1649 – King Charles II gives a grant totaling five million acres in the Northern Neck Proprietary to seven English noblemen.
1692 – David Strahan and his “Rangers of the Pottomack” explore what was to become Sugarland Run in Eastern Loudoun.
1699 – Explorers Burr Harrison and Giles Vandercastle reach interior of what was to become Loudoun County, and encounter Piscataways, the region’s native Indians.
1709-1720s – Settlers begin to move into the area, bringing with them slaves. Land is cleared for planting of corn, wheat and tobacco.
1719-1728 – Thomas, Lord Fairfax grants a total of 11,182 acres of what was to become part of Loudoun County to Thomas Lee.
1755 – Components of British Gen. Braddock’s expedition (but not the general) pass through southern section on their way to fight in the French and Indian War.
1757 – Loudoun County is created, carved out of Fairfax County. Population is 3,500, including 550 slaves. Broad Run Church near present-day Broadlands is established.
1758 – Leesburg, originally called “George Town” is established on land originally held by Lord Fairfax.
1764 – By the end of the French and Indian War, county population has grown to 5,800, including 1,100 slaves.
1769 – Little River Baptist Meeting House is built on Braddock Road.
1773 – Just prior to the American Revolution, population stands at 11,000, including 1,950 slaves.
1781 – Loudoun’s Ludwell Lee, son of Thomas Lee, serves as Gen. Lafayette’s aide-de-camp during the Revolution. During 1800-1803, Lee builds Belmont Plantation east of Leesburg.
1790 – First U.S. Census lists 18,962 people in Loudoun, including 4,213 slaves (22 percent of the population).
1793 – First post office opens in Loudoun County, in Leesburg. 1795 – Iron mining begins in Loudoun County on Catoctin Mountain. Josias Clapham & Co. 1793 – Post office established at Leesburg.
1801 – Post office established at Goshen.
1806 – Work begins on the Little River Turnpike (U.S. 50), including the toll house in Lenah, which stood until 1995, when it was accidently demolished.
1807 –The first post office in Eastern Loudoun is opened at Lanesville, on the old Vestal’s Gap Road.
1809 – Aldie Mill is completed. At the time, it was the “largest manufactory in Loudoun County.”
1812-1814: Loudoun County was used as a temporary refuge for the President and important state papers, including the Constitution, during the War of 1812. Washington, D.C. was attacked in August 1814, and the White House, Capitol and other buildings were burned by the British.
1816 – Virginia General Assembly passes legislation requiring that maps be drawn for each county. Six years later, surveyor John Wood completes the map of Loudoun County, which only identifies no more than 100 landmarks or physical features.
1820- Work begins on the Leesburg to Alexandria Turnpike, passing through Eastern Loudoun.
1830 – With work progressing on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal along the Potomac River across from Loudoun County, investors organize to build a 20-mile canal from the interior of the county to Edwards Ferry. Due to financial problems, the plan is reduced to 12 miles; only seven miles are built by 1857, when the project finally failed.
1835 – Mount Hope Church at Waxpool organized.
1836-1846 – Margaret Mercer purchases Belmont Plantation from heirs of the Lee family. She uses proceeds from the sale of her property in Maryland to emancipate her family’s slaves and send them to Liberia. Of the 30 sent there, only four stayed.
1842 – Historic Arcola Slave Quarters is built on the Lewis farm.
1846 – Virginia passes a bill giving voters the option to start public schools; Loudoun County opts-out.
1852-53 – S. Howell Brown, a cartographer from nearby Jefferson County, completes a comprehensive, accurate map of Loudoun. His work inspires Loudoun mapmaker Yardley Taylor to draw his own map, copies of which survive today.
1853 – Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire begins construction, with plans to cross Loudoun.
1857 – Loudoun’s iron mines and furnaces close. Last owner of the mines was John W. Geary, who in February 1862 would return to Loudoun leading the 28th Infantry Regiment U.S. Army, occupying Leesburg and northwestern Loudoun.
1858 – Grading for AL&H Railroad reaches Leesburg; rails laid as far west as Vienna.
1859 – John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry; militia units cross Loudoun to put down the insurrection.
1860 – AL&H Railroad service extended to Leesburg.
Civil War in Loudoun
1861 – In May, Loudoun voters ratify decision reached by Secession Convention to leave the Union. In June, the Loudoun militia is called up for Confederate service.
1861 – July 21-22: Confederate troops pass through Eastern Loudon following the First Battle of Manassas.
1861 – Oct. 21: Battle of Ball’s Bluff.
1861 – Elijah V. White is appointed commander of Confederate forces in Loudoun.
1862 –Union Col. John Geary establishes headquarters ion Lovettsville.
1862 - Aug. 26: Loudoun Rangers, a Waterford unit that fought for the Union, is attacked by E. V. White’s Confederate troops at Waterford. Two men from each side killed, many more wounded.
1862 – Aug. 28-30: Following Second Battle of Manassas, Confederate forces pass through Eastern Loudoun in pursuit of Gen. John Pope.
1862 – September: Confederate Army crosses Loudon on the way to the Battle of Antietam.
1862 – Dec. 31: Lt. John S. Mosby meets with his Rangers at Mount Zion Church to plan their first raid.
1863 – April 1: Mosby repels attack by superior Union force at Miskel’s Farm, in present-day Broad Run Farms.
1863 – June 17-28: Gen. Joseph Hooker moves the Army of the Potomac north through Loudoun, the largest troop movement of the war. During this time, there are significant battles at Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville between cavalry under Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (CSA), and Gen. Judson Kilpatrick (USA). A Union signal station is established on Bridge’s Hill (near Lanesville), but soon abandoned as the men and their commander, Gen. John Reynolds, leave for the Battle of Gettysburg.
1864 – Feb. 22: Mosby ambushes a Union formation on the Leesburg Turnpike at Anker’s Shop.
1864 – June: Gen. Jubal Early (CSA), retreating through Loudoun after threatening Washington, D.C., is pursued by Union troops.
1864 – July: Mosby attacks Union cavalry under Maj. William Forbes at Skinner’s farm, east of Mount Zion Church, inflicting casualties and scattering Forbes’ men.
1864 - Aug. 16: Union troops under Gen. Philip Sheridan conduct the destructive “Burning Raid” in Loudoun and Fauquier counties, where “Mosby’s Confederacy” was located.
1865 – April 6: Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox; unaware that the war has ended, Mosby attacks the Loudoun Rangers at Halltown, W.Va., defeating them.
Postwar Years
1870- Virginia is readmitted to the Union. First census after the war shows a population of 20,929, including 5,691 African-Americans (27 percent).
1873 – November: President U.S. Grant visits Loudoun, attending the Annual Fair at Leesburg, where he is warmly received.
1884 – Loudoun native John Franklin Ryan (1848-1936), of Arcola, is elected to his first term to the Virginia House of Delegates, a seat he would hold until 1906. Ryan also served as Speaker of the House from 1894-1899, and 1901-1906.
1885-86 – First telephone lines installed in Loudoun County.
1890 – Jim Jackson opens a store at Oak Grove, which he will operate until 1930 – the longest-running black business in Eastern Loudoun.
1895 – Sen. William M. Stewart of Nevada purchases the old Ashburn Farm, developing it into a modern dairy operation.
Twentieth Century
1911 – Leesburg & Washington Good Roads Association takes over the Leesburg Turnpike, with the goal of repairing, reconstructing and paving the turnpike from Leesburg to Fairfax.
1917-18: Loudoun County citizens answer the call to fight in World War I. Thirty men lose their lives in the war.
1924 – Leesburg Pike no longer a toll road, after the state highway department takes overand renames the road "Route 54."
1930 – Annie Downs and her son Dick build the first gas station on the Leesburg Pike at Mahala.
1930 – July 19 through Aug. 10: Loudoun County suffers through the worst drought in its history, with temperature reaching over 100 degrees for three straight weeks. The highest temperature ever recorded in Virginia – 109 degrees- is reached during this heat wave.
1932 – Loudoun County receives its first official road map from the state, with all roads within the county given a name.
1938 – Blue Ridge Airport is the first in the county to be chartered; it would close four years later.
1939 – Arcola School opens, built with Public Works Administration funds. The new building consolidates four smaller schools in the area.
1940 – March 23: Local NAACP chapter is formed in Loudoun. Marie Medley, a Leesburg beautician, serves as the first president.
1941 – Dr. Claude Moore purchases the old Bridges place, where present-day Claude Moore Park in Sterling is located.
1941-45: Loudoun men and women fight in World War II; 68 lose their lives in the conflict.
1944 – Cornelius family moves to Loudoun, starting a large dairy operation at Arcola.
1945 – October: Guilford Park, a subdivision near Old Sterling, is started by James and Nellie Ryder. It was later renamed Sterling Park the following month.
1946 – Following World War II, Delmas Glascock completes his airfield at U.S. 50 and Gum Spring Road.
1948 – September: the modern, four-room Oak Grove Elementary School for African American students opens in Eastern Loudoun.
1950-53 - Loudoun sends men and women to fight in the Korean War; two lives are lost.
1951 – Passenger service between Leesburg and Rosslyn on the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad is discontinued.
1951-52 – Robert Young begins to subdivide his property, the old Miskel Farm in Eastern Loudoun, creating Broad Run Farms.
1959 – Acquisition of property in Loudoun County begins in preparation of building Dulles International Airport. Ultimately, 11,600 acres would be taken, at the average price of $500 per acre. The village of Willard, established in 1900 at the site of the future airport, disappears.
1961 – From April to December, the Broyhill Land Corporation bought up 14 parcels of land totaling over 1,760 acres in Eastern Loudoun, paying an average of $1,000 per acre. They then began marketing a “planned community” called “Broyhill’s Addition to Sterling Park.” A final agreement on density and other issues was reached on Oct. 22, 1962, and “Sterling Park” became a reality.
1962 – Nov. 17: Dulles International Airport opens.
1968 – Washington & Old Dominion Railway ceases operation in August; dismantling of the line started in 1969. The right-of-way is later developed into a park.
1969 – Application to develop Sugarland Run in Eastern Loudon gets final approval by county; the first homes were ready for occupancy by January 1971.
1970 – Loudoun County population reaches 37,150.
1972 – June: Stone Bridge over Broad Run severely damaged by Hurricane Agnes; destruction was complete four years later when the remaining section collapsed.
1980 – Loudoun County population reaches 57,427.
1986 – Plans to develop Ashburn Farms by Cavalier Land Co. of Chantilly, and Ashburn Village, by Richmarr Corporation of Washington, D.C and Associated Companies of Bethesda, Md. Will eventually lead to an unincorporated community with a population nearly as large as Leesburg (35,000).
1990 – Loudoun County floats $13.7 bond to purchase Lanesmoore, and its 357 acres for a park. County population grows to 86,129.
1998 - Arcola Slave Quarters donated to Loudoun County.
2000 – Population of Loudoun County estimated at 196,000, with 78.3 percent white, 7.5 percent Asian, 7.1 percent Hispanic, and 7.1 percent black.
%7Cutmcsr%3D(direct)%7Cutmcmd%3D(none)%3B%2B__utmv%3D36763110.-%3B)
I really enjoyed the timeline of Loundoun County. Now I have more history/facts to associate with the various towns and roads in Loudoun. Thanks for the great article.