History of Midlothian


Before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, Midlothian was populated by Native Americans. Among these were the Monacan tribe, of a Siouan heritage, and they were often in conflict with the members of the Powhatan Confederacy of Virginia Algonquins, generally located to the east in the Tidewater area.

In the 18th century, French Huguenot settlers came to the area in the Virginia Colony to escape religious persecution in Europe. After the Monacan tribe of Native Americans left the area, the Huguenot settlers chose Manakintown for their new community. The location about 20 miles above the head of navigation on the James River at Richmond offered some desired isolation for them. With the coming of the Europeans, although there was some farming, the terrain was hilly and largely wooded, and shipping of farm products such as tobacco crops was not easy.

However, there was a greater natural resource than farmland as Midlothian history became largely one of coal mining and railroads. The geology of the area about 10 miles west of the fall line of the James River at near present-day Richmond, Virginia includes a basin of coal which was one of the earliest mined in the Virginia Colony. This natural resource was mined by the French Huguenot refugees and others who settled there beginning around 1700, and many coal-related enterprises in the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County began early in the 18th century.

The Village area of today's Midlothian started as a settlement of coal miners in the 1700s. In 1709, Midlothian produced the first commercially-mined coal in the United States. According to research by author Bettie Weaver, some of the first coal mines were controlled by the wealthy Wooldridge family. About 1745, two Wooldridge brothers came to Virginia from Scotland. They built their home nearby. The brothers came from separate Scottish mining villages, one from East Lothian, the other from West Lothian. In developing their new business in Virginia, they apparently compromised on the name, calling the mines the family owned "Mid-Lothian Mining Company". The name came to be used for the unincorporated town which grew in the area, and somewhere along the way, the name became one unhyphenated word: "Midlothian."

During the American Revolution, coal produced in the Midlothian coal pits supplied the cannon factory on the James River at Westham, upstream from Richmond, where it was used to produce shot and shells for the Continental Army. By the end of the Revolutionary War, coal mined in Chesterfield County was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Commenting on the area's coal in his Notes on the State of Virginia, written in 1781-82, then-Governor Thomas Jefferson stated: "The country on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond, and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent quality." He later ordered coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House in Washington DC during his presidency.

By 1835, there were seven or eight major mines in the Midlothian area. Coal was the basis of the Midlothian area until the late 1800s when mining ended. Later attempts to reopen the mines were unsuccessful, but thanks to railroad access to Richmond, the village became a commuter town.

In 1804, a toll road, Manchester and Falling Creek Turnpike was built from Manchester to Falling Creek to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road. It was graveled in 1807, making it Virginia's first hard-surfaced road. That road's descendant is known as Midlothian Turnpike and carries U.S. Route 60.

By 1824, an estimated 70 to 100 wagons, each of which was loaded with four or five tons of coal, made a daily trip on the turnpike, transporting to the docks at the river near Manchester the million or more bushels (30,000 metric tons) of coal that were produced in Chesterfield County each year.

The result was the Chesterfield Railroad, a 13 mile mule- and gravity-powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at Manchester, directly across from Richmond. Partially funded by the Virginia Board of Public Works, it began operating in 1831, was Virginia's first railroad, and was the second commercial railroad to be built in the United States. By 1850, though, the newer, steam-driven Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) began operation to Coalfield Station, later renamed Midlothian, and the slower Chesterfield Railroad was quickly supplanted. In a financial reorganization, the R&D line through Midlothian became part of the Southern Railway system in 1894, and is now part of Norfolk Southern Railway.According to the 1895 Virginia atlas, the population of Midlothian was 375.

In the 20th century, coal mining died out, and the area became less populated, remaining largely wooded with farms scattered along mostly rural and dirt roads. Gradually, the highway network and the growth of metropolitan Richmond brought subdivisions. When the Swift Creek Reservoir was created, water and sewer service accelerated residential growth. The expansion of the area assigned to the Midlothian post office caused a much larger area to be considered "Midlothian" than the village area along Midlothian Turnpike, now designated U.S. Route 60. An extension of the Powhite Parkway in 1988 and widening of Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road provided much-needed highway infrastructure as the area continued to grow in population, and forests were turned into subdivisions.

Completion of State Route 288 in 2004 essentially brought Midlothian into the circumferential highway network of greater Richmond. Debate continues regarding whether the few remaining farms and forest areas will be developed with more subdivisions, allowing the western end of Chesterfield County to be essentially "built-out" in the manner that has occurred in other Virginia localities such as Fairfax and Arlington counties in Northern Virginia.

In March 2006, that debate was settled when the county approved, after long debate, zoning for the Watkins Centre, a large office complex and retail "lifestyle center" at the intersection of Route 288 and U.S. 60, just two miles west of the Village of Midlothian. One of Midlothian's high schools, James River High School, is part of Chesterfield County Public Schools and has won the President's Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award.