Valleys of History Collection

789 WFCHS/THL 

Inventory created by Archives Staff 06/1988. Last revised 04/2020. 

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers.

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.  

EXTENT: 0.21 linear feet 

DATE: 1965 - 1971 

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The Valleys of History Collection contains seven volumes of the magazine Valleys of History published by Potomac Edison between 1965 and 1971. The magazine features articles about local historical figures, photos and drawings, and places. 

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: Valleys of History magazine was published quarterly by the Potomac Edison Electric Company. The articles relate to the history and culture of the Potomac and Shenandoah Valleys. 

CITE AS: Valleys of History Collection, 789 WFCHS/THL, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Acquired as a gift

ORGANIZATION:

BOX 1

1965 

Volume 1, No. 1 - Spring 1965 includes: 
"The Appleblossom of Old Virginia's Eye"          
“Cumberland Valley Massacre”
“The Potomac: Outdoorsmen Have Found a Playground….”
“Strange Attraction of Harpers Ferry” 

Volume 1, No. 2 - Summer 1965 includes:
“A Canal to Open the West” (C&O Canal)
“Sidney Rigdon’s ‘New Jerusalem’” (trying to establish a Mormon city in the East)
“Knights of the Golden Horseshoe” (Gov. Spotswood & his Cavaliers in the VA mountains)
 
Volume 1, No. 3 - Autumn 1965 includes:        
“A Place in the Wilderness” (FDR & the Shenandoah National Park)           
“When James Buchanan Was a Boy”            
“We Won’t Pay the British Debt” (MD renounced stamp act in 1765) 

1966 
Volume 2, No. 1 - Winter 1966 includes:            
“Roger Brooke Taney” (Chief Justice; from MD)           
“Caverns of the Shenandoah Valley”           
“Washington Homes in Jefferson Co. (WV)” 
 
Volume 2, No. 2 - Spring 1966 includes:           
“World’s Longest Footpath” (Appalachian Trail)            
"The Virginia Baron" (Lord Fairfax)           
“Challenge of the White Water” 
 
Volume 2, No. 3 - Summer 1966 includes:            
“Las Vegas of the Eighteenth Century” (Berkeley Springs, VA/WV)            
“Mason & Dixon: Their Line Divided the Nation”            
“Healing Herbs from Western Maryland” 
 
Volume 2, No. 4 - Fall 1966 includes:            
“Harriet Lane: Our Republican Queen” (bachelor President Buchanan’s niece and hostess)            
“John Gruber’s Hagers-town Almanack”             
“The Great Road West” (from Baltimore to St. Louis) 

1967 

Volume 3, No. 1 - Winter 1967 includes:          
“A War Reporter’s Tribute to the Press”         
“New Market (MD): Antique Capital of the East”        
“The Birth of R.F.D. Mail Service” 
 
Volume 3, No. 2 - Spring 1967 includes:            
“Francis Scott Key …and his Paradox of Fame”          
“James Gordon Went to War”  (first WWI draftee, Madison Co., VA farmer)         
“America Needed A Creed and Mr. Page Wrote It” 

Volume 3, No. 3 - Summer 1967 includes:           
“The Story of Clara Barton…Follow the Cannon”         
"The Belle Grove Mansion Revisited"         
“Industrial Pioneers of the Cumberland Valley” 

Volume 3, No. 4 - Autumn 1967 includes:           
“‘Irwinton’ and the Girls Who Lived There” (Franklin Co., PA)         
“Last Ferry Across the Potomac”         
“Where the Presidents Came to Hunt – Woodmont” (Washington Co., MD) 

1968 
Volume 4, No. 1 - Winter 1968 includes:         
“Charles Lee – Some Called Him Traitor”  (Englishman who lived in Berkeley County, WV and served in both the Continental Army, the British Army, and the Polish Army)         
“Matchmaker of Mechanicstown,”  (now Thurmont, MD was the home to the Weller family who not only produced tools in their forge but also “Lucifer” matches to replacing steel and flint)         
“Let Us Build a Railroad” (the first 25 years of the B&O Railroad) 

Volume 4, No. 2 – Spring 1968 includes:          
“History in a Church” (Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church near Chambersburg, PA, built in 1794)          
“Fort Frederick – Bastion of the American  Frontier” (western MD, 1750s, served as a supply base during the French and Indian War, in the Revolutionary War as a prisoner-of-war camp, and again in the Civil War a military site and supply area)          
“Let Us Build A Railroad, Part II” (continued history of the B&O Railroad)

Volume 4, No. 3 – Summer includes:          
“Berryville, Virginia – Gateway to History” (notable persons and homes in Clarke County, VA)          
“Belle Boyd, Celebrated Spy of the Confederacy” (known for supplying Stonewall Jackson with information, she worked from a family-owned hotel in Front Royal, VA)          
“Remember the Springhouse” (built over top the springs on farms to keep dirt from the water as well as a place to house foodstuffs so they would not spoil) 

Volume 4, No. 4 – Autumn 1968 includes:           
"John Esten Cooke: Virginia's Remarkable Romanticist" (Clarke County,VA novelist and Civil War Staff Officer to J.E.B. Stuart)           
“The Paw Paw Tunnel …Engineering Marvel of 1850” (built on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal)           
“West Virginia Alps” (governmental use of the Seneca Rock area near Petersburg, WV for military preparing for WWII Europe practiced mountain climbing 

1969 
Volume 5, No. 1 - Winter 1969 includes:         
“Henry Ford Camped Here” (near Hagerstown, MD; friends included Pres. Harding, Edison, and Firestone)        
“Herbert Hoover’s Mountain Retreat” (campsite, Camp Rapidan, was in Madison Co., VA)        
“Thomas Worthington: State Maker” (born 1773 and reared in Charles Town, VA; moved west becoming an Ohio senator and then governor)  

Volume 5, No. 2 - Spring 1969 includes:        
"Willa Cather: Daughter of Virginia" (famous author, Frederick Co., VA native)        
“Beautiful Glades of Garrett” (western Maryland area following the B&O tracks)        
“The Confederate March through Greencastle (PA)

Volume 5, No. 3 - Summer 1969 includes:         
“Carrollton – What’s in a Name?” (history of the Carroll family in Howard Co., MD)         
"Foxhunting in Lord Fairfax's Valley" (mainly Clarke County and the Blue Ridge Hunt)         
“Ice Mountain” (Hampshire County, WV, miniature caverns where ice stays all year) 

Volume 5, No. 4 - Autumn 1969 includes:        
“Harpers Ferry Armory” (from its beginning in 1796 – 1869, through John Brown’s Raid, to its subsequent sale to the National Park Service)        
“Thaddeus Stevens – The Great Common in the Cumberland Valley” (fierce opponent of slavery and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from PA)        
“Governor Thomas Johnson, The Maryland Patriot” (first governor of the state of MD) 

 
1970
Volume 6, No. 1 - Winter 1970 includes:      
“Peace and Plenty” (2000 acre grant, Frederick Co., MD, to the Basil Dorsey family, 1748       
“The Story of Icehouses” (photos of icehouses from Cumberland, Shenandoah, and Potomac        
"A Man and His Mountains" (Harry F. Byrd, Sr. and the Shenandoah National Park) 
 
Volume 6, No. 2 - Spring 1970 includes:       
“Mystery, History, and Romance of WV Castle” (Berkeley Springs Castle)       
“Bullet Art” (collection of specimens from Antietam)        
"Millionaire Charles Rouss: The Barefoot Boy of Apple Pie Ridge" 
 
Volume 6, No. 3 - Summer 1970 includes:       
“My God, She Moves” (James Rumsey of Shepherdstown, WV and his steamboat)       
“John Hanson. The First President?” (Hanson was noted as President under the Articles of   Confederation, 1777)       
“Snow Hill – The Antietam Monastery” (a communal society of Seventh Day Baptists; ended after Civil War) 

Volume 6, No. 4 – Fall 1970 includes:        
“Rock Fortress of the Civil War” (Harpers Ferry, WV at the confluence of the Shenandoah & Potomac Rivers)          
“A Valley Hidden from the World” (known as Fort Valley or Powell’s Fort dividing the north and south forks of the Shenandoah River at the foot of the Massanutten Mts below Signal Knob)        
“The Ultimate Weapon” (the creation of a steam gun designed for the Southbut was stolen in Baltimore before it could reach the Confederacy)  

1971   
Volume 7, No. 1 - Winter 1971 (2 copies) includes:        
“Riding for My Layde Faire” (jousting tournaments from the 11th century to the 1960s)        
“Gib Morgan” (1860s folk hero from the oil area of northwest PA)        
“Old Homes, Landmarks of Martinsburg, WV” (noted homes on a Lord Fairfax tract which Dr. Adam Stephen  received and developed into lots beginning in 1779) 
 
Volume 7, No. 2 –Spring 1971 includes:        
“The Legend of Barbara Fritchie” (known from the Whittier poem, Fritchie, of Frederick, MD, waved a U.S. flag out her window at passing southern troops – Whittier poem included  in article)         
“Indians Called the South Branch Valley of the Potomac River WAPACOMO” (likely an area where mound builders may have lived near today’s Romney, WV)         
“Old Chapel: where Christians worshipped for 180 years” (Clarke County, VA parish church since the 1790s)