Getting Started
What would you like to read about today?
Cemeteries
Cemeteries were usually on family land until the late 1890s, when burials began at town cemeteries and churches. A major purpose of family reunions was to clean up the family cemeteries, while the oldest family members told younger generations where each person was buried. This oral tradition made tombstones an unnecessary expense. They marked burial locations with stones plowed out of their own fields. It’s rare to find tombstones for the average family before World War II.
Churches
Churches were an important part of the community, and were gathering places for public meetings, education, and community events. There are about 300 churches listed in deed books before 1933. Many of the older churches are no longer standing or in operation. Their histories and records are gone. I’m trying to learn the history of churches and share that on this website.
Schools
Before the Civil War, only the wealthy went to school or had private tutors. Until the 1930’s most schools were funded and supported by local churches which were usually one or two room schoolhouses within walking distance of students. Just as churches were segregated, schools were too.
Places
Mecklenburg is a very rural county and Virginia places are confusing. This makes it difficult to describe where a place exists or used to be. To help with this, I divided the map into 29 defined areas. Each area page covers schools, churches, cemeteries, stores, railroad depots, pictures, newspaper clippings, and anything else known about that locality. Many small places are named after where post offices used to be, most of which used to be in stores or at cross roads.
How to find places on this website
Example: if you are looking for something in Boydton, you’d look at area 19. To find area 19, you can click on the 29 areas button. There is an explanation for the 29 area descriptions, circled in orange at the bottom of the page. You can also type “Boydton” or “area 19” in the search bar.
Helpful searching tips
This search bar will do key word searches (like surnames or occupations) and display results from anywhere on this website. A search bar is located at the top and bottom of every webpage on this site.
Click “control F” (windows), or “command f” (apple). A search bar will pop up. The word you type into the box will be searched for, all over that single web page. This is how that appears in Chrome.
Mecklenburg, Virginia Community History 