Jean M Martin

Shenandoah County was created in 1772 from Frederick County and, at that time, was named for the English governor Lord Dunmore. In 1778, the name was officially changed to Shenandoah, possibly after the river that runs through the valley between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. Religion brought some of the earliest pioneers to the Shenandoah Valley in the 1740s and still plays a large part in the lives of most residents. Images of America: Shenandoah County focuses on the people who have made this valley a comfortable place to raise families and communities that pray together, work alongside each other, and enjoy life surrounded by the mountains. The images show the strengths and the creativity of those who have lived on the farms and in the diverse villages throughout the county.

Located on the Farmington River, Burlington is a place of natural beauty, with five mountains and valleys filled with brooks, forests, and stone walls. Most of the area's earliest settlers came from England to Hartford and then followed the river, with its fertile banks and meadowlands, into the West Woods or Great Forest, as Burlington was known at the time. The town was incorporated in 1745 and was named Burlington in 1806. Burlington shows the faces of earlier generations of the same families who live in these hills and valleys today. It depicts the homes, barns, orchards, fields, schoolhouses, and mills when they were thriving with life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book captures the tenor of everyday situations as well as the drama of the Blizzard of 1888 and the flood of 1955.