Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers: biographical sketches of citizens, ... a diary of the War, 1861-5, etc

Preface

The basis of these Annals was prepared as a contribution to the "Historical and Geographical Atlas of Augusta County," is sued by Messrs. Waterman, Watkins & Co., of Chicago. That sketch was executed very hurriedly, and the space allotted to it in the Atlas was limited. Therefore some errors appear in the work, and much matter then on hand was necessarily omitted. Moreover, the work was hardly in press before I found new mat ter, not known or not accessible to me previously. My interest in the subject having been quickened, information in regard to the history of the county came to me almost unsought, and often from unexpected sources. This augmented result is intended as well to correct former errors, as to relate the history more fully from the first settlement of the county, in 1732, to the year 1871.

The county of Augusta originally extended from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi river, east and west, and from the great lakes on the north to the northern boundary of the present State of Tennessee on the south. The history of this vast region pro perly belongs to our Annals until the year 1769, when Botetourt county was formed. As the limits of Augusta were reduced by the formation of other counties out of her territory, from time to time, the scope of the history is simultaneously and correspond ingly contracted. I have taken the utmost pains to secure perfect accuracy. The errors in details of most writers who have alluded to our county affairs and people, are remarkable. The writers referred to have not only copied from one another without investigation, and thereby repeated erroneous statements, uut some of them have contradicted themselves in the same volume. Even the statements of the public records, especially in respect to dates, often require to be verified. From the order book ofthe County

PREFACE.

. IV Court of Augusta, it would appear that the second term of the court was held in February, 1745, instead of February, 1746. Similar errors occur in the volumes of complete records of chan cery causes, preserved in the clerk's office of the Circuit Court. But while I have aspired to perfect accuracy, I do not flatter myself that the following pages are entirely free from error. I have stated nothing as a fact, of the truth of which I am doubt ful. Many statements which I do not regard as certainly correct, are given on the authority of other writers, prefaced by the words, "It is said," or "It is related." It has been my intention to give full credit to every writer whom I have quoted, and I think this has been done in the body of the work. I am indebted to the files of the Staunton Specta tor, edited by Richard Mauzy, Esq., for most of the facts em braced in the last chapter, on "Reconstruction."

To forestall any charge of plagiarism, I state that having at different times published in the columns of Staunton newspapers communica tions relating to the history of the county, I have copied from these without credit whenever it suited my purpose to do so. Through the kindness of Judge William McLaughlin I have had the opportunity of making extracts from the " History of Wash ington College," by the Rev. Dr. Ruffner; and "Sketches of the Early Trustees of Washington College," by Hugh Blair Grigsby, Esq. Both these interesting works are still in manuscript, and neither was completed by its author. To the following gentle men I am indebted for assistance: John McD. Alexander and Wm. A. Anderson, Esqs., of Lexington; Hon. W. C. P. Breck enridge, of Kentucky; R. A. Brock, Esq., of Richmond ; G. F. Compton, Esq., of Harrisonburg; Dr. Cary B. Gamble, of Balti more; Armistead C. Gordon, Esq., of Staunton; Dr. Andrew Simonds, of Charleston, S. C , and John W. Stephenson, Esq., ofthe Warm Springs.

I am also under obligations to Mrs. S. C. P. Miller, of Princeton, N. J. I have not attempted to write a stately history, but merely to relate all interesting facts concerning the county, in a lucid style and in chronological order. Hence the title " Annals," has been adopted deliberately. Many trivial incidents have been men tioned, because they seem to illustrate the history of the times and the manners and customs of the people. The present work was undertaken with no expectation of pe cuniary reward. It has been to me a labor of love. From my

PREFACE.

. V early childhood I have cherished a warm affection for my native county — her people, and her very soil. I have sought to rescue from oblivion and hand down to posterity, at least the names of many citizens, who, although not great in the ordinary sense, lived well in their day and are worthy of commemoration. A representation of the seal of the County Court of Augusta, commonly called the County Seal, is given on the title page. When and by whom the seal was designed is not known. Pos sibly it was by a member of the faculty of William and Mary College, at the request of one of our colonial governors, who were required by law to provide seals for courts. The motto is an accommodation of a passage in Horace, Book IV, Ode 2. This Ode expresses delight in the peace and prosperity which came after the long civil wars of Rome.

Re ferring to Augustus, the poet says the heavenly powers ne'er gave the earth a nobler son — "Nor e'er will give, though backward time should run To its first 'golden hours." The Latin words are: Nee dabunt quamvis redeant in aurum Tempora priscum. The motto maybe translated thus: "Let the ages return to the first golden period." The allusion is, of course, to the fabu lous "Golden Age" of primal simplicity and enjoyment; and the Roman poets held out the hope that this happy state of things would one day return. It would seem that the seal was devised during the fearful Indian wars, when every one was longing for the safety and rest of former times. Full of such aspirations, the designer, in addi tion to the motto, delineated in the centre of the seal a tranquil pastoral scene, as emblematic of the wished for times.

Such a scene would not ordinarily have been depicted in a time of peace, but during, or immediately after, the havoc of war. In peace, the minds of men gloat over the achievements of war, and in war they dwell upon "the piping times of peace." The name of the county, however, was suggestive of the motto and emblem, as the poet Virgil celebrated the Emperor Augustus as "Restorer of the age of gold." J. A. W. Staunton, November 1, 1886. CONTENTS.

Appendix

. Bessy Bell and Mary Gray Virginia

INTRODUCTION.

. THE SCOTCH-IRISH. At different periods subsequent to the Reformation, many lowland Scotch people emigrated to the province of Ulster, north Ireland. There they prospered greatly, and maintained unimpaired the manners and customs and the religious faith of the country from which they came. They and their posterity regarded themselves — and were regarded by the Irish of Celtic blood — as Scotch in all essential particulars. Some of these settlers, before leaving their native land, goaded by persecution under the Stuart Kings, had borne arms against the British government, and were among the prisoners captured at Both well Bridge, in 1679. When the Revolution of 1688 occurred, the Scotch-Irish sided with William of Orange. The siege of Londonderry, in 1689, is one of the most remarkable events in history.

Upon the march northward of the army of James II, says Macaulay, "All Lisburn fled to Antrim, and, as the foes drew nearer, all Lisburn and Antrim together came pouring into Londonderry. Thirty thousand Protestants, of both sexes and of every age, were crowded behind the bulwarks of the City of Refuge." The ordinary population of the town and suburbs furnished only about six hundred fighting men; but when the siege began there were 7,300 men armed for defence. Dissenters having been excluded from offices in the army, none of that class were fitted by previous military experience for command. Therefore a majority of the higher officers were of the Church of England. A majority of the inferior officers, captains and others, were Presbyterians ; and of the soldiers and people generally, the Dissenters outnumbered the others by fifteen to one.

"Now," says Froude, in his History of Ireland, " was again witnessed what Calvinism — though its fires were waning — could do in making common men into heroes. Deserted by the English regiments, betrayed by their own commander, without stores and half armed, the shopkeepers and apprentices of a commercial town prepared to defend an unfortified city against a disciplined army of 25,000 men, led by trained officers, and amply provided with artillery. They were cut off from the sea by a boom across the river. Fever, cholera and famine came to the aid of the besiegers. Rats came to be dainties, and hides and shoe leather were the ordinary fare. They saw their children pine away and die — they were wasted themselves, till they could scarce handle their firelocks on their ramparts." Still they held on through more than three miserable months.

Finally a frigate and two provision ships came in, and Derry was saved after a siege of eight months. The garrison had been reduced to about three thousand men. The Rev. Mr. Walker, a minister of the Church of England, was one of the prominent leaders. Enniskillen was successfully defended in like manner. Yet, notwithstanding their loyalty to the Crown, as settled by die Revolution, and their heroic services, the Scotch Irish received no favors from the British government, except a miserable pittance doled out to their clergy after a time. They were proscribed because of their religion, being excluded from the army, the militia, the civil service, and seats in municipal cor porations. Dissenters from the Irish Episcopal church were not allowed to teach school. Presbyterian marriages were de clared illegal.

The laws against Catholics were even more severe than those against Protestant dissenters — so severe, indeed, that they were not generally executed, public officers revolting at their harshness. Presbyterians, however, were pur sued unrelentingly to the extent of the law. The Presbyterian magistrates in Ulster, says Froude, were cleared out. Men having nothing to recommend them but their going to church, were appointed in their places. The power being now in their hands, the bishops fell upon the grievance of the Presbyterian marriages. Catholic marriages did not trouble them ; but, in their view, a marriage ceremony by a Protestant dissenting minister was only a license to sin. It was announced that the children of all Protestants not married in a church should be treated as bastards, and in 1704 many persons of undoubted reputation were prosecuted in the bishop's courts as fornica tors for cohabiting with their own wives.

Ministers, for the offence of preaching the gospel outside of certain bounds, were arrested and held for trial, while their hearers were threatened with the stocks. Yet the loyalty of the people to the Crown was unshaken, doubtless owing to the fact that the sovereigns generally were opposed to measures of persecution. William III had opposed them, and George I in vain urged the repeal of the obnoxious laws. Therefore when, in 1715, the rebellion in behalf of the Pretender, son of James II, began in Scotland, and an insurrection in Ireland was looked for, the Irish Presbyterians tendered their services to the government. In the emergency military commissions were distributed to them, although contrary to law, and many regiments were speedily raised. After the danger was over they were threatened with prosecution for even that service.

The chief agents of persecution were the bishops of the estab lished church. Some of these prelates, during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, were not only High Churchmen of the most ultra sort, but at heart it was believed partisans of the Stuart dynastv. Dean Swift, no friend to Dissenters, sarcasti cally described the nominees to the Episcopal bench of Ireland, " as waylaid and murdered by highwaymen on Hounslow Heath, who stole their letters patent, came to Dublin, and were conse crated in their places." All the Irish prelates, however, did not deserve Swift's wholesale denunciation, notably Bishop Berke ley; and many of the parish clergy were worthy of all honor. Every effort of enlightened statesmen to obtain a relaxation of the stringent laws against Dissenters failed, and in 1719 the Protestant emigration to America recommenced.

In addition to the restrictions on religion, Irish industry and commerce had been systematically repressed. Twenty thousand people left Ulster on the destruction of the woollen trade in 169S. Many more were driven away by the first passage of the Test Act. The stream had slackened in the hope of some relies. When this hope expired, men of spirit and energy refused to remain in the country. Thenceforward, for more than fifty years, annual shiploads of families poured themselves out from Bel fast and Londonderry. England paid dearly for her Irish policy. The fiercest enemies she had, in 1776, were the de scendants of the Scotch-Irish who had held Ulster against James II. The earlier emigrants were nearly all Protestants. The emigration of Catholics from Ireland to America, in large numbers, did not begin till the nineteenth century.

Previously, when the Irish people of this class emigrated it was to France, Spain, or other European Catholic country. "There was," says Froude, " first a Protestant exodus to America, and then a Catholic, each emigrant carrying away a sense of intolerable wrong." The people of Ulster had heard of Pennsylvania, and the religious liberty there enjoyed and promised to all comers, and to that province they came in large numbers. They were mainly farmers, tradesmen and artisans. But jealousies arose in the minds of the original settlers oi Pennsylvania, and restrictive measures were adopted by the proprietary government against the Scotch-Irish and German immigrants. Hence many of both these races were the more disposed, in 1732 and after wards, to seek homes within the limits of Virginia, and run the risk of the church establishment existing there.

The Scotch- Irish drifted on in the wake of John Lewis to the present county of Augusta ; the German people generally located in the region now known as Shenandoah, Page, and Rockingham. The two races did not keep entirely apart, and there was some comming ling of them in the various settlements, and in a short time a few people distinct from either came into the Valley from lower Virginia. Many of our people are descendants of the defenders of Derry. And to go back a little further, the list of prisoners captured at Bothwell Bridge and herded like cattle for months in Grayfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh, is like a muster-roll of Augusta people. ' 1An Appendix to the old Scotch book called "A Cloud of Witnes ses," says: "Anno, 1679, of the prisoners taken at Bothwell, were banished to America 250, who were taken away by Paterson, merchant at Leith, who transacted for them with Provost Milns, Laird of Barnton, the man that first burnt the covenant, whereof 200 were drowned by shipwreck at a place called the Mulehead of Darness, near Orkney, being shut up by the said Paterson's order beneath the hatches; 50 escaped."

The following were a part of the 250, the names of those who escaped being printed in italics : James Clark and John Clark, of the parish of Kilbride ; John Thomson and Alex ander Walker, of Shots ; William Waddel, William Miller, James Wad del and John Gardner, of Monkland ; John Cochran, John Watson and Thomas Brownlee, of Evandale ; Thomas Wilson, of Cathkin; John Miller and John Craig, of Glassford ; David Currie, Robert Tod, John White and Robert Wallace, of Fenwick; Hugh Cameron, of Dalnul hington ; William Reid, of Mauchline ; John Campbell and Alexander Paterson, of Muirkirk ; James Young and George Campbell, of Gal ston ; Thomas Finlay, William Brown, Robert Anderson and James Anderson, of Kilmarnock ; William Caldwell, of Girvan; Mungo Eccles, of Maybole ; Alexander Lamb and George Hutcheson, of Straiton ; Robert Ramsey and John Douglas, of Kirkmichael ; John White, of Kirkeswald ; Thomas Miller, of Largo ; Thomas Miller, Thomas Brown and James Buchanan, of Gargrennock ; Thomas Thomson and Andrew Thomson, of St. Ninians ; Andrew Young, John Morison and Hugh Montgomery, of Airlt; Thomas Ingles, Pat rick Hamilton, John Bell, Patrick Wilson and William Henderson, of Dalmannie ; James Steel and John Brown, of Calder; William Reid, of Musselburgh ; James Tod, of Dunbar; James Houston, of Balmag hie; Robert Brown and Samuel Beck, of Kilmackbrick , John Martin, of Borque ; Andrew Clark, of Luckrictan ; John Scott, of Ettrick ; John Glascow, William Glascow, Richard Young and James Young, of Cavers; Walter Waddel, of Sprouston ; William Scott and Alexander Waddel, of Castletown. The fifty men who escaped from the ship wreck made their way to the north of Ireland, and were not further troubled.

Chapter I. From The First Settlement To The First County Court

As far as known, the country now embraced in Augusta county was never entered by white men until the year 1716. Six years earlier, however, some portion of the Valley of Vir ginia had been seen from the top of the Blue Ridge by Euro peans. Governor Spotswood, writing to the Council of Trade. London, December 15, 1710, says that a company of adventu rers found the mountains " not above a hundred miles from our upper inhabitants, and went up to the top of the highest moun tain with their horses, tho' they had hitherto been thought to be unpassable, and they assured me that ye descent on the other side seemed to be as easy as that they had passed on this, and that they could have passed over the whole ledge (which is not large), if the season of the year had not been too far advanced before they set out on that expedition." — [Spotswood Letters, Vol. I, page 40.]

It would seem that the adventurers referred to looked into the Valley from the mountain in the neighbor hood of Balcony Falls, but no description of the country seen by them is given. This portion of the Valley was then entirely uninhabited. The Shawnee Indians had a settlement in the lower valley, at or near Winchester, and parties of that tribe frequently traversed this section on hunting excursions, or on warlike expeditions against Southern tribes, but there was no Indian village or wigwam within the present limits of the county. At an early day, In dians, or people of some other race, had doubtless resided here, as would appear from several ancient mounds, or burial places, still existing in the county. The face of the country between the Blue Ridge and the North Mountain was, of course, diversified by hill and dale, as it is now, but forest trees were less numerous than at the present time, the growth of timber being prevented by the frequent fires kin dled by hunting parties of Indians.

Old men living within the writer's recollection, described this region as known by them in their boyhood. Many acres, now stately forests, were then covered by mere brushwood, which did not conceal the startled deer flying from pursuit. At the time of which we speak, wild animals abounded in this section. The buffalo roamed at will over these hills and valleys, and in their migrations made a well-defined trail between Rock fish Gap, in the Blue Ridge, and Buffalo Gap, in the North Mountain, passing by the present site of Staunton. Other deni zens of the region at that day jvere the bear, wolf, panther, wildcat, deer, fox, hare, etc. It would appear that wolves were very numerous There were no crows, blackbirds, nor song birds, and no rats, nor honey bees till the coming of the white people.2 The first passage of the Blue Ridge, and entrance into the Valley by white men, was made by Governor Spotswood in 1716. 3 About the last of July, or first of August in that year, the Governor, with some members of his staff, starting from Williamsburg, proceeded to Germanna, a small frontier settlement, where he left his coach and took to horse.

He was there joined by the rest of his party, gentlemen and their retainers, a company of rangers, and four Meherrin Indians, comprising in all about fifty persons. These, with pack-horses laden with pro visions, journeyed by way of the upper Rappahannock river, and after thirty-six days from the date of their departure from Williamsburg, on September 5th, scaled the mountain at Swift Run Gap, it is believed. Descending the western side of the mountain into the Valley, they reached the Shenandoah River and encamped on its bank. Proceeding up the river, they 2 The mocking-bird, common in Albemarle county, is still not found in a wild state west of the Blue Ridge in Augusta. 3 It is claimed that several parties at different times, long before Spotswood's expedition, came from the falls of Appomattox, now Petersburg, crossed the mountains near the line of North Carolina, and penetrated as far as New River.

The country traversed, although west of the mountain, is, however, no part of the Valley. found a place where it was fordable, crossed it, and there, on the western bank, the Governor formally "took possession for King George the First of England." The rangers made further explorations up the Valley, while the Governor, with his immediate attendants, returned to Williamsburg, arriving there after an absence of about eight weeks, and having traveled about 440 miles out and back. 4 The only authentic account we have of the expedition is the diary of John Fontaine, and that is very meagre. The gentle men of the party were: Governor Spotswood, Robert Beverley, the historian. Colonel Robertson, Dr. Robinson, Taylor Todd, Fontaine, Mason, Clouder, Smith and Brooke. They crossed the Shenandoah river on the 6th of September, and called it Euphrates.

The river is said to have been very deep, and "fourscore yards wide in the narrowest part." The Gover nor had graving irons, but could not grave anything, the stone was so hard. " I," says Mr. Fontaine, " graved my name on a tree by the river side, and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed, on which he writ that he took possession of this place in the name of King George First of England." The most astonishing thing related by the diarist, however, is the quantity and variety of liquors lugged about and drank by the party. He says: "We had a good dinner" [on the 6th], "and after it we got the men together and loaded all their arms, and we drank the King's health in champagne and fired a volley, the Princess's health in Burgundy and fired a volley, and all the rest of the royal family in claret and a volley.

We drank the Governor's health and fired another volley. We had several sorts of liquors, viz : Virginia red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of rum, champagne, can ary, cherry punch, cider, &c." Bears, deer and turkeys were abundant, and in the Valley the foot-prints of elk and buffalo were seen.— [Dr. Slaughter's History of St. Mark's Parish] 4 In 1870 a silver knee buckle, of rare beauty and value, set in dia monds, pronounced genuine by competent jewelers, was found near Elkton, Rockingham county. It is believed that this buckle was lost by one of the Spotswood cavalcade. The silver was discolored by age, and the brilliants somewhat deteriorated by long exposure to the ele ments.- It was found, and is now held by one of the Bear family — [Letter from Charles W. S. Turner, Esq.] It was in commemoration of this famous expedition that Governor Spotswood sought to establish the order of " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" But the Governor's account of the expedition, as far as we have it, is very tame and disappointing.

He was thinking chiefly of protecting the English settlements from the encroachments of the French, and apparently cared little for anything else. He also either misunderstood the In dians whom he encountered, or was grossly deceived by them in regard to the geography of the country. In his letter to the Board of Trade, under date of August 14, 1718, he said : "The chief aim of my expedition over the great mountains, in 1 716, was to satisfye myself whether it was practicable to come at the lakes. Having on that occasion found an easy pas sage over that great ridge of mountains w'ch before were judged unpassable, I also discovered, by the relation of Indians who frequent those parts, that from the pass where I was it is but three days' march to a great nation of Indians living on a river w'ch discharges itself in the Lake Erie ; that from ye western side of one of the small mountains w'ch I saw, that lake is very visible, and cannot, therefore, be above five days' march from the pass afore-mentioned, and that the way thither is also very prac ticable, the mountains to the westward of the great ridge being smaller than those I passed on the eastern side, w'ch shews how easy a matter it is to gain possession of those lakes." — [Spots wood Letters, Vol. II, pp. 295-6.]

The country thus discovered by Governor Spotswood, and claimed by him for the British crown, became a part of the county of Essex, the western boundary being undefined. Spotsylvania was formed from Essex and other counties in 1720, and Orange from Spotsylvania, in 1734. The expedition ofthe " Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," trivial as it may now appear, was at the time regarded as very hazardous; and it no doubt led to important results. The glowing accounts given by Spotswood's followers, if not by himself, of the beauty and fertility of the Valley, attracted immediate attention, and induced hunters and other enterprising men to visit the country. Of such transient excursions, however, we have no authentic account; and at least sixteen years were to pass before any extensive settlements were made by Europeans in this region.

At length John and Isaac Vanmeter, of Pennsylvania, in 1730, obtained from Governor Gooch a warrant for 40,000 acres of land to be located in the lower valley, and within the present counties of Frederick, Jefferson, etc. This warrant was sold in 1731, by the grantees, to Joist Hite, also of Pennsylvania. Hite proceeded to make locations of his land, and to induce immigrants to settle on his grant. He removed his family to Virginia, in 1732, and fixed his residence a few miles south ofthe present town of Win Chester, which is generally believed to have been the first perma nent settlement by white men in the Valley. Population soon flowed in to take possession of the rich lands offered by Hite; but a controversy speedily arose in regard to the proprietor's title. Lord Fairfax claimed Hite's lands as a part of his grant of the " Northern Neck."

Fairfax entered a caveat against Hite, in 1736, and thereupon Hite brought suit against Fairfax. This suit was not finally decided till 1786, long after the death of all the original parties, when judgment was rendered in favor of Hite and his vendees. The dispute between Fairfax and Hite retarded the settlement of that part of the Valley, and in duced immigrants to push their way up the Shenandoah river to regions not implicated in such controversies. In 1738 there were only two cabins where Winchester now stands. That town was established by law in 1752. A strange uncertainty has existed as to the date and some of the circumstances of the first settlement of Augusta county- Campbell, in his " History of Virginia '' (pages 427-9), under takes to relate the events somewhat minutely, but falls into ob vious mistakes.

He says: " Shortly after the first settlement of Winchester (1738), John Marlin, a peddler, and John Sailing, a weaver, two adventurous spirits, set out from that place" (Win chester) "to explore the ' upper country,' then almost unknown." They came up the valley of the Shenandoah, called Sherando, crossed James river, and reached the Roanoke river, where a party of Cherokee Indians surprised and captured Sailing, while Marlin escaped. Sailing was detained bv the Indians for six years, and on being liberated returned to Williamsburg. "About the same time," says Campbell, "a considerable number of immi grants had arrived there, among them John Lewis and John Mackey. * * Pleased with Sailing's glowing picture of the country beyond the mountains, Lewis and Mackey visited it under his guidance," and immediately all three located here.

Whatever the truth may be in regard to other matters, Camp bell's dates are entirely erroneous. He would seem to postpone the settlement of Lewis in the valley to the year 1744, although he immediately refers to him as residing here in 1736. Foote, in his " Sketches of Virginia," is silent as to the date of the settlement. He mentions, upon the authority of the late Charles A. Stuart, of Greenbrier county, a descendant of John Lewis, that the latter first located on the left bank of Middle river, then called Carthrae's river, about three miles east of the macadamized turnpike. Thence he removed to Lewis' Creek, two miles east of Staunton, where he built a stone house, known as Fort Lewis, which is still standing. According to Foote, Mackey and Sailing came with Lewis, or at the same time, Mackey making his residence at Buffalo Gap, and Sailing his at the forks of James river, below the Natural Bridge.