Before it was Axton, it was Centerville. The community sat along what is now U.S. Route 58, about eighteen miles west of Danville on the old Danville Wytheville Turnpike, with a flour mill, a handful of structures, and not much else to distinguish it from dozens of other small Southside Virginia communities of the era. That changed in 1847 when George and R.H. Axton arrived and started manufacturing plug chewing tobacco. The factory they built gave the community an economic engine and eventually a new name. Centerville faded away, and Axton took its place.
Growth came fast in the years that followed. A new hotel opened, and Dr. R.P. Fagg set up a doctor’s office that brought a measure of respectability to the growing community. Not every new establishment could claim the same. Not far away stood what locals called the Grog Shop — a saloon that earned a dark reputation over the years. Several murders took place there, and its notoriety became a sore spot in an otherwise tight-knit community, one that many believe helped push Axton toward organizing stronger support for its churches.
The Dick and Willie Railroad added a stop at Axton in 1882, and with it came Ben Dyer, who served as station agent until his death at age 92. The Dyer’s Store area that reportedly carries his name became a community landmark. The post office opened that same year, on July 17, 1882, and commerce followed the rails. The families who built Axton built Henry County alongside it : Barkers, Martins, Dyers, Gravelys, Winns, Faggs, Richardsons, Hairstons, Carters, Watkins, Minters, and Shacklefords among them.
The Barker Brothers stood out even in that company. James Monroe Barker ran a general store and fertilizer business while his brother Gordon operated a general store and flour mill. Five brothers in all, their influence reached well beyond Henry County. James Monroe Barker’s son, Chris Barker, served as Chairman of the State Board of Agriculture. The Axton Lodge also took shape during this era, founded by Dr. John James and later carried forward by Elizabeth Stuart James Grant, co-owner of the Danville Register & Bee.
A bank came soon after World War I and served the community through the prosperous 1920s before the Depression forced a merger with Piedmont Trust Bank. Education ran deep in Axton from the beginning. Ten schools operated in and around the community in the early 1900s, and Axton High School arrived in the 1920s with a vocational and agricultural focus. The Axton School building itself went up in 1923, paid for by the community. Axton Baptist Church dates to 1886, with Moral Hill Baptist following in 1890, and American Furniture set up operations around 1906.
Today, Axton is an unincorporated community in Henry County along U.S. Route 58, home to the only post office in America bearing that name. The tobacco factory is long gone. The name it left behind is not.
Jarred Marlowe is a local resident and historian. He is a member of the Col. George Waller Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Blue & Gray Education Society, and the committee chair for the Martinsville-Henry County 250 Committee. He may be reached at [email protected].
The Axton Train Station along the Danville & Western rail line (Photo courtesy of the Bassett Historical Center)
