Finding aid to the Contract of Sale for Canal Boat, Louisa

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VA 24501
(434) 846-0501
CONTRACT OF SALE FOR CANAL BOAT, LOUISA
This is a contract for the sale of the Louisa to William Peters by William H. Jordan,
executor for T. F. Jordan, deceased. The terms of the contract also specify that Peters is to
carry products of a certain blast furnace and to carry supplies to the furnace, running
between Buena Vista and Lexington. The contract is dated 7 September 1874.
WILLIAM H. JORDAN (c.1830-

)

William H. Jordan was the son of Samuel F. and Hannah W. Davis Jordan, of
Rockbridge County, VA. He was an iron master. The Jordan family had run the Buena
Vista iron mines for 40 years. Mr. Jordan was manager of the Buena Vista Furnace. Mr.
Jordan was the grandson of Col. John & Lucy Winn Jordan of Hanover County, VA.
They had moved to Rockbridge County shortly after 1802, when they were married. Col.
Jordan was greatly involved in the industrial development of the county. He and his sons
owned twelve furnaces for making iron.
He married Mary L. Jordan, daughter of Edwin and Mary Ann Paxton Jordan, in
Rockbridge County, VA, 6 August 1868.
[Driver, Robert J., Jr., Lexington and Rockbridge County in the Civil War (Lynchburg: H. E. Howard,
1989), p. 58; Dorthie Kirkpatrick and Edwin C. Kirkpatrick, Rockbridge County Marriages, 1778–1850
(Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Co., 1985);Oren F. Morton, A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia
(Staunton: McClure Co., 1920), pp. 259–260; Louise M. Perkins, Rockbridge County Marriages, 1851–
1885 (Signal Mtn, TN: Mountain Press, 1989); Edmund P. Tompkins, Rockbridge County, Va. (Richmond:
Whittet & Shepperson, 1952), p. 58.]

WILLIAM J. PETERS (c.1824-1904)
The US Census of 1880 Census of Bedford County, VA shows a William Peters, aged
53 years, living in the northern district of the county with wife, Martha, and 9 children.
He is listed as a "boatman," and his eldest son, Cornelius, is listed as a "canal hand." In
the 1870 Census, William had been listed as a "farm laborer." The Peters' family Bible
lists the marriage of William J. Peters to Martha A. Carroll on 18 November 1851.
Among the births listed is Cornelius on 17 September 1856. William J. Peters died on 19
September 1904; Martha Peters, on 29 November 1909.
[Family Bible Record of William J. Peters of Bedford Co., Va., The New Testament…(Philadelphia:
Jesper Harding, 1850), photocopy at Jones Memorial Library, Lynchburg, VA, FF3342; 1870 US Census,
Bedford Co., VA, p.105, National Archives Microfilm M-593, Roll #1635; 1880 US Census, Bedford Co.,
VA, p.62, National Archives Microfilm T-9, Roll #1355.]

MS1188