Fishersville History

The history of this settlement is almost as old as Augusta County itself. The location of the village appears on a map as early as 1738. The name was given to the community sometime after 1788 when Daniel and Nancy Fisher bought 273 acres here. The Fishers had 17 children, many of whom continued to live in the area. This section of the county, called Long Meadows, is prime agricultural land. Iron mining and lime production also took place in the vicinity in the 19th century. When the C&O railroad came into the area in the 1850s it served to further open markets to the east for farmers' produce and mining products. The railroad construction also gave Fishersville a footnote in history when, on Feb. 11, 1850, a riot broke out between two groups of Irish railroad construction workers, one working on the Fishersville stretch and the other at the top of Afton Mountain. Dubbed the Irish Rebellion, the riot that broke out between the two groups involved several hundred men and caused extensive property damage. Eventually the Augusta Militia was called in and approximately 50 arrests were made.

Despite that glitch in construction, the railroad was soon completed and continues to operate. It was Fishersville's accessibility by railroad that made it a prime location for the Woodrow Wilson Army General Hospital during World War II. The complex offered rehabilitative therapy for wounded servicemen. After the war, the hospital was transformed into the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center and was the first state-owned and operated rehabilitation center in the country that was comprehensive in its services for the handicapped. From the beginning, it offered medical services, therapy, evaluation, housing and vocational training. An historical highway marker along U.S. 250 has been erected to remember the beginnings of this innovative complex.

Another historical marker stands just east of the village at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church. This area was first settled mainly by Scotch-Irish pioneers from the north of Ireland. Most of the Scotch-Irish were Presbyterian, and these pioneers built a church on this site by 1748. The present structure is the third on the same site.

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