April 19, 2008
Contact:
Karenne Wood Director, Virginia Indian Heritage Program, VFH
(703)338-1652
karennewood@yahoo.com
“Mowhemcho, Manakin Town” Historical Marker
Dedication Ceremony Scheduled
--Powhatan Co. marker honors the Monacan Indian Town of Mowhemcho, later Manakin Town--
A new historical highway marker issued by the Department of Historic Resources that commemorates Mowhemcho, a Monacan Indian town that was destroyed by colonists, then later settled by French Huguenots and renamed Manakin, will be dedicated Sunday, April 26.
The public ceremony to unveil the marker will begin at 3 p.m., at Manakin Episcopal Church, 985 Huguenot Trail (near Midlothian), where the marker will be located.
Representatives from Manakin Episcopal and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Amherst County, the Monacan Indian Nation, and the Department of Historic Resources will speak during the dedication ceremony.
Mowhemcho was noted by Captain John Smith on his 1612 map of present-day Virginia. At that time, the “Monacan homeland encompassed all of Virginia’s Piedmont,” as the highway marker states.
After the town was destroyed in the late 17th century by colonists and most its people killed, French Huguenots later settled in the area in 1700 and renamed the town Manakin.
“By 1722 the Monacans had moved west, along the James River,” according to the marker. Today the Monacan Nation has a headquarters and ancestral museum at Bear Mountain in Amherst County, near Lynchburg.
“We are all very excited about this marker and dedication ceremony,” said Karenne Wood, a member of the Monacan Tribe and director of the Virginia Indian Heritage Program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. “We feel the marker completes a historic circle surrounding the importance of this Monacan town in Virginia history,” added Wood.
The “Mowhemcho, Manakin Town” marker was approved by the Department of Historic Resources in September 2008. The marker is part of an ongoing initiative by the department to create new markers that represent the full diversity of Virginia’s rich historic legacy.
As a result of this nearly decade-long endeavor, the department has developed dozens of new highway markers that address people, places, and events in the history of Virginia Indians, African Americans, and women.
Virginia’s historical marker program is one of the oldest in the nation. The first signs were erected in 1927 along U.S. Rte. 1. Today, there are more than 2,000 official state markers. More information about the Historical Highway Marker Program is available on the Department of Historic Resources’ Website at http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/.
Full text of the marker:
Mowhemcho, Manakin Town
On this site stood the Monacan Indian Town of Mowhemcho, noted on John Smith’s map of 1612. The Monacan homeland encompassed all of Virginia’s Piedmont. In 1670, Indian townspeople welcomed explorer John Lederer’s party with “volleys of shot.” The town was later destroyed by colonists, possibly by trader William Claiborne, and most of the Indians were killed. French Huguenots settled here in 1700, and Monacan survivors visited them at the site, then called Manakin Town, to trade. By 1722 the Monacans had moved west, along the James River. Today, Monacan Nation headquarters are just north of the James, near Lynchburg.
