Qualla: Cross Keys https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Cross Keys https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia Cross Keys: Introduction https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia/ Once a year, shape-note singers gather at a small cemetery in Cross Keys, Virginia, and sing a hymn called Retirement at a particular headstone. The grave belongs to Ananias Davisson, who published the first Southern shape-note tunebook - the Kentucky Harmony, in 1816 - and whose compositions still circulate through American congregational singing today. The crossroads has fewer than a hundred residents. It has no incorporated government. But two things have happened here that have stayed in the historical record: a Civil War battle won by Stonewall Jackson in 1862, and the long musical tradition that traces its first published book to one of Cross Keys's own.

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/f/cross-keys-virginia-wp/dnzf-cross-keys-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cross Keys: A Crossroads in the Valley https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia/ Cross Keys sits along State Route 276 south of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County. The name comes from the keys-and-bow tavern sign that hung at the crossroads in the early 19th century - a not-uncommon naming convention for rural Virginia communities. The land surrounding the cro...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/f/cross-keys-virginia-wp/dnzf-cross-keys-a-crossroads-in-the-valley.mp3 0:06 2 full Cross Keys: The Battle of Cross Keys https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia/ On June 8, 1862, two days after the small skirmish at Good's Farm that killed Turner Ashby, Cross Keys became the site of a much larger Civil War engagement. The Battle of Cross Keys was a Confederate victory in Stonewall Jackson's celebrated Valley Campaign. Union General John C...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/f/cross-keys-virginia-wp/dnzf-cross-keys-the-battle-of-cross-keys.mp3 0:06 3 full Cross Keys: Ananias Davisson and Shape-Note Singing https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia/ Ananias Davisson (1780-1857) was a printer and singing-school teacher from the Shenandoah Valley who collected hymn tunes and folk songs and published them in shaped notation - a system in which each note of the scale has a distinctive head shape, making sight-singing more access...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/f/cross-keys-virginia-wp/dnzf-cross-keys-ananias-davisson-and-shape-note-singing.mp3 0:06 4 full Cross Keys: Retirement at the Graveside https://qualla.com/cross-keys-virginia/ Davisson is buried in the Cross Keys cemetery. Each year, the Northern Shenandoah Valley All Day Shenandoah Harmony Singing - a daylong event that uses the modern Shenandoah Harmony tunebook, which republishes many of Davisson's compositions - ends with a procession to the cemete...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/f/cross-keys-virginia-wp/dnzf-cross-keys-retirement-at-the-graveside.mp3 0:06 5 full