The Town of Woodstock was established by charter in March 1761 as a part of what was then Frederick County. It was originally formed from a land grant from
Lord Fairfax, and founded as Muellerstadt (Miller Town) in 1752 by founder Jacob Muller (or "Mueller"). The town's charter was sponsored by George Washington in Virginia's House of Burgesses. Woodstock has been the County Seat of Shenandoah County since Shenandoah County's formation in 1772.
Colonial era The
Shenandoah Valley region surrounding Woodstock was settled by
Pennsylvania Germans who migrated south down the natural route of the Shenandoah Valley in the mid-18th century. The majority of these
German settlers tended small farms that grew crops other than tobacco, were not slaveholders, and had
Protestant faiths different from the established
Anglican Church in Virginia, which differed from the
English society that was prevalent on the eastern side of the
Blue Ridge Mountains. The
Senedo people lived in the Shenandoah Valley around Woodstock, but they disappeared as a tribe prior to European settlement, possibly from attack by the
Catawba people to the south. By the time the German settlers arrived, few Native Americans lived in the Shenandoah Valley. Several later tribes hunted in the valley, among them the Shawnee, Occoneechee, Monocans and Piscataways and the powerful Iroquois Confederation, so while not inhabiting the area Indians were likely not an uncommon sight. In the 1750s, settlers began to sense trouble when Indians moved further west, over the
Allegheny Mountains, where they were under influence of the French. During the
French and Indian War, the French encouraged Indian raiding parties against so-called "English settlers" Route 11, which runs through Woodstock, was originally an Indian trail that served as a route between the Catawba in the south and the
Lengape in the north, which were warring rivals.
Establishment George Washington was a member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses representing
Frederick County, Virginia from 1758 to 1765 which included the Woodstock area until 1772. The new village of Woodstock was established by law in 1761. Washington sponsored the act, and named the town Woodstock at that time. George Washington also named Shenandoah Valley, the Shenandoah River, and Shenandoah County. He named these places after the Christian Oneida chief John
Skenandoa who helped Americans survive during the American Revolution including at Valley Forge. The Town of Woodstock's website notes that it was established by charter in March of 1761 as a part of what was then Frederick County. The town was originally formed by a land grant from Lord Fairfax, and named after its founder, Jacob Miller as Muellerstadt (Miller Town) in 1752. It was renamed Woodstock when the town's charter was sponsored by George Washington in Virginia's House of Burgesses. The Town of Woodstock has been the County Seat of Shenandoah County since the County's formation in 1772. The act of the General Assembly gave full credit to Jacob Muller for initiating the idea. and he proceeded to lay out a plan for the town, Mullerstadt.
Peter Muhlenberg John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, a native of Pennsylvania who was formerly a soldier in the
British Army and German dragoons, accepted a call to become pastor to a Woodstock congregation in 1771. After theological training, he served both
Lutherans and
Episcopalians for four years in a wide-ranging pastorate in the Shenandoah Valley. During this time, he was drawn to in politics, serving in the House of Burgesses in 1774 and as a delegate to the
First Virginia Convention. Muhlenberg became famous for his impassioned speeches in support of the
American Revolutionary cause, helping to raise a regiment in the Shenandoah Valley among its German and Scots-Irish frontier population. He led the
8th Virginia Regiment, as its Colonel in the
Continental Army. At the conclusion of his fiery farewell sermon in Woodstock on January 21, 1776, Muhlenberg famously threw off his clerical robes to reveal an officer's uniform beneath and proclaimed, according to later reports, "in the language of Holy Writ there is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come." It was led by Muhlenberg, Colonel of the regiment and Abraham Bowman, Lt. Colonel, both from Woodstock. The 8th Virginia was called "The German Regiment" though it also contained substantial numbers of Scots-Irish. Frequently separated and detached to other units, the men of this tough, frontier-bred regiment served with distinction in many theaters of the war: White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Short Hills, Cooch's Bridge, Brandywine, Saratoga, Germantown and Charleston. They suffered the hardships at Valley Forge, and were afterwards mustered out of service, with those who reenlisted merging into other Virginia units. On March 2, 1859, the line was extended to Mount Jackson. The Civil War interrupted the work however, and the line remained a long spur from Strasburg, with Mount Jackson as the terminus. In 1865 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) acquired and reconstructed the line after extensive damage during the Civil War, merging it with the Orange & Alexandria to form the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad. They then extended the line to Harrisonburg in 1868. Woodstock became a freight rail entrepot with outward bound shipments of grain, cattle and fruit and inward bound freight of manufactured goods, rail service that continued into the 1960s. Passenger service ended in 1948 and freight rail service began to decline in the 1950s, reflecting a nationwide shift to cars and trucks with the advent of the national highway system. While individual industries were still served, sometime before 1969 regular freight depot service ended and the Woodstock freight depot was demolished in the 1970s. The Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk & Western in 1982 to become the Norfolk Southern Railroad, which owns the line through Woodstock to this day. However, industrial need for the line ended, and the rail between Strasburg between Edinburg (through Woodstock) is out of service, though the track remains.
Civil War Era Confederate military units raised in Woodstock included Company F (the Muhlenberg Rifles) of the
10th Virginia Infantry (of whom 71% had German surnames) A few buildings were destroyed, notably the railroad depot and some warehouses along with a locomotive and some rolling stock. Various homes were used from time to time as staff headquarters by both sides, and as the occasional military hospital. and the Woodstock Races, Gen.
George Armstrong Custer rode in front of his cavalry and made a famous gesture of salute to Confederate enemy and West Point classmate, Maj Gen.
Thomas L. Rosser, sketched by Alfred Wall. One small but significant cavalry battle occurred 4.5 miles north of Woodstock, at
Tom's Brook on October 9, 1864. The
Battle of Tom's Brook followed a Union victory at the
Battle of Fisher's Hill. After Fisher's Hill, Sheridan's Union cavalry pursued
Jubal Early's Confederates south to Staunton, after which the Federals withdrew, devastating anything of military benefit in their path, a campaign known in the Shenandoah as "The Burning." Rebel cavalry harassed the withdrawal, until Union troopers under
Wesley Merritt and
George Armstrong Custer turned and routed the divided Confederate divisions of
Rosser and
Lomax at Tom's Brook, 5 miles south of Strasburg and 4.5 miles north of Woodstock. The Confederate cavalry's disorderly retreat from battle became known as the "Woodstock Races", because the routed Rebel troopers fled back in disarray through Woodstock all the way to
Mt. Jackson. A total of 6,300 Federal troopers and 3,500 Confederates engaged in the battle, with Union casualties at 57 and Confederate losses at 350. The Battle of Tom's Brook, and the "Woodstock Races," occurred in significant part along the Valley Pike, now Route 11. About 20 miles south of the town, the
Battle of New Market also had Woodstock context. In conjunction with spring 1864 offensives, Union Lt. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant ordered Maj. Gen.
Franz Sigel to move down the Valley Pike from West Virginia to
Lynchburg, to destroy its railroads and canal while denying the rich Shenandoah Valley to the Confederacy. Receiving intelligence on these movements, Confederate Maj. Gen.
John C. Breckinridge scraped together all available troops, including cadets from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington. Sigel's advance was slowed by Confederate cavalry and undermined by his own command jealousies and inept decisions, but on May 11 his cavalry captured a lightly defended Woodstock. The Confederates were forced out of Woodstock so fast that several telegrams between Breckinridge and his cavalry commander
John D. Imboden fell into Union hands. These Woodstock dispatches revealed strength and location of Confederate forces as well as a rough time table for a cavalry rendezvous with the main Confederate force - potentially a game-changing intelligence coup. But rather than acting decisively, Sigel continued his cautious advance, allowing Confederates time to concentrate. Breckenridge decided to attack Sigel's army, which had advanced from Woodstock. The Battle of New Market occurred on morning of May 15. Threatened by cavalry on his flank and rear, Sigel withdrew and retreated through Woodstock all the way to Strasburg. Sigel's army outnumbered Breckinridge's by 6,275 to 4,087. Union losses were 841 while Confederate casualties were 531. The Valley remained in Confederate control until Sheridan's arrival.
Historic Structures Lantz Hall, a structure at Massanutten Military Academy, and the
Shenandoah County Courthouse are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The
Woodstock Historic District comprising the historic center of the town of Woodstock, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It includes examples of early architecture in the town from its earliest years into the 1940s, having been little altered since then. ==Demographics==