The Court Days Festival researchers have assembled this list of short documents and articles on central Shenandoah Valley life in the 1850’s. The “1850 Census”, for example, is a treasure of information about families and occupations in Harrisonburg. “Court Days in Old Harrisonburg” explains the city and county tradition that the festival strives to recreate.

Download:

• Harrisonburg 1850 Census (.pdf)
• Harrisonburg Town Council Minutes, 12/12/39 (.pdf) (reprinted with permission from the Daily News Record)
• Researching 1850s Harrisonburg (.pdf)

Read Articles:

• A Glimpse Into 1850s Harrisonburg
• Courtdays in Old Harrisonburg
• Court Square in the 1850s
• 150 Year Old Town Minutes Rise Again

Additional links for historic information on the 1850s period:

http://www.ci.harrisonburg.va.us/index.php?id=599
History of Harrisonburg, Virginia

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/personalpapers/browse/p1augusta.html
Valley of the Shadow website: Augusta County Personal Papers

http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/xml_docs/valley_news/html/opening.html
Valley of the Shadow website: Civil War era newspapers (including some in the 1850s) - Augusta County

http://www.rootsweb.com/~varockin/homan_ltrs.htm
Rockingham County VAGenWeb website: Letters from Home - transcriptions of letters written by Homan family members in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/vagaz1854.htm
Statistical Gazetteer of the State of Virginia by Richard Edwards 1854

http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/vathom.htm#rock
Thomson's Mercantile and Professional Directory - Rockingham Co., Virginia - 1851

http://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/sliov000.html
Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War by THOMAS NELSON PAGE - Copyright, 1897