Shenandoah Stories

Join us in our efforts to explore the history and culture of Shenandoah County Virginia through our web based tour platform Shenandoah Stories. Click a site on the map, select a tour, or view a random story to begin.  Read more About Us

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Sometime in the late 19th century Captain T. J. Adams operated a general store in Quicksburg Virginia. He died in 1904 and Clarence Lafayette Zirkle bought the business. Zirkle would have sold a wide array of items ranging from dry goods to farm…

In 1877 the Shenandoah County School Board purchased a one-half acre lot to build a new school in Mt. Jackson. This would be the first county operated, public school in the town. The new structure would be finished the following year. It was part of…

Located next to the Deary Tavern, this two-story building was built in 1855. It is constructed with wooden weatherboarding on the outside, a heavy embossed metal on the inside, and a layer of brick in between. The building was first owned by Henry…

As early as 1874 a school existed on this property in Toms Brook. That year county resident Levi Pitman noted his brother began teaching there. Five years later the school superintendent, John Grabil, recorded that the student population at Toms…

The congregation that became Emmanuel Lutheran Church began in 1790, when Reverend Paul Henkel founded the Davidson Lutheran Church in New Market. In 1820 Samuel S. Schmucker, a Yale Graduate became the church’s new minister. Soon afterwards the…

In the late 1700s, Shenandoah County residents who were members of the Lutheran and Reformed denominations banded together to form Frieden’s Union Church west of Toms Brook. This served the needs of Toms Brook’s residents until the mid-1800s when…