Western New Kent 1866

 

A Civil War era map of the western half of New Kent County from Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion Part First published in 1866. The section shown, which I have cropped and enlarged, stretches from Matadequin Creek and the Pamunkey River in the North to Long Bridge Road and the Chickahominy River in the south. A seemingly accurate map a few features stand out to me. Two buildings marked as churches are unnamed. The one closest to Dispatch Station should be Providence Methodist. The one on the road to Long Bridge should be Emmaus Baptist. The other two are interesting as representing the fog of misinformation that winds up being published in a war even a civil war. In the northwest corner of the map we have a building marked down as "Hopesville Ch." which should be of course Hopewell Baptist Church. Stranger, at the site where St. Peters Episcopal should sit is a building marked as "Fish Hall." A little research has revealed that Lester Manor in King William County was know in the nineteenth century by the Pamunkey Indians. Lester Manor should be just off the eastern side of the map where the railroad crosses the Pamunkey. Lester Manor was the closest railroad depot to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation and the tribe sold a great deal of fish through the depot leading to the depot/house/ settlement being called "Fish Hall" or possibly even "Fish Haul." A report from the York River Railroad in October 1861 even refers to the depot as "Fish Hall.

As for the location on this map, well don't believe everything you read in the press.