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# History of Loudoun County, Virginia

18th, 19th, and 20th Century history

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.loudounhistory.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.loudounhistory.org/) - Covers the county's history for the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Topics include colonial interactions with Indians, the Civil War, agriculture, trade, transportation, village life, and more.
- [African American Chronology in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/african-american-chronology/) - Timelines of important African American events in Loudoun County Virginia's history.
- [Drought of 1930](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/drought-1930-history/) - This isn't the storyboard for the next global warming flick. It's a scene from a much more fearful genre: reality. Welcome to the summer of 1930. This was the peak of a two-year drought that remains the benchmark for this area in the era of modern rainfall measurement, which began in 1895.
- [Visit Loudoun County Historical Sites & Museums](https://www.loudounhistory.org/visit-historical-sites-and-museums/) - Visit Loudoun County museums and historical sites. Also listed are organizations involved with Loudoun County history.
- [Historical Organizations](https://www.loudounhistory.org/historical-organizations/) - Learn about the more than 14 historical organizations involved with the telling and preservation of the history of Loudoun County.
- [Eugene Scheel Historian](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/eugene-scheel/) - The Virginia Historical Society has called Gene a modern-day Jed Hotchkiss – the Civil War map-maker – because his maps are so detailed and are drawn by hand. Gene is a historian and mapmaker with offices in Waterford, Loudoun County Virginia.
- [Browse the Web Site](https://www.loudounhistory.org/browse-page/) - Browse the content of this site.
- [Purcellville - The Capital of Orchard Grass](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/purcellville-mills-orchard-grass/) - Sufferers of "orchard grass fever," caused by the blooming of that grass in late May, might recall that the allergy was far more prevalent in Virginia during the 1940s and '50s. The town of Purcellville, population in the 900s, was then considered by Virginia farmers to be the orchard grass capital of the United States.
- [Did Jockey Statues Mark Underground Railroad Sites](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/underground-railroad-jockey-statues/)
- [History of Snickersville Turnpike](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/snickersville-turnpike/) - The rural Virginia Byway, Snickersville Turnpike (State Route 734), follows between Aldie and Bluemont (formerly Snickerville) via Mountville, Philomont, and Airmont. It includes the 180+ year old Hibbs Bridge over Beaverdam Creek. This turnpike replaced, in part, the first toll road in the United States,
- [Limestone Overlay District](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/limestone-overlay-district/) - To protect homeowners, Loudoun County recently created the limestone overlay district from Leesburg northward and west to the base of Catoctin Mountain. Often bordering the sinkholes are the irregular outcrops of limestone described in 1699 and a century later known as Potomac marble or calico marble.
- [Indigenous American Mounds in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/indian-mounds-loudoun/) - Thoughts about the Indian presence in Loudoun County Virginia
- [Indigenous Americans to Speculators](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/indians-to-speculators/) - Long before the white man arrived in what is now Loudoun County and settled on the banks of Catoctin Creek to form the settlement later known as Waterford, the area was occupied by Indians. In less than one generation, the valley was transformed from a bloody Indian hunting ground to a peaceful agricultural community
- [Loudoun History Timeline - Indians](https://www.loudounhistory.org/loudoun-history-timeline-indians/) - Timelines of important events in Loudoun County Virginia's history.
- [Souix Indigenous People in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/souix-indians-in-loudoun/) - In Loudoun and Fauquier counties, the indian heritage involves five major Indian nations: Sioux, Algonkian (mainly Powhatan), Iroquois, Susquehannock and Piscataway. The Sioux were first heard of in the summer of 1608, when Capt. John Smith and six "Gentlemen" and six "Souldiers" sailed up the Rappahannock River.
- [Piscataway Indigenous People](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/indians-piscataway/) - In 1699, two gentleman planters, Burr Harrison and Giles Vandercastel, became the first settlers to explore the interior of Loudoun County and the first to record a meeting with Loudoun's native Indians.
- [Loudoun History Timeline](https://www.loudounhistory.org/loudoun-history-timeline/)
- [Indigenous Americans Left Their Names in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/indigenous-americans-left-their-names-in-loudoun/) - The last American Indians left Loudoun and Fauquier counties almost 300 years ago, and only a few names they used to describe their landscape survive. They co-existed with the first few European trappers and adventurers in the area for only about 30 years before the Indians agreed to move west of the Blue Ridge in 1722.
- [Fairfax Boundary Line](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/fairfax-boundary-line/)
- [Taylorstown Dam  and the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/taylorstown-dam-and-the-catoctin-valley-defense-alliance/)
- [History of Waterford Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/waterford/) - Waterford was founded about 1733 by Amos Janney, a Pennsylvania Quaker. Other Quakers followed him there. Mills were built along Catoctin Creek. The village grew until it was the second largest town in Loudoun County (this was before the Civil War).
- [John Binns - A Pioneer in Crop Improvement](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/john-binns/)
- [White's Ferry — The Last Working Ferry on the Potomac](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/whites-ferry/) - In operation since 1786, White's Ferry is the last working ferry of 100 ferries that used to operate on the Potomac River.
- [Yardley-Taylor Map of Loudoun County, Dated 1853](https://www.loudounhistory.org/map-yardley-taylor-1854/) - The first detailed map of Loudoun County — or of any part of the Virginia Piedmont or Northern Virginia — was surveyed and drawn by Yardley Taylor in 1852-53. Taylor's 36-by-51-inch "Map of Loudoun County, Virginia, from Actual Surveys". The worth of Taylor's map rests in its detail.
- [Loudoun County Milling - A Family Affair](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-county-milling-html/) - For the past century, business at Loudoun County Milling, on the outskirts of Hamilton, has been a family affair. Like many mills, it stood by a railroad, the Washington & Old Dominion. It is one of the Virginia Piedmont's few operating mills and one of the oldest. In 1907, it was bought and enlarged for Samuel Edgar Rogers, a farmer and merchant who had begun investing in mills at age 55 in 1900.
- [Goose Creek Canal](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/goose-creek-canal/) - The canal and its many associated stone ruins, primarily the deserted village of Elizabeth Mills, are mementos of an era when inland waterways were thought to be the last word in commerce. The Goose Creek and Little River Navigation Co., the canal's official name, had its beginnings in 1830.
- [Maps](https://www.loudounhistory.org/maps/) - Here are a number of interesting Loudoun County maps. Loudoun County road map, Northwestern Loudoun County road map, Yardley-Taylor Map. 1854 – Attention to detail marks rare map of Loudoun County, County Map 186? – Shows major roads and rivers and topographic features, Library of Congress website, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Topographic Map of Loudoun County - 1893
- [Balls Bluff Battle in the Civil Warl](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-balls-bluff/) - The Battle of Ball's Bluff, initiated by a telegram from Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan to Maj. Gen. George P. Stone. This essay deals with why the debacle took place and local reactions to the second resounding Union defeat near Washington, three months to the day after the Battle of Manassas.
- [Cornstalks Rooted In Area's Agricultural History](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/agriculture-corn/) - "Did you see that photograph in the local paper?" he asked. His facial expression indicated that he was disturbed. "It showed shocks of corn, and the caption said they were sheaves of wheat. People can't tell corn from wheat any more." Definitely a sign of the times, I agreed, even though more corn is grown in Loudoun than all other crops combined.
- [Farm Life in the 18th Century](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/farm-life-in-18th-century/) - At the beginning of Loudoun County in 1757, about 60 percent of Loudoun's 3,500 inhabitants were from counties to the east and south; 20 percent were Quaker and German migrants from Pennsylvania; and the others were African American slaves, many of them belonging to absentee landlords from the Tidewater region.
- [German Settlers Came to Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-german-settlers/) - The first Germans, a group of 42, came to the Virginia Piedmont in 1714 to work in Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood's iron mine. The largest group, however, came to northwest Loudoun County from Pennsylvania. They founded what was called the German Settlement and became the town of Lovettsville.
- [Loudoun History Timeline - 1800s](https://www.loudounhistory.org/loudoun-history-timeline-1800s/) - Timelines of important events in Loudoun County Virginia's history.
- [Yardley Taylor Map 1853 - Attention to Detail Marks Rare Map of Loudoun County](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/yardley-tailor-map-making/) - The first detailed map of Loudoun County — or of any part of the Virginia Piedmont or Northern Virginia — was surveyed and drawn by Yardley Taylor in 1852-53. There is little about how Taylor made the map.
- [Courthouses of Leesburg](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/courthouses-of-leesburg/) - There have been three courthouses in Loudoun County. The first was built in 1758, overseen by Aeneas Campbell. A second and larger courthouse was built in 1811, also of brick. The third and present courthouse was erected in 1895.
- [Chronology of Loudoun County](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-chronology/) - This is a timeline of Loudoun County Virginia during the Civil War. At the time of secession, the eastern and southern sections were predominately Southern in their views, while to the north and west the people were equally strong in their pro-Union sympathies.
- [Underground Railroad - Journey to Freedom Was Risky for Slaves and Guides](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/underground-railroad/) - From about 1817 to 1861, as many as 100,000 slaves fled bondage through the Underground Railroad, and hundreds of them passed through Fauquier and Loudoun counties, often en route to Pennsylvania.
- [Early Transportation in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-transportation/) - In 1662 the Virginia Assembly had passed a road law which required each county to appoint surveyors to "...lay out the most convenient ways to Church, to the Court, to James Towne and from County to County." However, improvements to existing trails and the development of new roads into the back country of Virginia were delayed until the withdrawal of Native Americans after the Treaty of Albany was signed in 1722.
- [A History of Roads In Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/virginia-transportation/) - Waterways and crude paths met the transportation needs of the Indians and early settlers. The colonists discovered a crude network of paths made by Indians.This is a story of road development in Virginia.
- [Loudoun County Before Europeans](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-before-europeans/) - What is now Loudoun County lay within the northern periphery of the Manahoac territory, which extended as far north as the Potomac River, although apparently no permanent settlements were located here. Powhatan called the Manahoacs the "Anchanachuck", meaning "those that hunt in the mountains."
- [Cold Wave - The Winter of 1912](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/weather-cold-wave-winter-1912/) - A record cold wave settled in over the Northern Virginia, Maryland region. Records set in Maryland during this period remain to the present day. It was close, but not quite cold enough to break the records in Virginia set during the February 1899 "Great Arctic Outbreak".
- [The Beginning of Loudoun County](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-county-beginning/) - Covers an Act for dividing Fairfax, 1757, Derivation of it name, Settlement and people.
- [Upcoming Events & Lectures](https://www.loudounhistory.org/upcoming-events/)
- [African American Communities](https://www.loudounhistory.org/african-american-communities/)
- [History of Purcellville Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/purcellville-history/) - Although the first land grant in the area was issued by Lord Fairfax in 1740 it was not until 1764 that Purcellville's first known settler, James Dillon from Buck's County, Pennsylvania, arrived.1 As might be expected, it would take a road to make a town; the early ox cart track which wound westward from Leesburg, known later as the "Great Road," serve the purpose.
- [Early Post Offices in Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-post-offices/) - In 1730, the British government appointed Alexander Spotswood, a former lieutenant governor of Virginia, as deputy postmaster general of America. The earliest post offices in Loudoun and Fauquier dotted the major east-to-west roads from Alexandria, Falmouth and Fredericksburg to Winchester, then among the 10 largest cities in Virginia. These roads approximated today's state Routes 7 and 9 and U.S. Routes 17 and 50.
- [Agriculture Mills and Wheat](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/agriculture-mills-and-wheat/) - Thirty water-powered mills were processing a half-million bushels of Loudoun wheat by 1850. Aldie Mill emerged as the largest manufactory of its kind in Loudoun County.
- [Slaves After the War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/slaves-after-war/) - President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring that "all persons held as slaves" in regions under Confederate control were to be "forever free." In a little more than two years after Proclamation Day, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would replace the Emancipation Proclamation. On Feb. 1,1865.
- [The Mosby Burning Raid](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-mosby-burning-raid/) - In late December, 1862, Major General J. E. B. Stuart granted permission to one of his trusted scouts to remain behind and operate against the enemy "for a few days." This launched the career of one John S. Mosby, and the "few days" extended over a period of more than two years.
- [Civil War's Loudoun Rangers](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-rangers/) - Of all the special units that were formed to combat Confederate partisan rangers in Virginia during the Civil War — the Blazer Scouts, the Jesse Scouts, Cole's Maryland Cavalry and others — probably the most promising was the Loudoun Rangers, an independent cavalry unit drawn from the largely Quaker and German farming communities of northern Loudoun County, Virginia.
- [Local Expressions in the Bygone Piedmont](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/local-expressions-bygone-piedmont/) - Having spoken to hundreds of people native to the Virginia Piedmont and Tidewater regions, certain local expressions and words, not found in most slang dictionaries, have come up again and again. As several of these sayings and words are fast vanishing, it was thought wise to put a few in print with their meanings and usage.
- [Hillsboro Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/hillsboro/) - Hillsboro was 200 years old in 2002. The town was described by an early traveler as "a town made of stone, even to the pig styes." 2002 also marks the 250th anniversary of Hillsboro's predecessor, a huddle of houses and a mill known as The Gap.
- [Government and Law in the Path to Freedom, Justice and Racial Equality in Loudoun County](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/history-of-the-loudoun-county-courthouse-and-its-role-in-the-path-to-freedom-justice-and-racial-equality-in-the-county/) - A series of vignettes to help illustrate the almost three century struggle to find justice for all people in Loudoun County, especially African Americans.
- [Search Results](https://www.loudounhistory.org/search_gcse/)
- [Current Map of Northwestern Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/map-northwestern-loudoun/)
- [Map of Loudoun Count with Roads](https://www.loudounhistory.org/map-loudoun-with-roads/) - Current map of Loudoun County area roads and towns.
- [Loudoun History Timeline - 1900s](https://www.loudounhistory.org/loudoun-history-timeline-1900s/) - Timelines of important events in Loudoun County Virginia's history.
- [Loudoun History Timeline - 1700s](https://www.loudounhistory.org/loudoun-history-timeline-1700s/) - Timelines of important events in Loudoun County Virginia's history.
- [Zilpha Davis, a Freed Slave of Loudoun County, Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/zilpha-davis-freed-slave/) - Zilpha Davis was an anomaly: a free woman in a world of slaves, a reader of books in an age of ignorance, apparently independent in a society of patriarchs, a woman who retained her faith and humor in the midst of war. Her vivid personality was drawn for us in a chatty Civil War letter written by Union forager Tom Syphert.
- [Winter 2010 - Snowmageddon](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/winters-2010-snowmageddon/) - The snow began on Friday February 5. Shopping lines were so long in the grocery stores that it took up to two hours to check out. It snowed, and it snowed and it snowed some more until late in the day Saturday February 6, 2010 dumping 20 to 36 inches depending on where the measurement was taken.
- [Snow Storm Of Presidents Day 2003](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/weather-snow-storm-presidents-day-2003/) - One of the largest snowstorms in many years brought paralyzing snow accumulations to the Northeast over the President's Day weekend . Over 2 feet of snow fell in many locations (mainly on the 17th), with the major northeastern cities of Washington DC, New York City and Boston coming to a standstill while roads were cleared.
- [History of Unison Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/unison/) - Originally called Union when established in 1813, its name was changed to Unison after the American Civil War. During the Civil War, the village was the scene of a pitched fight between forces under J.E.B. Stuart and Union cavalry, infantry and artillery in what is now known as the Battle of Unison.
- [Loudoun and Frederick Farms Linked by Underground Railroad](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/underground-railroad-loudoun-frederick/) - Two farms 30 miles apart, Huntland in Loudoun County and Cooling Springs in Frederick County, Md., share an important role in African American history. For decades before and during the Civil War, they were stations on the Underground Railroad, a name that became popular for routes taken by escaping slaves after railroads became common in the late 1840s.
- [Trade and Travel Between Loudoun County and Maryland During the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/trade-civil-war/) - Trips from Loudoun to Montgomery Counties during the Civil War were extraordinary because essentials such as shoes, coffee and sugar were impossible to find in northern Loudoun County. The nearest place to shop was in Point of Rocks, Md., which was under Union control.
- [The Beginings of Sterling Park, Virginia in 1961](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/sterling-park-beginnngs-1961/) - "You might say we lost the big one," former Loudoun supervisor J. Terry Hirst mused as we talked about the long-ago controversy over Sterling Park. Forty years ago this Friday, the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to approve the first planned community in Loudoun County.
- [With Sterling Park County's Growth Battles Were Just Beginning](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/sterling-guilford-early-history/) - For many years, “Old Sterling” was an active commercial center in eastern Loudoun, off Church Road along the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad. From the mid-1800s until the years leading up to the Great Depression, Old Sterling — originally called “Guilford” and later, “Loudoun” — competed with Ashburn, a few miles down the railroad tracks, in its effort to attract tourists and new businesses.
- [Kenmore House One of the Finest Examples of American Colonial Architecture](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/spotsylvania-kenmore/) - The cognoscenti of American Colonial architecture say the finest of that period's decors may be viewed at Kenmore, the Fredericksburg home of Revolutionary War patriot Col. Fielding Lewis and his wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Washington, George Washington's only sister.
- [History of Round Hill Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/round-hill/) - There was no town of Round Hill, however, in any sense of the word, until 1858. The area's leading community was Woodgrove. With the building of the Leesburg and Snicker's Gap Turnpike, today's Route 7, in 1832-1833, the situation changed.
- [John Champe Revolutionary War Hero](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/revolutionary-war-john-champe/) - The saga of John Champe, the Loudoun County man who became a double agent to capture the Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold, is a tale worthy of grand opera.
- [Washington and Old Dominion Railroad – At the End of the Line, An Opportunity Lost](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/railroad-old-dominion/) - The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad is now largely a bicycle trail. But it could have become a high-speed commuter rail link between Loudoun County and the near suburbs of Northern Virginia had the arguments of some local officials been heeded more than 40 years ago.
- [Purcellville - A Place of Nicknames](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/purcellville-place-of-nicknames/) - Here is the history of Purcellville's old and mostly bygone nicknames for the town's streets and neighborhoods. Although Purcellville was incorporated as a town 100 years ago. No street or directional signs of any sort existed until more than a century later, so nicknames were vital as a means of identifying places.
- [Nichols Hardware of Purcellville Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/purcellville-nichols-hardware/) - Nichols Hardware in Purcellville is a trip back in time. With its uneven wooden floors, tin ceilings and overflowing shelves, this western Loudoun County icon embodies a period of American history when personal service and word-of-mouth advertising were the keys to retail success.
- [History of Purcellville's Incorporation](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/purcellville-history-incorp/) - The town's incorporation proposal on the Virginia General Assembly docket for March 1908 was not exactly a new idea. Purcellville had been a village since the early 1820s, and its incorporation had been debated by the residents for decades. Those opposing it argued that another level of government meant additional regulations imposed by council members, who might have been elected by only a few votes. The move also guaranteed additional taxes to pay a town sergeant and goodness knows what else.
- [Paeonian Springs History](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/paeonian-springs-history/) - There is just one small road sign pointing to Paeonian Springs. That sign shows the way to a village that isn't all that different from the way it was at the turn of the century. With its restored Victorian houses, country cottages, gravel roads and open spaces, the hamlet looks much as it did when it was a summer retreat for heat-weary city dwellers.
- [Mosby Walnut Tree](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/mosby-walnut-tree/) - For Civil War enthusiasts, one living tree in the Virginia Piedmont — the "Mosby walnut"— stands out from all the others. Onto one of its far-reaching branches the famed Confederate partisan ranger John Singleton Mosby climbed from a bedroom window and, for a half-hour, balanced himself while a Union cavalry contingent searched the house.
- [Moonshiners in Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/moonshiners/) - The preparation and selling of homemade liquor was a routine occupation in rural Virginia from its earliest settlement. Most in the area had their stills on the Blue Ridge, Short Hill or Bull Run mountains. Earl Batt had his still on Tenfoot Island in the middle of the Potomac River.
- [Lovettsville Virginia History](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/lovettsville/) - Lovettsville, Virginia, is located in northern Loudoun County. About 1732 the first German families founded the settlement that ultimately became Lovettsville.
- [Loudoun Turkey Farms](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-turkey-farms/) - Greenfield was one of the last two big turkey farms in Loudoun County, VA. Indeed, with 20,000 birds during the 1940s and '50s, it was one of the largest turkey farms in the United States, according to the trade journal, Turkey World. The last of the large turkey farms in Loudoun started raising hogs in 1959, after Peoples closed its lunch counters and stopped serving its turkey salad specials.
- [Loudoun Towns in 1908](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-towns-1908/) - A description of Loudoun County Virginia towns in 1908. Taken from the book by James W. Head, History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia, published by Park View Press in 1908.
- [Slave Quarters](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-slave-quarters/) - A stone building southeast of Arcola proffered to the county by the Swiss developer Hazout S.A. and a pair of log structures between Waterford and Wheatland are rare examples of former slave quarters in Virginia, as most such buildings have been destroyed.
- [How Loudoun Was Named](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-how-named/) - Loudoun County Virginia was named for Lord Loudoun who never even visited Virginia though he had been named our governor. Despite being in America for only two short years, he managed to leave quite a trail of debris behind him and we got stuck with his name.
- [Growth in Loudoun in 2004](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-growth-2004/) - Tangled traffic snarls, homes sprouting up by the hundreds, students pouring into dozens of newly minted schools. All these by-products of Loudoun's growth were set into motion when Washington Dulles International Airport was in its infancy in the 1960's.
- [The Telephone Comes to Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-early-telephone/) - In western Loudoun, Virginia and Maryland Telephone Co. linked Lincoln and Purcellville to Lovettsville and Berlin (today's Brunswick) by January 1886. In 1976, I interviewed 100-year-old Charles Elbert Compher whosaw the telephone poles and wires going up along Berlin Turnpike near Lovettsville. Charles remembered his dad's words, "I don't believe it will succeed."
- [Early Customs in Loudoun County](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-early-customs/) - Taken from the book by James W. Head, History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia, published by Park View Press in 1908.
- [Battle of Unison in the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-unison/) - This battle was an important milestone in the Civil War. A small Confederate force under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart delayed the advance of the much larger Union Army for three days around Unison, foiling Lincoln's plan and allowing the Confederate Army to escape the trap.
- [The Strategic Importance of Leesburg in the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-strategic/) - Although it did not become the site of a major battle, the town of Leesburg, and its surrounding country, occupied a place of major strategic importance in the Eastern theater of operations. The town sat at the junction of two main highways connecting Alexandria and Washington , with controlling passes in the Blue Ridge and it’s foothills.
- [Reconstruction of Towns After the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-reconstruction-towns/) - After so many turbulent years during the Civil War, life in Leesburg and Warrenton slowly returned to a modicum of normalcy as 1865 rolled into 1866. The way was easier in Loudoun County, where non-slaveholding Quakers and Germans in the west led community acceptance of civil rights.
- [Leesburg Civil War Skirmish in 1862](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-leesburg-skirmish-1862/) - One reminiscence about southern forces in Leesburg was written by Alice Janney Harrison. Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gens. Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee and Rooney Lee and other staff officers stayed there and plotted their first invasion of the North.
- [Federal Occupation of Loudoun in the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-federal-occupat/) - Invasion and occupation by Union forces had threatened Loudoun since the opening days of the war. In December, 1861,
- [Loudoun County was Divided in the Civil War](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-divided/)
- [Saving Loudoun's Court Records](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-cw-court-records/) - George K. Fox, Jr. is one of the unsung heroes of the Civil War in this County. This is the fascinating story of his rescue of the records of the Court of Loudoun County. He gathered all the County records and carried away to safety.
- [Braddock's 1755 March Through Loudoun](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-braddock-march-1755/) - In June 1755, Halkett's Virginia troops, officially the 44th Grenadiers, joined a second force of about 700 that had marched west through Maryland under command of Col. Thomas Dunbar. The overall commander of both forces was British Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock. Washington was now one of his scouts.
- [Loudoun and the 1860 Vote](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/loudoun-1860-vote/) - In the 1860 presidential election, Fauquier and Loudoun county voters cast only 12 ballots for the winner, Abraham Lincoln. The previous year, an John Brown's revolt had frightened or worried many people who might otherwise have voted for the man who saved the Union and brought an end to slavery.
- [Lightfoot Lee](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/lightfoot-lee/) - In 1749, the British crown bestowed on Thomas Lee the title of acting governor of Virginia, which he held until his death a little more than a year later. Lee moved to Loudoun because he wanted to enter public service, and a new county provided that chance, especially if one's surname was Lee.
- [Old Neighborhoods of Leesburg](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/old-neighborhoods-of-leesburg/) - Leesburg VA abounds in neighborhood and street nicknames that once were part of common speech but are rapidly waning. I walked around town with five men whose keen ear and memories provide the foundation for this article.
- [Early History of Leesburg](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/leesburg-early-history/) - The genesis of Leesburg occurred sometime before 1755 when Nicholas Minor acquired land around the intersection of the Old Carolina Road and the Potomac Ridge Road (present day Route 7) and established a tavern there.
- [Iron Mining](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/iron-mining/) - In the autumn of 1795, the mining of iron began in Loudoun County, on Catoctin Mountain. A boom industry had dawned, one that would not stop until the Civil War, by which point the county had become Virginia's second-biggest producer of iron.
- [History of Loudoun County Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/history-loudoun/) - Loudoun County is located between Washington, DC, and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. To the east, Dulles International Airport and commerce thrive; while the western section still maintains its small farms, towns, and villages. Loudoun County constitutes a part of the five million acre Northern Neck of Virginia Proprietary granted by King Charles II of England to seven noblemen in 1649.
- [Hill High Country Store](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/hill-high-country-store/) - A trip to the old covered wagon near Round Hill Virginia has become a holiday tradition for hundreds during the holiday seasons. What’s behind the covered wagon that has drawn people there for over 30 years? Home baked pies!
- [History of Dulles Airport](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/dulles-airport-history/) - On the airport's 10th anniversary, at a gala , one of the hostesses, a young African American woman, was asked, "Just where is Dulles?" She paused, smiled and said, "Why, at Willard, of course." Willard's heyday had long passed by then
- [1930 Drought Survivors Recall](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/drought-survivors-recall-1930/) - To help us imagine the catastrophe of 1930, we have the recollections of area residents who are still alive. The Piedmont's three largest rivers -- the Potomac, Rappahannock and Rapidan -- were reduced that year to a series of fetid puddles, malodorous from dead fish, algae and the droppings from animals.
- [Civil Rights In Middleburg Virginia](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/civil-rights-middleburg-va/) - At the dawn of the 1960s, Loudoun County had more than twice the percentage of blacks – 18 percent of the county's 24,549 residents – then it has today. Yet the county, like much of the South at the time, was far more racially divided. But the civil rights movement was taking root in Washington, and it wouldn't be long before Loudoun would be caught up in it, too, beginning with the hunt country town of Middleburg.
- [Carolina Road](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/carolina-road/) - In Colonial Loudoun and Fauquier counties, the most important travelway was the main north-to-south road. This bed of dirt, no more than 10 feet wide, was called the Carolina Road, for its southern terminus was an Indian trading post on Occaneechie Island in the Roanoke River, on the Virginia-Carolina' border.
- [Ashburn Village History](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/ashburn-village-history/) - Ashburn was originally called Farmwell (variant names include Old Farmwell and Farmwell Station) after a nearby mansion of that name owned by George Lee, great-grandson of Thomas Lee. Now the largest concentration of homes and businesses in eastern Loudoun County is the amorphous region of Ashburn Farm, Ashburn Village and Broadlands.
- [Aldie Mill](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/aldie-mill/) - For 150 years, the fortunes of Aldie village were intertwined with the larger mill, which was completed in 1809. The mill ground wheat and corn not only from the lower Loudoun countryside but also from Fauquier and Prince William counties.
- [Bluemont](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/bluemont/) - Overviews the history of the founding of the town, the effects of the Civil War, and changes during the 20th Century.
- [About this site](https://www.loudounhistory.org/about-this-site/) - This web site was created to bring together articles about the 18th, 19th, and 20th Century history of Loudoun County Virginia.
- [History](https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/)