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Thomas Balch Library
Thomas Balch Library© 2006 By Thomas Balch Library. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Elizabeth Preston
Collection open for research.
No physical characteristics affect use of this material.
Hamilton Book Club Historical Project, 1959; 1966; n.d. (SC 0096) Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.
Hamilton Book Club, Hamilton, VA.
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1995.0070
Elizabeth Preston, 13 December 2011
Hamilton, Virginia was founded around 1750 and originally had the name Harmony. Colonel James Hamilton (1720-1775) owned much of the land in the area; he served as a justice of the peace of Loudoun County, a trustee of Leesburg, and a vestryman of Shelby Parish. In 1826, a post office opened in a store owned by Hamilton's grandson, Charles Bennett Hamilton (d. 1835), and he was appointed postmaster. Because there was already a post office named Harmony in Virginia, the post office took the name Hamilton's Store. Eventually, the area became known as Hamilton. In 1875, the town was officially chartered and organized.
The Hamilton Book Club began meeting in 1911 in Hamilton when Lucy Ellen Harmison Whitacre (1859-1929) invited a group of women to meet in her home to organize a book club. The club operated as a small library with a rotating collection. Each year, members would submit one book for other members to read, and the members did not all read the same book at the same time. The club was meant to make a wide variety of books available to members and to increase interest in literature. The women met regularly at members' homes for entertainment and discussions. The Hamilton Book Club has operated continuously since its organization in 1911, and the books in its collection reflect the changing concerns, interests, and tastes of its membership.
In 1966 the club set out to gather historical information about the town of Hamilton. They spoke with older inhabitants about some of the events that took place in the area after the Civil War, researched the origins of the town and the town's name, and recorded information about businesses that had been in operation in the town for some time. The club preserved the research in typed worksheets, essays, and synopses. The research was eventually used by several local authors to write histories of Hamilton and the surrounding area.
This collections is made up of worksheets filled out by members of the Hamilton Book Club in 1966 as part of a research project. Club members researched topics like the origins of Hamilton, the Civil War battle that took place near the town, the 1926 fire that drastically changed the makeup of the downtown, and contemporary and past businesses. Also included in the collection are two historical sketches, a history of the Hamilton Masonic Lodge written by Ernest Shawen (1874-1964) in 1959, and a copy of a transcription of the charter of the town of Hamilton.
Folder
Norton, Donna, The Hamilton Book Club , 2010 (VREF 975.528 NOR); Norton, Donna, Snippets of Hamilton's Past , 2002 (VREF 975.528 NOR); Ruse, Richard, Early Recollections of Hamilton , n.d. (VREF 808 RUS).
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