Fall 1859–Spring 1861
View transcriptions and images of the newspapers from Augusta and Franklin, providing access to how news was reported in the counties. Browse the individual newspapers by date, read articles grouped by relevant topics, or search the newspapers for particular words or phrases. In most cases, you may also view scanned images of the original newspaper pages.
Read all the pre-war letters and diaries in the Valley Archive. Both sections contain a page that gives a brief description of each collection of personal papers, so you may scan through the collections for what looks most interesting or useful. You may also search the letters and diaries, to find a particular word, phrase, or name.
Explore over 50 tables that show statistics on life in the two counties, such as the percentage of slaveholders in Augusta and where free blacks lived in Franklin. Examine statistics on Augusta, Franklin, or comparison statistics on both counties. These tables are based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and databases built by the Valley Project.
This section contains all the records kept by churches in Augusta and Franklin between the 1850s and 1870s, including information about marriages, births, deaths, and baptisms. You may search the church records by county or church. More about the Augusta and Franklin churches.
Search the Free Black Registry, a record people in Augusta kept on all free blacks who lived in the county.
Browse fire insurance depositions from Staunton from 1850 through 1860, including preliminary drawings of the respective buildings.
Search the 1860 Augusta or Franklin County Tax Records Census for Staunton, Virginia, or Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, respectively. Search on a number of the fields found in the agricultural census (such as name, occupation, and various tax amounts).