Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 9

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

Native son and Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was a devout Presbyterian Sunday school teacher who taught slaves to read the Bible in the 1850s, contrary to Virginia law at the time.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

On remote Tangier Island (pop. 604), in Chesapeake Bay, most people get around by foot, bicycle, motorized golf carts, or boat.

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The world’s only oyster museum is on Chincoteague Island, where the Oyster and Maritime Museum documents the island’s oystering and seafood history.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

About half of all people in the United States live within 500 miles of Richmond.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Native son Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing to the New World what the French call “pommes frites.” That is to say, french fries.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

The College of William and Mary, founded in 1693 in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998), is the nation’s second oldest college. The oldest is Harvard University, founded in 1636.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The famous slogan and bumper sticker, “Virginia is for Lovers,” was adopted in 1969 by the state travel service (now the Virginia Tourism Corp.). New York’s “I (heart) NY” slogan appeared several years later.

first appeared: 1/11/2004

The Poe Museum in Richmond focuses on the life of Edgar Allan Poe, who lived there and worked for the Southern Literary Messenger from 1835 to 1837.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

The nation’s first female paid firefighter was Judith Livers, hired in 1974 by the Arlington County Fire Department.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, the largest Confederate hospital, treated 77,000 patients from 1861 to 1865 and opened in 2002 as the Chimborazo Medical Museum.

first appeared: 12/14/2003

Fans of country music legend Patsy Cline flock to Winchester (pop. 23,585) to see her childhood home; Gaunt’s Drug Store, where she waitressed; WINC radio, where she sang; and Shenandoah Memorial Park, where she is buried. Cline’s 1962 song I Fall to Pieces hit No. 1.

first appeared: 12/7/2003

Agecroft Hall, a 15th-century Tudor estate in Lancashire, England, was sold at auction in 1925, dismantled, crated and reassembled in Richmond.

first appeared: 11/30/2003

In 1888, Frank Sprague installed the world’s first large-scale electric trolley line in Richmond.

first appeared: 11/23/2003

Published since 1736, The Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998) is America’s oldest non-daily newspaper.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

Stick-to-it-iveness paid off for high school students Meg Roberts and Tyler Mickley of West Point (pop. 2,866) who created prom outfits from Duck duct tape and won $5,000 in the 2003 Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest.

first appeared: 11/9/2003

George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, made his home at the 1755 Gunston Hall Plantation, now a national historic landmark in Mason Neck.

first appeared: 11/2/2003

In 1934, Lettie Pate Whitehead became one of the first women to head a major corporation when appointed director of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. She was born in 1872 in Bedford County.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

Danville (pop. 48,411) served as the last capital of the Confederate States of America from April 3-10, 1865, after Union forces captured Richmond.

first appeared: 10/19/2003

In 1965, Gary Duschl of Virginia Beach began creating a chain from folded Wrigley’s gum wrappers. It stretches 42,908 feet, weighs 588 pounds, and is still growing.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

An 1807 shot tower used for making lead ammunition is the centerpiece of Shot Tower Historical State Park in Austinville. Molten lead, dropped in a sieve at the top of the 150-foot tower, formed perfect spheres as it fell to water below.

first appeared: 10/5/2003

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