Town of Harrisonburg Council Minutes, 1849-1859

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.

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.

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.

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.