Buckingham County: An Inlet at Perkins’ Falls, Part I
In 1844, Richmond’s Whig published a letter to the editor signed “Many on Slate River.” The correspondence is interesting not only because it reveals how many individuals felt about connecting to the James River and Kanawha Canal but also names operating mills in the northern part of the county in the mid-1840s. The letter from Buckingham County began as follows:
To the Directors of the James River & Kanawha Company.
There has been for the last twelve months much excitement prevailing in the Northern part of Buckingham with regard to the most suitable location for an inlet to the Canal.
This is a district of county lying between the Hardwicks and New Canton inlets inexistent from 40 or 50 miles, and extending south of the river some 20 miles or more, embracing a very fine section of the county at present almost entirely excluded from any advantages to be derived from the James River navigation. In truth, the people contiguous to the river in Campbell, Amherst or Nelson, some 50 miles more distant from the Richmond market in this portion of Buckingham, can at present send their produce to Richmond at about the same prices that we now have imposed on this section of the Southside.
To exhibit to you more clearly some of the many disadvantages we have to labor under, it will only be necessary to make a simple statement of facts. . . .
Coming next: Hocker’s Mills
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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