Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 15

Looking for Virginia trivia? Try our list Virginia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

During the 1930s, Earl Hamner Jr. wrote about his youth in Nelson County (pop. 12,778) during the Depression. His writings were the basis for the television series The Waltons.

first appeared: 10/28/2001

At 5,729 feet, Mount Rogers in southwest Virginia’s Grayson County is the state’s highest peak.

first appeared: 10/21/2001

Ball’s Bluff National Cemetery is said to be the nation’s smallest military cemetery. The 168-acre site was established in December 1865 as the burial place of 54 Union casualties of the battle of Ball’s Bluff.

first appeared: 10/14/2001

A tour of Dixie Caverns in Salem (pop. 24,747) leads up to the Cathedral Room—more than 200 feet square with a 160-foot ceiling. The tour then leads down to a 57-ton, bell-shaped formation called the Wedding Bell, under which many couples have exchanged vows.

first appeared: 10/7/2001

Built in 1732, Christ Church in Irvington (pop. 673) remains the most completely preserved of Virginia’s colonial Anglican churches. It is the only Virginia church to retain its original, high-backed, box pews.

first appeared: 9/30/2001

Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg (pop. 11,998) was president of the First Continental Congress in 1774. His restored home is open for visitors in Colonial Williamsburg.

first appeared: 9/23/2001

Dr. Hugh Mercer, who practiced medicine in late 18th-century Fredericksburg (pop.19,279), counted George Washington’s mother, Mary, among his patients. Mercer left his practice to join the Revolutionary army and died as a brigadier general at the Battle of Princeton.

first appeared: 9/16/2001

According to Brunswick County (pop. 18,419) historians, Brunswick stew was first created in 1828 for Dr. Creed Haskins during a hunting expedition. His camp cook made a stew of squirrel meat with butter, onions, stale bread, and seasoning. Modern Brunswick stew often substitutes chicken for squirrels.

first appeared: 9/9/2001

Dr Pepper, the oldest major soft drink in the United States, was named for Dr. Charles Pepper, the mentor of Wade Morrison, who owned the store where the drink was invented. Morrison had worked in Pepper’s drugstore in Rural Retreat (pop. 1,350) in the late 1800s.

first appeared: 9/2/2001

“Mr. Peanut” was invented in 1916 by 13-year-old Antonio Gentile of Suffolk, who won $5 in a design contest sponsored by Planters peanuts.

first appeared: 8/26/2001

Agecroft Hall in Richmond was actually built in England in the late 15th century. In 1925, it was dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic, then reassembled on the James River.

first appeared: 8/19/2001

America’s first plastic surgeon of note was Dr. John Peter Mettauer of Prince Edward County (pop. 19,720). He performed the first cleft palate operation in the New World in 1827.

first appeared: 8/12/2001

Established in 1619, Flowerdew Hundred plantation in Hopewell (pop. 23,101) occupies one of the earliest original land grants in Virginia. Artifacts found there date from 9000 B.C. to the Civil War and have been the focus of exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution.

first appeared: 8/5/2001

The 1817 Trapezium House in Petersburg (pop. 33,740) has no right angles or parallel sides because its original owner, Charles O’Hara, was convinced that evil spirits and ghosts inhabited right angles.

first appeared: 7/29/2001

Elizabeth Jordan Carr was the first “test-tube” baby to be born in an American hospital. On Dec. 28, 1981, Carr was born weighing 5 pounds, 12 ounces at Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk.

first appeared: 7/22/2001

George Wythe was the first professor of law at an American college—the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Born in 1726, he once taught Thomas Jefferson.

first appeared: 7/15/2001

Shirley Plantation in Charles City (pop. 175) is one of the oldest family-owned businesses in North America. The original family—the Hills—acquired most of the land in the 1630s. The present mansion was completed in 1738.

first appeared: 7/8/2001

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond became the first state museum of the arts when it was established in 1934.

first appeared: 7/1/2001

Maggie Walker, who was born in Richmond, became the country’s first female bank president in 1903. The daughter of former slaves, she established St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank, which managed to thrive even during the Depression.

first appeared: 6/24/2001

Preserved as a historic ruin after fire destroyed it in 1884, the Barboursville mansion in Barboursville was designed by Thomas Jefferson for his friend, James Barbour, who served as governor of Virginia (1812-14), U.S. senator, and secretary of war. Today the estate is run as a vineyard.

first appeared: 6/17/2001

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