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Morven, Virginia

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Coordinates: 37°25′06″N 78°04′33″W / 37.41833°N 78.07583°W / 37.41833; -78.07583
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Morven, Virginia
Unincorporated community
Little Union Baptist Church, Morven
Little Union Baptist Church, Morven
Morven, Virginia is located in Virginia
Morven, Virginia
Morven, Virginia
Location within the Commonwealth of Virginia
Morven, Virginia is located in the United States
Morven, Virginia
Morven, Virginia
Morven, Virginia (the United States)
Coordinates: 37°25′06″N 78°04′33″W / 37.41833°N 78.07583°W / 37.41833; -78.07583
CountryUnited States
StateVirginia
CountyAmelia
Elevation
403 ft (123 m)
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP code
23002
Area code804
FIPS code51-53320[1]
GNIS feature ID1477555

Morven is a rural unincorporated community in northwestern Amelia County just south of the Appomattox River in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Leigh District[2] at the intersection of SR 681 (Clementown Road) and SR 616 (S. Genito Road), northwest of Flat Creek. The name sometimes appears as "Moryen",[3] probably a misspelling. A portion of the segment of U.S. Bicycle Route 1 that runs southwest from Richmond follows SR 616 through Morven.[4]

History

Name and origins

The precise origin of the name is uncertain, although it likely was borrowed from one or more of several features in Scotland, as "Morven" has a lengthy and varied history of use as a place-name in other areas settled by Scots, especially in Virginia.[5] The name was given to a large Amelia County estate just north of the crossroads before it was used for the town itself.[6][7] The hamlet, originally noted as Eanes (or Eenes) Crossroads, was a post village by the mid-1800s;[8][9] by 1855, its post office was listed as Morven.[10] The name was well-established at the turn of the 20th century,[11] and the Morven post office appeared in gazetteers at least as late as the 1920s[12] – although apparently it had closed before then,[1] one of the thousands of small "fourth class" facilities that were shut down in the early 1900s after the advent of rural free delivery.[13] The area is now served by the post office 10 miles southeast at the county seat, Amelia Court House, ZIP code 23002.

Civil War

On April 5, 1865, during the final days of the Civil War, as General Robert E. Lee and his exhausted, hungry, and depleted Army of Northern Virginia continued their westward retreat, Union cavalry intercepted and destroyed a Confederate wagon train that had just traveled through Morven.[14] The wagons, carrying desperately needed supplies sent from Richmond for the Rebels, had been delayed because wet weather had rendered the Appomattox uncrossable at the Genito bridge, forcing the caravan to take a longer route to the north and cross the river at Clement Town. The engagement was one of the few, if not the only one, to involve Black Confederate troops.[15] The surrender to Ulysses S. Grant took place at Appomattox Court House on April 9.

Former highway designations

During the first part of the 20th century, a segment of SR 38 (earlier SR 49) extended from Amelia Court House to Tobaccoville via Morven;[16] this section of Highway 38 was downgraded to SR 681 in 1954 (see Virginia State Route 38: History). Former Virginia primary highway 149 ran from Morven to Masons Corner; it too was reduced to secondary status, in 1942.

Morven School

Morven School was built as a one-room public schoolhouse around 1915.[17] Located on Route 616, with 2 acres of land, it was among several public school properties in Amelia County put up for auction in the late 1960s.[18] Although all the properties advertised were of similar description and most are documented to have been Rosenwald Schools,[19] it is unclear whether Morven School was itself a Rosenwald. During the early 20th century, the Rosenwald project was a collaborative effort that constructed thousands of facilities across the South primarily to improve the education of African American children. After desegregation, the Rosenwald model became obsolete, and many former Rosenwald properties were demolished or sold.

Historic structures

Existing historic structures around Morven include:

  • Shrum House, 2/3 mile south on Route 681,[20] built just after the American Revolution and restored around the late 1960s.[21]
  • Union Baptist Church & Cemetery, established 1833[22] and a prominent local landmark by the time of the Civil War,[6][8] on modern-day Route 616 halfway between Morven and Paineville.
  • Little Union Baptist Church (pictured), established 1874,[23] on Route 681 just north of the crossroads.
  • Haw Branch plantation, 4 miles east of Morven, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

References

  1. ^ a b "Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Morven", Morven, Amelia County, Virginia. Roadside Thoughts: A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada, July 25, 2023, referencing List of Post Offices by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  2. ^ "General Highway Map, Amelia County, Commonwealth of Virginia". Virginia Department of Transportation, Richmond. Republished by Vintage Aerial, Maumee, OH, 1993. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  3. ^ "Morven". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  4. ^ "Official State Bicycle Map". Bicyling in Virginia, Virginia Department of Transportation. Commonwealth of Virginia: 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  5. ^ Stephen W. Edmondson. "The Naming of Morven", Remembering Morven and the Old 660th District, pages 46-47. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2014. ISBN 1491732504, 9781491732502. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  6. ^ a b William L. Booker. "A map of Amelia County, Virginia". Philadelphia: R.L. Barnes, circa 1850. Library of Congress permalink=https://lccn.loc.gov/2014588019. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
  7. ^ "Old Homes Of Amelia County", The Farmville Herald, Volume 72, Number 85, 3 August 1962, page 4C. Retrieved from Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, August 2, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Amelia County" (map). Confederate States Of America. Army. Dept. Of Northern Virginia. Chief Engineer's Office & Henderson, D. E. (1864). [S.l.: Chief Engineer's Office, D.N.V.] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, January 5, 2022.
  9. ^ Gibson Jefferson McConnaughey. "Amelia Old Homes: Shrum House", The Farmville Herald, Volume 92, Number 82, 4 June 1982, page 4B. Retrieved from Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, August 2, 2023.
  10. ^ Virginius Cornick Hall, Jr. "Virginia Post Offices, 1798-1859", The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 81, no. 1, January 1973, page 78. Virginia Historical Society. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  11. ^ Henry Gannett. A Gazetteer of Virginia, U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 232, Series F: Geography, 40, page 103. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  12. ^ Angelo Heilprin and Louis Heilprin, editors. Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World, page 1227. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1922. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  13. ^ Rural and Urban Origins of the U.S.Postal Service. Report Number RISC-WP-19-007, pages 6ff. Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service. August 26, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  14. ^ "From Richmond and Petersburg to Appomattox" (map), Historic Petersburg Foundation, Inc., Petersburg, Virginia, 2015. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  15. ^ Robert M. Dunkerly. To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy, page 10. Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers, 2015. ISBN 9781611212525. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  16. ^ "VA 38", portion of 1941-42 official VA state highway map, republished on Virginia Highways. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  17. ^ "News of the Supervising Industrial Teachers", Virginia Journal of Education, Volume 9, pages 187-188. Virginia Education Association, 1915. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  18. ^ "Auction Sale: Surplus School Property In Amelia County, Va.", Classified advertisements, The Farmville Herald, Volume 77, Number 50, 17 March 1967, page 8C, column 6. Retrieved from Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, December 12, 2021.
  19. ^ National Register of Historic Places Multiple-Property Documentation Form, Rosenwald Schools, pages 79ff. Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  20. ^ Image on Clement Town Rd, Google Street View, January 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  21. ^ "Amelia County Homes To Be Open April 21, For Garden Week: The Shrum House", The Farmville Herald, Volume 80, Number 58, 15 April 1970, page 8A. Retrieved from Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, August 2, 2023.
  22. ^ Image on VA-616 (22105 Genito Rd), Google Street View, August 2023. September 3, 2023.
  23. ^ Image of 13901 State Rte 681, Google Street View, August 2023. Retrieved July 2, 2023; updated September 3.
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