Tag: Virginia
Two-Headed Tortoise Found Near Mount Vernon
A remarkable little box tortoise found in Fairfax County, Virginia, attracted attention in the early 1900s for an unusual feature that was impossible to overlook:…
Virginia College Destroyed by Fire as 150 Students Escape in Nightclothes
Early one morning in November 1900, around 150 young women at Virginia College near Roanoke awoke to a frightening discovery. Smoke had already filled the…
80-Year-Old Virginia Man Leaped Into Well to Escape Fire
When 80-year-old John Woodyard saw his Virginia sawmill catch fire in the summer of 1924, he tried to save it alone, carrying bucket after bucket…
Police Believed a Bootlegger Threw a Virginia Teen Into the River After Hitting Him
Seventeen-year-old Elwood Hudgins was found drowned in Virginia’s Indian River, but police believed his death had begun on the bridge above. Their theory was that…
Parents Feared Missing Teen Girls Ran Away With the Circus
When two teenage girls vanished from Washington, D.C., their parents feared the lure of the circus had carried them away. Seventeen-year-old Edith Holmes and fifteen-year-old…
15-Year-Old Girl Hid in Virginia Woods and Eluded Searchers for Days
For several days in the summer of 1926, authorities searched the woods near Falling Creek for a 15-year-old girl dressed only in a bathing suit….
Armed Guards Sealed Off Virginia Smallpox Region
Armed guards once surrounded a small mountain region of Virginia to keep smallpox from escaping. In February 1900, the Denmark area near the headwaters of…
Roanoke Farmer Discovers $14,000 in Gold and Historical Coins While Plowing
Albert Dameron, a young farmer in Roanoke County, discovered $14,000 in gold and $601 in silver coins dating back to 1823 while plowing on his…
6-year-old dragged and killed after falling from horse
We’ve read about adults falling from horses and getting dragged, but this also happened to a hefty number of children in the past. Here is…
Virginia man kicks woman to death, sits in local jail until smallpox quarantine lifted
It’s 1899 and a Virginia man beats and kills his partner after he finds her nursing their baby while she was intoxicated. He is sent…
