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yours with unswerving loyalty to Old Loudoun. James W Head.
HISTORY
AND
COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION
OF
LOUDOUN COUNTY
VIRGINIA
BY
JAMES W. HEAD
PARK VIEW PRESS
48 H4
Copyright 1908 by JAMES W. HEAD
1 C . . .
Dedication.
TO MY MOTHER,
WHOSE LOVE FOR LOUDOUN IS NOT LESS ARDENT AND UNDYING THAN MY OWN, THIS VOLUME, THE SINGLE AMBITION AND FONDEST
ACHIEVEMENT OF MY LIFE,
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
OUDOUN County exemplifies country G life in about the purest and pleasantest form that I have yet found in the United States. Not that it is a rural Utopia by any means, but the chief ideals of the life there are practically identical with those that have made country life in the English counties world-famous. As a type, this is, in fact, the real thing. No sham, no artificiality, 110 suspicion of mushroom growth, no evidence of exotic forcing are to be found in Loudoun, but the culmination of a century's development."
"So much, then, to show briefly that Loudoun County life is a little out of the ordinary, here in America, and hence worth talking about. There are other communities in Virginia and elsewhere that are worthy of eulogy, but I know of none that surpasses Loudoun in the dignity, sincerity, naturalness, com- pleteness and genuine success of its country life."- WALTER A. DYER, in Country Life in America.
5
CONTENTS
Jable nf Umtents.
INTRODUCTION
9-14
Descriptiur Department.
SITUATION 15-16
BOUNDARIES 16-18
TOPOGRAPHY. 18-20
COMPARATIVE ALTITUDES .21-22
DRAINAGE
22-25
CLIMATE.
25-26
GEOLOGY .
.26-44
Summary
26-30
Granite .
30
Loudoun Formation.
.30-32
Weverton Sandstone 32-34
Newark System. 34-36
Newark Diabase. 36-38
Catoctin Schist. 38-39
Rocks of the Piedmont Plain 39-40
Lafayette Formation 40-41
Metamorphism 41-44
MINERAL AND KINDRED DEPOSITS .44-49
SOILS
49-66
Summary .49-52
Loudoun Sandy Loam 53-54
Penn Clay. 54-55
Penn Stony Loam. 55-56
Iredell Clay Loam 56-58 Penn Loani. 58-59
Cecil Loam. 59-60
Cecil Clay. 60-62
Pages.
6
CONTENTS
Pages.
SOILS-Continued. 49-66
Cecil Silt Loam 62-63
Cecil Mica Loam. 63-64
De Kalb Stony Loam 64-65
Porters Clay 65-66
Meadow.
66
FLORA AND FAUNA 67-69
Flora .67-68
Fauna .68-69
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 69-71
TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 71-79
Leesburg.
71-74
Round Hill.
74-75
Waterford.
75
Hamilton . 75
Purcellville. 75-76
Middleburg 76
Ashburn 76
Bluemont .
76-77
Smaller Towns 77-79
Statistical Department.
AREA AND FARMING TABULATIONS. .81-83
POPULATION. .83-87
INDUSTRIES 87-91
FARM VALUES 91-93
LIVE STOCK. 94-97
Values 94
Animals Sold and Slaughtered. 94
Neat cattle . 95
Dairy Products 95-96
Steers. 96
Horses, Mules, etc. 96
Sheep, Goats, and Swine. 96-97
7
CONTENTS
Pages.
LIVE STOCK-Continued 94-97
Domestic Wool . 97
Poultry and Bees 97
SOIL PRODUCTS. 98-100
Values.
98
Corn and Wheat. 98
Oats, Rye, and Buckwheat.
98-99
Hay and Forage Crops. 99
Miscellaneous Crops, etc. 99
Orchard Fruits, etc. 100
Small Fruits, etc. 100
Flowers, Ornamental Plants, etc. 100
FARM LABOR AND FERTILIZERS. 101-102
Labor.
101
Fertilizers.
101-102
EDUCATION AND RELIGION.
102-105
Education
102-104
Religion . 104-105
Historical Department.
FORMATION 107-109
DERIVATION OF NAME. 109-110
SETTLEMENT AND PERSONNEL. 110-113
EARLY HABITS, CUSTOMS, AND DRESS. 113-123
Habits
113-115
Customs 116-120
Dress 120-123
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 123-124
REPRESENTATION 124-127
Colonial Assemblies 124-125
State Conventions 125-127
THE REVOLUTION . 127-138
Loudoun's Loyalty 127
Resolutions of Loudoun County 127-129
8
CONTENTS
Pages.
THE REVOLUTION-Continued. 127-138
Revolutionary Committees. 130-131
Soldiery 131-132
Quaker Non-Participation. 132-133
Loudoun's Revolutionary Hero 133-134
Army Recommendations . 134-135
Court Orders and Reimbursements 135-137
Close of the Struggle
. ₹138
WAR OF 1812 138-139
The Compelling Cause .138-139
State Archives at Leesburg. 139
THE MASON-MCCARTY DUEL 140
HOME OF PRESIDENT MONROE . 141-142
GENERAL LAFAYETTE'S VISIT 142-144
MEXICAN WAR 144
SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR. 145-180
Loudoun County in the Secession Movement. . 145-148 Loudoun's Participation in the War. 149-151
The Loudoun Rangers (Federal). 151-153
Mosby's Command in its Relationship to Lou- doun County. 153-157
Mosby at Hamilton (Poem). 157
Battle of Leesburg ("Ball's Bluff ") 158-164
Munford's Fight at Leesburg. 164-165
Battle at Aldie. 165-169
Duffie at Middleburg. 169-171
The Sacking of Loudoun 171-174
Home Life During the War. 174-175
Pierpont's Pretentious Administration 176-177 Emancipation. 177-179
Close of the War. 179-180
RECONSTRUCTION . .180-186
After the Surrender. 180-183
Conduct of the Freedinen. 183-186
CONCLUSION . . 186
KNOW not when I first planned this work, so inextricably is the idea interwoven with a fading recollection of my earliest aims and am- bitions. However, had I not been resolutely determined to conclude it at any cost-men- tal, physical, or pecuniary-the difficulties that I have experienced at every stage might have led to its early abandonment.
The greatest difficulty lay in procuring material which could not be supplied by individual research and investiga- tion. For this and other valid reasons that will follow it may safely be said that more than one-half the contents of this volume are in the strictest sense original, the remarks and detail, for the most part, being the products of my own per- sonal observation and reflection. Correspondence with individ- uals and the State and National authorities, though varied and extensive, elicited not a half dozen important facts. I would charge no one with discourtesy in this particular, and mention the circumstance only because it will serve to empha- size what I shall presently say anent the scarcity of available material.
Likewise, a painstaking perusal of more than two hundred 45-2
(9)
10
INTRODUCTION
volumes yielded only meagre results, and in most of these illusory references I found not a single fact worth recording. This comparatively prodigious number included gazeteers, encyclopedias, geographies, military histories, general his- tories, State and National reports, journals of legislative pro- ceedings, biographies, genealogies, reminiscences, travels, romances-in short, any and all books that I had thought calculated to shed even the faintest glimmer of light on the County's history, topographical features, etc.
But, contrary to my expectations, in many there appeared no manner of allusion to Loudoun County. By this it will be seen that much time that might have been more advan- tageously employed was necessarily given to this form of fruitless research.
That works of history and geography can be prepared in no other way, no person at all acquainted with the nature of such writings need be told. "As well might a traveler pre- sume to claim the fee-simple of all the country which he has surveyed, as a historian and geographer expect to preclude those who come after him from making a proper use of his labors. If the former writers have seen accurately and re- lated faithfully, the latter ought to have the resemblance of declaring the same facts, with that variety only which nature has enstamped upon the distinct elaborations of every individ- ual mind. As works of this sort become multiplied, voluminous, and detailed, it becomes a duty to literature to abstract, abridge, and give, in synoptical views, the informa- tion that is spread through numerous volumes."
Touching the matter gleaned from other books, I claim the sole merit of being a laborious and faithful compiler. In some instances, where the thoughts could not be better or more briefly expressed, the words of the original authors may have been used.
Where this has been done I have, whenever possible, made, in my footnotes or text, frank and ample avowal of the sources from which I have obtained the particular information presented. This has not always been possible for the reason
11
INTRODUCTION
that I could not name, if disposed, all the sources from which I have sought and obtained information. Many of the ref- erences thus secured have undergone a process of sifting and, if I may coin the couplet, confirmatory handling which, at the last, rendered some unrecognizable and their origin untraceable.
The only publication of a strictly local color unearthed during my research was Taylor's Memoir of Loudoun, a small book, or more properly a pamphlet, of only 29 pages, dealing principally with the County's geology, geography, and cli- mate. It was written to accompany the map of Loudoun County, drawn by Yardley Taylor, surveyor; and was pub- lished by Thomas Reynolds, of Leesburg, in 1853.
I wish to refer specially to the grateful acknowledgment that is due Arthur Keith's Geology of the Catoctin Belt and Carter's and Lyman's Soil Survey of the Leesburg Area, two Government publications, published respectively by the United States Geological Survey and Department of Agricul- ture, and containing a fund of useful information relating to the geology, soils, and geography of about two-thirds of the area of Loudoun. Of course these works have been the sources to which I have chiefly repaired for information relating to the two first-named subjects. Without them the cost of this publication would have been considerably aug- mented. As it is I have been spared the expense and labor that would have attended an enforced personal investigation of the County's soils and geology.
And now a tardy and, perhaps, needless word or two in revealment of the purpose of this volume.
To rescue a valuable miscellany of facts and occurrences from an impending oblivion; to gather and fix certain ephem- eral incidents before they had passed out of remembrance; to render some account of the County's vast resources and capabilities; to trace its geography and analyze its soils and geology; to follow the tortuous windings of its numerous streams; to chronicle the multitudinous deeds of sacrifice and daring performed by her citizens and soldiery-such lias been the purpose of this work, such its object and design.
12
INTRODUCTION
But the idea as originally evolved contemplated only a chronology of events from the establishment of the County to the present day. Not until the work was well under way was the matter appearing under the several descriptive heads supplemented.
From start to finish this self-appointed task has been prose- cuted with conscientious zeal and persistency of purpose, although with frequent interruptions, and more often than not amid circumstances least favorable to literary composi- tion. At the same time my hands have been filled with laborious avocations of another kind.
What the philosopher Johnson said of his great Dictionary and himself could as well be said of this humble volume and its author:
"In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence pro- ceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patron- age of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconven- ience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow."
If further digression be allowable I might say that in the preparation of this work I have observed few of the restric- tive rules of literary sequence and have not infrequently gone beyond the prescribed limits of conventional diction. To these transgressions I make willing confession. I have striven to present these sketches in the most lucid and concise form compatible with readableness; to compress the greatest possi- ble amount of useful information into the smallest compass. Indeed, had I been competent, I doubt that I would have attempted a more elaborate rendition, or drawn more freely upon the language and the coloring of poetry and the imagina- tion. I have therefore to apprehend that the average reader
13
INTRODUCTION
will find them too statistical and laconic, too much abbre- viated and void of detail.
However, a disinterested historian I have not been, and should such a charge be preferred I shall look for speedy exculpation from the discerning mass of my readers.
In this connection and before proceeding further I desire to say that my right to prosecute this work can not fairly be questioned; that a familiar treatment of the subject I have regarded as my inalienable prerogative. I was born in Loudoun County, of parents who in turn could boast the same distinction, and, if not all, certainly the happiest days of my life were passed within those sacred precincts. I have viewed her housetops from every crowning eminence, her acres of un- matched grain, her Arcadian pastures and browsing herds, her sun-kissed hills and silvery, serpentine streams. I have known the broad, ample playgrounds of her stately old Academy, and shared in the wholesome, health-giving sports their breadth permitted. I have known certain of her astute schoolmasters and felt the full rigor of their discipline. Stern tutors they were, at times seemingly cruel, but what retro- spective mind will not now accord them unstinted praise and gratitude? Something more than the mere awakening and development of slumbering intellects was their province: raw, untamed spirits were given into their hands for a brief spell- brief when measured in after years-and were then sent forth to combat Life's problems with clean hearts, healthy minds, robust bodies, and characters that might remain unsullied though beset with every hellish device known to a sordid world. God bless the dominies of our boyhood-the veteran schoolmasters of old Loudoun!
But to return to my theme. I have a distinct foresight of the views which some will entertain and express in reference to this work, though my least fears of criticism are from those whose experience and ability best qualify them to judge.
However, to the end that criticism may be disarmed even before pronouncement, the reader, before condemning any statements made in these sketches that do not agree with his
14
INTRODUCTION
preconceived opinions, is requested to examine all the facts in connection therewith. In so doing it is thought he will find these statements correct in the main.
In such a variety of subjects there must of course be many omissions, but I shall be greatly disappointed if actual errors are discovered.
In substantiation of its accuracy and thoroughness I need only say that the compilation of this work cost me three years of nocturnal application-the three most ambitious and dis- quieting years of the average life. During this period the entire book has been at least three times rewritten.
In the best form of which I am capable the fruits of these protracted labors are now committed to the candid and, it is hoped, kindly judgment of the people of Loudoun County.
JAMES W. HEAD.
"ARCADIA,"
BARCROFT, VA., Feb. 1, 1909.
Descriptiur.
SITUATION.
Loudoun County lies at the northern extremity of "Pied- mont Virginia,"* forming the apex of one of the most pictur- esquely diversified regions on the American continent. Broad plains, numerous groups and ranges of hills and forest-clad mountains, deep river gorges, and valleys of practically every conceivable form are strewn to the point of prodigality over this vast undulatory area.
The particular geographic location of Loudoun has been most accurately reckoned by Yardley Taylor, who in 1853 made a governmental survey of the county. He placed it ' between the latitudes of 38º 52%" and 39º 21" north latitude, making 2812" of latitude, or 33 statute miles, and between 20" and 531/2" of longitude west from Washington, being 331/2" of longitude, or very near 35 statute miles."
Loudoun was originally a part of the six million acres which, in 1661, were granted by Charles II, King of England, to Lord Hopton, Earl of St. Albans, Lord Culpeper, Lord Berkeley, Sir William Morton, Sir Dudley Wyatt, and Thomas Culpeper. All the territory lying between the Rappahannock
* "Piedmont" means "foot of the mountain." "Piedmont Virginia," with a length of 250 miles and an average width of about 25 miles, and varying in altitude from 300 to 1,200 feet, lies just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and comprises the counties of Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, Orange, Albemarle, Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick. It is a portion of the belt that begins in New England and stretches thence southward to Georgia and Alabama.
(15)
16
HISTORY OF
and Potomac rivers to their sources was included in this grant, afterwards known as the "Fairfax Patent," and still later as the "Northern Neck of Virginia."
"The only conditions attached to the conveyance of this domain, the equivalent of a principality, were that one-fifth of all the gold and one-tenth of all the silver discovered within its limits should be reserved for the royal use, and that a nominal rent of a few pounds sterling should be paid into the treasury at Jamestown each year. In 1669 the letters patent were surrendered by the existing holders and in their stead new ones were issued. The terms of these letters required that the whole area included in this magnifi- cent gift should be planted and inhabited by the end of twenty-one years, but in 1688 this provision was revoked by the King as imposing an impracticable condition."*
The patentees, some years afterward, sold the grant to the second Lord Culpeper, to whom it was confirmed by letters patent of King James II, in 1688. From Culpeper the rights and privileges conferred by the original grant descended through his daughter, Catherine, to her son, Lord Thomas Fairfax, Baron of Cameron-a princely heritage for a young man of 20 years.
BOUNDARIES.
The original boundaries of Loudoun County were changed by the following act of the General Assembly, passed Jan- uary 3, 1798, and entitled "An Act for adding part of the county of Loudoun to the county of Fairfax, and altering the place of holding courts in Fairfax County."
1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly, That all that part of the county of Loudoun lying between the lower boundary thereof, and a line to be drawn from the mouth of Sugar Land run, to Carter's mill, on Bull run, shall be, and is hereby added to and made part of the county of Fairfax: Provided always, That it shall be lawful for the sheriff of the said county of Loudoun to collect and make distress for any public dues or officers fees, which shall remain unpaid by the inhabitants of that part of the
*Bruce's Economic History of Virginia.
17
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA.
said county hereby added to the county of Fairfax, and shall be account- able for the same in like manner as if this act had not been made.
2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for a majority of the acting justices of the peace for the said county of Fairfax, together with the justices of the county of Loudoun included within the part thus added to the said county of Fairfax, and they are hereby required at a court to be held in the month of April or May next, to fix on a place for holding courts therein at or as near the center thereof (having regard to that part of the county of Loudoun hereby added to the said county of Fairfax) as the situation and convenience will admit of; and thenceforth proceed to erect the necessary public buildings at such place, and until such buildings be completed, to appoint any place for holding courts as they shall think proper.
3. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the pass- ing thereof.
As at present bounded, the old channel at the mouth of Sugar Land run, at Lowe's Island,* is "the commencement of the line that separates Loudoun from Fairfax County and runs directly across the country to a point on the Bull Run branch of Occoquan River, about three eighths of a mile above Sudley Springs, in Prince William County." The Bull Run then forms the boundary between Loudoun and Prince William to its highest spring head in the Bull Run mountain, just below the Cool Spring Gap. The line then extends to the summit of the mountain, where the counties of Fauquier and Prince William corner. From the summit of this moun- tain, a direct line to a point; on the Blue Ridge, at Ashby's
*"What is called Lowe's Island, at the mouth of Sugarland Run, was formerly an island, and made so by that run separating and part of it passing into the river by the present channel, while a part of it entered the river by what is now called the old channel. This old channel is now partially filled up, and only receives the waters of Sugarland Run in times of freshets. Occasionally when there is high water in the river the waters pass up the present channel of the run to the old channel, and then follow that to the river again .. This old channel enters the river immediately west of the primordial range of rocks, that impinge so closely upon the river from here to Georgetown, forming as they do that series of falls known as Seneca Falls, the Great, and the Little Falls, making altogether a fall of 188 feet in less than 20 miles."- Memoir of Loudoun.
tDesignated in an old record as a "double-bodied poplar tree stand- ing in or near the middle of the thoroughfare of Ashby's Gap on the top of the Blue Ridge." It succumbed to the ravages of time and fire while this work was in course of preparation.
18
HISTORY OF
Gap, marks the boundary between Loudoun and Fauquier counties. A devious line, which follows in part the crests of the Blue Ridge until reaching the Potomac below Harpers Ferry, separates Loudoun from Clarke County, Virginia, and Jefferson County, West Virginia, on her western border. The Potomac then becomes the dividing line between Loudoun County, and Frederick and Montgomery counties, Maryland; "and that State, claiming the whole of the river, exercises jurisdiction over the islands as well as the river."
This completes an outline of 109 miles, viz: 19 miles in company with Fairfax, 10 with Prince William, 17 with Fauquier, 26 with Clarke and Jefferson, and 37 miles along the Potomac.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Loudoun County is preeminently a diversified region; its surface bearing many marked peculiarities, many grand dis- tinctive features. The broken ranges of hills and mountains, abounding in Piedmont Virginia, here present themselves in softly rounded outline, gradually sinking down into the plains, giving great diversity and picturesqueness to the land- scape. They are remarkable for their parallelism, regularity, rectilineal direction and evenness of outline, and constitute what is by far the most conspicuous feature in the topography of Loudoun. Neither snow-capped nor barren, they are clothed with vegetation from base to summit and afford fine range and pasturage for sheep and cattle.
The main valleys are longitudinal and those running trans- versely few and comparatively unimportant.
The far-famed Loudoun valley, reposing peacefully between the Blue Ridge and Catoctin mountains, presents all the many varied topographic aspects peculiar to a territory abounding in foothills.
The Blue Ridge, the southeasternmost range of the Alle- ghanies or Appalachian System presents here that uniformity and general appearance which characterizes it throughout the
19
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA.
State, having gaps or depressions every eight or ten miles, through which the public roads pass. The most important of these are the Potomac Gap at 500 feet and Snickers and Ashby's Gap, botlı at 1,100 feet. The altitude of this range in Lou- doun varies from 1,000 to 1,600 feet above tide-water, and from 300 to 900 feet above the adjacent country. It falls from 1,100 to 1,000 feet in 4 miles south of the river, and then, rising sharply to 1,600 feet, continues at the higher series of elevations. The Blue Ridge borders the county on the west, its course being about south southwest, or nearly parallel with the Atlantic Coast-line, and divides Loudoun from Clarke County, Virginia, and Jefferson County, West Virginia, the line running along the summit.
Of nearly equal height and similar features are the Short Hills, another range commencing at the Potomac River about four miles below Harpers Ferry and extending parallel to the Blue Ridge, at a distance of nearly four miles from summit to summit, for about twelve miles into the County, where it is broken by a branch of Catoctin Creek. Beyond this stream it immediately rises again and extends about three miles further, at which point it abruptly terminates.
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