Hard by the Valley Pike, on the east side, at Narrow Passage, is an old house that has many interesting associations. For a number of years, it was the home of L.H. McGinnis. At present (1927), it is owned by Judge E.D. Newman of Woodstock. This was doubtless a familiar way station for wagons and stages that went up and down the Pike in antebellum days. During the Civil War, in the spring of 1862, Stonewall Jackson's army frequently camped in the vicinity and Jackson, it is said, made this spacious house his headquarters. The occupants of this house in March, 1876, were doubtless near enough to hear the cries that followed the crash of the high railroad bridge that spans the creek a few rods away. Romance as well as tragedy linger here. Stories are told of one or two popular beauties who lived here in days long gone, who had brains as well as money, and wit if not wisdom.

Excerpted from John W. Wayland's A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia

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