GEORGE CHRISMAN HOUSE, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, is located northwest of Route 42 and Edom, on Shaver Mill Road (Route 780).

Sometime between 1761 and 1787, George Chrisman (b. 1745, d. 1816) built this two-story limestone house where he lived with his wife Hannah McDowell Chrisman (b. 1744, d. 1817) and their seven children.   In 1781, during the Revolutionary War, George Chrisman was sworn in as a captain in the Rockingham County militia.

In a 1957 letter to the former owners, Shenandoah Valley historian and author John W. Wayland wrote that the house "is probably one of the oldest in Rockingham County." 

George Chrisman's parents were among the many pioneer families who traveled from Pennsylvania to Virginia by wagon train in 1731/32 under the leadership of Jost Hite (b. 1685, d. 1761). George's father, Jacob Chrisman (b. 1706, d. 1778), was a native of Germany who had married Jost Hite’s daughter Magdalena (b. 1713, d. 1771) a few years earlier in Pennsylvania. Their first child, Jacob Jr., was born in 1730, so the Chrismans made the difficult journey to Virginia with a small child in tow.

Above: Blue Ridge Mountains.  Taken from the field south of the house, looking east.

Captain Chrisman's grandfather was personally responsible for encouraging and guiding several groups of primarily German families, including his own sons, daughters and their families, to the land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  In The German Element of The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, John W. Wayland states that "the county deed books of Orange, Frederick, and Augusta contain almost innumerable records of land sales by Jost Hite."  As he was in his own lifetime, Jost Hite is recognized today as one of the earliest settlers of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The Shaver family owned this stone house for more than 100 years and the ruins of Shaver Mill, an early 19th century gristmill, can still be seen on the property. Although known locally for years as "The Shaver Place," when the house was placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, it was officially named in honor of the original owner.

THE CIRCA DATE

It is impossible to assign a firm date of construction without a date stone or other substantiating documentation, and unfortunately, many early records for Rockingham County have been lost as the result of two fires - one in 1787 and the second in 1864 when Union troops intentionally burned courthouse records during the Civil War. 

The following is excerpted from the National Register of Historic Places registration form for George Chrisman House, prepared in June 2006 by Preservation Consultant Sarah Edwards: "The construction of the two-story limestone main house helps to illustrate the economic success of George Chrisman and his place within the local gentry.  While the existing fragments of tax records for Rockingham County begin at 1787, the rate of tax and the total value that the Chrismans paid suggests that there was a substantial structure located on the property on Joe's Creek.  The tax value on their property is almost triple what many other residents in the district paid, thus supporting the date of the house's construction prior to 1787."      

Born in 1745, George grew up in Frederick County, VA, surrounded by limestone houses that had been built in the 1750s by his father, grandfather and uncles.  The Hite men, and men who married into the Hite family like George’s father, must have been extremely well acquainted with all aspects of stone house construction, and George and the other young boys may have assisted by fetching water or performing other simple tasks.  At the very least, the children would have been firsthand observers of the process.   

In 1761 Jacob and Magdalena Chrisman deeded 376 acres on Linville Creek to their sixteen year-old son George.  Five years later in 1766, George was a married twenty-one year-old with a newborn son.  He had to build a house for his growing family.  It had probably been determined years before that his home would be made of local Virginia limestone, and George would have started building as soon as he was able. 

By 1779, George and Hannah’s busy German-American household included four sons who were four, six, ten, and thirteen years old and two daughters under the age of two.  The Chrismans' seventh and last child, another girl, was born in 1784.  The family was now complete and the American Revolution was finally over.  

According to the 1784 Rockingham County Heads of Household Survey, the property of “Capt. George Christman” included “1 dwelling and 3 other buildings.” 

Above: This bronze plaque was a gift from Susan's parents, Paul and Claire Klender (shown in photo).  Thanks again!

Above: Winter 2006.

Above: View from the front porch on a morning in January 2011.  

Like the house, this site is constantly under construction, so please check back periodically for additional images and information.  Thanks for looking!