A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Part 3

Author: Morton, Oren Frederic, 1857-1926
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Staunton, Va. : McClure Co.
Number of Pages: 620

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TIIE ULSTERMAN AND THIE PATIIFINDERS

the emigrants from Ulster has a very obvious significance. It shows that here and there the native accepted the Protestant faith, and that neither social nor religious barriers then remained. It is not a characteristic of the Ulster people to turn a cold shoulder toward those who agree with them. J. W. Dinsmore observes that the Ulsterman "has the steadfastness of the Scot, the rugged strength and aggressive force of the Saxon, and a dash of the vivacity and genius of the Huguenot." He might have added that when the Ulsterman came to America he spoke the Elizabethan type of English, which the Irish adopted as an incident in their conquest.

It is now necessary to speak of the relations between the Ulstermen and the British government. There was a Church of Ireland, identical except in name with the Church of England. Though it had few adherents, the law was behind it, and it laid a heavy hand on Dissenters as well as Catholics. The Presbyterian minister was expected to preach only within certain specified limits, and was liable to be fined, deported, or imprisoned. He could not legally unite a couple in marriage, and at times he could preach only by night and in some barn. The infamous "Black Oath" of 1639 required all the Protestants of Ulster who were above the age of sixteen to bind themselves to an implicit obedience to all royal commands whatsoever. This display of autocratic tyranny led multitudes of men and women to hide in the woods or to flee to Scotland.

In 1689 the Irish rose in behalf of the deposed king of England, James the Second. Protestants were shot down at their homes. Women were tied to stakes at low tide, so that they might drown when the ocean waves came back. Londonderry was besieged by a large army, but was defended with a desperation unsurpassed in history. Without help from the English, without trained officers, without sufficient food or ammunition, and in the face of deadly fever, the invaders were beaten off with great loss. This staunch sup- port of the new king would seem to have entitled the Ulstermen to much consideration. Nevertheless, the British Parliament enforced its anti-popery laws against the Presbyterians as well as the Catholics. The time had not yet come when a Presbyterian might sell religious books, teach anything above a primary school, or hold civil or military office. There was no general redress of grievances until 1782.

The persecution was industrial as well as religious. English laws dis- criminated against Ulster manufactures, particularly the manufacture of woolen goods. This flourishing business was ruined by a law of 1698.

In view of such a hounding persecution, it might seem strange that the people of Ulster could retain a shred of respect for their government. Yet. as citizens of the British Isles, they professed loyalty to the crown, which

A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

by a figure of speech signified the state in its sovereign capacity. They appear to have had no ill feeling toward the king himself. He did them no harm, be- cause he did nothing at all in a governmental sense. From 1704 to 1760 the English monarch was a figurehead in almost the fullest sense of the term. The resentment of the Ulster people was directed against the corrupt clique that governed in the king's name. However, there was a ruling English party in Ulster. At the present time, Episcopalians are more numerous than Pres- byterians, in at least two of the seven counties, and the Catholic population is equal to the Protestant. It is a mistake to think of Presbyterians as out- numbering other denominations in U'lster.

The straw that broke the camel's back for the Ulster people was the display of greed shown about 1723. A large quantity of land given to favored indivi- duals was offered only on 31-year leases and at two to three times the former rental. An emigration to America, which really began about 1718, now assumed large dimensions. During the next half century, or until interrupted by the war for American independence, the aggregate outflow is reckoned by some au- thorities as high as 300,000. Ulster was thus drained of the larger and best part of its population. The fundamental reasons for the exodus are thus stated in a sermon delivered on the eve of the sailing of a ship: "To avoid oppression and cruel bondage : to shun persecution and designed ruin ; to withdraw from the communion of idolators ; to have opportunity to worship God according to the dietates of conscience and the rules of his Word."

Throughout this period of heavy emigration from Ulster there was almost as large a tide of Germans from the valley of the upper Rhine, inclusive of Switzerland. But until near the outbreak of the Revolution, the German settlers in Rockbridge were very few. So it is scarcely necessary, at present, to speak further on this parallel stream of immigration.

It is next in order to sketch the America of 1716, so as to observe the effect of the inflow from Ulster and the Rhine.

There were at this time twelve of the English colonies, and their 400,000 inhabitants were scattered thinly along the coast from Casco Bay in Maine to Port Royal in South Carolina. Exceedingly few were the people who were located so far inland as a hundred miles. Boston, New York, Philadelphia. and Charleston were the largest towns, and not one of them had a population of 10,000. The colonies must have presented a very new appearance, but not of a truly pioneer type. The homes of all but the poorest people were as good as the better class of homes in Europe. There was a lively commerce with the British Isles and with the West Inches, the products of the farms, the forests. and the fisheries being exchanged for manufactured goods and for sugar and other tropical supplies. There were but three colleges. Elementary educa-

THIE ULSTERMAN AND THE PATHFINDERS

tion was general only in New England. Elsewhere, education was regarded as a private interest, and there was much illiteracy. There was no mail service worthy of the name, no daily newspaper, and perhaps not more than a half dozen weeklies. Religion was free only in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Elsewhere there was an established church supported by general taxation. The colonials of 1716 were overwhelmingly of English origin, but there was a sprinkling of Scotch, Welsh, Irish, Hollanders, and French Huguenots. Each colony was an independent country with respect to its neighbors. And as roads were bad and bridges few, traveling was slow and difficult. All knowledge of the outside world was elementary. There was no intercourse with Asia or South America, Africa was visited only in the interest of the slave trade. and Australia was unknown. Every sea was infested with pirate vessels.

Turning to Virginia we find that its 100,000 people. of whom one-fourth were negro slaves, lived almost exclusively to the east of a line drawn through Washington and Richmond. Williamsburg, the capital, was merely a village. Norfolk was doubtless smaller than Lexington is now. Virginia was strictly an agricultural region, and the growing of tobacco was by far the dominant in- terest. The structure of society was not democratic. At the head of the scale was the tidewater aristocracy, feudalistic and reactionary, polite to women, pro- fane among its own kind, fond of horses and sports. and indifferent to books. These people constituted the one and only ruling class, and the public business thrown upon them induced a good degree of practical intelligence. Below them were the professional men, tradesmen, small farmers, and white servants, some of the latter having come to America as convicts.

Such in outline was the America of 1716. Most of its people were American- born and were beginning to look upon themselves as distinct from the British. Nearly all of the new immigration landed at Philadelphia, because the colony of which it was the metropolis was held in high repute across the Atlantic for the liberality of its government. In 1769 the French traveler Cluny declared of Pennsylvania that "its form of civil government is better calculated to pro- mote private happiness and consequently public prosperity than any other with which we are acquainted under the sun." But the immigrants found a difference between its theory and its practice. It is instinctive in the human species to look with suspicion or dislike on those whose ways are different from our own. The comfortable Quakers did not like the idea of being swamped by this deluge of strange people, one portion of whom spoke an unfamiliar language, while the other portion appeared assertive, somewhat uncouth, and not overly particular in costume or personal cleanliness. There was scant welcome for the newcomers in the small settled district, and so they pushed inland. the Germans moving rather to the right and the Ulstermen to the left. Hlad the Quakers

A HISTORY OF ROCKBRUKE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

been more inclined to observe the spirit of their institutions, they would have retained most of this immigration and the settlement of the Valley of Virginia would have been much delayed. The Ulstermen were very much inclined to keep together. It was usual for a whole congregation, headed by its pastor. to leave Ireland in a body and to seek to settle as neighbors after coming to America. But a tax was laid on the immigrants, they were kept as long as possible from having any effective voice in the colonial government, and when the war of 1754 broke out, there was a failure to protect the frontier. Thus we are the better able to understand why some of the Ulster people lived a while in Pennsylvania instead of coming directly to Virginia. The liberality of Pennsylvania was largely outweighed by its narrowness, and so the Ulstermen pushed southward as well as westward, gradually occupying all AAppalachian America from the Iroquois country south of Lake Ontario to the Cherokee country on the waters of the upper Tennessee. In this way the inland frontier of America was pushed rapidly forward. Otherwise the year 1776 might have found in Virginia but a handful of people west of the Blue Ridge.

In the way we have pointed out, the Ulstermen became a frontier people as soon as they were settled in America. They were well fitted to become such. They were overcomers by nature and did not shrink from facing difficulties. They wanted room and plenty of it, and they wished to bury on their own soil instead of on the domain of some detested landlord.

The Ulstermen were joined by some of the Germans, and by some of the more venturesome spirits among the English and Hollanders of the coast set- tlements, both northern and southern. The pioneer population of the Alle- ghany valleys thus developed into a composite stock, that of the American High- lander. This homogencity moved more rapidly in a blending of customs than in a mixture of blood. But it was the Scotch-Irish who gave a dominant im- press to the entire frontier.

Before taking up the settlement of Rockbridge, it is necessary to tell of the th covery and exploration of "New Virginia," this term being applied to that part of the Old Dominion which attracted the Ulster people.

For more than a century after the founding of Jamestown there was no char knowledge of what lay beyond the Blue Ridge. An exploring party had indeed penetrated as far as the falls of New River as early as 1671, but this spurt of enterprise was not followed up. In a letter to the Board of Trade in 1710, Governor Spottswood remarks that some adventurous men had just climbed the Blue Ridge, hitherto deemed impassable, and would have proceeded down the west slope but for the lateness of the season.

The governor became interested He thought the distance to the Great Lakes much less than it really is, and he believed it sound policy to keep the

THE ULSTERMAN AND THE PATHFINDERS

French from getting the fur trade entirely into their hands. He therefore recommended that trading stations be established on the lakes, and that they be connected with the Virginia coast by a chain of fortified posts. To look into this matter in person, he headed an exploring party that left Williamsburg in the summer of 1716, and spent thirty-six days in reaching the summit of the Blue Ridge, probably at Swift Run Gap. The South Fork of the Shenandoah was forded in the vicinity of Elkton, and the next day-September 6th-the gay cavaliers who comprised most of the fifty men held a grand revel on the dozen varieties of liquor they had brought with them. After each toast there was a volley of powder and ball. Spottswood made no attempt to prosecute the exploration, and contented himself with viewing the Alleghany ridges from a dis- tance. We hear nothing more of his zeal in the fur trade. The behavior of the whole party was that of a crowd of young bloods bent on a jollification in the mountains.

Nevertheless, an important result came of this expedition. Now that glimpses by rangers or hunters had been supplemented by a visit from the gov- ernor and a delegation of the tidewater aristocracy, it could be announced that the Valley of Virginia was officially discovered. It had been assumed that it was a forbidding land. On the contrary it was found to be pleasant and fertile, and abounding in game and fish. There were no Indian occupants, although a grassy prairie covered the lowlands between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies beyond It was a vision to appeal to the land speculator, and it did not appeal in vain.

It was sixteen years before John Lewis came with his advance guard of Ulster people into the presents limits of Virginia. But although exact informa- tion is provokingly scarce, it is very clear that during this interval land prospect- ors were busy in spying out the country and naming the mountains and streams. It was only eleven years after Spottswood's visit that a company of tidewater promoters petitioned for 50,000 acres on the headwaters of the James, almost before there was a solitary cabin in the Shenandoah Valley itself.

During the period of exploration, the one and only conspicuous name among the known landhunters, so far as the Rockbridge area is concerned, is that of John Peter Salling. According to the usual version of the story, Salling went up the Valley from the Potomac in 1726, in company with John Marlin, a pedler or trapper. On the Roanoke they were attacked by Indians and Salling was cap- tured. He was taken from his Cherokee captors by some Illinois Indians and wandered with them to Kaskaskia, where he was adopted by a squaw. Several times he went down the Mississippi with the red men, and at length the Spaniards bought him to use as an interpreter. From New Orleans he in some way was taken to Canada, where he was redeemed by the governor of that province, and

A HISTORY (1 1 )CK RI NE COLATS, VIRGINIA

sent by I'm to the Hollanders of New York. After six years of varied es ferici ces he arrived at Williamsburg. The trachitions in the Salling family agree in stating that the pioneer ancestor was several years a captive among the Indians. by whom he was taken to the lower Mississippi. According to Henry Kuffner. who wrote in 1844, Marlin met Salling in Williamsburg and so interested the latter ly his description of the Valley that both men went up the James as far as the beautiful bottom immediately above Balcony Falls. Salling was so well pleased that he did not wish to look further. He returned to the capital, patented a choice portion of the bottom, and settled on it with his bachelor brother. Salling's Home was so well known as to be marked on a map of 1755.

It was in the summer of 1732 that John Lewis came with his family and link a house a mile below where Staunton now stands. So far as known he was the first settler in Augusta county. According to Ruffner and others, Lewis visted Williamsburg before making any settlement, and there met Salling. whose rescate description of the "back country " led him to choose land on Lewis Brech But it is known that Lewis fled from Ireland as a refugee from British liw. lle was at length pardoned, but until this took place he would not have expo e himself to arrest. He is known to have spent a few years in Pennsyl- varia before coming to Virginia, and it is possible that the pardon was as carly as 1732 But he did not acquire title to his land until 1738.

THE BORDEN LAND GRANT

THE MCDOWELLS-BENJAMIN BORDEN, SR .- THE VIRGINIA LAND SYSTEM-SETTLEMENT OF THE BORDEN TRACT-BENJAMIN BORDEN, JR .- DISPUTES WITH THE SETTLERS-JOSEPH BORDEN

Early in September, 1737, a little party of homeseekers were in camp on Linville Creek in what is now Rockingham county. They were journeying by the trail that was sometimes called the Indian Road, and sometimes the Pennsyl- vania Road. In the company were Ephraim McDowell, a man now past the meridian of life, his son John, and a son-in-law, James Greenlee. The younger men were accompanied by their families. It is rather probable that a few other persons were in the party, especially one or more indentured servants. The destination they had in view was South River. James, another son of Ephraim. had come in advance and planted a little field of corn in that valley opposite Woods Gap.

The McDowells had come from Ulster in "the good ship, George and Ann," landing at Philadelphia, September 4, 1729, after being on the Atlantic 118 days. This was a slow voyage, even in those days of sailing vessels, and yet it was not unusual. As in many other instances among the Ulster people, Pennsylvania was only a temporary home. The country west and southwest of the metropolis. as far as the Susquehanna and the Maryland line, was now well-peopled, ac- cording to the standard of that agricultural age. Land was relatively high in price, and so the newcomers, if they had to move inland to the advance line of settlement ,often thought they might as well look for homes in "New Virginia." John Lewis, a kinsman to the McDowells, had founded in 1732 the nucleus of the Augusta settlement, and by this time several hundred of the Ulster people had located around him. Religion was not free in Virginia, but it was doubtless the belief of the newcomers that the planters of Tidewater, who were the rulers of the colony, would not deem it wise to molest them in their adherence to the Presbyterian faith.

To afford the reader some idea of what Pennsylvania was in 1729, we give a synopsis of a letter written about that time by a young man to his sister in Ireland.

The writer pronounces Pennsylvania the best country in the world for tradesmen and working people. Land was twenty-five cents to $2.50 an acre, according to quality and location, and was rapidly advancing because of the large and varied immigration. His father, after a long and cautious search, made a

A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTS, VIRGINIA

choice alment thirty miles from Philadelphia. For 500 acres of prime land. inclusive of a small log house, a clearing of twenty acres, and a young orchard. the purchase price was $875.00. In the meantime the father had rented a place and put 200 acres in wheat, a crop that commanded fifty cents a bushel Oats were twenty eight cents a bushel, and corn was twenty-five cents. The laboring man had about twenty cents a day in winter. In harvest time he was paid thirty cents a day, this service including the best of food and a pint of rum. At the end of his swath he would find awaiting him some meat, either boiled or roasted, and some cakes and tarts. One to two acres could be plowed in a day, which was twice the speed that could be made in Ireland. A boy of tarteen years coukl hold the implement, which had a wooden mouldboard. Horses were smaller than in Ireland, but pacing animals could cover fifteen miles in an hour's time. At Philadelphia, then a little city of perhaps 5,000 inhabitants, all kinds of provisions were extraordinarily plentiful. Wednesdays and Saturdays were market days. Meat of any kind could be had for two and one-half cents a pound. Nearly every farmhouse had an orchard of apple. peach, and cherry trees. Wheat yielded twenty bushels to the acre and turnips 200. The writer corrects several false reports about the colony which had been carried to the other side of the ocean. He said there had as yet been no sickness in the family, and that not a member of it was willing to live in Ireland again. The cost of passage to the mother country was $22.50.

There must have been some regret among the Ulster people that it was not easy to secure a foothold in such a thriving district as the Philadelphia region. But America was a land of opportunity, whether on the coast or in the interior.

It was just after the MeDowells had established their camp on Linville Creek that an incident occurred which led to some change in destination. A man giving his name as Benjamin Borden* came along and arranged to spend the night with them. He told them he had a grant of 100,000 acres on the waters of the James, if he could ever find it. To the man who could show him the boundaries he would give 1,000 acres. John McDowell replied that he was a surveyor and would accept the offer. A torch was lighted. McDowell showed hi Surveying instruments, and Borden his papers. Each party was satisfied with the representations made by the other. At the house of John Lewis, where they rem med a few days, a more formal contract was entered into, the phraseology of which indicates that it was written by Borden The document reads as follows;

"The Tale i Armene, but erroneous, written Hurden. This spelling doubtless Indicates a very u bal pronunciation in the pioneer period But in their signatures, the mer bere of the family uled the spelling Borden.

THE BORDEN LAND GRANT

Sept. ye 19th 1737

This day John McDowell of Orange County in Virginia have agreed with Benjamin Borden of the same place that he the said McDowell would go now with his family and his father and his Brothers and make four Settlements in the said Bordens land which was granted to the said Borden on this side of the blue ridge in the fork of said River, and said McDowell has also agreed with the said Borden that he the sd McDowell would cut a good Road for Horses loaded with common Luggage and blaze the Trees all the way plain, and also the said McDowell has agreed with the said Benjamin Borden that he the said Me - Dowel! would go with the sd Borden and take account of the Settlement of Borden Lind on the River at the place called the Chimbly Stone and on Smith Creek and be evidence for the said Borden of all his settlements aforesaid, and in consideration of the premises the said Borden is to give one thousand acres of Land when he the said McDowell build in the sd fork of the sd River and the sd Borden is to give the said McDowell good lawfull Deed as the said Borden can get of the King clear of all charges excepting the quitrents & also the said Borden do here agree to give to these the other three Settlements six hundred acres of Land clear of all charges as before excepted and the said McDowell is to go down with a compt (count) of all the Settlements as aforesaid with Borden to his House by the tenth day of October next to go with said Borden to Colo Willis to price the Settlements as afore- said as witness my hand

BENJAMIN BORDEN

The lands at the Chimney Stone and on Smith Creek lay in the lower Shenandoah Valley.

Accompanied by John McDowell, Borden went on from Lewis's and camped at a spring where Midway now is. From this point the men followed the outlet of the spring to South River, and continued to the mouth of that stream, re- turning by a course. Borden could now see that he was within the boundaries of his grant. John McDowell built a cabin on the farm occupied by Andrew Scott in 1806. This was the first white man's settlement in the Borden Tract. The MeDowells had never heard of this grant, and it had been their intention to locate in Beverly Manor.

All Virginia west of the Blue Ridge was until the establishment of Augusta and Frederick in 1738 a part of Orange county, and the seat of local government was near the present town of Orange. But so far as treaty engagements had any force, the Borden Tract lay in the Indian country. It was not until 1744 that the treaty of Albany was superseded by that of Lancaster. The former recog- nized the Blue Ridge as the border of the Indian domain. The latter moved the boundary back to the Indian Road, already mentioned. The red men were within their rights when they hunted in the Valley, or passed through on war expeditions. In point of fact the whites were trespassers. But the American borderer has seldom stood back from this form of trespass whenever he was in contact with desirable wild land.

Borden remained about two years on his grant, spending a portion of the time with a Mrs. Hunter, whose daughter married a Green, and to whom Borden

A HISTORY OF ROCKARIINE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

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A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Part 3

Author: Morton, Oren Frederic, 1857-1926 Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Staunton, Va. : McClure Co. Number of Pages: 620

Author: Morton, Oren Frederic, 1857-1926
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Staunton, Va. : McClure Co.
Number of Pages: 620