About

Campbell County, settled in 1736 and incorporated in 1781, is located in Virginia’s south central Piedmont region in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area is rich in both natural beauty and history. Campbell County was named for General William Campbell, the Revolutionary War hero famous for his leadership in defeating the Tories and Loyalists at the Battle of King’s Mountain in North Carolina.

Scotch-Irish Presbyterians first settled in Campbell County in the late 1730s, forming the Hat Creek community. Other colonies soon followed near Flat Creek/Otter River and Concord, and the County grew quickly during the next few years.

In 1757, John Lynch, son of one of the area’s first Quaker families, initiated a ferry service across the James River, around which the present city of Lynchburg developed. Meanwhile, Lynch’s brother, Charles, developed Green Level (now Avoca), located in present-day Altavista.

Lynchburg was officially created from Campbell County land in 1786. Fifty acres of land donated by Jeremiah Rust in 1784 became the county seat of Rustburg. Brookneal, a busy intersection of trails on the Staunton River, was founded in 1802. Altavista was a town planned in 1907 by a group of businessmen who realized its potential as a strategic railroad location.
Campbell County was one of the most significant iron producers in the late 18th century. Oxford Furnace Iron Works operated in Campbell County and produced 1,600 tons of pig iron annually, manufacturing munitions and supplies for the Continental Army along with household, farm, and industrial wares. Oxford Furnace was part of iron master David Ross’ multi-state operation that eventually grew to four plantations, grist mill, a batteau fleet, blast furnaces, and forges. Except for a white manager, a miller, and a carpenter, the skilled work of turning iron ore into products done by a workforce of enslaved people, including an enslaved man named Abram who was in charge of the casting production. Calloway’s Furnace, another ironworks investment by Ross in partnership with James Calloway produced another 600 tons per year according to records produced by Thomas Jefferson.

In 1792, many years after his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech and after his fifth term as governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry moved to Campbell County, first to Long Island, and then to Red Hill Plantation, which he called “the garden spot of the world.”

On June 6, 1799, Henry died and was buried at his beloved Red Hill. Almost 200 years later, Red Hill still holds the appearance and charm of its colonial days.
Because of its location on the Staunton (Roanoke) River, Brookneal served as a major tobacco market for many years. Tobacco was the primary production crop for Campbell County’s early economic system. Cat Rock Sluice, located between Long Island and Brookneal, is one of the country’s best-preserved relics of a rare riverbed navigation system for bateaux. The Roanoke Navigation Company opened the Roanoke River through a network of sluices blasted through rock ledges, paralleled by substantial stone walls called wing walls, which helped to guide the water into a single channel and provided a platform from which the boatmen could pull the bateaux through the sluice by rope, a primitive but effective system which fed the early economy of southern Virginia.

Historical Sites include:
Mead’s Tavern in New London (c. 1763– only surviving building in New London from the colonial era and is unique because no other two-story taverns from this period can be found in this part of Virginia)
Avoca Historical Museum and Gardens (originally the private residence of Colonel Charles Lynch (1736-1796) rebuilt in Victorian Era following a fire–fully restored)
Patrick Henry’s Red Hill (The final home and burial place of American patriot and firebrand of the Revolution, Patrick Henry. It houses the world’s largest collection of Patrick Henry-related artifacts as well as a new exhibit a new exhibit on the Quarter Place Trail called The Price of Chains and Slavery: Enslavement, Jim Crow, and the Black Experience at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill.)
Campbell County Museum at the Historic Courthouse (c. 1848: Rustburg museum offer tours of nine exhibit rooms and familial/local history research assistance.)
Campbell County Training School Complex (c. 1923; historic Rosenwald School for African-Americans. One of the best preserved multi-building Rosenwald school campuses)

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