Pictorial History 

of

Bedford County

Virginia

Page Five

Progress was in evidence when in 1854, a Railroad was laid from  Lynchburg  to Liberty. By 1857, it was completed through the county running from Lynchburg to Bristol. It was named the Virginia-Tennessee Railroad, later the Norfolk & Western. 

To come through "Liberty", a deep cut called “Fuqua Cut” was made north of Main Street and a Stone Bridge with perfect proportion and beauty was built with its archway across the track.  

The day the first train came through was cause for great celebration  and  people gathered from miles around to attend the gay and festive occasion. In 1907, the railroad was double tracked.

"Liberty" must   have remained at a standstill for the next several years. In 1861, the town was described by The Rev. Joseph Graves as quiet and unpretentious. The streets were paved for only short distances and with poor material. The storehouses where the leading merchants did    business    were inconvenient  wooden buildings, without heat except in the counting rooms. There were no livery stables; only a few carriages were owned. The citizens walked

The  Reverend  Graves further describes Liberty:

"Our butcher (and we had only one) would ride out in the morning and buy a small beef, drive it home and butcher it about nightfall, on the lot of Col. Dan Aunspaugh.

When next morning, about four o'clock; all who wanted beef would go there and purchase it, and the market would be closed by six a.m. to be opened no more until the butcher went again to the country an  returned. We had no Water Works, no Telephones, and no Electric Lights. When the moon did not shine we took our lanterns."