USA > Virginia > Highland County > Highland County > A history of Highland County, Virginia > Part 19
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We conclude the chapter with a letter from a Highland man who had gone West.
Franklin Co. Mo. Aug., 2, 1829.
Dear Friend
I Rec'd your friendly letter on the 31 of July bearing date June 1st which gave rise to every sensation of old friendship and caused them to Reverberate through all the faculties I possess as though we were personally Present. I hope we will have the pleasure of spending some time together yet and our latter days may Be our best ones. these leaves me well thank god and hope they will find you all the same. I have many things to Communicate But Being in one of John homespun's Bustles I must omit Part of them. tomorrow I start for Campmeeting on the Illinois a distance of 100 miles. I have been at 2 Campmeetings one Methodist 6 miles from home and the other was a Cumberland Presbyterian meeting one mile from home. The one in Illinois is a methodist meeting, Where I will see your mother's Cousins and Cynthia's uncle and Cousins. It appears uncertain whether Cynthia will come with
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the old people or not. present my compliments to her. tell her Now is the time to exercise Sound Judgment. She Is of age. Let her Speak for herself. my opinion is made on the Subject. therefore the prayer of her ever unthankful friend is that She may be enabled to Rejoice evermore, Pray without Ceasing and in every thing give thanks and be kept Blameless till the Coming of our lord and Saviour.
my love to father and mother pendleton and family. tell phebeann I want to see her and susan very bad. I want to see Betsy ann and infant, all of you. Sir if you write about the time you Start I will meet you in Illinois and assist you the Balance of your Journey as you will Be wore out by that time. write and let me know all the news. I Must Return thanks for the last Being So Satisfactory. Give my love to - - and family. tell him to send me some money all if he can By you or your father as he has the Papers. I rote to them both last June. I also sent a note of $8.00 on the - -- to your father for collection. I hope he will not neglect to Collect Principal & Interest to a fraction.
I think hard of - - 's not writing, also of your father and mother. I have written Several times to them and they have turned a deff ear to all my entreaties. Is this Christian love? No, god forbid. Is this friendship. No. If ye only love them that love you how much more do ye than the Pharisees.
You expect to winter in Boone. You will not like it as well as some other counties I think. George & Thomas B- & family are well and all the Moses Galls & families are well. John and Betsey are Single. the People are in per- fect health. a few shaking with the ague a sign of good health.
I never expect to see Virginia. my mind is firmly fixed on a Residence for life if things cooperate with the present flattering Prospect.
I am Sir Respectfully Yours &c.
HENRY M. McCANN.
P. S. my unremitted love to Miss Rebecca -. let me know where she is and how her health is. My Compliments to old Mr. tommy R and family. tell Polly I was in hopes to have heard that her and friend - have Been Spliced Before this. Remember me to all Enquiring friends - to uncle John and aunt Betsy Cunningham In Particular and the family & to Nancy Camp- bell. her Brother thomas was well not long since. I conclude By sending my Compliments to old Miss Martha.
Note: the postage on this letter, from Union, Mo. to Hull's Store, (then) Pendleton county, was 25 cents.
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CHAPTER XXIII
BIOGRAPHIC PARAGRAPHS
Particular Mention of Highland Men of More or Less Prominence.
T THE particular mention of certain individuals, which other- wise would appear in the chapter on family history, is reserved for the present one.
Several of the Highland families may boast, if they choose, that their ancestors possessed coats of arms. A person of democratic impulse is inclined to scorn such a matter, yet it indicates a once honored social rank, whether or not such rank has been maintained. Again, certain families may point, if they see fit, to more or less illustrious connections. For in- stance, the wife of the pioneer Sullenberger was a cousin to General Winfield Scott.
John Bradshaw, son of the pioneer, was county surveyor eighteen years and was also a veteran teacher, a number of persons of some prominence being his pupils. He wrote the will of John Graham, which, through no fault of his, led to a noted lawsuit. Eighteen hours of rigid cross-examination failed to bring out any flaw in his testimony. His son, Captain Robert H., had a promising career cut short by his death at Port Republic.
Thomas Brown-Tomaso Bruno in Italian-merits mention as our only pioneer of that nationality. He is said to have been a sea captain in the War of 1812, about which time he came to America. He lived a while near the city of Washington.
Andrew H. Byrd, the legislative father of Highland County, served twelve years in the House of Delegates. His son, John T., was in the legislature one term, but declined a renom- ination. In the great war, he served with much ability as a leader of Confederate cavalry. Prior thereto he was a major of militia. As a farmer, he is one of Highland's best. His sons, Clifton E., Adam M., and H. Houston, are graduates of
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the University of Virginia, and all are in professional life, the last named being the present Commonwealth's Attorney of Bath.
The father and paternal grandfather of the pioneer Camp- bell were Presbyterian divines. His son Thomas possessed fine mathematical ability and was the first surveyor of High- land. Austin W. was one of its best read citizens and perhaps the first one to join the Masonic Order. Walter P., now en- gaged in the real estate business at Roanoke, was Commis- sioner of the Revenue for 21 years. Still other members of the connection have held positions of honor and trust.
Cornelius Colaw was a justice of the war period. His son, John M., received the Master's degree from Dickinson College in 1892, and after taking his Bachelor's degree from the same college studied law at the University of Virginia. For three years he was principal of the Monterey High School. Though an active attorney, Mr. Colaw has cultivated his strong mathe- matical gift. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society, a frequent contributor to mathematical journals, and the author of mathematical textbooks.
Collingwood A. Dickson, a well-read merchant of Trimble, is a son of General Sir Collingwood Dickson of the British Army.
William W. Fleming, a native of Nova Scotia, came to Highland shortly before the formation of the county. He was a man of strong intellect cultivated by constant reading. His personality was felt in every phase of public enterprise, and in particular he was a sturdy friend to the cause of education. He was recognized as an honest, upright, and intelligent citi- zen.
Captain David Gwin, a wealthy landowner of Jackson's River, was a steadfast soldier in the wars with the Indians and British. He was one of the men who went to the relief of the Wilson family, and his military career continued until the close of the Revolution.
Jacob Hevener, Jr., was a wealthy and prosperous stock- grower of Crabbottom, as have been his sons also.
Benjamin H. Hiner graduated in law in 1892, but even be-
sister married Grass
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fore his admission to the bar he was nominated as Prosecuting Attorney of Pendleton, holding that office eight years. In 1908 he was a candidate for Congress, and though defeated he ran ahead of his ticket by 1,500 votes. Mr. Hiner is a very active attorney.
The Hull family was very prominent in our early annals. The pioneer himself was a man of large means for his day. Peter, his oldest son, increased the estate, owning a large por- tion of the Crabbottom, his possessions in 1818 including 16 slaves, 19 horses, 43 cows, and 60 sheep. He was an officer in the Revolution, a colonel of militia subsequent thereto, and a legislator also. He was very influential, but also domineering. Major Peter Hull, his son, lived at McDowell, where he was a heavy landholder. He also sat in the Legislature and held various local offices. This branch of the Hull family is locally extinct in the male line. The late Joseph, a well-to-do farmer and upright citizen, is kindly remembered by his associates.
The Jones connection has included quite a share of names of ability, education, and financial competence. Thomas, son of the pioneer Henry, was a prominent public man of Pendleton. Charles P., a grandson, took his LL. B. degree from the Uni- versity of Virginia and has been in active practice since 1868 in this and adjoining counties. He has been leading counsel in numerous important civil and criminal cases. He has served in both branches of the State Legislature, and has been the only State Senator from Highland. From 1898 till 1906 he was Rector of the State University .* He is President of the Citizens' Bank of Monterey. Since 1900, his son, Edwin B., present Commonwealth's Attorney, has been associated with him in legal practice. Dr. Harrison H., senior physician of Highland, has been a practitioner since 1867, and has given all his children a liberal education. He is well known as a Sun- day School worker. His brother, Jared A., a popular, influen- tial, and well-to-do citizen, was County Treasurer from 1879 until his death in 1910. Clarence A., son of Jared A., is a physician of Staunton, and Andrew L., another son, is an attor- ney of Monterey.
*See Appendix T.
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William H. Keister is the very popular and efficient Super- intendent of the Harrisonburg schools.
Joseph Layne was a well-informed person, and very useful in public life, especially during the war period.
The sons of Samuel Life were of superior attainments and three were college graduates. William and George M. took theological courses at Princeton and became Presbyterian di- vines in New York and Iowa. The former was likewise an educator. He founded a seminary at Rye, N. Y., and remained connected with it until his death. Abraham, lately deceased, had an inventive gift and constructed several useful appliances.
Paul Lightner took the Master's degree from Dickenson College and practiced law in Illinois. Returning he repre- sented Bath and Highland in the House of Delegates and was considered one of the best educated men in Virginia.
Captain Jacob C. Matheny, twice wounded in the Confed- erate service, was County Clerk 44 years. The office has since been held by his sons.
Daniel G. McClung, a merchant more than 40 years, con- ducted a mercantile house at Richmond during the war and supplied the Confederate Army with uniforms. The latter part of his life was spent at Franklin, W. Va., where he organ- ized and was President of the Farmers' Bank.
As Supervisor and the holder of other local offices, John S. McNulty has seen more public service than any other living citizen.
Samuel Ruckman was a prominent and useful man, and had much to do with the organizing of Highland. His son, John H., invented a sewing machine.
The Rev. William J. Ryder is remembered as a man of high character and sterling qualities. Stewart Ryder was also a preacher.
Charles L. Siron, a graduate of Washington and Lee, spent two years in the Philippines as a teacher. He there collected a large number of the folklore tales of the natives, and it is his design to prepare these for publication.
John Sitlington, son-in-law to Colonel Peter Hull, was a
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large landowner and cattleman, first in Crabbottom and after- ward at McDowell. He was also in local public life.
Washington Stephenson, who succeeded to the ownership of the Wilson farm at Bolar Run, held the office of Sheriff longer than anyone else.
Lucius H. Stephenson took up the study of law at Lexing- ton in 1859, and practiced his profession at Monterey until his death in 1911. He was Commonwealth's Attorney 26 consecu- tive years, a Visitor of the Virginia Military Institute, and a Director of the National Valley Bank of Staunton. He was also an incorporator and promoter of the Citizens' Bank of Highland. Mr. Stephenson was not only an energetic, pains- taking, and successful attorney, but a prosperous man of busi- ness. He acquired large possessions and during his long and active life he wielded a great influence among his fellow citi- zens. In matters of local history he was exceptionally well' informed.
Samuel W. Sterrett was educated at Washington and Lee University. He taught in Crabbottom, and was ruling elder in the church at New Hampden. He served his adopted county as chairman of its Board of Supervisors, and represented it for three terms in the House of Delegates. He was there a mem- ber of the Finance Committee and drafted several important laws. His son, Robert S., also a graduate of the same institu- tion, is principal of the Monterey High School.
J. R. Sitlington Sterrett, reared at McDowell, received a very thorough education at the University of Virginia and at several German universities, taking the degree of Ph. D. at Munich, in 1880. He also studied at Athens, Greece. For sev- eral years he was engaged in archæological work in Asia Minor, Assyria, and Babylonia. Since 1886 he has been Professor of Greek in Miami University, University of Texas, Amherst Col- lege, and Cornell University. He received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, is a member of the Board of Managers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and also is a member of several learned societies. As an author he is elsewhere mentioned.
Amos Thorp was an eccentric and versatile bachelor hermit
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of the Bullpasture. Though entirely without school education he made himself well informed and even scholarly. He acquired a practical knowledge of surveying, constructing his own in- struments. He labored some time on a Dictionary of the Bible, the manuscript of which he burned.
William S. Thompson was another of those versatile men who are also useful in a community. He surveyed land, taught school, and wrote numerous legal papers.
The venerable John Trimble, whose eighty-eighth birth- day came a few days before the completion of this volume, acquired a competence through a long career as a merchant of his native county, and enjoys the evening of his days in well- earned retirement.
William Wilson, and John, his son, were prominent citi- zens of Jackson's River. The latter was an officer of the Revo- lution and was honored with public position.
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CHAPTER XXIV
THE HIGHLAND OF TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW
Agricultural Interests - Latterday Customs - Effect of Industrial Changes - A Forward Look.
A RIBBON of bottom land follows each larger watercourse in Highland. These ribbons vary in breadth, and some- times, as on the Cowpasture, are interrupted for short dis- tances. Along these larger streams, farmhouses succeed one another at frequent intervals. Farms are also found on the lower courses of the tributary streams. Tillage land is also seen on the low tables in the Bullpasture Valley and on the broken hillsides of the Straight Creek basin. But elsewhere, the higher ground is very little reduced to tillage or pasturage, except where limestone belts occur, as in the Bluegrass and Big valleys.
Along the Bullpasture and Cowpasture there is more gen- eral farming than anywhere else. These valleys are somewhat lower than those to the westward and have a quicker soil. W. P. B. Lockridge has grown in one season 2,000 bushels of corn and 700 of wheat, his "bumper" crop of wheat having been 33 bushels to the acre. T. M. Devericks on Shaw's Fork has grown 28 bushels to the acre. Major J. H. Byrd, who has made a point of intensive cultivation, has grown four tons of timothy hay to the acre, and once took a state premium on his crop of 75 bushels of shelled corn to the acre. He sent 100 selected ears to the exposition at Norfolk.
The valley of Jackson's River is better for grass than the eastern valleys, and little of the soil is kept in tillage. Yet in Big Valley a yield of 93 bushels of corn to the acre has been reported. On the bottoms of Jackson's River, 25 stacks of hay will be seen in a favorable season in a field of only moderate size.
In the Bluegrass Valley the grazing interest is likewise supreme, very little tilled ground being seen.
Archives & Manuscripts Section ·WE : Forte Collection
West Virginia Urwzisky Library Morganicil, WV 26505
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History of Highland County
The native strength of the river bottoms and bluegrass pastures is apparent in the fine big oaks, maples, and hickories, especially on Jackson's River and in the Crabbottom. In for- mer years, walnut trunks as high as six feet four inches in di- ameter were burned in log piles. Yet such were the improvi- dent methods of the early people, that the compiler of the Vir- ginia Gazetteer of 1832, a man familiar with the worn soils east of the Blue Ridge, speaks of the Cowpasture bottoms as badly tilled, and those of Jackson's River and the Bullpasture as only in tolerable condition. He makes an exception of the Wilson farm at the mouth of Bolar Run, and calls it equal to any in the Valley of Virginia. But wiser methods are now used in Highland with the smaller amount of land still kept in cultivation.
The Crabbottom is the garden spot of Highland, although acre for acre the smaller basins of upper Jackson's River, Big Back Creek, and Big Valley compare with it favorably. The woods have only to be cut out or thinned, a bluegrass sod coming in spontaneously. On the pastures alone and without grain, huge cattle of the best breeds are made ready for market. The value of the fat cattle driven out of this valley will per- haps average $150,000 a year. The Crabbottom graziers thus are enabled to live a rather unlaborious life, and a holding of land is esteemed a choice possession. The soil changes hands often at much more than $100 an acre, comparing in price with land in the corn belt of Illinois.
Being so largely limestone and supporting so large a graz- ing interest, the lands of Bluegrass District are assessed at nearly as much as those of both the other districts.
In the production of buckwheat Highland ranks fourth among the counties of Virginia. In maple sugar it leads them all. More than a thousand pounds are occasionally made on a single farm. The county is also well adapted to the apple tree. One of these on the Vandevender farm grew during the century or more of its existence to a girth of ten and a half feet and its full crop was 80 bushels of fruit. Except in very un- favorable seasons the county has more than enough apples for home use. The other fruits usual to the latitude are also found,
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though to a less extent. Large and fine specimens of apples, pears, peaches, and plums are to be seen in favorable years.
One result of the settlement of a new region is a community of purpose among the people, leading to a wide acquaintance with one another. This also leads to a sameness in manners and customs and in the mode of living. The people become homogeneous in these respects much faster than they become homogeneous in blood. In consequence the stranger would hardly know that Highland was peopled from opposite direc- tions, the two elements of the immigration meeting on the divide which crosses the county. On either side of it he finds the same farm architecture, the same speech, and the same hospitality.
As a household tongue the German language has for some years been quite extinct in Highland. Exceptions to this state- ment, if any, are assignable to persons of Pendleton birth or parentage. The passing of the German speech is due to the blending of stocks in the north of the county. When one of two married companions is ignorant of the German idiom, the latter, as an alien speech in America, is the one which nearly always gives way.
It is well that our national tongue is here without any com- petitor. The neighborhood that clings to a broken-down jar- gon, like that of the upper South Fork Valley in Pendleton, throws itself, in a very sensible degree, outside the current of American life and thought, and stamps itself as unprogressive. It tends to shut itself into its own corner and it rears citizens of narrow and uninformed views. The habit stands in the way of an easy use of English and a correct English pronunciation. It is a needless handicap on the child who starts to school. The people who use this patois in their homes have a very meager list of words, and can neither read German script nor German print. Their belief in witchcraft and signs is a result of their stagnation.
In Highland, as wherever else pioneer conditions have been in force, there is a close approach to social equality. The farm homes are comfortable and cozy. Modern furniture, musical instruments, things of ornament, and potted plants are quite
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the rule. The table fare is liberal and sensible. Destitution is hardly to be seen in the county.
Thanks to the homogeneity of the people, and to the ab- sence of mines and factories, the public order of Highland is very good. Serious crimes are very infrequent, and in the present year the county has no citizen in the penitentiary and but one boy in the reform school.
The good record of the county in this respect was marred by a lynching in the month of January, 1884. A laboring man from Michigan, whose name was Porter alias Atchison, came into the west of the county after his release from the Poca- hontas jail. He was not a well-behaved person, and during a game of cards with a citizen of Back Creek, a quarrel arose, both men being intoxicated. Atchison struck the other person a blow with his knife, but inflicted only a slight wound in the breast. For this he was lodged in the Monterey jail. Exag- gerated reports of the affair got abroad. A party of citi- zens broke into the jail, shot him in his cell, and then hanged him to a tree on the Vanderpool road, where the same crosses the brow of the conical hill south of the town. All but one of the lynching party were identifiable. One citizen was tried by a jury of Rockbridge men but acquitted. The others who were assumed to be implicated in the unfortunate occur- rence left the county and never returned.
The future of a community is to be foretold through exist- ing conditions. The future of Highland may not be exactly an open book, yet it may be forecasted with tolerable accuracy.
So long as its means of transportation remain the same as now, there will be slight change in the activities of the people, and there will be a stationary population. The social and in- dustrial organization being what it is, a limited population will be the necessary result. The county will remain a nursery for the supply of industrial communities.
Cities and towns were formerly few and small because large ones could not be supported. So long as farming was done in the old way, every farmhouse being a workshop, it took a very large share of the people to feed the nation. Furthermore, the "simple life" and the home manufactures made the mills and
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factories of the cities comparatively unnecessary. The farm- ing community could not spare much of its increase except to open new farms. The country was seemingly more attractive than the town.
An industrial revolution has taken place during the lifetime of living people. Labor-saving machinery on the farm has ren- dered superfluous a large share of the rural population, and sent it to the towns to produce goods which to a considerable extent were made on the farms and in villages, but are made there no longer. In industrial lines, little else than repair serv- ice is now to be found outside of the cities. The farmer pro- duces only what may be eaten, and even then he produces a smaller proportion than formerly of what he eats himself.
Towns were once compact, because men had to live within walking distance from where they worked. Town life was no more comfortable than country life. But in the minds of peo- ple the balance of attraction is now strongly on the side of the town. The higher wages, the well-equipped schools, the good stores, the trolley car, and other well-known features of the town prove irresistible. People concede the purer air and water, the fresher vegetables, and the freedom from nerve- racking noise to be found in the country, yet the movement to the city, the town, and the village goes on unchecked. If food did not have to be produced from the soil, the rural neighbor- hood would become nothing more than a summer playground.
Country life being to a large proportion of the people a necessity, there is a lack of adjustment so long as it is virtually regarded as little better than a necessary evil. There should be an earnest effort to restore an equilibrium of attraction be- tween country and town. When people reach the point that they almost apologize for being found in the country, rural life is impaired to the detriment of national life as a whole. In the words of the distinguished head of the University of Wiscon- sin, "He who thinks not of himself primarily, but of his race, and of its future, is the new patriot."
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