Page 5 - Lynchburg Area Timeline 1700-2009

1856- (June 17): Spring Hill Cemetery dedicated (43)
1856- (Jan. 1): First train rolls through on Lynchburg and Tennessee
Railroad, which had been completed to Bristol (43)
1856- Local branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association organized (47)
1856- (Jan. 8): Lynchburg receives 58 inches of snow, most ever (182)
1859- (May 2): Centenary United Methodist Church dedicated after project which cost $17,000 (51)
1859- (Nov. 8): Lynchburg Home Guard, commanded by Samuel Garland, is established along with the Wise Troop, Beauregard Rifles, Lynchburg Artillery (42)
1859- John Carroll begins producing Lone Jack Tobacco from a factory at 12th and Madison streets (138)
1860-1870 (Civil War & Reconstruction)
1860- Orange and Alexandria Railroad reaches Lynchburg (40)
1860- Lynchburg has 45 tobacco factories employing 15 percent of the total Population of 6,853. Forty percent of the population is black
(221)
1860- In presidential election, Abraham Lincoln gets no votes because he is not on the ballot in Virginia. In Lynchburg, John Bell gets 969 votes, John Breckinridge 487 (43)
1861- During the course of the war Lynchburg, a town of 7,000 organizes And sends to the front 12 full companies in addition to members of The Second Virginia Cavalry. Eighty percent of the white population Sees service (42, 221)
1861- (Apr. 22): Soldiers from Southern states begin training at the Fairgrounds (near present day E.C. Glass High School) and at Camp Davis, near Kemper Street (43)
1861- (May 8): Second Virginia Cavalry formed with Jubal Early as mustering officer (43)
1861- (Sept. 14): Samuel Garland is killed in Battle of South Mountain near Boonsboro, Md. (43)
surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox (41)
1865- (Apr. 12)- Lynchburg formally surrenders to Union forces under General R.S. Mackensie (47)
1865- (May): Publication of city newspapers resume (221)
1865- Lynchburg National Bank and the First National Bank both formed
(48)
1865- (Oct. 31): 150 local African-Americans leave for new life in Liberia through the Lynchburg Emigration Society (221)
1866- (Mar. 13): General John Schofield is placed in charge of federal troops occupying Lynchburg (43)
1866- Freedmen’s Bureau School, the Polk Street School, established with Jacob Yoder as instructor (70)
1866- Northern war casualties buried in Lynchburg are moved from Old City Cemetery to a site near Norfolk. (187)
1866- Mahlon Loomis transmits aerial radio signals between two kites flown with copper wires in Loudoun County. He lived for several years in Lynchburg after 1878 (139)
1867- Oil found in Central Virginia. The Campbell County Oil Company organized. The Lynchburg Mining and Petroleum Company formed. Drilling went down 600 feet, nothing is found, developers leave with Investors money (221)
1867- (Oct. 22): Blacks vote for the first time in Lynchburg. On the ballot is the question of whether state constitutional convention should be be called. A former slave, Samuel Kelso, is sent to the convention as a delegate.
1868- Order No. 61 closes the city’s bordellos which had increased brawls, drunkenness by occupying soldiers (221)
1868- Lynchburg chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is formed.
1868- (Oct. 17): Jackson Street United Methodist Church dedicated (51)
1868- Charles B. Fleet opens an apothecary on Main Street that eventually evolves into C.B. Fleet, Inc. (39)
1870-1880
1870- (Sept. 22): Abraham Biggers appointed Lynchburg’s first superintendent of schools (42)
1870- (Sept. 29): John Lynch’s toll bridge washed away by flood and was eventually replaced by steel structure known as the Ninth Street Bridge (48)
1870- (Dec.): General Assembly authorizes the extension of Lynchburg city limits. Added were five of the city’s seven hills. Lynchburg population nearly doubled to 12,020 (225)
1871- (Apr. 5): First public schools in Lynchburg opened in nine rented buildings, three of which were used for blacks (42)
1871- James River freezes over solid so that horses and wagons can cross it easily (50)
1872- Male High School and Female High School established. They were consolidated in 1874 (42)
1872- Diamond Hill Baptist Church is formed, moved to Diamond Hill area several years later. Current church was built in 1887 (74)
1872- City streets renamed with Western Alley becoming First Street, Water Street becoming Ninth Street (225)
1873- Construction of City Market at 12th and Main Street completed (2)
1874- Bragassa’s Toy Store, Lynchburg’s first toy store, opens to public.
Store remains in operation until 1987 (29)
1874- First Christian Church founded (51)
1875- (July 14): City Hotel, home to Mina Otey’s hospital during the Civil War, collapses with two people killed (225)
1875- Oxford Furnace, which supplied the military during the Revolutionary War, closes (127)
1876- (Jan. 18): Miller Home opens as Lynchburg Female Orphan Asylum(40)
1877- City closes the local high school due to rising costs. It is reopened In
1879 (221)
1862- Six hospitals for Confederate war casualties are open with more than 3,000 patients. Lynchburg College becomes a hospital center known as the General Military Hospital (40, 221)
1862- Lucy Minor Otey forms the Ladies Relief Hospital Association. Hospital is located at the City Hotel, Sixth and Main streets (221)
1862- John Jay Terrell begins work at the Pest House near City Cemetery where soldiers with smallpox were taken for isolation (186)
1862- Provost guard is established to maintain discipline among the troops stationed in Lynchburg, keep them from patronizing bordellos (221)
1862- Samuel Miller donated land for park and fairgrounds at present day Miller Park (46)
1863- (May 14): Stonewall Jackson’s body arrives on John Marshall packet boat enroute to burial in Lexington. Body is paraded throughout Lynchburg (40)
1863- (Sept.): Lynchburg’s largest slave auction is held with one slave bringing $2,900.
1864- (June 18): Battle of Lynchburg is fought between Union troops of David Hunter (Sandusky is his headquarters) and Confederate forces under Jubal Early. Early uses a ruse of running trains back and forth to the night, Convincing Federals he was being heavily reinforced. Hunter retreats Toward Roanoke. Early’s forces then begin what’s known as the Raid On Washington, nearly reaching the capital before being turned back.
1864- (Sept. 19): Lynchburg general Robert Rodes is killed during fighting around Winchester (43)
1865- (Feb. 28): Meeting is held to surrender Lynchburg to Union forces due to food shortages (221)
1865- (Mar. 24): Lynchburg Virginian ceases publication as Union forces near the city (221)
1865- (Apr. 6): Lynchburg is named the new state capital after legislators evacuate Richmond.
1865- (Apr. 10)- Union troops enter Lynchburg unopposed following the
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