• A History Of Halifax County Virginia 
By Wirt Johnson Carrington, 1924, Appeals Press, Inc., Richmond, Va.
FOREWARD
My first incentive to write or compile the history of Halifax County was the numberless letters received from all over the United States, and from foreign countries, asking for information of ancestors, who once lived in this county, and helped in its early struggles. It is not my intention, however, to deal genealogically with its families; since to do so would be a task that would necessitate many volumes.
My object is to seek out the broken and tangled threads of the history of the first settlers of Halifax County before the old unindexed records are entirely obliterated.
Old people are dying out; old traditions are being forgotten; old letters and old documents are being destroyed, and much that was valuable is already gone beyond recovery.
From the "Court Records" I shall publish just so much as will enable descendants to know something of the county in which their ancestors lived and struggled, and from which many of them wandered to distant states and countries.
The various historical societies are doing all in their power to preserve the public records; but the best way to perpetuate history is to teach it in our schools, and be sure it is the truth – teach it to our children in the homes; teach them to search out their forefathers and be familiar with them.
Of course, they were not all burgesses, councilors, presidents, or officials of any rank, but the great majority of them were hard workers, builders of roads, of bridges, of towns, of characters, of nations. If they were worthy, emulate their virtues; if unworthy, avoid their vices.
It is not essential to greatness that an ancestor should have fought in the Revolutionary War, but most Virginian ancestors did fight, and distinguished themselves in that conflict, and by their hardships and self-denials, their rugged and rough lives, left to their descendants paths to comforts and luxuries of which they never dreamed.
• Publications from the Halifax County Historical Society
• The Formation of Halifax County and Its Courthouses
In 1720 the Assembly passed an Act, effective in 1721, to form a county from the southern part of Prince George, to be called Brunswick. The new county would begin "on the south side of the River Roanoke at the place where the line lately
run for ascertaining the uncontroverted bounds of this colony toward North Carolina intersects the said River Roanoke and to
be bounded by the direction of the Governor with consent of council so as to include the Southern pass." The reference to the line "lately run" is to the famous survey line made by Colonel William Byrd II. Major William Mayo, John Irvine and others and described by Col. Byrd in A HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE BETWIXT VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA RUN IN THE YEAR 1728.
• Courthouse History
Occupying a site that has been used for court purposes since 1803, the Courthouse holds hundreds of thousands of documents relating to the people and property of Halifax County, Virginia. The court records go back to 1752, when Halifax County was cut off from Lunenburg.
• The History of Halifax County, Virginia (1750 - 1940)
From Colony to Nation (1750-1789) - Prior to 1714, Virginians were proscribed from settling beyond the Nottoway River due to the potential threat from Indians residing in the region. Settlement of this region was made possible in 1714, when Governor Alexander Spotswood corralled Virginia's remaining Indians and brokered a treaty with North Carolina establishing a compromise over the location of the colonies' shared boundary. In 1728 the boundary was formalized. • • • •
• The War of American Independence - The Southern Campaign - The Crossing of the Dan
"The Crossing of the Dan" was a brilliant tactical maneuver conceived by the American Continental army's General Nathanael Greene. The action was carried out at Irvine's and Boyd's ferries in Virginia on February 13-14, 1781.
Luring the British troops far from their supply base in Charleston, South Carolina, the Colonials raced with Cornwallis, in hot pursuit, to the Dan River. Greene's troops crossed in prepositioned ferries and boats only hours ahead of the British light calvalry. The stranded and frustrated British retreated to Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Greene used the next few days in Halifax, Virginia, to gather new troops, needed supplies and horses in preparation for a planned, direct encounter with the Redcoats.
• Ferries & Roads Research dating back to 1741
• Ferriage Research dating back to 1781
• Halifax County Tobacco History
- The first tobacco grown in Virginia and shipped to England was in 1612 by John Rolfe and his band of Colonial men. By the year 1730 England was asking for more tobacco and they began making liberal land grants to encourage men to move westward to fight the Indians and clear land and grow tobacco.
• The Native Americans of Halifax County
The very first travelers to Halifax County, Virginia, may have come and gone without leaving any clue as to whom they may have been. All that we find are the shaped stones they left behind. Spearpoints, knives, and axes found in this area have been dated back from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Excavations at Cactus Hill, on the Nottoway River in southeastern Virginia, have uncovered points, blades, and other evidence that are 15,000 to 17,000 years old.
• A History of the Indians of Halifax County
by Tom Stevens. In spite of many years of research, archeologists still don't know a great deal about the first people to inhabit the Americas.
• Kerr Resevoir Archeology
by Linda McCord. Before the extensive archeological digs were begun around the John H. Kerr Reservoir in 1947, the area was virtually an "archeological no-man's land."
• Col. William Byrd's Observations 1728-33: THE DIVIDING LINE
Byrd led a surveying party to mark the line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728 . . .
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The transcription and the updated photos are the work of Dan Shaw. In some cases modifications to the original text have been made to improve the flow of the story, correct typos, and insert new or clarifying information. Additional facts or further corrections are welcome.
This author takes no credit for the original publications and its research. These local historians should be honored for the their endless hours of efforts to document this county's history for posterity.
© 2021 by Dan Shaw Last updated on
March 4, 2021.
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