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Mountain Valley People: A Historical Sketch of a Section of Rockingham County, Virginia, and Its PeRockingham County, Virginia, and Its People. Mary Marie Koontz Arrington. Paperback, 2 volumes, (1982), 2004, Illus., Index, 760 pp.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Mountain Valley area and more. For those that long, 'to walk again the once worn paths that led up hillsides and trailed down narrow ravines, from doorstep to doorstep. Fifty-seven families (plus five black families, the Stoggle family most notable among them) are described. But this is no dry genealogical abstract. Recipes for furniture polish and rheumatism are included, as well as sayings, songs, home cures for every affliction, letters, and articles from the local newspaper: In over 700 pages and more than 200 photographs, Ms Koontz brings back a whole way of life as it was lived in the shadow of Massanutten Mountain. On a more serious note are the lists of gravestones from twenty-one family graveyards plus the Mountain Valley Church Cemetery. Several local churches are also described, some with deeds and lists of members and preachers (1886-1948, Columbia-Calvary Church). Mountain Valley's role in the wars is not forgotten (did Preston Layman kill Stonewall Jackson, his own commander, or did he just wish he had?). In the chapter on the Valley's schools, Fairview school stands out: reproduced are class photos for 1908, 1914 and every year from 1920 to 1930, on which every pupil is identified by name. The rest of the book is filled with transcripts of journals and diaries, store ledgers and land transactions (dated from 1807 to 1841). Although the majority of the materials gathered are from the second half of the 19th century onwards, a number of references go back much farther, even to persons born as early as 1701. A0627 |