Our history

Lynchburg was named for its founder, John Lynch, who at the age of 17 started a ferry service across the James River in 1757. In 1786, the Virginia General Assembly granted Lynch a charter for a town, which took in the 45 acres of land that Lynch owned. Lynchburg was incorporated as a town in 1805, and as a city in 1852.

The Society of Friends, or Quakers, were the first religious group to settle in Lynchburg. The city’s first house of worship was the South River Meeting House of the Society of Friends, located on Fort Avenue. The Meeting House was restored and is now part of Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church. Lynchburg is often called the “City of Churches” for the large number and variety of religious buildings found in the city today.

Tobacco and iron were the chief products of early Lynchburg. The extensive use of Lynch’s ferry system on the James River resulted in Lynchburg becoming one of the largest tobacco markets in the U. S. The James Calloway Furnace, which operated around 1770 until 1779, and the Davie Ross Furnace, which was in business from 1781 until 1837, supplied the Continental Army with pig iron and cannon balls during the American Revolution. {READ MORE}