The Boy Who Built a Town

The Boy Who Built a Town


The men huddled around four wagons full of tobacco. It was early in the morning; the sky was heavy with rain swollen clouds that didn’t seem satisfied to end with the torrential downpour they were responsible for the night before. There was a foggy mist in the cool morning that almost hid the breath coming from the men’s mouths as they shouted over the noise of the angry, fast flowing Fluvanna River.

“I have to get across,” yelled Ed Mundy, who was sitting hunched on the first wagon. “This is all that’s left of my crop and it is starting to rot. I cannot wait another day to get to the New London market.”

“It is true for me as well,” William Smith added. “If I do not get this shipment to market I will lose everything.”

Everyone looked to Charles Lynch. He owned land on both sides of the river and knew the river’s temperament better than anyone. “Aye, I understand what you are saying, but this is a most dangerous time. If the rains hold off, tomorrow would be better for the river will go down and the crossing will be less risky.”

Ed Mundy shook his head. “I told you, my crop will not wait until tomorrow and less risk is still risk anyway. I must get my tobacco to market today if it is to have any value. There have been too many storms, this river has been too angry this year and this is the last chance I have.”

Charles Lynch shook his head. “Very well, but I warn you, this is very, very dangerous.”

The men grunted their acknowledgement and set to work. A large rope was secured to a wagon and to the team of horses that would pull it. Further, a smaller rope was tied to Ed Mundy. The large rope was threaded through pulleys attached to some trees and then connected to another team of horses that would try to keep the wagon on course as well as keep it upright in the swift current. The rope attached to Ed Mundy's horses was for the same purpose, but also, in case of an accident would hopefully be used to pull the horses back to shore. The rope around Ed Mundy was solely to pull the man back to shore if the worst happened.

In the last year alone five men had drowned in the Fluvanna River at this crossing. The Fluvanna River was a major obstacle for farmers, iron workers and other producers to getting their products to the major market center of New London down south. Year after year shipments, wagons, horses and men were lost to the river that seemed hungrier to destroy people’s lives in its insatiable rush to the Atlantic Ocean.

Slowly, Ed Mundy guided his first wagon into the river. The horses were agitated and nervous and were quite jumpy, but they obeyed and waded into the water that seemed strong enough to sweep their feet from under them. The wagon began to swing downstream, threatening to knock the horses off balance but Charles Lynch quickly used his team of horses to tighten the rope connected to the wagon and bring it back in line.

Charles Lynch’s horses were struggling against the power of the current and were just barely able to keep the wagon in line. By now, Ed Mundy’s horses were just able to keep their noses above the water. If it wasn’t for the rope attached to them they would have been swept downstream long before. But when the wagon was about a fourth of the way across, one of the horses stepped into a hole and went under for just a second, but that was all the river needed to win the struggle.

When the horse lost its footing, the weight of the wagon being pushed by the current was too much for the other horse on the team and it lost its footing as well. With both horses struggling to regain their balance in the treacherous current, the wagon had no tension pulling it forward and the sudden loss of that tension made Charles Lynch’s team stumble. This stumble resulted in the rope attached to the wagon going slack allowing the wagon to totally swing into the current, now pulling its horses instead of the other way around.

When Charles Lynch’s team regained its footing the slack in the rope was taken up so fast the rope snapped and the wagon was set free. There was so much pressure from the current that the rope meant to save the horses instead pulled them under and kept them from gaining any foothold. There was nothing the doomed horses could do to save themselves. They were held under on one end from the wagon being swept by the current and on the other end by the rope being held taut against a tree. Finally, the current was too much and tore the wagon apart; freeing the horses, but it was too late. Ed Mundy quickly lost his balance in the turbulence and fell into the river and went under. The men grabbed the rope attached to him and pulled with all their might. They struggled for several minutes until finally they pulled Ed Mundy out of the river, soaking wet, sputtering for breath and completely spent.

“I lost it. I lost it all,” he said quietly once his breath returned. He sat despondently on the ground as the others put their hands on his shoulders trying to comfort someone for whom no comfort would come.

__________________________________________________

John Lynch was a 17 year old boy that had big ambitions. In the pre-Revolutionary world of America of 1757, his family owned land and had respect among their friends. His ears pricked up from his studies one night when his father Charles announced, “We lost another tobacco shipment today. That river was just too much and carried away one of the wagons.”

“Was anyone hurt?” John’s mother, Sarah Clark, asked.

“No, but it was close. We did lose one team of horses. Ed Mundy’s. Tragic. He cannot afford another team and it was his tobacco that floated away. I do not know what he’s going to do to make it through the winter.

“We will say a prayer for him at the meeting house tonight,” Sarah Clark replied. She was a Quaker and was instrumental in starting a new meeting house, the Quaker equivalent of a church, nearby. “We will take a collection and try to give them enough to make it through. Why ever did you men try to ford that river today anyway? We received so much rain last night the river looks like the flooding Nile.”

“We had to try.” Charles responded. “New London is where we and everyone from the towns up north have to trade our goods and that river is the only obstacle to getting there. If only we could find some way of getting over that river. We tried to build a bridge, but it is too wide and too deep. Boats only get swept far downstream by the current. I do not know what we will do.”

John had been thinking about this problem for a long time. All his life he watched people trying to get themselves and their goods across that river so they could sell in the New London markets. An idea came to him several days earlier and he wanted to tell his father what he was thinking.

“Father, may I suggest an idea I have?”

His father looked sternly at him and replied, “Yes, John, you may. You are of the age of consent and as a man, especially one who works hard in the fields, you certainly have the right to speak your mind.”

“Thank you, Father. I have thought of this problem much lately and was thinking that if we cannot go through the river, or around it, why not go over it. I know you say we cannot build a bridge and that boats will only be swept far downstream, but what if we tie a rope to each end of a boat, fore and aft, and have men on both sides, each keeping the rope taut and guiding the boat across the river? Having a rope on both ends would make sure tension was never lost and the boat would stay on course no matter what.”

John’s father looked deep in thought. “John, this is a worthy idea. Before we really do it, you and a few others see if you can actually make it work.”

John was very excited about this. “Thank you, Father. I’ll get Thomas and Stephen to help me out. We will start tomorrow and I will let you know what happens.”

The next morning John arose early and ran to get his friends. On the way he grabbed as much rope as he could get. Thomas and Stephen helped him drag a small boat they had for fishing out to the narrowest part of the river on the Lynch’s land.

“Thomas, you are the strongest swimmer. The river is lower today than yesterday. Take one end of the rope to the other side of the river. When you get there, we will tie the other end to the boat. Stephen, we will tie the end of this other rope to the other end of the boat. This will allow us to have both ends of the boat secured. One end for this side of the river, the other end from the other side of the river. When I give the signal, Thomas, you start pulling. Stephen, you keep your rope taut and do not let the boat get swept downstream. I will ride in the boat.”

“John, are you sure you should ride in the boat?” Stephen asked. “What if it capsizes or the ropes give way?”

“I am almost as strong a swimmer as Thomas. I will be fine.”

The boys got to work. Thomas stripped off his blouse, removed his shoes and tied one end of the rope around his waist. He waded into the fast moving water and began swimming. While Stephen held the rope to keep Thomas from being swept too far downstream, John tied the other rope to the boat.

Thomas finally reached the other side of the river but was too far downstream because of the current. He rested for a little while and then walked back up river until he was straight across from John and Stephen.

John took the other end of Thomas’s rope and tied it to the boat. He checked the ropes and the knots again and then he and Stephen put the boat in the water. John climbed aboard and waited until Stephen had a good grip on his rope and took all the slack out of it.

John looked everything over again. He had a boat with ropes tied to each end. A boy held each of those ropes tightly so there was as little give as possible. When he felt all was ready he waved at Thomas who started pulling on his rope.

The boat moved readily out into the river and to John’s surprise, it didn’t get swept downstream. However, the closer to midstream it got, the harder it was for Stephen and Thomas to keep the boat on course. In fact, in the middle of the river, the current was fighting the tension in the ropes and tipping the boat so that water started coming in over the side. John baled the water out as fast as he could but the river was very powerful and John thought he was about to sink when the boat started to right itself, signaling he was getting close to the other side. After he made it there, he and Thomas got the rest of the water out of the boat and they decided to try again to see if the boat tipped over again. He waved to Stephen who began pulling and the same thing happened again, but John made it successfully across the river.

John thought to himself, “This is working and I have an idea that will allow me to ferry all kinds of things across without the boat tipping over.”

That night John told his father of the experiment, how the boat almost tipped over and what he was going to do to stop this from happening. His father was very impressed. “John, this is exciting news. Where will you get the funds to do all this? Were you expecting me to buy all your supplies for you to build this ferry?”

“Actually, Father, I was going to ask you for an advance so I can get the raw materials. I will do all the work of building and operating the ferry on my own.”

“An advance? How do you plan to repay me then?”

“I will charge a toll for ferrying people’s goods across. I think that is fair since this ferry will help them get their goods to market sooner. Because the tobacco will be fresher, they can get more in payment and they will lose much less to the river as well.”

John’s father was truly amazed. “Yes, this is a good idea and I will happily donate the land you require on both sides of the river and advance you the money you need to attain the raw material you need to build your ferry.”

“Thank you, Father, you are most kind to support me in this manner.”

The next day John went to the mill and placed an order for the kind of lumber he needed to build the docks, the raft and the toll houses for each side of the river. He attained fresh rope of sufficient size and length to implement his ideas.

It took John several weeks of hard, back breaking work to build the docks, the ramps to the docks and the raft itself, but finally he had everything together and ready to go. Instead of attaching a rope to each end of the boat and having someone on the each side of the river hold the boat on course, he used a very thick, very strong rope strung tightly across the river. The boat would be attached to this thick rope with other ropes looped around it so they would allow the boat to move across the river while at the same time holding the boat on course.

The docks John built were wide enough to allow two wagons to move side by side onto or off of the raft, which John had taken to calling the ferry. John had gone to the blacksmith and had locks crafted to keep the ferry attached to the dock so it would remain in place and was stable for loading and unloading. These locks could easily be undone when it was time for the ferry to make its trip across the river.

A smaller rope strung loosely across the river would serve as the means of propulsion. John would pull on this rope to move the raft across the river in either direction.

Finally John built two small sheds from which he would conduct business on each side of the river. These sheds would serve as his office and toll booth. Now all John needed was customers who needed their goods to get from the north side of the river to the south side on their way to New London.

John printed out fliers, which his mother took to the meeting house and passed out to the members. It advertised that John’s Ferry would safely and quickly take anyone or anything across the river. 1 pence per person, 3 pence per empty wagon and team and 6 pence for full wagon and team.

The night before John was set to open John's Ferry for the first time, it rained extremely hard. The Fluvanna river was again swollen, angry and treacherous.

The next day John saw the river was in a dangerous state but he still eagerly awaited his first customer. No one came at first. John was puzzled. “Does not anyone want to get across the river?” he asked himself. But just as he was about to be discouraged, he saw a man on a wagon pulled by a team of horses come around the bend, followed by others. John was surprised because that first man was his father with a load of tobacco in the wagon.

John ran to his father who looked down at him from his seat on the wagon. “I need to get this load of tobacco to New London, son. Here is 7 pence for the wagon, team and myself.” Charles handed his son the coins and John was so surprised he couldn’t move.

“Son, I need to get across the river. I certainly hope the ferry moves faster than you do,” his father jested.

“Y-y-yes, Father, right away. But who are all these people?”

"I heard that no one wanted to try your ferry out with the river this swollen. They're afraid it will be swept away by the current but I convinced some that if I and my good friend William Smith did not get safely across, I would buy their entire crop and save them the trouble of trying to get it to New London."

John was horrified! His father certainly must believe in what he was doing, but what if he failed? His father would lose everything in one fell swoop. His family's entire fortune rested on this one trip across the river.

John ran to the toll house and deposited the coins his father gave him into the toll box. He took hold of his father’s team of horses and led them onto the ferry. He told his father to set the wagon’s brakes while he tied ropes tightly to each wheel to keep the wagon from rolling while he was taking it across the river.

Once he was convinced everything was secure he went back on shore and talked to William Smith. John went about collecting his toll and securing his wagon to the ferry.

John checked one more time to make sure both wagons were secure and then got a firm grip on the rope and began pulling. The ferry moved very slowly but also very smoothly and steadily. John was sweating and straining not only from the effort to pull all that weight across the river, but from the fear that something could go wrong at any second and his family would be ruined.

The ferry stayed on course and did not tip at all into the current, even as the river flowed swiftly by and seemed to be doing its best to take the raft downstream with it. In a short time, but what seemed a lifetime to John, he had his ferry on the other side of the river. The other people were very impressed and excited. They realized the small toll was well worth paying to get their goods across the river this quickly and safely. The other men eagerly awaited John to return the ferry to their side so they could get across, too.

John's father climbed off the wagon after they were taken off the ferry and gave his son a hardy handshake. William Smith did the same and slapped John on the back.

"Well done, John. Well done."

John's breathing was labored from the effort, but he was so excited, happy and proud that he felt he could swim up the river at that moment. He got back onto his ferry and pulled the ferry across to pick up his next customers while Charles Lynch and William Smith went on their way to New London with dry, well preserved tobacco ready for market.

It wasn’t long before John was working long, hard hours ferrying people and goods both ways across the river. He was already making a profit and paid his father back the money he advanced him. In fact, the ferry was so popular that there were long lines of people and wagons waiting to get ferried. It soon became apparent that too many people were trying to use John’s Ferry. So John had to come up with a solution.

Again, John set to work. He built warehouses to store the goods until they were able to be ferried across. He charged another small fee for this storage and opened an Inn so people had a place to spend the night if needed. He also opened a small restaurant to feed his customers and hired people to work in the warehouses, run the Inn and restaurant and to help him collect and manage the tolls. Soon there was a small village near the ferry as the workers built houses, churches and shops.

For 27 years John’s Ferry Village grew, as did the ferry. The ferry was very active during the Revolutionary war hauling war materials and troops as well as the local goods. In 1784 John decided it was time for John’s Ferry Village to become a town with a Mayor and a town council and recognition from the state of Virginia. John petitioned the General Assembly of Virginia asking for a town charter for John’s Ferry Village. In 1786 that charter was granted and the town was called Lynchburg in honor of John Lynch. John donated 45 acres of his land for the town and Lynchburg became an important trade center for the area.

Today a bridge spans the James River (formerly known as the Fluvanna River) in the city of Lynchburg. It is called the John Lynch Bridge; a truly fitting honor for a boy who built a ferry and founded a town.