“A Visit to Denmark,” developed from a presentation to the Rockbridge Historical Society by the late Reed Belden, has been published as the newest “Rockbridge Epilogue.”
A highlight of Belden’s article is a map he drew of Denmark, spanning the second half of the 19th century, locating key businesses, schools, family homes, churches and cemeteries, many bearing names wellknown in the Denmark area and across Rockbridge County today.
In its peak years, about 1880 to 1910, Belden writes, Denmark had a general store, a post office, a mill and a blacksmith shop, as every respectable village did — and even its own undertaker and a florist.
Denmark is located just west of Kerrs Creek, about 12 miles from Lexington. Established in a time when communities had colorful names, Denmark, which is east of California, had neighborhoods called Egypt and Waterloo, noted on Belden’s map.
Belden, a leader of both the Rockbridge Historical Society and Historic Lexington Foundation, was a chemist by profession who became a historian when he retired to Lexington. He wrote a number of profiles of local villages when they were thriving commercial and social centers, another of which, about the oncebustling villages along South River, north of Old Buena Vista, was published as an “Epilogue” two years ago.
Belden’s entertaining Denmark article is available free at www.HistoricRockbridge. org. The “Epilogues” series, created in 2016 and endorsed by both historical organizations, collects well-researched articles on local history — originally presented in scholarly settings — that are nevertheless enjoyable to read and yet are not available in print elsewhere.
ABOVE, AUTHOR Reed Belden created this composite map of 19th-century Denmark. The hamlets of Egypt and Waterloo are at the top right. Courtesy of Rockbridge Historical Society (in Washington and Lee University Library’s Special Collections). AT LEFT, TEACHERS and pupils at Denmark’s Walnut Flats School, on Big Hill Road, are shown in this undated photograph.
