|
|
Historical Highway MarkersAugusta Stone ChurchA-118
The Augusta Stone Church, Virginia's oldest Presbyterian church in continuous use west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, opened on 22 Jan. 1749. It replaced a log meetinghouse built shortly after the congregation’s founding in 1740. At the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, Pastor John Craig and members of the church fortified the structure with log palisades and watchtowers to defend against Indian attack. This defensive position inspired the name Fort Defiance adopted by the community that grew around the church. The building was enlarged and remodeled in 1921-22, and a new wing was added in 1956.
Department of Historic Resources, 2015 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
|
References/Bibliographic Citation: “Autobiography of John Craig” (ca. 1770) Calder Loth, ed., Virginia Landmarks Register (University Press of Virginia, 1999), 46. Dorothy A. Boyd-Bragg, Katharine L. Brown, and Nancy T. Sorrells, Shenandoah Presbytery: A Heritage of Service (Staunton: Lot’s Wife Publishing, 2012), 3, 4, 146. Frazier Associates Report, Augusta Stone Church Historic Structures Report (1990). “John Craig,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, vol. 3. Katharine L. Brown, “John Craig: Augusta’s Frontier Minister,” Augusta Historical Bulletin 39 (2003), 15-28. Kerby A. Miller, et al., eds., Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 381-400, 736-737. NRHP Nomination Form (1973). “Record of the Names of the Children Baptized by the Rev’d John Craig….” (1740-1749). |