(Nineveh is the 20th in a series of stories on Warren County place names and villages. Articles will appear in alphabetical order.)

Warren County's religious history begins in Nineveh, a community whose name comes straight from the Bible.

The village, just inside Warren County near the Frederick County line, is not only the place where the first known religious services were held--it is also the home of the county's oldest standing church.

Nineveh's earliest settlers were Quakers who came into the area in 1731 and settled on the waters of Crooked Run. Two communities--Nineveh and Cedarville--actually evolved from that first settlement. Robert McKay Jr. led the settlers into the area, and although he built at Cedarville, many of his relatives settled at Cedarville. The name McKay existed at Nineveh until 1985, when Hubert McKay died.

McKay and the other Quakers in his party had established the Crooked Run Meeting by 1753. Although it was officially part of the Hopewell Meeting House, the Nineveh congregation apparently met for some time. In 1758, Thomas Branson leased a four-acre tract at Nineveh to be used for 99 years as a Friends Meeting House and Burying Ground, and for no other use.

Records of Hopewell Meeting House show that Crooked Run Meeting House had been built by August, 1760, and was "increasing in both numbers and strength." That year, the Crooked Run Friends sought, and got, permission to establish a church that was separate from Hopewell.

The Crooked Run Quakers used the leased land for only 50 of their 99 years. In 1810, the Superior meeting "laid down" (dismissed) the Crooked Run meeting because of poor attendance. The building was still standing in 1828, although in bad repair, according to tradition.

The Baptists, meantime, had moved into Crooked Run, and in 1799 they had a lot surveyed for a church. In 1801, they built Zion Baptist Church. The structure is still standing today, and is the oldest known church structure in Warren County. The Primitive Baptists hold services there regularly.

In 1867, a Presbyterian congregation that was the forerunner of Nineveh Presbyterian Church, organized in White Post. With no bridges across the Shenandoah River, Front Royal Presbyterians were unable to get to services, and the White Post congregation joined them in organizing the Nineveh church.

The Presbyterians worshipped in the Zion Baptist building for 10 years, and then acquired the old Quaker church lot and built there. Their first church was struck by lightning and burned, and again they used the Zion building while they rebuilt. The present Nineveh Presbyterian Church was dedicated in 1916, and was enlarged and remodeled in the 1970s.

The Nineveh Presbyterian Church lot contains both the old Quaker burying grounds (with unmarked stones) and its church cemetery.

Exactly when the name Nineveh was applied to the village is unknown. The community's first post office was established in 1809 as Johnson. Later the name was changed to Stoney Point, and finally to Nineveh.

Crooked Run in the 18th Century supported Branson's Mill. It has had several stories, including one operated by Magnus Leach before 1900, which burned to the ground after burglars torched it, according to a Winchester news story.

Dual-laning Route 522 moved Nineveh slightly off the main highway. But the old Neville house, the oldest standing in Nineveh, Stoney Point, the Jett home, store buildings of the past, and the Zion Church are still visible from the main road.

Not far away is "Erin", a Virginia Landmarks and National Register home built about 1845 by David Funsten, a lawyer and Virginia legislator.