Seven miles west stood Roanoke Bridge, the colonial homestead of Joseph Morton, who patented nearby land in the 1740s. He was an elder of Briery Presbyterian Church when it was founded in Prince Edward County in 1755, and later a trustee. He served as a justice from the formation of Charlotte County on 4 March 1765 until his death in 1784. In 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, he became a member of the county’s committee of correspondence. About that time, he built Roanoke Bridge, a frame dwelling later called Hillandale. The house served as a post office from 1885 to 1904 and burned in the mid-20th century.