Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes, 1849-1859
Summary Information
- Repository:
- Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University
- Title:
- Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes
- Collection No.:
- SC 4048
- Date:
- 1849-1859
- Extent:
- 1 CD-Rom
- Language of the Material:
- English
- Language of the Material:
- English
- Abstract:
- The Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes, 1849-1859, consists of one CD-ROM containing several files: images of the ledger, transcription of the first year of incorporation (1849-1850), and a May 1, 2007 press release describing the digital project.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of Page], Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes, 1849-1859, SC 4048, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.
Historical Information
Harrisonburg, in Rockingham County, Va., was named after Thomas Harrison, who settled in the area in 1737 and acquired several thousand acres of land. Known as Rocktown for a short time, in 1779, Harrison deeded 2 1/2 acres of his sizeable holdings to the public, on which the first court house was built on present-day Court Square. Shortly thereafter, Harrison deeded fifty more acres, which prompted the Virginia House of Delegates to recognize "Harrisonburg" as the county seat. The town was governed by trustees until, as a result of an act by the Virginia General Assembly, in 1849, which outlined provisions for an elected mayor and town council, and established officially recognized boundaries for the "Town of Harrisonburg."
During the Civil War, Harrisonburg was used by Confederate and Union forces in their various marches through the nation. The population was divided in its loyalties, evidenced by the fact that the area's delegates to Virginia's assembly were opposed to secession. Cavalry officer Turner Ashby was killed near the town's borders. By the turn of the century, Harrisonburg had annexed over 1,000 additional acres. The Town Council Minutes, 1849-1859 thus document specifically the early years of Harrisonburg's official government, and more generally, the issues facing a small Virginia town in the antebellum South.
Scope and Content
The Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes, 1849-1859, consist of one CD-ROM containing several files. Files include a folder containing 352 .jpg images scanned at 180 dpi, created from 300 dpi .tif images on December 5, 2006, using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The disc also includes a 307,460kb .pdf version of the ledger. A transcription of the first year of incorporation (2 April 1849 to 31 March 1850), transcribed by Harriet Lee Welch, is also available in .pdf form. Additionally, a press release dated May 1, 2007, by Karen Lee, Director of the Court Festival Days 2007, is available in .pdf form, and describes the digital project in detail.
Administrative Information
Revision Description
Converted to schema conforming EAD by dtd2schema.vh.xsl. 2013-11-21
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to the James Madison University Special Collections Library. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk. (library-special@jmu.edu).
Acquisition Information
Digital surrogates received as gift from the volunteers of the Court Days Festival 2007 and the Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance by Karen Ryder Lee, director.
Alternative Form Available
Copies of this CD have also been made available to the Massanutten Regional Library in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society in Dayton, Virginia.
Provenance
Original ledger is the property of the City of Harrisonburg. In 2006, the city allowed representatives of the Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance and the Court Days Festival 2007 to coordinate scanning and transcribing the first volume of the Town of Harrisonburg's Council Minutes.
Location
Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University
880 Madison DriveMSC 1704Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807library-special@jmu.eduURL: https://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/
Bibliography
Caldwell, Martha, Caroline Marshall and Mike Zirkle.http://leo.jmu.edu/record=b1180957 [Harrisonburg, Va.: Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 1980.]
City of Harrisonburg Website: http://www.harrisonburgva.gov/city.php
Wayland, John W.http://leo.jmu.edu/record=b1146521 Staunton, Va.: McClure Print. Co., 1949.