Dr. John Blair Radford (April 26, 1813 – June 30, 1872) was an American physician, businessman, farmer, and namesake of
Radford, Virginia.
Biography
Radford was born in
Bedford County, Virginia
Bedford County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, which was an independent city from 1968 until rejoining the county in 2013.
Bedford County was c ...
, the son of William Radford and Elizabeth Moseley.
He attended medical school in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. In 1836, Radford married Elizabeth Campbell Taylor and they had 6 children.
After their marriage, John and Elizabeth moved to Radford, which at the time was a community known as "
Lovely Mount." John opened a medical practice in the area and was one of the few practicing physicians in the region.
Between 1838 and 1840, Radford oversaw the building of the
Arnheim plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
to serve as his family home.
In addition to his work as a physician and his plantation's agricultural activities, Radford was active in various other commercial and railroad ventures. In 1844, Radford was appointed by the
Virginia Board of Public Works as a Director of the LaFayette and English Ferry Turnpike Company.
In 1864, during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Radford's Arnheim home was shelled by cannons during the Battle of New River Bridge, as the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
mistakenly assumed the home to be the headquarters of the
Confederacy.
Death
Radford died in 1872 and is interred at the Radford Family Cemetery in Radford.
Legacy
Local residents began to refer to the Lovely Mount area as "Radford" in the years following Radford's death. The City of Radford was officially incorporated in January 1892 and was formally named after Radford.
A bronze statue of Radford is displayed in the Radford municipal building.
See also
*
Radford, Virginia
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radford, John Blair
1813 births
1872 deaths
American slave owners
Farmers from Virginia
People from Bedford County, Virginia
Physicians from Virginia
Radford, Virginia