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Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 259,903. Its county seat is Chesterfield6. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Much of the northern portion of Chesterfield County accounts for what is referred to as Metropolitan Richmond's "South Side".
History
part of Henrico Cittie, Henrico Shire, Henrico CountyPrior to English colonization, the area was occupied by Native Americans. During the 17th century, shortly after establishment of the settlement at Jamestown in 1607, English settlers and explorers began settling other areas. One of the more progressive developments in the colony was Henricus, founded under the guidance of Sir Thomas Dale. It was to include a college to help educate Indians, as well as the children of settlers. 1619 was a watershed year for the Virginia Colony. Four large citties (sic) were formed, one of which was Henrico Cittie, and included what is now Chesterfield County. Also beginning in 1619, Falling Creek Ironworks, the first in what is now the United States, were established slightly west on Falling Creek from its confluence with the James River. Both were was wiped out by the Indian Massacre of 1622 and not rebuilt. In 1634, the King of England directed the formation of eight shires (or counties) in the colony of Virginia. One of these became Henrico County, which extended to a large area on both sides of the James River. Chesterfield County formedOn May 25th, 1749, the Virginia General Assembly passed the act that separated Chesterfield from Henrico County and created the new county. The county is named for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Lord Chesterfield was famous for his "good manners and writings." Many years later, Chesterfield Cigarettes were named after this county due to the region's historical association with the tobacco industry. Early ports, roads, turnpikes and railroadsPrior to the American Revolutionary War, a thriving port town named Warwick was located at the northwestern confluence of Falling Creek and the James River. It was destroyed during that War, and not rebuilt. (It was near the current Dupont facility at Ampthill, and the site is not open to the public.) Another early port town was Port Walthall on the north shore of the Appomattox River. It was located near the current Point-of-Rocks Park. The Manchester and Falling Creek Turnpike in Chesterfield County was the first graveled roadway of any length in Virginia in 1804. The toll road ran between the coal mining area of Midlothian near the headwaters of Falling Creek and Manchester, generally following the path of the current Midlothian Turnpike (U.S. Route 60}. Created in 1816, the Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's internal transportation improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds in private companies, which were the forerunners of the public service and utility companies of modern times. Claudius Crozet (1789-1864), a civil engineer and educator who helped found Virginia Military Institute (VMI), was Principal Engineer and later Chief Engineer for the Board of Public Works. He was involved with the planning and construction of many of the canals, turnpikes, bridges and railroads in Virginia, including the area which is now West Virginia. New turnpikes, were partially engineered and funded by the Board, and operated by private companies which collected tolls. The Manchester and Petersburg Turnpike which generally followed the path of the current Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Routes 1-301), was one of these. A canal was built in Manchester section of Chesterfield. Portions are extant, and may be seen near the south end of Richmond's Mayo Bridge, although it is not as well-known as the much larger James River and Kanawha Canal which ran along the north bank at Richmond, and extended many miles to the west. In 1831, the Chesterfield Railroad was the first railroad in Virginia, transporting coal from mines near Falling Creek in what is now the Midlothian area to the docks at the fall line at the head of navigation of the James River. Later railroad lines included the Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) (which put the Chesterfield Railroad out of business) and the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, both completed before the American Civil War in which they each played key roles. Another small line through Chesterfield was a narrow gauge railroad. The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad, later renamed the Tidewater and Western Railroad, extended from Farmville in Prince Edward County to the tiny village of Bermuda Hundred in far eastern Chesterfield, which was a port at the mouth of the Appomattox River opposite present-day Hopewell. Although long gone, portions of the old rail bed may been seen along Beach Road near the entrance to Pocahontas State Park. After the Reconstruction, the R&D eventually became part of the Southern Railway, and is now part of Norfolk Southern Railway. The Richmond Petersburg Railroad became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1900, a mostly parallel line was built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, with a branch line to Hopewell. Through the "modern merger era of US railroads" (which began around 1960), portions of each eventually became part of the CSX Transportation system. American Civil WarDuring the American Civil War (1861-1865), Drewry's Bluff became a key defensive point for Confederate forces to block the Union's vastly superior Navy from taking Richmond by way of the James River. During the Siege of Petersburg (1864-65), a long defensive works through the county was part of the Confederacy's Richmond-Petersburg line of land defenses. Railroad lines passing through Petersburg finally proved the key to the fall of Richmond in 1865, effectively ending the War. A normal school founded by the state after the American Civil War primarily to help educate freedmen eventually became Virginia State University, located in the Ettrick area near Petersburg and Colonial Heights. Former areas lost to new independent citiesManchester (directly across the James River from the City of Richmond) was the county seat of Chesterfield County until 1874, when it was moved to the present location at Chesterfield Court House. The City of Manchester left Chesterfield late in 19th century to become an independent city, and merged with the City of Richmond by mutual agreement in 1910. It is now known as a part of South Richmond. Colonial Heights was formerly an incorporated town in Chesterfield County, and became an independent city in 1948. Over half a century later, the two neighbors continued to share provision of some governmental services. Annexation issuesChesterfield County shares borders with four independent cities, and was long exposed to annexation suits from any of them under Virginia law. The county lost territory to the City Richmond through several annexations in the 20th century, one in 1944, and most notably, a highly controversial and complicated one in 1970. The results of the 1970 annexation were exceptionally controversial because, while the annexation lawsuit filed by Richmond in 1965 was being heard, with the city seeking 51 square miles of the county, the leaders of the two jurisdictions, Irvin G. Horner, Chairman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, and Phil J. Bagley, Jr. the Mayor of Richmond, met privately and agreed to a compromise. In May 1969, the Horner-Bagley Compromise, as it came to be called, was approved by the city and Chesterfield County and incorporated in a court decree of July 12, 1969. This effectively shut out a number of third parties attempting to block the annexation, and felt they had been excluded from the process. An example among these was a small commuter bus company holding a operating rights in the county, whereas the city granted its franchise to a competitor. The annexation agreement resulted in Richmond receiving 23 square miles of the county, as well as fire stations, parks, and other infrastructure such as water and sewer lines. Under the agreement, approximately a dozen public schools, support buildings, and future school sites were conveyed to the City of Richmond to be operated by Richmond City Public Schools. Compounding the unhappiness of many of the residents of the annexed area was the fact that Richmond Public Schools was already involved in a desegregation lawsuit in the Federal courts. The schools involved in the annexed area included Huguenot High School, Fred D. Thompson Middle School, Elkhardt Middle School, and eight elementary schools. In 1971, these schools were included in a court-ordered desegregation busing program, which finally ended in the 1990s. Many of the 47,000 residents who lived in the annexed area of the 1970 compromise had been opposed to the annexation. They fought unsuccessfully for over 7 years afterwards in the courts to have it reversed, ruefully called the 23 square mile zone "Occupied Chesterfield." At the same time, black plaintiffs who had lived in the city prior to the annexation claimed a violation of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. The claim was that their voting power had been deliberately diminished by the attempts of city leaders to add white voters and dilute to black vote. The pre-annexation population of the city as of 1970 was 202,359, of which 104,207 or 52% were black citizens. The annexation added to the city 47,262 people, of whom 1,557 were black and 45,705 were non-black. The post-annexation population of the city was therefore 249,621, of which 105,764 or 42% were Negroes. The plaintiffs prevailed in court by creation of a ward system which guaranteed a majority of wards had a predominance of black voters. [1] Revisions in state annexation lawsVirginia's annexation laws have long been felt by many leaders to be a barrier to regional cooperation among localities. The problems and hard feelings which arose from the Richmond-Chesterfield case were used as prime examples of obstacles to regional cooperation as the state legislators considered changes. In 1979, the Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation that allowed any county meeting certain population and density standards to petition the local circuit court to declare the county permanently immune from annexation. In 1981, Chesterfield County and several other counties in the state subsequently sought and received such immunity from further annexation by Richmond. In 1987, the General Assembly, recognizing the controversy surrounding annexations in Virginia, placed a moratorium on future annexations of any county. However, even when this moratorium expires, as it is currently scheduled to do in 2010, Chesterfield County will remain immune from annexation by Richmond because of the 1981 grant of immunity. [2] Timeline
Population History
Note: C23, C28, and C32.. Colonial Heights city, formed from Chesterfield County (1948). Some users prefer to combine it with adjacent Petersburg city and Dinwiddie County. Research Tips
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