Dismal Swamp Canal with Lake Drummond Hotel
Oil painting by Robert Salmon, 1830
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Historical Reminiscing with Robert B. Hitchings
The Old Drummond Hotel in the Great Dismal Swamp
Dismal Swamp Canal with Lake Drummond Hotel
Oil painting by Robert Salmon, 1830
Smithsonian American Art Museum
There is in our vicinity of our city of Norfolk, about 22 miles, a place that is known as the great Dismal Swamp, Lake Drummond. The waters are quiet and still. The lake is in the interior. Mr. William Wirt (author of the first Bio of Patrick Henry) called this The Great Dismal Swamp. Inside the swamp one will find in the forest juniper and cypress trees with luxurious branches interwoven throughout the forest. Below one sees grape vines, mosses and Virginia creepers everywhere. In the air one smells fragrances of jessamine, laurel and the wild roses.
For centuries this Dismal Swamp has captured the imagination of thousands of people. One man in particular was the poet Thomas Moore who wrote the ballad The Lake of the Dismal Swamp in 1803. Moore spent many months residing near the Dismal Swamp, a guest of the Happer family of Norfolk County, now the city of Chesapeake, Virginia. This poem established the legend of the Lady of the Lake. The poem is based on local legends about an Indian maid who died before her marriage and is seen in a ghostly form in a white canoe on Lake Drummond. Her husband-to-be is reunited with her in death. This poem caught the imagination of many individuals in those days who wanted to venture into the unknown of the swamp.
“They made her a grave, too cold and damp,
For a soul so warm and true,
And she’s gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,
Where, all night long, by fire-fly lamp,
She paddles her white canoe.”On January 8, 1830, in the Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald newspaper there appeared an advertisement of the opening of a brand new hotel called the Lake Drummond Hotel. This was the second of its kind situated on the Dismal Swamp Canal, halfway from Norfolk to Elizabeth City, immediately on the North Carolina and Virginia line. The hotel was built that each wing sat half in Virginia and the other half in North Carolina. It was quite a popular resort especially for young under-age lovers not requiring consent of parents to get married. This hotel was truly a calling card for young people eagerly wanting to go over the border to be married. This was the Gretna Green of our area and it proved to be quite popular. This was a remarkable hotel, away from everything with a romantic background, more likely an enchanted cottage tucked away in an isolated swamp. A place tucked far away from everything for young lovers. The marriage age was lower in North Carolina than Virginia. But there also was another cottage called the Farange House. This too was also a popular rendezvous hotel for statesmen and older couples getting away from city life.
Farange House Hotel or Inn was the first to be built along the canal and had entertainment in the swamp. A William Farange opened this establishment before 1818. In the Norfolk’s American Beacon and Commercial Diary, an article appeared stating that President James Monroe and some of his staff would be visiting this Inn. President Monroe was touring the country before he left office promoting American patriotism. In 1824 General Lafayette was also on his grand tour of America, but never stopped here at this inn.
During a stay at Drummond Hotel many young lovers were full of excitement. Many were married here by a Rev. Amalek C. Williams. The sure pleasure of eloping was so romantic at the Drummond Hotel and became to many newlyweds an enchanted Cottage.
I have read that during the 1800s it was a lover's tradition after marriage to etch their inscriptions beautifully on a glass window pane. Usually this was done with the engagement ring.
However, as was the custom of the day, I wonder how many young couples etched their names and marriage dates on these window panes. Unfortunately, we do not know if these etching ever took place here in the old Drummond Hotel, but we know it was a custom, a romantic gesture and was customary during this time frame. Today, there are many old houses that are still standing in the South where one can see this custom. One such house is Shirley Plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia, where today one can see and read the names of these young romantic couples who etched their love for each other on these small window panes. It was a lover’s tradition to etch their names on window panes with their new adorned engagement ring.
The Lake Drummond Hotel, this noted hostelry, was erected astride the Virginia-North Carolina border along the canal.
Amalek C. Williams, minister, was a household name in the area. He was always on hand to welcome new visitors and on hand to marry many couples. And I am sure his sister and brother-in-law were on hand to be witnesses.
Williams was a minister and businessman. His father had been the proprietor of the long forgotten Queen Hotel in Elizabeth city, NC. His sister Eliza Williams had married Wilson G. Lamb who later became the proprietor of the Lake Drummond Hotel.
Lamb and Williams built a fine recommendation, pledging himself to enforce good order throughout the establishment. His advertisements in the local newspapers invited romantic couples to come to the hotel for the sole purpose to be married. He also saw that the entertainment was the best of the day. Whether one traveled by stage coach or canal boat, one had prompt attention. Horses were attended too with the utmost care.Schedule of Rate at the Dismal Swamp Hotel, Dinner: $ .50, Supper or Breakfast. $37 1/2 cents. Lodging, $12 1/2. Board by day $1.00, a Week $4.50, or by month $18.00.
And many women traveled with a simple trunk holding her precious bridal trousseau, a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Inside was her bride’s clothes and maybe quilted sheets and possibly money.
And in September 1851 two men, Overton Matthews and his friend Mr. Davis, were leaving in their buggy at the Lake Drummond Hotel when they were attacked by two African-Americans. One had a double-barrel shot-gun and the fire-arm went off wounding Mr. Matthews so severely that the doctor at Lake Drummond Hotel thought he might have to amputate the leg. The Negroes fled into the darkness of the Dismal Swamp.
On May 21st 1855, a fire raged with fearful violence in the Dismal Swamp, destroying lumber and standing tees and sweeping almost everything in its path, leaving black and very gloomy regions in Dismal swamp. And when the wind blew towards Norfolk one could smell the awful odor of the brush fire with not only a bad odor but a heavy smog like fog.
And it is a proven fact that many a duel took place near these two hotels which brought considerable attention to the area by newspapers. And sometimes these duels involved the love for a certain woman. And we must not forget the highway men that hid out to rob men on horseback, or as some folks called it, a murderous gang.
The Lake Drummond Hotel and Farange House played a large part in early 19th century of our area. Its historical significance was being a favorite spot for weddings by young individuals in the lower part of Virginia. As we can see Lake Drummond Hotel advertised their establishment, whereas Farange House declined.
How strange that the owner and proprietor of the Lake Drummond Hotel, Mr. Isaiah Rogerson, passed away within a month of opening his hotel on Aug. 21, 1830.
What happened to these two robust hotels? Like all things, like people, the two hotels had their own obituaries due to progress. They are dim reminders of two fine hotels or Inns, a story for part of our history. Gone are the days of young people eloping to a dismal safe place. Tastes of people change and different fads come in and out with every generation.
The Dismal Swamp Canal is no longer an artery of commercial water traffic. Most of the timber has been depleted and only a small part of the former Dismal Swamp area can be truly regarded as swampland. And due to the invention of the automobile and new roads, like route 17, these old inns, or hideaways, are no longer needed.
The Dismal Swamp Hotel has fallen through the cracks of time, once a beacon of light in the early 19th century to so many weary travelers and to those shrouded with marital bliss as young lovers. Today, it is now just a memory of a mysterious allure of the Indian maiden whose ghostly image appeared within the Dismal Swamp so long ago.
Left: Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald, January 8, 1830
Right: Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald, August 27, 1832
(double click to enlarge)
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Robert B. Hitchings is a seventh generation Norfolk resident, graduating with an Associate's Degree in Biology from Old Dominion University and BA in history from Virginia Wesleyan University. During his studies he was awarded a scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, and he was an exchange student at Brooks-Westminster College, Oxford, England. From 1999-2014 he worked as head of the Sargeant Memorial History Room at Norfolk Public Library, and since then has headed the Wallace History Room at Chesapeake Public Library. He is also the President of the Norfolk County Historical Society, and for six years was a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. Robert may be reached at nchs.wallaceroom@gmail.com
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