George W.
Rosenberger
Model Farmer of Rosendale
Family
George
Rosenberger, an immigrant from Zurich, Switzerland, came to colonial Virginia,
, established himself in what is now Page County, and served in the
Revolutionary War.[i] His son, George Washington Rosenberger was
born in 1778 and died in 1858 in his eightieth year. In about 1790, this George acquired the land
at the present Rosendale location on which he built a two-over-two log house. Evidence of the senior George Washington
Rosenberger’s success can be deduced from the 1850 Census records in which his
real property was valued at $24,000. He
also owned two working-age slaves.
In 1802 George W.
Rosenberger married Margaret Zirkle (1780-1836) of New Market. Their fifth child, also named George Washington,
was born on February 23, 1823 at Rosendale and is the subject of the following
article. Fifty-five years later he was described as the
“model Valley farmer.” He added what is
now the front face of Rosendale in 1870; the original house became the ell. In the 1870 Census Rosenberger’s real estate
was valued at $12,500, about half the value of his father’s real property twenty
years before. The difference could
reflect local conditions after the Civil War.
George Washington
Rosenberger married Barbara Ann Kagey in 1845.
They had eight children, five of whom died before 1887 when their mother
died. In 1892, George W. Rosenberger
married Barbara’s sister, Amelia (Millie) Kagey, who had been living with the
family at Rosendale for several decades.
He was sixty-nine years old and she was fifty-two years old when they
married. Of the three surviving children
from the first marriage, one was Arthur Russell Rosenberger, a successful local
banker and entrepreneur. Another son,
Charles W., oversaw the Rosendale operation after the death of the father and
probably for some years before the father’s death.[ii]
Rosendale
during the Civil War
Documents
found in the George W. Rosenberger Collection at the VMI Archives provide a
glimpse of Rosendale and, by extension, the local the farming experience during
the later part of the Civil War. When
the War began Rosenberger was thirty-seven years old. Instead of serving in the military Rosenberger
purchased a substitute. From March 1862
to April 1863 Abner Canada
was the substitute. An archival
document recounted Canada’s capture in Shenandoah County and his escape that
returned him to his comrades. In the
Civil War Rolls found in A History of
Rockingham County,[iii] Abner Canada does not appear. The only Abner Canada
listed in the 1860 Census was a sixty-one year old farm laborer in Rockingham County.
G.W. Rosenberger was listed as
member of the Company H, 10th Va. Cavalry. There is no record that he actually served in
combat.
George W. Rosenberger
1864 - Estimate and Assessment for the CSA
Item Gross Crop Est. of Total Value Tithe Value of One-Tenth
Wheat, Bushels 150 $1,500.00 15 $150.00
Corn, Bushels 340 1,700.00 34 170.00
Oats, Bushels 150 450.00 15 45.00
Irish Potatoes, Bushels 25 125.00 2.5 12.50
Cured Hay, Pds 27,000 1,350.00 2,700 135.00
Wool, Pds 80 400.00 8 40.00
Total Values $5,525.00 $552.50
These assessments
do not include the Rosenberger livestock, particularly the valuable beef herd. A similar assessment form for 1865 suggested
that Rosenberger had a twenty-five head hog herd. One
possible way to grasp the size of Rosenberger’s assessment and the value of the
crops was to compare it to the qualification for exemptions from in-kind
assessments. A head-of-family not worth
more than $500 and an officer, soldier, or seaman honorably discharged who were
not worth more than $1,000 was exempt from this tax.
In 1865, Rosenberger also qualified for
special exemption from the tax-in-kind for crops necessary to raise and fatten
hogs for pork. In this case, 100 bushels
of the 350 bushels of corn was exempt for pork production. In February 1865, the value of the tithe-able
amount of twenty- five bushels was $750, or $30 per bushel of corn, compared to
tithe-able thirty-four bushels at $170 or $5 per bushel of corn the previous
year. [iv] This increase in assessment valuation suggests
worsening conditions in the beleaguered Valley and Confederate cause in 1865.
Rosendale
not only provided for the C.S.A., but also for the U.S.A. In March 1900, Rosenberger filed under the
1887 Tucker Act, which allowed for certain claims against the United States, requesting
reimbursement for provisions taken by the US Army during the Civil War. In the claim Rosenberger stated he was a
loyal subject of the United
States and that Army had appropriated $2,000
in stock and goods. In 1906, a few years
after Rosenberger had died his wife, as executrix, continued the pursuit of the
claim. In December 1915, the Court found
that the claimant was not loyal to the government of the U.S. The Court also found that the three horses
($345), the 950 pounds of hay ($5), the fourteen head of beef weighing 6,300
pounds ($630), and the 130 pounds of flour ($780) confiscated had a value of
$1760 not the $2,000 asked for in the claim.[v]
Model Farmer
The
quality of stock bred at Rosendale was widely known and praised. From the 1830s, George W. Rosenberger
corresponded locally and along the eastern seaboard with cattle breeders.[vi] The breed that most interested him was the
short horned Durham. He acquired his most prized bull from a
breeder in Auburn, NY. In 1860,
Rosenberger purchased a yearling named Christmas Duke, calved December 25,
1858.[vii] This bull’s pedigree was traceable to 1739 in
Ketton, England. In a flyer (c. 1861) with a sketch of
Christmas Duke, Rosenberger offered the services of the bull, recited the
pedigree, and noted the weights and prices received from other Durhams in his
herd. The flyer included articles from
the Valley Democrat (1858) and from the Rockingham Register (1856) that praised
Rosenberger’s operation and the improvement of the stock he introduced into Rockingham County.[viii] In addition to cattle breeding, Rosenberger,
in the decade after the War, bred Cotswold sheep and fowl.
The
following extensive quote is from the article, Model Farmer: A Model Farm and a Model Farmer in the Shenandoah Valley,
published January 31, 1878 in the Rockingham Register. The article was reprinted from the Baltimore
Sun. In the contemporary
language of the article, an alive-ness of the Rosendale operation was evident,
which no currently written description could capture.
…. About two miles east of the Valley turnpike a
first class macadamized road, piercing the heart of Shenandoah Valley near the
Rockingham and Shenandoah county line, lies one of the richest, and most
fertile…section...in Virginia…within the shadows of the Massanutten mountain,
on the eastern side of Smith creek, a large bold stream which at times becomes
an angry, roaring river, is located what we choose to designate a model
farm. The farm is neither too large or
too small, comprising 500 acres, 350 of which are cleared…. Of course, a model farm is well inclosed on
its outer boundaries with good substantial fences, and laid off in suitable
divisions and sub-divisions to suit the views and interest of its owner. The whole outer limits of Rosendale,
stretching along the banks of Smith’s creek, are inclosed with solid post and
rail, post and plank and stone fencing. …The front approach to Rosendale shows
that this prominent feature on the outer verge of a good farm is not wanting
here. The dwelling house is a plain,
handsomely painted, wooden building, standing on a commanding eminence, within
sight of Smith’s creek, yet so far removed from its rushing tide, when it gets
“high,” as it sometimes does, as to be perfectly safe from floods and freshets
while the roaring of its excited water makes melancholy music for the dwellers
upon the gentle acclivity near its bank.
One of the peculiar features
upon this farm is its fine blooded stock, Mr. Rosenberger having turned his
attention, as early the year 1842, the raising of the best domestic animals,
such as cattle, sheep and hogs, and more recently to the breeding of the best
fowls, such as chickens, ducks and turkeys.
Among his pure blooded two-year old short horn cattle will be found Bright Queen, Mercedes,… accompanied by
Waverly Lord Second, a young Kentucky bull.
In his flock of sheep comprising the best Cotswold blood, will be found
ewes weighing over 200 pounds, bucks weighing as much as 385 pounds, the sheep
clipping on an average from 12 to 15 pounds.
His turkeys are of the bronze breed, weighing 22 pounds at eight months
old and 33½ pounds when full grown. The
chickens are of the light Brahma stock, the hens weighing 10 pounds, and the
roosters several pounds more.
The painted, covered stands of
bees, thirty-nine colonies of which are handsomely arranged on two sides of the
dwelling of the house, form a not unattractive feature of this rural
scene. Of course large quantities of
honey are gathered from the industrious workers, Mr. Rosenberger being able to
sell annually a good many pounds. He has
raised 2,100 pounds within the last three years, 900 pounds being the most
gathered in any one season. – This honey is deposited by the bees in glass
boxes of different sizes, and is sold readily at from 20 to 25 cents a pound.
The barn is built upon modern
principles, regard being had to the comfort of the animals housed and to the
convenience of the person who feeds them.
Attached to the barn is a vegetable cellar, from which a car carries
vegetables to the animals over a railway passing through the barn. This arrangement enables a small boy to
attend to the feeding of the stock, each animal receiving its just share of the
food distributed.
Order and system are everywhere
seen on this farm. …
The force employed to work this
farm is not large, (two hands employed by the year and others by the day, as
occasions warrants and demands,) but it is always kept employed, and thus large
results are obtained from a small but well drilled and well directed
force. Mr. Rosenberger raised this year
1,000 bushels of wheat, in addition to his corn crop.
Nor is this representatives of
the hard-handed tillers of the soil only interested in the improvement of his
land and his stock:… The liberal education of his children is, as it ought to
be with all farmers, an object of great pride with this type of model farmer. Under his own roof his children are taught
music and other accomplishments, whilst they are instructed to honor the noble
the pursuits which the owner of Rosendale has chosen and so successfully
followed.
…. The author of this sketch
might refer to the higher life of intellectuality and the flow of soul which
characterize the gatherings beneath the hospitable roof at Rosendale,…
The Smith
Creek Seminary
During the Civil War, on the
Rosendale estate in the upper level of a stone building that housed a kitchen
and wash house below, Joseph M. Salyards (1808-1885) taught school for young
men. The school was called the Smith Creek
Academy. The teacher and his family lived in a three-room
log cabin at Rosendale. During his
teaching career from about 1838 until the 1870s, Salyards taught in several schools
in Shenandoah, Page, and Rockingham Counties.
This highly respected teacher was mostly self-educated, which included learning
eight languages.[ix]
As a poet, Salyards was known for
his epic poem Idothea or The Divine Image, for which he was
widely praised. The pocket size volume of
this epic was over 300 pages long and was published in 1874. It may have sold a modest 500 copies in the
United States, but the print run for the Oxford addition in England was 20 times
greater than it was in the United States.
In one of the divisions of the poem titled “Waif of Rosendale” are the
following lines:
It is a green and smiling swell,
A spot for happiness to dwell;
It seems that nature shapes a plan
And molds a dwelling spot for man,
And this was meant to be the home
George Washington Rosenberger’s
obituary writer[xii]
observed that “[t]he Rosenberger home, years ago, was known far and wide for
its hospitality, the happiness of the family circle, and the devotion of the
parents and children toward each other.”
About a decade before his death, a fall that fractured Rosenberger’s hip
permanently disabled him and had “a depressing effect on his naturally buoyant
spirit.” This understandable personal
tragedy of his later years, should not caused George W. Rosenberger’s
contributions to the Valley to be overlooked and appreciated. He was indeed a model during the 1800s for
the many successful agriculturalists in the area and for whom the Valley is renowned
to this day.
Diane Rafuse, Sept. 2014
[i] John W.
Wayland, ed. Men of Mark And Representative Citizens of Harrisonburg
and Rockingham County Virginia. The McClure Company, Inc. Staunton,
Va. 1943.
[iii] John
W. Wayland. History of Rockingham
County Virginia. C.J. Carrier Company. Harrisonburg,
VA. 1996.
[vi] VMI
Archives. Copy available at MRL.
[vii]
Katherine L. Brown and Nancy T. Sorrells.
Virginia’s Cattle Story, The
first Four Centuries. Commissioned
by the Virginia Cattlemen’s Foundation and the Dairy Foundation of
Virginia. 2004.
[viii] VMI
Archives. Copy available at MRL.
[ix] See
Wayland. History of Rockingham County.
[x] John W.
Wayland. Historic Homes.
[xi] Rockingham Register. August 10, 1885.
[xii] Rockingham Register. November 14, 1902.
Was George a decendent or relative of Erasmus Rosenberger from Niederzell, Germany?
ReplyDeleteAlthough George is described as a "contemporary" of Erasmus Rosenberger [Early Settlers in Shenandoah Valley], they were not related.
ReplyDelete