Lula Jeter Parker, in her history of Bedford Co, recounts that there was a land boom in 1890, when real estate offices were "as numerous as filling stations today (1954)" In order to capitalize on this boom, the city council changed the name to Bedford "for advertising purposes" She also relates that the "boom" was a "bust" Freddie S. ----- Original Message ----- I understand that the town of Liberty was named for having won the Revolutionary War, but why did the town decide to change the name to Bedford City [later Bedford]? Paul Low

The following is a History of of the Town of Liberty. Leslie Mehaffey Bedford, VA History of the Town of Liberty Reprinted from “Echoes of Olde Liberty” Peaks of Otter Chapter, DAR-1976 Situated in the western part of the Piedmont plain, about seven miles from the scenic Peaks of Otter, Bedford has had a long, proud history. Over the years its name has been altered several times. First called “Liberty” when it was founded in 1782, it became known as “Bedford City” during the boom of 1890. In 1912, when all hope of Bedford’s developing into a large industrial center had faded, “city” was dropped, only to be incorporated in the name again in 1968, when by action of the town council, it became known as the “City of Bedford.” Henry Howe, in Historical Collections of Virginia, published in 1865, had this to say about Liberty: Liberty, the county-seat, is on the Lynchburg and Salem Turnpike, 26 miles southwest of the former, and contains five mercantile stores, one Baptist, one Presbyterian, one Episcopal, and one Methodist church, large and handsome courthouse, built in 1834, and a population of about 600. This neat and flourishing village is the admiration of travelers, being surrounded by a beautiful rolling fertile country, bounded by a background of great sublimity. Reverend Joseph A. Graves, in his History of the Bedford Light Artillery, has given the following description of the town: Liberty, in May 1861, was a quiet, unpretentious town. The streets were paved with poor material and only for a short distance. Our orators and politicians were James F. Johnson, William Burwell, William L. Goggin, and the Hon. John Goode. Our leading merchants were Alfred Bell, O. P. Bell, S. H. Hoffman and William Graves. The storehouses in which they did business were inconvenient wooden buildings, without any apparatus for heating them save in the counting room, into which a very few persons were allowed to come; but they kept a full line of almost every kind of merchandise. There were no soda fountains, nor hardware stores, nor tobacco warehouses. Liberty was invaded only once during the War Between the States, and this invasion is known as “Hunter’s Raid,” which began on June 16, 1864 and last several days. General David Hunter’s main objective was to capture Lynchburg, but before he could do this, he was pursued so fiercely by General Jubal Early and his men that Hunter was forced to make an inglorious retreat into West Virginia. The town of Liberty suffered greatly from this raid. The depot was burned and several miles of railroad tracks destroyed. At one point the raiders drew up a line of battle on Burks Hill, and the women and children who had taken refuge at “Woodford,” the home of Judge Edward Calohill Burks, were used as shields by the Yankees. While the Confederates, stationed on Piedmont Hill, were helpless to attack, the raiders proceeded to rob and plunder the Burks’ home. It has been said that Hunter’s ruthless destruction of property made him the most hated Union general who operated on Virginia soil. > From: fspradlin@earthlink.net> To: vabedfor@rootsweb.com> Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 10:49:00 -0700> Subject: Re: [VABEDFOR] Liberty> > Lula Jeter Parker, in her history of Bedford Co, recounts that > there was a land boom in 1890, when real estate offices were "as > numerous as filling stations today (1954)" In order to > capitalize on this boom, the city council changed the name to > Bedford "for advertising purposes"> > She also relates that the "boom" was a "bust"> > Freddie S.> > ----- Original Message ----- > > I understand that the town of Liberty was named for having won > the Revolutionary War, but why did the town decide to change the > name to Bedford City [later Bedford]?> > Paul Low> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> To post to the list, email: VABEDFOR@rootsweb.com> To contact the list admin, email: VABEDFOR-admin@rootsweb.com> > > -------------------------------> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VABEDFOR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Change the world with e-mail. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Join/Default.aspx?source=EML_WL_ChangeWorld