Historical Markers and War Memorials in Surry County, Virginia
Surry is the county seat for Surry County
Adjacent to Surry County, Virginia
Charles City County(76) ► Isle of Wight County(73) ► James City County(259) ► Newport News(274) ► Prince George County(60) ► Southampton County(29) ► Sussex County(25) ►
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On 23 November 1811 William Carsley sold an acre of land here to trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first Methodist church built in Surry County was constructed here soon thereafter. During the 19th century it was replaced by a second . . . — — Map (db m74773) HM
Jerusalem Baptist Church was organized as Mt. Joy Baptist Church in 1867 at the nearby home of Mondoza Bailey, community leader and carpenter. Amelia “Mother” Howard assisted in the organization of this and six other churches. Sent by the United . . . — — Map (db m74774) HM
The Quiyoughcohannock Indian village nearby was first visited by English settlers in May, 1607. The first land patent at Claremont was 200 acres granted to George Harrison in 1621. Arthur Allen, who built the house now known as Bacon's Castle, first . . . — — Map (db m35940) HM
Surry County African-American Heritage Society
Claremont School
In November of 1913 a deed was sold to the School Board District Number Four for property on the eastside of Spring Grove Road, Claremont, Virginia. A school was built on . . . — — Map (db m35943) HM
May 5, 1607
The English settlers visited here
the principal village of the
Quioughcohanach Indians
This marker is erected by
The Colonel William Allen Chapter
N.S.D.A.R.
1930 — — Map (db m35941) HM
The Surry Lumber Company, chartered in 1885, was among the largest producers of yellow pine lumber on the East Coast. Here at Mussel Fork Plantation, the company constructed sawmills, box mills, dry kilns, employee housing, and a commissary. The . . . — — Map (db m103871) HM
The Surry Lumber Company began constructing the main line of its narrow-gauge Surry, Sussex
& Southampton Railway in 1886. Eventually extending 28 miles, the line began at Scotland Wharf on the James River, continued to the sawmill complex here at . . . — — Map (db m103872) HM
Nearby to the southeast once stood Cypress Church. It was established by order of the Southwark Parish vestry on 5 April 1743. The rectangular brick building, about 60 by 27 feet in size, was completed by Feb. 1745. After the disestablishment of the . . . — — Map (db m98239) HM
Approximately six miles to the north, near Hog Island Creek, is the site of Lawne’s Creek Church. Authorized in 1629 as a “chapel of ease” for the settlers in the area by the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, the church was . . . — — Map (db m2755) HM
Beginning about 1689, a village known as Cabin Point stood here. It was a tobacco shipping port in the 18th century. Colonial troops were stationed here during the American Revolution in 1780 and 1781. By 16 Jan. 1781 Maj. Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm von . . . — — Map (db m35939) HM
Ten miles Northeast is Swann’s Point on James River. In 1635 William Swann patented land there. The English Commissioners investigating Bacon’s Rebellion met at Swann’s point in 1677. William Swann’s Tomb, dated 1680 is there. — — Map (db m2690) HM
On 12 Oct. 1892, Dr. John Jefferson Smallwood, born enslaved in 1863 in Rich Square, North Carolina, founded the Temperance Industrial & Collegiate Institute nearby with fewer than ten students. Sprawled over sixty-five acres on the James River in . . . — — Map (db m74776) HM
Located five miles to the north is Wakefield. Benjamin Harrison patented this land about 1637. His descendents became major landowners and were influential in Virginia and United States politics. Governor Benjamin Harrison was a signer of the . . . — — Map (db m2691) HM
Between 2016 and 2018, archaeol ogists of the James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc. (JRIA) conducted archaeological investigations at a nearby property on behalf of Dominion Energy Virginia. One of the archaeological sites (designated . . . — — Map (db m206264) HM
This house, just to the north, was built by Arthur Allen in 1655. In Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676, the house was seized by a party of rebels and fortified. On December 29, 1676, it was captured by sailors from a ship in James River who were engaged in . . . — — Map (db m2698) HM
Prior to unloading at Jamestown, the English sailed the James in search of a suitable location. In his account, George Perch recalls crossing to the southern shore on May 5, 1607 at the invitation of a chief he misidentifies as the "Werowance of . . . — — Map (db m98237) HM
In memory of
Chanco
The Indian who lived with
Richard Pace at Pace’s Paines
in this county and who on the
night before the massacre of
March 22, 1622 informed Pace of
Opechancanough’s plot and thus
saved the Jamestown Colony . . . — — Map (db m36052) HM
This Plantation, four miles to the northeast, was established in 1619 by Captain William Powell of Jamestown. Structures and artifacts on the property reflect plantation life from the early 17th century to the present. Donated to the Commonwealth by . . . — — Map (db m2686) HM
English settlement along Gray’s Creek began by 1609 when Capt. John Smith ordered a defensive fortification built on the tidal creek opposite Jamestown. Though the English did not finish construction the fort (known as Smith’s Fort) and soon . . . — — Map (db m2696) HM
Nearby stands the glebe house of the formerly Anglican Southwark Parish that was built soon after 1724. A glebe was a parcel of land owned by a colonial church and farmed to pay the minister’s expenses. This glebe house was used as a parish rectory . . . — — Map (db m2692) HM
Originally called Tappahannock Creek by the English, Crouch’s Creek flowed through a number of early English settlements. By 1625 George Sandys had holdings in Surry County, known as Treasurer’s Plantation, east of the creek. Sandys was a poet, a . . . — — Map (db m2687) HM
On this point, in James River nine miles Northeast, the settlers kept their hogs in 1608. When abandoning Jamestown in June, 1610. They stopped at the island for a night. The next morning, proceeding down the river, they met a messenger from . . . — — Map (db m2682) HM
Near this site on February 26, 1925, the ferry Captain John Smith began the first automobile ferry service crossing the James River. Captain Albert F. Jester was the inaugurator and owner/operator until it was sold to the Commonwealth of . . . — — Map (db m76778) HM
At “Old Lebanon Church” here, the Christian Church was established under the leadership of James O’Kelly, August, 1794. O’Kelly had withdrawn from the Methodist Church, 1792. — — Map (db m2697) HM
Nearby to the north, Richard Pace and his family received a land patent in Dec. 1620 establishing Pace’s Paines plantation. In response to English expansion into Indian lands, such as occurred at Pace's Paines and elsewhere, Chief Opechancanough . . . — — Map (db m2695) HM
Four miles north is Pleasant Point on James River. William Edwards patented land there in 1657, the house is ancient. Edwards was clerk of the General Court and a member of The House of Burgesses. — — Map (db m2685) HM
Surry County African-American Heritage Society
Poole’s Funeral Home
The Poole’s Funeral Home was established November 1890 by the late M.B. Poole. With his horse drawn hearse, he served the community with great dignity and professional . . . — — Map (db m35992) HM
The Quiyoughcohannocks were one of the first Virginia Indian groups the English encountered in 1607 after landing at Jamerstown. Situated primarily in present-day Surry County, the Quiyoughcohannocks had four villages in the region likely east of . . . — — Map (db m2684) HM
Captain John Smith began Smith’s Fort in 1609, two years after the first permanent English colony in the New World was established at Jamestown. The remains of the fort, a two-foot-high earthwork, constitute the oldest extant structure of English . . . — — Map (db m2688) HM
Southwark Parish was established in 1647. To the northeast stood the second Southwark church built by 1673 and abandoned shortly after the American Revolution. To the east, near Bacon’s Castle, Southwark Parish vestry completed the Lower Southwark . . . — — Map (db m2694) HM
(Center)
“At the going down
of the sun and in
the morning we will
remember them.”
Erected A.D. 1947
(Left)
1917 - 1918
To the members of
the Armed Forces of World War I
from
Surry County . . . — — Map (db m36056) WM
Dedicated
November 18, 1995
to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the end of World War II
which brought peace to the world
and to
honor the
Men and Women
of Surry County
who dutifully and honorably
served in the
Armed Forces . . . — — Map (db m192303) WM
Indians cultivated fertile lands along the James River for centuries before the colonists arrived in 1607. They grew squash, corn, and beans to supplement their diet of native plants, fish, shellfish, and game. When the soils at a house site became . . . — — Map (db m98214) HM
