Botetourt County Historical Society and Museum will host a virtual discussion to highlight the county’s 251 years.
Botetourt County was poised to celebrate a momentous occasion last year. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the county’s plans to commemorate its 250-year history. To make up for last year’s lackluster festivities, an effort is underway to highlight the county’s 251 years of existence.
“I hate that the pandemic happened in general, but last year was supposed to be a monumental year for Botetourt County,” Lynsey Allie says. “We’re trying to keep the excitement and momentum going into 2021.”
This Thursday, Allie, the newly appointed executive director of the Botetourt County Historical Society and Museum, will be giving a virtual talk about the storied history of Botetourt County.
She will start off discussing how Botetourt was formed from Augusta County, then work her way up to modern times.
“It will be a lot of history in a short period of time,” she says.
One of the key pieces of information about the county she plans to focus on is the fact that it was initially massive in size. Instead of being the modest size it is today, the county stretched west to the Mississippi River and northward into the Ohio River Valley Territory when it was founded in 1770. The present day states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin were all part of Botetourt. Now, the county covers 548-square-miles.
“It didn’t stay large for very long before pieces started breaking off,” she notes.
Due to the fact that the county was so large, she says, many people from other states who are doing genealogical research end up coming to the county seat in Fincastle for court records.
She will also talk about the towns of Fincastle, Buchanan and Troutville, iron furnaces, canneries and present day Botetourt.
“There is a lot happening in Botetourt,” she says.
In addition to her work at the Botetourt County Historical Society and Museum in Fincastle, Allie serves as the manager of the History Museum of Western Virginia and O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke where an exhibit on Botetourt’s history is currently on display.
The exhibit, which is titled Botetourt County: 250 + 1 Years of Delight, traces the history of the county through over 300 pieces of decorative art.
“Looking at the history of the county through art is a unique approach because a lot of people think of Botetourt County as being country and focused on farming,” she explains. “A lot of nice pieces came out of the county.”
Notably, a gown from the early 1800s that Ann Cary Selden Breckinridge wore to a Congressional Ball in Washington D.C. is on loan from Colonial Williamsburg. Additionally, the marriage certificate of William Clark, an explorer of the Louisiana Purchase, and Fincastle native Julia Hancock Clark is on display.
Other items in the exhibit include long rifles, architectural elements, furniture, art work, textiles and numerous others.
The Botetourt native has always been a history buff. Even as a child, Allie shied away from subjects like math in school but gravitated towards history. Her love of history endured throughout her college studies. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history at Roanoke College and her graduate degree in archival studies.
Juggling two jobs has been a challenge for Allie. The pandemic has posed problems that she has had to contend with at both museums.
“It was scary to just have to close the doors and not know when they’d be opened again,” she remembers of the early days of the pandemic last year. The doors of the History Museum of Western Virginia were closed to the public in March of 2020 and didn’t open again until August. “I ended up recording gallery tours and uploaded them to YouTube so that people could get a sense of what we had. We tried to produce as much digital content as we could, but doing all of that was daunting. We had to record the videos, edit them and then upload them. Pivoting posed many challenges.”
Even though she is stretched thin and is still having to contend with pandemic-related issues, she says she is enjoying every minute she gets to spend at both museums. “We’re now seeing an uptick in visitation,” she says.
Looking ahead, she hopes to increase the profile of the Botetourt County Historical Society and Museum. Many people, she says, don’t even realize that it exists. Increased outreach and events will be two ways she hopes will help accomplish her goal.
Additional information about the virtual talk can be found on the Salem Museum’s website here.
About the Author:
Aila Boyd is an educator and journalist who resides in Roanoke. She holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University.
