History of Alma, Page Co., VA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Project and VAGenWeb Project Archives by Genealogical Society of Page County, VA USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other commercial presentation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From what I can learn from the oldest men of this neighborhood, Mr.William MARTIN, who now lives at Rileyville, Page county, built the first house in Alma--about 50 years ago. This country then was all the finest of pine timber. Mr. MARTIN hewed the logs for the house on the ground that the building now covers. Mr. MARTIN lived at this place till the year '74 then he sold out to Adam SEAKFORD and moved with his large family where he now lives. At that time, the town had no name, but five years before the war a man by the name of Dr. GALISPY moved from Fredericksburg to the old Columbia Mills, which stood on the Shenandoah River about three-fourths of a mile of the present Alma. He succeeded in getting a post office but in two or three months he and the KITES had some trouble and he moved to what is now Alma and built the Russell JENKINS house. He kept the office till the year 1862, and named the place Alma. At that time there was a war going on in Russia, and in that country was a place called Alma that the enemy was trying hard to take, hence the name Alma. I moved to the town in the year 1872. There was one store here then, owned by F. M. RUSSELL and C. D. PRICE; one blacksmith shop, conducted by A. SHORT and sons; one wheelright shop conducted by J. W. PHILLIPS; one shoemaker shop, conducted by G. W. FOLTZ, and one cooper shop, conducted by Wm. MARTIN. The town had no doctor. The first doctor was William CLINE; afterwards came Dr. AMISS, of Luray. Then came Dr. H. R. FINTER. All the doctors have occupied the same house that Dr. FINTER now lives in. The place then had several dwelling houses occupied by Russell JENKINS, F. M. RUSSELL, William MARTIN, J. W. PHILLIPS, G. W. FOLTZ, Amazon SHORT; one vacant. Now the town has 16 dwellings and two fine churches--Lutheran and Old School Baptist. At the time the nearest church was old Mt. Zion, still standing on the road leading from Alma to Stanley. This old landmark was built and used by all denominations long before the war, and to that church people rode and walked for miles to hear men preach who have long years passed away; BOOTON, BROADDUS, KOONTZ and many others. My first school days were at Alma, in the year 1873. That winter the school house was built and Miss Mary FORE, of Richmond, was our teacher. I would like to give you the names of these pupils, all of whom I remember well, but it would take too much of your space. Suffice it to say that they are now scattered all over the United States, and the good instruction received I have no doubt was helpful in making them the good and useful citizens nearly all of them have turned out to be. Seven are dead, possibly eight. There is much of interest of the old town that I might write, and as it occurs to me later, I may put it in this imperishable form for the future historian of the county. GABRIEL Source: Page News and Courier, Thursday, March 13, 1902