July 20, 2026
John Farmer
Roadside History – Swan Tavern and Jack Jouett
Captain John Jouett, Sr., and his wife Mourning Glenn Harris were the parents of John Jouett, Jr. (Jack). Jack’s father owned and/or operated the Swan Tavern in Charlottesville and farmed a property near Cuckoo at a crossroads in Louisa County. Jouett family ancestors were French Huguenots emigrated from Normandy in France to Rhode Island in the American Colony, and later to Virginia in the early 1700’s. Louisa records for September 14, 1767, show that John Jouett renewed a license to keep an ordinary (tavern) in his house at a farm in Louisa County. 1
Roadside History – Three Notch’d Road
Once upon a time there was an old Colonial road in Virginia called Three Notch’d Road; sometimes Three Chopt Road. Its route followed an 18th century trail between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley, most likely replacing an earlier pathway used by Native Americans. The road became a mainstay for east-west settlement patterns in Central Virginia from approximately 1730 onward. By the time of the Revolution its use as a major travel route was a well-established Colonial asset as the war came to a close. Later years saw its roadbeds improved, paved, straightened and shaped for U.S. Route 250 today. Regardless, the name and trace of the old colonial road have survived west of Richmond and on U.S. Geological Survey maps. Interstate-64 mostly followed the same path except for a diversion crossing the Blue Ridge at Rockfish Gap instead of Jarman Gap. Nevertheless, the route of the Three Notch’d Road remains virtually intact and in service from Henrico County through Central Virginia and Charlottesville to Augusta County west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.