County Past
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Madison County, Virginia

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
21historic places
—earliest paper
1793formed
13,837pop. 2020
16cemeteries
2CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 21 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1969; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Madison, Luray, Locust Dale.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Virginia is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Madison titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

8 of 21 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

21 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Belle PlaineLocust DaleDistrict2016
Big Meadows SiteLuraySite1985
BramptonOrangeBuilding1985
Camp Hoover NHLGraves MillDistrict1988
Cliff Kill SiteLuraySite1985
Coates BarnEtlanBuilding2020
Corbin, George T., CabinNethersBuilding1989
Criglersville Elementary SchoolCriglersvilleBuilding2025
Gentle SiteLuraySite1985
Graves MillWolftownBuilding2006
GreenwayMadison MillsBuilding1988
Hebron Lutheran ChurchMadisonBuilding1971
Hoffman Round BarnWolftownDistrict2009
Homeplace, TheMadisonBuilding1999
James City Historic DistrictMadisonDistrict2001
Locust HillLocust DaleBuilding2002
Madison County CourthouseMadisonBuilding1969
Madison County Courthouse Historic DistrictMadisonDistrict1984
Residence, TheWoodberry ForestBuilding1979
Robertson Mountain SiteLuraySite1985
WoodbourneMadisonBuilding1999

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Madison was formed in 1793 (1793-05-01) from Culpeper.

MADISON created from CULPEPER.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Madison County population from 1800 to 2020 (Census historical series).

14k11k8,10718001840188019101920196020002020
1800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
8,3228,4908,1078,85410,56210,2169,5958,4658,2738,18710,23212,52013,837

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

SiteTypeDist.
Shenandoah National ParkNational Park18.6 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

16 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 16 of 16 listed
NameLatLon
Berry Cemetery38.45569-78.31478
Bethsaida United Methodist Church Cemetery38.42881-78.18363
Brown Cemetery38.48971-78.31029
Cedar Hill Cemetery38.38729-78.2516
Elk Run Cemetery38.33763-78.33501
Etlan Cemetery38.52517-78.25746
Gallihugh Cemetery38.42864-78.27873
Gordon Cemetery38.38748-78.2541
Jarrell Cemetery38.411-78.35135
Mount Nebo Lutheran Church Cemetery38.28662-78.27362
Mount Zion Cemetery38.47452-78.31179
Robinson River Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery38.418-78.20031
Rose Park United Methodist Cemetery38.35207-78.34528
Second Robertson Cemetery38.42859-78.26589
Thorofare Community Chapel Cemetery38.40487-78.13917
Wallace Cemetery38.37513-78.3889
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Oldrag38.55707-78.33223

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Cedar Mountain6,86018.3 kmVA022
Morton'S Ford5,66233.0 kmVA045

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Madison County, Virginia

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.