Transportation
9
Anthony and Benjamin Rucker lived near here and invented the James River batteau, which replaced the double dugout canoe and rolling road for transporting tobacco hogsheads. These long, double-ended vessels, about 50 or 60 feet in length, dominated commercial traffic on the James River and other Southern upland waterways from the 1770s to the 1840s. In 1821, a dispute arose when the Rucker brothers’ heirs sought to patent the design, and a letter from Thomas Jefferson testifying that he had been present at the launch of the first batteau settled the matter in the Ruckers’s favor.
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