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Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 12 Jul 2003 08:53:59 -0400
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Let me add one thing about New Market/Norwood.

New Market was the original warehouse settlement on the James River for Nelson County.  It was just a bit up the Tye River from its mouth to protect the warehouses from floods on the James.  When the canal was built in the 1840s, the boats apparently turned up the river to New Market to load/unload goods.  The Canal company, though, had a dam on the James just below the mouth of the Tye.  This resulted in the mouth of the Tye silting up, making it difficult for the boats to get to the warehouses.  After several years, apparently, of hauling goods across the floodplain to the canal, the owners had eventually to move the settlement down to the canal.  After the Civil War, this settlement was called Norwood.

Some interesting sources include the records of the Tye River Warehouse, the biggest of the commercial operations at New Market, which are at the University of Illinois.  Closer to home, the VHS (as I recall) holds some papers relating to a suit local merchants launched against the canal company in the 1850s to recoup losses from a flood on the Tye that damaged the New Market warehouses and other buildings.  Those papers include some great maps of the region around the settlement.

Lynn Nelson
Department of History
Middle Tennessee State University
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