Family Preface
More than 300 years ago families found a beautiful valley in Virginia that the Native Americans called Shenandoah. At that time the Shenandoah Valley was uninhabited by the white man as it was only visited by a few explorers and frontiersmen. At the turn of the 18th century the land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains was a part of Orange County, Virginia that was formed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1734 from Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In 1738, the Virginia House of Burgesses recognized the that the land in Orange County to the west of the Blue Ridge Mountains was experiencing migration of families from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and from eastern Virginia so Augusta County was formed. Augusta County included thousands of acres of land yet unsettled to the west.
Families known as “freeholders” staked their claim on land along beautiful creeks and fertile land. Much of the land had been cleared by Native Americans that burned the land. Buffalo, deer, wild turkey and other small game roamed the land. Native American hunted the land but for the most part did not live in Augusta County. While history recorded some Native American hostilities , some of the contacts between Native Americans and the white man were civil with trading of good taking place.
Families migrated to the valley in groups. For example, John Hayes, an early frontiersman, guided the Walker, Rutherford, Poage, Hooke, and Connelly families to Augusta County as freeholders of land. Migration to Augusta County has never stopped as families continue to arrive in Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro to this day. Economic growth, quality of life, schools, medical facilities and access to thousand of acres of public lands makes this area an ideal place to raise a family.
In 2022 with economic expansion such as the new Amazon Distribution Center being built near Exit 91 of the I64, that will employ more than one thousand workers, Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro with a very low unemployment rate can expect new family migration.
Page developed by Gordon Barlow gordon@amaty.com