Qualla: Rockingham County https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Rockingham County https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia Rockingham County: Introduction https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia/ Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1727, a German-born settler named Adam Miller staked a claim on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, becoming the first known European to settle what is now Rockingham County. He had come south from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, drawn by reports about a lush valley west of the Blue Ridge that he'd heard during a trip through eastern Virginia. In 1741 he bought 820 acres including a large lithia spring near Elkton, and he lived there until he died. The migration he initiated would, over the following decades, populate the central Shenandoah Valley with German Lutherans, Scots-Irish Presbyterians, Swiss Mennonites, and English Quakers - a cultural mix that still defines Rockingham County today.

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Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/dnzg-rockingham-county-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Rockingham County: Named for a Friend of America https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia/ Photo credit USDAgov, Public domain. When the Virginia legislature carved Rockingham County out of larger Augusta County in 1778, they named it for Charles Watson-Wentworth, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham. He was an unusual honoree for the Revolutionary moment - a British statesman, not an American patriot - but the...

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Image: USDAgov | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/dnzg-rockingham-county-named-for-a-friend-of-america.mp3 0:06 2 full Rockingham County: Geography Between Two Mountain Ranges https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia/ Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Rockingham covers 853 square miles - the third-largest county in Virginia by land area. It stretches east-west across the entire width of the Shenandoah Valley, from the easternmost Allegheny Mountains on the West Virginia border to the crest of the Blue Ridge along the Greene Co...

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Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/dnzg-rockingham-county-geography-between-two-mountain-ranges.mp3 0:06 3 full Rockingham County: Lincoln's Father, Mennonite Farms https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia/ Photo credit USDAgov, Public domain. Thomas Lincoln - Abraham Lincoln's father - was born in Rockingham County in 1778, the same year the county was established. The Lincoln Homestead and family cemetery near Broadway remain. So does the broader Mennonite, Brethren, and Anabaptist presence that made Rockingham one o...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/dnzg-rockingham-county-lincolns-father-mennonite-farms.mp3 0:06 4 full Rockingham County: Poultry, Roads, and Trains https://qualla.com/rockingham-county-virginia/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Rockingham County is one of the country's largest poultry-producing regions. The processing plants in Dayton and elsewhere drew waves of Latino and refugee workers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; the 2018 strikes at the Dayton Cargill plant marked a moment when those w...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/g/rockingham-county-virginia-wp/dnzg-rockingham-county-poultry-roads-and-trains.mp3 0:06 5 full