The 1840 Census Shows Middlesex Businesses Growing

Middlesex was ranked as 80^th in the Ninety-five Virginia Counties included in the census survey. Our total population was 4,392 with over half, 2,209, enslaved people.

Maryland established an oyster shucking house in Baltimore in 1836. The first large shucking house in Virginia was opened in 1859 in Norfolk, and Middlesex sent our oysters from the Piankatank and Rappahannock Rivers to both cities.

We were a farming community, our local crops of beans, melons, and tomatoes were big sellers. They were transported to Baltimore on steamships that linked our locals to the big city’s larger sales market.

Cattle grazed our open land, and their hides were in demand to be utilized by the four tanneries in Middlesex. They sold the finished pieces to be turned into gloves, shoes, boots, saddles and harnesses.

Seven sawmills, spread across the county, provided the timber industry with finished goods. There were 11 gristmills that ground local wheat and corn into flour and meal for flapjacks and corncakes. There was a brick and lime business that ground the oyster shells and mixed them with the local sand and clay to make building materials.