Alleghany County was formed by the Virginia General Assembly on January 5, 1822, by taking 289,280 acres of land from Monroe (now in West Virginia), Botetourt and Bath counties.
The City of Covington had been designated as a town in 1819, three years before the birth of Harriet Tubman in Virginia.
Tubman, a celebrated abolitionist and spy for the Union during the American Civil War, was born Araminta Ross in 1822.
Also, the year Alleghany County was formed, Edgar Allan Poe’s wife, Virginia Clemm Poe, was born in Virginia as well.
Virginians dominated national political circles in 1822 with James Monroe, a Virginian and founding father, serving as the 5th President; John Marshall, a Virginian holding the office of Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; and Philip P. Barbour, a Virginian having been elected as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The United States was made up of only 24 of its 50 states at the time with Missouri having become the 24th state in 1821. A new star was added to Old Glory on July 4, 1822, to celebrate the addition of Mo.
Off the coast of Cuba in 1822, the USS Alligator battled three pirate schooners on Nov. 9 before it eventually wrecked on Carysfort Reef off the coast of Florida on Nov. 23, 1822.
Mathew B. Brady, the world-famous pioneer of photography whose photographs during the American Civil War helped chronicle the events, was born in 1822 in Virginia.
John Jacob Astor, III, a world-famous businessman, was also born in 1822 in Virginia as was Rutherford B. Hayes who became the nation’s 19th President.
The Alleghany County Bi-Centennial Celebration is scheduled to take place at 3:00 p.m. on Sept. 17, at Mountain Gateway Community College, the new name for Dabney S. Lancaster Community College as of July 1, 2022.
Three musical acts have been scheduled to provide the entertainment: Eaglemainia, touted as the world’s most famous Eagles Tribute Band; Caleb Bailey & Paines Run, a bluegrass band from the Shenandoah Valley; and Caleb Carpenter, a singer/songwriter/musician, from Clifton Forge.
A 4-H Kids’ Festival will be held as part of the festivities along with a car show, and a beer garden will be set up in addition to food vendors. Fireworks will cap the day’s events.
Banners announcing the Alleghany County Bi-Centennial have been erected at various locations throughout the Alleghany Highlands.
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