Heavily illustrated with old photographs. Cover boards in full color.

Ledger, 1857-1866, of Jacob B. Smith, of Middle Mills, Middlebrook, Augusta County, Va. which contains grist mill accounts.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ... THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION, ETC., FROM I774 TO 1783. While the strife between the colonies and mother country was brewing in 1774 the port of Boston was closed by the British, and the people of that city, mainly dependent upon commerce for subsistence, were reduced to a state of destitution and suffering. The sympathy of the country was aroused, and contributions for their relief were made in various places. The remote county of Augusta sent her quota the very autumn her sons fought the Indians at Point Pleasant. Says the historian, Bancroft: "When the sheaves had been harvested and the corn threshed and ground in a country as yet poorly provided with barns or mills, the backwoodsmen of Augusta county, without any pass through the mountains that could be called a road, noiselessly and modestly delivered at Frederick one hundred and thirty-seven barrels of flour as their remittance to the poor of Boston." (Volume VII, page 74.) What a task the transportation was, may be inferred from the fact that nearly fifty years afterwards Bockett's stages took three days to make the trip from Staunton to Winchester. Again, in 1777, the people of Augusta sent supplies to the destitute. From some cause unknown to us there was a scarcity of provisions in Washington county, southwest Virginia, and the records of that county show that Augusta contributed flour for the use of "the distressed inhabitants." [See Howe, page 501.] But our Annals are designed to exhibit the contentions of men, rather than the charities of life. We come now to a curious episode in the history of the county. Lord Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Virginia, and his Lieutenant, Connoly, figure therein somewhat as comic actors, it seems to us, although at the time the business was...

From Macon to Hawkinsville, the history of Georgia's once thriving textile mills is documented in this visual history. Cotton was once king throughout Georgia. Reconstruction investors and railroad tycoons saw this potential to open textile mills in the South instead of sending cotton up North. Towns across Central Georgia became a prime spot to locate textile mills because of the access to cotton from local farms, cheap labor, and nearby rivers to power the mills. Textile mills were operated in cities and towns across Central Georgia such as Macon, Columbus, Augusta, Tifton, Forsyth, Porterdale, and Hawkinsville, among others. The textile mills provided employment and sometimes a home in their villages to people across Georgia as the agrarian lifestyle gave way to industrial expansion. In these mills, photographer Lewis Hine captured iconic images of child labor. After the decline of production and closing of the mills, many have been revived into new usages that honor the legacy of the mill workers and their families who lived in the villages of the textile mills across Central Georgia.

When Augusta County was formed in 1738, it was America's "Wild West"--stretching from the Mississippi River to the Great Lakes. Today's more moderately sized county lies nestled between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. Virginia's second-largest county has witnessed history ranging from frontier clashes to Civil War battles. Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert E. Lee slept here, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower's mother was born here, and folk artist Grandma Moses farmed here. The main road through the county, once known as the Warrior's Path, the Great Wagon Road, and the Valley Pike, has been trod by Native Americans, settlers, travelers, and warring armies. The influx of Scotch-Irish, German, English, and African American settlers who put down roots here turned the lush limestone valley into the grain-producing capital of the nation and created the county's two leading industries: milling and distilling.