USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 32
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Nelson. Alexander L. Nelson, a native of Augusta, was graduated from Washington College in 1846 and succeeded General D. H. Hill in the chair of mathematics. Professor Nelson, who was a great grandson of Sampson Mathews, died in 1910 at the age of eighty-three. His wife was Elizabeth H. Moore.
Nichols. General Edward Nichols was born at Petersburg. 1858. He was graduated with high honors from the Virginia Military Institute in 1878, and took a post-graduate course in engineering. He entered the legal profession but left it to take the chair in engineering at the Institute in 1882. From 1890 until 1208 he held the chair of mathematics. In this interval he became the author of an "Analytical Geometry," and "A Differential and Integral Calculus." He is the present Superintendent of the Institute. The first wife of General Nichols was Edmonia L., a daughter of Doctor Livingston Waddell ; the second is Mary E., the oldest daughter of the late William F Junkin Her first hushand was Lawrence Rust, I.I .. D., of Loudoun county
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Parsons. Colonel Henry C. Parsons, several years owner of the Natural Bridge, was a native of Vermont. He was the author of "The Reaper," a vol- ume of poems. Colonel Parsons was murdered at Clifton Forge, June 29, 1894, by a railroad man.
Paul. Captain Audley Paul was a son of Hugh Paul, a Presbyterian min- ister, who migrated from county Armagh, Ulster, to Chester county, Pennsyl- vania. He was a very useful officer, and was in military service nearly all the time from 1754 until the close of the Revolution. He led his company several times against the Indians. He was under Washington in the battle known as Braddock's Defeat, and he endured the hardships of the Big Sandy expedition. His son relates in 1839 that his father received no compensation for these ser- vices. Captain Paul lived near the line of Botetourt. His brother John became a Roman Catholic priest in Maryland.
Partons. The Paxtons, a very numerous connection in this county, fall in- to two groups, the progeny of two brothers. One of these settled on South River, the other south of Lexington. The Paxtons have been a prosperous folk and have stood high in the community. Several of the earlier generations were wealthy, aristocratic planters, and unusually heavy growers of hemp. Not a few of the descendants have attained prominence in literary, professional, and business circles.
Major James Paxton, a son of William and his wife Elenor Hays, was from 1818 until 1828 commandant of the arsenal at Lexington. He then retired to an estate at the mouth of the Cowpasture owned by his father-in-law, John Jordan. Here he died in 1866 at the age of eighty-five. Major Paxton was a great leader and scholar. A shadow came over his life through his killing of a Captain Dade in a duel.
Colonel James H., a son of Colonel William Paxton, was a graduate of Washington College in the class of 1833. He delighted in the classics and was the foremost Latin scholar in Rockbridge. At his home, "Mountain View," he maintained for twelve years a classical school, and was a friend of public schools. Colonel Paxton served a term in the Senate of Virginia. He died in 1902 at the great age of ninety years. His wife was Kate Glasgow, and his children were Nellie, Kate G., Archibald H., Robert (a captain in the United States army), William T., Professor James H., and J. Gordan.
John D. Paxton, who died in 1868 at the age of eighty-four, was also a grad- nate of Washington College. For some years he was a missionary in Europe. His sermons number 5769. He was a most vehement opponent to slavery, and in 1833 he published a volume against it. He also published a volume on his travels in the Eastern continent. A memoir of Mr. Paxton was written by his widow. His nephew, John W., a son of James H. Paxton, was an eminent phy- sician.
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& HISTORY OF ROCKERIIM! COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Elisha F. Paxton, the one brigadier directly contributed by Rockbridge 10 the Confederate army, was a nephew to Governor MeNutt, of Mississippi, and was born in 1828. He graduated from Washington College in 1845, from Yale College in 1847, and completed a law course at the University of Virginia in 1849. General Paxton was an original seccessiomst, and at the outset of the war was a lieutenant in the Rockbridge Rifles. After serving as aide-de-camp to Stonewall Jackson, he took command of the Stonewall Brigade. November 2 1862. He was killed at the head of his troops in the battle of Chancellorsville. May 2, 1862, just one day before his commander was disabled. Indifferent eye- sight had caused him to abandon the law and turn to farming. The wife of General Paxton was E- 11. White. His children are Matthew W. the pres- ent editor of the Rockbridge County Newes, and the present dean of Rockbridge journalism, John G., an attorney of Kansas City, and Frank of San Saba county, Texas. James G., an elder brother of General Paxton, was killed .August 6. 1870, in the train wreck at Jerry's Run on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.
Alexander S., a son of Thomas P. Paxton, was the author of Memory Days, a delightful sketch of antebellum times in Rockbridge. The story cen- ters about an old field school near the entrance to Arnold's Valley.
Pouque. William T., son of John B., and Elizabeth ( Stuart ) Poague, came out of Washington College in the class of 1857, and entered the practice of law in St Louis. In the Confederate army he rose from the rank of private to that of lieutenant-colonel. He was with General Lee in his Greenbrier campaign, and was in all of Stonewall Jackson's battles. In 1885 he became treasurer of the Virginia Military Institute. Other positions of honor and trust were held by him.
Preston. The Preston group-family is noteworthy for the exceptional num- ber of eminent persons it includes. Colonel William Preston, a soldier and sur- geon of the Dunmore and Revolutionary wars, was the only son of John, the immigrant and his wife, a sister to Colonel James Patton Thomas 1 ... tenth child of Colonel William, was an alumnus of Liberty Hall Academy, a lawyer and died in military service in the war of 1812 Colonel John T 1. Preston, son of Captain Thomas 1 ... began active life as a lawyer, but for forty-three years was professor of language and literature in the Virginia Military Institute, a school that he helped in no small degree to establish. During forty years he was known as the "town speaker," yet he was somewhat unsocial and did not always choose to be on the popular side. All his seven some were educated at Washing- ton College His first wife was Sally 1. Caruthers, his second was Margaret. the eldest daughter of President Junkin, of the same institution. The children who reached adult age were Thomas 1 . Franklin, William C. John A., Eliza- beth, George J, and Herbert R. Thomas 1 .. , and John AN, became ministers.
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Franklin and William C., were killed in the war, the first at New Market, the second at Second Manassas. Franklin, the best linguist of his age in the state, was assistant professor of Greek in Wahington College. George J., and Herbert R., were the children of the second wife. Both settled in Baltimore, the first as a physician, the second as a lawyer.
Reid. Andrew Reid, of Mulberry Hill, married Magdalene, daughter of Samuel McDowell, and had three sons and eight daughters. He was the first clerk of Rockbridge. Samuel McDowell Reid, one of the three sons, was born in 1790, and was an adjutant under his cousin, Colonel James McDowell, in the war of 1812. He succeeded his father as county clerk, after serving a time as deputy. He was a founder of the Franklin Society, more than fifty years trustee of Washington College and Ann Smith Academy, a chief organizer of the Rockbridge County Fair, and was mainly instrumental in opening the North River to Lexington. He died in 1869. From his marriage to Sarah E. Hare, only two children, Mary L., and Agnes, grew to maturity. The former married Professor James J. White.
Robinson. John Robinson came from Ireland to Rockbridge in 1770, when seventeen years of age. He learned the trade of weaver, but by turning horse- trader and speculating in soldiers' certificates, he became able to purchase Hart's Bottom in 1779. He enlarged his landed property to 800 acres, exclusive of his holdings on the Cowpasture. He was not highly successful as a planter, although he became owner of sixty slaves. It was mainly by the distilling of whiskey that he accumulated his fortune. Mr. Robinson was without an heir, and decided to devote his entire estate to educational uses. In 1820 he rescued the Ann Smith Academy from a sheriff's sale by taking up a judgment against it of about $3,000. His will begins by saying that "John Robinson, a native of the county of Armagh in the north of Ireland, but now a resident of Hart's Bottom, in the county of Rockbridge and the state of Virginia, having migrated to America just in time to participate in its Revolutionary struggle (which I did in various situations) and having since that period by a long, peaceful, and prosperous intercourse with my fellow citizens amassed a considerable cstate which I am desirous of rendering back to them, upon terms most likely to conduce to their essential and permanent interests, do therefore will and ordain " He endowed a chair of geology and biology, and a clause in the will provides that two medals shall be given ycarly. With the exception of General Washington lic was the first considerable benefactor of the college. Mr. Rob- inson died in 1826, and in 1855 a monument to his memory was erected on the college campus.
Ruffner. Henry Ruffner, son of Colonel David Ruffner of Page county, and grandson of Peter Ruffner, a German immigrant, was born in Page in 1789.
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He was educated at Washington College from which he was graduated in 1817. Two years later he entered the same college as a professor, and also was li- censed to the Presbyterian ministry. From 1836 to 1848 he was the college president. He then retired to a farm on the Kanawha and ceased preaching a ycar before his death, which took place in 1861. Princeton gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Doctor Ruffner was an occasional contributor to the religieus press. His wife was Sarah, daughter of William Lyle of "Oakley" on Mill Creek.
William Henry Ruffner, son of Henry Ruffner, was born at Lexington in 1824, and was graduated from Washington College in 1842. Ile likewise entered the Presbyterian ministry, but his only pastorate was in Philadelphia in 1849- 51. His leanings were very much in the direction of educational affort and scientific study. He devised the free school system adopted by Virginia in 1870, drafted the organization of the school that became the Virginia Poly- technic Institute, and organized the Farmville State Normal School, of which he was president three years. Doctor Ruffner twice declined to be made a college president, and in 1887 retired to "Tribrook," one mile from Lexington. Hle now gave his attention to geologic research and reports on mineral proper- ties. Several volumes, inclusive of Charity and the Clergy, came from his pen, and he was a contributor to scientific periodicals. He died in 1908. 11is wife was Ilarriet G. Gray, of Harrisonburg.
Salling. A mist of romance attaches itself to the name of John Peter Sal- ling. That individual lived in the heroic age of American history, and therefore it is not strange that some embellishment has crept into the narrative contained in the volumes written on border history. It is represented that Salling explor- ed the Valley of Virginia as early as 1726, had a long and most eventful captivi- ty among the red men, and after his restoration was the pathfinder who drew the attention of John Lewis and others to the "New Virginia" beyond the Blue Ridge. Accepting the family tradition as being more trustworthy than the rhetorical tales we have alluded to, we arrive at the following as the most prob- able statement of the whole matter.
John Peter Salling was a weaver by trade, and was one of the few Germans who settled in Tuckahoe. Hearing of the new country beyond the mountains. and being of a venturesome turn, Salling went on a journey of exploration. He was so well pleased with the beautiful bottom just above Balcony Falls that he did not think it worth his while to go further. He returned to his home at or near Williamsburg and took steps to secure a morsel of this choice land. This was probably in 1741. It could scarcely have antedated the coming of the Mc- Dowells, since it would have been imprudent to make a solitary settlement forty miles from other people. Salling's carliest patent was not issued till 1746. A
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transfer of a portion of his land names 1741 as the date of patent, but no such deed appears to be on record. It would seem that the year of settlement rather than the year of patent is the one mentioned in the conveyance. We know that Salling was living here at the time of the McDowell battle in December, 1742. And since this incidental mention indicates that he was then at home, it would not seem that he was captured earlier than the following spring. While Salling and a companion were prospecting on the Roanoke, the former was taken by the Cherokees and remained a prisoner until 1745. He was being sent to France as a spy, the struggle known in America as King George's war not yet having come to a conclusion. The French vessel was captured by a British cruiser, and Salling was put ashore at Charleston, South Carolina. He now made his way back to Virginia, perfected his title to his land, went to live on it, and was not again disturbed.
Traditions agree that during his captivity, Salling was carried as far as the Mississippi and in some way fell into the hands of the French. The more florid occount adds that a squaw of Kaskaskia adopted him as a son; that he several times journeyed down the Father of Waters, and was purchased by the Spaniards as an interpreter; that he was taken to Canada, redeemed by the French governor, and turned over to the Hollanders, of New York.
Henry Ruffner states that John Salling had a brother, Peter Adam Sal- ling. This may have been the case, but Doctor Ruffner is incorrect in saying John was a single man. He had a wife named Ann, and at least five children. If there were two Sallings, it was the other who was a bachelor. John Salling, the only pioneer named in the records, had business dealings with the McDow- ells. That he was a man of force and consequence is manifest from his being commissioned an officer of militia. His will is dated Christmas day, 1754, and his death occurred shortly afterward, while he was still in the prime of life. He appears to have had no near neighbor of his own nationality. He spoke broken English, and his two daughters married Henry Fuller and Richard Burton. His sons, John and George Adam, had removed to North Carolina by 1760, probably because of the new Indian war, and only the third son, Henry. remained at Balcony Falls. The will, however, mentions an infant grandson of the name of John Salling. It also speaks of one Peter Crotingale as a tenant on one of his farms. The personality was appraised at $194.64, and it included four horses, four sheep, and twenty-two hogs. The last of the Sallings in Rockbridge was Peter A., who died without issue in 1856.
Saville. Abraham and Robert, sons of Samuel Saville, an immigrant from England, came to this country about 1770. The latter went with his family to Ohio. The former, who settled on the South Fork of Buffalo, is the ancestor of the Savilles of Rockbridge, although several of his own sons went to Ohio. The resident connection have generally been farmers or millwrights.
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Smith General Francis I. Smith was born at Norfolk, October IS, 1812, and was graduated with distinction from West Point in 1833. He was then placed in the artillery service, but soon resigned to accept the chair of mathe- matics in Hampden-Sidney College. The position was congenial and it was with some reluctance that he accepted a unanimous call to the superintendency of the newly organized Virginia Military Institute. His subsequent career is a part of the history of the institution over which he presided the extraordinarily long period of fifty years. The school was in the nature of an experiment when he became its head. He lived to witness an almost continuous growth, and to see it develop into the most famous military school in the United States with the single exception of West Point. General Smith died March 21, 1890, only three months after his retirement.
Stuart. Archibald Stuart left Ulster in 1731, and came to the Borden Tract in 1738, an amnesty having permitted him to send for his family. His wife, Janet, was a sister to the Reverend John Brown. Two sons were Thomas and Alexander, the latter born in 1735. Alexander was very tall and strong. and wickled a ponderous broadsword in the battle of Guilford, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. His son Archibald, who died in 1831 at the age of seventy-four, removed to Staunton in 1785. He was the father of Alexan- der II. H. Stuart, Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Fillmore. Robert Stuart of Rockbridge and Judge Alexander Stuart of Missouri were brothers to AArchibald, a grand on of whom was the dashing Confederate cavalry leader, General J. E. B. Stuart.
Taylor. Five brothers of the name of Taylor .- George, James, William. John, and Caufield-came from county Armagh, Ireland, and settled in Rock- bridge, 1760, investing their money in lands and slaves. John was killed in bat- tle. April 25, 1778. Caufield was taken prisoner, but liberated after the sur- render of Cornwallis. The four surviving brothers lived in a fine valley at the Head of Cedar and are buried there. The wife of William was Janet Paul, said to have been a sister to the famous John Paul Jones of the Revolution Admiral Jones was a Paul and added the name of his foster parent to his sur- name by birth. George and James married daughters of Captain Audley Paul The Pauls were conscientiously opposed to slavery, and imparted their scruples to the families of these two brothers. Stuart, one of the youngest of the four- tern children of James, freed the last of the negroes in that branch of the fam- ils In d'ang so he gave cach freedman $50.
Hugh P. Tayler, a bachelor son of Jame, was an attorney and surveyor, and sluned at Rockbridge Baths A love affair inspired him to write a beau- tiful joem He also wrote "Hugh Paul Taylor's Sketches," a historical work
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covering the period, 1740-1781. Much of the material was derived from his maternal grandfather, Captain Audley Paul.
Stuart Taylor, who lived on the brow of Hogback Mountain, a few miles from Rockbridge Baths, was a tanner and currier by trade and a mechanical genius as well. Like his distinguished son, he was tall, large in frame, and fear- less. Several of his hunting exploits have been related to us. Once he was at- tacked by wildcats, and another time he had to get upon a fallen tree the better to defend himself against some half-wild hogs. In each instance he was in much danger. He did not hesitate to go into a bear's den in the winter season, knowing that if the animal were not molested while in its lair, it would rush out after get- ting awake. His colored man, Joe, was left near the entrance to shoot the bear as it ran out. But on one occasion the bear slipped down a hillside in Goshen Pass, Taylor and his dogs clinging to the animal's shaggy back. Man, bear, and dogs slid out some distance on the ice which then covered North River, and the hunter dispatched the brute with his hunting-knife. Stuart Taylor was not a man of education, yet was a forceful local preacher of the Methodist com- munion. His wife, Martha E. Hickman, to whom he was married in 1819, was a most useful woman in her neighborhood and highly respected.
William, the oldest son of Stuart Taylor, was born May 2, 1821. He grew to manhood, a giant in size and strength, and could win people to his side by his feats at a log-rolling. At the age of nineteen he was converted at Shaw's camp- ground, and he joined the Methodist Church at the Lambert mecting house on the Lexington circuit. A year later he was attending school in Lexington. A year later yet he taught the Rapp school on the South Branch of Buffalo. Al- ready he had been licensed as a local preacher and occasionally conducted di- vine service. When admitted to the Baltimore Conference in 1845, his presiding elder announced to the assemblage that "here is a young man whom the sun never finds in bed." His first field was in Highland county. After six years of circuit work, he was assigned to mission effort in Baltimore and Washington. Already he was very successful as an evangelist, and his unusual gift of song was a won- derful help to him. In 1851 the young minister was sent to California. The three years preceeding had made that state cosmopolitan and a scene of almost unprecedented lawlessness. The Sabbath was a carnival of crime and immorality. San Francisco, a city of tents and shacks, was perhaps the most corrupt spot on earth. The choice proved very wise. Taylor's powerful physique, his abounding faith, his tactfulness, and his rare gifts as singer and preacher made him the man for the task. The Mission Board did not adequately understand the actual con- ditions in that land of high prices, but although Taylor's salary of $700 a year was entirely too low, he never complained, nor did he ask his friends in the East for a single dollar. He labored seven years in California, making a nation-
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wedle reputation as an evangelist. He could accomplish in a few hours what others were months in performing. Taylor next preached in every quarter of the United States and Canada, and made tours in Britain and other parts of Ieurope. He then visited South America, Africa, Malaysia. Australia, China. Ceylon, and Inda, two new conferences being the result in the country last named. In 1884 he was a delegate from India to the General Conference of the Methodist Ljui-copal Church, and was elected Bishop of Africa. This field he relinquished only because of advancing years. Bishop Taylor had preached more widely than any man of the Christian Church in any age. His leading road to influence among the heathen was through the children. But he was very successful in winning over the chiefs, and it was his design to span the Dark Continent with a chain of mission stations. His habits were simple. He use dalways a hard pillow, and his bedroom window was open, even in zero weather. At a late period in his life Biskop Taylor visited his native county and preached in crowded houses. Ilis brother Archibald and Andrew also entered the ministry, the former going to California. Bishop Taylor died in that state in 1902 at the age of enghty-one.
Tucker. John Randolph Tucker, son of Henry St. George Tucker, was born at Winchester, December 24, 1823. He was graduated from the University of Vir- ginia in 1844, and was admitted to the bar the following year. He settled in his native town for the practice of his profession and it remained his home until 1870, except that he was Attorney-General of Virginia in 1857-65. In 1870 he came to Lexington as professor of law and equity in Washington College. After four years of service in this field he was elected to Congress. He was re-elected for six successive terms. In the Forty-Eighth and Forty-Ninth congresses he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and he was eight years on the Com- mittee of Ways and Means. In 1887 Mr. Tucker returned to his professorship in Washington and Ice University, holling it until his death, February 13, 1897. Tucker Hall, one of the most imposing of the University buildings, is named in lis Tonor, Mr. Tucker was a genial, thoroughly trained gentleman, an orator of great power and was regarded as one of the very ablest men of the South. To him the law wara cience and in constitutional law he was a recognized authority. He was honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws by Harvard and Yale Univer- tie and by the College of William and Mary. In 1844 Mr Tucker was married to Lama I Powell, of London county The children of the comple were these : lowel, who died in youth ; Evelyn, wife of Wilmer Shields, of Mississippi ; Anne Il wife of William 1. McGuire of Winchester; Vagina B, wife of John Car- dad; Henry St G, of Lexington; Gertrude P. wife of Judge - Logan ; 1 Anm P. wife of E - M. Pendleton.
Henry St George Tucker, born 1853, took the degree of Master of Arts from Washington and Lee University in 1875 Two years later he settled as an attorney at Staunton, but in 1897 returned to Lexington, and resides on his estate of "Colalto" In 1880 Mr. Tucker went to Congress and remained four
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