Introduction

In 1959, Jed Hotchkiss, the famous engineering officer and mapmaker to “Stonewall” Jackson, together with his brother, Nelson, purchased a farm near this little village. The brothers built several buildings and opened the Loch Willow Academy. Loch Willow Academy was closed at the beginning of the war, then in 1863, because the two brothers could not longer get along, (probably because Nelson was a union man), the farm was sold. Hotchkiss’s family remained in their home next to the farm. Hotchkiss returned the area immediately after the war and reopened Loch Willow Academy for awhile before moving with his family to Staunton.

Hotchkiss traded his home at Loch Willow to W. H. Waddell for another house in Staunton.

Jed and his wife Sara Ann belonged to the Union Church.

Map/264/ William L. Jackson’s and John D. Imboden’s cavalry brigades camped in the area in late March 1865 just a few days before the war was over.

Memoir of Ms Surrett, April 26. Been busy making knapsacks for rebel troopers. Ladies here cutting out and making uniforms for the Churchville Cavalry Company. Work at Odd Fellow's Hall early and late. Mr. Arnold was formerly a tailor and helps night and day.

The country is rugged, and west of Churchville it is increasingly beautiful, hazy in the sunlight, the surrounding wilderness preserved in the George Washington National Forest. In the spring, yellow forsythia blooms on the banks of clear little brooks or "drafts" as the locals call them.