Stuarts Draft, Virginia
Stuarts Draft has a history as an agricultural community, dating back to the 1730s. Today, the community also includes a processing and manufacturing cluster that includes Hershey, Hollister, McKee Foods, NIBCO, and a Target Corporation Distribution Center. As one writer notes, "A visitor to Stuarts Draft can see these imposing plants with cattle grazing in a nearby field..."
History
Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was the territory of the Shawanee; none of their settlements are known to have existed in Stuarts Draft. Two non-residents tribes were frequent visitors to the area: the Delaware from the north and the Catawba from the south. When European settlers first moved into Augusta County in 1732, these three tribes were in the midst of a war. As a result, armed war parties were a common sight in the white settlements.
In 1736, William Beverly received a patent from Virginia's Governor William Gooch for 118,491 acres (479.52 km; 47,952 ha) in what became Augusta County. At the time, this was the "outermost limits of Virginia". Beverly sold parcels of land to settlers, including property that is now in Stuarts Draft. One settler was Archibald Stuart, a Scotch Presbyterian, who arrived in the area in 1738. Stuart settled about three miles east of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church which he helped found in 1744. This property became known as the Pratt Farm and is located on what is now U.S. 340 near Northgate Avenue. Other early settlers who purchased land from Beverly in what is now Stuarts Draft include Robert Alexander, James Bell, John Black, John Christian, John Colter, Samuel Davidson, William Long, Finley McClure, Joseph Mills, Robert Moffet, and James Patton.
These early settlers built houses and cleared the land for farming. The most successful crops were hemp, corn, wheat, and flax which was mixed with wool to make linsey-woolsey clothes. Farmers experimented with tobacco and cotton but found hemp the most successful cash crop, supplying raw material for naval rope. Robert Stuart operated a chopping mill in Stuarts Draft.
In 1749, Archibald Stuart's son Thomas purchased a patent 353 acres (1.43 km; 143 ha) near the South River. The tract was bound by Robert Stuart's patent to the north, Samuel Davidson's patent to the south, John Black's patent to the west, and James Patton's patent to the east. There, Thomas lived with his wife Elizabeth (née Moore) and their nine children. The property had a small valley or cove, regionally called a draft.
There was fighting in Augusta County during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), smaller conflicts with Native Americans in 1764 and 1774, and minor skirmishes through 1794. When Thomas Stuart died, his sons were not living nearby, and his widow left the patent or land grant, making it available for resale. The Stuart property was purchased by John Harper in 1800, with some parts being owned by Joseph McComb and Jacob Farror at a later date.
Before 1800, the roads to Stuarts Draft were poor, limiting travel to horseback or sleds rather than wheeled wagons. The settlement did not have a post office until 1837. The first post office was in the former Thomas Stuart cabin, a hewed-pine log structure then on the Harper property. As a result, the name Stuarts Draft was chosen for the post office and the community. Later, the post office moved three miles west of town and was operated by postmaster James M. Hall.
In the 1850s, the Howardsville Turnpike was built through Stuarts Draft. Funded by stock as a commercial venture, the turnpike allowed Stuarts Drafts' farmers to take their wheat and other goods by horse-drawn wagons to the trading post in Howardsville, Virginia. The trip took a week but yielded trade goods such as flour, sugar, and other staples. Howardsville was located in Albemarle County on the James River; from there, trade goods went to Richmond by barge.
In 1856, Stuarts Draft's first doctor arrived; James M. Watson was a graduate of the University of Virginia's medical school in nearby Charlottesville. Watson traveled on horseback to visit patients. Other families moving to Stuarts Draft include Caldwell, Churchman, Forrer, Grass, Harnsberger, Hicks, Johnson, Kindig, Patterson, Prior, Van Lear, and Wilson.
During the Civil War, Stuarts Draft's residents provided supplies and men to the Confederate Army. The community's first school was established before the Civil War in Barterbrook, four miles from Stuarts Draft. This one-room schoolhouse was replaced by another schoolhouse behind today's Finley Memorial Presbyterian Church in Stuarts Draft. The new school started with one room but later was expanded to five rooms as the number of students grew.
The post office moved back to town in 1881 when the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was under construction. The railroad began stopping in Stuarts Draft in 1882 and connected the town with Roanoke and Hagerstown. The railroad brought growth and prosperity to the farming community, making it one of the wealthiest sections of August County. A village or commercial area formed along the railroad track, expanding to about a mile south of the tracks. A train depot was constructed in 1891 (and demolished in 1975). By 1885, Charles H. Cohron opened C. H. Cohron's Store alongside the tracks, while Fox's Store was located on Howardsville Turnpike. In 1886, the J. B. McChesney Store opened beside the railroad. Cohron built the Stuarts Draft Mill along the railroad tracks in 1893, followed by a warehouse. In 1891, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was purchased by the Norfolk and Western Railway, further expanding Stuart Draft's reach.
George Samuel Etter opened his Etter Funeral Home in Stuarts Draft in 1895. Other businesses that opened in Stuarts Draft in 1895 include a barrel factory and a chair factory. Also in 1895, the Fishersville, Barterbrook, and Stuarts Draft Telephone Company was established. Its first telephones were operational in May 1897. In 1904, the Stuarts Draft post office included two delivery routes, serving 1,200 people. Stuarts Draft School was the first school in Augusta County to operate for a nine-month term in 1906. The Citizens Educational League raised funds to expand the school building and add a playground, library, and organ.
In 1907, the People's Bank opened in Stuarts Draft and was operated by cashier S. H. Moore. In 1913, B. B. Kube opened a blacksmith shop in the Stuart Draft village area; he rebuilt his shop after the original structure burned in 1928. Dr. William Baldwin Dodge, a physician for railroad employees, became Stuart Draft's doctor and a businessman. He opened the Dodge Inn on Main Street (now Draft Avenue), providing accommodations and packed lunches for travelers. Dodge also developed Mountain Lake, now called Shenandoah Acres, in the 1939s.
In the early 20th century, Stuarts Draft was a farming community specialized in livestock and fruit. In the 1920s, fruit production included apples, peaches, and pears. At that time, the average apple production from Stuarts Draft was 200 to 400 railroad car loads. Stuart Drafts' main apple producers were Alta Vista, Robert Black, Cisco Orchards, William Baldwin Dodge, George Harper, Samuel B. Harper, Charles I. Keyt, Linda Vista, and Virginia Valley—with each growing 1,000 to 6,000 barrels each annually. Dodge was the only large-scale grower of cranberries south of New Jersey, yielding 500 to 1,000 bushels a year. Cattle was the most common commercial livestock, although farmers in Stuarts Draft also raised hogs, sheep, and poultry. Most of the community's households produced eggs. There was also a large incubator in Stuarts Draft that produced 50,000 to 75,000 eggs annually.
In the 1940s, a number ofGerman–speaking members of Old Order Amish moved to Stuart’s Draft from Pennsylvania. In the 1960s, Stuarts Draft entered the modern industrial era with the opening of Draftco and the J. K. Porter plant (now NIBCO). In the 1970s, other manufacturers moved to Stuarts Draft, including Hollister, Mastic Corporation/Alcoa (now PlyGem Industries), and P. T. Components (now Rexnord). This was followed by a Hershey Company plant and McKee Foods in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.
Manufacturing significantly increased the population and development of Stuarts Draft. In 2017 and 2018, the community held a series of public meetings to create a Stuart Draft Small Area Plan. The process included elected officials and consultants. Spanning 2019 through 2039, the resulting plan addresses land use, development, and transportation needs. It also defines areas for urban development (business, industrial, public use, and residential) and agricultural and rural conservation.