Place Information
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Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, 189 miles (304 km) southwest of Lynchburg. In 1910, the town had a population of 1,757. The population was 7,780 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Washington County. The town is included in the Tri-Cities Metro area of Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA. History
The land on which the town of Abingdon is situated was originally surveyed between the years 1748 and 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker and was part of the Great Road that Colonel William Byrd III ordered cut through the wilderness on to Kingsport, Tennessee. In 1760, famed frontiersman, Daniel Boone, named the area Wolf Hills, after his dogs were attacked by a pack of wolves during a hunting expedition. The original location of the attack is located on 'Courthouse Hill' and is also the location of The Cavehouse Craft Shop. [1] During Lord Dunmore's War, Black's Fort was established in 1774 by Joseph Black to protect local settlers in the region from Indian attacks.[1] In 1776 the community of Black's Fort was made the county seat of the newly formed Washington county. In 1778, Black's Fort was incorporated as the town of Abingdon, said to be named for the ancestral home of Martha Washington. Martha Washington College, a school for women, operated in Abingdon from 1860 to 1932 in a former private residence; since 1935 the building has been occupied by a hotel, the Martha Washington Inn. The Barter Theatre, the state theatre of Virginia, was opened in Abingdon in 1933. Virginia Governors Wyndham Robertson, David Campbell, and John B. Floyd lived here. Abingdon is also the final stop along the Virginia Creeper Trail, which allows pedestrian, cyclist and equestrian traffic. The Washington County Historical Society is located in Abingdon and serves as a regional genealogy center, in addition as a repository for Washington County history. Research Tips
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