Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.
Chester is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 23,414.
Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 7,473 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County.
The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on 3,300 miles (5,300 km) of track in nine states.
Midlothian is an unincorporated area and Census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, Virginia south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. Because of its unincorporated status, Midlothian has no formal government, and the name is used to represent the original small Village of Midlothian and a vast expanse of Chesterfield County in the northwest portion of Southside Richmond served by the Midlothian post office.
In 1836, the Virginia House of Delegates approved a charter for the City Point Railroad. City Point, Virginia, was just ten years old. The Lower Appomattox Company ran boats of cargo from Petersburg, Virginia, to the large port at City Point. The company knew that the port needed a rail road to be competitive in the 1830s even though this would only be the second rail road in Virginia. Large ships that were too large for Port Walthall or Petersburg had to load and unload at City Point. Goods for export arrived in Petersburg from farms and plantations by way of the Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System. The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad bringing coal and goods to port was also chartered in 1836. Coal arriving by boat from the Clover Hill Pits in 1837 and goods would soon be taken on the Clover Hill Railroad to connect with the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad to export from the area ports.
The Southside of Richmond is an area of the Metropolitan Statistical Area surrounding Richmond, Virginia. It generally includes all portions of the City of Richmond that lie south of the James River, and includes all of the former city of Manchester. Depending on context, the term "Southside of Richmond" can include some northern areas of adjacent Chesterfield County, Virginia in the Richmond-Petersburg region. With minor exceptions near Bon Air, VA, the Chippenham Parkway forms the border between Chesterfield County and the City of Richmond portions of Southside, with some news agencies using the term "South Richmond" to refer to the locations in Southside located in the city proper.
Winterpock is an unincorporated community in western Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Winterpock does not have its own post office.
The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad moved passengers and goods between Richmond and Petersburg from 1838 to 1898. It survived the American Civil War and eventually merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1900.
Bermuda Hundred was the first administrative division in the English colony of Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown. At the southwestern edge of the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers opposite City Point, annexed to Hopewell, Virginia in 1923, Bermuda Hundred was a port town for many years. The terminology "Bermuda Hundred" also included a large area adjacent to the town. In the colonial era, "hundreds" were large developments of many acres, arising from the English term to define an area which would support 100 homesteads. The port at the town of Bermuda Hundred was intended to serve other "hundreds" in addition to Bermuda Hundred.
Raines Tavern is an unincorporated community in Cumberland County on Virginia State Route 45 just north of Farmville, Virginia, in the U.S. state of Virginia. It was a stop on the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad from 1884 to 1905, and on the Tidewater and Western Railroad from 1905 to 1917.
Eppington is a historic plantation house located near Winterpock, Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was built about 1768, and consists of a three-bay, 2+1⁄2-story, central block with hipped roof, dormers, modillion cornice, and flanking one-story wings in the Georgian style. It has a later two-story rear ell. It features two tall exterior end chimneys which rise from the roof of the wings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
Beach Station a national historic district located near Chesterfield, in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The district includes six contributing buildings and one contributing site in the Village of Beach. They were all constructed about 1890 and are two single-family dwellings, a post office, a railway depot, an outbuilding, two railroad shanties, and the ruins of the former general store. Beach Station was accessible from the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad later named the Tidewater and Western Railroad. Leasing arrangements had been made with the Brighthope Railway company which was sold to become the Farmville and Powhatan. The district represents an unusual collection of late-nineteenth-century buildings in their historic surroundings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
The Clover Hill Railroad was a railroad company that operated for 36 years in central Virginia near Richmond. The railroad was created to carry coal most efficiently from the Clover Hill Pits in Winterpock, Virginia, to further transportation points in Chester, Virginia, where it could be sold for a better price than on the Appomattox River in the Piedmont region. This made the railroad important to the Confederacy in the Civil War to ensure a supply of coal for munitions and iron working. The mines were dangerous for the miners, and many accidents occurred. The railroad had to be sold when coal mining declined so that new owners could find other uses for the railroad.
In 1886, Randolph Harrison, of the Virginia department of Agriculture, cited Cumberland Mining Company, stating that businessmen would soon open a hotel at Lithia Springs, Farmville, VA for people seeking the healing waters. The Brighthope railway would be extended to bring them there. But instead, the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad Company built the narrow gauge rails through Cumberland County and the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad Company bought the Brighthope Railway, so the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad made the connection. In 1890, Beach Station was built with a railroad depot, some railroad shanties, a general store and an owner's house, the George Perdue House as a stop on the line.
The Clover Hill Pits are a number of coal shafts and mines that operated in the Southside area of Richmond, Virginia, from 1837 until around 1883.
The Swift Creek Rail Bridge was a granite and iron truss bridge over Swift Creek in Virginia. The Tidewater and Western Railroad included a bridge over Swift Creek that had been built by an earlier railroad company, the Clover Hill Railroad. The bridge was used during the whole time the four railroad companies operated rails over the bridge. The metal on the bridge was sold as part of foreclosure of the final company in 1917.
The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad went bankrupt in 1905 and became the Tidewater and Western Railroad. The line survived until 1917 when it was pulled up and sent to France for the World War I effort. The Tidewater and Western Railroad carried freight and passengers along a route from Farmville, Virginia to Bermuda Hundred. The Tidewater and Western Railroad continued to have Western Union Telegraphs run along the rails. These connected to telegraphs on the Atlantic Coast Line along the East Coast of the US and to Europe.
The Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation system allowed farmers who took their wheat and corn to mills on the Appomattox River, as far way as Farmville, Virginia, to ship the flour all the way to Petersburg from 1745 to 1891. The system included a navigation, modifications on the Appomattox River, a Canal around the falls Petersburg, and a turning basin in Petersburg to turn their narrow long boats around, unload the farm products from upstream and load up with manufactured goods from Petersburg. In Petersburg, workers could put goods on ships bound for the Chesapeake Bay and load goods from far away for Farmville and plantations upstream. Canal boats would return up river with manufactured goods. People who could afford it, rode in boats on the canal as the fastest and most comfortable ride. The river was used for transportation and shipping goods for over 100 years.
The Richmond Basin was one of the Eastern North America Rift Basins. It lies over Swift Creek Reservoir from Interstate 64 to the Appomattox River.
