USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 1st ed > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
. $
Gc 975.501 Sh4ker 1702725
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02387 9379
€
HISTORY
OF THE
VALLEY OF VIRGINIA.
-
BY SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
WINCHESTER: SAMUEL H. DAVIC. 1833.
F86382,46
1702725
Entered according to act of congress, in the year 1833, in the clerk's office of the western district of Vir- ginia.
نووية
-
DEDICATION.
TO GENERAL JOHN SMITH.
LIKE Nestor of old, you have lived to sce "two ge- nerations pass away, and now remain the example of the third." You saw Dunmore's war against the In- dians in 1774; you witnessed the war of the revolution and the war of 1812, with the haughty Britoo. In all these great struggles of our country you have given the most conclusive evidence of unbending virtue and uncompromising patriotism. The author has had the gratification of knowing you for a full half century. When a small boy he frequently saw you, though he was then too young to attract your notice. and it was not until he entered upon the active duties of life that he had the high satisfaction of a personal acquaintance.
The author disclaims every thing like insincere flat- tery, and feels assured that your candor will readily pardon him for the freedom he uses in this dedication of his History of the Valley to you. To you, sir, is he indebted for much of the valuable information detailed in the following pages. In you, sir, he has witnessed the calm, dignifiel statesman and philosopher, the uni -. form and consistent republican, the active and zealous officer, whether in the field or councils of the country. He has witnessed more : he has seen you in high pecu- niary prosperity ; he Iras seen you in later years strug- cling with adverse fortune; and in all, has discovered the calm, dignified resignation to misfortune, which always characterizes the great and good man. Yes, sir, you have spent at least fifty years of your valuable life in the service of your country; and when you go bienve, that you may enter into the joy of your Lord, is the ferve it prayer of
THE AUTHOR.
:
1
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofvalleyo00kerc_1
-
1.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION - Chap. 1. Indian wars - 47 -
2. Indian settlements 54 . - -
3. First settlement of the valley -
61
4. The same continued 72 .
5. Religion, habits and customs -
6. Breaking out of the Indian war 88
7. Indian incursions and massacres -
93
S. The same continued 110 - .
9. The same continued 123 -
10. Dunmore's war with the Indians 145 148 Doddridge's account of Dunmore's war Jacob's account of Dunmore's war 157
11. War of the revolution - 187.
12. Mode of living of the primitive settlers
209
13. Northern Neck of Virginia - Faulkner's report - .
215
14. Laying off the counties -
233
15. Establishment of the towns 238
DODDRIDGE'S NOTES.
1. Indian warfare 254 -
2. War of 1763 - - -
258
3. The death of Cornstalk - 267
4. Wappatomica campaign - -
270
5. Gen. M'Intosh's campaign - 272
276
7. The Indian summer -
-
289
8. Gen. Crawford's campaign -
9. Attack on Rice's fort -
-
302
10. Expected attack on Doddridge's fort 307
11. Coshocton campaizit -
- 310
12. Captivity of blia. Brown 312
13. Lewis Wetzel .
-
. 315
Page S
203
6. Moravian campaign -
291
CONTENTA.
Chap. 14. Adam Poe - .
.
318
15. The Johnsons - -
323
16. Settlement of the country
- 326
17. House furniture and diet - 333
18. Dress - -
-
337 341 -
19. The fort - - -
-
20. Caravans -
-
- 3.13 345
21. Hunting -
-
- 350
23. The house warming
355
24. Working -
-
357
25. Mechanic arts -
359
26. Medicine -
-
-
365
27. Sports -
-
371
28. Witchcraft -
-
376
29. Morals -
-
-
- 331 . 386
30. Slavery -
.
-
- · 394
SURPRISING ADVENTURES
- 411
APPENDIX -
447
22. The wedding
-
-
31. Civilization
-The author of this work has endeavored to ob- serve, in the printing, the orthography of our distin- guished countryman, DR. WEBSTER. Such obser- vance does not of course apply to the literal transcripts of old documents which are inserted ; and there may be some other departures from it, occasioned by inad- vertence.
-
8 3 5 3
INTRODUCTION.
ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS IN AMERICA.
From what particular part of the old world the abo- riginals found their way to this continent, is a question which has given rise to much philosophical and learned di-quisition among historians. It however appears now to be the settled opinion that America first received its inhabitants from Asia. Mr. Snowden, in his History of America, advances many able and ingenious argu- mentsin support of this opinion. After citing many great revolutions which have from time to time taken place in various parts of our globe, Mr. Snowden stares:
" In the strait which separates America from Asia, many islands are found, which are supposed to be the mountainous parts of land, formerly swallowed up by cartbqnakes : which appears the more probable, by this minhitude of voleances, now known in the peninsula of Kantschatka. It is imagined. however, that the sink- ing of that land and the separation of the new oggi- nouts has been cecasioned by those great earthquakes, Mentioned in the history of the Americans: which formed an era almost as memorable as that of the del- n re. We can forni no conjecture of the time mentioned in the histories of the Toltecas, or of the year i. Tee- patl. ) when that great calainity happened.
"If a great earthquake should overwhelm the isthmus of Suez, and there should be at the same time as great a carcity of historians as there were in the first age of
x
INTRODUCTION,
the deinge, it would be doubted in three or four hundred years after, whether Asia had ever been united by that part to Africa : and many would firmly deny it.
" Whether that great event, the separation of the con- tinents, took place before or after the population of Ame- rica, it is impossible to determine ; but we are indebted -to the above-mentioned navigators,* for settling the long dispute about the point from which it was effected. Their observations prove, that in one place the distance between continent and continent is only thirty-nine miles ; and in the middle of this narrow strait, there are two islands, which would greatly facilitate the pas- rage of the Asiatics into the new world, supposing it took place in canoes, after the convulsion which rent the two continents asunder.
" It may also be added, that these straits are, even in the summer, often filled with ice ; in winter frozen over, so as to admit a passage for mankind, and by which quadrupeds might easily cross, and stock the continent. But where, from the vast expanse of the north-eastern world, to fix on the first tribes who contributed to people the new continent, now inhabited from end to end. is a matter that has baffled human reason. The learned may make bold and ingenious conjectures, but plain good sense cannot always accede to them.
"As mankind increased in numbers, they naturally protruded one another forward. Wars might be another cause of migrations. No reason appears, why the Asi- atic north might not be an officina virorum as well as the European. The overteeming country to the east of the Riphean mountains, must have found it necessary to discharge its inhabitants : the first great increase of people were forced forwards by the next to it : at length reaching the utmost limits of the old world, found a new one, with ample space to occupy unmolested for ages; till Columbus, in an evil hour for them, discovered their country ; which brought again new sins and new deaths to both worlds. It is impossible, with the lights
* Cook and others.
xi
INTRODUCTION.
which we have so recently received, to admit that Ame- rica could receive its inhabitants (that is, the bulk of them, ) from any other place than Eastern Asia. A few proofs may be added, taken from the customs or dresses, common to the inhabitants of both worlds. Some have been long extinct in the old, others remain in both in full force.
" The custom of scalping, was a barbarism in uso with the Scythians, who carried about them at all times this savage mark of triumph. A little image found among the Kalmucs,* of a Tartarian deity, mounted on a horse, and sitting on a human skin, with scalps pen- dant from the breast, fully illustrates the custom of the ancient Scythians, as described by the Greek historian. This usage, we well know by horrid experience, is con- tinued to this day in America. The ferocity of the Scythians to their prisoners, extended to the remotest part of Asia. The Kamtschatkans, even at the time of their discovery by the Russians, put their prisoners to death by the most lingering and excruciating tor- ments ; a practice now in full force among the abori- ginal Americans. A race of the Scythians were named Anthropophagi, from their feeding on human flesh : the people of Nootka Sound still make a repast on their fel- low creatures.
" The savages of North America have been known to throw the mangled limbs of their prisoners into the horrible caldron, and devour them with the same relish as those of a quadruped. The Kamtschatkans in their marches never went abreast, but followed one another in the same track : the same custom is still observed by the uncultivated natives of North America. The Tun- gusi, the most numerous nation resident in Siberia, prick their skins with small punctures, in various shapes, with a needle; then rub them with charcoal, so that the mark & become indelible : this custoin is still observed in several parts of South America. The Tungusi uso canoes made of birch bark, distended over ribs of wood,
" The Kalmte Tartars are now subjects of Russia.
+
.
xii
INTRODUCTION.
and nicely put together: the Canadian, and many other primitive American nations, use no other sort of boats. In fine, the conjectures of the learned, respecting the vicinity of the old and new world, are now, by the dis- coveries of late navigators, lost in conviction ; and in the place of an imaginary hypothesis, the place of mi- gration is almost incontrovertibly pointed out."
SKETCH OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. .
Having given the foregoing brief sketch of the pro- bable origin of the Indians in America, the author will now turn his attention to the first settlement of Virginia, a brief history of which he considers will not be unac- ceptable to the general reader, and as a preliminary in- troduction to his main object, i. e. the history of the early settlement of the valley of Shenandoah in Virginia.
On the 10th of April, 1606, James I. king of Eng- land, granted charters to two separate companies, called the " London and Plymouth companies," for settling colonies in Virginia .* The London company setit Capt. Christopher Newport to Virginia, December 20th, 1606, with a colony of one hundred and five persons, to com- mence a settlement on the island of Roanoke, now in North Carolina. By stress of weather, however, they were driven north of their place of destination, and en- tered Chesapeake Bay. Here, up a river which they called James river, on a beautiful peninsula, they com- inenced, in May, 1607, the settlement of James town. This was the first permanent settlement in the country.
Several subsequent charters were granted by king James to the company for the better ordering and gov- ernment of the colony, for the particulars of which the reader is referred to Hening's Statues at Large. "And in the year 1619, the first legislative council was con- vened at James town, then called ' James citty?" This council was called the general assembly. " It was to assist the governor in the administration of justice, to
* Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. page 57.
-
xiii
INTRODUCTION.
advance christianity among Indians, to erect the colony in obedience to his majesty, and in maintaining the peo- ple in justice and christian conversation, and strength- ening them against enemies. The said governor, coun- cil, and two burgesses out of every town, hundred or plantation, to be chosen by the inhabitants to make up a general assembly, 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 po- licy of the form of government, laws, customs, man- ner of tryal, and other administration of justice used in England, as the company are required by their let- ters patents. No law to continue or be of force till ra- tified 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." *- Dated 21th July, 1621.
"Instructions to governor Wyatt.
" To keep up religion of the church of England as near as may be ;- to be obedient to the king and do justice after the form of the laws of England; and not to injure the natives; and to forget old quarrels now buried :+
"To be industrious, and suppress drunkenness, ga- ming. and excess in cloaths; not topermit any but the council and heads of hundreds to wear gold in their cloaths, or to wear sill: till they make it themselves:
" Not to offend any foreign princes; to punish pira- cies; to build fortresses and block-houses at the mouths of the rivers :
* Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. p. 113, 114.
t It appears that at a very early period of the colony, they were desirous e coltivating a friendly understanding with the natives of the country. Un- & storately, however, for our ancestors, and for the Indians themselves, this Is sens deposition was never of long duration.
It is a melancholy truth, that both the white settlers and red natives were olten bilamable tor the causes of the furious and disastrous wars with which our history abounds from its earliest period. The whites were continually encroaching upon the Indian territory : and this unfortunate race of people always yielded reluctantly their rightful inheritance.
2*
xiv
INTRODUCTION.,
"To use means to convert the heathens, viz: to con- verse with some; each town to teach some children fit for the college intended to be built :
"After Sir George Yeardley has gathered the present year's crop, he is to deliver to Sir Francis Wyatt, the hundred tenants belonging to governor's place: Yeard- ley's government to expire the 1Sth November next, and then Wyatt to be published governor ; to swear the council :
"George Sandis appointed treasurer, and he is to put in execution all orders of court about staple commodi- ties; to whom is allotted fifteen hundred acres and fifty tenants. To the marshall, Sir William Newce, the Fame, To company's deputy the same. To the phy. sician five hundred acres and twenty tenants ; and the same to the secretary:
"To review the commissions to Sir George Yeard -. ley, governor, and the council, dated 18th November, 1618, for dividing the colony into cities, boroughs, &c. and to observe all former instructions (a copy whereof was sent) f they did not contradict the present ; and all orders of court (made in England):
"To make a catalogue of the people in every planta- tion, and their conditions; and of deaths, marriages and christenings:
"To take care of dead persons' estates for the right owners; and keep a list of ail catile, and cause the se- cretary to return copies of the premises once a year :
"To take care of every plantation upon the death of their chief: not to plant above one hundred pounds of tobacco per head ;* to sow great quantities of corn for their own use, and to support the multitudes to be sent yea ly; to inclose lands ; to keep cows, swine, poultry, &c. and particularly kyne, which are not to be killed yet :
"Next to corn, plant mulbury trees, and make sitk,
* This order strikes the author as one of a singular char wter. It certainly requires great judgment and experience of the planter to decide what nem- ber of plants would make his 100 lbs, of tobacco, considering the casualties to which bis crop was Hable.
XV
INTRODUCTION.
and take care of the French men and others sent about. that work; to try silk grass; to plant abundance of vines, and take care of the vignerors sent :
"'To put prentices to trades, and not let them forsake their trades for planting tobacco, or any such useless commodity :
"'To take care of the Dutch sent to build saw-mills, nud seat them at the falls, that they may bring their Umber by the current of the water :..
"'Tobuild water-millsand block-houses in every plan- tation:
"'That all contracts in England or Virginia be per- formed, and the breaches punished according to justice :
"Tenants not to be inticed away; to take care of those sent about an iron work, and especially Mr. John Berkeley, that they dont miscarry again, this being the greatest hope and expectation of the colonies:
" 'To make salt, pitch, tar, soap, ashes, &c. so often recommended, and for which materials had been sent ; to make ovl of walnuts, and employ apothecaries in dis- tilling lees of beer. and searching after minerals, dyes, gumny, and drugs, &e. and send small quantities homme :*
" 'To make small quantity of tobacco, and that very good; that the houses appointed for the reception of new comers and public storehouses be built, kept clean, &c .; to send the state of affairs quarterly, and a duplicate next shipping :
" To take care of captain William Norton, and cer- tain Italians sent to set up a glass house :
" A copy of a treatise of the plantation business and excellent observances made by a gentleman of capacity is sent to lie among the records, and recommended to the councillors to study :
"Mr. William Clayborne, a surveyor, sent to survey the planters-lands, and make a map of the country :
** rmIng things to England, was, in the phrase of the times, termed send- ing things inme."This mode of expression, "going home or sending home," was in wat within the recollection of the author. In truth, the term "going or seuding home," was never abandoned uutil after the war of the revolu- Ciou.
21
INTRODUCTION.
"To make discoveries along the coast, and find a fish- ery between James river and Cape Cod :
"As to raising staple commodities, the chief officers ought to set examples, and to aim at the establishment of the colony :
"Chief officers that have tenants reprimanded for taking fees; but require that the clerks have fees set for passes, warrants, copies of orders, &c .:
" Governorand council to appoint proper times forad- ministration of justice, and provide for the entertain- inent of the council during their session ; to be together one whole month about state affairs, and law suits ; to record plaints of consequence; to keep a register of the acts of quarter sessions, and send home copies :
"If a governor dies, the major part of council to choose one of themselves within fourteen days: but if voices be divided, the lieutenant governor shall have the place; and next the marshall; next the treasurer ; and one of the two deputies next :
"Governor and chief officers not to let out their ten- ants as usual :
"The governor only to summon the council, and sign warrants, and execute or give authority to execute coun- cil orders, except in cases that do belong to the marshall, treasurer, deputies, &c. :
"The governor to have absolute authority to deter- mine and punish all neglects, and contempts of author- ity, except the council, who are to be tried at the quarter sessions and censured. Governor to have but the cast- ing voice in council or court, but in the assembly a ne- gative voice :
" That care be taken that there be no engrossing com- modity, or forestalling the market :
" All servants to fare-alike in the colony, and their punishment for any offences is to serve the colony, in publick works :
"To see that the earl of Pembroke's thirty thousand acres be very good :
-
xvii
INTRODUCTION.
"And lastly, not to let ships stay long, and to freight them with walnut, and any less valuable commodity :
"'The governor administered the following oath to the council :
"You shall swear to be a true and faithful servant "unto the king's majesty, as one of his council for Vir- "ginia : You shall in all things to be moved, treated, "and debated in that council concerning: Virginia orany. "the territories of America, between the degrees of thirty "fourand forty-five from the equinoctial line northward, "or the trades thereof, faithfully and truly declare your "mind and opinion, according to your heart and con- "science ; and shall keep secret all matters committed "and revealed to you concerning the same, and that shall "be treated secretly in that council, or this council of "Virginia, or the more part of them. publication shall "not be made thereof; And of all matters of great "importance, or difficulty, before you resolve thereupon, "you shall make his majesty's privy council acquainted "therewith, and follow their directions therein: You "shall to your uttermost bear faith and allegiance to the "king's majesty. his heirs, and lawful successors, and "shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, preheminences, "and authorities, granted unto his majesty and annext "unto the crown, against all foreign princes, persons, "prelates or potentates whatsoever, be it by act of par- "liament or otherwise : and generally, in all things, "you shall do as a faithful and true servant and subject "ought to do. So help you God and the holy contents "of this book." *
It appears the foregoing instructions were drawn up by the council, and intended as the general principles for the government of the colony.
The recommendation " not to injure the natives and forget oll quarrels How buried." goes far to prove that hopes were entertained that the Indians were disposed to be at peace. "To use means to couvert the beatheu," is another evidence of this amicable state of feeling to-
* Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. p. 111-118.
-
xviii
INTRODUCTION,
wards the natives. " But lo! this state of peace and tran- quillity. in less than one year after, was changed into one of devastation. blood and mourning. On the 22d of March, 1622, the Indians committed the most bloody massacre on the colonists recorded in the annals of our country .*
In the following year. to wit, March, 1623, the colo- nialgeneral assembly, by statute, directed " that the 22d March be yearly solemnized as holliday."t "This was done to commemorate the escape of the colony from eu- tire extirpation. This bloody massacre produced. on the part of the whites, a most deadly and irreconcilable ha- tred towards the natives. Accordingly, we find that a long continued and unabating state of hostility was kept up. and in about one hundred years the Indians were driven from the country east of the Blue Ridge. At the same session, to wit, 1623, the legislature enacted several laws in relation to defending themselves against the savages. In the series are the following :
" That every dwelling house shall be pallizaded in for defence against the Indians:
"That no man go or send abroad without a sufficient partie well armed:
"That people go not to worke in the ground without their arms (and a centinell upon them :)
"That the inhabitants go not aboard ships or upon any other occasions, in such numbers as thereby to weaken and endanger the plantations:
"That the commander of every plantation take care that there be sufficient of powder and amunition within the plantation under his command and their pieces fixt and their arnis compleate :
" That there be dew watch kept by night :
"That no commander of any plantation do either
" This year (16)2), says Mr. Gordon in his history of the American revo- Intion, (vol. i. p 43,) " was remarkable for a massacre of the colonists by the Inaions, which was executed with the utmost subtility, and withont nay re- gård to age, sex, or dignity. . A well concerted attack on all the settlementa destroyed in one hour, and almost at the same instant, 317. persons who were defenseless and incapable of making resistance.'
t Heping'e Statutes a: Large, vol. 1. p. 133.
தாழ்
----
xix
INTRODUCTION.
himselfc or suffer others to spend powder unnecessarily in drinking or entertainments, &c .:
"That at the beginning of July next the inhabitants of every corporation shall go upon their adjoining sal- vages, as we did the last year."+
In the year 1629, the legislature again "ordered that every commander of the several plantations appointed by commission from the governor, shall have power and Authoritic to levy a partie of men out of the inhabitants of that place soe many as may well be spared without too much weakening of the plantations, and to employ those men against the Indians," &c.t
"It was the opinion of the whole bodie of the assem- bly that we should go three several marches upon the Indians, at three several times of the year. viz : first in November, secondly in March, thirdly in July," &c .; 1
In 1631-32, " it is ordered that no person or persons chall dare to speake or parlie with any Indians, either in the woods or in any plantation, yf he can possibly avoyd it by any means," &oc ..
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.