Leven Powell

Leven Powell was born to William Powell and Eleanor (Peyton). Leven was born near Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia. He studied in private schools. He was deputy sheriff of Prince William County, Virginia, before he moved to Loudoun County in 1763, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He purchased a mill on Hunger Run and named it Sally Mill after his young wife, Sally. Sally Mill Road is between Aldie, Virginia and Middleburg, Virginia. A wall of the original mill still exists on the site. Leven later purchased 50 acres from Joseph Chinn who had built Chinn's Ordinary, now called the Red Fox Inn, in 1728 near the center of that 50 acre parcel. The area had been called Chinn's Crossroads, and was then known as Powell Town. When the town was officially established in 1787, Leven Powell declined to have the town named after him, so the name became Middleburgh, and later simply Middleburg.

During the American Revolutionary War, he served as major in the Continental Army in 1775 and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 16th Continental Regiment in 1777. He resigned on account of ill health in 1778.

Powell served as member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1779. He was a delegate to the Virginia ratification convention in 1788 and again a member of the House of Delegates in 1787, 1788, 1791, and 1792. In the 1796 presidential election, Powell stood alone among Virginia's 21 electors in voting for John Adams over Thomas Jefferson. He was elected as a Federalist to the Sixth Congress (March 4, 1799 – March 3, 1801). In 1787, Powell is known as the founder of the town of Middleburg, Virginia in Loudoun County. He also helped to build a turnpike (now Rt 50) from the port of Alexandria, Virginia to the Winchester, Virginia. He died in Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1810 and was buried in the Old Presbyterian Graveyard.