RESOURCES

​​​The Smithfield Review is an academic journal featuring studies in the history of the region west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is produced in partnership between The Smithfield-Preston Foundation and the Department of History at Virginia Tech.  


Articles include studies of important personages and events, reports of archeological discoveries, as well as analyses of the social, cultural, political, economic, and architectural history of the region.  No other annual journal documents the important history of the region in such a thorough manner.

Current Smithfield Review Board of Editors

Daniel B. Thorp, Editor History, Virginia Tech and Smithfield-Preston | Clara Cox, Associate Editor | Charles L. Taylor Political Science, Virginia Tech (retired), Charter Member | ​Sherry Joines Wyatt Montgomery Museum ​| Scott Gardner | ​Marc Brodsky Archives, Virginia Tech ​| Hugh Campbell, Founding Editor Mathematics, Virginia Tech (retired) and Smithfield-Preston (emeritus) | Michael Hudson, ex officio Smithfield-Preston.

Published Volumes

The Smithfield Review is available in print. Some later volumes are available digitally through Virginia Tech's library system.

Volume 1 (1997)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors, Recollections of 18th Century Virginia Frontier Life

    • Letitia Preston Floyd, Introduction by Wirt H. Wills

  • Newport, Virginia - A Crossroads Village

    • Douglas D. and Perry D. Martin

  • Our Native Stone: Architecture and Identity at Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute, 1872 - 1922

    • J. Daniel Pezzoni

  • The Coal Mining Way of Life in Virginia’s New River Valley: Hard Work, Family and Community

    • Mary B. La Lone

  • William Ballard Preston and the Politics of Slavery 1832 - 1862

    • Peter Wallenstein

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 2 (1998)
Contents

  • A Note from the Editors, A Story of Continuity and Change, Blacksburg, Virginia 1798 - 1998

    • James Paxton

  • Ties to External Markets: Imports and Exports in the New River Valley, 1745-1789

    • Scott Crawford

  • John Floyd, Kentucky Hero, and Three Generations of Floyds and Prestons of Virginia

    • Letitia Preston Floyd, Introduction by Wirt H. Wills

  • A Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections of the Preston Family

    • Laura Katz Smith

  • The Giles County Earthquake of 1897 - Virginia’s Largest Temblor

    • Gil Bollinger

  • Mineral Fights - Civil War Battles for Southwestern Virginia’s Lead and Salt

    • Robert C. Whisonant

  • Desertion and Unionism in Floyd County, Virginia, 1861 - 1865

    • Paul Randolph Dotson Jr​

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 3 (1999)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors,Thomas Winton Fisher, Confederate Soldier ad 19th Century Pilgrim from Wythe County Virginia: Part 1

    • Darlene Brown Simpson

  • James Patton Preston’s Wayward Son: Letters from the Smithfield-Preston Foundation Collection at Virginia Tech

    • Laura Katz Smith

  • Bottom Creek: From Community to Conservancy

    • Jim Crawford

  • William P. Hickman in the New River Valley, 1852-64

    • H. William Gabriel

  • Book Reviews

    • Edited by Tom Costa

  • Index to Volumes I - IIIMary C. Holliman and Diana Kittleman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 4 (2000)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Reconfiguring Virginia

    • George Harrison Gilliam

  • Hickmans and Servants: Two Appalachian Families

    • H. William Gabriel

  • The Grinch That Stole Southern History: Anthem for an Appalachian Perspective

    • Peter Wallenstein

  • Part II: Thomas Winton Fisher, Confederate Soldier and 19th Century Pilgrim

    • Darlene Brown Simpson

  • Prehistoric Southwest Virginia: Aboriginal Occupation, Land Use and Environmental Worldview

    • Will Sarvis

  • Book Review

  • A Letter to the Editor

  • Index

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 5 (2001)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • The First Linkous in Virginia: German Soldiers in the Revolution

    • Clovis E. Linkous

  • A ‘Sorrowful Cavalcade’: Enslaved Migration through Appalachian Virginia

    • Phillip D. Troutman

  • Malissia of Tom’s Creek and Brush Mountain

    • Joni Pienkowski

  • Triumph and Tragedy: A Railroad Struggle Instrumental in Creating Roanoke, Virginia

    • John R. Hildebrand

  • Book Reviews

  • Index

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 6 (2002)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Batteaux on Virginia’s Rivers

    • Dan Crawford

  • William Fleming, Patriot

    • Clare White

  • On a Shallow Foundation of Freedom: Building the Campus of the Christiansburg Institute

    • M. Anna Fariello

  • Smithfield Plantation: The Original Land Parcels

    • Sarah Beth Keough and Blaine Adams

  • The Diaries of James Armistead Otey

    • James Otey Hoge Jr.

  • Book Reviews

  • Index

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 7 (2003)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • What Really Happened at Drapers Meadows? The Evolution of a Frontier Legend

    • Ellen Apperson Brown

  • The Owners of the Historic Smithfield Manor House

    • Wirt H. Wills

  • The Strange Campbell/Shelby Controversy and the Role of John Broady at the Battle of Kings Mountain

    • Mason G. Robertson and June N. Stubbs

  • The Preston Cemetery of Historic Smithfield Plantation

    • Laura Jones Wedin

  • The Diaries of James Armistead Otey: 1909 -

    • James Otey Hoge, Jr.

  • Book Reviews

    • Tom Costa

  • Index

    • Mary C. Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 8 (2004)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Civil War Letters to Blacksburg: The Correspondence of Pvt. Theophilius Raney

    • Edited by James I Robertston, Jr.

  • The Genesis and Dissolution of William Preston’s Smithfield

    • Wirt H. Wills

  • “Fork Me Out the Dimes”: Newspaper Carriers’ Addresses of Salem, Virginia, 1854-1904

    • John Long

  • Portrait of a Survivor: The Long and Eventful Life of Mary Draper Ingles

    • Ellen Apperson Brown

  • Conquistadors at Saltville in 1567? A Review of the Archaeological and Documentary Evidence

    • Jim Glanville

  • Index

    • Mary C. Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 9 (2005)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors,

  • John Preston Sheffey and the Civil War in Southwestern Virginia

    • James I. Robertson, Jr.

  • “Thou art the Potter” - A History of Bodell Pottery

    • Dorothy H. Bodell

  • The Devil, the Weaver’s Bonny, and Alfreda Peel: Exploring the Roots of an Ancient Virginia Folk Ballad

    • John Lon

  • Old Deeds Tell A New Story

    • Robert B. McNeil

  • Improper Archaeology, “Fabulous Saltville”, and the Ancient History of Southwest Virginia

    • Jim Glanville

  • Book Review

    • Edited by Tom Costa

  • Index

    • Mary C. Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 10 (2006)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • An Unexpected Enemy and the Turn of the Tide: Andrew Creswell’s King’s Mountain Letter

    • Hubert Gilliam and Jim Glanville

  • The Phoenix Caper - A Frontiersman Goes to Sea

    • Wirt H. Wills

  • Montgomery County in August 1862: A Showalter Observation

    • James I. Robertson, Jr.

  • The Blade from Glade

    • Jim Glanville

  • Growth and Independence of Methodist Congregations in Blacksburg, Virginia

    • Christopher Ross Donald

  • Book Review

    • Edited by Tom Costa

  • Index to the first ten volumes

    • Mary C. Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 11 (2007)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • The Indian Captivity Narrative of Charles Johnston

    • John Long

  • To Refrain from Drinking Ardent Spirits: The Bet between Peter Byrns and Francis Preston

    • Hubert Gilliam and Jim Glanville

  • “To Counterfeit the Soul”: Portraiture at Historic Smithfield

    • Jessica Wirgau

  • An Ordinary Woman: Sarah A. Geer McIntyre of Saltville, Virginia

    • Zola Troutman Noble

  • Progress at Gunpoint: Struggle in the Coal Fields of Southern West Virginia, 1890 - 1920

    • Zack Fields

  • Brief Note: How the Mastodon Got Its Name: The Southwest Virginia Connection

    • Jim Glanville

  • Book Review: The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley

    • Tom Costa

  • Index to Volume XI

    • Mary Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Via Virginia Tech Libraries

​Volume 12 (2008)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • William Preston, Revolutionary (1779 - 1780)

    • Richard Osborn

  • From a Bishop and a Patriot to a Bishop and a Saint: Rival Understandings of the Naming of Emory and Henry College

    • Robert J. Vejnar II

  • Rock Spring Plantation: Incubator of Two American Industries

    • Jim Crawford

  • Brief Notes: Indian Slavery and Freedom Suits: The Cases of Rachel Viney and Rachel Findlay

    • Mary B. Kegley

  • Architectural Fashion and the Changing Faces of Yellow Sulphur Springs

    • Dustin Albright

  • Comments About Andrew Creswell’s Kings Mountain Letter

    • Jim Glanville

  • Index to Volume XII

    • Mary Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 13 (2009)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Adam Hartman, German Pioneer on the New River

    • Zola Troutman Noble

  • The Central Role of William Preston and Other Smithfield Region Leaders in The Opening Up of Kentucky

    • Meredith Mason Brown

  • William Preston, Revolutionary, 1781

    • Richard Osborn

  • The Diaries of Rosanna Croy Dawson

    • Joann Pack Sutphin

  • Aspenvale Cemetery and Its Place in the History of Southwest Virginia

    • Jim Glanville

  • Book Review

    • Edited by Tom Costa

  • Index to Volume XIII

    • Mary Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 14 (2010)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Early Presbyterians in Montgomery County

    • Charles Lewis Taylor

  • The Forgotten Fencible

    • April Martin Danner

  • Mother Dearly Loved Flowers: The Beale Memorial Garden at Hollins University

    • Jennie Hodge

  • Fort Chiswell and Chiswell’s Lead Mines of Wythe County, Virginia: A New Perspective

    • Mary B. Kegley

  • The Fincastle Resolutions

    • Jim Glanville

  • Book Review

    • Edited by Tom Costa

  • Index to Volume XIV Mary Holliman

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries

Volume 15 (2011)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • James Buckingham’s Travels in Southern Appalachia, 1839

    • Tom Costa

  • William Radford, Revolutionary Patriot of the Continental Marines

    • David L. Mordy and James C. Mordy

  • The Mysterious Origins of James Patton, Part 1

    • Jim Glanville and Ryan Mays

  • Whiskey, Soldiers and Voting: Western Virginia Elections in the 1790s

    • Wesley J. Campbell

  • Brief Note: A Letter to the Editor of Smithfield Review Concerning William Preston and Greenfield

    • Rupert Cutler

  • Brief Note: The Siting of Smithfield in Relation to the Fincastle Botetourt County Line

    • Jim Glanville

  • Index to Volume XV

    • Clara Cox

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 16 (2012)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • A Future French King Visits the Virginia Backcountry in 1797

    • Sharon B. Watkins

  • A Floyd County Family in Wartime

    • Edited by James Robertson

  • The Phoenix Privateering Syndicate and Marine Captain John Floyd

    • David L. Mordy and James C. Mordy

  • Spring’s Green Peas, Nocturnal Thieves and Other Family Lore about Susanna Smith Preston

    • Jennie Hodge

  • Southwest Virginia: A Thoroughfare of Nation-Building

    • Jim Glanville

  • Index to Volume 16

    • Susan B. Felker

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries

​Volume 17 (2013)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • A Future French King Visits the Overhill Cherokee in 1797

    • Sharon B. Watkins

  • The Early Bingamans in the New River Area

    • Sheila M. Bingaman

  • William Preston and the Surveyor and the Great Virginia Land Grab

    • Jim Glanville

  • “Learn your wives and daughters how to use the gun and pistol”, The Succession Crisis in Montgomery County, Virginia

    • Daniel B. Thorp

  • Brief Note: From Thoreau to Confucius, via Abingdon, Virginia

    • Jim Glanville

  • Book Review: Skirmish at Pearisburg

    • George A. McLean, Jr.

  • Index to Volume 17

    • Rachael Garrity

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 18 (2014)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Political Passions in the Backcountry of Tennessee and Kentucky in 1797

    • Sharon B. Watkins

  • The Draper’s Meadows Settlement (1746-1756) Part I: George Draper and Family

    • Ryan S. Mays

  • The William Preston / George Washington Letters

    • Jim Glanville and Ryan S. Mays

  • A Summary of the 19th-Century Smithfield Part 1: The Years Before the Civil War

    • Laura Jones Wedin

  • Conquistadors at Saltville in 1567 Revisited

    • Jim Glanville

  • Index to Volume 18

    • Rachael Garrity

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 19 (2015)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • The Draper’s Meadows Settlement (1746-1756) Part II

    • Ryan S. Mays

  • Peter Harrison Whisner, D.D.

    • Paul L. Nichols

  • The Early Years of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Part 1

    • Clara B. Cox

  • A Sketch of Letitia Preston Floyd and Some of Her Letters

    • Jim Glanville and Ryan S. Mays

  • Governor John Floyd, Letitia Preston Floyd, and the Catholic Church

    • Jim Glanville

  • Letitia Preston Floyd: Pioneer Catholic Feminist

    • Harry E. Winter, OMI

  • Brief Note: Sugar Maples and Maple Sugar at Historic Smithfield

    • Donald E. Bixby

  • Index to Volume 19

    • Rachael Garrity

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 20 (2016)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • Olin and Preston Institute and Preston and Olin Institute: The Early Years of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Part II

    • Clara B. Cox

  • Change Amidst Tradition: The First Two Years of the Burruss Administration at VPI

    • Faith Skiles

  • Thomas Nelson Conrad: Educator, Editor, Preacher, Spy

    • Clara B. Cox

  • Adam Harman, the New River, and Tom’s Creek: An Analysis of the Earliest Documentary Records

    • Ryan S. Mays

  • Letitia Preston Floyd: Supplementary Notes

    • Jim Glanville and Ryan S. Mays

  • Letitia Preston Floyd’s “My Dear Rush” Letter

    • Jim Glanville and Ryan S. Mays

  • Index to Volumes 11 - 20Rachael Garrity

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 21 (2017)

Contents

  • A Note from the Editors

  • A Tribute to Hugh Campbell

    • Charles L. Taylor

  • New Maritime Records of James Patton

    • Ryan S. Mays

  • Alexander Black and His World, 1857-1935: Part I: 1857-1877

    • Sharon B. Watkins

  • True Friends of the Confederacy

    • John R. Hildebrand

  • “The Nigh and Best Way”: The Early Development of Roads in Montgomery County

    • Jim Page and Sherry Joines Wyatt

  • Catawba Sanatorium: Its Founding and Early History

    • Grace Hemmingson

  • Brief Note: Possible Scottish Baptism Records of James Patton’s Children

    • Ryan S. Mays

  • Index to Volume 21

    • Sharon B. Watkins and Clara B. Cox

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 22 (2018)

Contents

  • A Message to the Editor

  • Southwest Virginians and the “War to End Wars”

    • David McKissack

  • “Living in a New World”: World War One and the Decline of Military Tradition at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1916 - 1923

    • Daniel C. Newcomb

  • Sketch of the Life of Dr. Harvey Black

    • John S. Apperson (transcribed by Clara B. Cox)

  • Alexander Black and His World, 1857-1935: Part II: Alexander Black and the Bank of Blacksburg, 1877 - 1935

    • Sharon B. Watkins

  • Document: A Letter from Janie Preston Boulware Lamb

  • Index to Volume 22

    • Clara B. Cox and Sharon B. Watkins

Print Copies: $10.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Version Available Via Virginia Tech Libraries 

Volume 23 (2019)

Contents

  • A Message from the Editor

  • “The original purchase was blood, and mine shall seal the surrender”: The Importance of Place in Botetourt County’s Resolutions, 1775

    • Sarah E. McCartey

  • The War in Words: Union and Confederate Civil War Military Camp Newspapers in Western Virginia

    • Stewart Plein

  • Life on Poorhouse Knob: Poor-relief in Montgomery County, Virginia, 1830 - 1860

    • Jennifer A. Gallagher

  • A Summary of Nineteenth-Century Smithfield, Part 2: The Early War Years, 1861 - 1862

    • Laura Jones Wedin

  • Book Review: Facing Freedom Examines Lives of Post-Civil War African Americans in Montgomery County, Virginia

    • University of Virginia Press

  • Index to Volume 23

    • Clara B. Cox

Print Copies: $14.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Copy Unavailable

Volume 24 (2020)

Contents

  • Messages from Our Publishers

  • A Message from the Editors

  • Crossing into War: Hostages in Civil War Virginia and West Virginia by Randall S. Gooden

  • The Life and Times of William Addison Caldwell: Virginia Tech’s First Student by Clara B. Cox

  • Book Review: The Blacksburg Drama: A History of Blacksburg in Three Acts by Sharon B. Watkins

  • To “Whiten the Mountains: Abolishing Slavery in West(ern) Virginia, 1861-1865 by Adam Zucconi

  • Document: Thomas Jefferson Letter and Transcription by Ryan J. Spencer

  • Index to Volume 24 by Sharon B. Watkins & Clara B. Cox

Print Copies: $14.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Copy Unavailable

Volume 25 (2021) - 25th Anniversary Issue

Contents

  • The Smithfield Review: Looking Back on a Quarter Century by Various Contributing Authors

  • “The Embodiment of True Womanhood: Belle Heth, a Nineteenth Century Woman of Influence and Means” by Scott L. Gardner

  • The Extraordinary Life of Zachariah Carr: Free People of Color Living in Montgomery County by Daniel B. Thorp

  • Letitia Preston Floyd Write from Thorn Spring edited by Robert Hill

  • Civil War Diary of Lt. Col. Edwin Harman, 45th VA Inf’y. Reg. by David Davis & William C. Davis

Print Copies: $14.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Copy Unavailable

Volume 26 (2022)

Contents

  • First Founding: Pre-Civil War Origins of Virginia Tech by Peter Wallenstein

  • A Wife’s Advice Saves the Life of Col. George S. Patton by George A McLean, Jr.

  • Thomas and Othello Fraction: Freedmen Considered Slaves by William G. Foster, Jr.

  • Great War Veterans in Pinehurst Cemetery (Pulaski, VA) by April Martin

  • James Francis Preston’s Letters from Mexico, 1847-1848 by Daniel B. Thorp

Print Copies: $14.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Copy Unavailable

Volume 27 (2023)

Contents

  • The Sisters in Black: Separating Documentation from Myth by Clara Cox

  • An 1853 Visit to Mountain Lake by Lewis Miller & Friends related by George McLean

  • A Summary of Nineteenth Century Smithfield, Part 3 by Laura Wedin

  • The Two Southwest Virginia Wives of William Clark by Steven Blake

  • Letter from Mary Elizabeth Caperton by Daniel B. Thorp

Print Copies: $14.00 (plus tax and shipping)

Digitized Copy Unavailable