When young Abraham Lincoln arrived at New Salem it seemed to have such promise as an up and coming place. Within just a few years it died away. What happened? Why didn't it continue to grow and prosper?
The river was not good enough for year round navigation, and the cost to make it that way was to expensive and not practical
Also, Petersburg was selected as the county seat.
I think Gene and Joe nailed it. And New Salem also lost its post office to Petersburg.
Petersburg being selected as county seat had to be a significant blow to New Salem. Did that selection greatly benefit Petersburg? Is it still the county seat? Didn't Lincoln own property there?
(08-16-2012 07:49 AM)LincolnMan Wrote: [ -> ]When young Abraham Lincoln arrived at New Salem it seemed to have such promise as an up and coming place. Within just a few years it died away. What happened? Why didn't it continue to grow and prosper?
There are some really neat New Salem photographs
here.
Just keep clicking on the word "Next."
I believe that I read somewhere about the larger river boats not being able to make it through the channels or something like that. Did I dream this?
Craig
If Craig is correct, did this inspire Lincoln to develop that system that he held a patent on for getting boats over shoals?
I think the issue concerning the shallow river at New Salem did bring about what would be Lincoln's invention. I've also read that a similar situation was observed by Lincoln while traveling in a vessel on the Detroit River near Fighting Island.
What was often the death knell of a town in the late 1800s was being by-passed by the railroad.
My grandmother's family had come from Meadeville Virginia. Meadville was located at the headwaters of the Banister river and was less than a days travel to the busy tobacco hub of Lynchburg. Through the 1860s, Meadville was a thriving town with a street grid system with blocks, a plow factory, tobacco factory, tobacco warehouse, 2 taverns, a professional building, a private boy's academy and a cotton gin (yes, otton in Virginia).
Most of the young men enlisted into Co. H, 14th Va Infantry, Armistead's Brigade, Pickett's Division. The company was decimated by the war. The loss of slave labor, and the loss of the next generation of young men, crippled the town. Then in 1874, the railroad chose to go through the next town over (Republican Grove), and that was the beginning of the end for Meadeville.
Today just about a half dozen houses are within what was the town limits, with only a couple dating back 100 years.
Did the evolution of transportation destroy New Salem?
A very good point, Jim. The bustling colonial and early-1800s town of Port Tobacco saw its death knell come when the railroad went through about five miles away. The same happened in the mid-1900s when super highways started bypassing towns.
The same thing happened to the Bates Motel when the freeway bypassed it. A little holiday humor for everyone.
I was just channel surfing-and Hitchcock's Psycho was on. What was not on was the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Also, Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly was on. I've always liked the movie-having Civil War content and all-but the the Italian actors in Civil War uniforms look so-Italian! Well, time to cut the grass!
(09-03-2012 02:59 PM)LincolnMan Wrote: [ -> ]I was just channel surfing-....... Also, Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly was on.
Wow, they're already doing reruns of the Republican convention
Equal time for the other side...,,
(09-03-2012 02:59 PM)LincolnMan Wrote: [ -> ]I was just channel surfing-and Hitchcock's Psycho was on.
No, that was just a preview of the democrats covention.
Norman Bate's mother shares her thoughts about Obamacare and outpatient surgery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an4HXLELr64