What in a name? The history and variations of “Glenarvon”.

William Galt the elder, (1755-1825), came to Richmond, Virginia
from Ayshire, Scotland in 1775. He was all business, and
accumulated substantial wealth over the next 50 years. His
Fluvanna properties beginning at the fork of the Rivanna and
James rivers were called simply "The Fork", and were subdivided
into three regions as they proceeded along the James. These were
called "the Lower", "the Middle", and "the Upper"...practical,
but not very interesting names. He built no grand houses, and ran
these and his other farms from his offices in Richmond.

On old Galt's death, the "Fork" estate was left, in equal shares,
to brothers William, Jr.,(1801-1851), and James Galt, orphan boys old
Galt had adopted and eventually brought from Scotland to join him
in his businesses in Virginia. William, Jr. and James carefully
divided the "Fork", James taking the half nearest the Rivanna fork,
and William taking the upstream half nearest what is today called
Bremo Bluff. Each built nice, and absolutely identical,
"Richmond" style homes, and by 1832, had moved their families to
their respective farms.

James called his half "Point of Fork", and William named his
"Glenarvon". "Point of Fork" is a reference to the fork of the
Rivanna and James rivers, no doubt, but we are not sure what
inspired the choice of "Glenarvon".

Nearby, in Buckingham County, there was a settlement then called
Arvon, today called Arvonia, and one line of speculation suggests
William, Jr. borrowed that name. Another hypothesis suggests that
William, Jr. might have been inspired by Lady Caroline Lamb's
1816 book "Glenarvon", semi-fiction based on her four-month
affair with Lord Byron in 1812. The book was extremely popular,
and could have made an impression on an youthful William, Jr.
Another hypothesis is that "Glenarvon" was the name of a place in
Scotland that William, Jr. remembered fondly. We have yet to find
such a place on a map.

Whatever the reason for the choice of name, "Glenarvon" it
remained in county records and on tombstones, (William Jr. is
buried in Plot E117 in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond), until the
1916 deed from Marion McKay and husband, Addison H. McKay to
Della G. Smallwood, Book 9, page 163, called it "Glen  Arvon".
The McKays briefly owned the farm, and may have preferred
the two-word spelling, or perhaps the change was inadvertent? 

The spelling remained "Glen  Arvon" in deed records and local
usage for many years, particularly during the long ownership of
Warren F. and Frances C. O'Brien, who purchased the remaining
farm in 1935. The recent naming of roads in Fluvanna county
occasioned research into the history of the name, and the
historically older, single-word spelling was revived.

WAW