Place Information
|
Goochland County is a county located in the U.S. state — officially, "Commonwealth" — of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 16,863. Its county seat is Goochland6. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
History
Formed in 1728, Goochland was named after Sir William Gooch, the then Lieutenant Governor of this colonial county. Historical sites include Tuckahoe Plantation (the boyhood home of Thomas Jefferson), Dover, Manakin & Tuckahoe coalfields, and much of the James River and Kanawha Canal (surveyed by George Washington). Goochland County, Virginia was birthplace to John Fleming an important figure in early Virginia government. Portions of Three Chopt Trail, a Native American trail, runs through a large portion of the county. The trail was marked by three hatchet chops in trees to show the way. Modern day U.S. Route 250 roughly follows this route as it makes its way from Richmond to Charlottesville. In 1973, Wayne Corporation of Richmond, Indiana introduced a new safer design in school bus construction. Shortly after the Lifeguard was introduced, the bus manufacturer held a nationwide contest soliciting ideas to improve school bus safety, with a new Lifeguard school bus as the grand prize. The winning entry was submitted by Mrs. Elwood (Pearl P.) Randolph, a school bus driver from Goochland County, and Goochland County Public Schools received the new school bus. Her idea was to install sound baffles in the ceiling of school bus bodies to help reduce driver distraction. Compact forms of such equipment were later developed used by Wayne and other school bus manufacturers when diesel engines (and their greater noise) became commonplace for school buses in the 1980s. Timeline
Population History
Research Tips
|
