Trains first arrived at Mt. Jackson in 1859 when the Manassas Gap Railroad completed construction of a new line that terminated in the town. Though the railroad intended to extend the route to Harrisonburg, money had run short. Anyone wishing to…

The first school for Strasburg’s African American population was called the Queen Street School and was located at the end of West Queen Street. That building housed grades 1-7 until 1929 when it burned. A new school, called Sunset Hill Colored…

Despite the attention given to passenger service and its depots, the main railroad business in Woodstock and Shenandoah County was freight. The region exported hundreds of carloads of agricultural products each year while importing heavy machinery,…

Sometime in 1873 the African American residents of New Market Virginia were able to dedicate a new Methodist Church for them to worship in. Records indicate that this congregation had been founded sometime in the late 1860s, most likely by travelling…

Sometime in the late 19th century Joseph Russell Miller opened a tailor shop on Main Street in Woodstock. A native of Hardy County West Virginia, Miller had moved to Woodstock as a child and was trained as a tailor in a Frederick County shop.…

In 1884 Dr. J.I. Triplett opened the Mt. Jackson National Bank in this building. It was the first national bank in Shenandoah County and the only one for over a decade. From 1863 until 1935 the Treasury Department allowed certain banks to be…