DANVILLE

city, administratively independent of, but located in, Pittsylvania county, south-central Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Dan River, just north of the North Carolina border, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Greensboro, North Carolina. The earliest settlement on the site was known as The Ford at Wynn's Falls (a site visited by explorer William Byrd in 1728). Chartered in 1793, it became an inspection warehouse and river transport point for tobacco. After completion of the railroad (1848), it became one of the nation's largest flue-cured, bright-leaf tobacco markets. During the American Civil War, Danville was the site of a Confederate prison camp; more than 1,300 Union prisoners are buried in Danville National Cemetery. For a week following the fall of Richmond (April 3, 1865), Danville was the seat of the Confederacy; the Confederate Memorial Mansion, now the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, is known as the Last Capitol of the Confederacy. Development of the Dan River Cotton Mills (now Dan River, Inc.) in the 1880s made the city a leading textile centre; the mills were once the largest single-unit textile factory in the world. Besides textiles and tobacco, the city's manufactures include gypsum products, tires, glass, and bricks. Cheap hydroelectric power for the city was gained by harnessing the falls (pinnacles) of the Dan River. The city owns and operates the Pinnacles Hydro-Electric Station, completed in 1938. Danville has two institutions of higher learning: Averett College (1859) and Danville Community College (1968; originally a technical school established in 1936). Lady Astor (ne Nancy Witcher), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons, was born (1879) in Danville. Inc. town, 1833; city, 1870. Pop. (1990) city, 53,056; Danville MSA, 108,728; (1998 est.) city, 50,868; (1996 est.) Danville MSA, 109,246. city, seat (1827) of Vermilion county, eastern Illinois, U.S., on the junction of forks of the Vermilion River (there bridged). The city stands on the site of a former Piankashaw Indian village, and a number of trails passed through or terminated there in the early days. The location of salt deposits a few miles west of the village provided the chief incentive for early white settlement. Shortly after Vermilion County was organized in 1826, Dan Beckwith and Guy W. Smith, two early settlers who were interested in the salt works, offered to donate the 100 acres (40 hectares) of land required for a seat of justice. The offer was accepted, and the new county seat was named Danville in honour of Beckwith. Formerly a coal-mining centre, with a few strip mines remaining, Danville's present economy is based on agriculture and diversified industry, notably automotive products. Danville Area Community College was established in 1946. Kickapoo State Park (built on restored strip-mining land) and Lake Vermilion are nearby. Inc. city, 1869. Pop. (1990) 33,828. city, seat of Boyle county, central Kentucky, U.S., in the Bluegrass region, 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Lexington. Located along the Old Wilderness Road, it was settled c. 1775 and named for Walker Daniel, who purchased the deed for the site (1784). It was capital of the Kentucky District of Virginia (178592). Constitution Square (site of nine conventions that drafted the first state constitution) is preserved as a state shrine. The house where Dr. Ephraim McDowell performed the first successful ovariotomy (1809) has been restored by the Kentucky State Medical Association. Danville is the seat of Centre College (1819) and of the Kentucky School for the Deaf (1823). It serves as a market for burley tobacco, livestock, and horses and has some light manufacturing. Herrington Lake, impounded on the Dix River, lies 5 miles to the northeast. Perryville Battlefield State Shrine, scene of Kentucky's bloodiest Civil War battle (Oct. 8, 1862), is located 10 miles west of the city. Inc. town, 1789; city, 1836. Pop. (1990) 12,420.