King and Queen County, Virginia

Front matter

Class _EJ2i3:2i_.

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSai

Foreword

The planting and growth of a group of people in a new country is always an interesting story. It is regrettable, however, that great difficulties usually embarrass such a narrative; for a people in the process of rapid development oftener than otherwise permit the most essential facts in their history to drift into the limbo of the lost. And in addition to this common neglect, there has come upon the people of this county a civil war, destroying her most valuable public and private records.

But the author has made great compensation for the loss of so much original information by the diligence of his research and the faithful arrangement of his findings. His pages unfold before our eyes the pioneer settlement of this territory; its subsequent formation into the political division known as a county; the orderly development of this people under the law, customs, religion, and social life of a real English community; the names of many individuals and families who have added substance, culture, dignity, and luster to a brave and refined people ; the arrest and almost overthrow of this civilization by a disastrous war; and the subsequent resumption of communal life under radically changed social and economic conditions.

This narrative will be of grateful and affectionate interest to the sons and daughters of this noble old county, and to Virginians everywhere; and, in after years, to those seeking information for a larger history of our race on these new shores. y

A. J. MONTAGNT.

Richmond, April 13, 1908.

Preface

The author has long since ceased to look for perfection in any production that is merely human, — much less can he make such claim for himself. The most anyone can claim is to approximate his own ideals. Our attempt has been to tell the truth, the whole attainable truth, and nothing but the truth ; but we are mindful that the truth is not always the easiest thing to find, nor, when found, is it very easy to state it in a manner at once clear and attractive.

We are not conscious of any sinister thought, certainly not of any commercial thought, in the preparation of this volume. It has cost no little of time, expense, and labor, but it has been a labor of love. Himself a native of King and Queen, it has been his aim to set forth what he has seen and known of the nobility of the men and women it has sent forth as a legacy to the world. Omissions often and mistakes many will be observed, unavoidable from the inception, and for reasons but too obvious. Three times have the county records been swept away by tire, once during the Civil War- This is so disastrous that consecutive and detailed history of courts, transfers of real estate, and even county officers, is impossible. Hence much of our story is scrappy and fragmentary. 1 imagine that a parallel can hardly be found in the State.

The county is among the smaller ones, with no great fertility of soil; moreover, we are an isolated people with no great facilities for trading. The most that we can boast is in the character of our men and women, their culture, refinement, virtue, and devotion to religious ideals.

It has been my desire and ambition to do ample justice to every section of our county. I could have no motive possible to my discernment to do otherwise. As my own life has been in the middle section, things there have come more readily to my mind.

8 PREFACE

From my boyhood the Baptists have been predominant here. Every effort has been made to override all partiality to them. If some find their family names left out, it is surely not by design. Good men are not always responsive to appeals for family history and genealogy. An author is quite helpless in such matters. Even an honest man cannot write a history without data, nor ought he. The larger space given to the Clarks, the Civil War, etc., is not unfair, for they naturally and reasonably deserve a larger place in the public eye.

Anent the Colonial church, — the Church of England, — every possible effort has been made to get a representation worthy and satisfactory for our volume, but in vain. The author is greatly indebted to Hon. H. R, Pollard, Col. A. F. Fleet, Judges J. G. Dew, T. R. B. Wright, Charles T. Bagby, Esq., B. H. Walker, M. D., John Pollard, D. D., and notably also to W. H. Whitsitt, LL. D., for words of cheer and valued aid in various directions.

A. Bagby.

Introduction

One of the happiest signs of the times is the awakening of the historic sense among our people. Much of the material of history goes to waste in every country; but in our Southern country a larger amount of it has been lost than in some others. We have been more solicitous to make history than to record and preserve it when made. Possibly that is true of every community at certain stages of its progress and development. In recent years a marked degree of interest has been aroused. The indifference of former years has passed away. That is one of the best features of the new day that has dawned upon us. Men are glad to cultivate a knowledge of families, municipalities, counties. States, and the whole country.

The county of King and Queen is truly ancient and honorable, and it is a concern to many people in many sections that its history should be collected and set in order. But there are certain obstacles in the way of such a consummation. The public records of the county have been destroyed by fire on more than one occasion. This is an incalculable loss. There are other sources of information, but none of these are so extensive and reliable as those once to be found in the clerk's office at the courthouse.

My honored friend, the Rev. Dr. Bagby, has devoted his attention for many years to the annals of King and Queen. He is sensible of the disadvantages under which he must labor, but he possesses a laudable ambition to preserve the things that remain, and to transmit an account of them to posterity. He is a diligent and careful student, and his interest in the subject has been earnest and continued for many years. I have enjoyed an opportunity to read over a portion of his work, and I consider it a very valuable and important contribution. I rejoice that he has decided to commit it to the press.

10 INTRODUCTION

He will thereby render an excellent public service, and besides will perpetuate his own name for generations to come, by linking it with the history and fortunes of one of the most venerable and noble communities in our country.

William H. Whitsitt.

Richmond College, September i2, 1907.

PART I THE people: their homes, ways, works, worships

CHAPTER PA^^

I: Geographical Location — Antecedents — Jamestown Settlement I7

II: Progress and Expansion from Jamestown — Origin of King and Queen's County ... 21

III: Resources, Climate, etc 26

IV: George Rogers Clark: his Nativity and his

Exploits 35

V: Legislative Action Concerning the Formation, and Intended to Advance the Interest, of the County of King and Queen — Henning's

" Statutes at Large " 42

VI: Church Houses and Old Homes .... 56 VII: Religious Denominations 92

Part II Civil War Annals

VIII : The War Starts— The Home Guard . . IX : Rosters of King and Queen County in the Civi

War

X: War Records, Letters, and Diaries . .

XI: From Richmond to Appomattox . . .

XII : Historical Address by J. Ryland, Sr. . .

139 149 192 223

12 CONTENTS

Part III Domestic And Social Chapter Page

XII: Selections from the Poems of King and Queen. 241 XIII: Two Men Deserving to be Remembered, and a

Boy sent on an Errand 254

XIV: Life on the Old Plantation 260

XV: Colored People of King and Queen County . 277

Part IV Miscellanies

XVI: Family and Individual Records .... 289

XVII: Genealogies 322

XVIII: Fragments 364

ILLUSTRATIONS

Rev. Alfred Bagby, D.D Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Map of King and Queen County i8

Col. John Pollard 42

Lower Church of St. Stevens Parish ... 62

Col. J. C. CouNciLL 86

Hon. J. H. C. Jones 116

Sketch Showing Location Where Home Guards

OF King and Queen County Attacked Col.

Dahlgren's Command 134

Capt. Edward Campbell Fox 140

Dahlgren's Corner 150

Miss Sarah Jane Pollard (Mrs. Alfred Bagby) 242

Mr. John Bagby 260

Thomas Roane Dew 300

Col. Samuel F. Harwood 316

Bell Air 354

Chapter I Geographical Location Antecedents James- Town Settlement

King and Queen is one of the tide-water counties of Virginia, lying at its southeastern extremity, only some forty miles from Chesapeake Bay. It adjoins the counties of Caroline, Essex, Middlesex, Gloucester, and King William, being separated from the latter by the Mattapony River. It lies on the northeastern shore of the York and Mattapony Rivers. No student of this portion of Virginia will fail to observe that all the eastern portion of the State is cut up into several narrow strips — here called " necks " — by certain great rivers. The dividing rivers are these: The Blackwater (a branch of the Meherrin), James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac. The intervening necks are four, to wit : beginning on the south, that of which Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk are central points; (2) that of Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg; (3) the neck of Gloucester, King and Queen, etc.; (4) that which is universally known as the " northern neck." To be yet more distinct : we have the neck between the Blackwater and the James; that between the James and the York; that between the York and the Rappahannock; and lastly, that between the Rappahannock and the Potomac.

Some future historian may disport himself in recounting the glories of each of these, and find a most useful and enjoyable field.

I. Norfolk and Portsmouth will deserve superlative praise. 2. Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg speak for themselves, as being the cradle of the infant colony and the home of Pocahontas, the white man's only friend; and as furnishing, in the main, the scenes of the exploits of that remarkable man, Captain John Smith, who in the space of barely two years and five months, almost by his single hand, saved the uncertain colony time and again from starvation and from the deadly tomahawk, and brought order out of chaos.

That wonderful little section of our State called " Northern Neck," is known the world over as the ancestral home of Washington, Madison, Monroe, and last, but not least, of the Lees, — among them that peerless citizen and soldier, Robert E. Lee.

This scant justice to our sisters of the other " necks " must suffice; our task is humbler. "Neck" No. 3, as above indicated, is subdivided longitudinally by a small stream, known near the Bay as Piankitank, while higher up it is nicknamed, with no regard to fitness, the " Dragon." This stream rises at a point some seventy miles from the Bay and flows down, first between Essex and King and Queen, and lower down between Middlesex and the latter county. The sluggish, fever-breeding stream might give ingress to steamers, and its banks might feed a large population if properly opened up. We thus locate the county of King and Queen as lying between the York and Mattapony on the south, and the Dragon (Piankitank) on the north.

The county, taking the Courthouse as its central point, is approximately in the same latitude, to the eastward, with Accomac across the Bay, Gibraltar, the renowned fortress at the entrance of the Mediterranean, and Athens, the venerable city of Greece; and with San Francisco and Yokohama to the west. The 77th degree of longitude west of Greenwich, passes through Ottawa (Canada), Washington city, and central King and Queen; it then passes southward through eastern North Carolina into the ocean, and crossing the Caribbean Sea, strikes the eastern end of the Isthmus of Panama, where is soon to be opened up the gateway between the two oceans. The county is one hundred miles south of Washington, thirty-six miles east-northeast from Richmond, forty miles northwest from Jamestown site, and fifty miles from the Bay.

The following names represented at Jamestown in 1608-9, are given on page 131 of Smith's History:

From Vol. II of the same history, at page 549, we obtain the following list of Jamestown settlers in 1620: Aston, Ashley, Archer, Anthony, Allen (4), Andrews, Abbot, Askew, Bowles, Button, Banks, Barber, Bonham, Brewster, Brooke, Bond, Beadle, Boone, Barnes, Badger, Britton, Bishop, Baron, Baker, Burley, Bromley, Barker, Bennett, Brewster, Bullock, Bayly, Butler, Burton, Baker, Beak, Bell, Blount, Cary, Calvert, Cecil, Corr, Chamberlaine, Cox, Cooper, Collins, Church, Camp, Cambel, Cooke, Conway, Cage, Cave, Crow, Chester, Cromwell, Drewry, Diggs, Dale, Denton, Dunn, Davis, Dobson, Dye, Drake, Dyke, Evans, Elkton, Finche, Farmer, Fox, Forrest, Farrar. Field, Francis, Fuller, Fleet (William), Gray, Gates, Gardner, Gilbert, Grave, Greene, Gore, Harris, Hicks, Hart, Hanson, Hill, Hinton, Hancock, Holt, Huntley, Harwood, Howell, Henshaw, Hooker, Hicks, Jones,. Johnson, Toby, Jackson, Leigh, Layson, Martin, Moore, Miller, Oliver, Pit, Row, Robinson, Roy, Robins, Rolfe, Roberts, Smith, Spencer, Shelton, Scott, Shelley, Stone, Shipley, Shepherd, Stevens, Tracy, Turner, Tucker, Taylor, Thornton, Watts^ Watson, Wilson, West, Webb, White, Westwood, Wright, Walker, Winne, Wilmer, Wood, Wells, Wheeler, Ward, Waller, Sir George Yeardley (Governor) , etc.

The following names are taken from the old land books as those of settlers at Jamestown, from 1625 to 1670: Lasy, Spencer, Gather, Matheman, Cooke, Nelson, Hill, Powell, Woodyard, Yeardley, Combes, Hitchcock, Arundell, Grimes, Lyon, Younge, Davidson, Sharpless, Davies, Sands, Pierce, Hedges, Willard,

Conjectural numbers of Indians in 1607 within sixty miles of Jamestown, 8,000.

Chapter II

PROGRESS AND EXPANSION FROM JAMESTOWN — ORIGIN OF KING AND QUEEN COUNTY

It is easy to see how, by and by, there came a movement out from Jamestown to form settlements at various points around, the Indians, of course, receding before the whites. Under the impulse of their Saxon blood, men moved out and made new homes for themselves up the James, along Hampton Roads, across the Bay, and on the various rivers emptying into the Bay. It must be remembered that locomotion in that day was much easier and safer by water than by land.

Back, northward and westward from Jamestown, lay a vast wilderness trodden only by savages and wild beasts, while not infrequently the former awaited with his tomahawk or arrow any roaming white man. Thus it came about that even to pass through this boundless waste was perilous. On the other hand, it was easy to take a boat and row down the river, and through the adjacent waters. Indeed, Captain Smith, within the short space of less than two and a half years had largely explored the waters of the James, the York, the Rappahannock,* and the Potomac, and Chickahominy and

* John Smith, the colonist, was born in Lincolnshire, England, 1579; captured on Chickahominy, December, 1607; president of Council, 1608; saved the colony again and again from starvation by getting food from natives. He was painfully hurt by the sting of a stingray at the mouth of the Rappahannock, and soon after seriously wounded by an explosion of powder in a boat on James River, and sailed for England in October, 1609. He had just settled West's Colony at Powhatan, which he bought from that chief. Died 1631. Powhatan's domain extended from the Potomac south to the North Carolina line, and as high as the falls of rivers. This territory of Powhatan comprehended about 8,000 square miles, 30 tribes, and 2,400 warriors. Capt. Smith tells us there were 5,000 Indians within 60 miles of Jamestown, of whom 1,500 were fighting men. At first Powhatan held to Falls of river; subdivided (p. 387). James River to Patuxent was a patriarchial confederacy, each chief having his own council and council house. Beyond Powhatan's were the Matoacans and Manakins confederacies— all east of the Alleghenies. (Jefferson's Notes, pp. 143, 387.) 21 the Bay up to its northern extremity. These several waters gave welcome admittance to the new settlers, and thus the river shores were first preempted, and now began to be settled.

The York River was less than ten miles north from Jamestown in a direct line, and this naturally was among the first after the banks of the James, to be settled. About the year 1628 there was an understanding between the whites and the red men that York River was to be a dividing line between the two; the Indians holding the north bank, and the whites the south, and this line was reestablished in 1646.

About this time, that crafty, uncompromising enemy of the whites, Opecancanough, chief of the Chickahominies, second in succession from Powhatan, moved his headquarters across the river to a point only some five miles obliquely across from the present West Point, and stationed himself on the soil of King and Queen, at a point called Matoax, or Mascot. The arrangement thus entered into could not stand against the Saxon blood, and the whites soon overran the line. Then the north bank of the York was occupied and held.

EARLY SETTLERS

We give the following names of settlers in that region, on the soil of the present King and Queen County, drawn from the antiquated books now in the land office in Richmond, counting from the year 1625 onward:

Major William Nash, Major William Lewis, Dr. Giles Mode, Anthony Haynes, Wyatt, Hodson, Loane, Chapman, Pigge, Colonel Nathaniel Bacon (Arioceo Swamp), Lockey, Austin, Peck, Diggs, Richard Harrison, Mozey, Birch (Hartquake Creek), Morris, Biggs, Hugh Roye, Jennings, James, Brund, Sexton, Woodward, Fuzey, Michel, Robert Pollard (near L. Creek), Clayborne, William Anderson (Poropotank Creek), Butler (Hartquake Swamp), Captain Thomas Byneton, Holmes, Williams (on Bestland, a branch of Piankitank), Robert Bagbie (1672), (joined Skipwith and Chapman), Robert Bagby (above tide, joined

Pigge and Hall, 1673), Henden, Key, Captain Lawrence Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel John Smith, Lightfoot, Roystin, Lewis, Hall (on Mattapony) , Captain Robert Beverly, Garratt (Hartquake Creek), Mich, Robinson, Style, Story, Jones, Robert Spencer (joined Ed. Diggs), Captain Jacob Lumpkin (1682), Leigh, Madison (joined to Robert Bagbie, Miles, and Chamberlaine, near " Mantapike Path"), Colonel Richard Johnson, Echols, Bowden, Thomas Todd, Eastham, Taylor, Neal, Muire, Lane, Key, McKenney, Ed. Gresham (on Exall Swamp), Story.

1664, John Fleet, 1662, William and John Clarke, 1682, Thomas Harwood, John Clarke, Williams, Rogers, and Shackelford; 1693, William Todd, Robert Bird, Captain Joshua Story, Zackery Lewis; 1695, Ed. Gutharie, Alexander Campbell, Colonel Ed. Hill, Colonel Richard Johnson, Jennings, Carlton, Fox, Baylor, Watkins, Ware, Didlake, Pynes, Gardaner, Dunbar, Lyne, Thompson, Truman, William Bird, Gardner (Exall Swamp), Kemp, Temple, Roane, Crain, Captain William Fleet, Rowe, Dunn, Temple, Reuben Garrett, Charles Hill, Bayler, Temple.

Campbell's " History of Virginia " gives the following estimated population of Virginia for the various years, and other information of interest relating to King and Queen County:

1609 — 60 (reduced by disease and casualties).

1625 — 1500 (after massacre of March, 1622). These scattered over seventeen or eighteen places on James River. They had cattle, hogs, horses, and fowls now. Houses palisaded (p. 181).

When James I. died in 1625 there were only a few cabins in Richmond and nearly the whole colony was on James River and in Accomac.

1632 — ^Williamsburg was settled, being at first the home of only one family.

1642 — Berkeley came to Virginia.

1646 — York River the boundary (p. 205).

1 6 19 — Women imported, and husband to pay 120 pounds of tobacco; negroes also imported. Taxation by consent (p. 146).

1634 — Captain Henry Fleet (pp. 185, 190).

1663 — John and Theodore Bland (p. 264).

1664 — Captain Dudley Diggs (p. 460).

1646 — Rev. Steth, author of "Virginia History," lived at Varina, where Rolfe and Pocahontas had lived.

1664 — John Robinson, Speaker and Treasurer for twenty-five years; "Of cultivated mind and polished manners." Christopher Robinson on the Rappahannock, his grandfather was nephew of an English Bishop. The Speaker's father, John M. Beverly (pp. 535, 547).

1733 — A horse worth $50.00, cow and calf $3.60

1775 — Governor Dunmore's Council — Rev. P. Nelson, Page, Byrd, G. Corbin, Sr. and Jr. Richard Corbin was Deputy Receiver-General.

ORIGIN OF THE COUNTY

In the year 1634 ^^e territory held by the Colony was divided into nine shires — James City, Charles City, Elizabeth City, York, Warwick, Henrico, Accomac, Nansemond, and Isle of Wight. In 1654 a county was formed from York, extending west to the headwaters of Mattapony and Pamunky Rivers, to be called New Kent. In 1 69 1 another county was formed from the shire of New Kent, including what is now King William, King and Queen, and perhaps the whole of Caroline and Spottsylvania, to be called King and Queen. The origin of the name is told in the following narrative :

In the beginning of the year 1688, James II., a son of the Charles who was beheaded by Cromwell and the Parliament, was reigning monarch in England. To him the Virginia Colony was loyal — it was always loyal. In November of that same year, William and Mary — the latter the King's own daughter — came over from

Holland to England to claim the Crown against James, who had grown selfish and despotic. On July i (o. s.) , 1690, a great battle was fought beside the River Boyne, in eastern Ireland, between the forces of James and those led by his son-in-law. It resulted in a victory for the latter, and William and Mary became joint sovereigns of the realm. The new county, being organized in the following year, was named for these illustrious personages. King and Queen.

It must be borne in mind that at this early date the population on the upper waters was quite sparse, and the Courthouse of the new county was located where it now stands.

Chapter III Resources, Climate, Etc

The following statistics of the agricultural and horticultural advantages of the county are compiled from memoranda prepared by the author in 1888, by request of Committee of the Agricultural Society of Virginia. They were designated to accompany an exhibit of county resources at the Virginia State Fair at the City of Richmond, in October of that year.

RELATIVE POSITION AND POPULATION

The county is part of the neck of land between the York and Rappahannock rivers, fifty miles from Chesapeake Bay, thirty-five north of east from the city of Richmond, and one hundred and fifty south from Baltimore, with both of which it communicates by steamers and railroad. It is fifty miles long by ten in width, with a population, in 1880, of 10,502, mostly homogeneous, being descendants of the original settlers.

MORALS AND CHURCHES

Taking it as a whole, its people are among the most refined, cultured and moral in the State. Very little whisky is sold. No liquor has been sold at the county seat for fifteen or twenty years, and but one case of disorder has been known to occur there within that time, and that between two belligerent colored citizens. In morals, our people will compare with those of any land.

Churches are numerous. It is not too much to say that this is a religious people. The Sabbath is held sacred, and Sabbath schools are largely patronized. There are Baptist, Methodist, Disciples, Christadelphian, and Episcopal churches. Indeed, most of the people are communicants in some church.

SCHOOLS

The system of public schools, supported by the State, is in full play here, and they are growing in utility. For the session of 1887 and 1888, there were forty-four schools, some graded, and 2000 scholars. The county is noted for its educational advantages, and for the general attention paid to the subject. Private schools and academies of excellent character and for both sexes abound. For higher education, facilities are at hand equal to any demand. Teachers and systems of teaching are of high grade. One or two high schools are in prospect.

HEALTH

This, to the immigrant, is a matter of prime consideration. The robust person, blooming cheek and incident cheerfulness, and in many cases advanced age of our people, refute the idea that this country is unfavorable to health. Indeed, our immigrants themselves contradict it. All tide-water sections have malaria, but it is by no means confined to tide-water. Timely precautions and watchfulness will almost uniformly prevent any trouble. It is also very much in our favor that typhoid fever, so common and fatal in higher climates, very seldom occurs here. Statistics show that the average of life in eastern Virginia is higher than anywhere else in the country.

CLIMATE

While subject to changes incident to countries near the sea, though by no means limited to them, our climate is exempt from the extremes of heat and cold occurring elsewhere. The needful supply of ice for summer seldom fails, but the thermometer rarely touches zero in winter, or rises above 95 Fahrenheit in summer. Floods and cyclones, which distress and overwhelm other sections, are almost unknown here. Occasional snows occur in winter, giving sport to the young with sleds and sleighs.

3.192

2.049

3-95

3-68

2.83

9.15

4-63

2.87

FIVE YEARS' AVERAGE OF KING AND QUEEN CLIMATE

Rainfall, in. Temperature.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

SURFACE AND SOIL

Lying along the Mattapony and the Dragon, and stretching out to the distance of from several hundred yards to three-fourths of a mile, are extensive tracts of level land, mostly light and easily cultivated. Away from these waters the surface is undulating, sometimes hilly, with large fields and forests of level lands intervening. The character and constituents of the soil vary locally, and it is not uncommon to see one part of a farm heavy and stiff, and another light; grayish clay lands preponderate on the ridge. A clay subsoil generally prevails.

MINERALS

Gray and blue marls abound. These have been used upon the lands with marked results. The deposit frequently crops out from the surface, and is dug from the pit and applied at small cost. These marls are rich in carbonate of lime, and analyze 40 to 90 per cent, pure lime. The beds occur often, and are seemingly inexhaustible. Animal bones, shells, and Indian relics, in all stages of decomposition, are disinterred. Large beds of fine white sand are also common.

STAPLE CROPS

Corn, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, potatoes (Irish and sweet) , peas, beans, and occasionally buckwheat, are the staples. Peanuts and other truck are growing in favor;

sorghum and broom-corn are grown successfully. Tobacco raised here will compare well in quality with that grown elsewhere.

LANDS PRICES AND CAPACITIES

Owners are beginning to realize the folly of attempting to cultivate so large an area as was in vogue here. Hence much land is on the market, at from $4 to $8, unimproved; and $8 to $20, improved; sometimes with a good dwelling and outhouses included. While considerable portions of these have been under cultivation, others lie in original forests.

The highlands, as well as alluvial and other bottom lands, respond easily and well to the hand of improvement; which is the great desideratum. There are many cases where lands which, under the wasting process of years of unskilled and neglected cultivation had grown thin, have been made to " rejoice and blossom as the rose." It may seem to some incredible, but is nevertheless true, that some of our lands which have been cultivated one hundred years or more with almost no return and no rest, are yet under the plow, and yield from ten to twenty bushels of corn to the acre. One large farm, which has been worked one hundred and fifty years, with only one moderate application of lime, and the respective fields grazed alternate years, still brings some fifteen bushels good corn. This shows well for the subsoil and the general constituents of the soil, and we challenge comparison with other sections. It is hardly a question what such lands would do in the hand of the skilled and active agriculturist. A large body of land skirting the Dragon and its tributaries, would well-nigh fill the granaries of Egypt, and only awaits the capital and energy needed to drain it ! A company is already opening the stream below.

VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

An intelligent resident was asked, " Do you know of any good vegetable which cannot be successfully grown here?" The answer, after a moment's reflection, was,

" No! " The answer would be very much the same as to fruits, excepting those of the Torrid Zone only. Of course, certain varieties of each are better suited to our soil and climate, and in the selection regard must be had to this. We have apples — summer, fall and winter varieties — peaches, pears, cherries, apricots, quinces, damsons, plums; blackberries, growing wild in inexhaustible quantities, and very salable; strawberries, raspberries, melons, and last, not least, grapes. Soil and climate here seem specially favorable to the grape, though but little attention has hitherto been given to it. Yet it is growing in favor.

WATER

The abundant supply of pure, wholesome water, gurgling forth from almost every hillside, and readily accessible by wells to those who prefer it, is something marvelous. Strangers wonder at it, and admire. Scarcely a farm that has not enough and to spare for man and beast. In some cases artesian wells have been bored, at a cost of from $40 to $60, and to depths of 150 to 400 feet, with the result that a magnificent stream pours clear, sparkling waters into house and kitchen. The hamlet of Walkerton, alone, has eight of these in constant use.

TRANSPORTATION

Mattapony River, flowing into the York at West Point, is navigable for nearly the entire length of the county. A new steamer and sail vessels are constantly plying to and fro, giving ready access to Richmond, Norfolk, Baltimore, New York, and to foreign ports. From many parts of the county the Rappahannock is also easy of access, giving ready passage to Baltimore, etc. The Richmond and Chesapeake Railroad is projected, passing through the county to a point near the mouth of the Potomac, and thence to points North.