The substantial red brick house, at the Stickley place just referred to, was built a few years prior to the Civil War. For many years, it was the home of Col. Daniel Stickley. More than once, during the war, it was the scene of stirring incidents. Just after the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, it was used as a hospital. A strong pine table, which was taken from the kitchen and on which many limbs were amputated by the surgeons, is still preserved by the present owner, Mrs. Laura Bates. The ghostly walls of a large stone mill, burned by Sheridan, stand among the trees between this house and the creek, close to the smaller ruins of the old Bowman mill. This place, it is said, was a favorite stopping place for the stages and wagons that traversed the Valley Pike in antebellum days. The same is true of the Levi Stickley place, which is located at the top of the hill, a mile nearer to Strasburg.

The Miller girl, running to George Bowman's in 1764, a fugitive from the Indians, probably passed this old Stickley place on the hill. At that time, we may suppose, no dwelling was there.

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

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