Emporia, Virginia: History
Emporia has long been a transportation crossroads. The Meherrin River, like the Nottoway River and the Blackwater River, empties to the southeast into Albemarle Sound. The Town of Hicksford (originally Hicks' Ford) was settled by Captain Robert Hicks (1658-1739) in the Virginia Colony, where the east-west Fort Road of eastern Virginia crossed the Meherrin River en route to Fort Christanna. The other crossing road was a major north–south trail used by native peoples and sometimes called the "Tuscarora Path" and later became the "Halifax road".
Captain Hicks was an Indian trader who had lived in Prince George County before moving his family to Hicksford, when he became the Commander of Fort Christanna. (His surname is spelled both "Hicks" and "Hix" in colonial records.) In 1709, Hicks purchased a land tract of 1280 acres along the northside of the Meherrin River that was previously surveyed by Arthur Kavanaugh.
When Greensville County separated from Brunswick County in 1781, Hicksford became the county seat. (Court convened monthly at a nearby tavern). In May 1781, British Col. Banastre Tarleton's cavalry crossed at Hicksford while raiding Greensville and Southampton counties.
After statehood, the Virginia General Assembly recognized the Town of Belfield on the river's northern bank in 1798, and Hicksford on the southern bank the next year.
In the following decades, the surrounding area remained rural and its population dispersed. Hicksford's population continued to exceed that of Belfield. An 1847 account documented 12-20 dwellings in Hicksford worth about $10,025 while Belfield's buildings were valued at $3050; in 1865 Hicksford's buildings were valued at $20,700 and Belfield's at $3650. However, by 1885, shortly before the towns merged, because of railroad links discussed below Hicksford had increased in assets only to $22,915 while Belfield had grown to $7300.
By 1857, Belfield was a stop on the Petersburg Railroad to Weldon begun in 1830. During the American Civil War, the Petersburg Railroad became a tactical prize as Union troops sought to isolate the confederate capital. Two battles for the control of the Weldon Railroad were fought near Petersburg during the Siege of Petersburg in June 1864 and September 1864. Then on December 7, 1864, 28,000 Union troops led by Major General Gouverneur K. Warren tried to sever that key supply route further south by uprooting tracks, and managed to stop Confederate troops under Major General Wade Hampton from destroying the Meherrin River bridge. However, when the Federals retreated, Confederates rebuilt the railway line. After the war, the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was leased to the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad. It went bankrupt in 1878.
Benjamin D. Tillar Jr. (1855-1887), a Greensville County native and state delegate, received a charter for the Atlantic and Danville Railway. He planned for it to go from Portsmouth as had the Weldon railroad, but with a more westward route through the Meherrin River towns.
In 1887, Hicksford and Belfield merged, forming the newly incorporated town of Emporia. It was named after the town of Emporia, Kansas, home town of Tillar's friend U.S. Senator Preston B. Plumb of Kansas. However, the railroad boom proved short-lived, as poor farm conditions and the Panic of 1893 caused the county's population to decrease between 1880 and 1890. The Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad also ran through Emporia.
Emporia was re-chartered by the state in 1892. …