Patricia Turner Ritchie Collection on Brocks Gap
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Not requestable
Scope and Content
The Patricia Turner Ritchie Collection on Brocks Gap, 1750s-1990s, is comprised exclusively of photocopies of deeds, wills, surveys, patents, road agreements, accounts, letters and a wide variety of other documents relevant to the Brocks Gap area of northwestern Rockingham County, Virginia. The materials document many aspects of rural life. Family names mentioned most frequently are Fawley, Fulk, Turner, and Ruddle, but many others also occur. The "C" series are papers from the Ransom Hess estate; he was the son of Richard and Lydia Shoemaker Hess, grandson of Abraham and Amanda Custer Hess, great grandson of Richard Custer Jr. and Elizabeth Trumbo Custer, and lived on the Custer homestead on Little Dry River Road in Fulks Run.
Dates
- Creation: 1750s-1990s
Creator
- Ritchie, Patricia Turner (Person)
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in this collection have been transferred to the James Madison University Special Collection Library. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk (library-special@jmu.edu).
Bio/Historical Note
Brocks Gap is an area of approximately 200 square miles in northwestern Rockingham County formed by the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Extent
1.4 cubic feet (2 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Patricia Turner Ritchie Collection on Brocks Gap, 1750s-1990s, is comprised exclusively of photocopies of deeds, wills, surveys, patents, road agreements, accounts, letters and a wide variety of other documents relevant to the Brocks Gap area of northwestern Rockingham County, Virginia.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into informal series or groupings of documents: Brocks Gap (BG), Fulks Run (F), Custer (C), and Turner (T). This arrangement was imposed by the donor. Each document or set of documents was also assigned a numeric identifier by the donor. Corresponding indices are included for the Brocks Gap and Fulks Run documents.
Provenance
Many of the original documents photocopied in this collection were brought by local residents to the Turner Hams Store on Route 259 in Fulks Run, or the nearby Mt. Carmel Church, for the "Brocks Gap Heritage Day" events first held by compiler Patricia Turner Ritchie in the spring of 1991, where they were copied. Other materials were located by Ritchie through her own research. Ritchie created an annotated index for some of the materials, and notes that some of the documents are not recorded in the Rockingham County Court House.
Acquisition Information
This collection, comprised exclusively of photocopies, was purchased from Pat Turner Ritchie beginning in May 1991 through 2002.
Location of Originals
Original documents are either retained by private owners or collections in other repositories that Ritchie consulted as part of her research.
Processing Information
In order to streamline the process of applying collection numbers, Special Collections staff completed a large-scale renumbering campaign in the spring of 2017. This collection was previously cataloged as SC 3088.
Subject
- Fulk family (Family)
- Fawley family (Family)
- Turner family (Family)
- Ruddell family (Family)
- Fawley family -- Correspondence (Family)
- Fulk family -- Correspondence (Family)
- Turner family -- Correspondence (Family)
- Ruddell family -- Correspondence (Family)
Genre / Form
Geographic
- Brocks Gap (Va.) -- History
- Brocks Gap (Va.) -- Social life and customs
- Fulks Run (Va.) -- Genealogy
- Fulks Run (Va.) -- Surveys
- Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- History
- Virginia -- Genealogy
Topical
- African Americans -- Virginia -- Brocks Gap
- Communities -- Attitudes
- Community life
- Deeds -- Virginia -- Brocks Gap
- Deeds of trust
- Farm equipment -- Patents
- Land use -- Virginia -- Rockingham County
- Real property -- Virginia -- Brocks Gap
- Roads -- Virginia -- Rockingham County
- Rural families
- Rural population
- Social history
- Title
- A Guide to the Patricia Turner Ritchie Collection on Brocks Gap, 1750s-1990s
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Chris Bolgiano
- Date
- April 1997
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the James Madison University Libraries Special Collections Repository
820 Madison Drive
MSC 1706
Harrisonburg Virginia 22807
(540) 568-3612
library-special@jmu.edu