Early Families in Augusta County, VA
legend suggest that the Valley of Virginia was named “Shenandoah” after a great Indian Chief named “Chief Shenandoah” The name was given to the great river that flowed between mountains to the east and west.
The Shenandoah River still flows in a deep valley between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a slow moving river, soft and as beautiful as its name.
There are some word experts who believe the word “Shenandoah” means “spruce river” because the waters of the river run through great forests of spruce trees.
When European settlers first beheld the Shenandoah Valley at the dawn of the eighteenth century, the land had long been familiar territory to the Native Americans of the region. Although it appeared largely vacant at the time, it had been home to various tribes for twelve previous millennia. The tribes occupying the Shenandoah Valley in the long period prior to the arrival of English settlements include the Iroquois (also called the Six Nations) and Shawnee nations as well as the Catawba and Cherokee nations of the south and the Delaware and Susquehannock nations of the north. Many of the rituals, languages, and values of the factions of these tribes that occupied the Shenandoah Valley are unknown today; however, some customs were recorded by English surveyors in the eighteenth century.
Around 1725 families from East of the Blue Ridge Mountains and from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland learned of the beautiful land Valley in the Virginia Colony that the Native American called the “Shenandoah Valley”
Please visit the Family tab to learn about early families in Augusta County as well as other that have or do live in Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro, VA.
page developed by Gordon Barlow gordon@amaty.com