Rockbridge Vignettes

Rockbridge Vignettes Interesting and entertaining small stories about Rockbridge County's people, places and things. We post new items most evenings around dinnertime.

Sometimes, we give you a rerun bonus item earlier in the day too.

William Lindsay (1835-1909) was born in Rockbridge, attended local schools and studied law at Judge Brockenbrough’s law ...
06/05/2026

William Lindsay (1835-1909) was born in Rockbridge, attended local schools and studied law at Judge Brockenbrough’s law school before moving to Kentucky, where he hung out a shingle and ran successfully for the state senate. (There he was an early supporter of votes for women.) He became chief justice of Kentucky’s high court, and at the end of the century he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but in 1900 decided not to run for re-election. When he died he was buried in the state cemetery alongside 17 Kentucky governors, Henry Clay and Daniel Boone.

In 1880, former Virginia Governor John Letcher, of the prominent Lexington Letchers, built a house next door to his own ...
06/04/2026

In 1880, former Virginia Governor John Letcher, of the prominent Lexington Letchers, built a house next door to his own home on North Main Street for his two then-unmarried daughters, Lizzie (1847-1814) and Virginia (1862-1942; Robert E. Lee’s only godchild). In 1945 Virginia Military Institute bought the house, which was effectively on its property anyway. In 1952 the cupola burned, and the house has now been transformed into three apartments for faculty and staff.

Balcony Downs, just north of Glasgow, is back. You probably recognize the dilapidated dairy barn, now called "The Ruins,...
06/04/2026

Balcony Downs, just north of Glasgow, is back. You probably recognize the dilapidated dairy barn, now called "The Ruins," but the rest of the plantation is thriving. The c. 1822 manor house is being promoted as a “venue” (fancy word for "place") mainly for weddings. Fun fact: Balcony Downs even has its own FAA-certified private airplane landing strip.

The inestimable Brownsburg Museum, celebrated by NPR as well as by locals, has reopened for the season with the final ye...
06/03/2026

The inestimable Brownsburg Museum, celebrated by NPR as well as by locals, has reopened for the season with the final year of its most ambitious exhibition ever, “Interwoven: Unearthed Stories of Slavery,” developed with involvement from Rockbridge County High School and University of Virginia students and volunteers from across the state. “Interwoven” tells the story of an actual enslaved family, the Haliburtons, using photographs, contemporary letters and other artifacts. The exhibition is free and open on the first and third weekend of each month, Saturday and Sunday, from 1 to 4. You’ll find the museum right in the middle of Brownsburg on Route 252, halfway between Lexington and Staunton, a little west of Fairfield.

Is anyone alive who’s old enough to remember Myers Hardware on Main Street? What about its last manager, Horace Lackey, ...
06/03/2026

Is anyone alive who’s old enough to remember Myers Hardware on Main Street? What about its last manager, Horace Lackey, shown here? He worked with the Myers store for 60 years, starting as bookkeeper in 1900, when he was 19 years old. He was born near Timber Ridge and died in his home on Jefferson Street. He was extremely active in affairs of the Lexington Presbyterian Church and myriad fraternal and civic organizations, and his County News obituary warmly recalled “his generosity to all worthy causes that made a a canvasser’s visit to him a pleasure.”

In 1830, Samuel Miller Dold (1798-1883), a veteran of the War of 1812, bought the then 10-year-old building at Main and ...
06/02/2026

In 1830, Samuel Miller Dold (1798-1883), a veteran of the War of 1812, bought the then 10-year-old building at Main and Washington Streets, across from the Courthouse, and his family owned it for he next 114 years. Through “untiring industry, wise management and prudent living,” said his obituary, Dold became “probably our most successful business man.” The store he operated sold everything from perrer and whiskey to ovens and Bibles, and he ran the town post office from the shop. His son Calvin was Lexington’s mayor for 10 years and his grandson was the indelible character and merchant Henry Ott Dold (1867-1940), “H.O., the student’s friend.”

Here's an evocative painting by the gifted Bruce Macdonald, elder statesman of Historic Lexington Foundation, called "Di...
06/02/2026

Here's an evocative painting by the gifted Bruce Macdonald, elder statesman of Historic Lexington Foundation, called "Distant Barn" He painted it for the 2019 HLF exhibition "Opening Old Doors: The Barns of Rockbridge County," and it remains a favorite.

The Ring-tum Phi is the student newspaper at Washington and Lee, first published in 1897 and still going strong-ish. The...
06/01/2026

The Ring-tum Phi is the student newspaper at Washington and Lee, first published in 1897 and still going strong-ish. The newspaper took its name from a bizarre football cheer, reproduced here from the 1897 yearbook, the origin of which is lost in the mists of time.

The so-called John D. Ewing House, about eight miles southeast of Lexington, was built in 1800 by Thomas McFarland, abou...
06/01/2026

The so-called John D. Ewing House, about eight miles southeast of Lexington, was built in 1800 by Thomas McFarland, about whom almost nothing is known. The two-story, 12-room brick house was sturdy, to say the least: The walls are 20 inches thick. The mantels are all hand-carved from walnut, and no two are alike. In 1823, the Rev. John Ewing, pastor of Falling Spring Presbyterian Church, bought it, was in the fullness of time is passed to the Edmondson family and thence, in 1902, to the family of Wilson P, Coe. The photo is from 1937.

Our James Gibbs didn’t invent the sewing machine. What Gibbs did was make one that was better and cheaper than his prede...
05/31/2026

Our James Gibbs didn’t invent the sewing machine. What Gibbs did was make one that was better and cheaper than his predecessors, who included Isaac Singer, whose patent was awarded in 1851, six years before Gibbs’. Gibbs was basically a farmer who wanted to become wealthy by inventing something, anything. He had read about sewing machines, but never actually saw one until 1856, when he saw a Singer in a tailor’s shop in Lexington. He did indeed invent a way to improve it, and he and his partner, James Wilcox, also made it easier for the masses to buy a machine by pioneering the instalment payment plan.

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