Monacan Indian Nation and other
Siouan Tutelo-speaking tribes had lived in the area for over 10,000 years, driving the
Virginia Algonquians eastward to the coastal areas. Explorer
John Lederer visited one of the Siouan villages (
Saponi) in 1670, on the Staunton River at Otter Creek, southwest of the present-day city, as did the
Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam expedition in 1671. Siouan peoples occupied this area until about 1702; they had become weakened because of high mortality from infectious diseases. The
Seneca people, who were part of the
Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy based in New York, defeated them. The Seneca had ranged south while seeking new hunting grounds through the
Shenandoah Valley to the West. At the Treaty of Albany in 1718, the
Iroquois Five Nations ceded control of their land east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including Lynchburg, to the
Colony of Virginia; they confirmed this in 1721.
Founding and early growth First settled by Anglo-Americans in 1757, Lynchburg was named for its founder,
John Lynch. When about 17 years old, Lynch started a ferry service at a
ford across the
James River to carry traffic to and from
New London, where his parents had settled. The "City of Seven Hills" quickly developed along the hills surrounding Lynch's Ferry. In October 1786, Virginia's General Assembly recognized Lynchburg, the settlement by Lynch's Ferry on the James River. Lynch himself freed all of his slaves during his lifetime, including the slave who was suspected of killing his son.
Presbyterians took over the grounds of the meetinghouse in 1899 and adapted it into their own church, later building a new church adjacent to the site. The meetinghouse and burial ground are now preserved as a
historic site. To avoid the many visitors at
Monticello,
Thomas Jefferson in 1806 developed a plantation and house near Lynchburg, called
Poplar Forest. He often visited the town, noting, "Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be useful to the town of Lynchburg. I consider it as the most interesting spot in the state." In 1810, Jefferson wrote, "Lynchburg is perhaps the most rising place in the U.S.... It ranks now next to Richmond in importance...." Early Lynchburg residents were not known for their religious enthusiasm. The established Church of England supposedly built a log church in 1765. In 1804, evangelist
Lorenzo Dow wrote: "...where I spoke in the open air in what I conceived to be the seat of Satan's Kingdom. Lynchburg was a deadly place for the worship of God'." That referred to the lack of churches, which was corrected the following year. Itinerant
Methodist Francis Asbury visited the town; Methodists built its first church in 1805. Lynchburg hosted the last Virginia Methodist Conference that bishop Asbury attended (February 20, 1815). As Lynchburg grew, prostitution and other "rowdy" activities became part of the urban mix of the river town. They were often ignored, if not accepted, particularly in a downtown area referred to as the "Buzzard's Roost." Methodist preacher and later bishop
John Early became one of Lynchburg's civic leaders; unlike early Methodist preachers who had urged abolition of slavery during the
Great Awakening, Early was of a later generation that had accommodated to this institution in the slave societies of the South. On December 3, 1840, the
James River and Kanawha Canal from Richmond reached Lynchburg. It was extended as far as
Buchanan, Virginia in 1851, but never reached a tributary of the Ohio River as originally planned. Lynchburg's population exceeded 6,000 by 1840, and a water works system was built. Floods in 1842 and 1847 wreaked havoc with the canal and towpath. Both were repaired. Town businessmen began to lobby for a railroad, but Virginia's General Assembly refused to fund such construction. In 1848 civic boosters began selling subscriptions for the
Lynchburg and Tennessee Railroad. By the 1850s, Lynchburg (along with
New Bedford, Massachusetts) was among the richest towns per capita in the US. Tobacco (including the manufacture of plug tobacco in factories using rented slave labor), slave-trading, general commerce, and iron and steel manufacturing powered the economy. Railroads had become the wave of the future. Construction on the new Lynchburg and Tennessee railroad had begun in 1850 and a locomotive tested the track in 1852. A locomotive called the "Lynchburg" blew up in
Forest, Virginia (near Poplar Forest) later that year, showing the new technology's dangers. By the Civil War, two more railroads had been built, including the
South Side Railroad from
Petersburg. It became known as the
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870, then a line in the
Norfolk and Western Railway, and last as part of the
Norfolk Southern Railway. The
Orange and Alexandria Railroad stopped in Lynchburg.
American Civil War During the
American Civil War, Lynchburg served as a
Confederate transportation hub and supply depot. It had 30 hospitals, often placed in churches, hotels, and private homes. In June 1864,
Union forces of General
David Hunter approached within as they drove south from the
Shenandoah Valley. Confederate troops under General
John McCausland harassed them. Meanwhile, the city's defenders hastily erected breastworks on Amherst Heights. Defenders were led by General
John C. Breckinridge, who was an invalid from wounds received at the
Battle of Cold Harbor. Union General
Philip Sheridan appeared headed for Lynchburg on June 10, as he crossed the
Chickahominy River and cut the
Virginia Central Railroad. However, Confederate cavalry under General
Wade Hampton, including the
2nd Virginia Cavalry from Lynchburg under General
Thomas T. Munford, defeated his forces at the two-day
Battle of Trevilian Station in Louisa County, and they withdrew. This permitted fast-marching troops under Confederate General
Jubal Early to reach within four miles of Lynchburg on June 16 and tear up the tracks of the
Orange and Alexandria Railroad to inhibit travel by Union reinforcements, while Confederate reinforcements straggled in from Charlottesville. On June 18, 1864, in the
Battle of Lynchburg, Early's combined forces, though outnumbered, repelled Union General Hunter's troops. Lynchburg's defenders had taken pains to create an impression that the Confederate forces within the city were much larger than they were in fact. For example, a train was continuously run up and down the tracks while drummers played and Lynchburg citizens cheered as if reinforcements were disembarking. Local prostitutes took part in the deception, misleading their Union clients about the large number of Confederate reinforcements.
Narcissa Owen (
Cherokee), wife of the president of the
Lynchburg and Tennessee Railroad, later wrote about her similar deception of Union spies. From April 6 to 10, 1865, Lynchburg served as the capital of Virginia after the Confederate government fled from Richmond. Governor
William Smith and the Commonwealth's executive and legislative branches escaped to Lynchburg as Richmond surrendered on April 3.
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse, roughly east of Lynchburg, ending the Civil War. Lynchburg surrendered on April 12, to Union General
Ranald S. Mackenzie.
Post-Civil War recovery The railroads that had driven Lynchburg's economy were destroyed by the war's end. The residents of the city deeply resented occupying forces under General
John Irvin Gregg, and worked more readily with his affable successor General
Newton Martin Curtis.
Thomas J. Kirkpatrick became superintendent for the public education established under Virginia's Reconstruction-era legislature and Constitution of 1869, and built four new public schools. Previously, the only education for students from poor families was provided through
St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Floods in 1870 and 1877 destroyed the city's bridges (which were rebuilt) and the James River and Kanahwa Canal (which was not rebuilt). The towpath was used as the bed for laying the rails of the
Richmond and Allegheny Railroad, a project conceived five decades earlier. The city limits expanded in 1874. In 1881 that railroad was completed to Lynchburg, and another railroad reached it through the
Shenandoah Valley. Lynchburg had a telegraph, about 15,000 residents, and the beginnings of a streetcar system. Many citizens, believing their city crowded enough, did not join the boosters who wanted Lynchburg to become the junction of that valley line and what became the
Norfolk and Western Railroad, so the junction was moved to Big Lick. This later developed as the City of
Roanoke. In the latter 19th century, Lynchburg embraced manufacturing (the city being sometimes referred to as the "Pittsburgh of the South"). On a per capita basis, it became one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. In 1880, Lynchburg resident
James Albert Bonsack invented the first cigarette-rolling machine. Shortly thereafter Dr.
Charles Browne Fleet, a physician and pharmacological tinkerer, introduced the first
micro-enema to be mass marketed over the counter. By the city's centennial in 1886, banking activity had increased sixfold over the 1860 level, which some attributed to slavery's demise. The Lynchburg Cotton Mill and Craddock-Terry Shoe Co., which would become the largest shoe manufacturer in the South, were founded in 1888. The
Reusens hydroelectric dam began operating in 1903 and soon delivered more power. In 1886, Virginia Baptists founded a training school, the Lynchburg Baptist Seminary. It began to offer a college-level program to African-American students in 1900. Now named the
Virginia University of Lynchburg, it is the city's oldest institution of higher learning. Not far outside town,
Randolph-Macon Woman's College and
Sweet Briar College were founded as women's colleges in 1893 and 1901, respectively. In 1903, the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) founded
Lynchburg Christian College (later
Lynchburg College) in what had been the Westover Hotel resort, which went bankrupt in the
Panic of 1901. During the 2018–19 school year, the college's name was changed to the
University of Lynchburg, reflecting its expansion of graduate-level programs and research. Lynchburg's first public library, the
Jones Memorial Library, opened in 1907. In 1955, both
General Electric and
Babcock & Wilcox built high technology factories in the area. Since the 1940s, maps of the federal interstate highway system showed a proposed northern route, bypassing the manufacturing centers at Lynchburg and Roanoke. But federal officials assured Virginia that the state would decide the route. Although initially favoring that northern route, Virginia's State Highway Commission eventually supported a southern route from Richmond via US-360 and US-460, which connected Lynchburg and Roanoke via US-220 from Roanoke to Clifton Forge, then continued west following US-60 into West Virginia. However, in July 1961, Governor
J. Lindsay Almond and US Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges announced that the route would not be changed. Lynchburg was left as the only city with a population in excess of 50,000 (at the time) that was not served by an interstate. The
Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded (now known as the Central Virginia Training School), was established outside Lynchburg in
Madison Heights. For several decades throughout the mid-20th century, the state of Virginia authorized compulsory sterilization of the intellectually disabled for the purpose of
eugenics. The operations were carried out at the institution. An estimated 8,300 Virginians were relocated to Lynchburg and sterilized there, making the city a "dumping ground" of sorts for the feeble-minded, poor, blind, epileptic, and those otherwise seen as genetically "unfit".
Carrie Buck challenged the state sterilization, but it was finally upheld by the
United States Supreme Court in
Buck v. Bell. She was classified as "feeble-minded" and sterilized while a patient at the Virginia State Colony. Sterilizations were carried out for 35 years until 1972, when the operations were halted. Later in the late 1970s, the
American Civil Liberties Union filed a
class-action lawsuit against the state of Virginia on behalf of the sterilization victims. In the settlement, victims received formal apologies from the state and counseling if they chose, but the judiciary denied requests for the state to pay for reverse sterilization operations. In 1994, Buck's sterilization and litigation were featured as a television drama,
Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story. The
Manic Street Preachers address the issue in their song "Virginia State Epileptic Colony" on their 2009 album
Journal for Plague Lovers.
Modern revitalization Liberty University, founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College and renamed in 1985, is one of the country's largest institutions of higher education and the largest employer in the Lynchburg region. The university states that it generates over $1 billion in
economic impact to the Lynchburg area annually. Lynchburg has ten recognized historic districts, four of them in the downtown residential area. Since 1971, 40 buildings have been individually listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. Downtown Lynchburg has undergone significant revitalization, with hundreds of new loft apartments created through adaptive reuse of historic warehouses and mills. Since 2000, downtown has attracted private investments of more than $110 million, and business activity increased by 205% from 2004 to 2014. In 2014, 75 new apartment units were added to downtown Lynchburg, with 155 further units under construction, increasing the number of housing units downtown by 48% from 2010 to 2014. Notable projects underway in downtown by the end of 2015 include the $25-million Virginian Hotel restoration project, a $16.6-million restoration of the Academy Center of the Arts, and $4.6-million expansion of Amazement Square Children's Museum.
Timeline • 1786 – Lynchburg founded. • 1791 – Tobacco warehouse built. • 1798 –
South River Friends Meetinghouse built. • 1805 – Town of Lynchburg incorporated. • 1806 •
City Cemetery established. • Construction of Thomas Jefferson's
Poplar Forest begins near Lynchburg. • 1830 •
Elijah Fletcher becomes mayor. •
Population: 4,630. • 1840 •
James River and Kanawha Canal to Richmond opens. •
Population: 6,395. • 1855 –
Lynchburg Courthouse built. • 1856 – Methodist Protestant Lynchburg College established. • 1864 – June 17–18:
Battle of Lynchburg fought near city during the
American Civil War. • 1866 – Southern Memorial Association founded. • 1870 – September: Flood. • 1879 – George D. Witt Shoe Corporation in business. • 1880 –
James Albert Bonsack invents
cigarette rolling machine. • 1886 –
First Baptist Church built. • 1888 –
Virginia Theological Seminary founded. • 1893 –
Randolph-Macon Woman's College opens. • 1895 –
St. Paul's Church built. • 1898 – "Confederate Infantryman" monument erected. • 1900 – Population: 18,891. • 1903 –
Virginia Christian College founded. • 1908 –
Jones Memorial Library opens. • 1912 – Equal Suffrage League formed. • 1913 – Statue of
John Warwick Daniel erected. • 1920 – Little Theater established. • 1928 – Monument Terrace built. • 1930 • WLVA
radio begins broadcasting. • Population: 40,661. • 1932 – Civic Art League founded. • 1940 –
City Stadium opens. • 1953 – WLVA-TV (
television) begins broadcasting. • 1954 –
Carter Glass Memorial Bridge opens. • 1959 – Pittman Plaza shopping centre in business. • 1966 • Lynchburg Public Library opens. • 1995 –
Lynchburg Hillcats baseball team active. • 2000 – City website online (approximate date). • 2010 – Population: 75,568. • 2016 – Joan Foster becomes mayor. • 2017 – President
Donald Trump gives commencement speech at Liberty University. • 2023 - Stephanie Reed becomes mayor. ==Geography==