When Lord Dunmore came to govern the colony of Virginia in 1772 the citizens passed a resolution endorsing his administration. They requested that a new county be formed from Frederick which would be called Dunmore County. Five years later, when he began to have trouble with the colonists the people of Woodstock instructed their burgess to get the name of their county changed to Shenandoah. This name is retained to the present time.
About six miles from Woodstock a Mr. Wolfe erected a fort on Stony Creek years and years ago. He had a fine hunting dog and at the time of our story Indians were lurking in the neighborhood. This was during the period when the savages were endeavoring to rid the Valley of the white men.
Mr. Wolfe went out hunting one morning and had not gone far before his dog began to run around and around him, blocking his path. Then he jumped up in front of his master, put his feet on his shoulders and seemed to try to stop Wolfe's progress. When the dog found he could not stop his master he ran back towards the fort, then back to his master, all the time whining a warning.
The hunter suspected some danger, so he kept his hand on his gun and watched out for Indians. He soon saw two of them behind a tree. Evidently they were waiting for their man to come close enough for them to get a good shot at him. Mr. Wolfe began to walk backward, making a rapid retreat to the fort. Long afterwards someone asked Mr. Wolfe why he did not kill the old dog since his years of usefulness were over and he was apparently uncomfortable. He told the inquirer the story of how the animal had saved his life and added, "I would sooner be killed myself than suffer that dog to be killed."
"There is a time to every purpose under the heaven—a time of war and a time of peace." So spoke one of Woodstock's most famous sons, the Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, in the Lutheran Church one Sunday morning after the Declaration of Independence had been issued. After delivering an inspired sermon taken from this text in which he reviewed his stand on liberty, he dramatically cast off his black pulpit robes and revealed to his astonished congregation his colonel's uniform of the Revolutionary army. He was about thirty years old then and had served the Woodstock flock for four years.
Dr. Wayland in his book The German Element in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, suggests that the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg was associated with the Episcopal as well as the Lutheran church and that "he seems beyond question to have received Episcopal ordination.... His connection with the Church of England was probably sought in order that his work as a clergyman might receive the readier and fuller sanction."
Almost immediately after preaching his patriotic sermon he raised a regiment among the Valley folk. Known as the Eighth Virginia, or German Regiment, they saw hard service at Germantown, Brandywine and Monmouth as well as in some of the southern battlefields.
Before the close of the war Muhlenberg was made a brigadier-general and after his retirement he lived in Pennsylvania, his original home before coming to the Valley of Virginia.
A movement is under way at the present time to restore the little church of the Lutheran faith where the colonel made his firey sermon. Let us hope this may be accomplished so that we may catch the inspiration of his remarks.
Woodstock saw the march of many feet during the War Between the States; almost constantly were the troops passing by, causing fields to be laid waste, crops to be confiscated and stock to be carried off. But the little town conceals her war scars well and today is a progressive community.