Stuarts Draft is a census-designated place (CDP) in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. It is part of the Staunton–Waynesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area and adjacent to the South River. Its population was 12,142 as of the 2020 census.
Stuarts Draft has a history as an agricultural community, dating back to the 1730s. Today, the community also includes a processing and manufacturing cluster that includes Hershey, Hollister, McKee Foods, NIBCO, and a Target Corporation Distribution Center. As one writer notes, "A visitor to Stuarts Draft can see these imposing plants with cattle grazing in a nearby field..."
History
Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was the territory of the Shawanee; none of their settlements are known to have existed in Stuarts Draft. Two non-residents tribes were frequent visitors to the area: the Delaware from the north and the Catawba from the south. When European settlers first moved into Augusta County in 1732, these three tribes were in the midst of a war. As a result, armed war parties were a common sight in the white settlements.
In 1736, William Beverly received a patent from Virginia's Governor William Gooch for in what became Augusta County. At the time, this was the "outermost limits of Virginia". Beverly sold parcels of land to settlers, including property that is now in Stuarts Draft. One settler was Archibald Stuart, a Scotch Presbyterian, who arrived in the area in 1738. Stuart settled about three miles east of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church which he helped found in 1744. This property became known as the Pratt Farm and is located on what is now U.S. 340 near Northgate Avenue. Other early settlers who purchased land from Beverly in what is now Stuarts Draft include Robert Alexander, James Bell, John Black, John Christian, John Colter, Samuel Davidson, William Long, Finley McClure, Joseph Mills, Robert Moffet, and James Patton.
These early settlers built houses and cleared the land for farming. The most successful crops were hemp, corn, wheat, and flax which was mixed with wool to make linsey-woolsey clothes. Farmers experimented with tobacco and cotton but found hemp the most successful cash crop, supplying raw material for naval rope. Robert Stuart operated a chopping mill in Stuarts Draft.
In 1749, Archibald Stuart's son Thomas purchased a patent near the South River. The tract was bound by Robert Stuart's patent to the north, Samuel Davidson's patent to the south, John Black's patent to the west, and James Patton's patent to the east. There, Thomas lived with his wife Elizabeth (née Moore) and their nine children. The property had a small valley or cove, regionally called a draft.
There was fighting in Augusta County during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), smaller conflicts with Native Americans in 1764 and 1774, and minor skirmishes through 1794. When Thomas Stuart died, his sons were not living nearby, and his widow left the patent or land grant, making it available for resale. The Stuart property was purchased by John Harper in 1800, with some parts being owned by Joseph McComb and Jacob Farror at a later date.
Before 1800, the roads to Stuarts Draft were poor, limiting travel to horseback or sleds rather than wheeled wagons. The settlement did not have a post office until 1837. The first post office was in the former Thomas Stuart cabin, a hewed-pine log structure than on the Harper property. As a result, the name Stuarts Draft was chosen for the post office and the community. Later, the post office moved three miles west of town and was operated by postmaster James M. Hall.
In the 1850s, the Howardsville Turnpike was built through Stuarts Draft. Funded by stock as a commercial venture, the turnpike allowed Stuarts Drafts' farmers to take their wheat and other goods by horse-drawn wagons to the trading post in Howardsville, Virginia. The trip took a week but yielded trade goods such as flour, sugar, and other staples. Howardsville was located in Albemarle County on the James River; from there, trade goods went to Richmond by barge.
In 1856, Stuarts Draft's first doctor arrived; James M. Watson was a graduate of the University of Virginia's medical school in nearby Charlottesville. Watson traveled on horseback to visit patients. Other families moving to Stuarts Draft include Caldwell, Churchman, Forrer, Grass, Harnsberger, Hicks, Johnson, Kindig, Patterson, Prior, Van Lear, and Wilson.