1887
Sketch Book of Liberty, VA
by
The central town of Bedford County, Virginia was once named Liberty. Many of the buildings described and illustrated in this Sketchbook of Liberty of 1887 have been preserved and may be seen today. The natural beauty and character of the area continues to attract visitors who return again and again. In 1782, on donated land and with a new log courthouse, the new town of Liberty superceded New London as Bedford County's seat of government. Liberty flourished for more than a century and changed itself to Bedford City in 1890. It reverted to town status in 1912. In 1968, it became the city of Bedford. In 1993 the place was recognized as "one of the 100 best small towns in America". Edward Pollack, a talented resident of Portsmouth, researched, illustrated, and published this Sketch Book --- more than a century ago --- about the centertown of Virginia's Bedford County. He wrote about its history and its people. He reported on its commerce. He sketched its buildings. Only a few copies of this valuable reference volume are known to have survived, and those are brittle, stained, and with torn or missing pages. Today, with this reissue by Hamilton's 106 years later, historians and genealogists will again be able to have their own copies of Pollack's historic work. Those who have discovered the Bedford region can understand how Edward Pollack felt when he wrote his preface: Liberty, Va., August 1st, 1887. "The compilation of this little volume has afforded me unmixed pleasure, inasmuch as it has been the means of laying open before me a new and interesting page of Virginia's glorious history, and gaining for me the acquaintance of a thriving, happy, and virtuous community." Includes many illustrations and old time ads.
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