USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 36
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Alexander Campbell, born 1750, died 1808, lived on Timber Ridge. He was
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SUPPLEMENTARY ITEMS
a trustee of Washington College, county surveyor, and owned a half interest in the Rockbridge Alum. He was the father of Harvey D. Campbell, Ph. D., professor in Washington and Lee, and grandfather of Prof. John L. Campbell.
The Rev. Adam Rankin went from this county to Kentucky, and the first book published in that state was his volume, "A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery." (1793.)
Before Rockbridge Alum was developed, people were allowed to camp there and at Cold Sulphur Spring to use the waters. Cold Sulphur burned, and the ground is now owned by the Alleghany Inn.
Two United States senators were elected November 5, 1918, from the Gay and McCormick families. John H. Gay was the pioneer of the Gays in Mis- souri. He was the father of William T., and grandfather of John B., the million- aire. E. J. Gay, born in 1816, was worth $12,000,000.
"Jimmy" Blair was born in Augusta in 1761, and went to the Waxhaw settle- ment in South Carolina. When nineteen years old he rode back as far as Fort Defiance to arouse the patriots to meet Ferguson. His father was Colbert Blair, a Quaker, who left Pennsylvania about 1750 to get away from military influence. After 1771 the family moved south, but the four sons were in the Continental army. Colonel James Blair was known in verse and story as the "Rebel Rider." He settled in Habersham county, Georgia, and married a sister to Colonel Benja- min Cleaveland.
The father of Davy Crockett kept a drover's stand on the road from Ab- ingdon, Virginia, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Jacob Siler, a German, was moving to Rockbridge with a drove of cattle, and hired Davy, then a boy and very poor, to help drive the cattle to the new home, three miles from the Natural Bridge. Davy was treated well and paid five or six dollars. Siler coaxed the boy to stay, and he remained about five weeks, although distressed at being put in the position of disobeying his father. Then three wagons, belonging to Dunn, who knew the Crocketts, came along. The drivers promised to take Davy home if he would join them at daybreak at a tavern seven miles ahead, and also promised to protect him if he were pursued. The boy got up at three o'clock in the morning and walked in eight inches of snow to the tavern, arriving in time.
Jesse B., daughter of Senator Thomas H. Benton, was born at Cherry Grove, in 1824, and married General John C. Fremont. She wrote "Souvenirs of My Time," "The Story of the Guard," "A Year of American Travel," and "The Way and The Will."
Hugh Campbell Wallace, ambassador to France, is a scion of the Wallace family of Rockbridge.
Richard G. Dunlap, a brother to William C. Dunlap, was minister to the United States from the Republic of Texas. He was of the Calfpasture Dunlaps.
30-1
A HISTORY OF ROCKBRING,I. COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Catherine Givens, who married James E. . 1. Gibbs, was a daughter of Sam- uel Givens, born 1793, and twenty years clerk of Nicholas county, of which he was also a sheriff. Robert, the father of Samuel, was born in Bath county, 1765, and was a member of the House of Delegates. He married Margaret, a daughter of Archibald and Sarah (Clark ) Elliott, and was a son of William Givens, born 1740, and his wife, Agnes Bratton. William was the youngest son of Samuel the immigrant, who settled on Middle River.
Jolin R. S. Sterrett was born at Rockbridge Baths, March 4, 1851, which is also the place of his burial. He was a son of Robert D. and Nancy S .. (Sit- lington ) Sterrett, and his education was completed in Germany where he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Munich, 1850. He was professor of Greek at Miami University, the University of Texas, Amherst College, and Cornell University. He conducted various archaeological tours to Asia Minor and Greece, and was one year at the head of the American School of Classical Studies at AAthens, Greece. Doctor Sterrett was a member of several learned societies and wrote much on archeological subjects.
William McC. Morrison, D. D., was born near Lexington. November 10, 1867, and was graduated from Washington and Lee and from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1896 he was ordained and went as a missionary to the Congo Free State. Hle there exposed the atrocities perpetrated on the natives by order of the king of the Belgians, and was very in- strumental in having the Free State placed under the direct control of the Bel- gian government. In this cause he appeared before the British Parliament. On his return to America in 1906 he edited a paper and further exposed the atroci- ties. He was sued for libel but acquitted. Doctor Morrison traveled extensively in Africa, and was the first man to reduce the Baluba language to a written form Of this tongue he published a grammar and a dictionary. His wife died 11 .Africa in 1910.
ALI XANDER MANUIT GLASGOW.
Spure Glasgow, as he was generally known, was born on South River, five miles cart of Lexington, on October 24, 1820, at the home of his father, where Le way brought up and lived all his life, as a planter, and died August 4, 1804
His father, John Glasgow, son of Arthur Glasgow both of whom were frommment citizens of Rockbridge-on March 9. 1815, married Martha MacNutt. dieter of Alexander and Rachel Grig by Mac Nutt.
" The remainder of this chapter is contribute ! by his daughter. Fhzabeth Glasgow MacCorkle
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Arthur Glasgow was born in 1750, a descendant of Earl Glasgow, of Scot- land, from which country Arthur emigrated to this country.
Governor A. Gallatin MacNutt, whose two administrations as Governor of Mississippi were marked by their efficient progressiveness, was an uncle on his maternal side.
The old Glasgow home, "Tuscan Villa," has been in the family since the original grant and is one of the few in the county-if, indeed, there be any- which remains in the possession of the heirs of the original grantee.
This is a part of a tract which was granted by the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia to his ancestor, John MacNutt, in 1768.
His grandfather, Arthur Glasgow, fought in the battle of Cowpens as a Revolutionary soldier.
His grandmother, Rachael Grigsby MacNutt, was a woman of unusual character and ability. She was left a widow at about forty years of age with thirteen children, all of whom she reared and educated. Her sons reflected credit upon her and upon their country. Her daughters married prominent men and as wives and mothers reflected the sterling character of their mother.
His great uncle, Colonel Alexander MacNutt, was a gentleman of liberal education, fine mind and sterling character.
King George II received Colonel MacNutt, who carried letters from Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, and for his service and gallantry in the face of the enemy, in the battle of Sandy Creek with the Indians, knighted him and present- ed him with a dress sword. He was later Governor of Nova Scotia.
This sword is today retained in the possession of heirs of the subject of this sketch.
When on his raid through the Valley and Lexington in 1864, General Hunt- er and his forces took much property-silver and other property-from the old Glasgow home, among which was this sword. Fortunately, years after the war, it was located and Mr. Glasgow was able to recover its possession.
Mr. Glasgow entered Washington College, from which he was graduated with the degrees of A. B. and B. L.
He was a gentleman of the old school, of unquestionable character, high ideals, all his life a planter, and public spirited. He was active in all public mat- ters, a great reader, and well informed.
As one of the first judges of Rockbridge county, he served with his associates, with rare credit to his profession and his people. It is said of those first judges who composed the County Court that they were governed, in rendering their decisions by sound common sense, rather than by decided cases and technical rules of evidence.
Appeals from their decisions were rarely ever taken, and their decisions were usually affirmed if appealed from.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRUIN.F. COUNTY, VIRGINIA
It was through this service that he came to be known as Squire Glasgow.
Being beyond an age for active service at the front in the Civil War, he joined the Home Guard, in which he was commissioned captain. In addition to) his military service, he bent every effort in producing and supplying necessities for the forces in the field.
Among his private papers are orders from headquarters concerning the movements of the Home Guards, receipts for supplies furnished the Army ot Northern Virginia, numerous reports and letters of historical interest-all ev- dencing his spirit of service and patriotism.
Of rare interest, among his private papers is a pardon granted him by Pres- ident Andrew Johnson. The pardon is signed by President Johnson, dated July 19, 1865, and sealed with the Great Seal of the United States.
Squire Glasgow had been convicted by the local carpet-bag administration of an alleged violation of law in not giving freedom to a former slave. Upon a review of the facts, the President granted the above pardon.
After his mother's death, to whom his life was affectionately devoted, he lived many years as a bachelor, but late in life married Laura B. Mackey, of Rockbridge county, daughter of Henry Mackey, and Nancy Hamilton.
They had issue: Alexander MacNutt, Jr., John Henry, Elizabeth Vance, Lucy G, Mary Thompson, and Otelia MacNutt.
His death left the young widow and children to be reared and educated. Mrs. Glasgow possessed those talents of character and business which alone, in adversity, enabled her to rear and educate her children.
The boys were educated at Washington and Lee, the girls at Mary Baldwin Seminary in Staunton, Virginia, and the State Normal School at Farmville, Virginia.
Mr. Glasgow was a Presbyterian and an elder in that church at his death.
Ilis life was an integral part of the history of Rockbridge, to whose people and interests he was devoted.
McCormick Homestead, Walnut Grove Farm, Rockbridge County. Virginia
XXXVIII
ROCKBRIDGE INVENTIONS
THE MCCORMICK REAPER-GIBBS AND HIS SEWING MACHINE-OTHER ROCKBRIDGE INVENTIONS
I. THE MCCORMICK REAPER .*
The first successful reaping machine and the prototype of all harvesting machines now in use the world over was invented and constructed by Cyrus Hall McCormick at the forge on his father's farm in Rockbridge County. The McCormick homestead, "Walnut Grove," is situated on the northern edge of the county near Steele's Tavern, and part of the farm extends over into the adjoin- ing county of Augusta. In this remote community was invented the instrument which wrought the greatest change in agriculture that has ever taken place, and which has affected profoundly the economic life of the world. Rockbridge county has given birth to many distinguished men, but the one Rockbridge name that has gone around the world, that is known today in every civilized land, is that of Cyrus Hall McCormick, the inventor of the reaper. In every country of Europe, in Asiatic Russia, in Persia, in India, in Australia, in South Africa, and in South America, wherever the harvest is bountiful, the invention of this Rockbridge boy is used in gathering it in.
The McCormicks were of Scotch-Irish stock, and Cyrus was of the fourth generation in America. IIis great-grandfather came from Ulster to Pennsylvania during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, and his grandfather, who moved to the Valley of Virginia, fought for American independence at Guilford Courthouse. Cyrus's father, Robert McCormick, was a man of some education, fond of reading and of astronomy, and greatly interested in mechanical pursuits. Ife owned several farms, aggregating about 1,800 acres, two grist-mills, two sammills, a distillery, and a blacksmith shop. He was a skilled worker in wood and iron, and invented among other things a hempbrake, a bellows, and a threshing machine.
Cyrus was born in 1809. He inherited his father's talents, and from his earliest youth was associated with him in his mechanical experiments. John Cash, a neighbor of the McCormick family, wrote in after years: "Cyrus was a natural mechanical genius, from a child, as I have heard ; from the time I knew him he was working at mechanical things, and invented the best hillside plow ever used in this country." At the age of fifteen he began his efforts to solve
*This portion of the present chapter was written by Doctor John H. Latané, of Johns Hopkins University.
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A HISTORY (11 ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
the problem of harvesting grain by making for himself a cradle which he could easily swing in the field. His attention was drawn to the problem of inventing a reaping machine by his father, who began his experiments on a horse reaper in 1816 when Cyrus was seven years of age.
The following description of the elder McCormick's experiments was pub- lished originally in the Farmers' Advance, a journal controlled by Cyrus, and was therefore probably written either by Cyrus or with his approval :
The elder McCormick ( Robert) was the inventor and patentee of several valuable machines, among which were those for threshing, hydraulic hemp-breaking, etc. In 1816 he devised a reaping machine with which he experimented in the harvest of that year, and when bafiled and disappointed in his experiments, he laid it aside and did not take it up again until the summer of 1831. He then added some improvements to it, and again tested its operation in a field of grain on his farm, when he became so thoroughly convinced that the principle upon which it was constructed could never be practically successful in cutting any promiscuous crop of grain as it stands in the fields, that he at once determined to abandon all further efforts at making it a success. The radical defect in his machine was that it sought to cut the grain as it advanced upon it in a body, by a series of stationary hooks placed along the front edge of the frame work, having an equal number of perpin- dicular cylinders revolving over and against the edge of the hooks, with pins arranged on the periphery of the cylinders to force the stalks of grain across the edges of the hooks, and so carry the grain in that erect position to the stubble side of the machine, there to drop it in a continuous swath. These different separations of the grain at the different hooks along the front edge of the frame work, for such subsequent delivery in swath at the side of the machine, especially in a crop of tangled grain, were found to be impracticable "
In Cyrus's application of January 1, 1848, for an extension of his original patent, he refers to his father's machine and says: "By his experiment in the harvest of 1831 he became satisfied that it would not answer a valuable purpose notwithstanding it cut well in straight wheat. Very soon after my father abandoned his Machine I first conceived the idea of cutting upon the principle of mine, viz: with a vibrating blade operated by a crank and the grain supported at the edge while cutting by means of fixed pieces of wood or iron projections before it (I think these pieces were of iron in 1831, but if not, iron was used for them certainly in the harvest of 1832). A temporary experimental Machine was immediately constructed, and the cutting partially tried with success, in cut- ting without a reel, a little wheat left standing for the trial; whereupon, the Machine was improved, and the red which I had in the meantime discovered- attached and soon afterwards (the same harvest ) a very successful experiment was made with it in cutting oats in a field of Mr. John Steele, neighbor to my father. The Machine at the time of this experiment contained all the essential parts that were embraced in the patent of June 21. 1834. It had the platform ; the straight sickle with a vibrating action by a crank ; the fingers, or stationary support to the cutting, at the edge of the blade, and projecting forward into the
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grain : the reel; and the general arrangement by which the machine was (about) balanced upon two wheels, perhaps (9/10) nine-tenths of the whole weight being thrown upon the one behind the draught, thereby attaching the horses in front and at one side without the use of a separate two-wheeled cart, for the purpose of controlling the running of the Machine; and at the same time causing the Machine (upon its two wheels ) to accommodate itself to the irregularities of the ground-which construction I claim, (and which Hussey adopted )."
This statement of the connection between the labors of Robert and Cyrus is borne out by the statements of various contemporaries and by the general tra- dition in the community where the McCormicks lived. William T. Rush, an intelligent neighbor, wrote out his personal recollections and impressions in 1885 as follows: "I have heard repeatedly all about Robert McCormick building a reaper long before C. H. ever thought of it. The old gentleman was working on it for quite a time. I never saw one of these old machines designed by Mr. Rob't McCormick, but his son Wm. S. (a brother of Cyrus) has often showed me most of the main pieces and explained them to me so that I was quite familiar with its plan and general build and operation. In the first place, it was pushed forward by the horses harnessed behind it. It had a small platform to receive the grain, but no rcel, as a reel did not seem necessary to its plan. His cutting apparatus was like this. He had a series of reaping sickles, half moon shape, fastened to be stationary on a wooden bar. These sickles were supposed to do the cutting and the grain was brought into contact with and pressed against them by a series of perpendicular cylinders with spikes on their surface. These cylinders got motion from the traveling wheel and when they revolved, the spikes on their surface, which were fourteen inches long and somewhat curved or bent, forced the standing grain against the edge of the stationary sickle hooks. I was thirteen years old in 1833.
"This machine did not work, and was by himself pronounced a failure. The old gentleman made successive attempts in vain, and William S. said he never made any models, but built full sized machines without calculation. At last Mr. Robert gave the matter up as impracticable. Cyrus then took it up, and then the old gentleman gave up doing any more with it and left it all to Cyrus. Cyrus first made a model on a small scale of the plan he designed, to see how it would work.
"One day, after Cyrus had got his machine in good working shape, and had begun to sell two or three of them, I was at the old Homestead and his father was fixing up some gears (harness) that we might go out to set it at work, for I acted as agent in selling and setting up the machines in the early days, and we were talking together about its success, when the father made this remark : 'Well, I am proud that I have a son who could accomplish what I failed to do.'
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These were his words, and he really was proud of his son's success. There is no doubt that old Robert McCormick first conceived the idea of making a machine to cut grain by horse power, and that but for this. C Il. perhaps would never have thought of making a machine, and I am glad that in all that has been ever written on this subject, this much credit has been given to Mr. Robert McCormick. While this is true, it is also true that but for the ingenuity and perseverance of C. II. McCormick, there never would have been a McCormick reaper, for. as I have said, his father's machine was a total failure."
The above facts in regard to the connection between the work of Robert and of Cyrus have been stated at some length, because half a century lutter Leander J. McCormick, a brother of Cyrus, undertook to prove that the reaper which Cyrus patented was really invented by his father Robert, and certain members of Leander's family have continued even to the present day to make assertions to the same effect. No suggestion that Robert, and not Cyrus, was the inventor of the McCormick Reaper is to be found except in the statements solicited by Leander after the dissolution of his partnership with Cyrus and published after the death of Cyrus. Leander had developed a bitter and re- lentless animosity toward his brother. This is clearly shown in his Memorial of Robert McCormick, published in 1885, the year after Cyrus died. This so- called "memorial" is in reality an attack on the fame and character of Cyrus. It undertakes to show that there was nothing very new after all in the machine patented by Cyrus, that most of its parts were known before, and that Cyrus merely brought together in successful combination features from the inventions of others. The so-called affidavits collected by Leander from neighbors and contemporaries of Robert fifty years after the invention of the reaper may be explained by the well known fact that Robert worked on a reaper for years and did invent a machine that would cut straight grain on level ground under favor- alle conditions, but this machine was constructed on a principle totally different from that of Cyrus It was not a difficult task fifty years afterwards for Leander to create a confusion in the minds of these old neighbors of Robert between his efforts and the successful effort of Cyrus, and to get them to sign statements to the effect that Robert invented the reaper patented by Cyrus. Furthermore. Robert superintended for several years the manufacture of reapers for Cyrus, and no doubt some of Leander's witnesses remembered secing him at work on the e reapers. Cyrus left the community as a young man and visited it only for short time and at rare intervals. He was more or less of a stranger in later years in his own county, while Leander frequently visited his old home and went about the county looking up his old friends and relatives. He reminded people of the years his father had devoted to efforts to invent a reaper, and convinced some of them that the father deserved the credit for whatever success the son had achieved.
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Leander was unable to produce a shred of contemporary evidence to sub- stantiate his case. If there were the slightest truth in the contention that Robert was the real inventor of the reaper, we would naturally expect to find some evi- dence of it in the contemporary newspaper references to the reaper, but no such evidence has been brought to light. On the contrary, the Lexington and Staunton papers contained frequent notices of the reaper and long accounts of field trials, and yet in none of these accounts do we find the slightest suggestion of a doubt in anybody's mind that the machine was the invention of Cyrus. In the various suits over the reaper the opponents of Cyrus denied the priority of his invention and attacked its originality, but no one ever claimed that he had fraudulently procured a patent for a machine invented by his father, when the mere suggestion of such a thing would have served their purpose so well.
One of the serious difficulties in the way of inventing a reaping machine was the shortness of the harvest season and the limited period of time during which experiments could be made. Defects developed in one harvest could not as a rule be remedied in time for the improvement or new device to be tested in the same harvest. According to all the testimony, however, Cyrus constructed and tested his machine in the same harvest in which his father's last machine was tried and abandoned. Cyrus had been working with his father from child- hood, had aided in the construction of his machine, and had noted all its defects and witnessed its failure. The solution of the problem to which he had devoted so much time and attention probably came to him quickly, and he lost no time in putting it to the test. From his father's abandonment of his machine to the end of the oat harvest he probably had not more than a month. He did the work at his father's forge, though the cutting blade, one of the most important features of the new machine, was made according to Cyrus's design by a skilled black- smith, John McCown, who lived on South River. In connection with the Patent Extension Case McCown made the following sworn statement December 31, 1847, in regard to his part in the construction of Cyrus's machine :
I reside some twelve or thirteen miles from the residence of Wm. S. McCormick, son of Robt. McCormick, decd. During the harvest of Eighteen Hundred & Thirty-One, Cyrus H., son also of Robt. McCormick decd., applied to me to make him a cutting blade for a Reaping Machine, which he was then constructing to be operated by horse-power; and by his directions I did accordingly make one about four feet long with a straight serrated or sickle edge, with a hole in one end of it for the purpose of being attached-as I was told and afterwards found to be the case-to a crank, which gave it a vibratory action. The machine was accordingly put in operation that harvest as I was informed, but did not see it. The present residence of Wm. S. McCormick was then the residence of his father and family."
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