At right: Photo of Tredegar Iron Works from the American Civil War Center site.
If you had relatives who lived in Richmond, some of them may have worked at the Tredegar Iron Works. Francis B. Deane founded Tredegar in 1836 and named it for a Welsh town and ironworks. Deane hired 28-year-old Joseph Reid Anderson in 1841 as commercial sales agent. By 1847, Anderson owned the company, obtaining U.S. government contracts for cannons. He also manufactured locomotives, train wheels, spikes, cables, ships’ boilers, naval hardware, iron machinery, and brass items. Anderson employed skilled Northern and foreign workers as well as slaves and some free blacks. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by river queen at 11:04 PM PST
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The following information was contained in a report that I wrote for a college class on “Information Graphics,” or about how a business uses a defined space to display its wares and its atmosphere. The report was written in January 2003, so I’m sure that some of the exhibits have changed since that time.
APPOMATTOX DEPOT, located in Appomattox, Virginia
The state-certified Town of Appomattox Visitor Information Center is located in a restored railroad depot on Main Street. The center showcases a variety of the community’s current and developing tourist attractions, and it also provides a wide variety of state-wide attractions and information through brochures, maps, and flyers.
Maps printed in 1863 show that this railroad depot was initially named “Appomattox Station,” as when the railroad arrived in this area in 1854 this depot was the closest rail service to Appomattox Court House, located approximately three miles to the northeast. The same maps and records from the U.S. Postal service show that the community where the depot was located was named Nebraska, Virginia. Samuel D. McDearmon was Nebraska’s first postmaster and he was responsible for naming the community on 23 February 1855. He was also the first Virginia House of Delegates member from this area and he later served in the Virginia Senate. At the time of General Lee’s surrender, then Lt. Col. McDearmon was on former governor Henry Wise’s staff in West Virginia. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by river queen at 3:33 PM PST
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