Help commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Equal Suffrage League of Va, Nov.16-20th, 2009
Click here for more info on this event.

Help commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Equal Suffrage League of Va, Nov.16-20th, 2009
Click here for more info on this event.

From The Times, November 4, 1900,
The Republicans will hold their final meeting in this city on Oregon Hill tomorrow night. General Edgar Allen and Mr. Hugh Gordon Miller will be the speakers.
Hey, Charles, could this meeting have been at the City Auditorium?
From the October 28, 1900 copy of the Richmond Times Dispatch :
Mr. Charles E. Barfoot had David Rowe arrested for stealing his orange-and-white hound pup.
The Great Dispenser knows much of human nature, and dreads a dog case.
The parties live on Oregon Hill, and Mr. Rowe declared he hadn’t been there long, and never had any trouble in his life until he went there. Since he lived on Oregon Hill he had slept on trouble, and had trouble for breakfast, lunch, and supper- trouble at every turn- and now he was accused of stealing his own dog.ANIMATED SECTION
Mr. Rowe declared if anybody’s life was too stale and too slow, all he had to do was move to Oregon Hill, where animation lays around in chunks.
The Great Lawgiver declared before he opened up the case that there was no telling what a man wouldn’t do for a dog- especialy if it was in hunting season.
He enquired first about the license- always the license first. There was no license on the dog. The warrant had not been paid for, because Mr. Barfoot did not have the ready cash.
“Then in the name of General Jackson and the James river, how did you buy a dog with no money,” bawled the Great Dispenser.
Mr. Barfoot modestly declared that he had borrowed the money from a friend to buy the dog.
Mr. Rowe swore the dog was his, and that he was not orange and white at all, but a white hound, with black spots and tan ears, that he had bought from a nigger for a pistol, and that he took the dog from Mr. Barfoot’s yard, in the presence of his wife, when he had a door over the dog, and sawed wood piled over the door to keep him from getting out.
The Great Lawgiver declared that unless Mr. Barfoot could disprove Rowe’s statements, he was out 75 cents and a dog, and the nigger in a pistol and the money, and that a warrant in detinue was the proper caper in the case.
Editor’s note: I left the term “n-word” in this account as that what was printed in the record and what was commonly used in that time period. Certainly, I recognize that today that term is considered a racist epithet and I do not mean any offense with this historical post.
From the Richmond Dispatch, October, 25, 1902,
Jack Burgess, who lives on Oregon Hill, in Richmond, suffered a terrible accident at work in the plant of the Richmond Standard Steel, Spike and Iron Company in Manchester yesterday afternoon. He was operating one of the heading spike machines when he slipped and fell and was thrown around the machinery. His jawbone was broken and he was otherwise hurt.
Dr. E.T. Rucker was called in and did all he could for the injured man.
Mr. Burgess was taken to his home in Richmond, where he was resting quietly this afternoon.
From the October 17, 1902 edition of the Richmond Dispatch :
Prisioners in City Jail Seeking Continuences Rather Than Face The Present Composition
The present jury in th Hustings Court is one after the heart of Judge Witt and Commonwealth’s Attorney Richardson. It has gotten such a reputation for giving good long penitentiary terms that all of the prisioners confined in the city jail awaiting trial are seeking to have their cases postponed a month rather than to face it. The prisioners evidently are of the opinion that it would be better to wait another month and save possibly a year or two on Oregon Hill than to be tried during this term of court.
The reference to Oregon Hill is because the state penitentiary used to be here, casting a particular pallor over the whole area. Here is an old picture of it:

At least part of the wall still exists as part of Ethyl Corporation/Afton Chemical’s complex on Belvidere.

From the Richmond History Center:
Mon.-Sat. (10:00-11:30a) Through October 31st
HIGHLIGHTS OF HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY A walking tour of historic Hollywood Cemetery, final resting place of soldiers, residents and presidents.Meet your guide just beyond the stone building at the cemetery entrance at Cherry and Albemarle streets. $10 (Pay your guide on the day of the tour. ) Members: $5
PLUS THIS WEEKEND:
Oct 11 (2-4pm)
HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY An extension of the daily “Highlights” tour, this version covers in more detail the cemetery’s unique history, landscape design, architecture, symbols and residents.
Meet your guide at the rear of the stone structure at the cemetery entrance at Cherry and Albemarle Streets. $10 (Pay your guide on the day of the tour. ) Members: $5

From the Times Dispatch, September 20, 1887,
Charlie Mann, a ten-year-old boy, residing with his parents at 609 High Street, Oregon Hill, and employed at the Tredegar Iron-Works, yesterday met with an accident which it is thought beyond doubt will prove fatal.
About five o’clock in the afternoon he was at work as usual near the machine with which the iron for horse-shoes is bent, when the belt slipped off the pulley by which the machinery is operated. The consequence was that the machine, weighing about 2,000 pounds, fell back, and striking the boy in the left side, mashed his hipbones in, causing internal injuries of the most serious nature.
The city ambulance was summoned and responded quite promptly, with Dr. Irvine in charge. The unfortunate youth was taken home, and Dr. Trevillian and Dr. Irvine dressed his wounds. Circumstances were such that the family physician could not attend, and for this reason Dr. Trevillian, resident physician at the almshouse, was called in and assisted in the operation. The boy’s arms and legs were also very badly burned. At midnight the unfortunate’s condition was very serious, and it was not expected that he would live till morning.
From the Richmond Times Dispatch, August, 31, 1905:
Clever work on the part of two citizens of Oregon Hill Tuesday afternoon prevented the escape of two convicts from the penitentiary. Lewis Oliver and Erasmus Cooley, both negroes, were with a gang of seven convicts employed in unloading a car at the foot of Sixth Street. Suddenly the two men broke away from the guard and started towards Oregon Hill. Messrs. E.R. Thomas and A.W. Blackburn captured Oliver, and Mr. A. E. Priddy was the man to stop the running of Cooley. The reward for the capture of a convict is $50, and this will be paid to the citizens who made the captures.
From the Richmond Planet, August 29, 1896:
There is a mad-stone in Richmond and it is claimed that it will prevent hydrophobia. It seems that Henry Hammel, a colored man residing in Henrico County, was bitten by a mad dog, and the stone was secured from its owner Mr. John Fogarty of Oregon Hill for use upon him. It may be seen at the office of the Board of Health, Clerk Aurthor Mayo having charge of it.
From the Richmond Times Dispatch, August 27, 1901:
Services were held with the Gospel Wagon Sunday afternoon at Oregon Hill, at Eighth and Cary streets, and on Seventh and Franklin streets. They were conducted by Rev. G.F. Williams, who was aided by several speakers and a good company of singers. There were several requests for prayer and two professions of faith.
These newspaper archives have many reviews and announcements like this.