Teaching Materials

Virginia Frontier History…  Here are some samples of stories that have caught my attention…

Untold stories from_the_virginia_frontier

Southwest Virginia…I found a book, an very old and dusty one, a few years ago and was fascinated to read the contents… basically a description of communities in the late nineteenth century.  The author, Thomas Bruce, was really more of a marketing specialist than an historian or journalist, and he describes each town with exaggerations and superlatives…a remarkable showcase of “boosterism” at its best ( or worst).  Written in 1892, the book seems especially interesting when one considers that it came out precisely when the economy took a nose-dive, when many of the land speculators and bold businessmen lost everything.  Cities like Radford and Roanoke crashed hard, and it took many years for them to recover. So, Bruce’s descriptions of progress and prosperity seem all the more poignant, and ironic.  Southwest Virginia, (1891) by Thomas Bruce

RESEARCH – As I have looked for information on the various branches of my family tree, I have come across several authors who have done a good job in gathering and writing about some of the families who settled in this part of Virginia. Here are two examples:
Lee Pendleton (1971) – (about Prestons, Ingles, etc.)
John Lewis Peyton (1882) – (about Andrew Lewis and Elijah McClanahan)