GLASGOW

A short history of Glasgow

German explorer John Peter Salling and his brother Adam were the first settlers in the vicinity of Glasgow, arriving c. 1741. In December 1742, Iroquois warriors and a Virginia militia company fought the Battle of Galudoghson near the confluence of the James River and the Maury River. The militia captain, John McDowell, was killed, along with eight soldiers. Between 1760 and 1768, John Paxton II acquired most of the Salling property. Robert, Joseph, and Arthur Glasgow settled in the area in 1768. Glasgow was named for Joseph Glasgow, son of Arthur. Joseph and his wife, Nancy Ellis McCullough, built their home, known as Union Ridge, in 1823.

In 1854 Frank Padgett, a black slave, drowned while attempting to rescue passengers stranded on a canal boat by the swollen James River. A granite obelisk monument commemorating his death stands in Glasgow's Centennial Park.

Glasgow was established on March 5, 1890, when the Rockbridge Company held a drawing of lots. At that time only two houses, Union Ridge and the Salling home, stood in Glasgow, which then had a population of only 20 people. By 1892, the town had paved roads, streetlamps, telephone service and a 200-room hotel, the Rockbridge Hotel. The panic of 1893, however, led to an economic collapse that put the Rockbridge Company out of business. The hotel was abandoned and torn down around 1906. The Virginia Electrical Power Company (VEPCO, now Dominion Energy) built a hydroelectric plant at Balcony Falls in 1915. The plant operated until 1969. Citing evidence that the devastating flood of 1969 was exacerbated by the dam, citizens of Glasgow petitioned for its removal in 1974. Flooding has affected the town numerous times. Since the earliest recorded flood in 1877, the city was flooded in 1936, 1950, 1969, 1972, 1985, and 1995, with those of 1936, 1969, and 1985 being the worst.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Glasgow, Virginia, revision 1370524024 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.