2026-04-15T05:57:25-04:00 Zend_Feed_Writer https://shenandoahstories.org/ Shenandoah Stories https://shenandoahstories.org 2023-01-27T13:44:33-05:00 2023-01-27T13:48:04-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/329 Shenandoah County Library Staff Between 1867 and 1937 a school for Woodstock’s African American population was held on this property. In 1865 the Freedman’s Bureau, a Federal Agency, opened the “Lincoln School” in Woodstock for African American Students. The location of that original school is unknown, but in 1867 Mt. Zion Methodist Church opened and the school moved into that building. Enrollment for the Freedman’s School varied between 15 and 60 students between 1865 and 1870. Teachers were Rev. D.A. Miles (1865), Mary J. Knowles (1868), Missie E. Ovrette (1869) and Rev. Carter (1870). Typically, the school opened in January and closed its session in either May or June. Courses included reading, geography, arithmetic, writing, and history. A Sabbath School was also sponsored to increase educational opportunities and held every Sunday. An 1868 report noted there were an average of 25 students in that class during the year. In 1870 Virginia’s new “Underwood” Constitution was enacted and required the creation of a public school system for white and black students. Educational opportunities for grades 1-7 were provided free of charge under the new system. The Freedman’s Bureau held the last session of the “Lincoln School” that year. Presumably a new public school opened in Woodstock’s Mt. Zion Methodist Church in the fall of 1870, but no record exists indicating its location or the dates of its term. Emma Dorster was listed as the “Colored Teacher” in an April 1871 edition of the Shenandoah Herald. In November 1875 Shenandoah County Public School Superintendent John Grabill wrote the “colored” school occupied the church building and the teacher “takes a commendable interest in his school seems to be improving. Things were not necessarily easy in for this segregated school. Funding was limited and support from the general community was typically lacking. Textbooks and supplies were typically hand me down from the white schools. Teachers were paid less and had less formal education. Money for building upgrades, paint, utilities, etc. was often lacking. Parents and members of the African American community often conducted fundraisers to make up this difference. The local African American population advocated for construction of a school house. At the time, building and maintaining school buildings was under the auspice of the Woodstock School Trustees, a group appointed and funded by the Woodstock Town Council. The council had funded the purchase of a building for the white students in 1871, but would not fund the construction of a school for black students until 1882 following several years of lobbying by the African American population and the county school system. This one room, wood frame school was constructed to the rear of Mt. Zion Methodist Church on property owned by the congregation. The land was provided free of charge and funds for the school were shared between the community and town council. This provided a single class room for the students. Educational activities, such as plays, assemblies, etc. continued to be held in the church. In 1924, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company showed the school on their fire insurance map. At the time it was a single story, wood structure, 15 feet in height and heated by a wood stove with no electric lights. It still offered classes for grades 1-7. No high school for African Americans existed in the county and students wishing to pursue their education had to travel to Manassas Virginia until a school was constructed in Winchester in the 1930s. In contrast, the Woodstock School on Court Street, utilized by white students, was a three story, brick structure, with electric lights, modern conveniences, and classes for grades 1-12. The wood frame “Colored School” would be utilized until 1937 when it was replaced by a new structure on Water Street. After this time the property was sold and the school demolished. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2018-02-28T12:47:21-05:00 2025-01-21T14:35:34-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/302 The Shenandoah Stories Team Sometime after the Civil War Mt. Jackson's African American population banded together to form a Methodist Church. During the period local churches were segregated by race and the town’s African Americans needed a church to meet their spiritual needs. By 1870 this congregation had constructed a church building on Race Street. They performed baptisms in nearby Mill Creek and supported the local African American School (located on Orkney Drive). Around 1885 the congregation seems to have relocated to a new site beside the African American School. However, in 1889 the church seems to have faced financial trouble and was involved in a chancery case over an unpaid mortgage. While it is uncertain how the case was resolved, the church remained open. The name of this church seems to have evolved. In a 1930 Sanborn map, the church is identified as “Mt. Zion M.E. Church (Colored).” Later articles refer to it as Calvary Methodist Church. After the Second World War the congregation dwindled as the African American population of Mt. Jackson declined. In 1965 the congregation made the decision to merge with Manor Memorial Methodist Church in New Market and to close their church after failed attempts to merge with the Mt. Jackson Methodist Church. The building would be demolished sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. For more (including 3 images), view the original article. 2018-02-28T12:33:01-05:00 2018-10-19T11:46:22-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/301 The Shenandoah Stories Team In June 1913 Reverend Nickens, a Baptist minister and native of Strasburg, preached a service in that town. His actions must have inspired local African American's of the Baptist faith for just over a month later they began raising money to build a church building. On October 19, 1913 the cornerstone of what would be known as Esbie Baptist Church was laid. The church would be completed later that year. Esbie would become a major part of Strasburg's African American community. Its congregation is known for its strong outreach and community programs that reach beyond the confines of the church and of race. The small white church is still an active place on Sunday mornings. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2018-02-20T11:03:27-05:00 2025-02-17T13:44:40-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/300 The Shenandoah Stories Team First Baptist Church was founded in Mt. Jackson in 1912. Few records exist describing the church or its activities. The church celebrated its 26th anniversary on September 18, 1938 with a dinner and special service according to a September 16, 1938 Northern Virginia Daily article. One major part of the church was the Scott family, particularly Preston Scott Sr., a prominent African American resident of Woodstock, was its last trustee. We do know the church closed sometime between 1952 when the church a "Men and Women's Day" and 1954 when the neighboring Methodist Church was listed as the only "colored church" in Mt. Jackson. The building was sold in 1965 and still stands on Orkney Drive. For more (including 4 images), view the original article. 2018-02-15T10:27:16-05:00 2018-12-18T12:11:53-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/299 The Shenandoah Stories Team In 1868 the African American residents of Strasburg Virginia banded together to found Mt. Zion Methodist Church after being inspired by a series of travelling Methodist Missionaries that visited the town and organized religious meeting. That same year Washington Carter became the congregation's first minister. The congregation was able to acquire land and construct their first church in 1869. Church tradition holds a cabin in the Fishers Hill community was acquired, dismantled, and moved to the church's Queen Street site to serve as a house of worship. This building would remodeled and expanded in 1885, 1907,and 1913. These projects included the construction of a bell tower, finishing of the interior, cladding the building in siding, and additions on the front and rear. Throughout its history Mt. Zion has been an important part of the Strasburg community, especially in the lives of its African American citizens. In a segregated society the church hosted most of the social, educational, and political events reserved for African American residents. These included bush meetings, church rallies, school plays, and Christmas programs. It also sponsored sports teams and helped fund the local segregated school. Today Mt. Zion remains an active congregation that is part of the United Methodist Church's Shenandoah Valley charge that includes Woodstock and Strasburg's historically black churches. It also maintains the adjourning Mt. Zion Methodist Church Cemetery which dates to around 1901 and is the community's historically black cemetery. For more (including 2 images), view the original article. 2018-02-08T10:36:40-05:00 2018-10-19T11:46:22-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/297 Shenandoah County Library 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 African American ministers that visited the area to work with recently freed slaves and local black communities. They would have met in various public buildings reserved for African Americans, including the segregated school, before constructing their own church. Asbury Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, as it became known, was the center of much of the town’s local African American community for many years. The congregation’s annual Christmas Program, held in the Rouss Opera House, was its premiere event and attracted large crowds from both the white and black population. This program helped the church raise enough money to pay its minister for the upcoming year since the congregation was not large enough, or wealthy enough, to support itself. Little else is known about this church. An April 15, 1954 article in the Shenandoah Valley newspaper gives one of the few descriptions of it and its congregation. The story focused on a horse that regularly attended the church by sticking his head through the church window while in his next door pasture. The paper mentioned “there are only 38 Negroes in New Market, counting men, women, and children” and most attended Asbury which was the only church for African Americans in town. The article also observed: • Royal Steptoe, New Market’s barber, was the church’s trustee and Sunday School superintendent • The Reverend W.E. Jefferson was the church’s minister. He also led services at the historically black Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, and New Market Methodist Churches. Asbury Methodist Church would continue to hold services until 1965. By that time the congregation had become so small it was unable to remain in operation. Around March of that year it, and Calvary Methodist Church in Mt. Jackson, merged with Manor Memorial Methodist Church in New Market whose church newsletter boasted became an “all inclusive church.” Asbury’s building was sold soon afterwards. It served as a residence and a storage structure. In the 1980s it was abandoned and it was demolished in 1992. For more (including 7 images), view the original article. 2018-02-02T12:51:24-05:00 2018-10-19T11:46:22-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/296 The Shenandoah Stories Team This structure housed the Zion Baptist Church for the first half of the 20th century. The property was home to a school for local African American students in 1868. This institution was sponsored by the American Missionary Association that hired Jessie Robinson of Harper’s Ferry to be the school’s first teacher. Records indicate 30 students attended classes here that year. In 1870 the public school system was established and Shenandoah County assumed responsibility for the school and a new building was built on the northern end of town. When Zion Baptist Church moved to the site is a mystery. The 1878 Gray’s Atlas of New Market shows a building on this lot but does not indicate it was used as a church. Ten years later the 1885 Lake’s Atlas shows that Zion Baptist Church was operating there. The church also appears on the 1923 and 1930 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of the town which showed it had stove heat and gas lights, despite the fact the town had been electrified several decades prior. A 1954 article on the town's historically black Asbury Memorial Methodist Church lists it as the only church for African Americans in town, indicating Zion had closed sometime before that. Nothing else is known. Today the building is home to an office. For more (including 4 images), view the original article. 2016-05-20T12:05:55-04:00 2024-03-08T10:58:48-05:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/63 Shenandoah County Library As early as 1906, Woodstock’s African American community was using this land as a burial site. Prior to this, most African Americans had been buried in the town’s slave cemeteries where many of their ancestors rested. This new site, named Riverview, was selected in accordance with social norms at the time. It housed enough land to bury African Americans separately from white community members, was on unproductive land so no farm acreage was lost, and was isolated enough that the town’s citizens could avoid it without any difficulties. In the Jim Crow system, which Shenandoah County participated in, these factors were not unusual. A comparison between this cemetery and Massanutten Cemetery, Woodstock's white population’s burial grounds, shows a marked difference. Massanutten’s central location and numerous historic markers indicate it was designed as a community showpiece and place to be visited. In contrast, Riverview’s simple design and lack of elegant markers indicates the economic conditions in which local African Americans lived and the place their graveyard occupied outside of white society. In 1919 William Twyman Williams deeded this land to the trustees of the newly formed Riverview Cemetery organization. This group, and their successors, continues to maintain and oversee the cemetery. Inside are approximately 100 graves. Thankfully most have these have been recorded and marked since burials began in a time when record keeping standards were more demanding. Many of these names are still defining members of Woodstock’s African American community. Today, the cemetery is owned by the Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a historically black congregation in Woodstock. They have recently restored the cemetery an added a sign marking its location. However, it remains unnoticed by many members of the community. For more, view the original article. 2016-05-05T09:54:13-04:00 2022-04-01T10:11:15-04:00 https://shenandoahstories.org/items/show/20 Shenandoah County Library 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 School was built with the support of the local African American Community including the “Strasburg Colored Elks.” Students continued to complete their elementary education in this building. Anyone wishing to attend High School was bused to Frederick Douglas School in Winchester. The county did not provide free transportation until the 1950s. This trip discouraged many from completing their education. Life at Sunset Hill was often difficult. Until the 1950s, there were no indoor restrooms or water fountains. Students brought their own lunches since there was no cafeteria. Heat was provided by a stove that was stoked by students. Books had to be bought and were usually the second-hand books from the white schools. However the education program provided by African American teachers was very intense. These teachers and the members of the community were determined to provide their children with the type of education they needed to be successful. Many wanted to show their kids, and the white children in the community, could be equally successful. This meant discipline was strict, expectations were high, and community involvement in the school program was a given. Shenandoah County continued to operate segregated schools until 1964 when the last of the county’s 100 African American students were given permission by the state to attend the white schools. Sunset Hill School closed that year and is today used for storage. For more (including 2 images), view the original article.