Botetourt 250th Anniversary Facts: James Breckinridge
Botetourt’s 250th Anniversary Celebration Facts Week Five:
The celebration continues this week with a trip back to meet an important citizen of early Botetourt, James Breckinridge.
He was born in Augusta County, within seven years to become Botetourt County, on March 7, 1763 to Col. Robert Breckinridge and his wife Letitia Preston Breckinridge. They lived near Fincastle, VA.
He served in the Revolutionary War, at first under the command of his uncle Col. William Preston and later under General Nathaniel Greene in North Carolina. He remained important in the SW VA Militia and in the War of 1812 rose to Brigadier General.
After the Revolutionary War, he was a student at the College of William and Mary and became a lawyer in 1789, returning to Botetourt. In 1791 Breckinridge married Ann Selden in Richmond. He returned to Fincastle and raised his family. He served in the General Assembly, the US Congress and ran for Governor of Virginia. He was most important as a leader in Botetourt County. Breckinridge died May 13, 1833.
He amassed land in Botetourt of several thousand acres, 1,000 of which is still intact along Catawba Creek and hillsides above, a little north and west of Fincastle along Grove Hill Road (Rt. 606) and Hawthorne Hall Rd (Rt.717.)
He built a beautiful plantation styled home in the 1790s called Grove Hill which burned in the early 20th century. However, from the road you can still see the grove of trees where the home stood. The elementary school in Fincastle is named after the Breckinridge family, many of whom remained around the area for generations.
Information from “Seed Bed of the Republic,” by Robert Douthat Stoner and Wikipedia.
–Cathy Benson, The Botetourt Bee
