(From the article “Long Hunters Were First White Settlers Coming To Pittsylvania County” appearing in the Star-Tribune Newspaper Bicentennial Issue, Thursday, June 15, 1967 and appearing on the web page of the Pittsylvania County, Virginia genealogy project.)

 

Long before the white man established himself in Pittsylvania, its inhabitants were known to their neighbors to the north and east. To the westward part of Pittsylvania there ran a war trail by which the fierce Iroquois and Mohawks traveled in their marauding expeditions against the tribes to the south.

The Narhisson, or Monacan Indians, the inhabitants of Pittsylvania, were a powerful tribe but gave more attention to agricultural pursuits than to scalp-taking and so they were constantly menaced and harassed by the Iroquois and the warlike tribes of eastern Virginia. This constant warfare finally depopulated the county of its original inhabitants who moved southward and lost their identity by mingling with the other tribes for protection.

The first Englishmen to visit the county were the “long hunters” or trappers, who found this part of Virginia fairly teeming with far bearing animals, bears, wild turkeys, deer and other wild life.

The year 1740 marked the entrance of the white man into Pittsylvania for settlement. Settlements were made on Dan River and Otter Creek (now Bannister River) on which the chief village of the Narhisson had been located. The southern boundary of the state and county had been fixed in 1728 when Colonel William Byrd of Westover surveyed the Virginia - Carolina line.

Halifax County, containing also Pittsylvania, Henry and Patrick, was formed in 1752 with Peytonsburg as the county seat. This is now a small settlement in the eastern part of Pittsylvania, but during the Colonial wars and the Revolution it was an important supply center and military prison. From here the wagon trains supplied General Nathaniel Greene’s army with food and munitions during the southern campaigns of 1780. Horseshoes were made for the Continental Armies in the blacksmith shops at Peytonsburg and a canteen factory there produced 500 canteens per day.

The real history of Pittsylvania begins June 1, 1767, with the formation of a new county of the Old Dominion, Pittsylvania, so called in honor of the great English friend of the American colonists, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Pittsylvania also contained Henry and Patrick Counties, but in 1777 was cut to its present size. What is now the tiny village of Callands was selected as the county seat and named Chatham in honor of the Earl of Chatham. But the popularity of a young English merchant of the place, Samuel Callands, overshadowed the distant greatness of the Earl and the first town of Chatham lost its identity in becoming Callands. This village was the center of county activity during the stirring days of the Revolution.

The first County Lieutenant of Pittsylvania was John Donelson, one of the founders of the State of Tennessee and his home, “Markham” was located on Banister River about twelve miles east of the present town of Chatham. (Edward Polly also owned land on the Banister at about this same time.) Here his daughter, Rachel, grew into womanhood and later became the wife of President Andrew Jackson. In Stanton near Altavista stands the old home of Captain Benjamin Clement, one of the pioneer settlers of the county and the first man to successfully make gunpowder in Virginia. “Oak Hill” (the colonial home of Colonel Peter Perkins and noted for its beautiful boxwood gardens), is in the southern part of Pittsylvania near Bachelor’s Hall. It was used as a hospital for Greene’s army during the retreat from the Carolinas in 1780.

The part played by Pittsylvania in the Revolution was no small one. Callands was the gathering point for troops, an arsenal being located there for supplying equipment. Down the Franklin Turnpike from Callands marched the “Pittsylvania Riflemen”, a volunteer company commanded by Captain Thomas Hutcherings, to compose part of the brigade of General Daniel Morgan in the Continental Army, and it is probable that they assisted in the siege of Boston. The military census of 1775 shows that the Pittsylvania Militia numbered 1436 men capable of bearing arms. Pittsylvania sent her sons to many battlefields, serving with Washington, with Greene in the Carolinas at Eutaw Springs and Guilford Courthouse where they acquitted them selves credibly; and in quelling Indian outbreaks. In addition to her men, Pittsylvania was also an important source of supplies of all kinds for use by the armies.

Desiring a more central location for the county seat, on January 1, 1777 the county government was moved from Callands to a place on Cherrystone Creek (the present site of Chatham). But Callands still holds much of interest and veneration for the native Pittsylvanian. While the courthouse at Callands was never completed and a private home was used for the colonial trials, county records show that contract was given, and ruins of the stone foundations are still to be seen. The old oak around which the Pittsylvanians stacked their muskets after the disbanding to the Continental Army is still standing in the village.

Due to a controversy over the location of the courthouse, the new county seat received the name “Competition” which later became Chatham after the first county seat. The courthouse was located in a ravine, but in a few years was removed to its present site and the present building erected. Chatham was a center for travel and a stopping place for wagon trains. The “Hickey Road” running from Chatham, westward to Henry, is still used and was cut through the wildness by James Hickey for his wagons to reach his store in what is now Henry County. Dix’s Ferry over the Dan River a few miles below Danville, served as a means of communication with the South. The old Beaver Tavern about 15 miles south of Chatham was a favorite resort for travelers and a muster place for county militia.

Early Pittsylvania County, Virginia History