The bold items can be found on the Histories Along the Blue Ridge site in the Shape-note Traditions collection. Those items come from a variety of collections located throughout the Shenandoah Valley and help complete part of the picture of shape-note traditions in the Shenandoah Valley.
1770
April 6, 1778 – Joseph Funk was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
1775-1783 – Revolutionary War
1780
February 2, 1780 – Ananias Davisson was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia.
June 25, 1788 – Virginia becomes a state
1790
1800
1801 -First shape-note songbook called The Easy Instructor published by William Smith and William Little in New England
1810
1815 Solomon Henkel letter
1815-16 Advertisement for Funk’s book
1816 – Ananias Davison publishes Kentucky Harmony at his print shop in Harrisonburg which is the first southern shape-note tunebook.
1816 First German language shape-note tunebook called Ein allgemein nützliche Choral-Music published by Funk and printed by Laurentz Wartmann, in Harrisonburg.
1820
1821 Solomon Henkel letter
1827 – Sarah Anna Glover teaches her new Norwich sol-fa singing method at a girls school in England and later publishes a music instruction book called Scheme for Rendering Psalmody Congregational.
1830
1832 Hollis to Funk letters 1832 (three of them)
1832 – Joseph Funk published A Compilation of Genuine Church Music in 4-shape music notation.
September 26, 1833 Ephraim Ruebush was born.
1835 – Joseph Funk published a 2nd edition of A Compilation of Genuine Church Music in 4-shape music notation in Winchester, Virginia through Robinson & Hollis.
1836 Hollis to Funk letter
1836 Funk to Curry letter
1838 Funk to Hollis letter
1840
August 1, 1840 Aldine Silliman Kieffer was born near Miami, Saline County, Missouri.
1847 Print shop built in Mountain Valley, Virginia (Later known as Singer’s Glen)
1845 – Indian melodies by Thomas Commuck, a Narragansett Indian (1805-1855). https://archive.org/details/bp_682633/mode/2up
1850
1856, 57, 58, 60 Funk and sons to James Curry
First issue of The Southern Musical Advocate and Singer’s Friend published in Singer’s Glen, Virginia.
October 21, 1857 – Ananias Davisson died and is buried in Massanutten-Cross Keys Cemetery, Rockingham County, Virginia.
May 1, 1858 Anthony Johnson Showalter was born in Cherry Grove, Virginia.
1859 – 1861 Southern Musical Advocate ledger book
1860
April 12, 1861 – Civil War starts
1860 – Mountain Valley is renamed Singers Glen in honor of Joseph Funk and his contributions to music.
December 24, 1862 – Joseph Funk died and is buried in Singer’s Glen
June 20, 1863 – West Virginia becomes a state
April 9, 1865 – Civil War ends
1867-1869 Musical Advocate and Singer’s Friend is published for a few years
1867 – 1869 Southern Musical Advocate ledger book
1867-1873 Christian Harp names in book
1869 United Brethren Church makes freedmen’s mission
1870
1870 – The Musical Million and Fireside Friend begins publication
1871 Letters bill
1875 – Shenandoah High School opened in Dayton, Virginia which later becomes Shenandoah Institute, and eventually becomes Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia.
1877 Tabor singing class minutes
1878 Ruebush-Kieffer Company Printing press moved from Singer’s Glen to Dayton, Virginia.
1880
1881 Aldine S. Kieffer letter
1882 – Virginia Organ Company built in Dayton as an associated business connected to the Ruebush-Kieffer Company.
1883 African American Reverend Theodore K. Clifford began his ministry in the United Brethren Church in the Shenandoah Valley.
1885-86 Musical Million Subscriber ledger book
1886 – Virginia Organ Company burns down and is not rebuilt
1889 Musical Million Subscriber ledger book
1890
1894 Kieffer to Funk Letters
Ruebush-Kieffer Company erects a new building for their company in Dayton, Virginia.
1899 Musical Million Subscriber ledger book
1900
Kieffer to Funk Letter 1904
November 30, 1904 Aldine Silliman Kieffer died and was buried in Dayton, Virginia.
1910
1914 – Musical Million stops publication
1920
September 14, 1924 Anthony Johnson Showalter died and is buried in West Hill Cemetery in Dalton, Georgia.
November 18, 1924 Ephraim Ruebush died and is buried in Dayton, Virginia.
1930
1934 – The Colored Sacred Harp by Judge Jackson of Ozark, Alabama is the first shape-note tunebook compiled by an African American.
1937-38 Swift Run church is torn down when Shenandoah National Park is built and Baugher family moves from their property near the park to Penn Laird, Virginia.