USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 29
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The centennial of Lee's birth was observed at Washington and Lee Univer- sity, June 19, 1907. The central feature was the address by General Charles Francis Adams, a grandson of John Quincy Adams. Adams was seventy-two years of age, had fought in the Federal army, and was a scholar as well as a man of affairs. His sketching of Lee as eminently a man of character was an amplification of these words of Thomas Carlyle: "Show me the man you honor ; I know by that what sort of man you yourself are. For you show me then what your ideal of manhood is." A letter from President Roosevelt was read, the writer having already stated his belief that Lee was the foremost general that America has produced. At the luncheon t othe Confedrate veterans, there were toasts to Lee, the Union army, and the Confederate soldier.
The children of General Lee were seven. Three sons served in the Con- federate army, two of them attaining the rank of major-general.
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XXXIV
FAMILY SKETCHES AND BIOGRAPHIC PARAGRAPHS ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY
Alexander. Archibald, Robert, and William, sons of William Alexander, Sr., came from near Londonderry, in 1737, and lived about ten years near Phila- delphia. The brothers were well-to-do for those days, and were men of char- acter, education, and influence. Robert, a Master of Arts of the University of Dublin, founded the school which finally grew into Washington and Lee Uni- versity, but was himself a resident of Beverly Manor. Archibald removed in 1747 from the bank of the Schuylkill and settled on South River nearly oppo- site the mouth of Irish Creek. His son, William, born on the Schulykill, set- tled about 1775 at the mouth of Woods Creek, and there opened the store which he seems to have conducted until his death in 1797. He also established the first school to be taught within the present confines of Lexington, making one of his own man-servants the teacher.
As a captain of rangers, "Old Arsbel" had a share in the Big Sandy expe- dition of 1757. Under orders from the governor of the colony. Andrew Lewis led an expedition against the Indian towns on the Scioto, but did not cross the Ohio, and his men suffered terrible hardships from inclement weather and inadequate rations.
A daughter of William Alexander married Edward Graham of the faculty of liberty Hiall Academy, and another married Samuel L. Campbell, the first resident physician of Rockbridge. Archibald, still another of the eight children was born in a house of squared logs on the family homestead on South River. Ilis schooldays began in the log structure his father had built on Woods Creek, and were continued at Liberty Hall. Coming under the influence of the Great Revival of 1739, he resolved to become a Presbyterian minister, and was licensed in 1791. For several years he was engaged in itinerant work, and there- by acquired a remarkable facility in offhand speaking. With a brief intermission he was president of Hampden-Sidney College from 1796 until 1807, and then became pastor of Pine Street Church, Philadelphia- In 1812, he was made first profesor in the Princeton Theological Seminary of New Jersey. The title of Doctor of Divinity had already been conferred upon him by the College of New Jer cy. The school had just been opened and Doctor Alexander had taken a very active part in its establishment. Ile remained at Princeton until his death, October 22, 1851, at the age of seventy-nine. Like his father he was short and compact in stature, and he had brown hair and hazel eyes. His memory was remarkable, and he was a delightful companion As a pulpit orator he was un-
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rivalled. As a writer on theological subjects he was quite prolific, his principal works being these: "A life of John Knox," "The Way of Salvation," "A History of the Israelitish Nation," "An Outline of Moral Science," "A Brief Outline of the Evidences of the Christian Religion," "The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained," "Biographical Sketches of the Founder and Principal Alumni of the Log College," "A Selection of Hymns," "Practical Sermons."
In 1802 Doctor Alexander was married to Janetta, a daughter of James Waddell, a blind minister who lived some years in Augusta, and whose elo- quence was highly extolled by William Wirt. His sons, Joseph A. and James W. were also eminent as ministers, writers, and teachers of Theology. The former was an eloquent orator and remarkable linguist. The latter was at the time of his death in 1859 pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in the city of New York.
Anderson. Francis T. Anderson was unrelated to the Anderson connect- ion of Rockbridge, He was a son of Colonel Thomas Anderson of Botetourt, and was born in 1808 at Walnut Hill, the family homestead. His mother, Mary A. Alexander, was a sister to Doctor Archibald Alexander, of Princeton. The son was educated at Washington College and was admitted to the bar in 1830. He practiced the legal profession with great success, was many years a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and upon his death in 1887, the Bar of the State and the Supreme Court remembered him with eulogistic resolutions. Mr. Anderson was a leader of the Whig party of Virginia, a rector of Washington and Lee University, and a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church. He removed from Botetourt to Lexington, but lived some years on his large estate of Glen- wood, his home then being near Natural Bridge. He was a brother of General Joseph R. Anderson and Colonel John T. Anderson of the Confederate army. His children who grew to adult age are Anna A., wife of William F. Junkin ; Mary E., wife of Alexander Bruce, of Halifax county ; Frances M., of Washing- ton, D. C .; Josephine A., wife of William B. Poindexter ; William A .; Isabella G., wife of William B. Bruce ; and Francis T., whose wife is Rosa Bruce, of Hal- ifax county.
William A. Anderson, son of Francis T., Sr., was born May 11, 1842, and is the senior member of the Rockbridge bar. He has been Attorney General for his state and has twice represented his county in the Assembly. Major Ander- son, who was made a cripple for life at First Manassas, is a Virginia gentleman of the old school and his courtesy is unfailing. He has been twice married ; first to Ellen G., daughter of General Joseph R. Anderson, and second, to Mary L. Blair. His children are Ruth F., Anna A., William D. A., Judith N., and Ellen G. Besides being active in his chosen profession, Major Anderson has been a leader in the industrial development of Rockbridge.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Baldarn. John C. Baldwin was a son of Cornelius C. Baldwin of Balcony Falls, one of the original secessionists of 1800 01. The son, who died unmar- ried in 1881, at the early age of thirty - four, deserves mention for his assidious and succesful efforts to educate himself. His book studies began when he was seven years old. He took up Laum at sixteen and became able to read it al- most as readily as Shakespeare He also studied Greek and French, the mathe- matics, and several branches of the sciences Perhaps he was the only boy in Virginia who made himself by solitary endeavor a fine classical and English scholar, a good writer, and one of the best informed country gentlemen in the state. Mr. Baldwin was retiring, fond of home, devoted to a simple life, and he enjoyed the society of his few intunate friends. He adopted as his own this motto by Bishop Berkeley : "I had rather be master of my time than wear a diadem."
Joseph G. Baldwin, the brilliant author of "Flush Times in Alabama," is said to have been related to the Baldwins of Rockbridge.
Barclay. Elihu Il. Barclay, almost thirty years a force in Rockbridge journalism, was a member of an old and prominent family. He was a son of Alexander T. Barclay and his third wife, Mary E. ( Paxton ) Barclay. The father was a son of Elihu Barclay, who married Sarah Telford. Elihn I purchased the Rockbridge Citizen in 1873, when he was twenty-seven years old Next year he acquired the Gazette, which be conducted until his death in 1902. The maiden name of his wife was Margaret S. Rowan.
Baxter. The Reverend George A Baxter, whose name is long and honor- orably identified with what is now the Washington and Lee University, was born in Rockbridge in 1771. From New London Academy he came to Lexing- ton in 1798 to fill the chair of mathematics at Liberty Hall. A year later he be- came rector of the academy. Two very prominent events are associated with his administration. The school was moved from Mulberry Hill to Lexington. and it was advanced from the rank of academy to that of college. As rector. and later as president, the income of Doctor Baxter was small, and he supple- mented it with active labor in the Presbyterian ministry He is remembered in our local annals as a faithful and còn cientious educator and as a preacher of power and effectiveness His wife was Anna C. a daughter of Colonel William Fleming Their son, Sidney S. was hilewise an educator of note.
Brockenbrough. John W Brockcubrongh was a mitive of Hanover county. where he was born December 23, 1806 After graduating from the U'niversity of Virginia he entered the legal profesion, in which he became very eminent From 1846 until 1860 Le was judge of the United States Court for the Western District of Virginia, and in this capacity none of his decisions was ever reversed.
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In the crisis of 1860-61, he was a secessionist, and was defeated as a candidate for the State Convention of 1861. He represented Virginia in the futile Pcace Conference which sought to avert the calamity of war. He also served a term in the Confederate Congress. In 1849 Judge Brokenbrough had opened at Lexington a school of law, and when General Robert E. Lee came here as a col- lege president, he became the head of the newly created law school in Washing- ton College. Judge Brockenbrough was a man of very estimable qualities. He died in Lexington, February 21, 1877.
Brown. John Brown, the first resident minister in Rockbridge, came in 1753 in response to a call signed by a great number of his future parishioners. He was then but twenty-five years of age. He was pastor at Timber Ridge and New Providence until 1767, and served New Providence twenty-eight years longer. In Kentucky, to which state he removed in 1797, he was pastor of Woodford church. He died there in 1803, and his grave lies between those of two men who had been his elders at New Providence. During his early years in Rockbridge, his salary was but little more than $200. It is related of him that he used to walk around the New Providence church with head uncovered and Bi- ble in hand, and pray for the various families. He left Timber Ridge some- what abruptly, and in consequence of a slight which seems to have been quite unpremeditated, although his sensative nature did not permit him to excuse it. In 1755 he purchased a farm, the position of which is on the line of the Valley Railroad and a little north of Fairfield. Between the resignation of Robert Alexander in 1753 and the coming of William Graham in 1774, Mr. Brown taught the classical school begun by the former. His wife was Margaret, a sister of Colonel William Preston. The careers of several of the children re- flect the substantial quality of their parentage. John, Jr., was a member of the First Congress, Samuel was a professor in Transylvania University. James was a United States senator from Louisana and minister to France, and William was a physician of South Carolina. The daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, married, respectively, the Reverend Thomas B. Craighead and Doctor Alexander Hum- phreys. Samuel, who died in 1830 at the age of seventy-one, took the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Aberdeen. He then entered upon an eminent career as physician and chemist. At Lexington, Ky., he organized a medical society which is said to have been a pattern in constitution and in ethics to all such American societies of later date.
The Samuel Brown who came to New Providence as its pastor in 1796 was not related to John Brown. He was a native of the east of Virginia. In 1789, when twenty-three years old, he went to Kentucky with some friends. The jour- ney was made on foot as far as Kanawha Falls, and by a dugout canoe the rest of the distance. After teaching a year at Paris he returned, and was licensed
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
as a minister in 1793. His salary at New Providence was $400. Mr. Brown was feeble in constitution, yet in addition to ministerial effort he taught a clas- sical school, and among his divinity students were several who attained dis- tinction. Hle owned and lived on a farm two miles north of Brownsburg. In 1816 he went West with a view of locating, and for $1600 was offered a tract of land within the present limits of the city of St. Louis. Yet he turned down the offer, deciding that his family would be better off in the West only in a ma- terial point of view. He died two years after his visit to Missouri. In 1798 Mr. Brown was married to Mary Moore of Abb's Valley, some account of whose captivity is given in Chapter VIII. She was an affectionate wife and lov- ing parent. The pair had cleven children, the difference in age between the old- est and the youngest being seventeen years. Seven sons and three daughters grew to maturity. Six of the former were Bachelors of Arts of Washington College, three of them graduating in the same class. In 1918 a reunion of the descendants of Mary Moore Brown were held at New Providence, the wife of its present pastor being one of them.
Campbell. One of the very oldest and most numerous of the group-famil- ies of Rockbridge is that of the Campbells. It includes a considerable number of persons who have attained some degree of prominence. Samuel R. Campbell. a son of Alexander, was born between Brownsburg and Fairfield in 1766 and died at his country home, Rock Castle, in 1840. He was a graduate of Liberty Hall Academy in 1788 and studied medicine at Philadelphia. His medical practice was large, and he was much respected in his profession. Yet he found time to bring his strong civic spirit into play. He was a hrm friend to Wash- ington College and he took a leading part in establishing the Franklin Society. Doctor Campbell was a witty, cultured gentleman and good writer. In his later years he lost his eyesight. although he continued to ride the highways. humorously cautioning those he met to look out or he would ride over them. It was he who built the Stone Rock Castle which was burned. In 1794 he was married to Sarah, a sister to Doctor Archibald Alexander. His four sons were graduates of Washington College. All went West and all became eminent His daughter. Sophia, married Robert McCluer in 1816. The other daughters married John S. Wilson and the Reverend Nathaniel C. Calhoun. Two of the three husbands were also graduates of Washington College.
Caruthers. The Caruthers name was once very conspicuous, but has long been extinct. The male members were residents of Lexington or its vicinity and were much inclined to commercial pursuits. Isaac migrated to Monroe. married there, and was one of the proprietors of Salt Sulphur Springs. Yet a literary vein was present in the family, as is indicated by the very active part taken by it in founding the Franklin Society and Ann Smith Academy. In
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FAMILY SKETCHES AND BIOGRAPHIC PARAGRAPHS
William A. Caruthers this trait had a special development. He was educated at Washington College, and though he went into the medical profession, he was a prolific writer of historical romances and a frequent contributor to the mag- azines. His literary work is full of spirit and animation. He was the author of "Knights of the Horseshoe," a work of fiction founded on Spottswood's ex- pedition to the Shenandoah Valley in 1716. In 1838 Doctor Caruthers wrote a vivid account of a hazardous ascent of the Natural Bridge. He died at Sa- vannah, Ga., about 1850, and at the age of about fifty-five years.
Davidson. Andrew B. Davidson, a native of Botetourt, does not seem to have been of the Kerr's Creek connection or of the family that migrated to Ohio from the lower course of North River. He was born in 1779 and died in 1861, spending all but the earliest years of his life at Lexington. He was graduated from Liberty Hall Academy in 1807, and was licensed as a minister the same year. In the same year, also, he was married to Susan Dorman, ap- parently a sister to Charles P. Dorman. In 1814 he returned to Lexington as a pastor, and was a principal of Ann Smith Academy. All his four sons were alumni of Washington College. General Alexander H. became a resident of Indiana. Charles B. was an Episcopal clergyman. James D. and Henry G. re- mained in this county, the former being a lawyer and the latter a physician.
Dorman. The Dormans have been very few in number, yet influential. Charles P. Dorman, a lawyer and editor, was in the Virginia Assembly thirteen years and was an adjutant in the war of 1812. His son James B., born 1825 died 1893, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1843 and became an attorney. The war with Mexico aroused his spirit of adventure, and he served as sergeant-major in the Texas Rangers of Colonel Wood. He was pres- ent at the capture of Monterey. Returning to Lexington, he was sent in 1861 to the State Convention as a Union man. After war came on he went into the Confederate army as a major in the 9th Virginia Infantry. Major Dorman was a fluent speaker and a man of unusual ability. He had strong literary tastes and was a master of the English language, whether written or spoken. He was
married in 1871 to Mrs. Mary L. White Newman. During the last ten years of his life he was Clerk of the Supreme Court of Appeals and lived in Staunton.
Dunlap. Alexander Dunlap, the first settler on the Calfpasture and first owner of the site of Goshen, died in 1744, leaving four children, John, Robert, Alexander, and Elizabeth.
In 1776 John Dunlap visited Ohio on a prospecting tour, and acquired 7,000 acres in Ross county, the smaller of the two tracts including the old Shawnee town of Chillicothe. He also secured 1436 acres in Kentucky, but was furthermore the largest landholder in Rockbridge. He was married to Ann Clark, who was related to General George Rogers Clark, the "Hannibal of the
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West," and his brother, Colonel William Clark of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. Both these celebrities made visits to the Dunlaps. The family home was a large three-story brick mansion, built soon after the Revolution and on the site of the Victoria furnace near Goshen. The house was torn down many years ago. The only member of this Dunlap family to stay in Rock- bridge was James.
Robert, second son of the pioneer, fought at Point Pleasant and was an ensign in the battle of Guilford, where he was killed. It is said he refused to obey an order to retreat. He owned Aspen Grove and one other plantation in Rockbridge. His widow married James Coursey. Of the seven children of Robert Dunlap, Alexander settled in Monroe and Robert and John in Augusta. Anne and Margaret went with their husbands to Kentucky and Missouri, re- spectively. Only William and Agnes remained in this county, but the children of William went to Missouri. Robert, Jr., organized the first temperance society in the Valley of Virginia. William, Jr., a son of William, was one of the first men to explore Kansas. A grandson of William, Jr., is Boutwell Dunlap, of San Francisco, a lawyer and historian and formerly consul for Argentina. Hle is the author of a valuable contribution to American history : "AAngusta County in the History of the United States." Among the progeny in the female line. in this family of the Dunlaps, are the Reverned O. E. Brown, of Vanderbilt University, church historian, and the Reverend W. M. Morrison, the missionary to Africa, whose exposure of the atrocities on the Congo roused the govern- ment of the United States and Europe to take action against the king of the Belgians.
Alexander Dunlap. Jr., went in early life to Kentucky, and later to Brown county, Ohio, where he built one of the very first houses of worship in that state of the Disciples communion.
The four Dunlaps, Samuel, David. Robert. and John, who purchased land in the Borden Tract are believed to have been related to Alexander of the Calf- pasture. They seem to have moved to the Carolinas.
John Dunlap came from Campbelltown, Scotland, in 1775. and settled at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Robert, one of his seven children, was born just before the family came to America, and located near Middlebrook in Au- gusta. Madison Dunlap, his son, came to Ketr's Creek about 1830. John Dun- lap was grandfather to Major-General John D Stevenson, of the United States army. He was great grandfather to Brigadier General Robert N Getty, of the same army, and to John R. S. Sterrett, the Greek scholar and archeologist.
Few families in the South can surpass the Dunlaps of Rockbridge in ex- hibiting so many members who have been large landowners, or have been con- spicuous in public, professional, or military life The Dunlaps dispute with
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one other Rockbridge connection the honor of furnishing the most ministers to the Southern Presbyterian Church.
Echols. Captain Edward Echols, who lived at the mouth of North River, was a brother to General John Echols, of the Confederate army, and conse- quently an uncle to the late Edward Echols, of Staunton. He was a citizen of con- siderable local prominence, and died in 1874 at the age of fifty-seven. An inci- dent in his career illustrates his unselfishness and his generous impulsc. It also brought suddenly to the front an unexpected power of vivid narration. The account of the incident which has been furnished to us we quote entire.
In January, 1854, a large covered freight boat with a cargo of nearly 100 negro men who had been hired in the vicinity of Richmond to work in the furnaces above Buchanan was swept over the dam on James River at Balcony Falls, in consequence of the breaking of the tow-line, as the boat was struggling across the mouth of North River then swollen by a heavy freshet. Most of the negroes as soon as the boat began to drift down the stream plunged into the river and swam to the bank. About a dozen of them who prob- ably could not swim stuck to the boat and were dashed over the dam into the boiling and foaming whirlpool below. The boat was broken into fragments, and half the men drown- ed. The others clung to a fragment of the wreck and were drifted down the surging and roaring torrent about a mile and a half, until they struck a large rock called the "Velvet Rock," from the carpet of soft green moss which covered it, when they jumped off and after much scrambling secured a precarious foothold on the narrow surface of the wet and slippery stone. One of these men was William G. Mathews, uncle to William G. Mathews of the Virgina Western Power Company. The river was rising, the spray dashed over the rock. The weather was freezing, a dark night was closing in, and it was impossible to send a boat through that surging torrent to bring off the shipwrecked suf- ferers, whose doom seemed to be sealed. To encourage them to hold on to their per- ilous position and to cheer their desponding spirits, a large fire was kindled on the op- posite bank of the canal, about 100 yards off, by a body of rough, but kind-hearted men, who sang and danced and shouted around it all that dark and gloomy night. Above the loud roar of the turbid waters as they rushed through the narrow gorge of the Blue Ridge, their trumpet voice could be heard ringing on the midnight air, "Hold on, hold on; dance and sing ; we'll save you; we'll save you; day is almost here; hold on; hold on; the river is falling; you're safe; you're safe." Thus animated and encouraged, the im- prisoned men did hold on through that awful night until the first faint streak of day, when the river having fallen during the night, a canoe danced over the foaming tide and brought the half-frozen men to the bank. And there was such a scene, such hug- ging, and dancing and laughing, and crying and shouting and rejoicing. A few days later Captain Edward Echols, who resided in the immediate vicinity and was an eye-witness of most of these thrilling scenes wrote a most vivid and graphic account of them, which was published in the Lexington Gazette and copied by many papers in and out of the state. Captain Echols almost literally photographed the whole catastrophe, from the breaking of the rope to the rescue of the men in a series of living pictures taken fresh from nature. You almost saw the boat as it plunged over the dam, and heard the shrieks of the drowning and drifting men. The style was perfectly simple and unpretending- like naive Isaac Walton in his "Compleat Angler"-a style which every school boy thinks he can write until he tries, but which the critics say has never been successfully imitated,-
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