author
John T. (John Tackett) Goolrick
1844–1926
A Virginia judge, public speaker, and local historian, he wrote with obvious pride about Fredericksburg and the people who shaped it. His books preserve the town’s colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil War past in a lively, civic-minded voice.
1 Audiobook
Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town
by John T. (John Tackett) Goolrick
About the author
Born in 1844, John T. Goolrick is best remembered as the author of Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town and The Life of General Hugh Mercer. Library and public-domain records connect him closely with Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he served as judge of the Corporation Court and became known as a speaker on historical themes.
His writing focused on local and regional history, especially the people, landmarks, and events that gave Fredericksburg its identity. In Historic Fredericksburg, he set out to tell the story of the town from its early years through the great national conflicts that touched it, blending researched detail with the affection of someone writing about a place he knew well.
That combination of civic pride and historical storytelling is what makes his work still interesting today. For listeners who enjoy American local history, memory, and place-based biography, Goolrick offers a window into how one early-20th-century Virginian wanted his community’s story to be remembered.