The Town Of Fincastle Virginia

In the Virginia of the late eighteenth century, the last outpost before the great wilderness was the town of Fincastle in Botetourt County. Frances Niederer provides a concise and engaging history of Fincastle, from its founding in 1772 to its transformation into a mecca for health seekers who came for its ferromagnesian springs. Host to a diverse architectural heritage, Fincastle boasts a number of great homes and churches that are still intact. This generously illustrated book tells the stories behind these classic structures and how each fits into the larger story of this unique Virginia town.

Hendricks writes on how towns in backcountry Virginia came about from the designs and ambitions of entrepreneurial individuals. They did not just spring up randomly in some pleasing meadow or on some riverbank happened upon by a frontiersman, for example, or a group which had struck out into the wilderness. "The people who put these plans [for towns] into action were motivated by a variety of economic, social, or philanthropic factors and sometimes purely by circumstance and opportunity." These entrepreneurial-like individuals were not a part of any organized movement. But their activities in toto played a large part in opening up the western parts of Virginia and setting a pattern for westward expansion. Among the towns Hendricks studies in larger topological areas such as the Piedmont and the Great Valley (Shenandoah) are Winchester, Marysville, Leesburg, Woodstock, Charlottesville, and Brent Town. Early maps of many of the towns especially demonstrate the ideas and purposes of their founders. Along with the maps, the authors specifics on the conception, establishment, and early period of the many towns makes each oe stand out distinctively. The enterprises and goals of the town were as varied as the individuals who conceived them.

Volumes for 1950-19 contained treaties and international agreements issued by the Secretary of State as United States treaties and other international agreements.