NEW RIVER (New River Depot)
The community of New River, once called New River Depot. No
one knows when it was first settled. Various Indian artifacts
have been discovered on property in New River, but from that time
period up until the early l800's little is known about the community.
During the Civil War, two forts were constructed on hills overlooking
the river. They were made of logs with dirt piled around them
to make them more secure. It's believed that the forts were constructed
to guard the bridge that was built to replace Ingle's Ferry. When
the Union soldiers came down from Cloyd's Mountain and headed
toward the New River, Confederate soldiers burned the bridge to
prevent them from crossing. Later the ferry was re-established.
The remains of the forts are just rubble in the weeds on what
is commonly called, Fort Hill.
The railroad made New River Depot the center of activities. The
railroad lines in New River were complete with a turntable so
that engines could be turned around and travel in the opposite
direction.
The depot was run on a 16-hour-a-day schedule and 10 trains came
through New River Depot each day. Two trains were solely freight
trains. All merchandise for the stores came by train as well as
the mail. Farmers and cattlemen sent their produce and cattle
by train to various markets and livestock centers. The depot contained
a cattle pen and loading chute for the use of the farmers.
Eight passenger trains came through New River Depot each day,
two of which were "fast" trains. These "fast"
trains traveled through without stopping and collected and deposited
mail with the use of mail sacks. The remaining six trains stopped
to allow passengers to board and detrain.
Of the total ten trains, five traveled in a westerly direction
and five traveled in an easterly direction.
A bridge was built across the river to Radford. This bridge was
commonly referred to as the curved bridge. It was torn down in
1905. In the late 1800's there was talk of the railroad establishing
a yard in New River Depot. Tales spread far and wide and the boom
was on. People moved to New River Depot and brought with them
churches and businesses in anticipation of the development of
a big city.
During its boom years New River was composed of a post office,
stock yards, churches, hotels, boarding houses, a lumber company,
a roller mill, a wagon factory, a doctor, a dentist, and undertakers
and a milliner.
New River Depot contained two hotels to house passengers riding
the trains: One hotel was complete with a boardwalk to the train
station to prevent the ladies and gentlemen from getting in the
mud walking from the depot. One of the hotels was named the Piedmont
Hotel and held in the lobbies.
Near the hotels, a restaurant was opened complete with a barber
shop on the second floor. Located above one of the general stores
was a dress shop and unlike the dress shops of today, no dresses
were ready made.
Other establishments included a stove factory, mill, and blacksmith
shop.
The mill was one of the largest grist mills in the valley. Operated
by a water wheel, the mill was maintained by the AGEE family.
It was finally forced out of business because of diminishing usage.
The mill was operated on a toll basis. It was then known how many
bushels of wheat would yield how many pounds of flour. In exchange
for the grinding, the miller would keep a certain number of bushels
of wheat. This was called a toll.
The first blacksmith shop was owned by W.A. MYERS and was located
near the post office.
New River even had a newspaper called the New River Bulletin.
It was owned and operated by C.W. SCOTT who was also in Real Estate.
Today, New River is a community of between 400 and 500 people.
Source: SW Times