Venable was born at Slate Hill Plantation in Prince Edward County.

[1] In his twenties, he served in the Revolutionary War in the United States Army, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.

[1] As an adult, Venable continued to live in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

[1] It was incorporated in 1795 completed the Upper Appomattox Canal by 1816 for polled bateaux freighters.

It extended from the head of the falls of the Appomattox River at Farmville, a distance of 100 miles to a basin in Petersburg, Virginia.