The Bull Mountain Boundary Line By Beverly Belcher Woody
On the 21st of November 1833, in the storehouse of Thomas H. Watkins, John Turner, William Ayres, Jesse Corn, Jefferson Taylor, John A. Hairston, and Jesse DeHart formed a committee asking that the Virginia Legislature pass a law establishing a new county composed of the territory on the north side of Bull Mountain and a small part of Franklin County.
Floyd County was established three years before from part of Montgomery County. Did this give the men the idea? With redistricting in the forefront of the news today, the proceedings of the new county committee and the rebuttal were recorded in the January 11, 1834, edition of the Richmond Enquirer which is published in its’ entirety below.
At a meeting of the citizens of Patrick county, residing on the North side of the Bull mountain, in favor of a new county, out of a portion of the counties of Patrick and Franklin, upon motion being made, John Turner, Esq. was called to the chair and William Ayres appointed Secretary. The objects of the meeting being stated to the meeting, they proceeded to enter the following resolutions:
1st. Resolved, That Jesse Corn, Jefferson Taylor, John A. Hairston, William Ayres and Jesse P. Dehart, be appointed a committee to prepare a Memorial to the Legislature of Virginia, requesting them to pass a law establishing a new county out of parts of the counties of Patrick and Franklin.
Resolved, That the member from this county, in the House of Delegates and the Senator from this District, be instructed to advocate the passage of such a law: Which preamble and resolutions being read, were unanimously adopted.
And thereupon, the committee after retiring a short time, returned and reported to the meeting the following Memorial, which being read, was unanimously adopted:
To the Legislature of Virginia.
The Memorial of a public meeting of the citizens of Patrick county, residing in the north side of the Bull mountain, favorable to a new county, convened at the store house of Thomas H. Watkins, on the 21st day of November, 1833, beg leave to represent to your honorable body, that a petition has been drawn up, praying for a new county out of that part of the county of Patrick, lying north of the Bull mountain, and a part of the county of Franklin, lying contiguous thereto: That the petition aforesaid presents almost an entire unanimity of sentiment in favor of the proposed new county, by the people residing within the same; sufficiently so, as your memorialists humbly conceive, to have secured success, without any further effort on their part, but for a meeting recently held, and a memorial drafted by the people on the south side of the Bull mountain, in said county, in opposition thereto.
Without undertaking to enumerate and meet in detail, all the objections which may have been urged in the memorial aforesaid, your memorialists beg leave to call the attention of your honorable body to the motives and reasons, which impel them to a separation—believing their claim to be strong as that of any other people ever presented to the Legislature of Virginia, for a similar purpose.
In the first place, you will see by a glance at the maps of the counties of Patrick and Franklin, that the proposed new county will lie as it were in a valley, containing territory, population and wealth, sufficient to constitute it an average county in this State. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, except where the line will run through the county of Franklin; there being a range of hill or mountain, called the Bull mountain, running from the Blue Ridge, nearly an east course through the county of Patrick, from three to five miles wide, without inhabitants. That the nearest citizen of the proposed new county to the present courthouse of the county South of the Courthouse to the North Carolina line: that nearly the whole of the citizens North of said mountain, traveling to the Courthouse, have to travel through a narrow defile or pass through said mountain, a distance of seven or eight miles, without an inhabitant to afford them accommodation or comfort, and at the same time have to cross a river some twenty-five or thirty times; and many of the citizens living within the proposed new county, are distant from the present Courthouse of Patrick, twenty and some thirty miles; that there is little or no intercourse between us and the people on the South side of the mountain, our trade being either to Lynchburg or Danville.—Believing as we do, that the strong arm of Government was intended to extend relief to the weak as well as protection to the strong, your memorialists rest assured that their rights and privileges as citizens, will be duly appreciated by your honorable body; that the same may take effect on or before the first of March next and that a Court may be holden at the house of ______, in the new county, until a site can be fixed upon agreeable to law, and that the said county be called the county of ______; and that your honorable body will afford us such other relief as in your wisdom you may see we need, and as in duty bound your memorialists will ever pray.
Upon motion, Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions and memorial be copied by the Secretary and forwarded to the representative of this county in the House of Delegates, and the Senator of this District; and also a copy to the Editor of the Richmond Enquirer for publication, with a request that other Editors publishing the memorial of the citizens on the South side of the mountain will give this an insertion in their paper also.
John Turner, Chairman.
William Ayres, Secretary.
Rebuttal
At a numerous and respectable meeting of the citizens of Patrick county, at the Court-house on Thursday, the 12th day of December, 1833, being Court day, pursuant to notice, to take into consideration the proposed division of this county: on motion of Archibald Stuart, Esq. Capt. Frederick Critz was called to the Chair, and Matthew Sandefur appointed Secretary. The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted by the meeting:
Whereas it is represented to this meeting that an application will be made to the Legislature of Virginia, now sitting, for the formation of a new county out of parts of the counties of Patrick and Franklin, and that great exertions are being made to affect that object. And whereas this meeting cannot look upon the bare possibility of such an event, but with feelings of the deepest solicitude and reprobation:
Be it therefore Resolved, That ______ be appointed a committee to prepare a memorial to the Legislature, protesting in the most solemn manner against the establishment of the proposed new county, and setting forth the reasons and consequences of such a measure.
Resolved, That the representative from this county in the House of Delegates and the Senator from this district be instructed to oppose the passage of a law establishing said new county.—The Chair proceeded to fill the blank in the first resolution with the names of Archibald Stuart, Madison D. Carter, John D. Cheatham and Matthew Sandefur. And thereupon the committee, after retiring a short time, returned and reported to the meeting the following Memorial, which being read was unanimously adopted:
To the Legislature of Virginia.
The Memorial of a numerous meeting of the citizens of Patrick county, convened at the Courthouse of the said county, at December Court, 1833, would respectfully represent to your honorable body, that it is understood that an attempt will be made at your present session to procure the passage of a law establishing a new county out of parts of the counties of Patrick and Franklin.
Your memorialists cannot believe for a moment, that there is any probability of such an attempt proving successful. They have too much confidence in the intelligence and justice of your honorable body, to believe for a moment, that a measure fraught with so much mischief, inconvenience and injustice, can, under any circumstances, be adopted.
For fear, however, that the friends of the measure may gain strength to their cause by the apparent acquiescence of its opposers, which might be inferred from their remaining quiet, your memorialists beg leave solemnly to protest against the establishment of the proposed new county.
The limits of a memorial will not permit them to go at length into the various objections which might be used against this measure. They will, however, barely endeavor to satisfy your honorable body, that not one of the causes for which old counties are usually sub-divided, and new ones erected exist in the present instance. There is, in the present limits of the county of Patrick, neither a redundancy of population nor territory: on the contrary, in both these respects it is scarcely an average county. There is no great natural barrier or impediment calculated to interfere with or cut off the access of any of its citizens from their Courthouse. There is, it is true, a small mountain called the Bull mountain, which divides the county from East to West, the top of which is proposed as one of the boundaries of the proposed new county. But your memorialists would represent, that the Gap, at which nearly all the people on the North side of the said mountain cross in coming to the Courthouse, scarcely deserves to be styled a hill, the ascent on one side and the descent on the other being nearly imperceptible. There can be no argument drawn in favor of a new county, from the circumstance of the Courthouse not being located in the center of the county—it being situated as near the center as the nature of the adjacent country will permit, and but little exceeding twenty miles from the most remote part of that section of the county which is proposed to be taken off; so that no serious inconvenience can result to the citizens of the county from that circumstance.
Your memorialists, having shown that there are no good reasons existing which require the establishment of the proposed new county, might stop here, in the full confidence that your honorable body would never adopt such a measure without some good reason being shewn for it. But your memorialists will not content themselves with showing that the establishment of the new county is unnecessary and uncalled for, by the existing state of things. They will go further and flatter themselves; they will be able to prove to your honorable body that such a measure is highly inexpedient and mischievous in its tendency. They will not press upon your consideration the objection to the dismemberment of old counties, which naturally arise from county pride, attachment to long-established limits and old associations; they are satisfied that these feelings on these points will be recognized and duly appreciated by every member of your honorable body. They will confine themselves to objections which exist, independent of those considerations, and which they deem amply sufficient to defeat the obnoxious measure which they so much deprecate.
In the first place, it will be seen, by reference to the petition for the new county, that although it purports to pray for a new county, composed of parts of the counties of Patrick and Franklin, yet the boundary therein specified, will include nearly, if not quite, half the territory and population of the county of Patrick, and will take from the county of Franklin, but a small portion of either. A reference to the map will show that the territory embraced in the present limits of the county of Patrick does not much, if any, exceed that of an average county, and a large portion of that territory is not susceptible to cultivation or settlement. By reference to the last census, it will be seen, that the population of the county of Patrick was a little upwards of seven thousand, including slaves, free negroes and mulattoes; it will be obvious, then, that any thing like an equal division of the territory and population, will constitute the two smallest counties, both as regards population and territory, between the Blue Ridge and Tidewater. And this is not all: the proposed boundary will leave the county of Patrick a narrow strip of country, near sixty miles long, and from eight to twelve wide, between the Blue Ridge and the Bull Mountain, on the North, and the State line on the South. A considerable portion of this width is entirely uninhabitable, as a consequence of the spurs of the mountain, and other small mountains which intersect it. The present Courthouse, instead of being the center of the county, will be on one edge, with, perhaps, not a single citizen between it and the Bull Mountain, in a direct line.—Your memorialists would further call your attention to the increased expenses, which will be necessarily incurred both by them and by the Government, should the proposed new county be established: Two Attorneys for the Commonwealth, two Commissioners of the Revenue, two Sheriffs, two Clerks, and two Jailors, will receive from the Treasury their stated annual allowances, instead of one of each of those officers as at present.
Your memorialists would also beg leave to suggest that the establishment of the proposed new county would completely deprive the county of Patrick of the representative granted to it by the new Constitution. As before stated, the Bull Mountain nearly divides the territory and population of the county equally. The same may be said as to the qualified voters. The accession of sixty or seventy voters from Franklin would give the new county a decided ascendancy at the polls. So that if Patrick and the new county constitute an election district, the new county will send the representative, and the county of Patrick, to which the representative is given by the Constitution, will be a mere appendage, and occupy towards the new county the same position which the Constitution provides new counties shall occupy towards the old ones.
In conclusion, your memorialists cannot fear for a moment the passage of a law, in favor of which, no good reason can be given; and against which, many might be adduced, in addition to those already stated. They, therefore, rest their cause with confidence, on the intelligence and justice of your honorable body, and, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Upon motion—Resolved, That the Secretary transmit a copy of the foregoing proceedings and memorial, to the Member of the House of Delegates from this county, and the Senator from this District; another copy thereof to the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer for publication, with a request that the same may be published in the Richmond Whig and Compiler; and another copy thereof to the Editor of the Franklin Whig for publication.
Upon motion, the meeting adjourned.
(Signed,)
Frederick Critz, Chairman
Matthew Sandefur, Secretary
Nearly two centuries later, the arguments voiced in that storehouse and courthouse meeting still sound strikingly familiar. In 1833, citizens debated boundaries, representation, fairness, and whose voices would carry the greatest weight—concerns that remain at the heart of modern conversations about redistricting today. Though the maps and political circumstances may change, the underlying questions endure: How should communities be divided, who should represent them, and what arrangement best serves the people? The Bull Mountain debate reminds us that long before modern headlines, Patrick County citizens were already wrestling with the same issues that continue to shape our political landscape today.
For questions, comments, or story ideas, Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
