USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
103
THIE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
Portsmouth. When Tarleton made his raid on Charlottesville, he volunteered and served one month. In September he was at the siege of Yorktown, under Captain Charles Camp- bell, and after that event he was detailed to guard the prisoners to Winchester.
Mason, John : Born in Pennsylvania, 1740. Was in the battle of Brandywine, serving in a company from Berkeley. In 1781 he was in the battle of Guilford as a member of John Tate's company.
MeLane, John : Born in Ulster, 1757. In 1778 served in Greenbrier under Captain David Gray. In January, 1781, he went out on a tour of three months under Captain Andrew Moore. It took about fifteen days to get home from Norfolk.
McKee, James : Born in Pennsylvania, 1752, died in Rockbridge, 1832. Declaration by Nancy, the widow. John T., a son. Total service, seventeen months, twenty-nine days. His first service was three months with Christian in the Cherokee expedition. The second was when he marched under Captain Charles Campbell and Lieutenant Samuel Davidson to Point Pleasant in the fall of 1777. The third was a tour of three months in Greenbrier, just after the Shawnees attacked Donally's fort. The fourth was as an ensign in the spring of 1781, at which time he marched to Portsmouth. In the summer of the same year he served on the Peninsula. In the fall he served his last tour, and was at the siege of Yorktown.
Miller, William: Born in Pennsylvania, 1757, and came to Rockbridge about 1770. October 9, 1780, he went out under Captain James Gilmore, Lieutenant John Caruthers, and Ensign John McCorkle, and was in the battle of the Cowpens. For four weeks he was guarding Garrison's Ferry on the Catawba.
Moore, William : Early in 1781 he served under Captain Samuel Wallace and Lieutenant Edmondson of Bowyer's regiment. Later in the year he marched to Richmond as captain of a volunteer company. In September he went again as a captain. From Yorktown he marched with the prisoners to Winchester, and was discharged there in December, going home with not over twenty of the men he had taken out.
Shepherdson, David : Born in Louisa, 1763, came to Rockbridge, 1815. In June, 1780, he marched to join the army of Gates, and at Deep River himself and comrades nearly perished, having nothing but green crabapples to eat. A detail of 200 men was sent out to thresh some grain. Was in the battle near Camden, August 16th. After the retreat to Hillsboro, provisions became so scarce that the captain advised the men to go home and get provisions and clothing, their clothing having been lost at Camden. They did so and returned, were advised to go home again, and on their second return were honorably acquitted by a court- martial. Next year he served six months on the Peninsula, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis.
Vines, Thomas: Born in Amherst, 1756. Served at Charlottesville and Winchester, guarding prisoners. Was in the battles of Hot Water and Green Spring and at the siege of Yorktown.
Wiley, Andrew : Born in Rockbridge, 1756. Absent forty-two days in 1777, driving cat- tle to the mouth of Elk on the Kanawha. In 1778-79, he served twelve months in the Continental line under General Morgan. In the fall of 1780, he was a substitute in Captain James Hall's company. This company and those of Campbell and Gray joined General Muhlenburg at Deep Run Church near Richmond. In the spring of 1781, he joined Greene's army at Guilford as a member of a Botetourt company, The Carolina men, who formed the first line, ran at the outset. The riflemen to which applicant belonged formed the cov- ering party at the left, and when the Carolina men fled, the British came down on a ridge between this party and the command of Colonel Campbell. The enemy were swept off by the Virginia riflemen, but formed again and again, and compelled the party to ground their arms. Captain Tilford was killed.
Andrew Wiley was one of the Virginians who marched against the "Whiskey Boys." in 1794.
MIDDLE' PERIOD
A COMPARE ON - AFTER THE RIVER HON-DISESTABLISHMENT-LHE AND TIMES IN 1850- J'AITH FW TRAGEDY
The Middle Period in Rockbridge history begins with the peace of 1783 and continues until the outbreak of another American war in 1861. The Recent Period begins with the cessation of hostilities in 1865 and comes down to the present year. The first covers the lifetime of an old man. The second covers the lifetime of a man of middle age. A feature common to the two periods is that each lies between two great wars.
But while, as we shall presently see, the Recent Period is that of an almost revolutionary change in industrial methods, and even in everyday life, the Middle Period is that of a slow and partial unfolding. Labor-saving machinery was virtually unknown when the earlier period opened and was little more than a novelty when it closed. Men wore homespun in 1780, and were still wearing it in 1860. Men were still shooting with flintlocks in 1860. There was no change in agriculture, aside from the discontinuance of hemp about 1825. The Middle Period was well under way when canal navigation entered Rockbridge, and was almost at its close when a railroad crossed the northwest corner. It was almost at its close before people began to use envelopes and stamps in mailing their let- ters. Brick manor-houses, very rare at the close of the War for Independence. multiplied in the more fertile neighborhoods. But throughout the eight decades the log house was the typical home in Rockbridge. All in all, the impress of the pioneer days was much in evidence, even so late as 1860.
In 1775-1781, few of the men of this county went to war except for two or three months at a time, and as no invading host came to burn academics and plunder smokconses, the work of the farm could not have suffered in anything like the same degree as in 1861-1865. But in each instance there was a depreciated paper money, a chaos of values, and commerce was almost on a vacation.
When John Greenlee became sheriff in 1785 he found the taxes for the two preceding years uncollected, although the people were permitted to pay them in henip at the rate of $5.00 per hundredweight, delivery to be made at designated places at any time before December 20, 1785. In collecting the tax Greenlee u cd a number of hemp receipts which the treasurer of the State was unwilling to receive Six years later a petition to the Assembly mentions tobacco, hemp, and four as the chief things available for paying taxes and buying necessaries. It goes on to say that the roads were rough and bad, and the price of tobacco so low that the farmers would have to abandon the crop unless it could be inspected
105
MIDDLE PERIOD
nearer than Tidewater. The petition asked that inspection might be made at Nicholas Davis's below Balcony Falls.
The closing decades of the eighteenth century were a time of fermentation in America. Religion and mental improvement were much neglected, and there seems to have been more coarseness in word and action than in the pioneer epoch. Matters political kept in the lime-light and promoted the noisy assertive- ness that sprang from American independence.
The disestablishment of the Church of England was one of the first reforms of the Revolution. One-half of the Virginians of 1775 were dissenters or in sympathy with the dissenters, and they could no longer be made to support a state church in addition to the church of their choice. Accordingly, no taxes were paid to the Establishment after New Year's Day, 1777. In 1802 the parish farms were ordered to be sold. Yet the clerical party fought to the last ditch, and full religious liberty was not secured until 1785. The conservatives argued that conduct is governed largely by opinion, and that it was proper for the legis- lature to enact measures calculated to promote opinion of a desirable sort. In 1783 they urged that in place of the old Establishment each citizen should be assessed for the support of some church, in order that public morality might be maintained. The counties west of the Blue Ridge were a unit against any such half-loaf. As compared with Tuckahoe Virginia they were new, poor, and radical.
To the people of Rockbridge, the war of 1812 and the war with Mexico were much less serious than the Revolution, and the casualties in battle were exceed- ingly few. Yet in 1814 there was much illness and a number of deaths among the soldiers from the mountain counties. They were stationed on the coast, es- pecially around Norfolk. To them the climate seemed hot and sultry, and the drinking water inferior to that of the mountain springs.
About 1822 there was a strong agitation for the removal of the capital to Staunton. The Assembly was bombarded with many petitions to this effect from the counties of the Western District. This movement was one of the symptoms of the discord between the two sections of the state. The feud led to the Staun- ton Convention of 1816 and its demand for reform in the state government. But the Constitutional Convention of 1829 was dominated by the reactionary ele- ment, and there was little relief until the Constitution of 1851 became law.
Until 1789 there was no mail schedule south of Alexandria. No envelopes were used with letters. The rate of postage was governed by the distance, and for a long while payment was made by the person to whom the letter was ad- dressed. Three-cent postage did not come until 1855.
Until 1792 values were often computed in terms of tobacco, 100 pounds of the weed being equivalent to one pound-$3.33-in Virginia currency.
In the 30's, and onward until the war of 1861, the country was flooded
A HISTORY OF ROCKIRUM.A. COUNTY, VIRGINIA
with banknote currency, much of it of the "wildcat" variety. The national bank- ing system was still a thing of the future, and the man traveling from his own state into another had to exchange his home paper money for that of the other state, and undergo a "shave" in doing so. He had also to be on his guard against counterfeit bills. A copy of the Counterfeit Detector and Banknote List was indispensable to any merchant who was doing much business.
The goods for the merchants of Lexington came by the Tennessee road wagon, a huge vehicle drawn by six horses in gay trappings The cover was sometimes of bearskin instead of canvas. The wagoner was somewhat like the boatman of the Western rivers. He was a hardy, swaggering personage, but the state driver would not tolerate the idea of lodging in the same tavern with him.
The polling places in 1830 were four : Joseph Bell's at Goshen. H. B. Jones' at Brownsburg, the tavern at Natural Bridge, and the house of one of the numerous Moores. Four years later, the tavern of John Mccorkle became a voting place, and in 1845 the tavern of John Albright at Fairfield.
Outside of the county seat and the few villages. Rockbridge had in 1835 three furnaces, six forges, ten stores, and twenty-four gristmills. Of the thirteen country churches, nine were Presbyterian
Before the Revolution, the gentleman appeared on state occasions in a dress suit of broadcloth, often dark-blue, but sometimes plum or pea-green. His long waistcoat was black and his trousers of some light color. His tall black hat was similar to the "stove-pipe" of a later day. At the top of his ruffled short-bosom appeared a tall, stiff collar of the type known as a stock, and around this was fastened a black silk handkerchief. His hair was cropped short to make room for a powdered wig. Women wore towering bonnets. The low - necked dress had a cape or collar and enormous mutton-leg sleeves. By the close of the war of 1812. tight breeches had just gone om of fashion. The coat was "high in the collar, tight in the sleeve, short in the back, and swallow-tailed The hat was narrow -brimmed and bell-crowned." The cravat was a white hand herchef, stiff starched and voluminous, the flowing ends resting on a ruffled shirt bosom. The pocket handkerchief was a bandanna. Gloves were not much worn Woman's dress was "plain in color, short in waist, narrow in skirt. . \s soon as a woman was married she put on a cap " Imported goods were not in general use, but were worn year after year. "In the country, grandchildren could ec the wedding coat still on granddaddy's back on state occasions." In the 50's a certain citizen of this county was wearing linen trowsers forty years old, yet comingly as good as new A few moccasins were still worn. Work-shoes were of cowhide, dress shoes of calf-skin The farmer's boy had to make one pair last a ycar.
In 1810 not less than 5,000,000 yards of homespun Imen were manufactured in Virginia, and much the greater share of this output originated west of the
107
MIDDLE PERIOD
Blue Ridge. Until about the middle of the century it was only the people of aristocratic tastes who wore clothing made of imported cloth.
The hemp that was not sent to market was made into sacking, or into a hard, strong cloth of a greenish hue that slowly turned to a white.
The flax patch was seldom of more than one acre. The stalks were pulled when the seeds were fully ripe, and were laid out in gavels, the stem-ends forming a line. After a while the bundles were set up, and when dry were put into the barn. In the winter season the stalks were broken to loosen the fiber. This was done by laying them against slats and giving a few blows with a wooden knife. Scutching was the next step, and was performed by holding the broken stems against an upright board and striking them obliquely with the same knife. Then came in succession the spinning, the weaving, and the bleaching. The unbleached cloth was of the color of flaxen hair. The homemade linen was of two grades, one for fine and one for coarse cloth. Six yards a day was about the utmost the weaver could accomplish, if the weaving were to be tight enough.
The imported dyestuffs were indigo, logwood, and madder, used respectively for bluc, black, and red shades. The root and hulls of the hickory made a dark-brown; the bark, a yellow. Walnut bark made a brown color, sumach a black, and dogwood a dogwood berry tint.
The log house of "ye olden time" had a floor of pine or poplar punchcons, made smooth and level with the adze. As spaces appeared in the process of dry- ing, the puncheons were moved closer together. The building of the roof has taken its place among the lost arts. The first gable-log projected one foot at cach end, and was held in place by strong locust pins. The upper gable-logs, or cave- bearers, were held by the rest-poles on which the clapboards were laid. Stretch- ing between the first gable-logs was the eave-pole, which held the first course of clapboards. Rest-poles were laid between the upper gable-logs. The clapboards were three feet long and eight inches wide, and were laid with twelve inches of lap. Each course was held down by what was sometimes called a weight-pole and sometimes a press-pole. This fitted at each end into a notch in the gable-log and was further secured by a peg. Between each weight-pole and the one above it was a support called a knee. The uppermost weight-pole was heavier than the others and was pinned to its position. A rustic way of securing the top courses was with a pair of split poles, one of the halves lying against one side of the crown and one against the other. The ends were tied together with grapevine or hickory withes. When the pins in a press-pole rotted, the pole with its course of clapboards would slide to the ground. The chimney was of short logs well daubed inside with clay. Near the fireplace was the opening called the light-hole. When not in use it was covered with a sliding board. One lazy man broke a hole in the back of his chimney, so that he could poke his firewood through it instead of bringing it in by the door.
ICAS
A HISTORY OF ROCKERIINE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
The loghouses of the larger and better class had chimneys of stone, some- times containing an enormous amount of masonry. In this county the stone house generally appeared earlier than the one of brick, and was sometimes in- tended to answer the purpose of a defense against the Indians. Limestone is abundant in Rockbridge, but has been little used in house-walls. Colonel John Jordan, a native of Hanover county and a builder of many brick mansions and other structures, is said to have introduced the colonial style of architecture into Rockbridge.
The bill of fare was more simple than it is now. Corn pone was much in use. The other ordinary forms of the staff of life were spoon bread, batter bread, and sponge bread Stoves began to come into use about 1850, and at first were not well thought of. The loom-house was an adjunct of the prosper- ing farm. Elsewhere, the loom was a feature of the living-room or the kitchen. Girls who learned to weave were able to make some money by going from house to house.
The country store was a very plain affair and was destitute of show- cases. Only the most common goods and necessaries were on exhibit. The business of the store seemed to move at a slow pace, yet the merchant was pros- perous. After the war of 1816 there was a more rapid gait.
There were two types of garden ; one with beds and herbs and one without The climate of Scotland is not quite favorable to the kitchen garden, which was not generally adopted by the Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley of Virginia until they took a hint by seeing the gardens put out by the llession prisoners of war at Staunton. The herbs were sage, ditny, boneset, catnip, horsemint, hore- hound, "old man," and "old woman." These were used as home remedies, es- pecially by the "granny woman," who in no small degree stood in the place of the doctor. She used lobelia as an emetic, white walnut bark as a purgative. smakerout for coughs, and elder blossom to produce perspiration. The back of dogwood, cherry, and poplar, steeped in whiskey, was used for fever and ague. For the much dreaded dysentery. she employed Mayapple root, walnut bark, and slippery elm bark. A favorite way of treating a cold was for the patient to warm his feet thoroughly before a fire and then cover up in bed.
Trials of strength entered more largely into the sports of the period than they do now. Wrestling, jumping, and boxing were popular. A very common game was bandy played with turned balls of ligmmm vite
The "frolic" was a vital feature of the "good old times." One form of it was the corn husking The corn was shocked in the field, hauled into the farmyard, and thrown into a single pile At the frolic, two captains were agreed upon, and these worthies, by choosing alternately, divided the crowd into two rival companies. The pile of corn was divided, and there was a race be- tween the companies to see which side would come out first, The defeated com-
109
MIDDLE PERIOD
pany then had to pick up the victor-captain, and "tote" him around the pile of cars. A red ear entitled the finder to a kiss from his companion of the other sex. A big supper followed the husking, after which the floor was cleared by taking the furniture and other impediments out of the room, and then came dancing, sometimes kept up until daybreak. Charges of unfairness were occa- sionally hurled by one company at the other, and the small boys did well to get out of harm's way. "Black Betty" was passed around. The whiskey inflamed the jealousy aroused by rival admirers and rosy-checked girls, and serious affrays were liable to be the outcome. Besides the husking frolic, there were log- rollings, singing schools, shooting matches, and hunting with hounds. Christ- mas was made much of. "Bring your knitting and spend the day," was the invi- tation often extended by one woman to another.
A century ago women sometimes wielded the two-pronged wooden fork in the hayfield. Corn was rarely shocked, and yet more rarely topped and bladed. The cradle had just come into general use, but some of the older men still looked with more favor on the sickle. Threshing was sometimes done with horses. The first threshing machines often got out of order. On one occasion a flying tooth tore a hole in the roof of a barn. There was no market for hay. Peavine and "rich-weed" made good pasture. Fertility was maintained by rotation and by the use of lime and clover. There was an independence in the simple life of the Rockbridge farmer of the antebellum period, which has largely passed with the altered conditions of the twentieth century.
Writing in 1844, Henry Ruffner strikes a pessimistic note. He says that "our free mountain air has become tainted; the labor of our fields is done in great part by fettered hands; our manners have become more refined than our morals, and instead of the sturdy but intelligent simplicity that once reigned through all the land, a half-savage ignorance has grown up in its nooks and dells, while in the open country a mixed population shows much that is excellent, but upon the whole a failing spirit of energetic industry and enterprise." It was Ruffner's belief that between 1790 and 1840 Virginia lost more by emigration than all the free states. "She has driven from her soil at least one-third of all the emigrants who have gone to the new states." After Ohio and Kentucky had begun to at- tract settlers, the more thrifty and enterprising of the Rockbridge farmers ac- quired lands in that quarter, and the disposal of such tracts is often mentioned in wills.
A brief pen-picture of Rockbridge is given by the Duke of Saxe-Weimer Eisenach, who crossed this county in the fall of 1825. He observes that he traveled from Staunton to Natural Bridge in a miserable stage and over a very bad road. The wooden bridge over the Buffalo was used only in time of very high water. The only "decent places" he passed were Fairfield and Lexington. Yet the foreigner mentions "many very handsome country houses," at one of which he noticed eight eagles sitting on a fence. These were cared for by the
110
HISTORY Of ROCKBRUIN COUNTY, VIRGINES
proprietor By seeing snipe fly into the tavern yard at Fairfield, the stranger thought the people were not fond of shooting. He found that game was plenty. and that a whole deer could be purchased for $1.50. He had little to say of Lexington, then a town of 1.100 people. He wondered that all the coachmen were white. There was much travel on horseback. The road from Lexington to Staunton by way of Fairfield was generally through a forest. The traveler was a German and was an object of some interest to the few German people he met m this county.
The most distressing tragedy in the history of Rockbridge took place in the carher half of the night of December 16-17. 1846. John Petticrew, a native of Campbell county, fell into straitened circumstances, and in 1843 moved into a log house in the southward-facing cove between the two House mountains. The wife of Petticrew had been Mary A. Moore, of Kerr's Creek. The oldest of the six children was sixteen, the youngest was six, and all were healthy and strong. The evening of December 16th was snowy, and by midnight there was a high wind Next morning the snow was much drifted. and for several days the weather was very cold. The fourth day was Sunday, and in the morning Mr. Petticrew came home according to his custom from his work at the dis- ullery of William Alphin. To his horror he found his house burned to the ground. Lying near by were the frozen and partially clad bodies of the wife and all the children except the oldest, a daughter who was with her sick grandmother on Kerr's Creek. Strong men wept when they saw the corpses laid out for burial. Foul play was suspected on the part of James Anderson and his wife Mary, who lived a half-mile away. The Andersons did not bear a good name. The husband was not one of the crowd that gathered on the Sunday that Pettieren made lus grew some discovery, nor was he present at the burial Pettigrew had had some trouble with the neighbor because of Anderson's cows breaking into his field. He was knocked down by Anderson. who tried to choke him. Armed with a search-warrant, a brother to Mrs. Pettigrew visited the Anderson home and found therein a coverlet and some thier articles that had belonged to her. The silverware of the Pettigrews was not found Anderson was tried in Bath, but was acquitted on the ground of sufficient evidence He went to Craig and never again lived in Rockbridge It remamed the common opinion that Anderson was really guilty, and there is a story that in a bit of remorse he made a deathbed confession And set an examination of the corpses was inconclusive as to whether death came from violence or from the meuse cold following a fire either accidental or intentional. Within two years Pettigrew died of a broken heart The daughter who was away from home sub equently married James G Reynolds and had two children. The victims of the tragedy were buried at Oxford The stone over the grave w. Hattered by lightning and was replaced with a monument paid for by friends of the family.
XIII
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.