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HISTORY

—OF—

AUG-USTA COL^N^TY,

VIRGINIA

— BY —

J. LEWIS PEYTON,

Author of "The American Crisis, or Pages from the Note Book of a State Agent duiing the Civil

War ;" "Over the Alleghanies and Across the Prairies, or Personal Recollections of the Far

West one-and- twenty Years Ago;" "A Statistical Viewr of the State of Illinois," etc.

Staunton, Virginia :

SAMUEL M. YOST & SON

MDCCCLXXXII,

All rights reserved.

COPYRIGHTED.

^^ -.^'l

FiSANK Prufer & Son, Binders.

Staunton, Va.

INTRODUCTION.

A county remote from the first scenes of European settlement in Vir- ginia ; not visited by whites until 1716; uncolonized till 1732, and organ- ized less than a century and a half ago, appears to offer few materials for history. The Valley of Virginia, in the heart of which Augusta lies, was unknown to the whites for more than a hundred years after the landing at Jamestown. During this long period no effort was made to penetrate into what was supposed to be an impenetrable region lying beyond high and inaccessible mountains. No one ventured to overcome these obstacles of nature, and to enter a dismal solitude of irremediable barrenness and per- petual gloom, whose air was said to be infectious and mortal, the ground covered with serpents, the forests infested by wild beasts, and the indige- nous inhabitants a race of fierce and brutal savages, hating strangers and implacable in their cruelty. It was only after the return of the " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe " from their successful expedition over the mountains and into the Valley, that all previous accounts were discovered to be fabulous, and what was hitherto considered an accursed land, was found to be a delightful region, blessed with a delicious climate, rich fields, groves, shades and streams. From this period many persons seriously considered the question of making their homes in these hesperian regions, and within less than twenty years of Spotswood's return the Valley became the permanent home of Europeans. The early history of the discovery and occupation of the country west of the great mountains, so far as the present County of Augusta is concerned, is illustrated by few traditionary legends or incidents of border warfare, beyond the ordinary privations attending a new settlement, but when the entire territory which bore her name from 1738 to 1790, comes under view, it is eminently worthy of his- torical relation. A small remnant only of the adventures of our western pioneers is preserved. Much of the information, collected here and there from tradition, is uncertain and some of it absurd, yet we know enough as to their patient perseverance in subduing the wilds of nature ; of their dauntless valor in their wars with the savages, (whose native courage was

IV HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

improved before these wars began, by the use of arms and the knowledge of discipline,) and of the events of those bloody struggles, to render their history both interesting and instructive.

A strong wish to preserve, in a permanent form, a record of the past, that it may no longer be clouded by ignorance nor perplexed by fiction ; to rescue from unmerited oblivion the memories of our founders, whose heirs we are, with respect to civil and religious laws, language, science and territory ; to keep alive in their descendants a love and veneration for their memories and a spirit of patriotism, has been the chief incentive to this work. It has been well said that a love of country and its institutions and distinguished benefactors is as natural to man as is the love of those who are endeared to him by his earliest, his most pleasing and permanent asso- ciations. And this sentiment inspires a deep sense of obligation to bene- factors, and to that Being who, in His infinite mercy, is the bestower of every blessing enjoyed by man. It cannot be denied that to our fore- fathers we owe much of the happiness and prosperity we now enjoy, and every worthy descendant of those gallant and adventurous spirits must feel a strong desire to become intimately acquainted with their characters and history. A remembrance of what is past, and an anticipation of what is to come, seem to be the two faculties by which man differs from most animals. Though beasts enjoy them in a limited degree, yet their whole life seems taken up in the present, regardless of the past and the future. Man, on the contrary, endeavors to derive his happiness, and experiences most of his miseries, from these two sources.

That every existing history of Virginia is incomplete, is generally ad- mitted and regretted. The student must still have recourse to Hening's Statutes at Large as the best record of the intellectual and moral advance- ment in our Commonwealth. When a complete history of Virginia is written, it will contain not only a full account of her political, civil and military transactions, but a clear and concise exposition of the character of her authors, scholars, statesmen, jurists and warriors, and also a view of her physical resources. Before such a comprehensive work can be com- posed, it is necessary to obtain true and precise details of private and pre- liminary transactions. In history, it is not the great and striking events that are instructive, but the accessory facts or the circumstances that have prepared or produced them. This is evident, because it is only by a knowledge of the preparatory circumstances that we can be enabled to avoid or to obtain similar results. It is not from the issue of a battle that we receive instruction, but from the different movements that led to its decision, which, though less splendid, are, however the causes, while the event is only the effect. Such is the importance of those details that, without them, the term of comparison is vicious, and has no analogy with the object to which we would apply it. The history of a county should

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. V

abound in details, so necessary to the elucidation of the different parts o f a general history ; and if a complete history of each county cannot be now written, all the fragments, at least, should be collected and put in order, as necessary to just conclusions, as to the formation of society, the mechanism of government, and a correct view of the habits, manners, opinions, laws, internal and external regimen of each community or state. The gathering together of this material for a history of Virginia, its pre- servation in a convenient shape for reference — (it has been well said to know where you can find a thing is, in fact, the greatest part of learning) — is one of the duties which the present owes to the future.

With these views, the writer has undertaken the task of preparing a history of his native county. In the scope of his design, he could only aim at a brief sketch or outline of the subject previous to 1790, when the county assumed its present confines. He has endeavored to exhibit the principal events which belong to the history of the Valley and the western country, — or that part of Augusta without the existing limits of the county, — in the most general and simple terms, confining himself, for the most part, in the case of Indian depredations, murders, massacres, «&c., to those which occurred within a certain area, or territory, not too remote from the present county. He has made free use of the works of various authors ; he pretends to no originality, and offers his production to the public in the hope that it may prove useful and acceptable.

Under the head of Excerpts, Ana, &c., it has been found convenient to insert, at the close of several chapters, anecdotes, incidents related by living persons, genealogical memoranda, extracts from public records, original deeds, etc. Such matters could not be included in the text with- out interfering too much with the thread of the narrative. He has not sifted the evidence as to the authenticity of all these anecdotes, etc., but where there was a probability, from the story itself and the circumstances of the times that it was true, — where the matter was not inconsistent with nature and reason, — he has given them as he has found them in the news- papers or as they have been related to him. In this, the author has but followed the course of Herodotus, the father of profane history. History had its commencement in traditions, or narratives transmitted from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation. Indeed, before the art of printing was invented there was little else than these traditions. Such was the difficulty of multiplying books when writing was the only means by which they could be produced. While, therefore, implicit con- fidence may not always be placed in the stories handed down to us, we are not irreverently to reject them, unless irrational, contrary to nature and sound judgment. These scattered traditions, anecdotes and reminis- cences are so many living monuments of antiquity, and serve at once to instruct and amuse.

VI HI8T0KY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

It may, perhaps, be proper to make a further remark. In a work of t his nature the author could not, without swelling the volume to unreason- able proportions, seek to minutely detail the policy or exhibit the springs and motives of government. He has, therefore, in general restricted him- self to a plain exhibition of facts and events. It would be vain to attempt to unravel the tangled maze of British, French and Spanish politics in their connection with each other and their American colonies, within the limits necessarily assigned to the present volume. The intricacies of the complex machinery of government form a difficult study in themselves, and are therefore left, with other grave matters, to more competent hands.

In the appendix he has brought together all the information he could procure, or which was supplied to him by friends, as to the families of the pioneers or early settlers, and to this has been added a third part made up of biographical notices. These biographies are given, because biography is the hand-maid of history, portrait- painting for posterity, and the memory of our pioneer fathers and distinguished men is passing away, and will soon be forgotten unless some attempt be made to rescue it from impending oblivion. The heroes, who flourished before Agamemnon, says the Ro- man poet, passed into forgetfulness for want of a recording pen. Cicero eloquently remarks, the life of the dead is retained in the memory of the living, but a lethean wave will soon obliterate the remembrance of both living and dead, without the biographer's pen. If an apology is needed for his course it will be found in the remark of Lord Macaulay, who has justly observed : "A people, which takes no pride in the noble achieve- ments of remote ancestors, will never achieve anything worthy to be re- membered with pride by remote descendants."

The writer solicits indulgence for such errors, omissions or imperfec- tions as may be found in his work, and will endeavor to render a second edition, if one should be called for, more worthy of public favor. In the progress of the work he has had frequent occasion to seek in various quar- ters for information, but has not thought it necessary to weary the reader by crowding his pages with references. All those interested in preserving facts worthy of being transmitted to posterity were invited through the Staunton papers to communicate them to him. He regrets that much apathy exists on the part of the general public, and that information was frequendy received too late to be always introduced where it properly be- longed. Notwithstanding this apathy, he has received from many so kind and ready a response to his appeal for information as to have excited his deep gratitude. He cannot forbear mentioning, in this connection, the spontaneous kindness of the following gentlemen, which has enabled him to enrich the work in many particulars : Rev. William T. Price, R. A. Brock, Joseph A. Waddell, Judge William McLaughlin, Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, Judge J. H. McCue, Wm. Withrow, Rev. J. S. Martin, Wm. E.

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. Vll

Craig.T.S. Doyle, Mathew Pilson, Chas. Campbell, Dr.C. Berkley, Dr. J. T. Clark, William M. Tate, George M. Cochran, jr., A. G. Christian, Marshall Hanger, J. H. Wayt, Maj. H. M. Bell, Hon. Absolom Koiner, J. W. Craw- ford, William Frazier, Hon. R. W. Thompson, Col. D. S. Young, J. N. Ryan, J. S. Gilliam, W. H. Peyton, W. A. Burnett, Joseph B. Woodward, Rev. JohnMcVerry, Hon. Thomas Barry, D. A Kayserand A. H. Davies. To the people of Augusta, who love their native land, and who will peruse the work with interest, he commends the volume.

J. L. P. Steephill, near Staunton, Va., November, 1882.

THE HISTORY

— OF —

ATJG-USTA COXJI^TT.

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT LIMITS.

The County of Augusta was ushered into existence the 12th year of the reign of George II., as one of the shires of the colony of Virginia. No reason appears in the act estabhshing the county for the name, but it is believed to have been selected in honor of the Princess Augusta, wife of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, and daughter of Frederick 11. Duke of Saxe-Gotha. Frederick county was created at the same time, and it is said, with good reason, to have derived its name from the Prince of Wales himself. From the act, which we quote in full from Hening's Statutes, vol. 5, pp. 78-79, it will be seen that Augusta and Frederick are twin sisters :

ACT FOR ESTABLISHING THE TWO COUNTIES PASSED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA NOV. 1ST, 1738.

I. Whereas, great numbers of people have settled themselves of late upon the rivers of Sherrando*, Cohengoruto and Opeckon, and the branches thereof, on the N. W. side of the Blue Ridge mountains, where- by the strength of this colony, and its security upon the frontiers, and H. M.'s revenue of quit rents are like to be much increased and augment- ed : For giving encouragement to such as shall think fit to settle there,

II. Be it enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and Burgesses of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That all that territory and tract of land, at present deemed to be part of the county of Orange, lying on the northwest side of the top of the said mountains, extending from thence northerly, westerly and southerly, beyond the said mountains, to the utmost limits of Virginia, be

*Sherrando, or Shenandoah, signifies, in the Indian tongue. Beautiful Daughter of the Stars.

2 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

separated troni the rest of the said county and erected into two distinct counties and parishes ; to be divided by a line to be run from the head spring at Hedgman river to the head spring of the river Potomack. And that all that part of the said territory lying to the northeast of the said line, beyond the top of the said Blue Ridge, shall be one distinct county and parish, to be called by the name of the County of Frederick and parish of Frederick ; and that the rest of the said territory, lying on the other side of the said line, beyond the top of the said Blue Ridge, shall be one other distinct county and parish to be called by the name of the County of Augusta and parish of Augusta,

III. Provided, always. That the said new counties and parishes shall remain part of the County of Orange and parish of Saint Mark until it shall be made appear to the Governor and Council, for the time being, that there is a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing justices of the peace and other officers, and erecting courts therein for the due ad- ministration of justice, so as the inhabitants of the said new counties and parishes be henceforth exempted from the payment of all public county and parish levies in the County of Orange and the parish of St. Mark ; yet, that such exemption be not construed to extend to any of the said levies laid and assessed at or before the passing of this act.

IV. And be it further enacted That after a court be constituted in the said new counties respectively, the court for the said County of Frederick be held monthly upon the second Friday ; and the court for the said County of Augusta be held upon the second Monday in every month, and that the said counties and parishes, respectively, shall have and enjoy all rights and privileges and advantages whatsoever belonging to the other counties and parishes of this colony. And for the better encouragement of aliens, and the more easy naturalization of such as shall come to inhabit there,

V. Be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the Gov- ernor or Commander-in-Chief of this colony, for the time being, to orant letters of naturalization to any such alien, upon a certificate from the clerk of any county court, of his or their having taken instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ; and taken and subscribed the oath of adjura- tion, and subscribed the test, in like manner, as he may do upon taking and subscribing the same before himself.

VI. And ior the more easy payment of all levies, secretary's clerk, sheriff's and other officers' fees, by the inhabitants of the said new co' n- ties. Be it further enacted. That the said levies and fees shall and may be paid in money, or tobacco at three farthings per pound, without anv de- duction.— And that the said counties be and are hereby exempted from public levies for ten years.

VII. Provided, nevertheless. That from and after the passing of this act no allowance whatsoever shall be made to any person for killing wolves within the limits of the said new counties. Any law, custom, or usage to the contrary hereof, notwithstanding.

VIII. And for the better ordering of all parochial affairs in the said new parishes, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, '1 hat the freeholders and housekeepers of the same, respectively, shall meet at such time and place as the Governor or Commander-in-Chief of this dominion, for the time being, with the advice of the Council, shall appoint, by precept under his hand, and the seal of the colony, to be directed to the sheriffs of the

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 3

said new counties, respectively, and by the said sheriffs publickly adver- tised ; and then and there elect twelve of the most able and discreet per- sons of their said parishes, respectiv^ely : which persons so elected, having taken the oaths appointed by law and subscribed to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, shall to all intents and purposes be deemed and taken to be the vestries of the said new parishes respectively.'"

The " utmost limits of Virginia," as expressed in this act for the western boundary of Augusta County, was the Mississippi river, beyond which were situated the French possessions known as Louisiana. This region was explored by the French in 151 2 and partly colonized by them in 1699. In the year 1717 it was granted by the Crown to the Mississippi Company, but three years later was resumed by the Crown, and in 1763 was ceded to Spain, but was recovered by Napoleon in 1800. New Orleans was the southern and St. Louis the northern capital of these vast territories. The French claimed that their possessions extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lawrence, a claim that ignored the rights of English colonists to any portion of the western territory, or country lying beyond the Ohio river. In support of their pretensions, the French erected forts and block- houses at intervals from the great Lakes through the western part of Pennsylvania to the Ohio, then along the banks of that stream to its junc- tion with the Mississippi, whence their chain of military posts followed the course of the latter river to its mouth. The English colonists, more par- ticularly the people of Augusta, found themselves by these proceedings of the French, hemmed in — prevented all expansion westward. A conflict, then, between the two rapes, the French and the English colonists of Au- gusta, Pennsylvania and New York, was, under th^se circumstances, soon- er or later, inevitable. A conflict in fact took i)lace as early as 1753, on the banks of the Ohio, between some English settlers and the garrison of one of the forts already referred to. Both parties hastened to lay the story of their injuries before their respective governments. The conse- quence was a long and sanguinary war between England and France, in which half of Europe became involved.

In this war Braddock's defeat temporarily delayed, but could not avert, the final catastrophe. The superior numbers and indomitable resolution of the Anglo-Saxon in the end prevailed. Canada was conquered and the forts on the Ohio were necessarily abandoned. France, it is true, still retained Louisiana, which comprehended not simply the present area of that State, but, as we have said, a vast tract of territory extending from the Gulf to the 49° of north latitude, and from the Mississippi river on the east to the Mexican frontier on the west. The territory embraced within the French claim is now known as Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. To the eastern limits of this vast region, the Mississippi river, the western

4 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

boundary of Augusta county, extended under this act, and from its ancient territory were subsequently carved the present States of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and part of Pennsylvania. It is not our purpose to write the history of this extensive region, now the seat of many great and prosperous Commonwealths. Its history, how- ever, cannot be altogether omitted in our work. It was part of Augusta county for over fifty years subsequent to 1738, was the native land of many of the savage tribes who harassed the border, the scene of the French and Indian war, and the wars of 1764, 1774, and of many civil and military expeditions, and, in fact, of continual Indian hostilities for forty years pre- vious to 1794, when the brilliant victory at the Rapids of the Maumee by Gen. Wayne brought permanent peace to the frontier.

All the events occurring in this region from the first settlement of Au- gusta had more or less influence upon the fortunes of the people of the Valley, and the inhabitants ot Augusta and the Valley were so involved in them that they form in some measure a part of our history.

ABORIGINAL POPULATION.

At the period, 1716, of Col. Spotswood's discovery of the Valley, it was the camping, hunting-ground or residence of numerous tribes of Indians. These tribes, while wandering in pursuit of game from place to place dur- ing a considerable part of the year, possessed a few scattered villages, comprising a limited number of habitations, of the most imperfect con- struction, where they were in the habit of passing their winters and where they left their wives, children and old men during their absence. Round about these rude villages some feeble and ill-directed attenipts at agricul- tu/e announced the more frequented and permanent haunts of savage life.

Many learned disquisitions exist as to the origin of these red men, and it cannot be denied that the origin, history, languages, and condition of the aborigines present ample materials for speculation. Among the Cen- tral and South American nations, notably in Mexico and Peru, many evi- dences exist oi' a regular, but limited civilization, but for the most part the tribes of both North and South America were, on the discovery of Colum- bus, composed of roving savages in a brutal state of abasement. Not- withstanding the greater progress among some of the aborigines, and certain physical differences, the Patagonians being generally over six feet high and the Esquimaux less than five feet, — a race of deformed and diminutive savages who tremble at the sound of arms, — the varieties of complexion, etc., those scholars whose opinions are entitled to most respect are agreed that there are sufficient points of general resemblance in all the nations of North and South America to justify the belief that they are sprung from one primitive pair. Religion, philosophy, geology, history and tradition combine to teach that man was created in Asia, and that his

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUMTY. O

home after the flood continued in the high lands and lofty mountain regions of the Eastern continent.

While much obscurity rests on the question of the origin of the Ameri- can tribes, it may be stated as the settled opinion that our continent was peopled from different quarters of the old world. Space will not permit us to enter into an examination of this subject, of the causes which drove the Asiatic tribes from their native seats, which impelled their march to- wards the northeastern portion of the Eastern continent, and finally brought them to the shores of the New World. In their route to America there was no particular obstacle. Behripg's Straits, the water they are believed to have crossed, is only 39 miles wide ; in it there are two islands, and in winter it is frozen over, so that quadrupeds as well as man can pass. And it has been well said that water is the highway of the savage, to whom, with- out an axe, the jungle is impervious. Even civilized man migrates by sea and rivers, and has ascended 2,000 miles above the mouth of the Missouri, while interior tracts in Virginia, New York and Ohio are still a wilderness. To the uncivilized man, no path is free but the sea, the lake and the river.

On supposed analogies of customs and language, some have thought the aborigines of the Tennessee Valleys and the plains of the Cordilleras were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, "who took counsel to go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt." — [II Esd. c. xiii, V. 4045.]

Dr. Lang suggests the possibility of an early communication between the Polynesian world and South America, and while it is possible that it may have taken place, the better opinion is, as mentioned, that it was by Behr- ing's Straits that America received her first inhabitants.

The following is a list of the various tribes who resided in or resorted tO' the Valley of Virginia in 1716-32, and they all spoke the same language or a dialect of it. This was the mother tongue of the natives from North Carolina to Massachusetts. This mother tongue received from the French the name of Algonquin, and under it all the wild tribes of this region were grouped :

I. The Shawanese, the most considerable of the Algonquin tribes, had their principal villages east of the Alleghanies, near the present town of Winchester, but their possessions extended west to the Mississippi river. Foote asserts (Second Series, p. 159) that the Shawanese owned the whole Valley of Virginia, but had abandoned it. He gives no authority for the statement, and we have found none in our researches. Of all the Indian tribes with whom our ancestors came in contact, the Shawanese were the most bloody and terrible, holding all other men, as well Indians as whites, in contempt as warriors in comparison with themselves. This estimate of themselves made them more restless and fierce than any other savages, and they boasted that they had killed ten times as many white people as

6 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

any other Indians did. They were a well-formed, active and ing-enious people, capable of enduring great privations and hardships, were assuming and imperious in the presence of others not of iheir own nation, and some- times very cruel.

II. The Tuscaroras, whose villages were near Martinsburg, in the pres- ent county of Berkeley.

III. The Senedos, who occupied the north fork of the Shenandoah until 1732, when it was exterminated by hostile natives from the South.

IV. The Catawbas, whose headquarters were on the Catawba river in South Carolina.

V. The Delawares, who frequented the Susquehanna river in Pennsyl- vania.

VI. The Susquehanoughs, who originally occupied the headwaters of the Chesapeake bay, but were driven out by the Cinela tribe and took up their residence on the upper waters of the Potomac, supposed to be one of their favorite places of residence, as the remains of their villages are more numerous in this region than elsewhere in the Valley.

VII. The Cinelas, on the Upper Potomac.

VIII. The Pascataway tribe, on the headwaters of the Chesapeake.

IX. The Cherokees, who occupied the Upper Valley of the Tennessee river and the high lands of Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. The Chero- kees were the tallest and most robust of the Southern tribes, their com- plexions brighter than usual with the red men, and some of their young women were nearly as fair and blooming as European women. They owed allegiance to the Muscogulges, who stood at the head of a confederacy composed ot Cherokees, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks, and it is probable that bands from all of these tribes, or at least warriors, accompanied the Cherokees in their annual visits to the Valley. Without exception, these Southern Indians were proud, haughty and arrogant, brave and valiant in war, ambitious of conquest, restless and perpetually exercising their arms, yet magnanimous and merciful to a vanquished enemy when he submitted and sought their friendship and protection.

These vagrant tribes camped or resided at great distances from each other, were widely dispersed over a vast country, and any connection be- tween them and particular localities was of so frail a texture that it was broken by the slightest accident.

The different tribes or nations were small in number as compared with civilized societies in which industry, arts, agriculture and commerce have united a vast number of individuals whom a complicated luxury renders valuable to each other.

No accurate information exists as to the numbers composing these tribes, but it is most probable they did not exceed a few hundred warriors each. At the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620, the number of Indians in New En-

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. i

gland did not exceed 1 23,000, and a few years later the number was greatly reduced by a plague. It is probable that the Indian population of Vir- ginia was larger at this time, as the climate of our Valley and State is gen- erally better adapted to the wants of man than that of New England. Bincraft, hjvvsv^r, ventures the opinion that the whole Indian papulation east of the Mississippi and south of New England did not:, in 1620, exceed 180,000.

Detached parties of armed barbarians fro.n the Northern and Westera tribes oejasionally ca ne to the Valley, and the Massawomees penetrated to Eastern Virginia and were a terror to the low-land tribes Armed par- ties also visited the Valley from the five nations situated on the rivers and lakes of New York — the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas.

There was little difference in character and person between these wild men of whatever tribe, and the remark of Capt.Jno. Smith in his general history, Vol. i. p 120, that the Cinelas were of gigantic size, is now rejected as incredible — a statement as little to be believed as the fabulous origin assigned by the Goths to their enemies, the Huns, namely : that the witches c5 Scythia had copulated in the desert with infernal spirits, and that the Huns were the offspring of this execrable conjunction.

We distrust whatever is marvelous, but it is proper to mention in this connection that the historian of the Valley gives an account, in his second chapter, of the discovery, in Hardy county, of the under jaw bone of a hu- man being of great size, with eight teeth in each side of enormous size, and the teeth standing in the jaw bone transversely ! What is repugnant to experie ice and co n non sense we discredit, and consequently have little faith in this story, thous^h given upon the authority of a gentleman who represented that he had himself seen the jaw bone. Within the present year mastodon bones have been excavated on the Kentucky Central rail-- road. The supposed human jaw bone found in Hardy, was doubdessthe: fossil remain of some extinct animal of the genus mammiferous.

That portion of the Valley now embraced within the County of Augusta,, is not known to have been the home or fixed residence of any tribe of Indians at the period of its settlement, nor is it known that it was not the' home of some tribe or branch of a tribe. Such red men as Lewis met on entering Augusta, in 1732, were friendly, and so continued for over twenty years.

That the country had been, previous to 1732, permanently occu- pied, is indicated by the remains of barrows, cairns and ramparts, com- posed of mingled earth and stones, found at different points in the county — notably near Waynesboro, on Lewis creek, a few miles below Staunton ; on Middle river near Dudley's mill, and at Jarman's Gap, north of Rock- fish. The cairn at Jarman's Gap is probably sepulchral, and may have

8 HISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

been intended and used as a place of worship. In the lower Shenandoah Valley and the country west of the Alleghanies — in fact over every part of North America, especially in the Mississippi Valley — there are remains of fortifications mounds and other monuments of a primitive race, bearing marks of great antiquity, which " whisper mysteriously of a shadowy race, populous, nomadic, not altogether uncivilized, idolatrous," worship- ping '' in high places." It does not come within the scope and design of this volume, however, to investigate the question whether they were the work of the progenitors of the Indians or of a race long since extinct. That and all similar matters must be left to those who have taste and lei- sure for such abstruse enquiries. We may remaik, however, that no remains exist in the Valley which indicate labor on a large scale or which were worthy, in Jefferson's opinion, to be styled Indian monuments. He would not dignify with that name their stone arrow-points, pipes, &.c.

The Valley of Virginia was, in 1716, when visited by Spotswood, with- out extensive forests, but the margins of streams were fringed with trees ; there were pretty woodlands in the low grounds, and the mountain sides were densely covered with timber trees. The wood destroyed by Autum- nal fires was replaced by a luxuriant growth of blue grass, white clover and other natural grasses and herbage. The spontaneous productions of the earth were everywhere numerous and abundant, and there were many varieties of game and wild animals. The luxuriance of the vegetation evinced the fertility of a soil which required only the hand of art to ren- der it in the highest degree subservient to the wants of man. But the nomads of the Valley were averse to improvement ; their indolence re- fused to cultivate the earth, and their restless spirit disdained the confine- ment of sedentary life. To prevent the growth of timber and preserve the district as pasture, that it might support as much game as possible, and that the grass might come forward in the early Spring, the savages, before retiring into Winter quarters, set on fiie the dry grass and burnt over the country. The absence of trees in an extensive quarter of the county N. W. of Staunton led our ancestors to style it "The Barrens," a name that it still bears, though it is interspersed at this time by handsome woodlands, the growth of the last eighty years.

As we shall speak in a subsequent page of the physical character and resources of the present county, nothing further need be novi^ said beyond this, that the climate of the region west of the mountains was found by the first settlers to be mild and agreeable, the winds light and bracing, the rain fall ample, storms and mists rare, the soil fertile, producing trees and grass, and the earth apparently rich in ores, as indicated by mineral springs.

The two principal non-resident tribes who frequented this fine country ini 7 1 6- 1 745, were the Delawares from the North and theCatawbas from

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUN-Tr. 9

the South. At the time Augusta was settled, 1732, a bloody war was progressino: between these tribes, and the Valley was the theatre of action. In this war other tribes now and again participated as the allies of one or the other party, and it was at a batde on the North fork of the Shenan- doah, in the county now bearing that name, that the Senedos tribe was exterminated. There is a burial place there eighteen to twenty feet high and sixty feet in circumference, filled with human bones, which testify to the truth of this tradition.

Wars between the tribes who frequented the Valley were of constant occurrence, and much speculation has been indulged in as to'their origin — some inclining to the opinion that there is a natural state of hostility of man against man. It is more probable, that these wars resulted from the restless and turbulent nature of mankind, the ambition of leaders and dis- putes as to the hunting grounds. Such, indeed, was the red man's mar- tial and independent spirit, his love of arms, that he considered war and rapine as the pleasure and glory of mankind. It was the wars of the Iroquois and Massawomies, on the Ohio, which gave that beautiful stream its significant name of the " River of Blood." The war-paths conducting into the Valley were through Rockfish and Jarman's gaps, thence by the present site of Staunton and down the Valley, branching at different points. Armed parties during this period constantly passed and repassed the white settlements without disturbing them. Sometimes they spent the night near the whites, and, when in need, asked for food and other sup- plies, which were always given them. If in want of provisions, and no white was near to supply them, they would kill pigs or cattle running at large, which they considered lawful game. The setders were too few and too wise to resent these liberties, and continued on amicable terms with both Catawbas and Delawares when those tribes were, in 1732, and for many years subsequently, at war with each other. And it is worthy of remark that neither tribe sought to involve the colonists in their quarrels. When a single Indian, or a party of two or three, called at the hut of a white for victuals, rest or social conversation, he confidently approached the door and said, " I am come." Soon the whites set before them food and drink. After eating and drinking they lit their pipes, and while smoking conversed. This over, they arose and said, " I go," and off they walked, to stop without an introduction or invitation at the next habitation the appearance of which they liked. The sententious brevity with which they announced their arrival and departure may be ascribed to their limited English vocabulary rather than rudeness, though it must be allowed that the easy and graceful manners of a gentleman are not innate. The gradual process by which they are arrivedat are summarized in Pope's line: " He marries, bows at court and grows polite."

The Indian villages in the Valley were principally on the upper waters

10 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

of the Potomac, near the present towns of Martinsburg and Winchester, but at some period previous to the settlement of Augusta. villai:;es had existed at numerous points on the banks of the streams East and West of the inouniains. The spots can now be identified in Eastern Virginia by the deposits of oyster and muscle shells, these bivalves constituting a part of their food, and in the Valley by ashes, charred wood, arrow points, toma- hawks, pipes and otherremdins. Their huts or wigwams were built by uniting poles at the top and inserting them at regular distances in the ground. An aperture was left at the top for smoke, and the ribs or rafters were covered with bark, the skins of wild beasts or with the boughs of trees. A small opening was left on one side, and in front of this in warm weather their fires were lit. In Winter the fire was niade in the centre of the wigwam, and the savages ranged themselves round it on skins, mats and the leaves of trees. It was their custom, and a wise one it was, to sleep with their feet to the fire. Each family had its own hut, but occasionally they allowed others to enjoy its shelter. Their villages were always located near pure water, and if possible under the protection of a hill or forest. Their wigwams were unfurnished, except a covering of leaves and skms, for the dirt floors on which they slept. They ate without table, chairs, knives or forks.

Their clothino: consisted of skins — their feet being encased in a kind of sandal made of deer skin or other soft leather, called moccasin. It was, unlike the sandal, with a soft sole, and was ornamented on the upper side. They took fish with hooks made of fish bones or the spear, or caught them in nets. For hunting and in war they used clubs, bows and arrows and tomahawks headed with stone. After the settlement of the whites the heads of tomahawks were made of metal for their use by the English, with the hammer-head hollowed out to suit the purpose of a smoking pipe, the mouth-piece being in the end of the shaft. The tomahawk was the Indian's most valuable weapon. He used it in time of peace for cutting his firewood, and in war wielded it with deadly effect. Their arrow-points and scalping-knives were made of flint stone, and many of these are constandy picked up near Staunton and in other parts of the:

county.

For passing streams the Indians used canoes, which were made of birch bark, sewed together with fibres, or roots. Their treatment of females was cruel and oppressive. They v;ere considered as slaves and treated as such. To the squaw was assigned the labors of the field and the ser- vices of domestic care. Chastity was not one of the virtues of the wo- men, but when married, they did not dispense their lavors without the consent of their husbands. We have no account of the marriage cere- mony, if such a ceremony existed among them, and imagine the associa- tion of the sexes was a voluntary union, which might be terminated at any

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 11

time by consent of the parties. As, hovvev^er, in all ages and among all people, religion of some kind has prevailed, and a reverence and awe of a Divinity existed, and our red men p lid honor and homage to the Great Spirit, we do not feel at liberty to declare that such unions were altogether without religious character. We shall not dwell upon these matters of marital infidelities, as we are not called upon to represent hu- man nature in such colors and lineaments as dishonor her, and do not wish to familiarize the minds of our readers with vice. A slight allusion to tnem was important to historic truth, which renders it necessary to speak of the vices and failings as well as the virtues of a people. We shall be content with touching thus lightly upon them. The men, who were occu- pied procuring the means of a precarious subsistence, were not, as may be readily imagined, of a lively disposition. Indeed, much gaiety of temper or a high flow of spirits was altogether inconsistent with their surround- ings. These red men were, therefore, in general, grave even to sadness ; had nothing of that giddy vivacity peculiar to some nations of Europe, and they despised it. Though usually silent and gloomy, their aged chiefs and the squaws were, on occasion, fond of conversation, and amused the children with tales of war and hunting. There were professional story-tellers also among them, who imitated the actions of their heroes, and thus increased the interest of their narratives and excited the liveliest interest in their hearers. When tales of bloody fights, or the incidents of buffalo hunts were recounted, the narrators imitating the actors in the scenes, the audience listened with breathless attention. When they related amusing stories, acting out the parts, the groups would break into wild shouts of laughter and applause.

The diseases of the Indians were not numerous ; their remedies few and simple, their physic consisting mainly of the bark and roots of trees.

For music they used rude drums, rattles made of gourds, and a cane on which they piped. They were hospitable, and grateful for benefits ; brave, but wayward and inconstant. To sum up their character in a few words : They were distinguished in council for gravity and eloquence ; in war, for bravery and address. When provoked to anger they were sullen and retired, and when determined on revenge no danger would deter them : neither absence nor time could cool them. If captured by an enemy, they never asked life nor betrayed emotions of fear.

For over a hundred years after the settlement at Jamestown the colonists from Virginia to Massachusetts were harassed by the Indians. The friendly relations, which existed for a short time after the landing of the English, soon changed, and the Indians became hostile and relendess in their enmity. During their wars with the whites they practiced every possible cruelty, burnt their houses, shot them down in their fields when at work, and now and again met them hand to hand in battle. They were

12 HISTORY OP' AUGUSTA COUNTY.

entirely unreliable, neither respecting in peace the faith of treaties nor in war the dictates of humanity. They tortured their prisoners to death, and some of the tribes notably, the Mianiis, ate the flesh of their cap- tives.

War, if not brought on by an accidental rencontre, was preceded by a formal declaration of hostilities. This was made with great ceremony. The chief, having determined on fighting, sent wampum, or belts of beads, to his allies, inviting them to come and destroy their enemies, and to the enemy a belt painted red, or a bundle of bloody sticks, as a defiance. A great fire was then lit and the war dance took place. These ceremonies observed, the braves issued forth singing to the women a farewell hymn. If they surprised a village of their foes, while the flower of the nation was absent, they massacred the women, children and helpless old men, or made prisoners of such as had strength to be useful to them. Their pris- oners were treated with inconceivable barbarity, thus exhibiting to what an extremity men's passions lead them when unrestrained by reason and un- influenced by the dictates of Christianity. These savage acts make us more sensible, too, of the value of commerce, the arts of civilized life, and the lights of literature, which, if they abate the force of some of the natural virtues by the luxury which attends them, have taken out likewise the sting of our natural vices and softened the ferocity of the human race.

The Indians were not without a certain species of government, which prevailed, with little variation, over the continent. Though free, they did not despise all sorts of authority. They were attentive to the voice of wis- dom, which experience had conferred on the aged, and they enlisted under the banners of their chiefs with child-like confidence — chiefs in whose valor and military address they had learned to repose their trust. His power, however, was rather persuasive than coercive ; he was reverenced as a father, rath r than feared as a monarch. He had no guards, no prisons, no officers of justice; but, relying upon the respect, confidence and esteem of his people, he lived unthreatened by Nihilist cabals and unterrified by dynamite and infernal machines. Few modern European rulers do this. The elders in every tribe constituted a kind of aristocracy, and were always consulted on grave occasions by the chief and people. They possessed no power except the influence they exerted by reason of their age and experience, and the further fact that they constituted a kind of hereditary nobility. Among the Indians age alone acquired respect, influence and authority, because age brings experience, and experience is the chief source of knowledge among a people without literature.

Their religious belief consisted of traditions mingled with many super- stitions. They believed in two Gods, the one Good, who was the supe- rior, and whom they styled the Great Spirit ; the other Evil. They wor- shipped both, but principally the latter, the Good Spirit, in their opinion,

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 13

i^.eeding no prayers to induce him to aid and protect his creatures. Be- sides these, they worshipped various other deities, such as fire, water,, thunder, — anything which they supposed to be superior to themselves and capable of doing them injury. They believed in a future state, in a tran- quil and happy existence with their ancestors and friends, spending their time in those exercises in which they delighted when on earth.

From the picturesque situations of their villages, they are supposed to have admired the grand and beautiful in Nature. That they possessed to a considerable degree the poetic sentiment, is inferred from the names given to the rivers and mountains, their war songs, and the speeches of some of their chiefs.

Such, in short, were the wild red men of the forest, on whose lands the early settlers pitched their tents. The barbarian heroes of our border wars have been depicted with so much fidelity and graphic power by one of our greatest writers, that in the defect of materials strictly historical, they may to a certain extent supply their place. Nowhere can the moody, taciturn and sententious red man be more delightfully studied than in the pages of Fenimore Cooper. These delineations of Cooper should not be rejected because given to the world in his fictitious writings. Historical facts are often rendered the more agreeable by being conveyed in a story of adventure designed for the entertainment of the reader. Novels fre- quently approach to the nature of history, and history often partakes of the character of romance. Histories, in general, are full of chimerical and extravagant details, especially as they ascend to periods of great antiquity and are connected with the origin of nations, and it has been oftener than once said that even Livy is but a romance. Yet who would give up such> histories ? We read ihem with deep interest, though we feel that they are but a compound of truth and fiction. We linger over the harangues which. the characters in history never made, and delight in the eloquence of Lo- gan, though persuaded that the author of his eloquence was an educated white man.

A succinct r&ume of Virginia's colonial history, from the landing at Jamestown to the year 1750, will be given in the next succeeding chapter^ as an interesting, if not necessary preliminary to the history of Augusta.

14: HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY,

CHAPTER II.

The following outline of colonial history, from the first landing at James- town to the year 1750, and slight reference to French explorations and set- tlements in the West, will enable the reader to understand the condition oi' affairs in the colony and western country generally at the period Lewis entered, took possession of, and settled Augusta. It exhibits also the position of Virginia in her connection with the various colonies which after- wards united together to resist the tyranny of Great Britain and found the United States, and will enable the reader to understand any points of gen- eral history which may be touched upon in the progress of this work.

The closing years of the fifteenth century saw the theatre of history sud- denly enlarged. The history of the world, as embracing all parts of the globe, commenced with the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama. To within a century of the end of the Moorish kingdom in Spain, and of that ten centuries of medieeval times, the first six of which are known as the "dark ages," the settlement of Virginia carries us back. The earliest incidents in her career belong to that European era which witnessed the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the independence of the United Provinces under William of Orange, the destruction of the Spanish Armada, and the persecution of the Puritans in England. They belong also to that Eliza- bethan era of English history so remarkable for literary taste and for the spirit of commercial adventure which pervaded all classes. It was from the England of Raleigh, Gilbert, Marlowe, Shrnkespeare, Burleigh, Wal- singham, Essex, Leicester, Sidney and Francis Bacon that came the men who undertook to found colonies on our shores and to build up politi- cal communities in the New World. The most remarkable of these men was the "learned and valiant" Sir Walter Raleigh, whose name is indis- solubly associated with the first efforts at English colonization in America.

Upon the unsuccessful efforts of Raleigh to make a settlement on Roa- noke Island, we cannot dwell. He had undertaken a task beyond the strength of a single individual, and met the common lot of enthusiasts. His failures did not deter others, and a few years later James I granted charters to the London and Plymouth companies for " deducing colonies and making habitation and plantation in that part of America commonly called Virginia." Under these charters all the coast was embraced Iving between Florida and Nova Scotia.

These charters are long and tedious documents, which possess no intrin- sic merit — are just such stupid papers as one might expect from the narrow

mSTORT OF AUGUSTA COUNT i'. 15

mind of James. By virtue of them a complicated form of goveniment was framed. For each colony separate councils, appointed by the King, were mstituted in England, and these councils were in turn to name resident councillors for the colonies. Thirteen members constituted the resident council. They had power to choose their own president, to fill vacancies in their numbers, and, a jury being required only in capital cases, to act as a court of last resort in all other causes. Religion was established in accordance with the forms and doctrines of the Church of England. The adventurers, as the company were called, had power to coin money and collect a revenue for twenty-one years from all vessels trading to their ports, and they were also freed from taxation for a term of years. One article, and only one, in the most general terms, provided for the liberty of the subject. Another clause provided for community of goods.

A worse system of government could not have been devised. Two arbitrary and irresponsible councils — one in England and the other in America — the legislative powder reserved to the King — the governing body commercial monopoly, and the chief principle of societ)^' a community of property. Such was the government elaborated in the charter. With such a frame of government the first colonists, composed of men who cared little for forms of government, set forth for Virginia.

The colony consisted of 105 persons, who sailed from the Downs, Jan, if I, 1507, for Virginia under command of Capt. Newport, who landed them ^ at Jamestown on the 13th May, 1607. The men composing the expedition

were wretched material for founding a State. There were seventy men in the party, of whom fifty-four were gentlemen, four carpenters and twelve laborers — or, as Capt. Smith describes them, '" poor gentlemen, trades- men., serving men and libertines." The first President <>( the Colony, appointed in London, was VVingfield, a man of wealth and social position, but incapable and unfit for governing. He was soon superceded by the strongest man among the colonists — a. man to whose name a romantic interest attaches — the celebrated Capt. John Smith. Smith has been described as an adventurer of a high order in an age of adventurers. He had all the faults of his time and class in full measures,^ but he had also their \'irtues, and it was here that he surpassed his companions. He was arbitrary, jealous of power, quarrelsome and despotic, ready to lie auda- ciously to serve his own ends, and rashly overconfident. But he was also brave, energetic, quick-witted, and full oi resource. By his energy and wisdom he preserved the colony from impending ruin and improved its condition. What we would call now-a-days a many-sided man, he made himself familiar, by repeated explorations, with the country and its pro- ducts, became well acquainted with the aborigines, with whom he opened a trade, and in various ways displayed his superior qualities, and an earn- est desire to promote the interest of the colony.

16 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

A small fort was erected, and a few log huts, and in these the colonists were kept together by Smith for two years, in the presence of a subtle and ferocious enemy, who, within a fortnight of the first landing, made an attack upon them, evidently with a view to their extermination. This attack of the Indians was repelled by the colonists under Wingfield, who was an old soldier, having served many years in the European wars. Notwithstanding Smith's etforts, the colony languished, and matters grew so much worse that the settlement was abandoned, and the colony would have been broken up but for the arrival of Lord Delaware, as Governor, with five hundred fresh men and supplies, in 1609 — 1610.

Lord Delaware, who received the appointment of Governor for life, surrounded himself with stately officers and liveried servants, and as- sumed the demeanor of the ruler of an opulent empire. He was an able man, and might have rendered valuable service, but unfortunately was forced, by disease brought on by the climate, to return to England. He committed the gov^ernment to Mr. Percy, who was supplanted by Sir Thomas Dale in 161 1, to whom the government granted authority to rule by martial law. Dale exercised his arbitrary powers with prudence and moderation, and to him Virginia is more indebted than to any of her early Governors. He established and maintained order, and extended the settle- ments into the interior, forming a colony of 350 men at a point up the James river, called Henrico. But the chief good of his administration consisted in breaking up the system of community of property and intro- ducing individual proprietorship. On his departure, in 1616, he left the colony firmly established and under the protection of Sir Thos. Yeardley, whose administration was not unlike that oJ his predecessors, but he was soon superceded by Cnpt. Samuel Argall, a rough sea captain, accustomed to command respect, of a cruel, covetous and tyrannical disposition, with a decided taste for piracy. He made an energetic and active Governor, carrying out the military code in the spirit of a buccaneer. He oppressed and robbed the colonists, his greed lighting especially on the friends of Lord Delaware. Complaints went to England, and the Virginians awak- ened to the fact that they were shockingly misgoverned ; that they were left at the mercy of one man's rule, and that man a tyrant ; that their rights were unknown. The period of political development had, however, now began.

The indignation in London at Argall's misconduct led to a new and representative government in Virginia, granted under the influence of the Earl of Southampton, Sandys, Digges, Selden and others. Argall was recalled, and a new form of political organization was granted to the colonists. The Governor's power was in future to be limited by a council, and the assemblage of a representative body was authorized. Under this new order of things the first General Assembly was held at James City in

IirSP'diV '.)? AUftUSTA OXTtSTTy. 17

June. i6ig, and in May, 1620, a second Assembly convened. In order to give the reader, better than an elaborate disquisition would do, an idea oi the spirit and character of the early setd<'rs and of their sufferings and difficulties, more particularly with the Indians, we append the commission to Sir Francis Wyait, Governor; and the Council, of date July 24, 1621. The object of the assembly was '' to assist the Governor in the administra- tion of justice, to advance Christianity among the Indians, to erect the colony in obedience to his Majesty, and in maintaining the people in justice and christian conversation, and streno^thenintj them ao-ainst enemies. The said Governor, Council, and two burgesses out of every town, hundred or plantation, to be chosen by the inhabitants to make up a General Assem- bly, who are to decide all matters by the greatest number of voices ; but the Governor is to have a negative voice, to have power to make orders and acts necessary, wherein they are to imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, manner of trial, and other administration of justice used in England, as the company are required by their letters pa- tent. No law to continue or be of force until ratified by a quarter court to be held in England, and returned under seal. After the colony is well framed and settled, no order of quarter court in England shall bind till ratified by the General Assembly."

From the first, the Burgesses sought to obtain equal rights for all men before the law, by praying the company not to violate that clause in the charter by which they were guaranteed. After passing various sumptuary and police laws, laws for the government of ministers and raising taxes on tobacco, &c., they adjourned. But this year marks an era in Virginian annals — the dawn of representative government and constitutional free- don:!. It is memorable also lor the introduction of the first slaves in Auier- ica, and of a forced class of immigrants — boys and girls seized by the press gang in the streets of London, and shipped, as if they were felons, to Virginia.

At this Assembly eleven boroughs were r-presented by twenty-two Bur- gesses, and this constituted the great State of Virginia in 1619. But the prospects of the future were bright. Immigration increased, and was now composed, not of adventurers, but of "prudent men v/ith families,' and in 1623, under the governorship of Sir Francis Wyatt, the population con- sisted of 4,000 persons, and the massacre of 350 by the Indians did not destroy the colony. Under the system which prevailed in Virginia, free- dom of debate and love of independence were fostered.

To the form of government established by the colony July, 1621, was added the proviso, as mentioned above, that no order of the Council in En- gland should bind the colony, unless ratified by the General Assembly of Virginia. Thus early in our country's history was introduced those prin-

18 !irSTi)KY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

c'ple.s of republicanism which eventually seaired to us our present gov- ernment.

lames became jealous at what he considered an invasion of prerogative, and denounced the Company which gave a democratic constitution to Vir- ginia " as a seminary for a seditious Parliament," and also said he would rather they "chose the devil as treasurer than Sir Edwyn Sandys." The Company was firm, and refused his claim to nominate their officers, and from the struggle and the feelings it excited, the colony derived solid ad- vantages.

But the Company was doomed. James pursued them unrelentingly. A royal commission was sent to Virginia to gather material for its destruc- tion. The commissioners, reaching Virginia, demanded the records of the Assembly, which were refused. The clerk was bril^ed to give them up by the commissioners. The Assembly stood their clerk in the pillor}' and cut off his ears. The patriotic resistance of the colonists was fruitless. A ^uo warranto was tried in the King's Bench, and the charter was annulled. The dissolution of the London Company was a distinct benefit to the colo- nists, by relieving the settlers from the cumbrous, complicated and uncer- tain government of a mercantile corporation, and placing them in the same rt-lation to the King as his other subjects.

The five years which now followed of Sir Francis Wyatt's continuance in oflice were characterized for their legislative activity, for the formation of political habits, and for the first opposition to the home government, which strengthened and confirmed the independent spirit of the colonists. During the session of 1623-24, Royal Commissioners came to Virginia to assist in ruining the Co.;;pany. This peiiod is marked in the statute book by the definition and declaration of certain guiding political principles which were never afterwards shaken. The Governor's power was limited. He was not " to lay any taxes or impositions upon the colony, their lands, or other way than by the authority of the General Assembly, to be levied and employed as the said Assembly shall appoint." The Goven^or was not to withdraw the inhabitants from their labors for his own service, and the Burgesses attending the Assembly were to be it ee from arrest. These were the great and fundamental principles for which patriotic men were then contending in England. Jan:es I died March 25, 1625, and Charles I succeeded him and took the government in his own hands. He granted large plantations in Virginia to his favorites, Lords Baltimore and Fairfax. Shortly afterwards Wyatt departed, and Georj^e Yeardley was appointe-d his successor. He lived but a short time, when the Council chose Francis West as Governor. Subsequently, John Pott was appointed, who was soon superceded by Sir John Harvey. The latter quarreled with the colo- nists, was thrust out of the government, was reinstated by the King, and in 1639 the King reappointed Sir Francis Wyatt.

HISTOPa" OF AUGUSTA OOUXTV. V)

Two important events occurred durin;^- Harvey's administration — the settlement of Maryland by Lord Baltimore, an 1 the rise of the Puritan party in Virginia. The Virginia colonists considered Maryland as a part of Virginia, and resented the course of Lord Baltimore. Quarrels about jurisdiction soon broke out, and all parties suffered. Attached to the Church of England, Virginia was not a promising field for Puritans, but a community of them had settled in Virginia years before.

Wyatt was replaced in 1642 by Sir William Berkeley, who governed well at first, but his accession brought no increase of political freedom to Virginia. The first step toward federation was taken ab(^ut this time, in the passage of an act ratifying and regulating commerce with Maryland. The prosperity of the colony increased rapidly, interrupted only by a sec- ond outbreak of Indians, which was quickly quelled.

The execution of Charles I, 1649, filled Virginians with horror and in- dignation, and the well-known sympathy of Virginia with the unhappy King drew many exiled cavaliers to America. The Governor invited Charles II to come to and be King of Virginia, but on the eve of his em- barking from Holland for Virginia, in 1660, he was recalled to the throne of England. After he ascended the throne, Charles II, desirous ol giving a substantial proof of the profound respect he entertained for the loyalty of Virginia, caused her arms to be quartered with those of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as an independent member of the Empire. This fact, and because Virginia was the first of the English settlements in the limits of the British colonies, led to her being styled " The Old Dominion."

During the administration of Cromwell, Virginia enjoyed a free and in- dependent government under three Governors — Bennet, Digges, and Mathews — all Puritans, who were chosen by the Assembly. An old histo- rian tells us that Mathews was " a most deserving Commonwealth's man, who kept a good horse, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia." Under these three men the political rights of the people were firmly estab- lished and their commercial interests protected and extended by the com- mencement of treaties with New England, New York, and the cultivation of closer relations with Maryland. General prosperity consequently pre vailed.

After the Restoration, the Virginia Assembly elected Berkeley Gov- ernor, an address was voted to the King, and Berkeley was sent to En- gland to protest against the enforcement of the Navigation Act ; the Church of England was re-established, and severe laws passed against Dis- senters.* The Navigation Act was enforced ; tobacco fell in price, and im-

*As the word Dissenter occurs frequently in these pages, we may as well state at this point that it is a vague word, which, in its full latitude, is applied to all who differ from the Church of England, which was the Established Church of Virginia down to 1776. Originally it meant in England only the Presbyterians, who rather differed from the discipline and polity, than the opinions of the Episcopal Church.

20 HTSTOEY OF AUGUsTA COUNTY.

ports rose. The return of the Royahst party to power soon led to trouble, and as early as 1663 an outbreak, led by some of Cromwell's soldiers, oc- curred, which, however, miserably failed, and four of the conspirators were executed.

Under the profligate government of Charles II, the trade of Virginia was almost extinguished ; the titles of the colonists were endangered, if not de- stroyed by royal grants to Lords Arlington and Culpepper; the justices levied taxes for their own emolument ; the Indians were treated with Sfverity ; the Church fell into contempt . the rectors and curates were licen- tious and incompetent ; and corruption and extortion prevailed.

A second outbreak threatened in 1674, but partial reforms and the want of a leader quieted the people, though everything was in a combustible condition.

The unwise policy of severity towards the Indians led to a war, and Berkeley, for some unknown reason, disbanded the force which ought to have been used to repel the enemy.

At this moment, the leader, whom the people had before wanted, ap- peared in Nathaniel Bacon, a voung, popular, wealthy, brave and patriotic man. Bacon was aided, if not instigated, by two planters, Drummond and Lawrence, who evidently wished to effect a general reform of all abuses, as well as put down the Indians. Bacon, having vainly sought a commis- sion, marched against the Indians at the head of a few brave volunteers, which gave Berkeley die opportunity to proclaim them rebels. The Gov- ernor started in pursuit of Bacon — not the Indians — with troops, but the revolt becoming general in his rear, he retre.ited. Aware now of the rising storai, the Governor issued writs for a new Assembly, to which Bacon was elected. On his way to James City, Berkeley caused his arrest, but re- leased him on parole, and Bacon read at the bar of the house a written confession and apology, and was thereupon p.irdoned and readmitted to the Council, of which he had previously been a membv-r. Shortly after. Bacon fled on a suspicion that his :ife wa.-. threatened, and ret rned to Jamestown with a large force. lie appealed to the Assembly, who made him their General, vindicated his course, and sent a letter to England ap- pro\'ing him. While the Assembly was engaged in the correction ot abuses, Berkeley dissolved them. Bacon, now too strong to be resisted, extorted the necessary commission- from the Governor, and again marched agiiinst the Indians. Availing himself of his absence, Berkeley pro- claimed him a rebel. On hearing this news, Bacon retraced his steps, when Berkeley fled to Accomac, thus leaving Bacon supreme. Bacon immediately summoned a convention of all the principal men to replace the House of Burgesses, pledged them to his support, and even to resist- ance to England, if their wrongs were not redressed. Bacon now again

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

21

moved against the Indians, but in his absence, the fleet, which he had sent to capture BerkeIe\^ was betrayed, and the Governor returned to James- town at the head of his would-be captors. Bacon's friends in JamestovvT. made terms with the Governor, and Bacon returned a second time. Berke- ley fled again to Accomac, and Bacon captured and burnt Jamestown. About this time he became ill of fever, and died shortly afterwards ni Gloucester county. The hero dead, his followers scattered. The leaders were caught in detail and executed. Thus ended the so-called Rebellion.

Nothing was gained by Bacon's course, and for a hundred years the people sunk into apathy. Berkeley was recalled, and died soon after h:s return to England. He was a covetous, dishtniest, bloodthirsty, cov,-- ardly impotent, whose life was stained with crime. He was succeeded by Col. Herbert Jeffreys who died a year later, in 1677, and was followed by Sir Henry Chicheley, and he by Lord Culpepper, upon whom the Gover- norship was conferred for life in 1675. Culpepper arrived in Virginia in 1680. His administration was, on the whole, one of simple greed and violent exactions. He came to Virginia to make his fortune, and stopped at no act to accomplish his purpose. He was one of the most cunning and covetous men in England, He was succeeded by Lord Howard, of Ef- fingham. He also came to make his fortune, and as he became richer, Virginia became poorer. During his time immigration almost ceased. Howard returned to England to find James driven from the throne, which ended the Stuart domination. The reign of Charles was contemptible for its meanness and corruption, and that of James the basest and most barren in English history. Charles debauched and debased England, and Cul- pepper and Eflingham degraded their governments and almost ruined Virginia.

riie oaly political events of these times of any significance were the sending of delegates, in 1684, from Virginia to Albany to meet the Gov- ernor of New York and certain agents sent from Massachusetts to discuss- Indian affairs. This was a move in the direction of confederation.

Virginia derived little benefit from the revolution of 1689, which placed William and Mary upon the throne, and shortly after that event, a war breaking out between the allied powers and Louis XIV of France, the colony was ordered to place itself in the best posture for defence.

The continued complaints of the Virginia Legislature led to the recall of Howard, and Sir Francis Nicholson succeeded him. Nicholson was an arbitrary man. and practiced the arts of a demagogue, but was not a cor- rupt man. His administration is marked for the establishment of William and Mary College, under Dr. James Blair, an active and energetic Scotch- man, who became one of the most serviceable men in Virginia.

Sir Edward Andros came after Nicholson, and was actuated in his gov- ernment by a sound judgment and a liberal policy. In 1698, Andros re-

22 HISTOUY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

tired and Nicholson was reappointed and served seven years without ac- comphshing any good except what grew out of his own neghgence. From his indifference, the Burgesses made the treasurer of the colony an officer of their own, and thus obtiined control of the public purse.

In 1704, Edward Nott beca ne deputy governor under the Earl of Ork- ney, but the history of Virginia, more particularly Eastern Virginia, from this time, is httle more than a list of Governors.

The period from 1704 to 1776, barren as it is in political events, was socially a period of great importance. The social ele nents, which h id gathered in Virginia from its foundation, crystalized, and the fabric of society, as seen in 1776, was built up.

In 1 7 10, Alexander Spotswood became Governor. He was an accom- plished and enterprising man, — the best of the eighteenth century Gov- ernors. He thus describes in his day the state of affairs in Virginia : " This government is," says he, " in perfect peace and tranquility, under a due obedience to the Royal authority, and a gentlemanly conformity to the Church of England."

The Virginians at this day were living in the forests, but were men who had inherited the culture and intelligence of the seventeenth century. They cherished personal freedom, secure possession, and legislative power. They soon manifested at the polls some uneasiness at royalist principles and the prospects of an aristocracy. " The inclinations of the country," says Governor Spotswood, " are rendered mysterious by a new and unac- countable humor, which hath obtained in several counties, of excluding gentlemen from being Burgesses, and choosing only persons of mean figure and character." From ^th^'s it appears that in 1710-23, no less than in 1882, the post of honor was the private station ; that instead of political positions being conferred upon the good and wise, they were, in Spots- wood's day, as now, more frequently the rewards of greed and incom- petency.

Many reforms were introduced by Spotswood, and among his benevo^ lent schemes was one for civilizing and christianizing the Indians. With this view he undertook his expedition to the interior in 17 16, of which we shall anon speak more freely.

In 1723, Spotswood was succeeded by Sir Hugh Drysdale, and he, in 1727, by William Gooch, who, during his term, commanded the expedi- tion against Carthagena. This expedition was the most important event of Gooch's administration, as, taken in connection with the other colonies, it was another step in the development of union.

Gooch was a man of firmness and moderation, and ruled Virginia for twenty-two years much to the satisfaction of the people. During his time, wealth and population increased, printing was introduced, education be-

TIISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 23^

came diffused, and its improving effects were felt in all, particularly the upper classes. But the loose and licentious character of the clergy made the Established Church but a feeble bulwark against the tide of religious e.illiusiasni which swept in with Whitfield, and the old cry was raised against Dissenters by those who conformed from habit or worldly interest to the Established Church. Gooch attempted to suppress heterodox opin- ions by all the powers of the State, and there was nmch petty persecution, which left the Church weaker and more unpopular even than before. In April, 1745, in his charge to the Grand Jury of the General Court, he said of the Presbyterians and other religious sects, " that false teachers had lately crept into this government, who, without order or license, or pro- ducing any testimonial of their education or sect, professing themselves ministers under the pretended influence of new light, extraordinary im- pulse, and such like satirical and enthusiastic knowledge, lead the inno- cent and ignorant people into all kind of delusion." And he called upon the jury to present and indict the offenders.

While England was colonizing in Virginia, New England, and at other points on the Atlantic coast, and sending into the interior hardy pioneers, the descendants of her two earliest colonies, the French were making ex- plorations along the coast and into the backwoods. As far back as 1534, Jacques Cartier, at the head of a French expedition, entered the St. Law- rence and claimed the territory on both sides for France. In 1608, Quebec was founded by the French, and French immigrants arrived in succeeding years, until the dominion claimed by the French extended, as previously mentioned, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1673, the Upper Mississippi was discovered by Father Marquette, a monk of the reformed order of Franciscans, called Recollects. In 1679, the French sent a second expedition to the West under La Salle. It reached through the lakes the Chicago river, passed down the Illinois to where Peoria now stands, and there La Salle erected a fort called Creve Coeur, or broken heart, on account of the hopeless difficulties he encountered. In 1682, La Salle sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf, and called the country Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV.

In 1700, the population of Virginia was 22,000, and in 17 16 did not ex- ceed 30,000. It was principally seated on the rivers and streams of East- ern Virginia and the Atlantic coast. No county had been organized west of the 78° of longitude, nor were there any white settlements further west. The exploring party which discovered the Valley made its way from Ger- manna over a hundred miles through a trackless forest.

The progress of the population in the colony is indicated by the figures below: Ini6o7itwas 105; in 1609 itwas490 ; in 1617 itwas 400; in 1622 it was 3,Soo;in 1628 itwas 3,000; in 1632 itwas 2,000; in 1644 itwas

24 KISTOKY ()F AUGUSTA COUNTY.

4,812; in 1645 it was 5,000; in 1652 it was 7,000; in 1700 it w.is 22,OD3 :

in 1748 it was 82,000.

From these matters of colonial history, so briefly recapitulated, the reader will understand the causes of the subsequent coniiiclii between the French and En.^lish colonists, the pro.s^ress of the c3lo:i7 cf Virginia, and its actual condition in 17 16, when the Valley war, discovered, and be- came a few years later the seat of an English settle nevit.

CHAPTER III.

The first passage of the Blue Ridge, or discovery of the Valley, was effected by Spotswood at the head of a troop of horse in August, 1716. The party consisted of about fifty persons, who had a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraor- dinary variety of liquors. The expedition proceeded from Williamsburg by Chelsea, King William county, to Beverly's in the county of Middlesex, where the Governor left h's chaise and continued on horseback to Germanna. There, on the 26th of August, he was joined by the rest of the party, among whom were four Meherrin Indians and two sr.ali companies of rangers. The party marched thence to Todd's, on Mountain Run, then to the Rappahannock, w'hich they crossed at Somerville's ford, thence by the left bank to near Peyton's ford, on the Rapidan. Here they turned south, recrossed the river and proceeded to where Stanardsville now stands ; thence through Swift Run gap to the Valley, crossing the Shenan- doah river at a point about ten miles north of the present town of Port Republic. The popular belief, down to Bishop Meade's time, that the party had reached the Valley by Rockfish gap is thus shown to have been a popular error.

In commemoration of this event Spotswood is said to have been knighted, and to have presented each of the party with a golden horse- shoe, on which was inscribed : " Sic jurat transcendere montes." (Thus he swears to cross the mountains.)

The glowing accounts given by Spotswood's party — or, as they were afterwards styled, the " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe " — of the fertile and beautiful valley beyond the mountains, excited the spirit of enterprise and adventure in the people of Eastern Virginia and Pennsylvania. Though

H13T0KY OF AUttUSTA COUXTY. 25

the approach to the upper country was difficult either from the North or East, from the want of roads and bridg^es, and the hills were infested with rovinof tribes of savacres, each tribe assertin'j certain ri^fhts in and to the country, many plans were now considered by families and little commu- nities for changing their residence to these favored regions. The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, who encountered no Indians on their entry into the Valley, spread abroad reports that the mountains east and west, which enclosed this lovely and fruitful Valley, presented an almost insurmount- able obstacle to the entrance of savages, and that defenceless families might there live in security and plenty, enjoying not only the necessaries but the luxuries of life without labor and without price. They repre- sented the verdant plains as sparkling with streams filled with fish, and covered with herds browsing in quiet joy. The trees which fringed the banks were festooned with vines, and both vines and trees were bending under their weight of luscious fruit. It is not surprising that an adventu- rous population, many of whom had already given evidence of their spirit by severing the ties binding them to friends and native land, should be seized with a desire to occupy such a country. Accordingly, in 1732, six- teen families from Pennsylvania crossed the Potomac and settled near the present town of Winchester.

Among those whose attention was now directed to our Valley was John Lewis, who had been for some time in Pennsylvania, quietly awaiting the arrival from Europe of his wife and children. This remarkable man was born in the north of Ireland, descended from a French- Protestant family, and was educated in Scotland. In Ulster, where he resided until fifty years of age, he commanded the confidence, respect and esteem of the people, and occupied that position of influence, and took that leading part in society and county affairs, which had been traditionally the role of the O'Donnells, Chichesters and O'Doghertys. In youth he was of impetu- ous temper, but the varied experience of an active life had taught him to control his spirit. He was endowed with a high order of intellect, a valorous soul, and soon became noted for his virtuous principles. A deplo- rable affair, but one alike honorable to his spirit and manhood, terminated his career in Ireland. He had been sometime in America, when, in 1732, Joist Hite and a party of pioneers set out to settle upon a grant of forty thousand acres of land in the Valley, which had been obtained, in 1730, by Isaac Vanmeter and his brother, by warrant from the Governor of Vir- ginia. Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta.

The circumstances which led to the emigration of Lewis and his settle- ment of Augusta are detailed in the Virginia Historical R^egister for 1851, and in Howe's History. The accounts differ sufficiendy to make both agreeable reading. The Register narrative, published some years after

26 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

his death, was written by Hon. Jno. H, Peyton from information derived orally from Wm. I. Lewis, of Campbell, M. C. for that district from 1817 to 18 19, and is as follows :

"Col. Lewis stated that the account given by the ' Son of Cornstalk,' in his essays, of the native country and the causes of the removal of his family to the Colony of Virginia, was incorrect. That the true history of the matter, as he had obtained it from his father, the late Col. William Lewis, of the Sweet Springs, who died in the year_i8i2, at the age of 85 years, and long after Col. Wm. L Lewis had arrived at manhood, was this : John Lewis, his grandfather, was a native of Ireland, and was descended of French- Protestants, who emigrated from France to Ireland in 1685, at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to avoid the persecutions to which the Protestants, to which sect of religion they belonged, were subjected during the reign of Louis XIV. John Lewis intermarried with Margaret Lynn, also a native of Ireland, but descended of Scottish ances- tors— the Lynns of Loch Lynn, so famous in Scottish clan legends. John Lewis, in Ireland, occupied a respectable position in what is there c ailed the middle class of society. He was the holder of a free-hold lease for three lives upon a valuable farm in the County of Donegal and Province of Ulster, obtained upon equal terms and fair equivalents from one of the Irish nobility, who was an upright and honorable man, and the owner of the reversion. This lease-hold estate, with his wife's marriage portion, enabled the young couple to commence life with flattering- prospects. They were both remarkable for their industry, piety and stern integrity.. They prospered and were happy. Before the catastrophe occurred which completely destroyed the hopes of this once happy family in Ireland, and made them exiles from their native land, their affection was cemented by the birth of four sons, Samuel, Thomas, Andrew and William. About the period of the birth of their third son, the Lord from whom he had obtained his lease — a landlord beloved by his tenants and neighbors — suddenly died, and his estates descended to his eldest son, a youth whose principles were direcdy the reverse of his father's. He was proud, profligate and extravagant. Anticipating his income, he was always in debt, and to meet his numerous engagements he devised a variety of schemes, and among them one was to claim of his tenants a forfeiture of their leases upon some one of the numerous covenants inserted in instruments of the kind at that day. If they agreed to increase their rents, the alleged forfeiture was waived ; if they refused, they were threatened with a long, tedious and expensive law suit. Many of his tenants submitted to this njustice, and raised their rents rather than be involved, even with justice on their side,, in a legal controversy with a rich and powerful adversary, who could, in this country, under these circumstances, devise ways and means to har- rass, persecute and impoverish one in moderate circumstances. Lewis, however, was a different man from any who thus tamely submitted to wrong. By industry and skill he had greatly improved his property, his rent had been punctually paid, and all the covenants of his lease had been complied with faithfully. To him, after seeing all the others, the agent of the young Lord came with his unjust demands. Lewis peremptorily dis- missed him from his presence, and determined to make an effort to rescue his family from this threatened injustice by a personal interview with the young Lord, who, Lewis imagined, would scarcely have the hardihood to insist before his face upon the iniquitous terms proposed by his agent.

HiStORY OP AUGUSTA C()[JNfi\ 27

Accordingly he visited the castle of the young Lord. A porter annoanaed his name. At the time the young Lord was engaged in his revels over the bottle with some of his companions of similar tastes and habits.

As soon as the name of Lewis was announced he recognized the only one of his tenants who had resisted his demands, and directed the porter to order him otf. When the porter delivered his Lord's order, Lewis resolved at every hazard to see him. Accordingly he walked into the presence of the company — the porter not having the temerity to stand in his way. Flushed with wine, the whole company rose to resent the insult and expel the intruder from the room. But there was something in Lewis' manner that sobered them in a moment ; and, instead of advancing, they seemed fixed to their places, and for a moment there was perfect Silence, when Lewis calmly observed : " I came here with no design to insult or injure any one, but to remonstrate in person to your Lordship against threatened injustice, and thus to avert from my family ruin ; m such a cause I have not regarded ordinary forms or ceremonies, and I warn you, gentlemen, to be cautious how you deal with a desperate man." This short address, connected with the firm and intrepid tone of its delivery, apparently stupefied the company. Silence ensuing, Lewis embraced it to address himself particularly, in the following words, to the young Lord : " Your much-respected father granted me the lease-hold estate I now pos- sess. I have regularly paid my rents, and have faithfully complied with all the covenants of the lease. I have a wife and three infant children whose happiness, comfort and support depend, in a great degree, upon the enjoyment of this property, and yet I am told by your agent that I can no longer hold it without a base surrender of my rights to your rapa- city. Sir, I wish to learn from your lips whether or not you really medi- tate such injustice, such cruelty as the terms mentioned by your agent in- dicate ; and I beg you before pursuing such a course to reconsider this matter coolly and dispassionately, or you will ruin me and disgrace yourself." By the time this address was closed, the young Lord seemed to have recovered partially, (in which he was greatly assisted by several heavy libations of wine,) from the effects produced by the sudden, solemn and impressive manner of his injured tenant. He began to ejaculate : ■"Leave me! Leave me! You rebel! You villain!" To this abuse Lewis replied calmly, as follows : " Sir, you may save yourself this useless ebullition of passion. It is extremely silly and ridiculous. I have effected the object of my visit ; I have satisfied my mind, and have nothing more to say. I shall no longer disturb you with my presence." Upon which he retired fi-om the room, apparently unmoved by the volley of abuse that broke forth from the young Lord and his drunken comrades as soon as he had turned his back. After they had recovered from the magical effect which the calm resolution and stern countenance of Lewis pro- duced, they descanted upon what they called the insolence of his manner, and the mock defiance of his speech, with all the false views which aristo- cratic pride, excited by the fumes of wine, in a monarchial government were so well calculated to inspire. During the evening the rash purpose was formed of dispossessing Lewis by force. Accordingly, on the next day, the young Lord, without any legal authority whatever, proceeded at the head of his guests and domestics to oust Lewis by force. Lewis saw the approach of the hostile array, and conjectured the object of the dem- onstration. He had no arms but a shelalah, a weapon in possession of every Irish farmer at that period. Nor was there any one at his house but

28 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COOxNTY.

a brother, confined to bed by disease, his wife and three infant children ,- yet he resolved to resist the lawless band and closed the door. The young Lord, on reaching the house, demanded admittance, which, not being granted, the posse attacked the house, and after being foiled in several attempts to break down the door, or to effect in other ways an en- trance, one of the party introduced the muzzle of a musket through an aperture in the wall and discharged its contents — a bullet and three buck- shot-^upon those within. Lewis' sick brother was mortally v/ounded, and one of the shot passed through his wife's hand. Lewis, who had up to this time acted on the defensive, seeing the blood stream from the hand of his wife, and his expiring brother weltering in his blood, became en- raged, furious, and, seizing his shelalah, he rushed from the cottage, deter- mined to avenge the wrong and to sell his life as dearly as possible. The first person he encountered was the young Lord, whom he despatched at a single blow, cleaving in twain his skull, and scattering his brains upon himself and the posse. The next person he met was the steward, who shared the fate of his master ; rushmg, then, upon the posse, stupefied at the ungovernable ardour and fury oi' Lewis' manner, and the death of two of their party, they had scarcely time to save themselves, as they did, by throwing away their arms and taking to flight. This avv'ful occurrence brought the affairs of Lewis in Ireland to a crisis. Though he had violated no law, human or divine ; though he had acted strictly in self-defence against lawless power and oppression, yet the occurrence took place in a monarchial government, whose policy it is to presei've a difference in the ranks of society. One of the nobility* had been slain by one of his tenants. The connexions of the young Lord were rich and powerful, those of Lewis poor and humble. With such fearful odds it was deemed rash and unwise that Lewis should, even with law and justice on his side, surrender himself to the officers of the law. It was consequently deter- mined that he should proceed, on that evening, disguised in a friend's dress, to the nearest sea-port, and take shipping for Oporto, in Portugal, where a brother of his wife was established in merchandize. Luckily he met a vessel just ready to sail from the Bay of Donegal, in which he took passage. After various adventures, for the ship was not bound for Portu- gal, in different countries he arrived at Oporto in the year 1729. Upon his arrival there, he was advised by his brother-in-law, in order to elude the vigilance of his enemies, to proceed to Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and there to await the arrival of his family, which, he learned, was in good health, and which his brother-in-law undertook to remove to America.

Lewis, following this advice, proceeded at once to Philadelphia. In a year his family joined him, and learning from them that the most industrious efforts were being made by the friends of the young Lord to discover the country to which he had fled, he determined to penetrate deep into the Amer- ican forest. He moved then immediately from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and there spent the Winter of 1731 and 1732, and in the Summer of 1732, he removed to the place near Staunton, in the County of Augusta. Virginia, now called " Bellefonte," where he settled, brought up his family, conquered the country from the Indians, and amassed a large for- tune. ' At the time he settled at this place, Augusta county was not formed. The country was in the possession of the Indians, and Staunton

*The man killed by Lewis was Sir Mungo Campbell, Lord of the Manor, and hence commonly called " The Lord." He was not a Baron or peer of the realm.

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 29^

was not known. After establishing himself here, his family was a nucleus for new settlers from the East side of the Blue Ridge and Ireland, and the number had so increased by 1745. that the County of Augusta was organ- ized, when John Lewis was appointed a magistrate, and assisted in the organization."

From this narrative it appears that our early historians, among them the late Dr. Ruffner, whose MS. is quoted in Howe, have incorrectly stated that Lewis came from Williamsburg. It is not surprising that such errors should have crept into our history, which, for nearly a century, was mere tradition ; and the reader will not have been surprised to learn that Spots- wood was believed to have entered the Valley by Rockhsh gap until wittim a few years past, wiien the line of his march was ascertained by the publica- tion of Fontaine's journal. The mistake as to Lewis may have arisen ij-om the fact that a number of emigrants reached America about this time in her Majesty's men-of-war Blandford, Wolf and Hector — the latter under command of Sir Yelverton Peyton, Baronet R. N., and the trans- ports accompanying them. These emigrants were for the most part Pro- testants from Salsburg and bound for Georgia. But some of them came to Virginia, in 1732, and were at Williamsburg, and thence made their way into the interior. Lewis may have been supposed to have belonged to this party.

Howe's account, p. 181, is as follows, and was written by Charles H. Lewis, late Minister Resident to Portugal :

" |ohn Lewis was a native and citizen of Ireland, descended from a family of Huguenots, who took refuge in that country from the persecutions that followed the assassination of Henry IV of France. His rank was that of an Esquire, and he inherited a handsome estate, which he increased by industry and frugality, until he became the lessee of a contiguous property, of considerable value. He married Margaret Lynn, daughter of the Laird of Loch Lynn, who was a descendant of the chieftains of a once powerful clan in the Scottish Highlands. By this marriage he had four sons, three of them, Thomas, Andrew, and William, born in Ireland, and Charles, the child of his old age, born a few months after their settlement in their moun- tain home.

The emigration of John Lewis to Virginia was the result of one of those bloody affrays, which at that time so often occurred, to disturb the repose and destroy the happiness of Irish families. The owner of the fee out of which the leasehold of Lewis was carved, a nobleman of profligate habits and ungovernable passions, seeing the prosperity of his lessee, and repent- ing the bargain he had concluded, under pretence of entering for an alleged breach of condition, attempted, by the aid of a band of ruffians hired for his purpose, to take forcible possession of the premises. For this end, he surrounded the house with his ruffians, and called upon Lewis to evacuate the premises without delay, a demand which was instantly and indignantly refused by Lewis, though surprised with a sick brother, his wife and infant children in the house, and with no aid but such as could be afforded by a few faithful domestics. With this small force, scarce equal to one-fourth the number of his assailants, he resolved to maintain his legal rights at

30 HISTORY OP AUGUSTA CoUNTY.

every hazard. The enraged nobleman commenced the affray by discharg- ing his fowling-piece into the house, by which the invalid brother of Lewis was killed, and Margaret herself severely wounded. Upon this, the en- raged husband and brother rushed from the house, attended by his devoted little band, and soon succeeded in dispersing the assailants, though not until the noble author of the mischief, as well as his steward, had perished by the hands of Lewis. By this time the family were surrouhded by their sympathizing friends and neighbors, who, after bestowing every aid in their power, advised Lewis to fly the country, a measure rendered neces- sary by the high standing of his late antagonist, the desperate character of his surviving assailants, and the want of evidence by which he could have established the facts of the case. He therefore, after drawing up a detailed statement of the affair, which he directed to the proper authorities, em- barked on board a vessel bound for America, attended by his family and a band of about thirty of his faithful tenantry. In due time the emigrants landed on the shores of Virginia, and fixed their residence amid the till then unbroken forests of West Augusta. John Lewis' settlement was a few miles below the site of the town of Staunton, on the banks of the stream which still bears his name. It may be proper to remark here, that when the circumstances of the affray became known, after due investiga- tion, a pardon was granted to John Lewis, and patents are still extant, by which his Majesty granted to him a large portion of the fair domain* of Western Virginia.

For many years after the settlement of Fort Lewis, great amity and good will existed between the neighboring Indians and the white settlers, whose numbers increased apace, until they became quite a formidable colony. It was then that the jealousy of their red neighbors became aroused, and a war broke out, which, for cool though desperate courage and activity on the part of the whites, and ferocity, cunning and barbarity on the part of the Indians, was never equaled in any age or country. John Lewis was, by this time, well stricken in years, but his four sons, who were now grown up, were well qualified to fill his place, and to act the part of leaders to the gallant little band who so nobly battled for the protection of their homes and families. It is not my purpose to go into the details of a warfare, during which scarcely a settlement was exempt from monthly attacks of the savages, and during which Charles Lewis, the youngest son of John, is said never to have spent one month at a time out of active and arduous service. Charles was the hero of many a gallant exploit, which is still treas- ured in the memories of the descendants of the border riflemen, and there are few families among the Alleghanies where the name and deeds of Charles Lewis are not familiar as household words. On one occasion, Charles was captured by the Indians while on a hunting excursion, and after traveling two hundred miles barefoot, his arms pinioned behind him, goaded on by the knives of his remorseless captors, he effected his escape."

It is unnecessary to give more of Howe's account. It is composed of matter which will find a more appropriate place in the history of the Lewis family.

At a point a mile east of Staunton, remarkable for the singular beauty and freshness of the scenery, on the estate owned in 1882 by D. C. Mc- Guffin, Mrs. J. A. Harman, and Capt. John N. Opie, Lewis pitched his tent, calling the place " Bellefont," which a portion of it still bears, from a

HTSTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 3T

bold bright spring issuing from the hill side. He was the first to occupy the scene ; no axe had ever before rung through that forest ; no spade had ever turned up that soil ; nature had delivered it into his hands in its un- touched virginity, and it was for him to say where, and how, and to what extent labor should mingle with it, and art adorn and enrich it. Here this man, nurtured in high civilization, but by sinister fortune deprived of his position and banished from his country, planted himself — making a home which became his tomb — delighting in the tranquility and independence of his secluded retreat. Here, amidst the deep shadows of the wilderness, he built a stone dwelling, which, with its flanks, formed one side of Fort Lewis, and in this half dwelling, half fortress, he maintained a long strug- gle with the savages, and under its stout walls the infant colony grew in time strong enough to defy every foe. A portion of this old fort still re- mains in 1882, and is occupied as a dwelling by the proprietor. It is the oldest house in the Valley, and though without architectural beauty or pretensions, is one of the most interesting of our historical relics.

In this hitherto unvisited region, amidst beautiful landscapes and grand points of scenery, the old hero spent the remaining years of his life,, finally closing his eyes upon a country blooming in cultivated fertility and enlivened by the arts of civilization.

Having pursued the fortunes of Lewis and his family to their settlement in the wilderness, we shall give in the next succeeding chapter a brief sketch, of the early settlers, their manners and customs, modes of life, etc., or historical outline of the little colony from its foundation to the year i749-'50, when Gov. Gooch sailed for England, in the flowery language of an old historian, "amidst the blessings and tears of the people, among whom he had lived as a wise and beneficent father."

Such poetical extravagance on the part of writers would shock the understanding but for its frequency. It certainly distorts the facts of history, and fills her pages with absurdities. Gooch was a moderate and sensible man, who reaped the benefits of Spotswood's administration, and governed Virginia generally in an acceptable manner. But he made mis- takes— committed errors — as what man does not ? — granted lands with lavish prodigality to his favorites, and incurred the hostility of those whom he did not fancy ; indulged in much petty persecution of Dissenters, made enemies, and was far from escaping censure. It is probable, then, that this "wise and beneficent father" of the old historian left as many dry as weeping eyes in Virginia, and was followed to England by as many curses as blessings.

32 HISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

CHAPTER IV.

No census is extant of the population on Lewis creek at the period when the County of Augusta was formed. It is evident from the preamble of the act of 1738 that there had been a considerable increase of the inhabi- tants west of the great mountains, and it was to give these pioneers the benefits of civil government that the county was established. The County of Augusta, thus formed from Orang'e, which had previously embraced all the country west of the Blue Ridge, was not organized until some years later. Meanwhile the legal business of the people west of the Blue Ridge continued to be transacted at Orange Court-House. The expense, incon- venience and delay caused by this state of aflairs, led to the organization of the county, at Staunton, in 1745, when there was a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing justices of the peace and other officers, and erecting courts therein. The first court-house was erected on the site of the present County Clerk's office, as near as may be, and the first court was held on the 9th of Dec, 1745, when the following magistrates, previ- ously _^commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, took their seats on the bench — viz.: John Lewis, John Brown, Peter Schall, John Pickens, Thos. Lewis, Hugh Thompson, Robt. Cunningham, James Keer, and Adam Dickinson.

John Patton was appointed High Sheriff, and Jno. Madison clerk.

The following gentlemen qualified as attorneys -at-law : Gabriel Jones, William Russell, James Porters, John Quin, Th. Chew. Gabriel Jones was appointed deputy attorney of the county, April 14, 1746, " as a fit person to transact his Majesty's affairs in this county," and qualified the follow- ing May. He was a learned lawyer, and married a Miss Strother, of Staf- ford county, a sister of Mrs. Thomas Lewis and Mrs. Madison, mother of Bishop Madison, and has, in 1882, a grandson living in Frederick county, namely, Mr. Strother Jones.

On the second day of the court, a commission from William Dawson, President of William and Mary College, was read, appointing Thomas Lewis surveyor.

From a motion now made by the Sheriff, it appears that up to this time there had been no prison in the settlement cr county, — that for a period of nearly fifteen years this pious little community of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians had lived without bolts and bars.

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTT. 33

Lewis, and we must speak much in this chapter of him, thou,q;-h not unmindful of the miserable weakness of mankind, which causes them to look with admiration upon persons glorious for mischief, and to be better pleased when reading- of the destroyer than the founder of a state ; who had entered the wilderness alone, or, at most, with a single companion, and whose family afterwards joined him, must be presumed to have given law to those who subsequently assembled around him. When the num- ber increased, these freemen, no doubt joined together and framed a so- ciety as best pleased themselves, in which, we are sure, while they may have, and doubtless did, recognize the founder as head, they took care that such rules as they adopted were for the good of the governed and not the governor. We have a fine picture of freemen, living according to their own will, in the case of Abraham and Lot : they went together into Canaan, continued together as long as was convenient for them, and parted when their substance did not increase, and they became trouble- some to each other. The men who collected in Augusta agreed toeether and framed a society, and thus became a complete body, having all power in themselves over themselves, subject to no other human law than their own. All those who composed the society being equally free to enter into it or not, no man could have any prerogative above others, unless it was granted by the consent of the whole, and nothing obliging them to enter into this society but the consideration of their own good ; that good or their opinion of it must have been the rule, motive and end of all that they did ordain. It is lawful for such bodies to set up one or a few men to govern them, and he or they who are thus set up have no power except what is conferred upon them by the multitude, and should exercise those powers according to the ends for which they were given. That the Foun- der was thus constituted the leader of the community until 1745, cannot be doubted. In '45, he was placed at the head of the court, and continued in this position until he went down, nearly twenty years later, in peace to the grave.

In William I. Lewis' narrative, he speaks of the " industry, piety, and ste'rn integrity of the young couple, John Lewis and Margaret Lynn," and we see in the significant fact that there was no prison in Augusta for nearly fifteen years after the Founder set down on the banks of Lewis creek, the legitimate fruit of their characters and example.

The people took their tone from the heads of the colony, and thus lived in the enjoyment of greater order and quiet than is commonly the lot of communities furnished with a regular system of laws and administration.

Such facts enable us to understand better the people themselves and the state of society in those days than would otherwise be possible. It must not be inferred, because the early colonists lived in the wilderness, beset with Indians and wild beasts, that they themselves lacked cultivation — par-

34 HISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTF.

took of the nature of their surroundings. It was an infant colony, cam- posed of grown men — a settlement in the wilds of the new world made up of men trained in the schools and civilization of the Old World. There were men of learning among them,, and means were early applied for educating the rising generation. A general taste for literature prevailed, as is obvious from the attention paid to the erudite men who, from time to time, came among them as clergymen ; from the collections of books in their houses — the libraries of the King's counsel, Gabriel Jones, and that of Hon. Thomas Lewis being famous — and from the early period at which schools, and particularly the Augusta Academy, were established.

Col. and Mrs. Lewis were indeed persons of gentle blood, of education, refine nent and independent fortune. They were not adventurers, who came to America seeking wealth or social or political position. They were the innocent victims of adverse circumstances, of sinister fortune, and had crossed the sea and changed their climate, but not their characters. And what is true of them is true of others. Lewis, himself, was a man endowed with many noble qualities. Of a martial spirit and heroic cour- age, he was formed to excel in war ; the ardent friend of progress, of pub- . lie improvements, of trade and commerce, wise in his conceptions and persevermg in his plans, he was equally adapted for peace. Irreproacha- ble in his public and private morals; courteous, affable, and eloquent; fond of society and excelling in conversation, he excited the love and admiration of the people who adhered to him and the policy he pointed out, as well from their attachment to his person as because of their respect for his talents and his character. Had he continued in Europe his abilities and accomplishments, which had already given him a high local reputa- tion and position, could not have remained long unknown and unrewarded by his Sovereign. He was destined, however, for another career, a more appropriate theatre for his ardent and restless genius. Providence or- dained him to become a pioneer of civilization — to erect the standard of the Cross in the wilderness. In the colony which he founded the Church anticipated the town and the county. Before either was established t^e Gospel was preached in the houses of the settlers orunder the shade of the trees. In Col. Lewis' house, indeed, the first sermon ever delivered in the county was preached by Mr. James Thompson, in 1739. A little later, log buildings were erected for the worship of God, called, in the language of the day, " meeting-houses." There was no settled pastor, no organized church, but the rude walls of the meeting-house resounded to the bold, zealous, impassioned and enthusiastic words of the old-school ministers, who, from time to time, passed through the settlement.

Lewis was not one of those men of overweening vanity, who fancy they can do without other men. He felt that he needed the counsel of others, and was not able to manage and direct all things alone. Accordingly, he

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNT f. 35

early associated with himself in his labors persons of merit, eLuployin^ each of these according to his talents, and left to them the management of minor matters, which only consume time, and deprived him of the liberty of mind so necessary in the conduct of important affairs. He thus prevented envy and jea'ousy, by dividing a power which is apt to be offensive when united in a single person, as if all merit centred in him alone. This wise course facilitated the execution of affairs, and made their success more cer- tain. The value of a man n{ such rare parts — such disinterested soul — in a primitive community, cannot be exaggerated. Men, as lago says, are but men. They must be treated, ministered to, provided for, and gov- erned as such. In the Augusta settlement, they were freer than free- dom, and in danger of running into licentiousness. Lewis saw, what uni- versal experience has proved to be necessary, namely : that for prosperous self-government, a moral tone must pervade the community, a sound pub- lic sentiment prevail, and laws, though rude and unwritten, must exist, and are best upheld by it. He and his leading associates, by word and deed, accomplished the great task of moulding the opinions and forming the character of the people between 1732 and 1745. Without the aid of civil, military, or ecclesiastical establishments, by their wisdom and firmness, their humanity and justice, they maintained law and order in the colony, cultivated in all a respect for the rights of others, restrained vice, and asserted the majesty of moral virtue. Liberty is precious and dear to all men, and no people were more jealous of theirs than these pioneers, who had tasted the bitter fruits of slavery in their native lands. To preserve liberty — the rights and liberties of all — was the great motive principle of their actions, and became, in a manner, the soul of their laws, customs, and whole frame of government, as they afterwards existed, and as we see them to-day in America.

These grand men of the frontier, our primitive colonial fathers, not only rescued their fields from the forest, but cultivated them with their own hands, performing, without reluctance, the offices of domestics. Thus the colony soon became, and naturally enough, noted for its prosperity and honored for its citizens. Possessing an ample fortune, Col. Lewis dis- pensed much hospitality, especially to strangers. While entertaining with generosity, he was careful that his establishment should not degenerate into luxury. The spirit of hospitality extended to all, and when any stranger happened to pass through Augusta, he was not only received, lodged, and maintained everywhere, but the inhabitants disputed with each other the honor of having him for their guest. This inviolable re- gard to hospitality is still preserved among our rural population.

Each returning season brought accessions to the population from abroad. Many were good and true men, and many were turbulent spirits, impa- tient of control, and the enemies of law and order. The difficulties of the

36 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA GO ON IT.

Founder's position increased, but he and his associates exercised an I'n-e- sistible influence in behalf of all measures for the public good. The men who, after 1745, (as many had done before,) united with him in his labors and exertions, were the Madis-ons, Pattons, Prestons, Browns, Keers, Dickinsons, Pickens, Breckenridges, and others. Many of those early set- tlers founded families which have since become famous in the land. Madi- son was the father ot the Right Rev. James Madison, DD., Bishop of Vir- ginia, the first bishop consecrated in America by the three American bish- ops previously consecrated in Great Britain, of whom the first was Dr, Seabury, of Connecticut, consecrated by the Scotch Episcopal Church, who admitted him to the Scotch Episcopate 1784, by the hands of the Bishops of Aberdeen, Ross, and Moray. The second and third bishops were Drs. White and Prevost, the elect respectively of the conventions of Pennsylvania and New York, who were consecrated at Lambeth Palace, 1787, by Archbishops Moore and Markham, and Bishops Moss, of Bath and Wells, and Hinchcliff, of Peterborough.

John Preston and Robert Breckenridge were the founders of the distin- guished families of their names in Virginia and Kentucky, and from other early settlers are descended the extensive and highly respectable families bearing their names in this county, the State, the West and South.

The Augusta colony, which was soon noted for its enterprising popula- lation, its good order, its industry and progress, was thus physically and socially in advance of other frontier settlements. It must be remembered, however, that all the settlers in this community were not worthy men. Augusta was not, as we have mentioned, thus signally blessed.

The subject of public improvements soon engaged the attention of the leading men, and they quickly discovered difficulties, besides those of na- ture, in their way. In every population there are two orders of men — one, who with little difficulty are open to a conviction that improvements are desirable, and another, who either from excess of ignorance or perversity, can tolerate no change whatever. With the former of these, the Founder had no difficulty. They readily came into his plans and appreciated his general policy, even acknowledging, with gratitude, the benefits and bless- ings that had already arisen from the schemes he had introduced of public improvement, elementary education, etc. They anticipated other and greater benefits from those he now proposed. The enemies of innovation and improvement, the suspicious, the prejudiced, the grumblers, were harder to manage, but they were, for the most part, in time, skillfully won over, and in the end he was supported by a large majority of even these.

Though the Founder, from the early years of the colony, called to his aid, as we have observed, the best men in it, there were such difficulties to encounter in executing his wise and benevolent plans, that only the most unwearied patience and self-denying virtue could have surmounted them.

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 6i

One of the chief wants of the community was good roads, and particu- larly of a road communicating with the more improved parts of Eastern Virginia, whence their supplies were drawn. Lewis perceived this on his difficult journey into the wilderness, and every day satisfied him more fully that there could be no solid improvement or prosperity among them while this was the case. It was difficult to communicate any news or treat of affairs with other settlements far and near, being obliged to send a courier at great charge and loss of time, or wait for the departure of some person going north or east of the mountains, to take their letters — a preca- rious and uncertain method.

Calling into council the chief men, the Founder proposed that they should widen and improve the so-called road leading to Goochland, and finding his views favorably received, the project was announced to the people. We can imagine their astonishment at the boldness of his plans ; how some of the more timid and indolent would declare the thing impos- sible ; how others would find an excuse, in their private affairs, for not en- couraging or wishing to engage in such an enterprise ; how it would be argued that the Indian trails through the mountain gaps answered a very good, if not every purpose ; how it would be said that by those paths they had arrived in the country and were doing well, and how those who were not satisfied with doing well, ought to be allowed to leave — to go farther and fare better ; how it would be reiterated that they could get, and actually did get on pack horses, their salt, iron, steel castings, powder and shot, and whatever they needed, including dress and personal ornaments ; how these croakers would dwell upon the time and labor such a work would cost, and finally, when it was constructed, upon the dangers which would menace the community, as by it luxury would be let in in time of peace, and the enemy in time of war. Nothing is too absurd for the dis- contented to urge on such an occasion. The men, however, who promoted this scheme, were not easily discouraged. Without losing time with mal- contents, they explained to the public the advantages to be derived from having a good outlet for the produce of their fields and facilities for pro- curing the multitude of comforts and conveniences of which they were des- titute. Soon the better part of the community was on their side, and the enterprise was begun.

Let us attempt to call up the scene when this work was taken in hand. There comes the venerable " Lord of the hills," as Lewis was called, with Brown, Keer, Pickens, Jones, Preston, Patton, and the leading spirits gen- erally. They are about to go forth with Thomas Lewis, the Surveyor, as Chief Engineer, to locate this highway. A motley crowd assembles in the streets and about the inn door, where horses stand, on whose backs men are packing tents and panniers with provisions. In this crowd stand men in hunting shirts and moccasins, leaning upon their long rifles, and sympa-

38 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

thizing, if at all, in the movement, in a listless way. These still hunters, or deer-stalking pioneers, are almost as much opposed as the Red Men to their hunting-grounds being disturbed — opened up by roads. Business is at a stand-still on this morning in the litde hamlet, now the city of Staun- ton, and women and children peer curiously from their doors. It is evident from the stir that a movement of no ordinary importance is on foot. At length the expedition starts, the crowd disperses, and the village relapses into its habitual drowsiness. Wetks pass, and the place is again astir. The venerable fathers reappear on the outskirts of the hamlet at the head of the surveymg party and the mass of the people themselves, — all are excited, — some in a lively state of enthusiasm. The road has been located, every preliminary arranged, and the work of Its construction is now to begin. The chief men — the elders — are all present and mingle in the crowd ; the scene is graced, too, by the presence of ladies — a " store of ladies -whose bright eyes rain influence." S^e the sturdy old pioneer, the venerable Founder, coming to the front, after the blessing of Heaven has been asked upon their undertaking, and casting up the first spadeful of earth, and hear the loud cheers which make the welkin ring ! Behold every one now pressing forward to lend a helping hand — even the malcon- tents, catching the spirit of the hour, hurrying to the front and taking part in the good work. There was a moral grandeur in such a spectacle, in the initiation of such an enterprise, — of turning to practical account, of thus giving a right direction to the industry of the people.

It was no holiday task, but, for that little community, without accumu- ted capital or mechanical appliances, a prodigious undertaking. The com- pletion of the work, — ^and it was completed in due time, — ameliorated the condition of the settlers, and it was from time to time followed by other improvements. Thus we see that on the 19th of May, 1749, this order en- tered of record by the County Court : " That Jas. Montgomerie, and Richard Burton, or any one of them, wait on the Court of Lunenburg and acquaint them that the inhabitants of Augusta have cleared a road to the said county line, and desire that they will clear a road from the court-house of Lunenburg to meet the road already cleared by the inhabitants of Au- gusta."

A good road, for those days, having been constructed over the moun- tains to the East, the people used it to market their produce, furs, cattle, etc., obtaining, in return, all necessary articles, and sometimes the luxu- ries and elegancies of life. The parties which brought in these supplies were so large that they were called Caravans. Soon shops, called " stores," and still so called, were established, and dealers supplied the public wants. About this time a division of labor occurred, and carpenters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, masons, tailors and shoemakers set up their trades. Work was now done at home, which hitherto, with much delay and expense, was executed at a distance.

HISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. " 39

In the absence of a system of laws, order was preserved and individual rights protected by virtue of public opinion and what is termed the forest code, -that mysterious power of public opinion, which it is impossible to resist, and than which nothing is more unsteady, more vague or more powerful, and which, capricious though it may be, is nevertheless just and reasonable more frequently than is supposed, — and that backwoodsman's code (a relentless and martial one it is), written in the constitution of their natures and the circumstances of their position. Every State must have its policies, kingdoms have edicts, cities have their charters, and even the wild outlaw, in his forest walks, keeps yet some touch of civil discipline. It is not easy for those never subjected to frontier trials to understand the fierce wrongs which sometimes heat the pioneers' strong passions to the fever point, and the necessity for this martial code. As to the forest code, it is well known that the punishments inflicted by it were well adapted to secure the end in view. Hazing was one of the punishments under it, and intended either to reform or expel an obnoxious character. The term hazing was not then in use, but the practice prevailed, and base conduct on the part of a man led to his being hazed out, or, as the pioneers styled it, " hated out " of the community. The unlucky individual who aroused public indignation was forced to make atonement and to reform, or incur the worse penalty of banishment. This mode of chastisement was com- mon among the Greeks, and is an effectual remedy. Few men have the hardihood to face the general indignation of an outraged community.

Two crimes met with peculiar punishment at the hands of the pioneers, — the first, theft, which was held in such detestation that the culprit was ban- ished, but not before thirtv-nine lashes were well laid unon his bare back. The second, seduction, which was punished by death. To extort a confes- sion, they sometimes resorted to the torture of sweating ; that is, suspend- ing the accused by the arms pinioned behind his back until he confessed. Thus the stern morality of the leaders became the prop and support of their government. We need not enter further upon the forest code, the spirit and effect of which is clearly seen from the foregoing.

Our sketch would be incomplete without a reference to some of the social customs and rural superstitions of the pioneers. When new comers arrived, or young married people contemplated housekeeping, all united to build them a dwelling. When land was cleared, all aided, as also at har- vest, hay-making, and other busy seasons. In times of danger, all men performed military duty, and no case is on record of a pioneer seeking to evade such service. As a rule, the men were brave and the women pretty, seeming to have inherited virtue and valor from their adventurous ances- tors. Personal difflculties, when they could not be amicably adjusted by the good offices of friends, were settled by wager of battle — a primitive mode of deciding causes between parties of high antiquity among the rude

40 . HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

military people of Europe. This mode of settling disputes made people more conservative and less vulgar in expressing their opinions of others than is common now-a-days. Family pride in Augusta was always great, and family honor was jealously guarded. Such was the chivalric character of our forefathers, that no personal insult or injury to a man or a member of his family was unavenged. Thus it was that crime and license were prevented from distorting humanity in the infantile colony.

People in those days dressed plainly, in half-savage, half-civilized style ; the men generally in a hunting shirt, a kind of loose frock, resembling the Roman tunic, fastened by a belt or girdle about the waist, with loose sleeves, and a cape to throw off the rain. In the belt of the tunic the Roman carried his money — in the hunting shirt the pioneer stored away his luncheon. By his side was suspended his knife and tomahawk, both in leathern cases. The hunting-shirt was made of Linsev-Wolsey, or dressed deer skin for Winter, and of tow linen for Summer. The breeches were usually of the same material, and the feet were encased in mocca- sins.

Previous to the Revolution, the married men usually shaved their heads, and either wore wigs or white linen caps — a custom adopted, no doubt, from the severity of our Summer climate, the heats of which are beyond anything prevailing" in Western Europe. The women dressed, ordinarily, in the same plain stuff, woven, during the first twenty years of the colony, by themselves, for they were skilled at the loom and spinning-wheel, thus exemplifying Probs. xxxi.: " She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hand holdeth the distaff.' Their duties were to educate their children, take care of their household, and live retired with their families ; their pleasures, to visit, give feasts, where there was much mirth and enjoyment. They were spiritual and healthful women, and wholly unaffected by that worldliness which so often depraves in fashionable society all the powers and faculties of the soul. From these peerless women sprung the heroic sons whose deeds have since made Virginia famous the world over. We trust the young women of the present day will not be unmindful of their bright example, or despise the duties of ordinary life. There is no position which exonerates a woman from the discharge of female duties, and the higher her talents, the more cultivated her understanding, the better regulated will be her household, the more eminently qualified will she be to per- form all the duties of her station, whether it be of high or low degree.

Thus on the frontier grew up a race of vigorous and spirited men, pure and virtuous women, and within a few years the " wilderness ceased to be their habitation, a barren land their dwelling-place." Though remote from the world of ton and commerce, they were eminently a happy peo- ple— their peace and morals not contaminated with the vices of fashionable life, the rooted depravity of a pretended civilization and a spurious and

HISTORY OF ATTGCSTA CO^jNTt. 41

mock Christianity. The mass of them were po >r, it is true, but their poverty might be styled the truest riches, since those who want least ap- proach nearest the gods, who want nothing.

The first settlers of Augusta, as their names indicate, were Scotch and Irish, but soon a few English and many Germans and persons of German lineage, from Pennsylvania, joined the community. Each party brought with them the religion, habits and customs of their ancestors, and this led to the erection of churches of different denominations and to a variety of little social circles, which, however, were never at any time very exclusive. The prevalence of German names evidences that a considerable part of the immigrants were of Teutonic origin. The superior intelligence of the people was due to the fact that the county was populated with adults, and it requires both talent and enterprise to produce voluntary change of country. It may be assumed with confidence as a truth, in our opinion, that there was as much talent, intelligence and spirit in the people of Augusta in i732-'50, as falls to the lot of any equal number of people in the world.

As the country was, while this influx of immigrants was flowing in, without roads, immigrants made their way into the interior on foot or horseback, following the Indian or bufifalo trails, or guided by blazed trees, carrying their worldly goods upon their backs or in packs lashed to horses or mules, crossing water courses on a fallen tree, which served as a bridge, or, in case of rivers or high water, swimming the streams. The men had, for the most part, seen "military ser\ace in Europe, and became inured, in Pennsylvania, to the hardships of frontier life. The experience of the women must have been terribly severe, though doubtless every possible effort was made to ameliorate their situation. These immi- grants are uniformly represented to have been, as a rule, men of staid habits, sterling worth, of high spirit, and untiring energy. And this is no doubt strictly true, for it is only, let us repeat, the courageous and self-reliant who venture on such enterprises. The houses of the pioneers were built of wood and covered with clap-boards : the flooring was split puncheons, smoothed with the broad-axe ; the chimneys of stone, or brick dried in the sun. Their furniture was rudely fashioned from the timbers of the forest, oak, walnut, maple ; their beds stuffed with feathers from the backs of their geese. It was not until long after 1732, that the pewter plates, dishes and spoons, wooden bowls, treanchers and noggins, strangely mingled on the pioneer's table with family plate brought from Europe by some of the settiers, were replaced by glass, china and silver ware.

Let no one imagine from the rudeness and simplicity of their dwellings and furniture that our conclusions are hastily drawn as to the cultivation and refinement of the early settlers. The people were restrained in im- provements by want of labor, the absence of machinery, tools, &c.

4^ fflSTORY Of AI/GUSTA COCTJS^TI'.

Moreover, tli'e industry of the community was specially directed to the fields, where it was certain of an ample reward, as a means of supplying not only their own wants, but the heavy demands of incoming parties of stran- gers. And their immediate wants were for the necessaries, not the luxuries of life.

In front of every house a garden was cultivated in flowers, and hard by in a truck patch, their vegetables. They nourished their bodies by the same earth out of which they were made, and to which all must return. Water was their pure and innocent beverage, though they sometimes in- dulged in the luxury of blackberry wine or spruce beer.

In the elegant mansions of the present, where one sees displayed the delicacies of every clime, served on plate from the mines of Potosi or Nevada, and which contain accumulated treasures of mahogany, uphol- stery, pictures, china, glass, etc., one can scarcely realize the brief period within which these transformation scenes have occurred. Our young men no longer disport Linsey-Wolsey hunting-shirts and bear-skin moccasins, but are clothed in fine linen and patent-leather boots. Verily, "Jeroboam has clad himself with new garments."

On arriving in the settlement, the first work which engaged the colonist was the erection of such log huts, or cabins, as we have described. A site having been selected, a hut was erected of round or rifted logs. Each family was supplied by the common labor of all with these rude dwellings, and in a few days after ending their journey the little community of in- comers was put under cover of their own roof. The sites of the settle- ments were always in or alongside of groves, near some spring of pure water, i'hese log huts, which were built around a square, were united by palisades, and thus presented a wooden wall to their enemies. I'he doors opened into the common square, on the inner side. As an additional protection, around the whole settlement a stockade inclosure was built, with block-houses at the angles, and these rude fortifications formed an impregnable barrier against the red skms. These block-houses were two stories high, the upper story projecting over the lower, that the inmates might discharge their rifles from above upon an enemy. They were of such strength that they afforded perfect security to those within, if the efforts of the Indians to burn them by lighted arrows could be prevented. These cabins, block-houses and stockades were constructed without the aid of a nail or spike.

The two first buildings of a public kind which were erected were the church, or "meeting-house," and the school-house, where religion and the elements of a sound and liberal education were taught, and by the same instructors — the Presbyterian clergymen. Those pious, patient, laborious men, who brought to the wilderness the cultivation and refinement of Europe, became the preceptors of little grammar schools at their own

rnSTOKY OF ACGTJSTA COUNTT. 43

Ifiouses, or in t"he immediate neighborhoods, and gave tiieir pupils a thorough if not extensive course of education. In a word, these good men formed the youth of Augusta, taught them to love their country and to honor their parents, and by their examples and admirable lessons sought to engage them more warmly in the pursuit of virtue. The first of these teachers in Augusta was Rev. John Craig, who did not con-fine himself to penman- ship, history and mathematics, but in his course embraced a classical edu- cation. In these schools all received the rudiments of education, and those who wished to pursue a more elaborate course entered the schools of Eastern Virginia— among which may be mentioned that of Rev. James Waddell, where William and Charles Lewis were trained. And in the year 1749, the '^Augusta Academy" was established, near the present town of Lexington. In 1782, it was organized, by a charter, as Liberty Hall Academy, and in 1796, Geo. Washington transferred to the institution a gift from the State of Virginia to him for his services in the Revolution, of 100 shares of his James river canal stock, and subsequently the Legisla- ture made this amount $50,000. The name was then changed to Wash- ington Academy, and, in 18 13, to Washington College. From these be- ginnings sprang Washington and Lee University, now one of the principal seats of learning in the South — an institution in which the leading men of Virginia have always manifested a deep interest, and among whose list of trustees the names of such distinguished men appear as Col. Arthur Campbell, Gen. Andrew Moore, Judge Arch'd Stuart, Col. James McDow- ell, Gen. Sam'l Blackburn, Hon. John Brown, Hon. Allen Taylor, Rev. George Baxter, Hon. James McDowell, Hon. John Howe Peyton, Charles L. Mosby, Esq., Hon, J. W. Brokenborough, Judge Wm. McLaughlin, Rev. Wm. S. White, etc.

In 1865, after the surrender of the Confederate armies, Gen. Lee was appointed President of the University, and on his death, in 1870, the name was changed from Washington College to Washington and Lee Univer- sity. Since, it has steadily increased in prosperity and usefulness.

Ignorant and illiberal foreigners have, until recently, reproached America with a want of scholars and literary men — thus ungenerously in- sinuating that our soil is unfavorable to letters, or our people so degraded as to take a pleasure in condemning to obscurity everything formed to diffuse lustre and glory around a state. It is unnecessary to descant on such a fallacy. The local and temporar}'' causes which have retarded our literary development were a virgin soil to be brought under cultivation, roads, canals, bridges, and every kind of public work to be constructed, and this, too, by a sparse and scattered population, inadequately supplied with im- plements of industry, entirely without capital, and pressed by their own personal necessities. Ours was a country of proprietors, it is true, but every proprietor was a laborer. What opportunity, what leisure, had

44 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COdNTV.

such a people to devote to letters ? " The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure ; and he that hath litde business shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad ; that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors ; and whose talk is of bullocks." — [Ecclesiasticus : c. 38, v. 24-25.]

But to return from this digression. When cultivation was going on around these stockade forts, strong places, or infant settlements, pickets were posted to give warning of an enemy's approach. The women and children, when an alarm was raised, retired within the stockade, but the men, seizing their rifles and taking to the trees, contested every inch of ground, rarely seeking the shelter of the fort until every effort to drive off the red skins failed.

Until a supply of domestic animals was reared, one of the most impor- tant employments of the men was the taking of game. This was styled hunting, and included the pursuit of both hairy and feathered game. The fur obtained from the wild beast found ready sale east of the mountains, and thus gave them the means of supplying their necessities. The Au- tumn was devoted to hunting until a Winter's supply of meat was secured. The pioneers soon learned the habits of wild animals, and knew where to find them in all the different stages of the weather. They became guides, hunters, trappers, soldiers, knew every mountain peak and valley, every path and stream. They were fleet and agile as the deer, tireless as the red man, and as indifferent to hunger and cold. The following was one of their devices for taking wild beasts : Wolf pits, fox holes, or bear traps, were excavations thus formed : a hole was dug, say ten feet deep, small at the top and growing wider on all sides as it descended, sloping inwards so much that no beast could climb up. Two sticks were fastened together in the middle at right angles, the longer one confined in the ground, and the shorter — to the inner end of which was attached the bait — swinging across the middle of the pit, so that when the wild beast attempted to seize it, he was precipated to the bottom.

As the means of support were easily procured, the cost of living mode- rate, the inhabitants married young, families were large, and the increase of population astonishingly rapid. A brief description of a wedding may not inappropriately, in this connection, be introduced in further illustration of frontier life. The few indoor amusements of the early settlers made a wedding a social event of the highest importance. It attracted the atten- tion of the entire settlement, and was anticipated by old and young with impatient delight. From the house of his father, the groom, attended by his best man and friends, proceeded, on the morning of the happy day, to the home of the bride-elect. Here, the bride and bride's-maids, mounted on fine horses, joined the party, and they made their way to the clergy- man's. The ceremony performed, the cavalcade set out on the return to

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 45

the bride's residence, and now what was called running, or racing, for the bottle occurred. While the wedding party was absent, the father, or next friend of the bride, prepared at the bride's residence a bottle of the best spirits, around the neck of which a white ribbon was tied. When within a mile or two of the house, on their return from the clergyman's, the young men prepared to race for the bottle. Taking an even start, their horses were put at full speed, dashing over mud, rocks, stumps, in total disregard of all impediments. The race was run with as much desire to win as is ever manifested on the turf. The father or next friend of the bride, expecting the racers, stood with the bottle in his hand, ready to de- liver it to the successful competitor. On getting it, he forthwith returned to meet the bride, to whom the botde was presented, and who must at least taste it, then the groom and the attendants. Arrived at the bride's home, instead of the champagne breakfast of the present, with its Bohe - mian glass and epergnes of silver, its lobster salad, savory jellies, etc., a substantial dinner awaited them. It was generally dinner time when the party returned from the clergyman's. During the dinner, and while the healths were being drunk in blackberry wine or spruce beer, dashed with whiskey, the wedding cake was cut and handed about. The bride's father proposed the health of the bride and groom. They replied themselves, or by friends, and generally with such wit and humor as to bring down the nouse. After the speechifying, during which there was great hilarity, the gentlemen retired to the shade-trees undl the preparations for dancing were completed. Before this, we must not omit to mention, while din- ner was progressing, the custom of stealing the bride's shoe was ob- served. This custom is said to have afforded heart-felt amusement to the guests. To succeed in it the utmost dexterity was required on the part of the younger portion of the company, while equal vigilance was manifested by the attendants to defend her against the theft ; and, if they failed, they were in honor bound to pay a penalty, a bottle of wine, for the redemption of the shoe. As a punishment to the bride, she was not allowed to dance until the shoe was restored. The successful robber, on getting possession of the shoe, held it up in triumph to the view of the assemblage.

Dancing having once commenced, it did not stop until the light of the- following morning. If any of the dancers showed signs of weariness, there were loud cries to the musicians from the others to strike up with,, " Hang out till to-morrow morning."

While the dance was proceeding, the bride made her escape, and the groom, under the guidance of the best man, was soon snugly by her side. If it was a wedding among the Germans, the young people were now ad- mitted to the bed-chamber, and another custom was observed. A stock- ing rolled into a ball was given to the young females, who, one after the other, would go to the foot of the bed, stand with their backs to it, and

46 ' HLSrOKV OF AUUIJ6TA CuUNTV.

throw the stocking over then- shoulders at the bride's head, and tiie first who succeeded in touching her cap or head, was the next to be marr!eJ. The young men then threw the stocking at the groom's head, in like man- ner, with the like motive, and hence their eagerness and ciexterity in throw- ing the stocking. These gaieties were kept up for several days at the houses of the parents, until the whole company, completely exhausted by loss of sleep, retired for a long rest, which was necessary before they could return to their ordinary avocations. There was no bridal tour in those days — no traveling dress was to be assumed. Within a few days of the marriage ceremony, on a plot of land given by one of the parents, preparations were made for building the young couple a residence. This rustic edifice hav- ing been finished and furnished, the house-warming took place. This consisted of a stout meal similar to the marriage dinner, followed by a night's dancing, after which the happy pair were left to themselves. As far as the means of the respective parents would admit of it, they aided the young couple. In all of their affairs our fathers were prudent and economical, but not mean or niggardly. They knew that extreme avarice is folly, and that to make a proper use of the goods of this world, is to enjoy them. They therefore not only lived well themselves, but assisted the young married of their households to do likewise.

There were no towns of consequence in the early days of Augusta. The churches were all in the country, and around these was the burial-place or grave-yard. Owing to the absence of doctors and the want of medi- cines, many died who might have been easily cured.

The following were the principal diseases among the pioneers, and their specifics, mode of treatment, &c., in the absence of any disciple of Escu- lapius :

They gave a solution of common salt, sulphate of iron, or green cop- peras, to children afflicted with worms. Roasted onions and garlic, for croup. Slippery elm bark was applied to burns.

A purging pill was made from the inner bark of the white walnut tree. For snake bite, the snake was killed and cut into pieces, split open and laid on the wound to draw out the poison. The wound was then poul- ticed with the boiled leaves of the chesnut. After this the snake was burnt to ashes. •

Another remedy was a poultice made of the white plantain. As a ma- jority of the settlers were from Ireland, where no poisonous reptiles are found, it is doubtless from the Indians they learned these treatments.

Cupping, sucking the wound, and making deep incisions, which were filled with salt and gunpowder, were among the earliest remedies for snake bites used by the whites, and may be regarded in the light of experiments in the healing art.

mSTORY OF ArOUSTA COUNTY. 47

Since this work went to press, the efficacy of one of the above modes of treatment has been tested in the writer's family, as will be seen by the fol- lowing extract from the Staunton (Va.) Valley Virginla.n of July 20. 1882:

A Serious Snake Bite. — On Tuesday last, as Col. Peyton and family were crossing North Mountain, fifteen miles from Stavmton, for an outing in the Shenandoah mountains, his bright and intelligent little son, Law- rence, who was walking up the mountain with his mother and a man-ser- vant, stepped upon a moccasin snake coiled under a tuft of grass on the roadside. The venomous reptile instantly struck his fangs deep into the leg of the little fellow, who sprang forward, crying out that he was bitten. The Colonel jumped from his carriage and immediately put his lips to the wound and sucked out the poison, sucking until he had raised a blister. He then steeped the wound in French brandy, and ordered the coachman to return, only delaying a moment to kill the snake, by which time the child's leg was much swollen and very painful. Upon reaching home, Law- rence was placed under the skillful treatment of Dr. Gibson, and is now, we are glad to say, rapidly recovering. We congratulate Colonel and Mrs. Peyton upon what, but for his heroic treatment in extracting the poi- son, would have proved a fatal calamity.

Wounds were healed with slippery elm bark, flaxseed, &c.

Rheumatism was treated with the oil of rattlesnakes, geese, wolves^ bears, raccoons, ground-hogs, polecats, &c.

Coughs and pulmonary consumptions with syrups made with maple sugar and the bark of the wild cherry, etc.

Charms and incantations were also used for the cure of many diseases, and these were practiced by the whites as well as the red men..

Erysipelas was circumscribed by the blood of a black cat. Hence there was scarcely a black cat to be seen whose ears and tail had not been fre- quently cut off for a contribution of blood.

Blood-letting and draughts of warm water were as popular in all cases of fever as with Dr. Sangrado. Under this system of medicine, the reader' will not be surprised to learn that many of the pioneers perished, that the- extreme salubrity of the climate and the robust constitutions of the people alone prevented the population from being decimated.

It is by no means certain that their condition would have been improved, by the presence of such practitioners as then drove their trade east of the Mountains. In an act passed by the Burgesses for regulating the fees of " the practisers of physic," it recites that " the practice is commonly in the hands of surgeons, apothecaries, or such as have only served apprentice- ships to these trades, who often prove very unskillful, and yet demand excessive fees and prices for their medicines, which is a grievance, danger- ous and intolerable evil."

It was no more all work and no play with the pioneers, than with Jack of the proverb. Every manly exercise was cultivated. Boys were taught

4:8 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

to box and use the cudgel and to draw the bow. At the age of t^'^ or twelve years, they were supplied with firearms, in the use of which they became experts, and aided, not only in supporting the family, but in the public defence. The boys became so skilled in imitating the noise of every bird and beast, that they could decoy any of the tenants of the for- ests within reach of their rifles. In throwing the tomahawk, another of their sports, they acquired the skill of the savages, and. would strike down an enemy with unerring aim at twenty to thirty paces. No athletic sport was neglected, such as running, jumping, pitching (the quoits), wrestling, boxing, but all sports were practiced which tended to make them quick of eye, fertile in expedients, strong of hand, active of foot, and fearless in exe- cution.

To bar out the schoolmaster was one of the customs of the boys, kept up to within the writer's school days, when he has more than once engaged in the sport. About a week before Easter and Christmas, the larger scholars would meet in the night to bar out the master. On his arrival at the school-room, he would take in the situation and endeavor to force his way in, but finding his efforts unavailing, he would proceed to negotiate, and would enter into an agreement to give the scholars holiday at Easter week and between Christmas and New Year's. Sometimes he would agree to give a gallon of some beverage and a lot of gingerbread on Christmas day, and play a game of corner ball with his pupils on the occasion. The terms being understood and agreed upon, the doors would be unbarred, and the duties of the school would be resumed.

It was customary for the ladies to meet at each other's houses usually at three in the afternoon, an hour after dinner, when all the busy occupations of the day were over. These were called " quilting parties," and the ladies presented themselves with their work-bags upon their arms, and work and conversation began together. Gossip, of course, constituted the staple of their conversation. What else was there in these retired societies but the domestic detail of household anecdote and the tattle of the settlement ? At five, sassafras tea was brought in, accompanied by a handsome collation, consisting of pastry, fruits, creams and sweetmeats, and often of cold fowl and meats. This substantial kind of refreshment is not found unacceptable after an early dinner, and with the perspective of a solid supper. Pio- neers have keen appetites arising from their robust health and the bracing mountain air. Among the heads of families, who had children married, there were regular days — generally once a week — when all the offsprings assembled at the father's or grandfather's house for dinner. There was something respectable, and even affecting, in these patriarchal meetings ; they seemed a means of drawing closer those ties of consanguinity which are the best refuge against human ills, in which the purest affections of the heart mingle themselves with the wants and weakness of our nature, guid-

HISTORV OF AUGCSTA. CODNTT. 49

ing, with watchful tenderness, the wanderinj^s of youth, and supporting, with unwearied care, the feebleness of age.

The evenings were devoted to amusement, to social pleasure, to friend- ship, to some object that cheers or soothes the heart. Music and dancing were both practiced, adding much to the general happiness by lessening the laborious monotony of their lives. The round dance of the present, so much praised by poets and denounced by preachers, was not then known. Upon the young the beneficial effects of both music and dancing were apparent, particularly of music which is so well adapted to softening the manners and humanizing the feelings. The young people were intro- duced in the evenings, and entertained strangers with their songs, the girls often singing the airs of the countries beyond the seas which their parents had left, never to see again, the boys accompanying them on the flute, flageolet or violin. The cultivation of a taste for music and poetry pro- bably led to descanting in the wild style of the rude minstrels of the Mid- dle Ages. The souls of these children of the woods quickly took fire at the beauties of, poetry, and the most important benefits of poetry were thus produced, by promoting a repugnance to everything mean and igno- ble ; by the study of nature in the purity of her poetical forms ; by the in- nocent, and at the same time agreeable, direction which the pursuits of taste impart to the idler propensities of the mind ; by the influence of gen- erous and pathetic verse, in keeping open those hearts which are in danger of being choked with the cares of business. The influence of poetry can be seen in the eloquence of such men as Patrick Henry and Rev. Samuel Davies. Music and dancing were, therefore, considered an essential part of their education, and the old field school-houses were the academies where they practiced both. History was in this repeating herself, for, from the earliest ages, music has been much in use. The ancients attached vast importance to it, and ascribed the malignity, brutality and irreligion of some of the peoples of antiquity to their absolute neglect of it. In the days of Laban, music was much used in Mesopotamia, where he resided, since, among other reproaches he makes to his son-in-law, Jacob, he com- plains that, by his precipitate flight, he had put it out of his power to con- duct him and his family " with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp." — [Gen., cxxxi, v. 27.]

On both sides of the Blue Ridge mountain, the amusements of the peo- ple were such as might be expected in a rural society ; and in Eastern Virginia they were those of a people of considerable wealth and compara- tively slight education. Horse-racing and racing balls were the events, and fox-hunting, cock-fighting, drinking and card-playing the regular pas- times. In the Virginia Gazette for October, 1737, we read: "We have advice from Hanover county that on St. Andrew's day there are to be horse-races and several other diversions for the entertainment of ladies

50' HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COtTNTT.

and gentlemen, at the old field, near Capt. John Brickerton's, in that county, ttie substance of which is as follows — viz. : It is proposed that 20 horses or mares do run around a three miles' course for a prize of ^^5.

" That a hat of the value of 20 shilling's be cudgfelled for, and that after the first challenge made, the drums are to beat every quarter of an hour for three challenges round the ring, and none to play with their left hand.

" That a violin be played for by 20 fiddlers ; no person to have the liberty to play unless he bring a fiddle with him. After the prize is won they are all to play together, and each a different tune, and to be treated by the company.

■' That 12 boys of 12 years of age do run 112 yards for a hat of the cost of 12 shillings.

" That a flag be flying on said day 30 feet high.

" That a handsome entertainment be provided for the subscribers and their wives ; and such of them as are not so happy as to have wives may treat any other lady.

" That Drums, Trumpets, Hautboys, &.C., be provided to play at said entertainment.

" That after dinner the Royal health, His Honor, the Governor's, &c,, are to be drunk.

" That a Quire of ballads be sung for by a number of Songsters, all of them to have liquor sufficient to clear their wind-pipes.

" That a pair of shoe buckles be wrestled for by a number of brisk young men.

" That a pair of handsome shoes be danced for.

" That a pair of handsome silk stockings, of one Pistole value, be given to the handsomest young country maid that appears in the field ; with many other whimsical and comical diversions too numerous to mention.

"And as this mirth is designed to be purely innocent and void of offence, all persons resorting there are desired to behave themselves with decency and sobriety, the subscribers being resolved to discountenance all immor- ality with the utmost rigor." <

These were rough, honest English sports, and prevailed everywhere in Eastern Virginia. At all the county towns, east of the mountains, fairs were held at regular intervals, accompanied by sack and hogshead races, greased poles, and bull-baiting. In fine weather, barbecues in the woods, when oxen, pigs and fish were roasted, were frequent, and were much en- joyed by all, ending usually, among the lower classes, with much intoxica- tion. Another great source of delight was the cock-fight. The small farmers assembled at the taverns to play billiards and drink. The monthly sessions of the courts filled the towns with a miscellaneous crowd. The people were not much given to reading or the sister art of writing. Gov. Spotswood remarked on one occasion, in an official reply to some remon-

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTT, 51

strance of the House of B-rgesses: " I observe that the grand ruling party in your house has not furnished chairmen of two of your standing committees who can spell English or write common sense, as the griev- ances under their own hand-writing will manifest."

FOLK LORE,

The progress of science has convinced mankind that the material uni- verse is everywhere subject to fixed and immutable laws. In the infancy and less mature state of human knowledge it was otherwise, and man was constantly disposed to refer many of the appearances, with which he was conversant, to the agency of invisible intelligence ; sometimes under the influence of good, but oftener of malignant disposition. Omens and portents told these men of good or ill fortune. These superstitions pre- vailed, to a vast extent, among our English ancestors. Queen Elizabeth consulted Dr. John Dee, an astrologer, respecting a lucky day for her coronation ; James I employed much of his time in the study of witch- cratt and demology, and in 1664, Sir Matthew Hale caused two old women to be hanged upon a charge of unlawful communion with infernal spirits. A belief in such supernatural agency has existed in all ages and coun- tries— among the Jews, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, down to within recent times.

The history of mankind, therefore, will be very imperfect, and our knowledge of the operations and eccentricities of the mind lamentably deficient, unless we take into our view what has occurred under this head. The supernatural appearances, with which our ancestors conceived them- selves perpetually surrounded, must have had a strong tendency to cherish and keep alive the powers of the imagination, and to penetrate those who witnessed, or expected such things, with an extraordinary sensi- tiveness. But whatever were their advantages or disadvantages, at any rate it is good for us to call up in review things which are now passed away, but which once occupied a large share of the thoughts and attention of our ancestors, and in a great degree tended to modify their characters and dictate their resolutions. Vast numbers of persons have been sacrificed as witches in different ages and countries, and stringent laws once existed against dealers in witchcraft in Virginia. As late as 1705, Grace Sherwood was punished in Virginia for witchcraft. An able jury of ancient women was impannelled, and, after search, reported " that she was not like them, nor any other woman.'

The witch was, by our ancestors, supposed to be a woman who had formed a contract, signed with her blood, with a mighty and invisible spirit, the great enemy of man, and to have sold herself, body and soul, to everlasting perdition for the sake of gratifying, for a short term of years, her malignant passions against those who had been so unfortunate as to give her offence. They considered such a crime as atrocious above

52 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

all Others, and regarded the witch with inexpressible abhorence. The witch was thought to possess the power of inflicting strange and incurable diseases, particularly on children ; of destroying cattle by shooting them with hair balls ; of inflicting spells and curses on guns and other things, and of changing human beings into horses, and, after bridling and sadling them, riding them, full speed, over hill and dale, to their places of meet- ing. The wizard, or man witch, was supposed to possess the same am- ple powers of mischief, but to exercise his powers, for the most part, to counteract the malevolent influence of the witches. These wizards, or witch-masters, as they were commonly called, went about exercising their art, and many of these impostors were smart enough to make a good liv- ing, without work, out of their calling ; were pure and unadulterated hypo- crites.

All incurable diseases were ascribed to the supernatural agency of a malignant witch, such as epileptic and other fits, dropsy of the brain rickets, &c. For the cure of diseases inflicted by witchcraft, the picture of the supposed witch was drawn on a stump, or piece of board, and shot at with a bullet containing a little bit of silver. This bullet transferred a painful and sometimes mortal spell on that part of the witch corresponding with the part of the portrait struck by the bullet. Another method was to get some of the child's water, which was closely corked up in a vial, and hung up in a chimney. This inflicted the witch with stranguary, which lasted as long as the vial remained in the chimney. The witch could only relieve herself from a spell inflicted on her by borrowing something, no matter what, of the family to which the subject of her witch-craft belonged. Such family was never in a hurry to accommodate her with a loan.

When cattle or dogs were bewitched, they were burnt on the forehead by a branding-iron, or, when dead, burnt to ashes. When disease and pestilence prevailed, fires were lit to ward off both. This was, doubdess, a relic of an older custom, when an animal was offered as a burnt sacrifice to appease the wrath of the gods. If an animal was infected by murrain, the diseased part was cut out while the beast was alive, and solemnly burnt in a bonfire. To the modern scientific mind, these would seem wise precautions to hinder the spread of infection. Any one who knows the rural mind, even at the present day, will be quite sure that the precaution was magical, not sanitary. Witches were often said to milk the cows of their neighbors. This they did by fixing a pin in a new towel for each cow intended to be milked. This towel was hung over her own door, and by means of certain incantations, the milk was extracted from the fringes of the towel after the manner of milking a cow.

The first German glass-blowers, in America, drove witches out of their furnaces by throwing in live puppies.

Bewitched persons sometimes vomited quantities of crooked pins ; the

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 63

palms of their hands were turned outwards, and, if they spoke, it was not in their own voice, but that of the devil, by whom they were possessed — at least, they were said to do so. Such were some of the extravagant fancies of our forefathers, and may afford us a salutary lesson.

At many remote points on the Western frontier, similar settlements to the one \v^ have described on Lewis creek were made by a like class of immigrants. The same virtues of hospitality, of disinterested kindness, prevailed in all these backwoods communities, and were, in some measure, the result of their situation. Unselfish and liberal, these pioneers sought no recompense but the approval of their own consciences, and it has been well said that the greater part of mankind might derive advantage from the contemplation of their virtues. Such were those majestic men of the frontier — the men of 1732-1776-1812 — whose souls grew like the shadows of the mountain ridge they walked beneath. " wild, above rule or art, rugged, but sublime !"

The first settlers of Augusta were, for the most part, the descendants, paternally or maternally, of the ancient Caledonians, who boasted that they had never been subjected to the law of any conqueror. They be- longed to various Highland clans, and were strongly imbued with the pre- judices, feelings, sentiments, &c., of their peculiar clans. One of the cir- cumstances connected with their condition as followers of a chieftain was, that every clan bore the name of their hereditary chief, and were sup- posed to be allied to him, in different degrees, by the ties of blood. Thia* kindred band, or admitted claim of a common relationship, led to a freedom: of intercourse highly flattering to human pride, and communicated to the- vassal Highlanders a sentiment of conscious dignity and a sense of natural equality. And every individual sought to show his attachment to his- leader as the head of his family. This feeling strongly exhibited itself in the Augusta colony, which, from intermarriages, soon assumed something of the character of a numerous and increasing family. The poorest preserved with pride the facts of this consanguinity, and whatever the distinctions of rank that may have arisen from the unequal acquisition of wealth, they mutually respected themselves and each other. The haughty backwoods- man yielded a cheerful obedience to the head of the clan or colon)-, whom they regarded somewhat as a father, and who may be supposed to have exercised among them the authority of a judge in peace, and of a leader in time of war.

Such, briefly, was the colony of Augusta from 1732 to 1745, and a more interesting spectacle of undisturbed felicity, quiet progress, r otwithstand- ing the primitive condition of the community, and the roughing inci- dent to their remoteness from commercial centres, it would be difficult to imagine or describe. Of luxury, there was little or none, unless it might be termed a luxury to be without want, without beggars, and without the

54 HISTORY OF AUGUST'a COUNTY.

enervating diseases which attend on idleness and opulence. There were no diamonds or pearls, but plenty cf bright eyes and rosy cheeks ; no shimmering silks or brilliantly colored velvets and satins, resplendent with gold and silver lace, but plenty of woollen stuffs, recommended by their warmth and healthfulness ; no theatres, operas, fancy balls, saloons, or their attendant licentiousness, but plenty of fun and frolic. When we consider the condition of the people, and their fertile, salubrious and beau- tiful country; that they married and multiplied, and their virtue, instead of degenerating, was confirmed by time, and the more they increased the more examples they furnished to animate succeeding generations, one feels how impossible it is to describe the happiness of this fortunate peo- ple. Could they be other than the favored of Heaven? They who recognized God in everything, and constandy approached him with grati- tude and veneration. Religion cooperated with nature to soften and pol- ish their manners. Nature left but little unfinished ; that little, religion completed.

The brief foregoing account of the manners and customs of the colony will hold good, generally, up to and long after the Revolution.

EXCERPTS FROM THE RECORDS, ANA, ETC.

The profession of the law seems to have been as popular in Augusta a hundred and twenty-five years ago as now. Though five attorneys ob- tained a licence to practice in December, 1745, at the February term, 1746, less than three months from the organization of the county, five more gen- tlemen of wig and gown fraternity qualified to practice in the courts, namely : John Newport, Obediah Merriot, Ben. Pendleton, Jno. Nicholas, and Wm. Wright.

These professional gentlemen soon began to wrangle in a too charac- teristic way, and the court, at the same term, was driven to make the fol- lowing order, viz : " That any attorney interrupting another at the bar, or speaking when he is not employed, forfeit five shillings."

That the manners of the bar were not over refined may be inferred from a fine imposed upon the leader of the circuit, Gabriel Jones, at the May term, 1746, of five shillings, for swearing. His profanity was indulged in before the court, and doubtless directed to one of his legal rivals.

The fees of lawyers in the county and inferior courts were, as estab- lished by act of 1753, for an opinion or advice, ten shillings ; in any suit at common law, or petition, fifteen shillings ; in all chancery suits, real, mixt or personal actions, thirty shillings ; on a petition for a small debt, seven shillings and six pence ; and a fine of ^50 was levied for any violation of these prices. A shilling was of the value of sixteen and two-thirds cents. Attorneys were not likely to grow fat on such moderate fees, but could live well, if they got plenty of them. For we see the court, March, 1746, established the following rates for ordinaries, and from the scale we infer that they were very ordinary indeed : " For a hot diet, well dressed, nine pence ; a cold diet, six pence ; lodging, with clean sheets, three pence ; stabling and fodder for the night, six pence; rum, the gallon, nine shil- lings ; whiskey, six shillings ; claret, the quart, five shillings."

Many of these early colonial lawyers were doubtless lawyers only in

HISTOKT OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 55

name — men not versed in the laws, but picking up a support as commis- sioners in chancery, conveyancers, paper shavers, or usurers and specu- lators, who, deriving a knowledge of the troubles of parties from their po- sition, availtd themselves of it to make a good turn for themselves.

The early records abound with proofs of the morality of our ancestors, their determination to uphold religion, law and order. At the May term, 1746, the court ordered Edward Boyle to be put in the stocks for two hours and fined twenty shillings for damning the court and swearing four oaths in their presence. All through the records appear cases of persons fined for swearing, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, and other offences, and in August, 1747, the sheriff was ordered to make a duckiug-stool for the use of the county, according to the law of 1705.

The ancient laws of Virginia declared that the court in every county shall cause to be set up near the court-house a pillory, pair of stocks, a whipping-post and a ducking-stool, in such place as they shall think con- venient, which, not being set up within six months after the date of this act, the said court shall be fined five thousand pounds of tobacco.

The corporal punishments inflicted upon criminals consisted of the pil- lory, the stocks, the whipping-post and the ducking-stool. Each of these is described below, for the benefit of those who are unacquainted with those relics of barbarism.

The pillory is one of the most ancient corporeal punishments in En- gland, France, Germany, and other countries. As early as 1275, by a statute of Edward I, it was enacted that every stretch-neck, or pillory, should be made of convenient strength, so that execution might be done upon offenders without peril to their bodies. The pillory consisted of a wooden frame, erected on a stool, with holes and folding boards for the admission of the head and hands. The heroes of the pillory have not been the worst class of men, for we find that a man by the name of Leigh- ton, for printing his Zion's Plea against Prelacy, was fined ^10,000, de- graded from the ministry, pilloried, branded, and whipped through the city of London, in 1637, besides having an ear cropped and his nostrils slit. The length of time the criminal stood in and upon the pillory was determined by the Judge.

The stocks was a simple arrangement for exposing a culprit on a bench, confined by having his ankles made fast in holes under a movable board. Sometimes the stocks and whipping-post were connected together. The posts which supported the stocks, being made sufficiently high, were fur- nished near the top with iron clasps to fasten round the wrists of the offender and hold him securely during the infliction of the punishment. Sometimes a single post was made to serve both purposes, clasps being provided near the top for the wrists when used as a whipping-post, and similar clasps below for the ankles, when used as stocks, in which case the culprit sat on a bench behind the post, so that his legs, when fastened to the post, were in a horizontal position.

Women were punished in the ducking-stools. They fasten an armed chair to the end of two strong beams, twelve or fifteen feet long, and par- allel to each other. The chair hangs upon a sort of axle, on which it plays freely, so as always to remain in the horizontal position. The scold, being well fastened in her chair, the two beams are then placed as near to the centre as possible, across a post on the water-side, aud being lifted up be- hind, the chair, of course, drops into the cold element. The ducking is

56 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

repeated, according to the deg^ree of shrewishness possessed by the pa- tient, and has generally the effect of cooling her immoderate heat, at least for a time.

John Preston, at the May term, 1746, came into court and prayed leave to prove his importation, which was granted him, and thereupon he made oath that at his own charge he had imported himself, Elizabeth, his wife, William, his son, and Lettice and Ann, his daughters, immediately from Ireland into this colony, and that this is the first time of procuring his said right, in order to partake of his Majesty's bounty in taking up land, which is ordered to be certified.

The first court-house of Augusta was no doubt like those common on the frontiers, a log cabin covered, but without daubing, sash or doors. In this hall of justice, a carpenter's bench, with a half-dozen chairs upon it, served as the judgment seat, and though the house was barely sufficient to contain the bench, bar, jurors, and constables, the occasion of the first court must have brought the whole population to the town. The follow- ing description of a scene in one of these frontier court-houses will no doubt hold true as to many in that of Augusta. But few spectators could be accommodated on the lower floor, the only one laid ; many, therefore, clambered up the walls, and placing their hands and feet in the open in- terstices between the logs, hung there, suspended like enormous Mada- gascar bats. Some had taken possession of the joists, and big Jno. Mc- Junkin (who, until now, had ruled at all public gatherings,) had placed a foot on one joist and a foot on another, directly over the heads of their Honors, standing, with outstretched legs, like the Colossus of Rhodes. The Judge's sense ol propriety was shocked at this exhibition. The sheriff, John McCandless, was called, and ordered to clear the walls and joists. He went to work with his assistants, and soon pulled down by the legs those who were in no very great haste to obey. Mc'Junkin was the last, and began to growl as he prepared to descend. " What do you say, sir?" said the Judge. " I say I pay my taxes, and has as good a reete here as iny mon." "Sheriff!" Sheriff!" said the Judge, " Bring him before the court !" Mcjunkin's ire was now up, and as he reached the floor, began to strike his breast, exclaiming, " My name is John Mc- Junkin, d'ye see ; here's the brist that niver flinched, if so be it was in a good caase ; I'll stan' iny mon in Butler county, if so be he'll clear me o' the la'." " Bring him before the court," said the Judge. He was accord- ingly pinioned, and if not gagged, at least forced to be silent while his case was under consideration. Some of the lawyers volunteered as amici ■rcurice ; some ventured a word of apology for Mcjunkin. The Judge pro- nounced sentence of imprisonment for two hours in the jail of the county, and ordered the Sheriff to take him into custody. The Sheriff, with much simplicity, observed : " May it please the court, there is no jail at all to put him in." Here the Judge took a learned distinction, upon which he expatiated for some length for the benefit of the bar. He said " there were two kinds of custody ; first, safe custody ; second, close custody. The first is, where the body must be forthcoming to answer a demand or an accusation, and in this case, the body may be delivered, for the time being, out of the hands of the law, on bail or mainprize ; but where the imprison- ment forms a part of the satisfaction or punishment, there can be no bail

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTT. 5 i

or mainprize. This is the reason of the common law, in relation to escapes under capias ad satisfaciendum, ;ind also why a second ca. sa. cannot is^ue after the defendant has been once arrested and then discharged by the plaintiff. In like manner, a man cannot be twice imprisoned for the same offence, even if he be released before the expiration of the term of impris- onment. This is clearly a case of close custody — areta custodia — and the prisoner must be confined, body and limb, without bail or mainprize, in some place of close incarceration." Here he is interrupted by the Sheriff, who seemed to have hit upon a lucky thought : " May it please the court, I am just thinking I can take him to Bowyer's pig-pen ; the pigs are killed for the court, and the pen's empty." " You have heard the opinion of the court." said the Judge, " Proceed, Sherifif, and do your duty." The Sheriff accordingly retired with the prisoner, and drew after him three-fourths of the spectators and suitors, while the Judge, thus relieved, proceeded to organize the court. But this was not the end of the affair. Peace and order had scarcely been restored, when the Sheriff came rushing into court with a crowd at his heels, crymg out, " Mr. Judge ! Mr. Judge ! May it please the court!" "What is the matter. Sheriff ? " " Mr. Judge ! Mr. Judge ! John Mcjunkin's got off, d'ye mind." " What ! escaped ! Sherifif, summon \hc posse comitaius.'" "The posse, the posse, what's that, may it please your Honor? Now, I will just tell you how it happened. He was going along quietly enough till we got to the hazle patch, and all at once he pitched off into the bushes, and I after him, but a limb of a tree kitched me first, and I fell back three rods." The Judge could not restrain his gravity ; the bar raised a laugh, and there the matter ended, after which the business proceeded quietly enough

Nov. 27, 1751. — The Grand Jury presented Owen Crawford for drink- ing a health to King James, and refusmg to drink a health to King George.

Feb. 19, 175 1. — John and Reuben Harrison presented a petition to the court praying to be rewarded for killing two persons, under the command of Ute Perkins, who were endeavoring to rob them.

Feb. 19, 1751.— Catharine Cole being presented for having a bastard child, and refusing to pay her fine or give security for the same, according to law, it is ordered that she receive on her bare back, at the public whipping-post, twenty lashes, well laid on, in lieu of said fine, and that the lashing be done immediately.

May 18, 1749. — Jane Scot, a servant woman, for having a bastard child : Ordered that after the expiration of her servitude by indenture, and serv- ing her master one year for the trouble of his house, the Church Wardens of Augusta Parish sell her for the said offence, according to law.

March i, 1749. — Robt. Armstrong, in open court, made oath that he saw the Indians kill one, and take away another mare, belonging to Peter Wright, of this county.

Nov. 28, 1750. — The Grand Jury present Jacob Coger, for a breach of the peace, in driving hogs over the Blue Ridge on the Sabbath day ; and May 28, 1751, James Frame was presented for a breach of the Sabbath, in unnecessarily traveling ten miles.

58 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

May 17, 1754. — ^Ann, wife of James Brown, havins^ come into court and abused William Wilson, Gent., one of the justices, by calling him a rogue, and that on his coming off the bench she would give it to him like the devil, ordered that she be taken into custody, &c.

August 24, 1754. — Joseph Tees, having affronted this court by saying " he got nothing in this court but shuffling," it is ordered that he be fined twenty shillings, &c.

March 17, 1756. — Francis Furgesson, being brought before this court, &c., for damning Robert EHnwiddie, esq., (Governor of the Colony,) " for a Scotch pedling son of a bitch," was* found guilty, but was excused on apologising and giving security to keep the peace.

May 21, 1756. — On motion of Thomas Lewis, Gent., setting forth that his negro, Hampton, frequently absconds from his service, and that he has several times attempted to ravish Ann West and other white women, and praying, to prevent the like mischief, he may be dismembered ; it is or- dered that the said Lewis employ such skillful person, as he may think proper, to castrate the said slave.

Dec, 8, 1756. — Charles Dever was tried for cursing God and our Sover- eign Lord George II, King, &c., but acquitted.

SERVING WRITS.

It was not the easiest thing in the world to bring malefactors to justice in those days, as the following returns, made to executions, will illustrate :

In the case of Johnson vs. Brown, (1751), "not executed by reason there is no road to the place where he (Brown) lives."

Again : " Not executed by reason of excess of weather."

Nov., 1752. — " Not executed by reason of an axe " (the axe being in the hands of defendant, uplifted, no doubt, to cleave the officer's skull.)

" Not executed, because the defendant's horse was faster than mine."

" Not executed, by reason of a gun."

Emlen vs. Miller, — " Kept off" from Miller with a club. Sec; Miller not found by Humphrey Marshall."

" Not executed, because the defendant got into deep water — out of my reach."

Nov., 1754. — " Executed on the within, John Warwick, and he is not the man."

" Not executed, by reason of flux being in the house."

August, 1755. — Forty-nine executions returned "not executed, by rea- son of the disturbance of the Indians."

One of the early vices of the frontier was insobriety among the lower classes, and our ancestors made strenuous efforts, as the records show, to stamp it out. They believed, probably like the ancients, that it was a dis- ease. Five centuries before the Christian era, Herodotus said that " Drunk- enness showed that both body and soul were sick." Diogenes and Plutarch assert that " Drink madness is an affection of the body which hath de- stroyed many kings and noble people." Laws were passed forbidding

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COTTNTy. 59

women to use wine and restricting- boys. In the first and second centuries the early Christians urged temperance, and from that time to this it has engaged the attention of the good and wise. Temperance societies ha\'e done much to rescue mankind from the horrors of intemperance, and in the early days of Augusta, the County Court was, so to speak, a kind of temperance society. The justices were men of sobriety ; the court did not s it idle and see the mighty evil entail untold ruin upon man. They sought, by rigid execution of the laws, to extirpate the evil and to encourage vir- tuous habits. Thus we see that on Feb. loth, 1746, the court ordered the sheriff to take William Linwell into custody, and that he be fined five shillings for being drunk. Many similar orders might be cited.

CHAPTER V.

The early settlers were naturally anxious on entering territory which had been held for time immemorial by native inhabitants, to conciliate their good will, and, if possible, to live on friendly terms with them* Policy, no less than humanity and justice, dictated this course. The pioneers had witnessed the good effects of Penn's kind treatment of the simple-hearted children of the forest, and were determined to follow his example. The colonists on Lewis creek did not require advice on this point, but six years after they planted themselves in Augusta, shortly after some acts of injus- tice had been perpetrated by reckless whites in the Valley, the people were strongly advised to pursue a policy of justice and humanity towards the natives by a venerable and respected member of the Society of Friends, Thomas Chalkley. In a letter dated May 21st, 1738, and ad- dressed to the Friends at Opequon, near Winchester, he urged them " to keep a friendly correspondence with the natives ; to recognize their right to the country, and not settle on their lands without their consent or until purchased ; to therefore select the most reputable whites to treat with the Indians as to the acquisition, by purchase, of such lands as the whites might wish to possess." He informed them that an opposite course would expose themselves and families to murder by a cruel and merciless enemy. He begged them to consider " that you are in the province of Virginia, holding what rights you have under that government, and the Virginians have made an agreement with the natives to go as far as the mountains and no further, &c.; and you are over and beyond the mountains, there-

«*•*»

<>^ HISTOKY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

tore out of that agreement, by which you lie open to the insults and incur- sions of the Southern Indians, who have already destroyed many of the inhabitants of Carolina and Virginia." " The English having gone beyond the bounds of their agreement," says he, " eleven of them were killed by the Indians while we were travelling in Virginia." He informed them that in Pennsylvania no new settlements were made without an agreeinent with the natives, as was the case in Lancaster, a county far within Penn's grant, and warned them of the danger they would incur from both the N jrthern and Southern Indians by presuming to squat upon their lands. And, lastly, he assured them that he was moved to give them this advice solely by his love of God and man, and a sincere desire that they might live in peace and happiness.

Lewis and the early settlers recognized, to the fullest extent, the right of the Indians to the country of their nativity. As America, up to the dis- covery by Columbus, had been unknown to the rest of the world, how could it belong to any foreign prince or State ? The native tribes, who possessed it, were free and independent communities, and as such capable of acquiring territorial property. Among the various principles on which a right to the soil has been founded, there is none superior to immemorial occupancy. In this case, no European power could derive a title to the soil from discovery ; because, that can give a right only to lands or things which have neither been owned nor possessed, or which, after having been owned or possessed, have been voluntarily deserted. The right of the Indian nations to the soil in their possession was, therefore, founded in nature. It was the free and liberal gift of Heaven to them, and such as no foreigner could rightfully annul. The blinded superstition of the times, however, regarded the Deity as the partial God of Christians, and not as the common father of saints and savages. The pervading influence of philosophy, reason and truth has, since that period, given us better notions of the rights of mankind, and of the obligations of morality. These, unquestionably, are not confined to particular modes of faith, but extend universally to Jews and Gentiles, to Christians and infidels. Unfounded, however, as the claims of European Sovereigns to American territory were, they severally proceeded to act upon them. By tacit consent they adopted, as a new law of nations, that the countries which each explored should be the absolute property of its discoverer. While thus sporting with the rights of unoftending nations, they could not agree in their respective shares of the common spoil, and hence the long and bloody wars between the English, French and Spaniards.

The leaders of the infantile colony in Augusta, not holding the views of their Sovereigns, but the juster sentiments to which allusion has been made, on arriving near Bellefont, sought to acquire lands, by purchase from the aborigines. They soon ascertained that no tribe residing in the

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 61

Valley claimed exclusive ownership in the soil, or set up a right to dispose of it by sale. The whites were, therefore, compelled either to withdraw or settle upon the lands and wait for the issue of events. The latter course was adopted. That they afterwards found savages claiming authority to dispose of the country, may be taken for granted from a remark of Jeffer- son in his " Notes on Virginia " : " That the lands of this country were taken from the Indians by conquest, is not so generally a truth as is sup- posed. I find, in our historians and records, repeated proofs of purchase, which cover a considerable part of the lower country, and many more would be doubtless found on further search. The upper country (/. ^., the Valley,) we know has been acquired altogether by purchase, in the most unexceptionable form." That Lewis and the first setders of the " Upper Country," did acquire, very soon after their arrival, some such title, may be inferred from the friendly relations which existed between them and the Indians for many years. And from the proofs which are still extant of such purchases in the District of West Augusta — such as the deed quoted in full in the sequel of this chapter, from certain Indian chiefs to George Croghan. A deed acknowledged, by the way, in that N. W. portion of Augusta in which, as will appear later on. justices' courts were frequently held anterior to the Revolution. It is well known that the two races, the whites and Indians, lived in the Valley for above twenty years, from 1732 to 1753, on amicable terms. This could not have been the case had the policy of the whites been one of injustice and inhumanity, and unappre- ciated by the wild men. For as early as 17 12, the Tuscarora Indians, in North Carolina, had massacred one hundred and thirty -seven of the whites in a systematic effort to rid their country of the new-comers. Had the wise course of Penn and of the Augusta settlers been generally followed, there is reason to believe that the continent would have passed into the hands of the superior race without loss of blood or treasure.

In 1732, when Lewis and his associates, if others were associated with him in his adventurous enterprise, entered the present County of Augusta, they had not taken the precaution to secure titles from the Colonial Gov- ernment to any lands they might wish to locate — ^a singular omission, if they came from Williamsburg, as has been stated. It was the custom of the times to issue such grants, and in the year 1733, the Governor issued one for 5,000 acres to a German, by the name of Stover, "on the south fork of the Gerando (now Shenandoah) river, on what was called Mesi- netto creek," and it is certain that the colonial authorities of Virginia regarded the Valley and country west of the mountains as belonging to the British crown — ignoring, as absurd, any claim to it of natives. This has been the traditional course of Great Britain, and continues her present policy. Hence within the last decade, i872-'82, she has waged wars with the Zulus in Africa, with the native tribes of India, and other quarters of

62 HISTORV OF AUOUSTA COUNTY.

the globe, for the possession of their lands, wh'ch she had neither pur- chased nor conquered, but to which she calmly set up a claim.

Having settled in Augusta, without any other title to their lands than they may have subsequently acquired from the aborigines, it does not appear that the whites applied to the colonial authorities for patents. It is probable, having bought of the red men, they did not consider this course necessary. If they had given the Indians a satisfactory considera- tion for the soil they occupied, they no doubt considered an application to Gov. Gooch unnecessary. The Governor, however, took the European view of the situation, and commenced sporting with the rights of the In- dians in the " Upper Country" by issuing patents for large tracts to his favorites. Thus we find him issuing a patent to the Augusta section of the Valley, on the 12th day of August, 1736, to William Beverley and his associates for 118,491 acres, being a tract known as Beverley Manor. Up to this date the colonists had, as we have seen, lived upon the demesne without law, or the authority of English law, and governed by such cus- toms as had grown up among themselves for regulating their intercourse. Among these were what were termed "corn rights," tomahawk rights, and cabin rights. The corn right was a title derived from having enclosed and cultivated a plot of ground. Whoever cultivated one acre in corn acquired a title to one hundred acres of land. The tomahawk right consisted of nothing more than the deadening of a few trees, generally round a spring, and blazing a few trees on the lines of a claim. The cabin right was derived from building a log hut upon a certain tract of land. Every escaped trial under the ancient laws of Virginia is, in view of all the facts, builder of a hut acquired a title to forty acres. The patent to Beverley, the original of which is in the Circuit Clerk's office, Staunton, is as follows :

PATENT FOR BEVERLEY MANOR.

George II, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. : To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting : Know, that for diverse good causes and considerations, but more especially, for the consideration in an order of our Lieutenant- Governor, in Council, bearing date 12th of August, 1736, we have given, granted and confirmed, and by these presents for us, our heirs and suc- cessors, do give, grant, and confirm unto William Beverley, of the Co. of Essex, Gentleman, Sir John Randolph, of the City of Williamsburg, Knight, Richard Randolph, of the Co. of Henrico, Gentleman, and John Robinson, of the Co. of King and Queen, Gentleman, one certain tract or parcel of land, called the Manor of Beverley, containing 118,491 acres, lying and being in the county of Orange, beyond the great mountains, on the river Sherando, and bounded as follows, to wit : Beginning at five white oaks, on a narrow point, between a large run, called Thirsty Creek, and a small run, called Gearer Run, about thirty poles on the east side through middle (of the) river Sherando, and running thence N. 70°, W. 364 poles, by four linds, with the same river : thence N. 15°, W. 145 poles, crossing the said river the whole course, being 443 poles, by a large white

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY. 63

oak and two small ones ; thence N. 75°, E. 297 poles to four linns and a red oak on a ridge ; thence N. 15°, E. 44 poles to a double walnut and gum on this ridge of the said Middle River ; thence down the same 102 poles to a red oak and hickory by the river side , then from the first men- tioned five white oaks S. 364 poles, crossing Gearer Run twice, just below three small Spanish oaks under a steep hill ; thence S. 83°. E. 270, by five linds ; thence S. S. E. 330 poles to three white oaks by the side of a meadow ; thence E. by South 738 poles, across Sherando River, to a forked white walnut, a black one, a hickory and an ash by the river side ; thence down the same 74 poles to two water oaks, two hickories, a whortle- berry tree and a walnut ; thence E. by South 60 poles to four linds on the foot of the Blue Ridge, in stony ground; thence South by East 88 poles, between a white and red oak ; thence S. E. 103 poles by four linds and white oak; thence S. S. W. 492 to three linds; thfnce South 450 poles by a red oak, white oak and two linns ; thence S. W. 456 poles to five Imns ; thence S. 5°, W. 88 poles to a white oak and linn saplins on the river bank ; thence S. S. E. 38 poles by four linns ; thence S. W. by West 286 poles to twohnns near the river; thence S. 26°, E. 90 poles to three white oaks; thence S. and by West 134 poles, nigh two red oaks, by a boiling spring, almost as big as the river in flat grounds ; thence S. 60°, W. 176 poles to three linns nigh the river ; thence W. 232 poles by two red and two white oaks on the river side ; thence through several thickets of the same 1,300 poles, by two Spanish oaks, two red oaks and a white oak just below three springs, called the Great Springs ; thence S. 30 poles by two hnns and a hickory ; thence S. W. and by W. 178 poles to three linds; thence S. 33°, W. 238 poles by four pines; thence West by South 274 poles by two pines and a red oak bush ; thence West Northwest 114 poles by three pines ; thence North 85°, West 546 poles by four pines ; thence W. 506 poles by a chesnut oak, red oak and pine on the brow of a hill; thence N. 50°, W. 244 poles to three pines; thence N. 396 poles to three hickories and a pine by a red oak ; thence S. 70°, W. 630 poles by four hickories near a valley ; thence S. 20°, W. 544 poles to three red oaks on the west side of Hamerk's branch ; thence S. W, by West 94 poles by two white oaks and a red oak ; thence S W. by South 652 poles by four red oaks and three hickories just above the head of some of the Sherando waters ; thence N. W. and by West 232 poles to a red oak and white oak and hickory by the head of a draft that runs into James River; thence S. W. by West 300 poles, crossing two springs of the James River; thence N. W. by West 600 poles, crossing the head spring of Sherando to two hickories, two chesnuts and white oak, with a spring of James River ; thence N. 2,016 poles, crossing four springs of James river to a white oak by a path ; thence N. 75°, W. 106 poles on the side of a very high hill, (from the foot of which issues a spring about fifty feet broad called the Black Spring) to a white oak and hickory; thence S. 60°, W. 120 poles to a Spanish oak, hickory and walnut ; thence S. 40°, W. 100 poles by a hickory and white oak ; thence N. 50°, W. 92 poles, crossing the middle river of Sherando, on which we first began to survey the whole Louisa county, 160 poles, between two white oaks and a hickory at the foot of a ridge of mountains that lies between this and the north branch of the same river ; thence N. 40°, E. 160 poles by a white oak and hickory ; thence N. 20°, E. 34 poles between two white oak saplings ; thence N. 40°, E. 183 poles to a white oak ; thence N. by East 47 poles to two Spanish oaks by a deep valley ; thence N. 36°, E. 350 poles along the foot

64 HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.

of the mountains ; thence N. N. E. 270 poles; thence N. 31°, E. 4S0 poles thence N. 19'^, E.460 poles; thence N. 60°, E. 374 poles; thence S. 34^ E. 234 poles to the north of a dry meadow; and lastly, N. 70°, E. 4,190 poles to the red oak and hickory mentioned at the end of the sixth source by the river side ; with all woods, underwoods, springs, marshes, low grounds, feedings, and their due share of all coal, mines and quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, within the bounds and limits aforesaid, and being part of the said quantity of 118,491 acres of land, and the rivers, waters and water-courses therein mentioned, together with the privileges of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, and all other profits, commodities and hereditaments whatsoever to the same or any part thereof belonging or in any wise appertaining : To have and to hold, possess and enjoy the said part or parcel of land, and all other the above granted premises, and every part thereof, with their and every of their appurtenances, unto the said William Beverley, Sir John Randolph, Richard Randolph, and John Robinson, to their heirs and assigns forever, to the only use and behoof them, the said William Beverley, Sir John Randolph, Richard Randolph, and John Robinson, their heirs and assigns forever ; to be held of us, our heirs and successors, as of our Manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Stout, in free and common soccage, and not in villenage, or by Knight's service ; they passing and paying unto us, our heirs and successors, for every fifty acres of land, and so proportionately for a lesser or greater quantity than fifty acres, the fee rent ot one shilling yearly, to be paid upon the feast of St. Michael, the archangel ; and also cultivating and improving three acres, part of every fifty of the tract above mentioned, within three years after the date of these presents: Provided always, That if three years of the said free rent shall be in ^.rrear and unpaid, or if the said Wm. Beverley, Sir John Randolph, Richard Randolph and John Robin- son, their heirs and assigns, do not, within the space of three years next ensuing after the date of these presents, cultivate and improve three acres, part of every fifty of the tract above mentioned, upon the estate hereby granted, shall cease and be utterly determined, and thereafter it shall and may be lawful to and for us, our heirs and successors, to grant the same lands and premises, with the appurtenances, to such other person or per- sons as we, our heirs and successors, shall think fit.

In witness whereof, we have caused these, our letters patent, to be made.

Witness, our trusty and well-beloved William Gooch, Esq., our Lieu- tenant Governor, and Commander-in-Chief of our Colony and Dominion of Virginia, at Williamsburg, under the seal of our said colony, the 6th day of September, 1736, in the fourth year of our reign.

WILLIAM GOOCH.

The tract thus conveyed extended across the Shenandoah Valley, and the southern portion included the present site of Staunton. Public atten- tion was attracted by this and similar grants of various tracts of fertile lands at nominal prices, and the basest motives of personal gain were attributed to the parties interested, not excepting the Governor, who, with

the grantees, was denounced in unmeasured terms.

The grant for Beverley Manor had no sooner been issued than the

grantees sought industriously to attract immigrants from the northern

colonies and from Europe. Advertisements, setting forth the advantages

of the country, were conspicuously displayed in Alexandria, Philadelphia,

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA CODNTT. 65

and other seaports, and thev were sent to Europe by settlers who wished to draw their friends after them.

In this work they were aided by an Englishman by the name of Benja- min Burden, or Borden, who was settled in trade in New Jersey, but who frequently visited Eastern Virginia, and during these visits had ingratiated himself with the Lieutenant-Governor. Burden came to America as the agent of Lord Fairfax, and while in Williamsburg formed the acquaintance of John Lewis, who was on a visit to the city. Lewis was pleased with the social qualities and keen judgment of the enterprising agent, and in- vited him to Bellefonte, Burden accepted, and spent some months under the hospitable roof of the Founder. He was delighted with the manners and customs of the settlers ; with the beauty and fertility of the country, and with the comparative leisure enjoyed by the people — a leisure devoted to hunting, fishing, and rural sports. While at Bellefonte, he shot over the country with the Founder's sons, Thomas, Andrew and William Lewis. During one of their excursions they captured a buffalo calf, which Burden took on his return to Williamsburg and presented to the Governor. The General was so much gratified at this and other civilities on the part of Bur- den, that he directed a patent to be made out, authorizing Burden to locate 500,000 acres of land on the Sherando (Shenandoah) or James Rivers, west of the Blue Ridge. This large grant extended from the southern line of Beverley Manor, and embraced the whole upper part of Augusta and Rockbridge. It was surveyed by Capt. Jno. McDowell, who, some years later, in December, 1743, fell into an ambush while on this land, near the junction of North and James rivers, and was killed by Shawnee In- dians. Burden's grant was upon the sole condition that he would settle, within ten years, one hundred families upon the said land. Burden im- mediately returned to England, and in 1737, returned with the required number of families, among whom were the McDowells, Crawfords, Mc- Clures, Alexanders, Wallaces, Moores, Mathews, and others, who became the founders of some of Virginia's distinguished families.

Neither Burden nor the proprietors of Beverley Manor relaxed their efforts to secure emigrants, and the population increased with such ra- pidity, as we have seen, that it resulted in the establishment of the county of Augusta the following year. Other causes were at work to hasten the settlement of the country about Staunton. Lord Fairfax held, under pa- tent from James II, all that part of Virginia known as the Northern Neck. Under this grant, Fairfax claimed for the western boundary of his terri- tory a line from the head springs of the Rappahannock, supposed to rise in the Blue Ridge, and the head springs of the Potomac, supposed to rise in the Alleghanies. This claim embraced the lower end of the Shenandoah Valley, now composed of the counties of Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Page, Shenandoah and Hardy.

66 HISTORY OF ADGDSTA COUNTT.

His Lordship's claim was neither admitted in Virginia nor in England, and the colonial government continued to issue warrants to enterprising men, for surveying and appropriating extensive tracts west of the Blue Ridge, on condition of permanent settlements being made. Under these grants, settlements were made on the lands claimed by Fairfax, and ex- tended quickly as far south as Linvel Creek, in Rockingham county, which was in Beverley Manor.

Disputes arose between Fairfax and these settlers, and expensive law suits ensued. This state of things alarmed many immigrants, and in hopes of greater security, they passed south, beyond the hmits of Fairfax's claim, and settled in Beverley Manor and to the south of it. The upper Valley was, for these reasons, more rapidly occupied by the Europeans than the lower. Augusta, being thus benefited, made exceptionable progress in both population and wealth, which brought about her organization as a county at the early period of 1745. In the general work of inviting popu- lation to the country west of the mountains, the grantees were aided by the whole weight and authority of the government. The Legislature passed an act at the session of 1752 to encourage persons to settle on the waters of the Mississippi, in Augusta, "as well His Majesty's natural born subjects, as foreign Protestants, willing to import themselves and their families and effects, as the settling of that part of the country will add to the strength and security of the colony in general, and be a means of aug- menting His Majesty's revenue of quit rents;" and it was enacted that said settlers should be exempt from taxes for the term of ten years.

At this period there existed, as for some time previously in the colony, a regular militia system, rendered necessary by Indian wars, which oc- curred, more or less, along the entire frontier, from New Hampshire to Georgia, from 1690 to 1794. As from this period, 1752, John Lewis, the Founder, is uniformly styled Colonel, it cannot be doubted that he was about this time commissioned Colonel, or chief officer of the militia. Under this commission, it became the duty of the Colonel to list all free male persons above the age of twenty -one, within the county, under such captains as the Colonel should think fit to appoint. By this act, public officers in the civil service were exempt from duty in the militia, and " any of the people commonly called Quakers." That war was near, and Indian incursions were apprehended, is evident from their acts, requiring the officers and men to be thoroughly armed and accoutred, and every militia man to keep at his house at all times one pound of gunpowder and four of ball. He was also required, when called out, to bring the same into the field with him. These arms, accoutrements, &c., were exempt from seizure and distress. The Colonel was further empowered to require all militia men " to go armed to their respective parish churches." A court-martial was held after every general muster, composed of the field-officers and

HISTORY OF AUGUSTA. COUXTY'. 67

captains, for tryin'y delinquents, of which the following- officers were to be members: the Colonel of the county, the Lieutenant-colonel, and the Major. The militia was regularly trained, and in September of each year was assembled for a (reneral muster or battalion drill. A similar militia system existed in all the colooies, fro n Massachusetts to Georgia, and by it were trained and formed for service the future Washingtons, Lewises, Lees, Putnams, Waynes, Moultries, Greenes, and Gateses.

As much of our present civilization and progress is due to the pious men who first preached the Gospel in the wilderness, we shall give in the next succeeding chapter a brief account of the Presbyterian Church and other religious sects, which preceded the Established Church in the Valley.

MARY GREENLEE, THE SO-CALLED WITCH — HER DEPOSITION IN THE

BURDEN CASE.

Mary McDowell, who married James Greenlee, was the daughter of Ephraim McDowell, one of the early settlers on Burden's grant, and a great aunt of the late Gov. James McDowell, of Rockbridge. She was a woman of more than ordinary brightness and vivacity of intellect, but many aberrations of mind