Editing Glasgow, Virginia (section)

==History==

German explorer [[John Peter Salling]] and his brother Adam were the first Europeans to settle in what is known today as Glasgow around 1741. In December 1742, the [[Battle of Galudoghson]] between Iroquois warriors and a company of Virginia militia took place near the confluence of the James River and the Maury River. The militia captain, John McDowell, was killed, along with eight militia soldiers.<ref name = "Draper">[https://books.google.com/books/about/Action_at_the_Galudoghson_December_14_17.html?id=jCMqguvM_qQC Draper, Lyman C. ''Action at the Galudoghson December 14, 1742; Colonel James Patton, Captain John McDowell and the First Battle with the Indians in the Valley of Virginia; with an Appendix Containing Early Accounts of the Battle.'' Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1995]</ref> Between 1760 and 1768, John Paxton II acquired most of the Salling property. Robert, Joseph, and Arthur Glasgow settled in the area in 1768. Glasgow was named after Joseph Glasgow, son of Arthur. Joseph and his wife, Nancy Ellis McCullough, built their home, known as Union Ridge, in 1823.

In 1854 Frank Padgett, a Black slave, drowned while attempting to rescue passengers stranded on a canal boat by the swollen James River. A granite obelisk monument commemorating his death stands in Glasgow's Centennial Park.<ref>[https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=49859 Historical marker: "Frank Padget Water Tragedy," Historical Marker Database, April 22, 2022]</ref><ref>[https://appetite4history.com/2017/02/22/frank-padget-hero-batteauman/ Sandi Esposito, "Frank Padget: Hero Batteauman," appetite4history.com, February 22, 2017]</ref>

Glasgow was established on March 5, 1890, when the Rockbridge Company held a drawing of lots. At that time only two houses, Union Ridge and the Salling home, stood in Glasgow, which then had a population of only 20 people. By 1892, the town had paved roads, streetlamps, telephone service and a 200-room hotel, the Rockbridge Hotel. [[Panic of 1893|The panic of 1893]], however, led to an economic collapse that put the Rockbridge Company out of business. The hotel was abandoned and torn down around 1906. The Virginia Electrical Power Company (VEPCO, now [[Dominion Energy]]) built a [[hydroelectric plant]] at Balcony Falls in 1915. The plant was in operation until 1969. Citing evidence that the devastating [[Hurricane Camille#Virginia|flood of 1969]] would not have been as bad if the dam were not there, citizens of Glasgow petitioned to have the dam removed in 1974.<ref>[https://www.nao.usace.army.mil/Portals/31/NAO-2016-00134_Project%20Description.pdf?ver=er76LgHtUrHFAk5oA0NJTQ%3D%3D "Maury River Stream Restoration II at Echols Farms, Glasgow, VA," USACE Norfolk District Regulatory/WVRS, June 27, 2016]</ref> Flooding has affected the city numerous times in its history. Since the earliest recorded flood in 1877, the city was flooded in 1936, 1950, 1969, 1972, 1985, and 1995, with the floods of 1936, 1969 and 1985 being the worst.<ref>[https://glasgowvirginia.org/history "The History of Glasgow," Glasgow town website]</ref>