Thomas Balch Library Commission's Books

Loudoun County

250 Years of Towns and Villages

By: Mary Fishback,Thomas Balch Library Commission

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Loudoun County

250 Years of Towns and Villages

By: Mary Fishback,Thomas Balch Library Commission

Loudoun County, one of Virginias most charming areas, is truly a picturesque region, balanced with sweeping pastoral landscapes along the Potomac and many lovely small towns and villages. Over the past several hundred years, this county has enjoyed an ethnic-rich past, meaning that many diverse culturesthe American Indian, European, and Africanhave called this place home. These different civilizations have left an indelible mark on Loudoun Countys character and architectural appearance, from traditional churches and shops to the more ornate and lavish homes scattered across the countryside. Fortunately, many of these buildings still stand, serving as fitting reminders to these different peoples struggles and lives. In this volume of over 200 photographs, many never before published, you will experience the Loudoun County of yesteryeara time when wagons and early automobiles competed for space on the same dusty highways, when homes and schools were made of cobblestone and wood framing, and when life seemed, overall, slower and less complicated. This book takes us on a wonderful journey through the countys major towns, such as Leesburg, Hamilton, Hillsboro, Lovettsville, Middleburg, Purcellville, and Round Hill, and to the smaller villages, such as Waterford, Broad Run Farms, and Taylorstown. From the turn of the twentieth century to more contemporary times, you will see your home county as you have never seen it before or as you remembered it as a child.

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Page Count

132

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1439626820

ISBN 13

9781439626825

Purcellville

By: Meredith Thomas

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Purcellville

By: Meredith Thomas

With so many of its buildings and architectural phases still intact, Purcellville's strong visual links clearly show how a typical rural town in America evolved. On the main road from the port of Alexandria west to Winchester, Purcellville's midway location allowed it to grow from a simple drover's tavern to a turnpike stagecoach stop that was complete with hotel, livery, store, and blacksmith and wheelwright shops. The arrival of railroad technology in 1874 enabled Purcellville to become a mercantile hub for the fertile Loudoun Valley. Its growth blossomed around the train station, a block north and west of the original village. When divided highways replaced the railroad in 1968, Purcellville had a third surge of growth in businesses, schools, and homes on its fringes, now easily reached by automobile. Like rings on a tree, each of these growth layers represents the technology and society of the age.

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132

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0738587559

ISBN 13

9780738587554

The Face of Decline

The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century

By: Thomas L. Dublin,Walter Licht

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The Face of Decline

The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century

By: Thomas L. Dublin,Walter Licht

The anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania once prospered. Today, very little mining or industry remains, although residents have made valiant efforts to restore the fabric of their communities. In The Face of Decline, the noted historians Thomas Dublin and Walter Licht offer a sweeping history of this area over the course of the twentieth century. Combining business, labor, social, political, and environmental history, Dublin and Licht delve into coal communities to explore grassroots ethnic life and labor activism, economic revitalization, and the varied impact of economic decline across generations of mining families. The Face of Decline also features the responses to economic crisis of organized capital and labor, local business elites, redevelopment agencies, and state and federal governments. Dublin and Licht draw on a remarkable range of sources: oral histories and survey questionnaires; documentary photographs; the records of coal companies, local governments, and industrial development corporations; federal censuses; and community newspapers. The authors examine the impact of enduring economic decline across a wide region but focus especially on a small group of mining communities in the region's Panther Valley, from Jim Thorpe through Lansford to Tamaqua. The authors also place the anthracite region within a broader conceptual framework, comparing anthracite's decline to parallel developments in European coal basins and Appalachia and to deindustrialization in the United States more generally.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501707299

ISBN 13

9781501707292

The Traitor and the Spy

Benedict Arnold and John André

By: James Thomas Flexner

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The Traitor and the Spy

Benedict Arnold and John André

By: James Thomas Flexner

An account of the traitorous trio who almost toppled the American nation at its birth. Benedict Arnold offered to sell his soldiers, with the key fortress of West Point, and to deliver to the enemy, dead or alive, George Washington. The plot promised to destroy the American battle of freedom.

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Page Count

516

Publisher

Syracuse University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0815602634

ISBN 13

9780815602637

Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil War Hero and Fraud

By: Thomas Fox

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Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil War Hero and Fraud

By: Thomas Fox

On December 7, 1864, just one week after the bloody battle of Franklin, Tennessee, William McGee, a drummer boy from Newark, New Jersey, was credited with leading a Federal force to a decisive victory over the Confederates in a clash just thirty miles from the carnage at Franklin. This 15-year-old Irish-American, on convalescent duty and acting as an orderly to General Lovell Rousseau, was recognized for the capture of two guns, several hundred prisoners, and the saving of Fortress Rosecrans in Murfreesboro from the famed Nathan Bedford Forrest. For his actions, young McGee would soon be awarded a Medal of Honor, written up in newspapers and books as a glorious New Jersey legend, be commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Army at age 18, and then, inexplicably at the height of his notoriety, virtually disappear from history for more than 100 years. This is the story of a lost war hero, a man-child with the world at his feet, whose fall from grace is accelerated by fame, lies, alcohol, bigamy, and murder.

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Page Count

275

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786482400

ISBN 13

9780786482405

Book's by Thomas Balch Library Commission

Loudoun County

Loudoun County

Purcellville

Purcellville

The Face of Decline

The Face of Decline

The Traitor and the Spy

The Traitor and the Spy

Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil War Hero and Fraud

Drummer Boy Willie McGee, Civil War Hero and Fraud

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