CHAPTER V

Lease of the Market-House Lots--The First Serious Fire-- Fredericksburg an Important Center--An Act Concerning Elections--Half of the Town Destroyed by Fire-- Fredericksburg an Important Postal Point--How the Mails were Carried--A Congressional Investigation--Amendatory Acts of 1821--The Great Fire of 1822--The Trade of the Town--Contagious Diseases--The Town in 1841--Acts of Extension, 1851, 1852, 1858, 1861, 57