USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 11
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Why this section of the Pastures should have been included in Rockbridge is not at this day very obvious. It was doubtless the work of influential men. We do know that some of the inhabitants did not like being placed in this county. We also know that when the people of the Bath area began moving for a new county in 1777, they wished the Calfpasture to be a part of it. The people of the Pastures seem to have been about evenly divided on that question.
The author of Annals of Augusta asserts that the Calfpasture was settled about as early as the country around Staunton, yet offers no evidence in support of this claim. The records of the parent county, especially the muster rolls of 1742, do not indicate such early settlement. From another source we learn that the first settler was Alexander Dunlap, who came in 1743. He was accompanied by his wife, four children, and an indentured servant, Abraham Mashaw. At this date there was no settler any farther west. Dunlap's cabin stood near the spot now occupied by the Alleghany Inn.
A HISTORY OF ROCKARITMIE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Next year, James Patton and John Lewis, acting under an order of council. surveyed a tract nearly fifteen miles long, but nowhere more than about one and one-eighth miles broad. Their map shows it cross-sectioned into twenty- three lots The lower end of the grant included the site of the town of Goshen. The upper end extended rather to the north of Deerfield With a single ex- ception every let had been entered by some settler. From this circumstance we nos infor that the e other people came almost as soon as Dunlap.
The following tabular statement shows consecutively the number of the lot, the name of the settler, the acreage, the purchase-price-when stated in the deed-and the carly transfers of title. When the deed was issued to a successor of the original settler, such other name is given in brackets.
Names of consorts are also thus shown ;
1 Alexander Dunlap (John Dunlap)-625-$68 69-295 acres sold Robert Dunlap. 1761, for $333 33.
2. William Jameson-170-$20.87.
3 Thomas Gilham 168 $18 86 sold. 1752, by Thomas ( Margaret) Gilham to James Lockridge for same trice-re old. 1767, by John Dickenson to William Thompson for $200
4 Rubert Crockett -- 370-$41.15-sold. 1760, by pioneer's sons James ( Martha) and Robert, Jr., (Janet). both of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina-to William Thompson for $200-205 acres soll by Thompson, 1767, for $166.67.
5. David Davis-XXL $20-sold, 1740, by Patton and Lewis to John Poague.
Thomas Weems-525-$31 10-sold, 1768, by Thomas ( Eleanor ) Weems to William Given for $723 33.
7 Iletry Gay-694-$33.39-100 acres soll, 1769, to James Frazier for $33.33
8. Francis Donelly-206 $3002.
9). Robert Gay-519-$57.80.
10. Samuel Hodge-449-$47.97.
11. John Miller-316-$2008-sold by John (Ann) Miller to John Ramsay. 1757
12 Loftus Pullin-252 (240) $2092 sold to James Shaw, 1700, for $30-sold In Shaw to John Ramsay, 1768, for $150.
13. Robert Bratton 834 $9667 -400 acres sold to James Bratton, 1771. for $133.33.
14 J.mes Lockridge -280 -?- told by James ( Isabella) Lockridge to Andrew Lock- ridge (con), 1764, for $tout7.
15 Join Graham UM, $7958-150 acres sold to James Graham (som). 1768, for $16.67. 16. Robert Gwin-514 -? sold by William (Agnes) Gian to Robert Lockridge, 1706 for $575
17. John Preston-1054 $31 15-520 acres sold by Witham (Susanna ) Presion to Mars Preston, 1762, for $333 33 The same old by Mary Prefton to Robert Lockridge, 1763. for
18 William Warwick 10 $18 67-Sold. 1745, to John Kir card
19 James Carlile- 429 530 250 acres & ld, 1753, to John Carlile, and sold by him. 1702, to Thewas Hin Part for Slow (7-20 acres Fold In John (Mary Carlisle to Thomas Adami, 1790, for $ )1 67.
20 Jecch Clement 457_65177-2012 acres fol1 1751, In Jacob (Mary ) Clements in
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THE CALFPASTURE
John Campbell for $66.67, and sold by John (Ann) Campbell, 1768, to James Carlisle for $250.
21. John Campbell-308-$34.17-208 acres sold by Samuel Campbell to William Lock- ridge, 1769, for $713.33.
22. James Carter-300-$33.38-sold to Robert Gay, 1768.
23. John Wilson-600-$66.
Other patents in the Calfpasture. prior to 1770, are these: acreage, date, and description being given consecutively :
Adams, Thomas-(1) 190-1769-Bratton's Run. (2) 235-1769-Calfpasture.
Beverly, William-700-1743-head of Great River.
Bratton, James-90-1769-Bratton's Run.
Campbell, John and Samuel-100-1761-branch of Great River.
Crockett, Margaret and Andrew-(1) 48-1749-David Mill place on Calfpasture.
(2) 44-1749-adjoining James Poague.
Dunlap, John-125-1760-Dunlap Creek (Bratton's Run).
Dunlap, Alexander-90-1769-Calfpasture above Jameson.
Jameson, William-80-1755-east side Great River.
Kincaid, Andrew-45-1769-Calfpasture above Tinker.
Lockridge, Andrew-22-1755-branch of Great River.
McKittrick, Robert-110-1759-branch of Great River.
Patton, James and John Lewis-600-1743-Elk Creek of Calfpasture.
Still other early settlers were the Armstrongs, Blacks, Blairs, Clarks, Craigs, Elliotts, Fultons, Hamiltons, Hendersons, Johnstons, McConnells, McCutchens, McKnights, Meeks, Mateers, Moores, Risks, Smiths, Stevensons, Walkups, and Youells.
Alexander Dunlap, a man of some means, was appointed a captain of horse in 1743, but died the following year. Ile was succeeded in this position by Wil- liam Jameson. Thomas Gilham qualified as captain of foot in 1752, and James Lockridge and Robert Bratton in 1755. James Lockridge and William Jameson are named as members of the first county court of Augusta in 1745. The latter acted as a justice in 1747, but it is not known whether Lockridge qualified.
According to a statement by a daughter of James Gay, the pioneer, there was a stockade on the Calfpasture during the French and Indian war.
The first mill seems to have been that of James Carter. It was probably built about 1745. Some ten years later, Andrew Lockridge had a gristmill.
Charles Knight is mentioned as a schoolmaster in 1755. He was to have $60.00 a year, every half Saturday or every other Saturday to be free time. In case of an Indian alarm he was to enjoy the privilege of being lodged in the settlement. But it is not probable that he was the first teacher.
Rocky Spring Church was built on an acre deeded by Andrew Kincaid. 1773, to the "trustees of a congregation of dissenters." These trustees were James Bratton, Lancelot Graham, Andrew Hamilton, Thomas Hughart, William Kincaid, and Andrew Lockridge. Lebanon Church was organized in 1784 at
A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDAL COUNTY, VIRGINIA
the home of William Hodge. The first elders were William Youell, Alexander Craig, John Montgomery. John McCutchen, Joseph Mccutchen, and Samuel Mccutchen. The first meeting house stood close to the Augusta line, the second a half-mile to the south and in Rockbridge. As a consequence there are two cemeteries. The will of John Dunlap, written in 1804, provides a sum to build a gallery for the negro worshippers. John Montgomery, for a while a teacher in Liberty Hall Academy, was the first minister. John S. Mccutchen was a suc- cessor. But the first congregation on the Calfpasture was that of Little River. The "meeting house land" is mentioned in deeds about 1754. John Hindman preached in the vicinity as early as 1745.
Partly as a result of its only moderate fertility, the Calfpasture has been a great fountain head of emigration to newer localities, especially Kentucky and Tennessee. Some of the pioneer names have thus been nearly or quite ex- tinguished. Not a few of the men who went from the Calfpasture, or their descendants, have achieved some renown in Western history.
Major Samuel Stevenson, who had lately moved to the Greenbrier, headed in 1776 an expedition to the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. He was accompanied by James Gay, William Elliott, and Benjamin Blackburn. William Campbell. a wheelwright, was picked up as the party went through the wilderness. One of the members said "Blackburn was so stiff with fcar we could hardly get him along." In the spring of 1784, Stevenson settled in Woodford county, the "Asparagus Bed" of the Bluegrass State. He was preceded a few weeks by Alexander Dunlap, Jr., and James Gay, Jr. The wives of Stevenson and Dunlap were sisters to Gay, who was a son of James Gay and his wife, Jean Warwick. Pisgah Church, said to be the first Presbyterian organization in Kentucky, was founded the same year. Its first minister was Adam Rankin, who came from Rockbridge. Pisgah Academy, founded by Gay. Dunlap, and Stevenson, de- veloped into Transylvania University, as Liberty Hall Academy developed into Washington and Lee University. The region around was settled almost wholly from Rockbridge and its neighboring counties. The following names, from the membership of Pisgah Church in 1808-1826, will be recognized as occurring in the pioneer annals of Rockbridge: Niken, Alexander, Allen, Brown. Campbell. Carr, Dunlap. Elliott, Gay, Hamilton, Holman, Kinkcad, Kirkham, Logan, Long, Martin, McClung. MeClure, Mccullough, MePheeters. Renick, Ritchie. Smith, Steele, and Taylor.
We close this chapter with special mention of several of the Calfpasture families.
The Bears sprang from Blastus Baer, a Mennonite who came from Germany in 1740 and settled in Page county in 1763 Jacob, a son, married a daughter of a Mennonite mini ter and came to the Calfpasture in 1788. Their sect was
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THE CALFPASTURE
but slightly represented here, and the Bears attached themselves to other churches.
Robert Bratton, who married the widow of Alexander Dunlap, Sr., was one of four brothers. Samuel remained in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania ; James, who married Dorothy Fleming, settled near Christiansburg. Three sons of another brother, went to South Carolina. Captain Robert Bratton was a man of wealth and distinction.
Archibald Clendennin lived in this valley before moving to the lower Cow- pasture, where he died in 1749. Archibald, Jr., was the most conspicuous victim in the Greenbrier massacre of 1763. Charles, another son, gave his name to the capital of West Virginia.
Captain James Coursey came from Orange and married as his second wife the widow of Robert Dunlap. A great grandson is Major O. W. Coursey, of South Dakota, a soldier, educator, and historian.
Robert Crockett, son of the pioneer of that name, was one of the "Long Hunters" spoken of in Chapter VIII. The eccentric Davy Crockett, of Tennessee and Texas history, was of another family, although in his youth he worked for a German farmer in this county.
Samuel Ebberd came from Maryland.
Captain Thomas Gilham had seven sons and two sons-in-law in the armies of the Revolution. The family moved first to South Carolina, but afterwards to the north of Illinois.
John Graham and his family experienced a great storm during their voyage from Ulster. John appears to have been a brother-in-law to William Elliott and John Armstrong of the Calfpasture. Elliott was born in 1699. William and Graham was a brother to John. Christopher Graham, who died in 1748, was probably the father of Robert Graham of the Bullpasture, and the wife of Joseph Walkup.
John Hepler came from Pennsylvania.
Daniel Hitc-otherwise Hight-was a son of Daniel Heydt, a German who settled in the Luray valley.
William Jameson was commissioned coroner in 1753, and seems to have died the same year. A grandson of the same name owned valuable property on the border of the city of St. Louis. Timothy Flint, the historian, calls one of his daughters a "rose of the prairie," and says of the Jameson family, "a group of more beautiful children I have never known."
The pioneer Lockridges were the brothers, James, Robert, and William. William lived first in the Borden grant. The descendants are most numerous in the West. Colonel John Lockridge was a pioncer of Sangamon county, Illinois. Another Colonel Lockridge figures in early Texas history. Andrew Y. Lock-
A HISTORY OF RECKBRAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
ridge, a grandson of Major Andrew Lockridge, son of James, was a noted mis- sionary to the Cherokee Indians
Five brothers of the name of Mccutchen came to this part of Virginia. Robert settled on Little River, Sammel in the Borden grant, and William, James. and John in Beverly Manor_ James died in 1759, and his sons. James, John, and Patrick went to Washington county The descendants of the five pioneers are mumscrous, widely scattered, and inclu le persons of mark. One of these is Robert Barr Mccutchen, a distinguished writer.
The McConnells, who founded McConnell's Station, now Lexington, Ken- tucky, previously lived on Kerr's Creek, as well as the Calfpasture.
Moses Mellvam located in this valley in 1763. While prospecting in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, in 1779, he was captured by Indians, but was released at the intercession of a trader by the name of McCormick, who had known Mclvain in Ireland. Mellvain married Margaret, a daughter of Samuel Hodge, of the Calfpasture, and settled anew in Woodford county, Kentucky.
Timothy MeKnight came from Ulster. His son John, merchant of St. Louis and trader to Santa Fe, was a heavy owner of realty in and near the Missouri metropolis. Robert, another son, settled in Chihuahua, Mexico, as a merchant and mine owner, and married a Spanish lady. Thomas settled in lowa and was the first candidate for governor of that state on the Whig ticket. James remained on the Calfpasture, but his son John joined his uncle at Chihuahua and became a wealthy merchant. Rebecca, a daughter, married William Mccutchen, and the wife of William W. Rucker, Congressman from Missouri, is a great- granddaughter.
Five Walkups. James, Joseph, John, Margaret, and the wife of John Graham, Jr., were brothers and sisters and came to Little River about 1748. Captain James moved to the Waxhaw settlement, North Carolina, 1755, where he was a large planter and slaveholder. Sammel M., a grandson, was an antiquarian of that state Joseph, son of John, was a lieutenant-governor of California. and is said to have refused an election to the senate of the United States For several decades there was much confusion in the spelling of the family sur- name Professor Wanehope, a distinguished literary critic of the South, has returned to the orthodox Scotch orthography The appropriateness of doing o is very much open to question. The form Walkup is free from strange- nes, and to the American car is the closest possible approximation to the Scottish pronunciation The phonographic value of the word Wauchope is unin takable in Scotland, but not in America In this connection it may be remarked that those German families who in years past modified the spelling of their surance pursued a wise course It was a practical step in American- ization
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THE CALFPASTURE
William Warwick had four children. Jean and Martha were killed by the Indians about 1759. John settled in Kentucky in 1784. Jacob was an extensive owner of realty and livestock in Pocahontas. The widow of William Warwick married Andrew Sitlington of Bath.
J. Fulton Whitlock, otherwise Tarleton Whitlock, came from the cast of Virginia.
William Youell settled on the Calfpasture about 1771.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
CALL OF THE WA THE FINCA TIF AND AUGUSTA RESOLUTIONS-VIR.INIA IN THE REVOLU- TI %-CAMPAIGN OF 1781-SUNDRY PHASES OF THE CONTEST-PENSIONERS
The underlying cause of the American Revolution was similar to that which forced our country into her present struggle with Germany. It was a protest against autocracy. The American colonies were founded when the relations between the king and his people had not reached a settled basis. It had always been the English practice for the people of each community to manage their local affairs. This principle was followed by the immigrants who peopled the colonies. Trouble began during the conflict between king and Parliament in the time of Cromwell. It assumed serious dimensions during the reign of James II ( 1685-8), but did not become acute until the accession of George III in 1760. For several decades before the beginning of the outflow from Ulster, few people had been coming to the colonies. The Americans of 1725 had begun to feel that they were already a people distinct from the English. During the quarrel that began with the ending of the Old French war, the colonies held that they were a part of the British Empire. But the British government viewed them as belonging to it, and consequently as possessing rights of a lower grade.
To the colonials the person of the monarch was the visible tic that joined them to the British Empire. By a legal fiction the king was an impersonation of the state, and only in this sense did they consider that they owed any allegiance to him. The Americans understood Britain to be made up of king, Parliament. and commons; each American colony to be made up of governor-a representa- tive of the crown-legislature, and people Under Anne and the first and second Georges, the monarch was a mere figure-head. The actual government was in the hands of a corrupt oligarchy. George I was a German, and coukl speak no English, except when he swore at his troopers George IlI began his reign with German idea of divine right and absolutism, and these he determined to carry into practice Local self-government had declined markedly in England. It was only a few persons who enjoyed the elective franchise. Parliament was not representative of the people, and by open bribery the king was able to control legislation The general mass of the English people were at this time ignorant, brutal, and besotted, and they were apathetic toward their political right There was a higher level of intelligence in America than in England.
Under kingcraft, as interpreted by George III, the people were to obey the crown and pay taxes Functions of a public nature were held to inhere in the
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THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
sovereign. Activities were to start from above, not from below. The Americans contended that the central government could properly act only in matters con- cerning the empire as a whole. They did not concede that Parliament had any right to tax any English-speaking commonwealth that had its own law-making body. On the one side of the ocean there was a rising spirit of democracy. On the other, there was an ebbing tide, and a "divine-right" monarch was in the saddle. A clash was inevitable.
To the Americans there were several particular sources of annoyance. It was an anomaly for any other person than an American to be the governor of an American colony. But in the crown colonies, of which Virginia was one, the governor was an imported functionary, and on retiring from office he usually went back to Britain. As a rule he was a needy politician, did not mingle socially with the Americans, and in his official letters he was nearly always abusing them. Another annoyance was the Board of Trade, a bureau which under- took to exercise a general oversight in America. It cared little for good local government. It sought to discourage any industry which might cause a leak in the purse of the British tradesman. Its one dominant aim was to see that the colonies were meek and to render them a source of profit to the British people and the British treasury.
Even after the controversy had become one of bullets instead of words, the prevailing sentiment in America was not in favor of political separation. The colonials felt a pride in their British origin. They recognized that a union founded on justice was to the advantage of every member of the British Empire. At the outset, the Americans fought for the rights which they held to be com- mon to all Englishmen. In this particular they had the good will of a large section of the people of England. It was the autocratic attitude of the king that made separation unavoidable.
American independence was proposed and accomplished by a political party known in Revolutionary history as the Whig. It was opposed by a reactionary party known as the Tory. But in the Whig party itself was a conservative as well as a progressive wing. The former consented to a separation, but other- wise it wanted things to remain as they were. The progressives had a further aim. They were bent on establishing a form of government that was truly demo- cratic .* The progressives prevailed. and yet the work they cut out was only well under way when independence was acknowledged. "The Revolution began in Virginia with the rights of America and ended with the rights of man."t
The basic origin of the Revolution was political. In the Southern colonies
*This term is not to be construed in a partisan sense. When the present political party of that name is mentoined in this book it is with a capital letter. +Eckenrode.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKERUMA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
there was not an economic cause also, as was the case in New England. The ex- ponts from Virginia touched high water mark in 1775, in spite of the long quarrel between the governor and the people.
We have entered into a rather extended discussion of a topic that belongs more to national than to county history. Yet the interest in the issue was so been in the Scotch-Irish settlers that our explanation of it may not seem out of place. The U'Ister people were naturally more democratic than the English. and nowhere in America was the democratic feeling more pronounced than along the mland frontier. The Scotch-Irish element generally rallied to the support of the Whig party, and was a most powerful factor in its ultimate success. The Tory influence was strong in the well-to-do classes along the seaboard. particularly ameng men in official and commercial life. Virginia was somewhat exceptional in this regard. It was practically without any urban population. The planter aristocracy upheld the Whig cause, and as it was the ruling class, it carried the colony with it. It must be added, however, that the planters of Tidewater cast their lot with the conservative wing of the party. It was under the lead of such men as Jefferson and Madison, residents of Middle Virginia, that the state capital was taken away from the tidewater district in 1779. The progressive Whigs cast of the Blue Ridge found a strong ally in the population west of that mountain.
The resolutions adopted at Fort Chiswell. the county seat of Fincastle, were so closely in harmony with the views of the people in the Rockbridge area that we present them in this chapter. The address by the Committee of freeholders is signed January 20, 1775, and is directed to the Continental Congres. The chairman was William Christian. Other prominent members of the committee were William Preston and Arthur Campbell Of the fifteen men, all were officers except the Reverend Charles Cumings.
We ature you and all our countrymen that we are a people whose hearts overflow with love and duty to our lawful sovereign, George III, whose illustrious House, for several successive reigns, have been the guardian of the civil and religious rights and liberties of British subjects as settled at the glorious revolution (of less); that we are willing to rik our lives in the service of Ilis Majesty for the support of the Protestant religion. and the rights and liberties of his subjects, as they have been established by compact, law. and ancient charters. We are heartly grieved at the differences which now subsist be- Iwcon the parent state and the colonies, and most heartly wish to ire harmony restored on an equitable bass, and by the most lenient measures that can be devised by the heart of ran Many of us and our forefathers left our native land, considering it as a kingdom subjected to mordn ate power and greatly abridged of us liberties; we crossed the Atlantic and explored this then uncultivated wilderness, bordering on many nations of savages, and esfrauded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but those very savages, who have Mccarthy been committing barbarities and depredations on us since our first seating the country The fatigues and ravages we patiently encounter, supported by the pleasing hope of enjoying those rights and liberties which had been granted to l'irgimans, and were
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THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
denied us in our native country, and of transmitting them inviolate to our posterity ; but even to these remote regions the hand of unlimited and unconstitutional power hath pur- sued us to strip us of that liberty and property, with which God, nature, and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are ready and willing to contribute all in our power for the support of his Majesty's government, if applied to constitutionally, and when the grants are made to our representatives, but cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venal British parliament, or to the will of a corrupt British ministry. We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but on the contrary, shall ever glory in being the lawful subjects of a Protestant prince, de- scended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise of our religion as Protestant subjects, and our liberties and properties as British subjects.
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