American Amish Company's Corporate Office is located in the heart of the
Shenandoah Valley and is one of the area's largest providers of sheds, barns, gazebos, swing sets and other structures
built by Amish craftsman. We pride ourselves on our professional and friendly service, and look forward to assisting
you in selecting a structure that perfectly fits your needs and wishes.
Our History
American Amish Company
Est. 1998
Our family farm was a land grant from Lord Fairfax in 1748. The original track of land was approximately 3,000
acres. Over 250 years later, like most farms, it decreased in size because of generation of family members sell
acreage for many reasons, including land for family members to start a new family or simply for money to live on.
Most farm/land owners in the world famous Shenandoah Valley grew apples, starting in the 1800's. 200 miles and
millions of apple trees graced this unbelievable countryside. April of each year was a sight a person would never
forget! To look as far as you could in any direction and see nothing but beautiful, fragrant white blossoms of
the apples trees was breathtaking!
My grandmother was the fist female apple grower in the Shenandoah Valley, forced to take over after my grandfather
passed away. He was struck by a vehicle delivering apples in 1940.
During the Civil War, the Shenandoah Valley was primarily where most of the war was fought. Our farm house is located
on the main route the Confederate troops used when traveling north from the southern states. Our county records
support the following story:
The Confederate troops would raid our farm during the Civil War and steal by ransacking my great-grandmother's
ham houses and stealing her chickens, along with anything else they could eat. Finally, my great-grandmother wrote
to General Stonewall Jackson to complain about the troops stealing her hams, chickens, eggs, etc.... and never
again was a feather touched on our farm. General Stonewall Jackson was one of the most feared in warfare history.
I feel like a very blessed person to live in the Shenandoah Valley with our abundance of history and way of life.
Growing up on our farm, I made hay, picked apples, peaches, cherries, plums and used almost all kinds of tractors
and machinery. My background with outdoor situations has helped our company to facilitate delivering and placing
out buildings in difficult places, out-of-the-way homes, etc...
Shenandoah Valley History
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in
the United States. The valley is bound to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front
of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians (excluding Massanutten Mountain), to the north by the Potomac River and to
the south by the James River. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the valley plus the
Virginia highlands to the west, and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the
Ridge and Valley province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.
The Shenandoah Valley is a productive agricultural region. Despite the great promise of the rich farmland of the
valley, colonial settlement from the east was long barred by the barrier of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They had
been crossed by explorer John Lederer at Manassas Gap in 1671, and by Governor Alexander Spotswood's legendary
Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition at Swift Run Gap in 1716, but settlers did not immediately follow.
The Valley Pike (or Valley Turnpike) began as the Great Warriors Trail, a native road through common hunting grounds
shared by several tribes settled around the periphery, which included Iroquoian, Siouan and Algonquian tribes.
Known native settlements within the actual Valley were few, but included Shawnees occupying the region around Winchester,
and Tuscaroras around what is now Martinsburg, WV. In the late 1720s and 1730s, Quakers and Mennonites began to
move in from Pennsylvania, and were tolerated by the natives, while "Long Knives" (English settlers from
coastal Virginia colony) were less welcomed. During these same decades, the valley route continued to be used by
maurading bands of Lenape en route from New Jersey to commit depredations against the distant Catawba in South
Carolina, with whom they were at war. The Catawba would then pursue these parties northward in retaliation, generally
overtaking them by the time they reached the Potomac, and leading to several pitched battles fought in the Valley
region, as attested by the earliest settlers.[4]
Later colonists called this route the Great Wagon Road, and it became the major thoroughfare for immigrants moving
by wagons from Pennsylvania and northern Virginia into the backcountry of the South. The road was macadamized prior
to the Civil War and later refined and paved for motor vehicles. In the 20th century, the Valley Turnpike was a
toll road. Then it was acquired by the Commonwealth of Virginia which incorporated it into the state highway system
as U.S. Highway 11. For much of its length, the newer Interstate 81 parallels the old Valley Pike.
Along with the first German settlers, known as "Shenandoah Deitsch", many Scots-Irish immigrants came
south in the 1730s from Pennsylvania into the valley, via the Potomac River. The Scots-Irish comprised the largest
group of immigrants from the British Isles before the Revolutionary War, and most migrated into the backcountry
of the South.[5] This was in contrast to the chiefly English immigrants who had settled the Virginia Tidewater
and eastern Piedmont regions. The few Shawnees who still resided in the Valley abruptly headed westward in 1754,
having been approached the year before by emissaries from tribes beyond the Alleghanies.[6]
The Shenandoah Valley was known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy during the Civil War and seen as a back door
for Confederate raids on Maryland, Washington and Pennsylvania. Because of its strategic importance it was the
scene of three major campaigns. The first was the Valley Campaign of 1862, in which Confederate General Stonewall
Jackson defended the valley against three numerically superior Union armies. The final two were the Valley Campaigns
of 1864. First, in the summer of 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early cleared the valley of its Union occupiers
and then proceeded to raid Maryland, Pennsylvania and D.C. Then during the fall, Union General Philip Sheridan
was sent to drive Early from the valley and once-and-for-all destroy its use to the Confederates by putting it
to the torch using scorched-earth tactics. The valley, especially in the lower northern section, was also the scene
of bitter partisan fighting as the region's inhabitants were deeply divided over loyalties and Confederate partisan
John Mosby and his Rangers frequently operated in the area.
In the late 20th century, the valley's vineyards began to reach maturity. They constituted the new industry of
the Shenandoah Valley American Viticultural Area.
Shenandoah
Valley information from Wikipedia. |
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Our historical family farm house built in 1748.
Peach orchard in bloom.
Peach orchard in bloom.
Peach orchard in bloom.
Apples ready for harvest.
Apples in the crate after picking.
Harvested apples being inspected.
Close-up of the apples ready for shipping.
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