, present-day Klotz Road (Route 626) is depicted intersecting Norcross Road north of 752 Norcross Road (Masters House, 035-5117).
Big Stony Railway (Norfolk & Western [N&W] Railway) (035-5126)
The Big Stony Railway (035-5126) is a historic railroad corridor that was developed by the Big Stony Railway Company. The company received a charter from the government of Virginia in 1892 to build tracks from the N&W Railway along the New River to the community of Interior. The 10.5-mile track, which passed through the BSCHD, was completed in 1895. The N&W Railway Company purchased the Big Stony Railway in 1905. Two other regional railroads connected with the Big Stony Railway in 1909: the Interior & Western Railroad and the Potts Creek Railroad. In the following year, the N&W Railway Company purchased the two new railroads, uniting them with the Big Stony Railway to form a new, longer line called the Potts Valley Branch. The N&W Railway Company abandoned much of its Potts Valley Branch in 1932. The trackage within the BSCHD was one of the segments that remained in operation.
Through its years of service, the railroad hauled iron ore, agricultural products, timber, limestone, and passengers. The trackage in the BSCHD is approximately 3.25 miles. It has a roughly northeast-southwest alignment through the center of the Big Stony Creek Valley. The resource also includes associated railroad structures, such as trestles, culverts, and railroad spurs.
Caldwell House (035-5123) 141 Rogers Road
The Caldwell House (035-5123), built in 1945, is a one-story Minimal Traditional dwelling located at 141 Rogers Road. The 1.1-acre parcel is situated on the northeast side of Rogers Road and east of the N&W Railway grade. The wood- frame building has an irregular plan and a concrete block foundation. The cross- gabled roof is clad with asphalt shingles and a brick masonry chimney extends from the intersection of the gables. The southwest façade includes a partial-width attached porch with a dropped shed roof. Simple columns support the porch, which is enclosed with a wood railing. The building includes six-over-six-light wood-sash windows and the exterior is clad with non-historic vinyl siding.
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 4
Curtis Caldwell House (035-5122) 129 Rogers Road
The Curtis Caldwell House (035-5122) is a one-story Minimal Traditional dwelling located at 129 Rogers Road on a 0.73-acre parcel. The small building, completed in 1945, is set back on a sod yard enclosed by a chain link fence. The building includes a small partial-width incorporated porch on its southwest façade. The porch has an unornamented ironwork support column and railing. The building’s cross-gabled roof is clad with non-historic standing seam metal. The exterior fabric of the building consists of non-historic vinyl siding, and its windows are replacement one-over-one-light vinyl-sash windows. The resource also includes a concrete-block garage, constructed ca. 1950.
Caldwell Boarding House (035-5121) 114 Rogers Road
The Caldwell Boarding House (035-5121) is a ca. 1890 two-story frame vernacular building, located at 114 Rogers Road. The 4.5-acre property is located adjacent to the N&W Railway grade and includes two store buildings, a concrete block garage, shed, and non-historic frame construction railroad switch house. The primary building’s three-bay southeast façade has a two-story porch and gallery, and a two-story rear ell addition extends from the northwest façade. The principal mass is clad with wood weatherboard, while the rear addition is clad with Masonite. The principal mass includes six-over-six-light and one-over-one-light wood-sash windows, and the rear addition includes replacement windows. The building’s exterior displays modest ornamentation, including turned posts and balustrade, pilasters, and window surrounds. The building’s original chimneys have been replaced with concrete flues. The building’s hipped roof is clad with asphalt shingles, and it has a concrete-block foundation. The building likely served railroad and local mining industry-related travelers.
Virginia Lime Plant (APG Lime Plant #2) (035-5120) 114 APG Plant II Lane
This ca. 1950 one-story office building (035-5120) is located east of Norcross Road and south of Big Stony Creek Road. The five-acre parcel also includes an N&W Railway spur for product transport. The building’s exterior is clad with stucco, and its side-gabled roof is clad with asphalt shingles. The building includes its original metal casement windows. A decorative concrete screen wall on the southwest façade visually divides the building. The office building is adjacent to other industrial infrastructure associated with plant production. The parcel also includes two open pit-type lime mines. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 5
Big Stoney United Methodist Church (UMC) (035-5119) and Cemetery (035-5139) 347 Norcross Road
This one-story frame vernacular church (035-5119) is located at 347 Norcross Road on the west side of Norcross Road west of Big Stony Creek. Local history indicates that the building was constructed in 1891.3 The building has simplistic exterior ornamentation, including pilasters, gable end returns, and an ironwork gable vent. The building is clad with its original wood weatherboard siding and the principal mass has a small, one-story front gable addition on its northeast façade that serves as a vestibule. There is also a second gabled addition on the rear façade. The windows are one-over-one-light wood-sash windows with triangular pediments, and the main entrance features a simple wood panel door. The building’s front-gabled roof is clad with standing seam metal, and its foundation is constructed from concrete and stone masonry. The building typifies small rural churches constructed throughout the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The property also includes a detached outhouse.
The Big Stoney UMC Cemetery (035-5139), which is within the district boundary, is located approximately 150 meters southeast of the namesake church. The cemetery appears in the modern Pearisburg topographic map although it is unnamed. Vocational researchers have noted sixteen marked burials in the cemetery. The oldest burial dates to 1898 and the most recent dates to 1958. The small cemetery is surrounded by a low, concrete-block screen wall with a mortar rendering on its cap. Inscribed in the cap, near the entrance to the cemetery, is “NOV. 17 1856.”
McDonald Place (035-5118) 587 Norcross Road
The McDonald Place (035-5118) is a ca. 1890 two-story Folk Victorian style dwelling located at 587 Norcross Road. The building is accessed from Norcross Road by a one-lane bridge that crosses Big Stony Creek. The building’s southeast façade includes a two-story incorporated porch and gallery with Folk Victorian- style turned posts and spindles in the balustrade. The cross-gabled roof includes star motif gable vents. The building includes one-over-one-light wood-sash windows arranged in singles and pairs. The exterior fabric of the building is wood weatherboard. The cross-gabled roof and porch are clad with standing-seam metal roofing. The foundation of the principal mass is unknown; however, the porch is built on a continuous concrete foundation. Two brick chimneys are located on the interior ridge of the roofline. One chimney appears to be original
3 Curtis Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek (Radford, Virginia: Brightside, 2002), 56. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 6
construction, and one appears to be an in-kind replacement. The McDonald Family has owned the 95-acre property since the nineteenth century. The parcel also includes a non-historic garage, four general purpose barns, a hay barn, five sheds, and a large pasture, which is located north of the main dwelling.
Masters House (035-5117) 752 Norcross Road
The Masters House (035-5117) is a two-story frame vernacular dwelling located at 752 Norcross Road (Route 684). A previous survey recorded the building’s construction as ca. 1850; however, the building is not depicted on the 1891 Dublin, Va. USGS topographic map.4 Maps of the parcel are not available until 1932, when the building is depicted adjacent to the railroad track. Based on the building’s scale, it may have served railroad traffic as a hotel or boarding house. The property is located on the south side of Norcross Road southeast of Big Stony Creek. The building’s primary five-bay façade faces north. The vernacular building has minimal exterior ornamentation and possesses no discernable style. The building is constructed on an L-plan footprint with a hipped, standing seam metal- clad roof. The building has four chimneys, including a brick masonry flue chimney on its east end, a single-shouldered brick masonry chimney on its west end, and two stone masonry chimneys on its rear wing. The building’s exterior is clad with wood weatherboard. The building’s foundation is obscured. The building’s first story includes six-over-nine-light, double-hung wood-sash windows, and its second story includes six-over-six-light and two-over-two-light, double-hung wood-sash windows. In addition to the main dwelling, the property includes a one-story tenant house, a large barn, and two shed outbuildings. The Snidow Cemetery is also reportedly on the property.
Snidow Cemetery
The Snidow Cemetery is located on a hill above the original Snidow homestead site, presently known as the Masters House (035-5117) (formerly the William T. Snidow residence). Burials within the cemetery date to the late nineteenth century, and two are recorded as having been relocated to the Birchlawn Cemetery in Pearisburg.5
The cemetery consists of at least seven and possibly as many as ten burials. The known burials include members of the Snidow, McDonald, and Guthrie families. Table 1 lists the burials as recorded in the VDHR data.
4 Ibid. 5 “Snidow Early History and Lineage.” Electronic document, http://www.snidow.org/lineage.htm, accessed November 20, 2018. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 7
Table 1. Snidow Cemetery Marked Burials. First Name Last Name Birth Year Death Year James R. Guthrie 1836 1892 Mary Burk Snidow Guthrie 1843 1886 William Turner Snidow 1812 1894 Christian Cephas Snidow N/A 1886 Martha Elizabeth McDonald N/A N/A Sallie Elizabeth McDonald N/A N/A Nancy Burk Williams Snidow N/A N/A Source: VDHR inventory form 035-5119.
A Snidow Family genealogical newsletter from 1978 described the Snidow Cemetery as follows: “On top of the hill behind the [William T. Snidow] house, on a small plateau, lies the family burying ground. Here are buried William T. Snidow, his wife Nancy, his little daughter Exonis [Exonia], his son Christian Cephas Snidow and his daughter and son-in-law Mary Burk Snidow and James Reyburn Guthrie.”6 A 2005 issue of the newsletter and a more recent description by Snidow descendants support the location of the cemetery as described in 1982.7
HISTORY: EXPLORATION AND THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY FRONTIER
Nearly seventy years after the 1607 founding of Jamestown on the James River in eastern Virginia, English explorers journeyed through the New River Valley. The Batte-Fallam Expedition (1671) was the first documented exploration of Giles County by Euro-Americans. Abraham Wood, a trader and frontier militia commander who had explored the Roanoke River in 1650, organized the expedition that sought to ascertain if the South Sea or Pacific Ocean lay beyond the Appalachian mountain. Wood picked Thomas Batte and Robert Fallam to head the small expedition. The Englishmen were aided by several Appamattuck and Saponi Native Americans as guides. Departing Fort Henry (now Petersburg, Virginia) in September 1671, they eventually reached the New River Valley and continued northward into present-day West Virginia where they determined the South Sea likely was much further away. They returned to Fort Henry; however, their expedition helped to establish English claims to the Ohio and Mississippi watersheds.8
The Batte and Fallam expedition, while it further established trade relations, geographic knowledge, and English claims to land in the Appalachian region, did
6 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2. 7 Mabel Peters, “On Visiting Two Snidow Cemeteries,” Snidow Association Newsletter 28, no. 1 (2005): 4; Snidow Association, “Snidow Cemeteries in Giles County, Virginia,” 2018, http://www.snidow.org/PDF/Cemeteries.pdf. 8 Alice Vance Briceland, “Thomas Batte,” Encyclopedia Virginia, 2013, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Batte_Thomas_fl_1630s-1690s#start_entry. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 8
not usher in a period of new settlement in the region. Over half a century passed until some of the first settlements in present-day Giles County were made. Big Stony Creek and the present-day BSCHD remained a wilderness largely unknown to the English and other Euro-Americans in this period. As trade connections with the Appalachian region increased in the early eighteenth century, a handful of settlers came to the New River Valley to establish homesteads. The frontier at this time was beset with unrest as various Native American groups were at war with one another. White settlers and traders, who often came into conflict with Native Americans, further deepened frontier tensions. In present-day Giles County, the tombstone of early settler Mary Porter gives testimony to the frontier violence of the period. Located in the Hale-McCorkle-Walhop Cemetery in the Glen Lyn area, the tombstone notes that she was killed in 1742 by Indians.9
Between the ebbs and flows of frontier disturbances, English land speculators from the more settled areas of the east sent new expeditions to gain knowledge of the Appalachian region. The Ohio Land Company, a speculation and trading entity, sent surveyor and frontiersman Christopher Gist to explore present-day southwestern Virginia and neighboring West Virginia in the early 1750s. Historians have since determined that Gist explored the Big Stony Creek area as well as Mountain Lake.10 The interests of entities like the Ohio Land Company were a threat to the French who had simultaneous claims to land in the Appalachia Region and the Ohio River Valley. The rising tensions erupted into the French and Indian War (1754–63), a conflict that brought violence across the frontier and drew in Native American fighters on both the French and the British side. After peace in 1763, the British gained vast new territory and solidified their hold in what later became Giles County.11
The years between the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War attracted new settlers to the New River Valley. The Loyal Land Company, established in 1749, owned much of the valley and encouraged settlement which came in “a great flood” in the late 1760s. Cultivated fields, churches, and new homesteads arose from the frontier. The majority of the new settlers in this period arrived as large, extended families who had connections to their neighbors via intermarriage or religious associations. Many came to the New River Valley and its tributaries via the Great Wagon Road, which extended from Pennsylvania to the Yadkin River in North Carolina. The settlers to the New River Valley
9 Curtis Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek (Radford, Virginia: Brightside, 2002), 78. 10 Patricia Givens Johnson, Mountain Lake Resort Book I: 1751-1900 (Christiansburg, Virginia: Walpa, 1987), 4. 11 Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754- 1766 (New York, New York: Vintage Books, 2000), 17. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 9
primarily had been residents of Great Wagon Road counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other parts of western Virginia.12
Despite the increase in settlement, the New River Valley remained exposed to certain risks, particularly as the Shawnee came into conflict with the advance of white settlement. Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774 involved colonists from Virginia and the Shawnee and affiliated tribes of the Ohio Valley. Lord Dunmore (John Murray, Earl of Dunmore) was the Royal Governor of Virginia from 1771–75. As white settlers increasingly encroached on Shawnee territory in the Ohio Valley, raids and violence escalated, including attacks in the New River Valley.13 In order to establish Virginia’s claim to territory in the Ohio Valley, Dunmore personally led troops from eastern Virginia towards Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania. Colonel Andrew Lewis raised a militia consisting largely of colonists from southwestern Virginia.14 Lewis’ militia followed the Kanawha River west. The Battle of Point Pleasant took place on October 10, 1774, where the Ohio River and Kanawha River meet in present-day Mason County, West Virginia. After the battle, the Shawnee and Dunmore signed a treaty at Camp Charlotte that placed the boundary of white settlement at the Ohio River.15
As new settlers arrived into the New River Valley, they established defensive positions at various sites. Local history tells of two forts in present-day Giles County—Fort Snidow and Fort Hatfield. The location of Fort Snidow was at the mouth of Little Stony Creek near modern Pembroke.16 According to a 1906 history of the New River Valley, Fort Hatfield was located along Big Stony Creek “on a farm belonging to the late David J.L. Snidow.”17 The fort reportedly was erected in 1774.18
Soon after Lord Dunmore’s War, the American colonies entered into a years-long struggle for independence from Great Britain. The American Revolutionary War (1775–83) brought a new period of war. While further settlement in the New River Valley was suspended, the independence that resulted from the war offered new opportunities for homestead and community building in the valley. The
12 Paula Hathaway Anderson-Green, “The New River Frontier Settlement on the Virginia-North Carolina Border 1760-1820,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 86, no. 4 (1978): 415–16. 13 David E. Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory (Huntington, West Virginia: Standard Printing & Publishing, 1906), 42. 14 Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds., Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774 (Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905), 390. 15 Virgil Lewis, History of the Battle of Point Pleasant (Charleston, West Virginia: The Tribune Printing Company, 1908), 56. 16 Mary French Boswell, “Fort Snidow Location Confirmed,” Snidow Newsletter 7, no. 1 (1984): 69. 17 Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, 42. 18 Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek, 41, 78. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 10
banks of the county’s waterways, such as the New River, Sinking Creek, Wolf Creek, Walker Creek, and Spruce Run, became the sites of new farms. Some of the early settlers harnessed water power to operate grist and lumber mills. Big Stony Creek attracted settlers in the 1770s. Among these early settlers were the Hatfield and Broomfield families. The Hatfields settled where Big Stony and a small tributary, Kimballton Branch, meet. The Broomfields settled where the Big Stony met the New River. Another early settler was George Pearis, a Revolutionary War veteran, who arrived in the 1780s and later would found the Giles County seat of Pearisburg.19 “The pioneers to Giles County found majestic mountains, awesome but beautiful, and rushing streams,” local historian Curtis Caldwell wrote. “They found great towering forests of trees and inspiring cathedral like palisades of rock. They found deer, elk, buffalo, bear, panther, wild cats, turkey, pigeons, black and gray squirrel. They found vipers, rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes. But above all else, they found freedom.”20
As Scots-Irish, German, English, Scottish, Dutch, Welsh, and other immigrants populated the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they employed agricultural practices that were a combination of their European heritage and those of Native Americans. From the latter, they adopted new crops and essential forest skills. The new ground these settlers broke often was planted in a mix of corn, beans, squash, and melons. They fenced the arable, cleared land, which often was 20 percent of their tract, and raised fences to keep livestock out. The abundant forests were common ground where they ranged hogs, cattle, and sheep. More than range land, the forests provided valuable commercial products such as animal skins, ginseng, and yellow root. Settlers also harvested food such as berries, game, and chestnuts.21
Chestnut trees, which grew in abundance in the Big Stony Creek area during this period, provided inhabitants with building material as well as sustenance. As local historian Curtis Caldwell has written, “The Appalachian forebears were embraced from cradle to grave by the magic American chestnut, and between the crib and coffin.” Every pioneer slept in a chestnut crib as a child and was buried in a chestnut coffin, Caldwell wrote. Chestnut wood was used for fences, bridges, homes, barns, and a variety of furniture. Residents gathered chestnuts for barter and also fed them to their animals. Chestnuts could be pickled or ground into flour for human consumption.22 Once a dominant canopy species, chestnuts are
19 Johnston, A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, 36–160. 20 Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek, 36–41. 21 Michael Best and Curtis W. Wood, “Agriculture,” in Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 396–97. 22 Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek, 112. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 11
now limited to the forest understory as a result of a blight that spread through the region’s forests in 1904.23
GILES COUNTY IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AND THE CIVIL WAR
Until the Civil War, most of the farms of the New River Valley existed for subsistence purposes. Through the antebellum period, however, the growth of transportation connections and the end of the frontier meant that farmers could devote more of their agricultural efforts to commercial products. Success often was dependent upon maintaining agricultural land with the minimal labor force available and producing goods that could be delivered to distant markets without perishing, such as herbs, whiskey, and livestock. Some farmers reached such a degree of financial success that they could become involved in other profitable ventures such as land speculation and industrial developments.24
The gradual expansion of farms and communities in the New River Valley influenced residents to band together in support of a new county in 1805. Giles County was formed in 1806 from parts of Montgomery (Virginia), Tazewell (Virginia), and Monroe (West Virginia) counties. The new county was named for William Branch Giles, who had served in the US House of Representatives and Senate when the county was named and would later become Governor of Virginia. Initially, the home of George Pearis in present-day Bluff City served as the county courthouse and county seat. The county government established a new site in 1808 on land Pearis donated. The new county seat thusly was called Pearisburg. Andrew and David Johnston were commissioned to survey the new town and lay out individual lots.25 Joseph Martin’s 1835 New and Comprehensive Gazetteer of Virginia spelled the name of the town “Parisburg.” Martin mentioned Peter’s Mountain, East River Mountain, Angel’s Rest, and Salt Pond Mountain as the most important peaks in the county.26
Slavery had been a feature of Giles County society since the early days of settlement. Although southwestern Virginia and the Appalachians in general lacked a large-scale cash crop that would have made slavery essential, the institution nevertheless was present. Giles County had a handful of plantations; however, the majority of slaves worked to supplement household or small farm
23 David L. Reynolds and Katie L. Burke, “The Effect of Growth Rate, Age, and Chestnut Blight on American Chestnut Mortality,” Castanea 76, no. 2 (2011): 129–39. 24 Best and Wood, “Agriculture,” 396–97. 25 Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, “Giles County Courthouse,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (National Parks Service, 1982). 26 Joseph Martin, A New Comprehensive Gazetteer of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia: Moseley and Tompkins, 1835), 347. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 12
labor, or those slaves who had special skills were hired out to other farms. In 1860, the later years of the antebellum period, the white population of Giles was 6,000 and the slave population was about 800. Of the 148 counties in Virginia (including present-day West Virginia), Giles was the ninetieth in terms of the size of its slave population.27 The comparatively small number of slaves in Giles did not diminish support for the institution among white inhabitants. As historian William Hayden Jr. has written, “slaveholders and non-slaveholders alike” supported the institution “out of a desire to control the black population and to uphold the commonly held belief of black inferiority.”28
In the antebellum period, turnpikes sprang up throughout southwest Virginia, and by the 1830s tourists were coming to Giles County on stagecoach lines. The Cumberland Gap Turnpike was chartered in 1834, and passed through Narrows, Pearisburg, and Newport. One road, the Mountain Lake Sulphur Springs Turnpike, passed over the northeastern end of Peters Mountain, bringing tourists to springs and resorts in West Virginia. The sulphur springs of western Virginia and present- day West Virginia were popular health resorts in the nineteenth century, and many of the most popular ones were located just to the north of Giles County. Visitors would travel by stagecoach and later by train to these remote resorts.29
Investors organized the Mountain Lake and Sulphur Springs Turnpike Company in 1856 with the goal to build a turnpike from Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County over Mountain Lake and then to a point on the Virginia & Tennessee Railway. The company also decided to build a resort at Mountain Lake. The hotel was constructed in 1856, and the turnpike route changed to run from Goodwin’s Ferry to Kire and then “across Peters Mountain along the route following the Stony Creek road” and then a stage road near Union “through Salt Sulphur Springs over Peters Mountain and White Oak Mountain to Stony Creek thence to Mountain Lake.”30
The Civil War had a far-reaching impact in Virginia. Even the most remote corners of the state felt the effects of the conflict that disrupted agriculture, communities, transportation corridors, and families. When the Virginia Secession Convention was held in April 4, 1861, delegates from Giles County voted for secession.31 A month later, a Confederate unit known as McComas’-French Battery formed. The
27 Henry S. Graham, Map of Virginia: Showing the Distribution of Its Slave Population from the Census of 1860 (Washington DC: H.S. Graham, 1861), Library of Virginia. 28 Wilburn Hayden Jr., “Slavery,” in Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 279. 29 Robert C. Friend, Giles County, 1806-1956 (Pearisburg, Virginia: Giles County Chamber of Commerce, 1956), 20. 30 Johnson, Mountain Lake Resort Book I: 1751-1900, 19–23. 31 University of Virginia, “Virginia Secession Convention,” 2018, https://secession.richmond.edu/visualizations/vote-maps.html#. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 13
unit would serve in western Virginia, the Richmond area, and finally in the Appomattox Campaign. The namesake of the unit were its captains, David A. French and William W. McComas. Giles County also raised the Giles Light Artillery that saw action in Tennessee and Petersburg.32
The town of Pearisburg was captured by the Union army during the conflict. In May of 1862, fighting took place at Narrows along the New River, where a natural gorge separates Peters Mountain and East River Mountain. Soldiers patrolled Peters Mountain and sent scouting parties through the woods and over the ridges.33 Big Stony Creek, Peters Mountain, and a trail through Symms Gap are depicted on a Confederate Army map from 1864.34 The map also shows the town of Pearisburg to the southwest, and several homesteads scattered along Big Stony Creek.
US President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War, passed through Pearisburg during the war and recorded some of his observations about Giles County in his journal. On May 5, 1862, he received reports that the Confederates had abandoned the Narrows. Two days later, his force set up camp in Pearisburg in the county courthouse. He wrote that the country about the New River was “romantic, highly cultivated, and beautiful.” He described Pearisburg as a “neat, pretty village with a most magnificent surrounding country.” Hayes and his forces had to retreat a few days later because his reinforcements never arrived.35
The Civil War marked a period of change in the agricultural scene in southwestern Virginia. Population growth had already been reducing the size of farms by 1860. As men left the farm to fight in the conflict, women were left to oversee farm operations, a role traditionally filled by husbands and sons. Traveling armies often raided farms for their stores. For the small number of slaveholders, the new status of their laborers forced a reevaluation of operations.36 Newly freed slaves in the region often were hired by their former owners after emancipation. Those who were not sought new livelihoods in the larger cities and towns of the region where more jobs were available and better community building opportunities existed.37
32 National Park Service, “Confederate Virginia Troops,” 2018, https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm. 33 George A McLean, Skirmish at Pearisburg (Lynchburg, Virginia: Blackwell, 2012), 78. 34 Jeremy Francis Gilmer, Map of Craig, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties, Virginia (Department of Northern Virginia, 1864), Map Collection, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/gvhs01.vhs00368/. 35 Rutherford B Hayes, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, vol. 2 (Columbus, Ohio: F.J. Heer Printing Company, 1922), 251–54. 36 Best and Wood, “Agriculture,” 398. 37 Wilburn Hayden Jr., “Freed Blacks, Postbellum,” in Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 256–57. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 14
GILES COUNTY IN THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES
Following the Civil War, Robert Putnam wrote an enthusiastic report on the potential of the valley of Big Stony Creek where he was a landowner. He noted in his 1871 report that the slope of the valley was low enough to accommodate the construction of a railroad. He described the agricultural and timber value of the land as excellent. “Dense forest of white pine, some of the trees more than a hundred feet high, a rich deep black soil and gentle slopes for drainage and cultivation, combine as many elements of value as can readily be found in one locality,” he wrote. In addition to white pine, black birch trees, chestnuts, beeches, maples, and many types of oaks could be found in abundance. The soil supported lush grass pastures with some reaching to the heights of the mountains. Putnam estimated that thousands of sheep and cattle could be grazed on these ranges. Furthermore, the local water was pure and the available labor was cheap. Putnam also noted tobacco growing “luxuriantly on the hillsides.”38
Railroad development in Virginia began in the antebellum period, but mountainous and remote Giles County was without the iron horse until well after the Civil War. The first railroads in the region were developed to haul coal and timber. 39 The N&W Railway Company, a multi-state railroad developer and operator, completed the New River Railroad, Giles County’s first railroad, in 1883. The route, which sought to connect with the Pocahontas coal fields in Tazewell County, followed the western side of the New River. The railroad enhanced transportation, commerce, and communication in the county. Before the century closed, new railroad corridors opened to connect with the N&W Railway: the New River, Holston, and Western Railway, which followed Wolf Creek, and the Big Stony Railway, which followed the namesake creek. The Virginia Railway, a competitor of the N&W Railway, opened along the eastern side of the New River in 1909. Railroad service stops evolved into depots that offered mail and telegraph services. Agriculture and commerce was aided by stations where cargo could be loaded for market. Passenger service brought the outer regions closer than ever. Tourists en route to Mountain Lake and Eggleston Springs could reach their destination faster by taking the rails to Eggleston and Pembroke where carriages awaited to take them to their resorts.40
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, agriculture in the New River Valley passed through changes. Railroad expansion into the region provided convenient access to markets for farmers but, in doing so, it increased
38 Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek, 1. 39 Robert L. Frey, “Railroad,” in Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 715. 40 Terri Fisher, Pearisburg and Giles County (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2008), 8. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 15
competition. In the same period, traditional products such as whiskey fell under federal taxation that challenged the many small producers that had once thrived. One of the greatest contributors to the decline in farming was the rise of new employment opportunities afforded by mining, logging, and railroad work. Logging and mining also impacted farming as these activities contributed to soil depletion and erosion across the region. In the same period, new fence laws eliminated the open range of earlier times, meaning that livestock raising required farmers to own sufficient acreage in order to participate.41
By the mid-1930s, specific figures for farms in the New River Valley become available. In 1935, there were nearly 7,500 farms in the region with the average farm size being 92 acres. Most were diversified operations that grew multiple types of crops for forage and sale. Different types of livestock were raised for home consumption and for market. Farmers often had landholdings on several discontinuous tracts in order to diminish environmental risks such as flooding. Farm families often labored together on the farm, as in earlier days, but also took jobs off the farm to supplement the family income.42
Industry had taken root in Giles County after the Civil War. Since the early days of pioneer settlement, nearly every community in the New River Valley had a tanner. By the late nineteenth century, this older profession had been elevated to a commercial level undertaking when a company known as Leas & McVitty began producing leather for shoes and boots in Giles County in 1895. Known as New River Tannery, their operation gave rise to the community of Bluff City.43 By 1920, industrial manufactured goods were responsible for twice as much of the economy in Giles County as agricultural products.44 Other industries present in Giles County in the early twentieth century included textile manufacturing and mining. Iron ore was mined on Peters Mountain.45 Near Kimballton, Limestone Inc. began operations on Big Stony Creek (north of the BSCHD) in 1915. At Klotz, the Virginia Limestone Company began operations in 1916. The Appalachian Power Company was established in 1919, influencing the rise of the town of Glyn Lyn.46
During the 1930s, coal, mining, and timber companies sold large tracts of land on Peters Mountain and throughout Giles County to the United States Forest Service
41 Best and Wood, “Agriculture,” 398. 42 Mary B. Lalone, “Running the Family Farm: Accommodation and Adaptation in the Appalachian Region,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 14, no. 1/2 (2008): 65–66. 43 Terri Fisher, Giles County (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2011), 84. 44 Francis Snidow and F.W. McComas, An Economic and Social Survey of Giles County (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1927), 499. 45 Caldwell, Up on Big Stony Creek, 91. 46 Fisher, Giles County, 83. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 16
for the creation of Jefferson National Forest.47 The National Forest system had its beginnings in the early twentieth century. Concerned with soil and ecological degradation as a result of destructive agricultural practices and intensive timber harvesting across Appalachia, local and national observers influenced the Secretary of Agriculture and leading conservationists to author a study of the forest of the region. The report, which warned of the dangers of continued exploitation of the forests, influenced the creation of the first national forests in the East through the Weeks Act of 1911. The Pisgah National Forest, located in western North Carolina and established in 1916, was one of the first in Appalachia.48
GILES COUNTY IN THE MID-TO-LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The mid-to-late twentieth century was a period of remarkable change in Giles County and the greater New River Valley region. World War II (1941–45) drew young men away from farms, exposing them to the wider world beyond and opening them to new opportunities. Transportation continued to evolve. Industry continued to expand. Agriculture underwent changes due to electrification, mechanization, and a gradual decline in farming. The rural character of Giles County nevertheless persisted through this period and the wilderness areas of the county were a draw for those who enjoy the great outdoors.
Between World War I and World War II, competition from automobiles and the general economic downturn weakened railroad companies. Despite a resurgence of use in the World War II period and postwar mergers intended to strengthen the companies, many smaller railroads fell into decline and were abandoned. Passenger traffic often was the first service that railroads dropped.49
By the postwar era, many of the older roadways in the county had been replaced with modern, paved highways that provided market outlets and regional connections. US Highway 460 passed east-west through the county, connecting many of the larger towns in Giles and reaching the larger regional cities of Roanoke and Lynchburg and also the West Virginia Turnpike. State Route 100 connected
47 Will Sarvis, The Jefferson National Forest: An Appalachian Environmental History (Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 2011), 65. 48 Hugh Irwin, “Forest Management and Conservation,” in Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 124–25. 49 Frey, “Railroad,” 715–17. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 17
Pearisburg with Dublin (Pulaski County) where US Highway 11 and, ultimately, Interstate 81, were located.50
Giles County industry continued to grow in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Standard Lime and Stone Company opened a plant in Kimballton after World War II. The plant and mine, located in the BSCHD, were near the older National Gypsum mine. The Standard Lime and Stone mine had an output of 1,725 tons of limestone per day in the 1960s.51
Texas-based Celanese Corporation, a national manufacturer of celanese acetate fiber used in cloth, opened a factory between Narrows and Pearisburg in 1939. By the following year the company employed 869 people and ten years later, the work force stood at 4,600.52 Celanese Corporation employs approximately 1,000 people in the present, making it the largest employer in Giles County.53 National Gypsum had several hundred employees in the postwar era. A new industrial feature of the county, the Giles Manufacturing Company, opened in 1950 at Narrows and employed nearly 100 people in manufacturing sports shirts. There also were several lumber, logging, and concrete industries that employed residents, in addition to governmental and commercial employers.54
The impact of industrial development in Giles County in the mid-twentieth century is evident in population figures from the period that show a gradual increase. The 1940 population of 14,635 increased by more than 25 percent to 18,956 by 1950. Pearisburg and Narrows witnessed the greatest increase of all the towns in Giles County. By 1960, however, the overall population of the county had decreased to 17,219 and by the mid-1960s it had crept lower to 16,835. 55 The figure has remained around 16,000 in recent decades.56
Agriculture, still ingrained in the region in the post-World War II period, continued to evolve and encounter new challenges. Beginning in 1938, electrification spread through the New River Valley. By 1948, all farms had electricity, allowing farmers to incorporate new equipment such as electric pumps, coolers, milkers, and poultry brooders. Another sweeping change was mechanization that allowed
50 Virginia Division of Planning, Economic Data Summary: Giles County (Richmond, Virginia: Division of Planning, 1965), 8. 51 Nils Eilertsen, Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va. (Washington DC: Bureau of Mines, 1964). 52 Fisher, Giles County, 85. 53 Friend, Giles County, 1806-1956, 44. 54 Virginia Division of Planning, Economic Data Summary: Giles County, 5. 55 Virginia Division of Planning, 1. 56 United States Census Bureau, “Giles County, Virginia,” 2018, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/gilescountyvirginia. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 18
farmers to retire horses and mules and replace them with tractors. 57 Giles County’s prominent agricultural productions of the 1950s were livestock, dairy products, fruit, poultry, and field crops. In terms of fruit, the chief productions were grapes and apples. Giles County was the fourth largest producer of fruit in Virginia in 1959.58
Although electrification and mechanization made farm work easier, the number of farms in the New River Valley in the post-World War II period was dwindling. Whereas the number of farms in the New River Valley neared 7,500 in 1935, it dropped to 7,000 by 1940. By 1969, the number of farms was 2,600. Small farms became less common and the successes of farming became linked to the global economy, debt crises, and environmental issues.59
The changes taking place in agriculture are evident in figures for Giles County in the post-World War II decades. Between 1950 and 1960, the number of people working in agriculture in Giles County (853) declined by nearly 50 percent to 440. The drop continued through the 1960s, reaching 261 by 1964. The figures for non- agricultural workers in the same years were 6,140 (1950), 5,252 (1960), and 5,789 (1964).60 Despite the postwar drop, agriculture continues in Giles County where livestock raising makes up the majority of farm incomes.61
The natural offerings of Giles County that attracted the earliest settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and supported agriculture for several centuries also invited a healthy flow of tourists in the postwar period. The Jefferson National Forest offered picnic areas and hiking as did the Appalachian Trail. There were highway picnic areas at Farly Memorial Wayside near Pearisburg on Route 100 and at Manuals Hollow Wayside near Rich Creek. Goodwins Ferry on the New River had camping, picnicking, and swimming facilities. The many caves of the county attracted spelunkers and waterfalls at Eggleston, Little Stony Creek, and Narrows attracted sightseers. Hunting also was a popular recreational activity. Giles County had one of the only elk herds east of the Mississippi River although there was no open season on them. Finally, Mountain Lake continued to attract tourists to its resort.62 The Peters Mountain Wilderness was established by Congress in 1984, and includes approximately 4,500 acres. Giles County
57 Lalone, “Running the Family Farm: Accommodation and Adaptation in the Appalachian Region,” 2. 58 Virginia Division of Planning, Economic Data Summary: Giles County, 1–6. 59 Lalone, “Running the Family Farm: Accommodation and Adaptation in the Appalachian Region,” 72–73. 60 Virginia Division of Planning, Economic Data Summary: Giles County, 1–6. 61 Lalone, “Running the Family Farm: Accommodation and Adaptation in the Appalachian Region,” 63. 62 Virginia Division of Planning, Economic Data Summary: Giles County, 14. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 19
contains approximately 92 square miles of Jefferson National Forest, as well as 50 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.63
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT (BSCHD) – SITE HISTORY
The following section presents discussions of the history of select individual resources that make up the BSCHD.
Big Stony Railway (Norfolk and Western [N&W] Railway) (035-5126)
The railroad corridor recorded in the BSCHD as the Big Stony Railway (035-5216) was completed in 1895 and historically hauled iron ore, agricultural products, timber, limestone, and passengers. Since the 1860s, a variety of industrialists, farmers, and business interests in Giles County eyed the valley through which Big Stony Creek flows as a route for a railroad. 64 The Virginia Assembly, which oversaw the formation of railroad companies, chartered the Big Stony Railway Company in 1892. The company sought to build a line up the Big Stony Creek Valley. Two years after their charter, the company began purchasing land in the Big Stony Creek Valley.65 Construction began shortly thereafter. By December 28, 1895, the company had completed 10.5 miles of track beginning at the N&W Railway on the New River and ending at the Giles County settlement of Interior.66
This 10.5 miles of new railway passed through the BSCHD. The principal purpose of the line in the early years was to take on loads of iron ore that mining companies had discovered at Peters Mountain and Fork Mountain after the Civil War.67 The Big Stony Railway also allowed the timber industry to expand as it provided timber companies an outlet to timber markets. The small settlement of Houghton, the northern terminus of the railroad, changed its name to Interior. The Interior Lumber Company established a saw mill operation at the community in 1896 and soon the population reached 300.68 Local inhabitants along the Big Stony Railway and nearby areas also benefitted from the railroad. They cut crossties and harvested bark (used in tanning) that could be loaded on the railway. The Big Stony Railway also provided passenger service and hauled agricultural goods.69
63 Fisher, Pearisburg and Giles County, 8. 64 Will Sarvis, “The Potts Valley Branch Railroad and Tri-State Incline Lumber Operations in West Virginia and Virginia, 1892-1932,” West Virginia History 54 (1995): 42–58. 65 Ibid. 66 “Big Stony Road Completed to Houghton,” Roanoke Daily Times, December 28, 1896. 67 Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek, 91. 68 “News from Interior,” Roanoke Daily Times, September 5, 1896. 69 Sarvis, “The Potts Valley Branch Railroad and Tri-State Incline Lumber Operations in West Virginia and Virginia, 1892-1932.” BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 20
New iron ore deposits were discovered in neighboring Craig County in the 1900s. This discovery inspired new railroad development that influenced the history of the Big Stony Railway. The N&W Railway Company purchased the Big Stony Railway in April 1905.70
In 1909, two new regional railroads were completed—the Interior & West Virginia Railroad and the Potts Creek Railroad. The Interior & West Virginia Railroad was constructed from the Big Stony Railway terminus at Interior to a point in Monroe County, West Virginia, where it would connect with the Potts Creek Railroad which ran into Craig and Allegheny Counties in Virginia. By 1910, the N&W Railway Company owned all three railroads—the Big Stony Railway, the Interior & West Virginia Railroad, and the Potts Creek Railroad. The N&W Railway Company called this united line the Potts Valley Branch. Informally, the line was known as the Punkin Vine.71
In addition to iron ore, agricultural products, and timber, the Potts Valley Branch (inclusive of the former Big Stony Railway in the BSCHD) hauled limestone. An entity called Limestone Inc. had opened a plant 1.5 miles north of the BSCHD in 1915 to exploit local Ordovician limestone deposits. National Gypsum Company later purchased and redeveloped the mine and plant in the 1940s. The mine remains operative in the present.72 As discussed elsewhere in this study, the Standard Lime and Stone Company began mining operations at Kimballton (within the BSCHD) in 1945.73 The local railway connection provided by the Potts Valley Branch was crucial to mining operations.74
In 1932, the N&W Railway abandoned much of the Potts Valley Branch. Timber, which comprised the vast majority of the line’s revenue by this point, had largely been depleted. The N&W Railway removed the trackage of the Potts Valley Branch northward from the site of the National Gypsum limestone mine at Goldbond.75 The line south from Goldbond to Narrows, inclusive of the BSCHD trackage, was retained to provide service to the limestone mines.76
70 “Big Stony R.R. Extension,” Northern Neck News, April 7, 1905. 71 Sarvis, “The Potts Valley Branch Railroad and Tri-State Incline Lumber Operations in West Virginia and Virginia, 1892-1932.” 72 Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek, 58. 73 Eilertsen, Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va., 2. 74 Sarvis, “The Potts Valley Branch Railroad and Tri-State Incline Lumber Operations in West Virginia and Virginia, 1892-1932,” 42–58. 75 Sarvis, 42–58. 76 Giles County Historical Society Research Committee, Giles County, Virginia, History: Families, 41–42. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 21
Other railroads in Giles County were the N&W Railway’s New River Railroad, completed in 1883, and the Virginian Railway, completed in 1909. Construction of the New River Railroad began on the namesake river in Radford (Montgomery County) in 1881 and reached Narrows in 1882. Narrows was a small community to the west of the BSCHD. The railroad followed the New River and ultimately reached the Pocahontas coal fields of West Virginia.77
The 443-mile Virginian Railway connected Deepwater, West Virginia and Sewall’s Point in the Hampton Roads region via Giles County, Virginia. H.H. Rogers had organized the Tidewater Railway in 1904. In 1907, this company united with the Deepwater Railway of West Virginia to form the Virginian Railway. The line was electrified between Mullins, West Virginia, and Roanoke, Virginia in 1926, not long after a large power plant had been built on the New River at Narrows.78
Caldwell House (035-5123) 141 Rogers Road
The Caldwell House, which was built in 1945 according to property data, may likely have served as a residence for someone associated with the nearby lime plant. Its construction date coincides with that of the lime plant as well as the nearby Curtis Caldwell House. A member of the Caldwell family owned the house in recent decades.79
Curtis Caldwell House (035-5122) 129 Rogers Road
The history of the Curtis Caldwell House is not well known. The structure was built in 1945 according to property records. This date coincides with the development of the lime plant in the vicinity. Given that the build date for the structure and the initiation date of the mine are identical, it is plausible that this residential structure was developed to serve as housing for someone associated with the mine. The current owner is Norweta C. Wilburn, who is a relative of the Caldwell family.80
77 Goldthwaite, Giles County, 1806-1956: A Brief History, 40. 78 Goldthwaite, 40. 79 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from Joyce Caldwell McCormick to Shawn Hash” (1997), Deed Book 282, Page 185, Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. 80 “Miss Gladys Caldwell,” Bluefield Daily Telegraph, March 17, 1976. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 22
Caldwell Boarding House (035-5121) 114 Rogers Road
The Caldwell Boarding House (035-5121) is one of several sites on Rogers Road that is related to the Caldwell family. VDHR data state that the structure was completed in about 1890 and that it may have been a boarding house. The early history of the property is obscure. The time period when the structure was completed generally coincides with the construction and completion of the Big Stony Railway (1895), therefore, the structure may have housed workers or an individual family associated with the development and operation of the railroad. Deed records indicate that by 1937, Myrtle and Walker Havens owned the property. The Havens appear in the 1940 census in the town of Pearisburg where Walker was employed as a public works laborer.81 The Havens appear to have not been residents of the structure, a point that seems to underscore that it may indeed have been a boarding house. Hugh Charlton acquired the property from the Havens in 1937. Information from the 1940 census indicates that Charlton was the owner and operator of the Virginian Garage and his wife Gladys was a bank teller.82 Similar to the Havens, the Charltons do not appear to have lived in the structure. Gladys became the sole owner of the property in 1957 when her husband died. The deed from this date clearly states that the Charltons resided in Pearisburg, lending further evidence that the structure may have been a boarding house. Gladys transferred the property to Curtis Caldwell and his wife, Jane, in 1957.83 Terry and Connie Speckmeir have owned the property since 1999.
Virginia Lime Plant (APG Lime Plant #2) (035-5120) 114 APG Plant II Lane
The limestone mine and processing plant recorded as APG Lime Corp Plant #2 (035-5120) dates to the mid-1940s when the Standard Lime and Stone Company established the site. Mining interests had discovered the limestone deposits of this area of Giles County in the 1910s. Limestone Inc. established a mining operation and plant 1.5 miles north of the BSCHD in 1915. The company came to be known as National Gypsum. In the 1940s, the company redeveloped its plant. The mine remains operative in the present.84 National Gypsum and the Standard Lime and Stone Company operation relied on the Big Stony Railway (est. 1895;
81 “1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: Walker Havens, Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia” (Giles County, Virginia, 1940), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 82 “1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: Hugh Charlton, Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia” (Giles County, Virginia, 1940), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 83 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from Gladys J. Caldwell to Curtis and Jane Caldwell” (1957), Deed Book 96, Page 88, Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. 84 Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek, 58. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 23
later known as the Potts Valley Branch) to haul their product from their processing plants.85
Established in Buckeystown, Maryland in 1888, the Standard Lime and Stone Company was started by the Barker family to supply lime for a local tannery, but in the ensuing decades, the family greatly expanded the company to provide lime for building trades, paper mills, and bleaching manufactories. By the 1950s, the company had nine plants across West Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia as well as 1,600 employees. 86 The limestone excavated and processed at Kimballton was used to produce metallurgical and chemical grade lime.87 These products were used in the chemical, paper, and steel industries.88
The Standard Lime and Stone Company (later known as the Standard Lime and Cement Company of Baltimore) began quarrying operations in December 1945 from an outcrop in Kimballton known as the Five Oaks bed. Two years later, the company gained access to underground beds, and afterwards, all of the limestone processed at the plant was derived from underground. The original underground mine was located in the southwestern area of the property; however, after repeated floods, this mine was abandoned about 1950. Mining operations moved in a northeasterly direction from the original mine, discovering a higher quality limestone, Ordovician limestone, in the process. The old mine was utilized as a sump area. In 1953, the company opened a second entry into the mine to allow for one-way traffic for mining trucks. The new entry was known as B Slope and it was 400' southeast of the first entry. The mine was an extensive underground network complete with transformers, an office, a lunchroom, a maintenance shop, an oil house, lighted roadways, pumps, and other features.89
The surface operations of the mine in the 1950s and 1960s consisted of a multi- step process supported by ancillary facilities. The excavated limestone was hauled out of the ground by truck and dumped into a primary crusher that reduced the lime to 5" rocks. A secondary crushing reduced the lime to 2" rocks. The product was stockpiled and then was washed to remove impurities and elevated to a screening plant where the limestone was sized. Once sized, the limestone was fed
85 “Giles County Wealthy; Numerous Resources,” The Times Dispatch, April 15, 1917. 86 Eaton K. Goldthwaite, ed., Giles County, 1806-1956: A Brief History (Pearisburg, Virginia: Giles County Chamber of Commerce, 1956), 40–41. 87 Nils Eilertsen, Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va. (Washington DC: Bureau of Mines, 1964), 30. 88 Goldthwaite, Giles County, 1806-1956: A Brief History, 41. 89 Eilertsen, Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va., 4–9. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 24
into one of two rotary kilns where the end products, metallurgical and chemical grade lime, were produced.90
The surface-level supporting facilities of the mine in the 1950s and the 1960s fell into the categories of maintenance and repair of equipment, power supply and distribution, water supply, and explosive storage. Surface plant shops handled maintenance and repairs of trucks and bulldozers. These structures included an electrical repair shop, a machine repair shop, a tool crib, a supply house, and storage tanks for oil and diesel. Preventive maintenance structures included a plant office where information concerning repairs and inspection of equipment was kept. Power supply and distribution consisted of a transformer substation connected to an underground trunkline that powered the mine. The water supply for mining and other uses came from a spring-fed surface reservoir. The explosives used in mining operations were stored in two isolated magazines in alcoves protected by rock walls or sloping hillsides. One was at a location called Hard Iron Ridge, 400' north of the exit haulage way between the mine and the primary crusher. The structure was constructed of cinder block with a concrete foundation and steel doors. The second magazine was northeast of the entry portal of A Slope near the old, abandoned quarry. The structure was wood with a wooden floor and lined with galvanized corrugated iron.91
The Standard Lime and Cement Company became a subsidiary of American- Marietta Corporation in 1954. This new company merged in 1960 with the Martin Company of Baltimore to become the Martin-Marietta Corporation. The Kimballton mine was part of the Cement and Lime Division of Martin-Marietta.92
The Kimballton mine was supported by 128 employees, according to information from 1956.93 They were organized into departments of mine lime, plant, and maintenance. Most of the employees were recruited and trained onsite. They worked as mechanics, electricians, utility truck operators, scalers, pitmen, bulldozer operators, millwrights, drill operators, and clerks.94
In 1956, lime production in Virginia was higher in tonnage and more valuable than ever in the state’s history. The Standard Lime and Cement Company operation at Kimballton was one of ten in Virginia and one of three entities in Giles County.
90 Eilertsen, 30. 91 Eilertsen, 31–45. 92 Eilertsen, 4. 93 Goldthwaite, Giles County, 1806-1956: A Brief History, 31. 94 Eilertsen, Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va., 46–47. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 25
The other companies in Giles County were Ripplemead Lime Company (Ripplemead) and National Gypsum Company (Kerns/Goldbond).95
In 1963, Foote Minerals purchased Martin-Marietta’s Standard Lime and Cement property in Kimballton. 96 From that point through the 1970s, the company employed 100 people at Kimballton. 97 In the late 1980s, the lime plant at Kimballton was acquired by A.P. Green Refractories (APG) of Mexico, Missouri, a subsidiary of USG Corporation of Chicago. 98 In recent years, Lhoist American operates the plant.
Big Stoney UMC (035-5119) 347 Norcross Road
The congregation of “the Big Stoney Church” dates to the nineteenth century when local Methodists met in a log structure that had a fireplace, a dirt floor, and seats made of rough timber. This log church, located on land donated by Hoge and Eliza Buchanan, doubled as a school house.99 William T. Snidow (1812–94), although apparently raised Lutheran, became a Methodist when he settled in the vicinity in the 1830s. He and his family may have attended this church.100 In 1891, the congregation built the existing chapel near the former log structure. One of the first pastors was H.C. Clemens. Other pastors of the historic period were William Elzey and Wiley Neal.101 The church remains in use in the present.
The Big Stoney UMC was established at a time when Methodism was booming across Virginia. Founded in Oxford, England in the 1730s by John Wesley, Methodism reached colonial Virginia in the mid-1700s. By the end of the American Revolution, Methodists in Virginia had formed the American Methodist Episcopal Church, influencing a surge of new believers. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Methodist and Baptist faiths flourished in a period known as the Second Great Awakening. Virginia was particularly known in this period for so-called camp meetings where people journeyed from afar to participate in revivals that often lasted several days. These revivals inspired Virginians to form congregations in their home areas. By the time of the Civil War (1861–65), Methodism had spread across Virginia to the extent that it was one of the state’s largest denominations. Many smaller churches in the state were
95 Robert S. Wood, “Lime Industry in Virginia,” Virginia Minerals 4, no. 2 (1958): 3–9. 96 “Foote Mineral Company,” Philadelphia Enquirer, October 5, 1963. 97 “Strike Against N&W Is Hurting State Economy,” Daily Press, July 31, 1971. 98 Bureau of Mines, “US Mineral Industry Highlights,” Minerals and Materials, no. January (1988). 99 Curtis Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek (Radford, Virginia: Brightside, 2002), 56. 100 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2. 101 Caldwell, Up on Big Stoney Creek, 56. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 26
served by so-called circuit riders who were preachers that traveled from one rural church to another to conduct their work.102
The Big Stoney Methodist Church, as it was known until the mid-twentieth century, was one of the numerous Methodist congregations in Giles County. Methodism was strong in the county. A yearly camp meeting was held at Wabash from 1834 until 1896. 103 One of the earliest congregations was Newport Methodist Church, which was organized in 1850. Other nineteenth century Methodist churches were in Staffordsville, Pearisburg, and Thessalia. The church in Staffordsville, known currently as the Sheffey Memorial UMC, was named after Robert Sayers Sheffey, a circuit rider who was known for his stirring sermons given at local churches and at the Wabash camp meetings.104
The Big Stony UMC congregation remained active through the twentieth century. In the mid-twentieth century, a nationwide merger between the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church created the United Methodist Church. The 1968 consolidation led to the name change at Big Stony which became known as Big Stoney UMC.105
The Snidow Tract
Both the McDonald Place (035-5118) and the Masters House (035-5117) are situated on land that originally belonged to Christian Snidow (1787-1861). Therefore, a discussion of the Snidow Tract and how the property descended through the years, to the extent known, precedes the discussion of these resources.
Historical land records indicate that the land inclusive of the McDonald Place (035-5118) and the Masters House (035-5117) originally belonged to Christian “The Blacksmith” Snidow (1787-1861). Christian “The Blacksmith” Snidow (1787-1861) was son of Philip and Barbara Snidow. His uncle of the same name was a planter, a renowned soldier who had obtained the rank of Colonel, the founder of Snidow’s Ferry (est. 1786) on the New River, and, perhaps, the most well-known Snidow in Giles County history.106 Around the time that Christian Snidow married Sarah Turner in 1809, he settled on 200 acres of land that had been granted to his father in 1785. Christian, like his uncle, also became a soldier
102 Heather Ann Ackley Bean, “Methodists,” in Encyclopedia of Apalachia (Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 1330–32. 103 Terri Fisher, Pearisburg and Giles County (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2008), 49–56. 104 Terri Fisher, Giles County (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2011), 12–30. 105 Bean, “Methodists,” 1331–32. 106 Mary French Boswell, “Snidow’s Ferry,” Snidow Newsletter 3, no. 1 (1980): 2. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 27
and served in the War of 1812 in the Norfolk area. His war service earned him a land grant years later in 1854. Christian’s work as a blacksmith lent him his nickname, but he also was a successful farmer. He owned several different tracts of land in Giles County comprising nearly 2,000 acres. He also owned several slaves in the antebellum period.107
Christian and Sarah Snidow had five sons and two daughters. His sons settled in the Pembroke area with the exception of William Turner Snidow (1812–94) who occupied a 441-acre tract on Big Stony Creek that his father had patented in the 1820s and 1830s.108 William married Nancy Burk Williams (1820–93) in 1838. They had nine children, all of whom reportedly were born in the Snidow’s log cabin. Christian Snidow gifted the land to William about the time of the marriage. Later court documents, including Christian Snidow’s 1859 will and 1862 probate records, confirm that William had lived on the land for some time.109
William T. Snidow had his Big Stony tract surveyed in 1868. The survey featured a sketch and a brief description of the 455-acre tract “on New River and on both sides of Big Stoney Creek.” The tract included the original 441 acres his father had given him as well as 14 acres William had acquired via a land warrant in about 1868. The surveyor of the tract, J. Peck, noted in his description of the tract a variety of trees, including sugar, hickory, chestnut, dogwood, Spanish oak, sycamore, ash, walnut, and spruce pine.110
Historic census records from the years 1860, 1870, and 1880 provide some insight into William T. Snidow and his family. Snidow is listed as a farmer in each of the census records. By 1860, he had nine children including a son, John Milton, who later would inherit the family farm tract, and a daughter, Sarah, who worked as a tutor.111 A son, James, was listed as a Preacher in 1880.112
William Snidow’s home site, according to a descendant, was on a slope overlooking Big Stony Creek. Behind the home was a hill and a family cemetery
107 There were many Christian Snidows in the history of Giles County. Christian “The Blacksmith” Snidow often appears in historical records as “Christian Snidow Jr.” although the suffix is meant to differentiate him from his uncle rather than his father. See Mary French Boswell, “Christian Snidow (The Blacksmith),” Snidow Newsletter 6, no. 2 (1983): 1–4. 108 Boswell, 4. 109 Mary French Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” Snidow Newsletter 1, no. 2 (1978): 2. 110 J. Peck, “Survey for William T. Snidow (455 Acres)” (1868), Giles County Microfilm: Survey Book (1846-1926), Library of Virginia. 111 “1860 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: William T. Snidow, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1860), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 112 “1880 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: William T. Snidow, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1880), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 28
plot, the Snidow Cemetery. Nearby was a spring that supplied water for the home. Snidow expanded the original one-room log cabin over the years, adding additional rooms on the front of the home and an attached kitchen and dining room along the back. By the early twentieth century, the home was L-shaped.113 As years passed, the William Snidow property passed to other owners, including descendants.114
The 1880 Agricultural Census provides some information on the types of agriculture in which William T. Snidow was engaged. Approximately 200 acres of his land was considered improved (i.e. pasturage or meadow). Twenty acres consisted of corn. He had three milk cows, two horses, two pigs, and eight chickens.115 Snidow may have shared the use of his tract with his family in this period.
McDonald Place (035-5118) 587 Norcross Road
The present-day owners of the McDonald Place (035-5118) at 587 Norcross Road are descendants of William T. Snidow. 116 Snidow’s daughter, Sarah, and her husband, James Lewis McDonald, inherited a portion of Snidow’s original 455 acres along Big Stony Creek in the late nineteenth century. The couple passed the property to their son, Arthur Beauregard McDonald. Arthur (1861-1934) was a lifelong resident of the area. When he died in 1934, he was remembered as a prominent farmer and a church and civic worker.117
Arthur McDonald transferred the McDonald Place property to his son, George Blake McDonald Sr. (1898-1957) at an undetermined date. The 1940 census reported that George was a farmer and a truck driver. He and his wife Margaret had two sons, George Jr. and Robert. A farm laborer named Vernon Matherly also lived in the home.118 In addition to their sons, the McDonalds also had a daughter named Ethel.119
113 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2–3. 114 Mabel Peters, “Neglected Snidow Cemetery at Norcross Gets Some TLC,” Snidow Association Newsletter 30, no. 1 (2007): 3. 115 “1880 Federal United States Census Non-Population Schedule: Productions of Agriculture, William T. Snidow” (Giles County, Virginia, 1880), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 116 Giles County Historical Society Research Committee, Giles County, Virginia, History: Families, 201. 117 “A.B. McDonald Dies,” Bluefield Daily Telegraph, May 3, 1936. 118 “1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: George McDonald, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1940), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 119 Giles County Historical Society Research Committee, Giles County, Virginia, History: Families, 201. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 29
George Blake McDonald Jr., known as G.B., was born at the McDonald home place in 1929.120 He grew up on the McDonald family farm. He attended school in Kimballton and graduated from Pembroke High School before moving on to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Afterwards, he served in the US Army in the Korean War in the 1950s. After the war, he returned to the family farm. McDonald married Mary Douglas Porterfield in 1953. The couple were active members of the Big Stoney UMC (035-5119). In addition to farming beef cattle and sheep on the family land, McDonald also worked as the Chief Forest Warden for Giles County.121 G.B. McDonald died in 2015 and his estate still owns the McDonald home place.
Masters House (035-5117) 752 Norcross Road
John Milton Snidow, a son of William and Nancy Snidow, inherited his parents’ home and 225 of their 455 acres in 1888.122 John Milton Snidow (1855-1935) was born in the Snidow’s original log cabin several years prior to the Civil War. He married Martha Elizabeth Walker, known as Bess (1863-1948) in about 1885.123 The 1888 deed where William and Nancy passed the property to John indicated that he would allow them to remain in their dwelling through the end of their lives and that John would also provide for their needs and care for them during any future illness.124 Thus, the elder Snidows remained on the property until Nancy died in 1893 and William died in 1894.
The 1888 deed provides some information about the landscape of the tract. The tract description mentions walnut, white oak, sugar, red oak, spruce pine, sycamore, and buckeye trees. Also mentioned is an “old road,” the neighboring Johnston land, and land belonging to another Snidow.125
The 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses provide information on the John and Nancy Snidow family. John’s occupation over the years was a farmer (1900 and 1920) and a general store merchant (1910). 126 In each of the censuses, there were
120 Kendall Funeral Home, “‘GB’ George Blake McDonald Jr.,” 2015, https://kendallfuneralhome.com. 121 Giles County Historical Society Research Committee, Giles County, Virginia, History: Families, 281. 122 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from William T. Snidow to John Milton Snidow” (1888), Deed Book Q, Page 47, Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. 123 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2–3. 124 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from William T. Snidow to John Milton Snidow.” 125 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk. 126 “1900 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1900), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com; “1920 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1920), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 30
several children living in the home. Grover Snidow, one of the sons, appears in the 1910 census as a superintendent of a lumber camp.127 According to family stories, John and Bess Snidow raised seven children at the family home site.128 A granddaughter, Anna Katherine Snidow Campbell (born in 1918), remembered the home as follows:
My Snidow grandparents’ homeplace was on a knoll overlooking Big Stoney Creek. I have many wonderful memories of our visits to see them, and I recall their spacious home with three long porches, a yard graced with beautiful flowers and tremendous oak trees, all of which was surrounded by a white picket fence.129
John and Bess Snidow remained on their property into the 1930s. Family remembrances tell that John died in 1935 in the same room where he was born in the original log cabin portion of the home.130 Bess Snidow moved to Roanoke two years later, where she died in 1948.131 The Snidow children kept the home and the attached acreage for 14 years afterwards, although it is undetermined who lived in the home. As John Snidow died intestate, his home and property passed to his heirs.132
The Snidow heirs sold the property to William Marion Masters and Elizabeth Masters in 1962. 133 William Marion Masters (1908–98) was a native West Virginian who had served in the US Army. After the Army, he worked as a kiln burner at Standard Lime Company until he retired. He and his wife Elizabeth (1923-2010) had several children. William died in 1998.134 Elizabeth owned the property, which included the old Snidow house and 225 acres, until later that same year when she deeded it to several relatives who still own the property.135
127 “1910 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia” (Roanoke County, Virginia, 1910), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 128 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2–3. 129 Giles County Historical Society Research Committee, Giles County, Virginia, History: Families (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing, 1982), 304. 130 Boswell, “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894),” 2–3. 131 “Martha Elizabeth Snidow Death Certificate (1948),” Virginia Death Records, 1912-2014, Virginia Department of Health (Richmond, Virginia, 1948), Ancestry.com, www.ancestry.com. 132 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from William Shuler Snidow Et. Al to William Marion Masters and Mary Elizabeth Masters” (1962), Deed Book 106, Page 386, Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. 133 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk. 134 “William Marion Masters, Jr.,” Roanoke Times, March 11, 1998. 135 Giles County Circuit Court Clerk, “Deed from Mary Elizabeth Masters to Barbara M. Cardwell, Et. Al” (1998), Deed Book 296, Page 783, Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 31
Sources: “1860 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: William T. Snidow, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1860. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1880 Federal United States Census Non-Population Schedule: Productions of Agriculture, William T. Snidow.” Giles County, Virginia, 1880. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1880 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: William T. Snidow, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1880. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1900 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1900. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1910 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1910. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1920 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: John Snidow, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1920. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: George McDonald, Giles County, Virginia.” Roanoke County, Virginia, 1940. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: Hugh Charlton, Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia.” Giles County, Virginia, 1940. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“1940 Federal United States Census Population Schedule: Walker Havens, Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia.” Giles County, Virginia, 1940. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
“A.B. McDonald Dies.” Bluefield Daily Telegraph. May 3, 1936.
Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York, New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 32
Anderson-Green, Paula Hathaway. “The New River Frontier Settlement on the Virginia-North Carolina Border 1760-1820.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 86, no. 4 (1978): 413–31.
Bean, Heather Ann Ackley. “Methodists.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
Best, Michael, and Curtis W. Wood. “Agriculture.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
“Big Stony Road Completed to Houghton.” Roanoke Daily Times. December 28, 1896.
“Big Stony R.R. Extension.” Northern Neck News. April 7, 1905.
Boswell, Mary French. “Christian Snidow (The Blacksmith).” Snidow Newsletter 6, no. 2 (1983): 2. ———. “Fort Snidow Location Confirmed,” Snidow Newsletter 7, no. 1 (1984): 69. ———. “Snidow’s Ferry.” Snidow Newsletter 3, no. 1 (1980): 2. ———. “William Turner Snidow (1812-1894).” Snidow Newsletter 1, no. 2 (1978): 2.
Briceland, Alice Vance. “Thomas Batte.” In Encyclopedia Virginia, 2013. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Batte_Thomas_fl_1630s- 1690s#start_entry.
Bureau of Mines. “US Mineral Industry Highlights.” Minerals and Materials, no. January (1988).
Caldwell, Curtis. Up on Big Stoney Creek. Radford, Virginia: Brightside, 2002.
Eilertsen, Nils. Mining Methods and Costs, Kimballton Limestone Mine, Standard Lime and Cement Company, Giles County, Va. Washington DC: Bureau of Mines, 1964.
Fisher, Terri. Giles County. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2011. ———. Pearisburg and Giles County. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia, 2008.
“Foote Mineral Company.” Philadelphia Enquirer. October 5, 1963.
Frey, Robert L. “Railroad.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 33
Friend, Robert C. Giles County, 1806-1956. Pearisburg, Virginia: Giles County Chamber of Commerce, 1956.
Giles County Circuit Court Clerk. “Deed from Gladys J. Caldwell to Curtis and Jane Caldwell.” Giles County, Virginia, 1957. Deed Book 96, Page 88. Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. ———. “Deed from Joyce Caldwell McCormick to Shawn Hash.” Giles County, Virginia, 1997. Deed Book 282, Page 185. Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. ———. “Deed from Mary Elizabeth Masters to Barbara M. Cardwell, Et. Al.” Giles County, Virginia, 1998. Deed Book 296, Page 783. Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. ———. “Deed from William Shuler Snidow Et. Al to William Marion Masters and Mary Elizabeth Masters.” Giles County, Virginia, 1962. Deed Book 106, Page 386. Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia. ———. “Deed from William T. Snidow to John Milton Snidow.” Giles County, Virginia, 1888. Deed Book Q, Page 47. Giles County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Pearisburg, Virginia.
Giles County Historical Society Research Committee. Giles County, Virginia, History: Families. Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing, 1982. “Giles County Wealthy; Numerous Resources.” The Times Dispatch. April 15, 1917.
Gilmer, Jeremy Francis. “Map of Craig, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski Counties, Virginia.” Department of Northern Virginia, 1864. Map Collection. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/gvhs01.vhs00368/.
Goldthwaite, Eaton K., ed. Giles County, 1806-1956: A Brief History. Pearisburg, Virginia: Giles County Chamber of Commerce, 1956.
Graham, Henry S. “Map of Virginia: Showing the Distribution of Its Slave Population from the Census of 1860.” Washington DC: H.S. Graham, 1861. Library of Virginia.
Hayden Jr., Wilburn. “Freed Blacks, Postbellum.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006. ———. “Slavery.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
Hayes, Rutherford B. Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Vol. 2. Columbus, Ohio: F.J. Heer Printing Company, 1922.
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 34
Irwin, Hugh. “Forest Management and Conservation.” In Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
Johnson, Patricia Givens. Mountain Lake Resort Book I: 1751-1900. Christiansburg, Virginia: Walpa, 1987.
Johnston, David E. A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory. Huntington, West Virginia: Standard Printing & Publishing, 1906.
Kendall Funeral Home. “‘GB’ George Blake McDonald Jr.,” 2015. https://kendallfuneralhome.com.
Lalone, Mary B. “Running the Family Farm: Accommodation and Adaptation in the Appalachian Region.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 14, no. 1/2 (2008): 62– 98.
Lewis, Virgil. History of the Battle of Point Pleasant. Charleston, West Virginia: The Tribune Printing Company, 1908.
“Martha Elizabeth Snidow Death Certificate (1948).” Virginia Death Records, 1912- 2014. Virginia Department of Health. Richmond, Virginia, 1948. Ancestry.com. www.ancestry.com.
Martin, Joseph. A New Comprehensive Gazetteer of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia: Moseley and Tompkins, 1835.
McLean, George A. Skirmish at Pearisburg. Lynchburg, Virginia: Blackwell, 2012.
“Miss Gladys Caldwell.” Bluefield Daily Telegraph. March 17, 1976.
National Park Service. “Confederate Virginia Troops,” 2018. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm.
New South Associates. “Phase I Reconnaissance Architectural Survey for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Roanoke County, Virginia (VDHR File #2014 1194).” Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 2016.
“News from Interior.” Roanoke Daily Times. September 5, 1896.
Peck, J. “Survey for William T. Snidow (455 Acres),” 1868. Giles County Microfilm: Survey Book (1846-1926). Library of Virginia.
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 35
Peters, Mabel. “Neglected Snidow Cemetery at Norcross Gets Some TLC.” Snidow Association Newsletter 30, no. 1 (2007): 3. ———. “On Visiting Two Snidow Cemeteries.” Snidow Association Newsletter 28, no. 1 (2005): 4.
Reynolds, David L., and Katie L. Burke. “The Effect of Growth Rate, Age, and Chestnut Blight on American Chestnut Mortality.” Castanea 76, no. 2 (2011): 129–39.
Sarvis, Will. The Jefferson National Forest: An Appalachian Environmental History. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 2011. ———. “The Potts Valley Branch Railroad and Tri-State Incline Lumber Operations in West Virginia and Virginia, 1892-1932.” West Virginia History 54 (1995): 42–58.
Snidow Association. “Snidow Cemeteries in Giles County, Virginia,” 2018. http://www.snidow.org/PDF/Cemeteries.pdf.
“Snidow Early History and Lineage.” Electronic document, http://www.snidow.org/lineage.htm, accessed November 20, 2018
Snidow, Francis, and F.W. McComas. An Economic and Social Survey of Giles County. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1927.
“Strike Against N&W Is Hurting State Economy.” Daily Press. July 31, 1971.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold, and Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds. Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905.
United States Census Bureau. “Giles County, Virginia,” 2018. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/gilescountyvirginia.
University of Virginia. “Virginia Secession Convention,” 2018. https://secession.richmond.edu/visualizations/vote-maps.html#.
1891 Dublin, Va. USGS quadrangle map 1932 Pearisburg, Va. USGS quadrangle map 1937 Pearisburg, Va. USGS quadrangle map
Virginia Division of Planning. Economic Data Summary: Giles County. Richmond, Virginia: Division of Planning, 1965. BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 36
Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission. “Giles County Courthouse.” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. National Parks Service, 1982. “William Marion Masters, Jr.” Roanoke Times. March 11, 1998.
Wood, Robert S. “Lime Industry in Virginia.” Virginia Minerals 4, no. 2 (1958).
Historians: SEARCH, Inc.: Nick Linville, MA, with assistance from Geoffrey Mohlman, MA, Travis Fulk, MA, and Angelique Theriot, MA.
April 2019
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 37
REDUCED COPIES OF DRAWINGS
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 38
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 39
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 40
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS NO. VA-### PAGE 41
HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT VA-### Kimballton vicinity Giles County Virginia
INDEX TO BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
Travis N. Fulk, SEARCH, photographer, November 2018
VA-###-01 ROGERS ROAD, LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-02 ROGERS ROAD, BRIDGE, LOOKING NORTHWEST VA-###-03 NORCROSS ROAD, BRIDGE (WITH SCALE), LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-04 NORCROSS ROAD, BRIDGE (WITHOUT SCALE), LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-05 APG LIME CORP PLANT #2 (035-5120) OFFICE, LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-06 APG LIME CORP PLANT #2 (035-5120) OFFICE, LOOKING SOUTHEAST VA-###-07 BIG STONY RAILROAD (035-5126) TRESTLE, LOOKING NORTH VA-###-08 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING SOUTHWEST VA-###-09 BIG STONEY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (UMC) (035-5119), LOOKING SOUTHWEST VA-###-10 BIG STONEY UMC, LOOKING WEST VA-###-11 BIG STONEY UMC CEMETERY (WITH SCALE), LOOKING EAST VA-###-12 BIG STONEY UMC CEMETERY (WITHOUT SCALE), LOOKING EAST VA-###-13 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING NORTH-NORTHEAST VA-###-14 UTILITY RIGHT-OF-WAY, LOOKING NORTHWEST VA-###-15 LANDSCAPE, FROM UTILITY RIGHT-OF-WAY, LOOKING WEST VA-###-16 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-17 MCDONALD PLACE (035-5118) AT 587 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING NORTHWEST VA-###-18 NORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILROAD GRADE, LOOKING SOUTHWEST
VA-###-19 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING NORTHEAST VA-###-20 MASTERS HOUSE (035-5117) AT 752 NORCROSS ROAD, LOOKING EAST BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT HALS VA-### INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS (Page 2)
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-1
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-2 BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-3
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-4
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-5
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-6
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-7
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-8
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-9
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-10
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-11
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-12
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-13
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-14
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-15
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-16
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-17
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-18
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-19
BIG STONY CREEK HISTORIC DISTRICT SEE INDEX TO PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CAPTION HALS VA-XXX-20