A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAKES BRANCH, VIRGINIA
The town of Drakes Branch is located in Charlotte County, Virginia about eighty miles from Richmond, Virginia and about sixty miles from Danville, Virginia. Surrounded on all sides by hills, Drakes Branch is 375 feet above sea level. In 1842 the Southern Railroad built the Richmond-Danville division passing through the site of the present town. The town was incorporated in 1903
There are two streams within the town limits. Twitty’s Creek, a tributary of the Roanoke River, and a branch which gave the town its name and beginnings. A family by the name of Drakes lived on the heights west of the railroad. Pipe was laid and water from the headwaters of a little stream was conveyed by gravity into railroad tanks. The watering spot was named “Drake’s Branch.” Later a station was built near where “the branch” flowed into Twitty’s Creek, and a plank road was built to Charlotte Court House, five miles away.