Cross Keys, Virginia

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Cross Keys
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Cross Keys
Location in Virginia
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Cross Keys
Cross Keys (the United States)
Coordinates: 38°21′27″N78°50′46″W / 38.35750°N 78.84611°W / 38.35750; -78.84611
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
State Virginia
County Rockingham County

Cross Keys is an unincorporated community located in Rockingham County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Contents

Geography

It is located on State Route 276 south of Harrisonburg. [1]

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Cross Keys
Location of Cross Keys within the Rockingham County

History

On June 8, 1862, it was the site of the Battle of Cross Keys, a Confederate victory in Jackson's Valley Campaign during the American Civil War.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Cross Keys has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. [2]

Culture

Singers gather around the grave of Ananias Davisson in Cross Keys, following an all-day shape note singing. Davisson Graveside 20150607.png
Singers gather around the grave of Ananias Davisson in Cross Keys, following an all-day shape note singing.

Ananias Davisson, the publisher of the first Southern shape note tunebook, the Kentucky Harmony (1816), is buried in the Cross Keys cemetery. Davisson was from the Shenandoah Valley, but many of the songs were collected during trips to Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of his musical compositions have been republished in the Shenandoah Harmony, and the annual Northern Shenandoah Valley All Day Shenandoah Harmony Singing typically ends with a visit by singers to the Cross Keys cemetery, where they sing Ananias Davisson's "Retirement" at the graveside of the composer.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ananias Davisson</span>

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The Kentucky Harmony is a shape note tunebook, published in 1816 by Ananias Davisson. It is the first Southern shape-note tunebook.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenandoah Harmony</span>

The Shenandoah Harmony is a 2013 republication of the works of Ananias Davisson (1780–1857) and other composers of his era, in the format used by modern shape note singing groups. Although a number of new shape note tune books were compiled and published in the two decades leading up to the publication of the Shenandoah Harmony, this volume is notable as "the largest new four-shape tunebook published for more than 150 years." The book is named after Shenandoah Valley, whose importance in the emergence of a distinctive Southern shape-note singing tradition has been noted by many musicologists. Authentic South reporter Kelley Libby of WFAE, attending an all-day singing in Cross Keys, felt "transported to the Shenandoah Valley of the 1800s."

References

  1. Google Maps (Map). Google.
  2. Climate Summary for Cross Keys, Virginia