USA > Virginia > Highland County > Highland County > A history of Highland County, Virginia > Part 6
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Thus we find that in the very year when the first actual settler came to the Shenandoah Valley, there was an earnest effort to colonize the Highland* area. And this was only 120 years after the landing at Jamestown; when as yet the entire population of the Colonies did not equal the present number of people in the city of Baltimore.
That the above petition was granted is more than doubtful; but in 1743 there was an order of council, in favor of Henry
*We use the term "Highland area" to designate the exact region which was set off into Highland County more than one hundred years after the settlement began.
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Robinson, James Wood, and Thomas and Andrew Lewis, for 30,000 acres in the same region.
By this time there was a considerable number of the Scotch- Irish in the upper Shenandoah Valley and even southward. The region west of the Blue Ridge had in 1738 been set off into the counties of Augusta and Frederick, the line between the two crossing the Shenandoah Valley in the vicinity of Woodstock. Yet the county machinery of Augusta was not set in motion until the close of 1745. During this interval, Augusta remained attached to the parent county of Orange.
The Augusta colony was practically the starting point of the Scotch-Irish settlement of upper Virginia. The dispersion from this center was governed by the position of the gaps in the mountains. Pioneer travel never climbed a steep, rocky ridge when it was possible to find a grade line along even a crooked watercourse. So in moving westward into Bath and Highland the settlers did not go over the rugged Shenandoah Mountain, but flanked it by way of Panther Gap, some 30 miles southwest of Staunton.
Highland was settled in precisely the way we might ex- pect. Scotch-Irish landseekers came through Panther Gap and along the upper James, and moved up the valleys of the Cowpasture and Jackson's River, until they reached the laurel thickets along the cross-ridges separating the waters of the James from those of the Potomac. German land-seekers from the opposite direction crept up the three valleys of the South Branch waters until they, too, had come to the divide.
In the settlement of a new region, like attracts like. Pio- neers of the same class naturally prefer to be together. Yet the Scotch-Irish and the German settlers were not like oil and water. In communities of either stock the other was in some degree represented.
So in the pioneer days of Highland we find two easily de- fined areas of settlement. The Scotch-Irish filled the five valleys which open southward. The Germans occupied Straight Creek and the Crabbottom. A few of them made homes south of the divide, and a larger number of the Scotch- Irish settled north of it. When Pendleton County was estab-
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lished in 1787, its southern line followed this water-parting. It was, therefore, not only a natural geographic boundary, but it was also a boundary between two provinces of settlement. Pendleton was predominantly German. Batlı, soon to be stricken off, was distinctly Scotch-Irish.
To the present day the distinction is in evidence. In the valleys of the Cowpasture, the Bullpasture, Jackson's River, and Back Creek, the family names are mainly Scotch-Irish, though in a less exclusive degree than formerly. In the Crab- bottom and in Straight Creek, family lineage is mainly Ger- man but thoroughly Americanized. There has here been much blending of the two stocks. Some families not German in name have become almost German in blood, while on the other liand, the present generation of the German immigrant cannot point back to an unmixed German ancestry. In the northeast of Highland the divide passes very near the county boundary. Crossing into Pendleton one finds a large number of the peo- ple using a broken-down German idiom. South of the divide it is an unknown speech, and indeed, it never had much foot- hold here.
The region east of the Blue Ridge being almost wholly English, we would expect that persons from that quarter would be attracted to the mountains and would join the Scotch-Irish in settling on fresh soil. It is, therefore, a quite natural con- sequence that English names come third in order of number. However, not all these families were from the east of Virginia. Even distant New England supplied a few of them.
We have elsewhere seen that Welsh, French, and Celtic and Saxon Irish scattered freely throughout all the colonies, without seeking to found distinct settlements of their own. Thus we find all these elements represented among the pio- neers. Also, the venturesome Hollanders of the New York colony are not quite unrepresented.
But in the preceding paragraphs we did not take time to sketch the actual beginning of settlement in the present coun- ties of Highland and Bath. The latter county lying directly against the gateways to the Valley of Virginia, the settlement of Bath was a little earlier than that of Highland. The Cow-
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pasture Valley was first reached and first settled, while the valley of Back Creek came last, just as we might suppose. It is also worthy of notice that the German influx did not reach the divide so soon as the Scotch-Irish. There were people at the head of the Bullpasture fifteen years before there appears to have been any in Crabbottom.
Just when and by whom the actual settlement of the twin counties began it would not seem possible to say. A man would enter a tract which then or afterward was embraced in some order of council. When the county surveyor came along to run lines for the grantees, he would report the given tract as "now in the possession of" the person living on it. Actual possession seems generally to have been confirmed by the per- sons to whom the order of council was given. In some in- stances there may have been an understanding on the part of the squatter that he was to wait for the order of council through which he would gain title. At all events, we often find a pioneer living in a certain locality, although there is no recorded evidence that he had title to the land he occupied.
The Calfpasture Valley lies eastward across the mouth of Panther Gap, and it might be supposed that settlement would here be a little earlier than in the valleys beyond. On April 2d, 1745, deeds for 2,247 acres were given by James Patton and John Lewis to William Campbell, Jacob Clemens, Samuel Hodge, Robert Gay, Thomas Gillam, and William Jamison. August 17th, 1745, other deeds for 5,205 acres were given by the same men to Francis Donally, Robert Gwin, Robert Brat- ton, John Dunlap, Loftus Pullin, John Wilson, John Kincaid, John Miller, Robert Gay, and James Carter. Almost all these names occur shortly afterward in Bath or Highland, either through the purchaser himself or a son. The total of purchase money for the 7,452 acres was $717.95. The rate per acre varied from 11/2 cents to 11 cents.
According to Mr. Waddell, settlement was made in the above-named region as early as at Staunton or nearly so. On the South Fork in Pendleton we have knowledge that a num- ber of German families, to whom deeds were given on one and the same day, had been living on their lands ten years and in
THE FORT MEADOW
Phot'd by A. C. Suddarth
Looking east toward the foothills of Bullpasture Mountain. Clover Creek Mill on the river bank. The four girls stand at the angles of the former stockdale. Three of them are descendants of the two men born in the fort, July 9. 1755
-
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recognized occupancy. And yet the lands had already passed into private ownership. Neither is there on record any permit for those persons to settle upon them. The authorization would seem to have been verbal and for a definite term of years.
Turning to the country beyond the Shenandoah ridge and above the confluence of the Cowpasture with Jackson's River, we find that in 1744 a survey of 176 acres was granted to one William Moor on the last named stream and in what is now Alleghany County. The following year ten other persons* took surveys on the Cowpasture below Williamsville. In 1746, nineteen more surveys are recorded for the lower Cow- pasture, thirteen for Jackson's River, and five for Back Creek. All these appear to be below the Highland line.
Excepting seven surveys retained by the grantees, Henry Robinson, James Wood, and William and Andrew Lewis, nearly or quite a'l these surveys are to actual settlers who are mentioned as already occupying their lands. How long these people had been here, we cannot tell with certainty. John Lewis was directed by the Orange court, May 23d, 1745, to take the list of tithables for the district between the Blue Ridge and the North (Shenandoah) Mountain, "including the Cow and Calf Pastures and the settlers back of the same." But this is not quite conclusive that any settlers had actually gone beyond the Cowpasture. The order was worded so as to include all settlers, however far to the west they might be found. Aside from the report of the county surveyor, there seems to be no evidence at all that people had located west of Shenandoah Mountain prior to the coming of Moor in 1744, or perhaps 1743. If he were not the only man in this region in 1744, it might reasonably be asked why the surveyor did not proceed up the river and do the work he performed one and two years later. The order of council in favor of the Lewises and their associates was granted in 1743. When we take into account the entire silence of county records with reference to people west of the Valley before 1744, and the frequent men-
*See Appendix I.
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tion of settlers when once they do appear, it would seem most probable that the pioneers in question anticipated the visit of the surveyor only by a few months, or a year or two at most.
Adam Dickenson, whose fort stood four miles below Mill- boro, appears to have been the leader of the settlers on the lower Cowpasture. He was a large landholder, and on the organization of Augusta in 1745 he became one of its first justices.
It remains to speak of the men who were most conspicuous in the founding of the Augusta colony, which in a few years spread over so wide an area.
Colonel John Lewis, of Scottish-Welsh descent, came from Ireland and lived two miles east of Staunton. He died in 1762 at the age of 84. All his sons were prominent in the early history of Augusta. Thomas, the first county surveyor, was a member of the House of Burgesses and held other important positions. As surveyor and as one of five men to whom a grant of 30,000 acres was made, he figures conspicuously in the settlement of Bath and Highland. Andrew was also a surveyor, but is better known as a soldier. He served as an officer through the French and Indian War, fought and won the battle of Point Pleasant, and in the opening year of the Revolution he drove the royal governor to the shelter of his ships. Washington counseled his appointment as commander- in-chief of the American armies. Charles, the youngest of the brothers, settled on the Cowpasture and was a most skilful Indian fighter, but his promising career was cut short at Point Pleasant.
Colonel James Patton, the rich man of the Augusta settle- ment, is said to have made twenty-five voyages across the Atlantic, bringing immigrants every time. He was county lieutenant and fell in battle in 1755.
Gabriel Jones, a Welshman, was the first resident lawyer, being appointed prosecuting attorney when only twenty-two years old. He lived near Port Republic but owned land in Bath. He was brother-in-law to Thomas Lewis, and both these men were members of the state convention that con- sidered the Federal Constitution. They voted in favor of its adoption.
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CHAPTER VII
EARLY DAYS OF SETTLEMENT
Early Bullpasture Pioneers - Later Comers - Cowpasture Pioneers - Jack- son's River and South Branch Pioneers.
N the settlement of the Valley of Virginia it was not the usual practice for a pioneer to isolate himself. Few In- dians were seen, and these were nominally at peace with the whites. Yet it was known that a hostile relation might arise at any moment. So for mutual aid and protection, a group of settlers would come into a valley together.
In the early days of April, 1746, when all Augusta had not 6,000 white people, and when the county seat had no other name than "Beverly's Mill Place," the county surveyor laid off several tracts within the Highland area. He came again at the close of July and still again in September. Altogether he laid off 21 tracts on the Bullpasture and Cowpasture, but almost wholly on the former. Besides running lines for 14 persons, nearly or quite all of whom are reported as being on the ground, he reserved a tract for Andrew Lewis, his brother, and three more for the syndicate of which the two brothers were members. All these surveys came under the order of council of 1743. The 348-acre tract of Andrew Lewis was patented by himself four years later, and the farm of W. P. B. Lockridge is now a portion of it.
The settlers now here were Alexander Black, John and Robert Carlile, Wallace Ashton, Loftus Pullin, Richard Bod- kin, James Miller, Matthew Harper, William Warwick, James Largent, William Holman, John McCreary, Samuel Delamon- tony, Archibald Elliott, and Robert Armstrong. Black was just above the mouth of the Bullpasture, where Major J. H. Byrd now lives. All the others, with perhaps one exception, were on the Bullpasture itself, and nearly or quite in the order they are named as one ascends the river.
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Ashton was on the McClung farm at Clover Creek. The two Carliles were in the broad bottom just below. Pullin was a mile above in another wide sweep of bottom. Bodkin was higher up, lying where the present river road comes back to the bottom after its circuit over a bluff. Harper was where W. T. Alexander lives. Miller was between Bodkin and Har- per. Warwick was at the mouth of Davis Run. Largent appears to have been in the vicinity of McDowell. Holman adjoined McCreary, who was between McDowell and Doe Hill, as was also Delamontony. Elliott was at the very head of the river, one of his corners being on the Blackthorn. Armstrong was likewise in this vicinity. The Carliles held two tracts near by on the run named for them. One of these tracts cornered on McCreary.
It may not be affirmed that every one of the settlers was living, at least at this time, on the tract he selected. This is particularly the case with respect to the surveys near the head of the river. Armstrong would appear to be the same Robert who lived on Jackson's River below Warm Spring. Warwick, also, may really have been one of the settlers of that name in Bath. The enterprising pioneer was not slow to seize an additional choice tract, even if it lay at some distance from his home.
Black died in 1764. His son William sold to Thomas Houston and went to Greenbrier, Alexander Jr. moving to Ken- tucky about 1797. Samuel, probably another son, had a num- erous family, and took land in 1774 close to where the county seat now is.
The Carliles lived and died on their homestead, which re- mained in the family many years later. Wallace Ashton dis- appears from sight almost at once, and is followed by Wallace Estill, who inherited the farm and lived on it about twenty years. He sold to John Peebles and removed to Botetourt. Estill came from New Jersey with a family partially grown, and reared a second large family in Highland. He owned land at Vanderpool and was a man of ability and influence.
Pullin was a single man when he came. He lived and died on his homestead, being the ancestor of the Pullin connection.
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The name of his wife, Ann Jane Usher, uncovers a romance. One Edward Usher eloped with the daughter of an English nobleman named Perry and came to America. Their four children were daughters, one dying in infancy. Usher died while they were yet small, and the widow went to England, hoping for a reconciliation with her father. He recognized her on the road as he drove by in his carriage, but being still angry he tossed her a shilling, telling her that was all she would have from him and that she must mind her brats herself. She returned to America, her children, if not also herself, finding their way to the Augusta colony, probably to Fort Dickenson. James Knox became the guardian of Ann Jane,* and with a portion, at least, of her inheritance he purchased for her a negro girl. Several years later she married Loftus Pullin. One sister married William Steuart, another High- land pioneer, the third (Martha?) marrying a son of Captain Adam Dickenson. The stern parent finally relented and pro- vided for his daughter by will. But the search he instituted failed to discover her, and no knowledge thereof coming to her descendants for many years, the matter went by default.
Bodkin arrived with sons nearly grown. In 1762 either he or Richard, Jr., sold the homestead and went higher up the valley. During the next forty years the connection largely drifted out, the present Botkins being with the exception of a single household the posterity of one only of the pioneer's grandsons.
Miller appears to have come with sons nearly grown and bearing the names of John, William, and Hugh. They often appear in the Augusta records, yet the family does not seem to have remained very long.
Harper sold to Hugh Martin in 1764 and went to Chris- tian's Creek near Staunton. Of Warwick, Largent, and Hol- man we know nothing, except that Largent gave his name to a hill below Clover Creek. McCreary sold to Bodkin in 1763, but a son of the same name appears to have wedded Margaret Black in 1786. Of Delamontony we have no further mention
*See Appendix L.
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History of Highland County
except as a member of the militia in 1760. Elliott seems to have been only a bird of passage.
It is possible that several other persons came quite as early as those already named. Be this as it may, the settlement re- ceived many accessions during the next fifteen years, even in spite of the Indian peril during the latter half of this period. In some instances they appear to have arrived before we find definite mention of them.
Thomas and Hugh Hicklin, who lived below the Carliles, are named in 1756. Robert Graham, also a little below the Carliles, was here by 1755, although he did not buy out the Wilson patent until 1761. Samuel Given purchased the Bod- kin homestead in 1762.
In 1750 Hans Harper purchased land adjoining Matthew Harper, but six years later moved north of Doe Hill, where in 1765 he again sold out and disappears from view. Between 1754 and 1760, Michael Harper was living on Carlile Run, but died on the South Branch in 1767. He was then up in years, and had a son Michael, although Matthew came from Chris- tian Creek to settle the estate. During their short stay these Harpers figure somewhat often in the county annals. They seem to have been brothers. There is no evidence that the Pendleton Harpers are derived from them. If they were of German origin, as is the case with the latter, they were the only Germans on the Bullpasture for many years. Matthew was a constable, which would not have been the case had he been unfamiliar with written English as were nearly all the German immigrants. Neither is it likely that a solitary Ger- man would have been chosen to that office. Hans had a Ger- man given name, but this proves nothing.
In 1754 Samuel Ferguson located above McDowell.
In 1757 one George Wilson, a land speculator, bought of James Trimble, another speculator, the Elliott survey at Doe Hill, and the next year sold a part of it to Samuel Wilson. Very soon afterward, we find William Wilson in this neigh- borhood. These two men, progenitors of the Wilsons of Doe Hill, were brothers and were sons of John, the first delegate from Augusta to the House of Burgesses. Colonel John Wil-
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son held this post until his death in 1773. Captain Samuel, his son, fell in battle the next year at Point Pleasant, the fatal bullet passing through his powder horn. The Graham home- stead was purchased of one Matthew Wilson, who is named as the oldest brother and heir of William. In 1750, a William Wilson had patented this land, but he was not the same as the William of Jackson's River or the William of Doe Hill. An Isaiah, seemingly of the same vicinity and probably the parent or brother of Matthew and William, died in 1758, and his estate was appraised by Hugh and John Hicklin.
In 1754 we see the name of William McCandless and in 1761 that of William Johnson. In 1762, Robert Duffield, al- ready here, purchased the McCreary homestead and lived on it more than thirty years, the family removing to Kanawha County. The Malcomb name does not appear on the records till 1773, when Joseph bought of Richard Bodkin, Jr., a farm and mill near the Dunkard Church above McDowell. But the Malcombs are known to have been in the vicinity of the Clover Creek Mill during the Indian War.
Turning to the Cowpasture we find in 1754 Hackland Wil- son at the head of the river, and William Price at "a big spring," doubtless the one a mile above the turnpike ford. Charles Gillam was a landholder in this section, but sold to James Bodkin and he to Robert Carlile. James Trimble, a deputy surveyor and land speculator, had three tracts on this river, and George Wilson had several, one of which he sold in 1759 to William Steuart, and three years later another to James Clemens.
Steuart, a young Scotchman, had a thrilling experience in reaching these mountains. Being well educated, he expected to follow a profession. The ship on which he took passage was captured by Spanish pirates, and the crew killed. He was the only passenger and was put on the South Atlantic shore with no clothing save a piece of canvas and without his chest- ful of books. Thence he drifted northward to the Augusta colony, doing at first manual labor. His soft hands and in- tellectual air brought him a welcome invitation to teach school, and he followed this calling the rest of his life. But downcast
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History of Highland County
at the loss of his beloved library, he was content to spend his days in the frontier wilderness. Steuart settled just below the mouth of Shaw's Fork. In marrying Margaret Usher he be- came brother-in-law to Loftus Pullin.
Turning up Shaw's Fork we find John Shaw in 1756. James, probably his son, bought land of George Wilson in 1759. It is thought that the Shaw cabin stood on the hillside opposite and a little below Headwaters. As the pioneer of this neighborhood he could have found a better choice. The Shaws gave their name to the stream and to a mountain. In 1766 Thomas Devericks became their neighbor across the run.
Proceeding down the Cowpasture, James Anglen was, in 1751, living at the mouth of the tributary which for a while bore his name, but afterward became known as Benson's Run. There is no record that Anglen had title to land. Sarah, per- haps his daughter, married William Knox in 1794.
James Knox, a neighbor to Black and the guardian of Ann Jane Usher, was living on the Floyd Kincaid farm. He died in 1772 and the farm passed to Patrick Miller, remaining with the Millers a long while. There is a tradition that James Jr. was jilted by Anne Montgomery, and that his hunting trip to Kentucky in 1769 was in consequence of this. As leader of a military force he built Fort Knox, which grew into the city of Knoxville, Tenn. He was a soldier of the Revolution, a mem- ber for five years of the Legislature of Kentucky, and in that state was known as General Knox. In marrying the widow of General William Logan, he finally won the woman of his choice. He lived until 1822.
Passing to Jackson's River at the mouth of Bolar Run, the earliest settlers of whom we find mention are William and Stephen Wilson in 1753, and David Moore in 1759. William Wilson was married in Dublin, Ireland, and lived a long time on Brandywine Creek, Penn .* In 1747, he came to New Provi- dence Church in Augusta, and thence to Jackson's River. The late William L. Wilson, of West Virginia and Washington and Lee Universities, and a conspicuous member of Congress,
*See Appendix H.
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History of Highland County
was a descendant of his cousin, the Rev. William, who wrote his will, and who united several Highland couples. Stephen appears also to have been a relative.
In 1757, Thomas Parsons had surveyed the tract on the South Branch at the state line which, in 1765, was sold to Peter Fleisher, progenitor of the family of that name. The first known settler in Crabbottom was Robert Cunningham, who in 1761 purchased a patent of James Trimble. Agnes, probably his wife, and perhaps at the time a widow, entered a survey the same year. Trimble seems to have been very much alive to the worth of the Crabbottom. He seized a large and choice portion of it, and in selling the same he pocketed a quite tidy sum.
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