author
Martha W. (Martha Woodroof) Hiden
1883–1959
A careful Virginia historian and genealogist, she helped preserve court records and traced the stories behind counties, families, and early colonial communities. Her work is especially valued by readers drawn to local history, archives, and the foundations of Virginia's past.
1 Audiobook
How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation
by Martha W. (Martha Woodroof) Hiden
About the author
Born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1883, Martha Woodroof Hiden studied at Randolph-Macon College and later did graduate work at the University of Chicago and the College of William & Mary. She married Philip W. Hiden in 1909 and spent much of her life in Newport News, where her name would later be honored in the Martha Woodroof Hiden Memorial Virginiana Room at the public library.
Hiden became known as a genealogist, historian, and advocate for preserving Virginia court records. She wrote How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation, a book that follows the development of Virginia's counties and local government. She also collaborated on important early Virginia research projects, including Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607–1625.
What makes her especially memorable is the way she connected scholarship with preservation. She was not only interested in the past on paper, but in saving the records that made that history possible for future readers and researchers.