A History of Shenandoah, Virginia, by the Rev. A.P. Boude, Methodist minister
From a letter and account dated April 21, 1915Stanley, April 21, 1915
I have written this sketch under difficulties. I have been laid up sick for weeks and am barely able now to sit up. My mind refuses to work and my hand will not write legibly.* I hope you can read it and that it may be of some service to you.
This is the merest outline. If I were at myself I could expand it into a volume, but this, I hope, may meet your present wants.
* Despite his apologies, Rev. Boude's handwriting is beautiful and elegant - to have it typewritten like this destroys some of the effect of his account.
Historical Sketch of Shenandoah.
The place where Shenandoah now stands was formerly known as Forrers' Iron Works, or "Furry's Furnace." It was owned by Mr. Henry Forrer and his sister, Miss Hannah. They lived together in the brick Mansion, which stands on the hill in front of the railroad yards, and which is the only landmark now standing that was here when the Forrers owned the property.
Besides the Mansion, there were only two fairly good dwelling houses about the place. The farm house stood on the river bank just below the present Power House, and there was a very comfortable log house at the foot of Pee Dee Hill. Lafayette Lewis' house was just about where and what it is now; but that was suburban.
There was a row of half a dozen or more cabins on "the island," between the race and the river, along about where the bridge stands. Another row of eight or ten cabins stood in "Railroad Street," -- the hollow that comes in under the Pee Dee trestle. There was formerly a wooden railroad in that hollow, coming in from the Smith Ore Bank. There were perhaps two dozen families living in these houses, and others scattered about the place. They were freemen, teamsters, colliers, wood choppers, ore miners, and workmen of all sorts. Some were white, some were colored. They were about equally divided.
The manufacturing buildings, -- the Forge, the Run Out, the Mill, the Shops, -- stood on the riverbank about opposite the residence of Mr. Wood, or in front of the Methodist Parsonage.
Miss Hannah Forrer belonged to the Dunkard Church, and occasionally a Dunkard came and preached for her benefit. This was the only religious service nearer than Grove Hill. There was no school.
In the year 1865, a company of men from Pennsylvania bought the entire property of the Forrers, consisting of several thousands of acres of mineral and timberlands lying in Rockingham, Page and Shenandoah counties. The price paid was $240,000.00 cash. The names of the purchasers were: -- William Milnes, Sr., of Espey, Pa.; Wm. Milnes, Jr., of Pottsville, Pa,; John Milnes, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Thomas Johns, of Pottsville, Pa.; and John Fields, of Hazeltown, Pa. These men had been extensive coal operators in Pennsylvania, and sold their mines before coming to Virginia.
These men at once began to build comfortable houses for themselves and for their laborers, and the place began to take on new life. None of the houses they built are now standing except three or four built for the forgemen on Pee Dee Hill. They were either washed away or have been pulled down.
The proprietors were all Methodists and their first care was to provide a place of worship. A large room over the store was fitted up for that purpose, and services were regularly held every Sunday morning and night for white people, and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon for colored people. Two Sunday-schools were organized, one for whites and one for blacks, and both were largely attended. By a sort of unwritten law, everybody, saint and sinner, who was able to go to church, was expected to do so.
Wm. Milnes, Jr., was a Methodist local preacher and J.R. Deacon, Dr. Alfred Wolfe Yocum's grandfather, who was the company clerk, was a Baptist preacher, so they had one or two sermons every Sunday.
There was no intoxicating liquor sold nearer than Harrisonburg, and there was no disorder of any kind; but everybody, white and black, seemed to vie with each other in promoting the happiness and welfare of the community.
The nearest railroad station was at Gordonsville, 46 miles away, across the Blue Ridge. Everything had to be hauled from there by wagons. There was no school except a private school at Mr. Milnes' house.
In the spring of 1868 Rev. A.P. Boude was sent there to organize a Methodist church. He began with 17 members, who soon took high rank as a religious organization, and the charge became the most prosperous and delightful in the entire conference. Although the records show but $600 a year paid to the pastor, yet the fact is, they paid their pastor about $1400 a year for four years, besides paying most literally to all the enterprises of the church. One year Wm. Milnes, himself, paid $1600 to Missions, alone.
In 1870, Mr. Miles, who was the Company's Manager, having been elected to Congress, John Fields moved to Virginia, and took charge of the Company's business. He was not only an ardent Methodist but a great Church builder. He built a church wherever he went to live. He had built one in England before coming to this country. He built two in ******* (Xerox unreadable) [and] he determined to built one here. He planned the present church, and asked Mr. Boude to lay off the ground for a church, a Parsonage, and a Cemetery. He asked Mr. Boude to take charge of the work, secure the materials and have the work done according to his plans, and present the Bills to him for payment every Saturday morning. That is one of the most substantial frame buildings in all this county. The principal joints are banded and bolted with iron. When the church was nearly completed, the painters were putting the last touches of fresco on the ceiling, Mr. Fields went to Harrisonburg on business and was caught in the rains that brought on the great floor, came home and took pneumonia from which he died in a few days. Mr. Boude accompanied his remains to his former home, where he was buried. His family, disheartened, sold and gave away their belongings and returned to Pennsylvania.
Most of the buildings were in the flat along the river, which had never been overflown within the knowledge of anybody living. But on Wednesday, Sept. 28th, 1870, it began to rain, and by Thursday morning the river had risen to the top of its banks which were 24 feet high, and stood at that stage all day. The people had to move off the island and find shelter elsewhere. About sundown Thursday there came a sudden dash and the water in the river rose nearly a foot a minute for 40 minutes. Five families living on the river bank, and five clerks in the store, had hard work to escape with their lives. Sixty buildings, including all the manufacturing buildings and machinery, the large store and warehouse, and some of the best residences, were washed away in a few hours, and the land washed and torn almost beyond recognition. The loss of the company was over $100,000.
Mr. Boude, having lost his house and all that he had, set to work in the spring of 1871 to build a parsonage. He had a cellar dug and walled and the foundation of the present parsonage built and all the lumber on the ground, when winter came and stopped the work. Next spring, his four years having expired, he was sent away to another charge. After seven years he was sent back, to find that amongst the many changes, Mr. Milnes had used his pile of lumber in rebuilding the Forge, and in place of it he had built the present parsonage complete. So the Methodist people found themselves of the most valuable church property in the county, without the cost of a single dollar.
Up to this time, 1879, the name of the place was Shenandoah Iron Works. Mr. Boude suggested that life was too short to be spent in writing Shenandoah Iron Works across a sheet of paper everytime you wanted to write a letter, so he took the matter up with Mr. J.P. Houck, Post-master, and had the name of the place changed to Milnes.
About this time a preliminary survey was made for the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, work was soon begun and by 1881 the road was completed and shops located at Milnes, and a number of good buildings erected. But with the coming of the railroad came also the Bar-Rooms, which demoralized the people and destroyed the good name of the place, so that when in 1891, the ores having given out and the furnace stopped, the owners of the property decided to try to boom the town into a city, the name of Milnes having become such a stench in the nostrils of the public, it was necessary to again change its name. Hence it was rechristened under its present beautiful name, "Shenandoah," Daughter of the Stars.
A town is just what its people make it. No better, no worse. Shenandoah has great possibilities. My earnest hope is that they may all be fully realized.