“In the first settling phase, the first structure produced by man in a territory, is a ridge-top route, installed where the watershed line between two basins is more continuous and prolonged.”
“Every building requires to be linked to others; we can state in absolute terms that there is not a building without a route providing access, regardless of whether or not it is segregated from others” [Gianfranco Caniggia and Gian Luigi Maffei. Interpreting Basic Building: Architectural Composition and Building Typology. Firenze IT: Alinea, 2001].
Petersburg’s urban form is characterized by irregularity and layering. It is formed around and along a series of transportation armatures, the culmination of an overlay of paths and roads built up over centuries in an area of alternating hills and swampy ravines or “sloughs.” In a similar way, the city’s early history is complex and multi-layered. It is also plagued by missing records and wishful thinking. Much must be determined obliquely, drawing conclusions from related sites and parallel histories, examining maps, and researching context. The result is an impression colored by the researcher’s methodology. In this case, use of an unfamiliar way (to Americans) of looking at urban change over time and space can result in a refreshed understanding of the history of this richly endowed community.
As Italian urban morphologists Canniggia and Maffei affirm at a global scale and as a recent study of the ancient Indian Trading Path through North Carolina has indicated for the larger region, urban centers tend to grow up at significant nodes along pre-existing transportation routes. Furthermore, the position and form of the earliest routes and the accompanying settlements has a profound effect on the shape of all later development.
Petersburg before 1730, showing the original route of the Sapponi and Occaneechie Paths through Abraham Woods land, corresponding to Old Street (todays Grove Avenue). The "Fall Line Road" described by Alan V. Briceland corresponded to today's Sycamore and Halifax streets [by Studioammons from the Battersea Design Guidelines. Drawn by Dolly Holmes and Gibson Worsham].
Paths and Roads
Petersburg began as a geographical node along important transportation routes utilized by the native inhabitants of the mid-Atlantic region. According to Gladys Rebecca Dobbs, “The extensive social and economic interaction, and associated mobility, among Indian peoples before the disruption of societies and networks has been documented at different scales” [The Indian Trading Path and Colonial Settlement Development in the North Carolina Piedmont. PhD diss, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006]. See http://www.unc.edu/~grdobbs/dissmaps/dobbs2006dissfinal.pdf[. The settlement grew up at the falls of the Appomattox River, a significant point where trading paths that led deep into the continental hinterland first met navigable water. Its unique geographical position in relation to the Piedmont regions of Virginia and the Carolinas made it a natural trailhead for the Indian trade of the entire upper South. A network of trading paths extended from the main Appomattoc Indian town (now Bermuda Hundred) at the mouth of the river. Location at a important node on this route allowed the falls settlement to grow from a trading entrepot in the late seventeenth century into one of the most prosperous commercial centers in the region by the middle of the eighteenth century.
The colonial government placed a defensive palisade called Fort Henry at the falls of the river in 1645. By that time, the Appomattox Indian population had been pushed back to a position just above the falls, known, like its predecessor, as Appomattox Town. In the 1646 treaty following the Second Anglo-Powhatan War, the Powhatans ceded all land east of the fall line to the colonists. Fort Henry was established as the only point at which Indians or colonists could either enter or leave the territory set aside for the Indians. Abraham Wood (1614-1682) had patented four hundred acres near the village at the falls in 1635. Wood was given command of the fort and, with it, effective control of trade with the Indians. Important exploratory trips were made from the area of the falls over the next forty years. In 1650, Edward Bland left and returned to Fort Henry at the falls on his exploratory trip with Abraham Wood at the instigation of Governor Berkeley [The Discovery of New Brittaine, Began August 27, Anno Dom. 1650, by Edward Bland, Merchant, Abraham Woode, Captaine, Sackford Brewster, Ellas Pennant, Gentlemen]. Similarly, Batts and Fallam left from and returned to Fort Henry and “the Appamatucks town,” the relocated Indian settlement to the southwest of the fort [The Expedition of Batts and Fallam, John Clayton’s Transcript of the Journal of Robert Fallam, 1671].
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| Approximate route of the Occaneechi Path [StudioAmmons, drawn by Dolly Holmes] |
According to Alan Briceland, whose research has helped clarify much that was obscure about the falls area, there was actually very little trade during the first four decades at Fort Henry/Appomattox [Alan V. Briceland. Westward from Virginia: The Exploration of the Virginia-Carolina Frontier, 1650-1710. Charlottesville Va: U of Virginia P, 1987]. Rather, fear of the Indians kept settlers behind the treaty line. The Occaneechi or Trading Path was not opened by the whites for trade into Carolina until the 1670s. Previous trade in skins had centered on beaver pelts and the Chesapeake Bay region. According to John Appleby, by the 1660s, “English traders in the Bay were running out of Indian trading partners or were faced with dwindling supplies of furs and skins. In such circumstances, a group of ambitious traders and explorers began to probe the commercial potential of the interior, creating a frontier of cross-cultural commercial activity” now focused on overland transport of deer hides [John Appleby, “The English fur trade in Chesapeake Bay: A case study in English commercial and entrepreneurial activity, c.1580 to 1680” (23 November 2001). See http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dwdrury/Fur_Trade_in_Maryland.htm].
The path traversed a number of Indian settlements on its way across the upper South, including Occaneechi Island in the Roanoke River, near modern Clarksville, Virginia, where the resident Siouan Indians acted as middlemen for the lucrative trade in skins. The Sapponi Path, called “the Road that leads to our Settlements on Wood’s [New] River” in 1755, led through the mountains to the southwest by way of the Sapponi villages on the upper Roanoke River:
“From this Town of Appamatuck they set out along the Path that leads to Acconeechy, which is an Indian Town on the Borders of Virginia and Carolina, marked in all our Maps; from which path they travelled due west. Now you will see both these Roads laid down in our Map of North America, and exactly as they are described in this journal, they being the two Roads that lead from the Falls of Appamattox River Southward to Carolina, and westward to our Settlements on Wood River in Virginia.
“This Road that goes to the westward, which was the one that our Travellers went, crosses three Branches of Roanoke River, a little below the mountains, just as it is described in the journal, as may be seen by comparing the journal with our Map abovementioned. This Branch of Roanoke River is called Sapony River in the journal, which has been called Staunton River, (in memory of the Lady of the late Governor of Virginia) ever since the survey of those Parts in running the Boundary Line between Virginia and Carolina in 1729” [John Mitchell, Remarks on the Journal of Batts and Fallam; in their Discovery of the Western Parts of Virginia in 1671. c 1755, in Clarence Walworth Alvord and Lee Bidgood, The first explorations of the Trans-Allegheny region by the Virginians, 1650-1674, Arthur H. Clark, 1912].
The Occaneechi and Sapponi paths both left the falls by the same route, corresponding approximately to today’s US Route 460, as far as present-day Blackstone. According to one historic source, a later road that corresponded to it, heading from Petersburg toward Namozine Creek in Dinwiddie County, was known as the Indian Trail in the early- to mid-nineteenth century [Walter A. Watson, ed. Notes on Southside Virginia, Virginia State Library Bulletin XV, 1925, 166]. A third path, possibly established somewhat later, was called the Fall Line Path or “The Road to Carolina” [John Mitchell's Map of North America, 1755]. It led due south, following the fall line to modern Halifax, North Carolina, by way of Emporia [Briceland]. These paths, and the roads that corresponded to them, were placed to take advantage of favorable geography and were curved to follow the high ground and avoid deep creek and river crossings wherever possible.
The Occaneechi Indians were forced by Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 away from the Clarksville area. Some parts of the tribe set up a new trading village near the present city of Hillsborough, North Carolina. The Occaneechi Path, now generally known as the Trading Path, was re-routed east of Clarksville to reach the new tribal trading center. It still left the falls area from the western side of Brickhouse Run and followed the same route as the Sapponi Path until it diverged south of the town.
Detail of copy of 1738 plat of Petersburg showing an early version of High Street angling to southwest from the west side of Brickhouse Run (above). 1839 Plat of Petersburg showing early road pattern overlaid by Pride’s Field with High Street in red (below).
Detail of Plat of Petersburg, 1839, showing the original Sapponi/Occaneechi Path as Water Street in red, and as High Street in yellow, and the Trading Path-Carolina Road (Sycamore Street) in blue.
The chronological priority of roads can often be deduced from their relative dominance at intersections. Analysis of the historic road patterns suggests that the original route of the route to the west (the combined Sapponi and Occaneechi paths) corresponded to Water or Old Street (today’s Grove Avenue) to the landing or crossing at Appomattox Point. In c 1706, sale of the Appomattox Point landing to Robert Bolling meant that the Jones family probably made use of a second landing to the immediate west. This was the Oyster Shell Landing at the end of today’s Short Market Street. By 1738, however, the route to the west (now called Cocke's Road) utilized the route of today’s High Street to climb to the bluff above the river. The High Street route (labelled “Road”) can be seen on one of the two early plats of the “Old Town” of Petersburg. High Street was intersected by the pre-existing road corresponding to Water Street, as can be readily deduced from an examination of early street maps in the area of Pride’s Field. This upper road became the spine of the town of “New Petersburg” in 1762.
Similarly, Sycamore Street, which correspond to the seventeenth-century Falls or Carolina Path, runs into Water Street (todays Old Street) on the east side of Brickhouse Run, just before the latter makes a very marked turn to the north to reach the historic Appomattox Point landing/crossing. This hierarchy of street intersections indicates that the Sapponi/Occaneechi Path as Water Street crossed Brickhouse Run and ended at the lower landing well before the Falls Path/Carolina Road, which runs into it, was extended through the falls area. The very name of “Old Street” connotes its likely precedence in the town’s circulation system. Two existing buildings are shown flanking the road beyond the eastern end of the new town on the plat of 1738. These buildings are presumably among several structures that stood on the Wood’s/Jones land and housed pre-1738 trading establishments. One of these may have been the “brick house” that gave the adjacent creek its name and it could have served as the location of the Peter Jones’ store and home [Scott and Wyatt].
The trade was centered at the falls, at warehouses along the river, and at Bermuda Hundred near its mouth. Many of the settlers along the James and Appomattox Rivers were engaged in the trade. Indian traders included Captain Thomas Wynne and his brother, Joshua Wynne, who were, in 1702, appointed interpreters to accompany the Nottaway and Meherrin commissioners on their trip north to make peace with the Seneca Indians [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POYTHRESS/2005-12/1134317664]. Others were Robert Hicks, John Evans and his son, John Evans, Jr., William Byrd II, and both John and Robert Bolling. Col. Robert Mumford, Peter, Thomas and Richard Jones, as well as David Crawley, Nathaniel Urvin, Nathaniel Irby, and members of the Poythress family are all names associated with the Indian trade. Most of their families, other than Byrd, would soon be closely related by marriage. Independent or "private traders" set out along the Trading Path with pack-horses, goods for trade, guns, and provisions. Others were employed by merchants [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POYTHRESS/1997-05/0863146950].
Ownership by Abraham Wood and the Jones’ family of the landing at Appomattox Point seems to have encouraged others to operate docks and stores on independent tracts, much as planters operated independently as merchants along waterways throughout the colony. This set the tone for what was to become the “nest of tobacco towns” that grew into the city of Petersburg. Warehouses and stores were built along the shoreline routes.
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Detail of the Jefferson-Fry Map 1751 showing the Petersburg/Bermuda Hundred
area of the Appomattox River (north is to the right)
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William Byrd had a store at “Appomattox” well downstream from the falls as early as 1688, from which “his trader” went out regularly and from which his sloop brought in tobacco and hides as early as 1709 [Notes from Wright, Louis B. and Marion Timling, eds.The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1709-1712. Richmond: Deitz Press, 1941]. The store was placed where a ferry was recognized by the legislature in 1702. There were no other ferries on the Appomattox River at that time:
“In Appomatock river at the usuall place near coll. Byrd's store, the price for a man halfe a royall, for a man and horse one royall” [Hening, William Waller. The Statutes at Large; Being A Collection Of All The Laws Of Virginia From The First Session Of The Legislature, In The Year 1619. Vol. III. Philadelphia PA: Thomas Desilver, 1823].
Mid-20th-century view of the building now identified as Peter Jones Trading Post (left) and the building, still standing on Market Street, identified as the Peter Jones Trading Station in 1907 (right).
Historians of the locality have sometimes referred to the angle in the river below the falls as “Peter’s Point,” after the “Trading Post” said to have been opened there by Capt. Peter Jones. This notion appears to derive from a local source repeated in Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Virginia (1852), but is not supported by any references in contemporary records. Instead, writers generally referred to the bend in the river as Appomattox Point in the seventeenth century and as Bolling’s Point after it was acquired by Indian trader Robert Bolling in 1706.
As mentioned above, the boundaries of Dinwiddie County in 1752 named the “the upper side of the run which falls into Appomattox river, between the town of Blandford, and Bolling's point warehouses.” When Bristol Parish was divided into three precincts in 1724, one was on the south side of the river and two on the north. One boundary was to begin at
“Appomatox Ferry, thence along Mouck's Neck road to Stony Creek Bridge, thence up Stony Creek to the upper road to Nottoway river, thence up between the same and Appomatox river to the extent of the Parish ; Capt. Peter Jones and his son William are appointed to count tobacco plants for said precinct. Thomas Bott is appointed counter on the north side of the precinct between old Town creek and Appomatox; William Rowlett between old Town creek and Swift creek, and William Chambliss between Swift creek and Henrico Parish." [Slaughter, Philip. A History of Bristol Parish with a Tribute to the Memory of its Oldest Rector. Richmond, VA B. B. Minor, 1846, 19].
This implies that Appomattox was upstream from Old Town Creek, since Swift Creek is downstream, and thus the name probably refers to the community at the falls. This suggests that the entire area at the falls seems to have been called Appomattox as a general term, just as the bend in the river below the falls was known as Appomattox Point.
Similarly, the location of a trading “post” operated by Peter Jones is derived from a brief account published in 1833, which said that “Peter Jones opened a trading establishment with the Indians, a few rods west of what is now the junction of Sycamore and Old Streets” [Plumer, William S. Manual for the Members of Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Petersburg, Virginia, 1833 quoted in Scott and Wyatt, 1960]. Most published historians since that date have declined to firmly identify that business with any standing structure. The nature of the trade with Indians would undoubtedly have involved structures in which skins, which were the chief product of the Indian trade, would be stored, but it is unlikely that Jones or anyone else operated a “station” where, in Scott and Wyatt’s words, Indians came to town “to buy and sell in some structure which local tradition quite variously has favored and identified through the years.”
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| Diagram of early Petersburg from the Battersea Design Guidelines by StudioAmmons, drawn by Dolly Holmes |
The initial nucleus of settlement appears to have centered around two key locations just below the falls of the Appomattox: (1) a landing at Appomattox Point where the main route of the Trading Path reached the river and (2) a natural landing, sometimes called the Oyster Shell Landing, above the mouth of Brickhouse Run.
+on+Herman+Boye+southside+map+detail+1827.jpg) |
| Reconstructed locations of historic roads shown on portion of Herman Boye Map of Virginia. Dates indicate the first appearance of a named road on a map or document, not the date of the route's founding. |
Transportation patterns changed radically as the area was settled. In 1702, the only ferry over the river was some distance downstream from the settlement at the falls. It is possible that, by the later seventeenth century, the main route of the Trading Path actually ran east along the south bank of the river to Appomattox Ferry, where travelers could cross the river to reach Bermuda Hundred. This may have been the reason why William Byrd located his Appomattox Store at the ferry, well downstream from the falls, even though both landings at the falls were accessible by boats and smaller ships. Large ships anchored in the James River and received goods from the smaller sloops and other boats.
More to follow in Urban History of Petersburg, Part II
