Elijah Fletcher was a 19th-century teacher and businessman, who served as mayor of Lynchburg, Virginia for two terms in the early 1830s, as well as on the city council.
15 Facts About Elijah Fletcher
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Timothy Elijah Fletcher worked with T in Virginia before returning home to Vermont, as did his brother Stoughton, for vacations.
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The young men decided to trade positions, so Elijah Fletcher's first teaching job was at Episcopal High School.
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Elijah Fletcher wrote back to Vermont about her amiability and accomplishments, as well as being cousin to Vice President Crawford.
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Meanwhile, Elijah Fletcher moved with his young wife to Lynchburg, about 20 miles away, where he became a successful businessman and prominent citizen.
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Elijah Fletcher bought land on Diamond Hill and established a household which included enslaved persons.
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In 1830, Elijah Fletcher bought Locust Ridge plantation from Maria's aunt and uncle and became a merchant in both cities.
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Elijah Fletcher renamed Locust Ridge Sweet Briar plantation, after the small pink wild rose that grew there and which Maria favored.
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Elijah Fletcher served on the Lynchburg city council, and as the city's mayor in 1830 and won re-election in 1832.
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Elijah Fletcher worked to bring a railroad to the hill city, and later once noted that local railroad contractors preferred slave labor rather than hiring white workers because they deemed the former "equally efficient, more moral and much easier managed," an assessment with which he agreed after hiring white labor to build an addition to his house.
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Elijah Fletcher helped found St Paul's Episcopal Church in Lynchburg and Ascension Episcopal Church in Amherst, Virginia.
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Elijah Fletcher died at Sweet Briar on February 13,1858, and was buried on his plantation.
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Elijah Fletcher escorted his sisters on their European tour and briefly traveled to California with his brother Lucian, as well as practiced medicine for a time.
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Elijah Fletcher had given Sidney the deed for Tusculum plantation in 1850, where he farmed and raised livestock until his death.
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Elijah Fletcher later asked a New York cousin to move to Virginia and help him and his widowed sister Indiana.