USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 8
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Dr. George Parker, servant of Samuel McChesney, agrees, with the approval of the court, to pay McChesney 100 pounds for his freedom, on condition of being given a horse and saddle worth ten pounds, and drugs and medicines worth thirty pounds, and is to pay ten pounds a year for his board until the sum of 100 should be paid up. Parker is to keep the horse at his own expense.
1777
John Gilmore, John Lyle, and David Gray are captains.
Nat, an Indian boy in the custody of Mary Greenlee, complains that he is held in unlawful slavery. A stay is granted until Mrs. Greenlee's son in the Carolinas can be heard from. Meanwhile, Nat is hired out until it can be determined whether he is slave or free. The court considers that Mrs. Greenlee has treated him in an inhumane manner.
Zachariah Johnston and Andrew Moore, captains.
Liberty to inoculate for the smallpox is granted to the people of Staunton and for three miles around.
BOTETOURT ORDER-BOOK
1770-1777
Richard Woods is first high sheriff, and James McDowell and James MeGavock and John Bowyer are his undersheriffs. John Maxwell is sheriff in 1773.
James Bailey and Joseph Davis are constables on Buffalo, and William Hall on Cedar .- 1770.
Salary of king's attorney is 4000 pounds of tobacco, the equivalent of sixteen pounds thirteen shillings four pence, or $55.55 in Federal money.
Surveyors of roads, 1770: Audley Paul and Hugh Barclay, from Renick's to James Gilmore's ; James Simpson, from Gilmore's to Buffalo: John Paxton, from Buffalo to North River Ferry; James Templeton, from Buffalo ford to North River ; George Francisco, from Fork of road below Barclay's to the Buffalo; James Templeton, from ford of Buffalo to North River.
William McKee to take the tithables from the county line to the Buffalo and from mountain to mountain ; Benjamin Estill, from the Buffalo to the James and from moun- tain to mountain.
John Bowyer, John Maxwell, James Trimble, William MeKee, James McGavock, and Robert Poage are among the first justices.
Hugh Barelay has license to keep an ordinary-1770.
Wolf-heads, 173-1770.
Charles Given certifies that his left ear was bitten off by Francis McDonald-1771.
A HISTORY OF ROCKERIE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Elizabeth Colher agrees to serve her master, James Green, one year extra time, pro- uded he emily her as house-servant-1773.
Head tax. uxty -seven pounds of tobacco ($2.00) ; Trthables, 1494, of whom 229 are delinquest-1223
Allowance of $40.00 for furnishing courthouse with candles and firewood-1773.
Tavern rates. Warm dict with good meat, one shilling; cold diet, seven and one-half pesce; lodging in good bed with clean sheets, six pence: lodging with two or more in bed, four fence each ; grain, per gallon, six pence-1775.
Samuel Wallace, road surveyor frem Paxton's ford on North River to ford in Buffalo.
Benjamin Full and John Bowyer among the persons appointed to administer the oath of allegiance to the free white inhabitants, as per Act of Assembly; Estill for the com- fames of John Paxton and James Hall, Bowyer for the companies of William Paxton and Samuel Wallace-August 13, 1777.
Contract let for building a prison sixteen by twenty feet, logs squared to the dimensions of fourteen by fourteen inches to form the walls and the upper and lower floors.
VIII
STRIFE WITH THE RED MAN
AN EMPTY LAND-INDIAN MOUNDS-INDIAN MEADOWS-RELATIONS BETWEEN THE RACES- THE MCDOWELL FIGHT-BLOCKHOUSES-THE RENICK AFFAIR-THE KERR'S CREEK RAIDS-DUNMORE WAR-THE LONG HUNTERS
The Rockbridge area was a vacant land when found and explored by the whites. That such had always been its condition does not follow by any means. There have been inhabitants in America since a day that makes the voyage of Columbus seem as but an occurrence of last year. In the Western Hemisphere as in the Eastern, we may be sure that war, or pestilence, or some other catastrophe has here and there emptied a region of its human occupants.
It is true enough that the arrowheads, pipes, scrapers, and other relics, which have been numerously found in various localities, do not necessarily point to a period of settled occupation. Hunting operations continued for centuries, varied by an occasional tribal fight, are sufficient to account for these. It was possibly by hunters alone that the Indian path was made which may be seen on Jump Mountain opposite Wilson's Springs. It was possibly by hunters alone that the stone-pile on North Mountain was built up.
But all these suppositions are not enough to account for the mound which used to stand on the Hays Creek bottom, a very short distance below the mouth of Walker's Creek. At the time it was dug away and examined by Mr. Valen- tine, it was almost circular, averaging sixty-two feet in diameter at the base and forty feet on the flat top. The vertical height was then four and one-half feet, but the Gazette in 1876 speaks of it as having been ten or twelve feet high. The encroachments of cultivation had undoubtedly much diminished the original bulk. The excavators found eighty perfect skulls and more than 400 skeletons. In all instances the legs were drawn up and the arms folded across the breast. Shell-beads and pendants were found on the necks of twenty-eight of the skeletons. A few pieces of pottery and some other relies were found, and there were eight skeletons of dogs, several of these being almost perfect. The site is now completely leveled, and the exact spot is in danger of being forgotten.
To those who know something of the customs of the Red American, it is evident that this mound was a burial mound, and that near it was once a village. Indian huts were of very perishable materials, and it is not at all strange that no trace of the village can now be found, unless by a trained investigator. At the time of white settlement-about 1738-there may have been a very low cartli- ring, marking the site of a palisade, and this could soon have been destroyed
A HISTORY OF ROCKBRUINE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
by repeated plowings At all events, no recollection of such a ring seems to remain.
White people are very prone to imagine that the native mounds were built over the corpses of the braves slain in battle. But the Indian war party rarely comprise more than a few dozen men, and often it was exceedingly small. The victors would lose but a few of their number, if any, and these were buried in individual graves marked by little mounds of loose stones. The vanquished dead were left to be devoured by wild beasts. It is to be remembered that until a quite recem time the European nations held themselves to be under no obligation to bury the dead of a defeated army. The fact that many of the skeletons in the Hays Creek mound were of women and girls. and the conventional mode of interment, show that the burials distributed over a considerable period of time. . As to the age of the mound, there is no answer but conjecture. Earthworks tend to endure indefinitely, and in this instance the bones began to crumble on exposure to the air. This burial mound may have antedated the coming of the white man by several centuries.
A tradition of uncertain authenticity tells of a battle between Indians at the mouth of Walker's Creek. It further tells of a squaw who witnessed the fight from the end of Jump Mountain, and leaped over the precipice on seeing the fall of her companion. The tradition may be correct. The battle could not have resulted in the mound, though it may have resulted in the extinction of the village. The Indian's eyes were good, yet not keen enough to identify a man from the top of the precipice several miles away.
The Ulster people were very disputations, particularly as to the meaning of tests from the Bible. An old resident of Hay's Creek contended all his life as to the name of the tribe that built this mound. Ile made a solemn request to be buried on the full facing it, so that at the resurrection he might be the first one to see his theory vindicated.
Within the memory of men still hving, a mound stood near Glasgow close to the position of the lowest county bridge on North River. On the Buffalo was a burial mound No other earthmounds, extant or leveled, have been named to the writer. It is surprising that there is no knowledge of any mound on the button near Kert's Greck postoffice. Such a spot would have appealed to the Indian at a place of settlement
Mention has been made of the stone-heap on the very summit of North Mountain It stands close to the Lexington and Rockbridge Alum Turnpike It used to be twenty feet long, six feet wide, and four feet high, but the two Loles dug into it have lowered the height and disarranged the once nicely rounded top 'The pieces of rock are wholly of brown ironstone, such as is found abundantly on the western face of the mountain. Isaac Taylor, a Rockbridge
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STRIFE WITH THE RED MAN
man who went to Ohio, was told by an Indian that it was the work of a war party from the West. Each brave, while passing over, was to throw down a stone, and on the return each survivor was to pick one up, so that a count of the remaining ones might determine the loss. The expedition was disastrous and the heap remained quite intact. If the tradition be correct, it must apply to some other and smaller stone-pile. Before being tampered with, this mound must have contained several thousands of rock-fragments. Much more reason- able is the conjecture that it grew up little by little, and was due to a custom of the passing red man to drop a stone as an act of propitiation to the Great Spirit, and as the expression of a wish that his journey might have a favorable outcome. It was in fact a practice of the red man to rear a mound where his trail went through a mountain pass. This pass was used by him and when the trees are leafless it commands a view of the Kerr's Creek valley.
When the white explorer came the Rockbridge area, like the Valley of Vir- ginia in general, was largely occupied by tracts of prairie. These were known as Indian meadows, or as savannas, the word prairie having not yet come into the English language. These meadows were fired at the close of each hunting season so as to keep back the forest growth and thus attract the buffalo and other large game. This practice had undoubtedly been going on for centuries. Throughout all Appalachia nature strives to keep the surface clothed in forest. A large expanse of open ground could only originate in the little clearing that always surrounded the native village. The persistent firing of a deserted clear- ing would make the meadow steadily increase in size.
After white settlement began, parties of Indians continued to come here to hunt, or to pass through on some war expedition. The Iroquois of New York were the native claimants of the district, and they were at feud with the Cherokees and Catawbas to the southward. Hunting parties would build bark cabins for temporary shelter, and these were sometimes temporarily used by the whites.
John Craig was for a third of a century the minister at the North Mountain Meeting House near Staunton. Ile lived five miles away and walked to church carrying his gun on his shoulder. He wrote that the Indians "were generally civil, though some persons were murdered by them about that time (1740). They march about in small companies from fifteen to twenty, and must be supplied at any house they call at, or they become their own stewards and cooks, and spare nothing they choose to cat and drink."
While he was hunting, the Indian took food wherever he found any, and he considered that animals running at large were lawful game. If he expected free and liberal entertainment, it was because he was ready to treat others as he expected to be treated himself. There were no bounds to his hospitality, be-
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A HISTORY OF ROCKERIAL COUNTY, VIRGINIA
cause in the usage of his race food was not private property. But the points of view of the two races were very divergent. The native thought the paleface uncivil and unhospitable, and was nut attracted to his manner of living. Neither did he like being elbowed step by step out of the hunting ground which for generations had belonged to his fathers. The white man despised the Indian as a heathen and was contemptuous of his rights. He regarded him as a thief and wished he would keep out of the way. He deemed it "contrary to the laws of God and man for so much land to be hing idle when so many Christians needed it." But notwithstanding the sources of distrust, the tribesmen were in a general way friendly until 1753. They learned to express themselves in English, and it is significant that they became very familiar with terms of in ult and profanity. In their own languages there were no "cuss words," and they did not comprehend the real nature of them.
The first clash between the settler and the aborigine took place near the mouth of North River. December 18, 1742. Our information as to the cause itself is meager and obscure. The current account is the one written by Judge Samuel McDowell, sixty-five years after the time of the tragedy. But the judge was only seven years old when it occurred, and the most definite impression made on his mind was the sight of the lifeless bodies of his father and the other men who were killed, after they had been brought to Timber Ridge for burial. In a practical sense, his knowledge of the matter was derived from okdler persons and not until he had reached a mature age.
The judge relates that thirty-three Iroquois came into the Borden tract on their way to fight the Catawbas, and gave the settlers some trouble. They were entertained a day by Captain McDowell, who plied them with whiskey. They then went down South River, lay in camp seven or eight days, limited, took what they wished, scared the women, and shot horses running at large. Complaint being made. Colonel Patton ordered McDowell to call out his militia company. and conduct the Indians beyond the settled area McDowell took about thirty- four men, these being all the county could furnish. Meanwhile, the Iroquois moved farther southward McDowell overtook them and conducted them be- yond Salling's, then the farthest plantation. One Inchan was lan and fell behind, all but one of the mihtia passing him. This man fired upon the native as he went into the woods. The native then raised the war-cry, and the fight was on. The Indians at length gave way, took to the Blue Ridge, and followed It to the Potomac Seventeen of them were killed, several others ched on the retreat, and only ten got home. Of the mihtia, the killed were eight or ninc. Jacob Anderson, Charles Hays, Joseph Lapsley, Solomon Moffett, and Richard Woods were in the battle.
Another and more trustworthy version is that which was unearthed by Mr.
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STRIFE WITH THIE RED MAN
Charles E. Kemper from the colonial records of Pennsylvania and New York. This account states that Colonel Patton reached the battlefield three hours after the fight. He wrote that very day to the governor of Virginia, reciting the particulars and asking his intervention to avert a war. That official wrote to the governor of New York, inclosing Patton's letter. This letter recounts that the Indians had appeared in the settlements in a hostile manner, commit- ting the annoyances already spoken of ; that on coming up with them, McDowell and Buchanan sent forward a man with a signal of peace, upon whom the Indians fired, precipating a fight that lasted forty-five minutes. Eleven whites were killed and others wounded, and eight or ten Indians were killed. The governor of New York sent an agent to see the Iroquois, who claimed the Valley of Virginia by right of conquest. The Indians were restive and the authorities were appre- hensive of trouble. The governor of Pennsylvania undertook to act as medi- ator. An Indian who was in the fight told him his party consisted of thirty-two Onondagas and seven Oncidas. They were treated well while passing through Pennsylvania, but in Virginia they were given nothing to eat and had to kill a hog once in a while. As they went up the Valley they were several times interferred with by the whites, but avoided difficulties with them. They rested a day and two nights near the spot where the fight took place. On resuming their march, some of the militia, riding horseback, fired on two boys but did not hit them. The Indian leader told his men not to fire because of the white flag. But the whites fired again, killing two of the party. The chief then ordered an attack, and the Indians fought with tomahawks at close quarters. Two of their number were killed and five wounded. The whites were worsted, ten of them being killed. Ten of the Indians went up the river to the mountains, and were pursued to the Potomac, barely escaping with their lives. The mediator ruled that the whites were the aggressors, and by way of reparation Governor Gooch paid the Iroquois 100 pounds. The trouble was finally adjusted by the treary of Lancaster in 1744, the Iroquois then renouncing their claim to Virginia.
In a suit for slander brought by James McDowell against Benjamin Borden, Jr., and which was decided in favor of the defendant, there is an obscure allusion to the responsibility for the affair. According to McDowell, Borden applied these words to him, August 17, 1747 : "Thou art a rogue and a murdering villain and I can prove it. He is a murderer and brought the Indians upon the settlement." Thirteen claims for losses by the Indians were presented in the February court of 1746. Among the claimants were Isaac Anderson, Domick Berrall, Joseph Coakton, Henry Kirkham, Joseph Lapsley, John Mathews, Francis McCown, John Walker, James Walker, and Richard Woods.
The following is the roster of John McDowell's company. Not all these men were in the battle :
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Aleson, John ; Beaker, Hen ; Campbell, Gilbert ; Campbell, James; Cares, John, Corier. John; Cunningham, Hugh. Cunningham, James; Dredin, David; Finey, James; Finey, Michael, Gray, John ; Hall, William ; Hardiman, James; Kirkham, Hen ; Lapsley, Joseph , Long. -; Long, ; Maton, Loromer ; Mathews, John; McClewer, Alexander ; McClewer, Holbert; McClewer, John ; McClure, Alexander : McClure, Moses; McCowen. Fran ; McDowell, Ephraim ; McDowell, James : McKnab, Andrew ; McKnab, John ; McKnab. Patt; McRoberts, Samuel; Miles, Wilham; Miless, John ; Miller, Michael; Moore, James ; Patterson, Edward, Patterson, Erwin; Quail, Charles; Rives, David; Saley, John Peter ; Taylor, Thomas; Whiteside, Thomas; Wood, Richard; Wood, Samuel; Wood, William; Young, Robert, Young, Matthew.
The French and Indian war broke out in 1754. and continued, so far as the Indians were concerned, until 1700. The advance line of settlement had passed the Alleghany divide, and the greatest havoc was in the valleys along the frontier. A local cause for the outbreak was the outrage at Anderson's barn on Middle River. The date is not exactly known, but seems to be the month of June. 1753, or possibly 1754. Twelve Indians were returning from a raid against the Cherokees, and lodged with John Lewis near Staunton. Some men were present whose families or friends had suffered some loss at the hands of the natives. A beef was killed and whiskey provided. The guests were induced to stay till nightfall and give one of their dances. After they left they were followed in the darkness to Anderson's barn, where all but one were mur- dered. For this act of treachery in a time of at least nominal peace, a heavy toll of vengeance was exacted. The colonial government sought to punish the perpetrators, but the effort was ineffectual. One of the faults of the Ulstermen was their propensity to make trouble with the "heathen."
The Rockbridge area was by no means safe from attack, and there were several blockhouses for the protection of the people. William Patton mentions a stockade at Alexander McClary's, a mile and a half from his home, and says there were several others in the Borden grant. One of these must have been the Bell house, which is still standing and occupied. It is about two miles south of Raphine and very near a branch. Another was a log structure on Walker's Creek, used as a dwelling until a recent date. The floor was of walnut puncheons. The roof, which was too steep to scale, fell in during the winter of 1917-18. In several other instances, the pioneer blockhouse still exists, with widened windows and some other alteration, or the logs have been used in a building of later design. In all instances, the walls and doors were bullet-proof against the weapons of that age, the windows were too narrow for a man to crawl through, and there were loopholes in the walls. The loophole was cut in the shape of the letter &, so that a considerable breadth of vision might be commanded by the gun pointed through the opening. A spring or other water supply was always within caly distance In some instances the water was reached through a
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STRIFE WITH THE RED MAN
covered way, which was practically a narrow tunnel, high enough for a person to pass through. The Indian was unwilling to storm a blockhouse. The cost might be severe, and the defenders were comparatively safe from his bullets. So he endeavored to gain his end by stealth or strategem, and when he did make an attack it was usually by night. If he could set fire to the roof he did so.
A council of war held at Staunton, May 20, 1756, mentions that "the greatest part of the able-bodied single men of this county is now on duty on our frontiers, and there must continue until they are relieved by forces from other parts." Sitting on this council were these captains: Joseph Culton, John Moor, Joseph Lapsley, Robert Bratton, James Mitchell, and Samuel Norwood.
The only conspicuous raids belonging to this period were the occurrences in the Renick settlement and the first foray into the valley of Kerr's Creek. The latter will be spoken of in connection with the second.
The date of the attack on the Renick house is July 25, 1757. A party of Shawnees, said to have been sixty in number but probably much fewer, came through Cartmill Gap to Purgatory Creek, where they killed Joseph Dennis and his child, and took prisoner his wife, Hannah. They also killed Thomas Perry. Then they went to the house of Robert Renick, where they captured Mrs. Renick, her four sons, and a daughter. The next blow was at Thomas Smith's, where they killed both Renick and Smith, and took away Mrs. Smith and her servant, Sally Jew. George Mathews, Audley Maxwell, and William Max- well,* who then were young men, were on their way to Smith's, and thought a shooting match was in progress. As soon as they saw the bodies of the two men, they wheeled their horses about, and the four bullets fired at them at the same instant did no other harm than to wound Audley Maxwell slightly and take off the club of Mathews' queue. One party of the Indians started away with the prisoners and booty, and the others went to Cedar Creek. An alarm was given and the people of the neighborhood gathered at Paul's stockade near the site of Springfield. The women and children were left with a guard of six men, while George Mathews went in pursuit with a force of twenty-one men. He overtook and fought the enemy, but the night was wet and dark. and the foe got away. Next morning nine dead Indians were found on the battleground and were buried. Benjamin Smith, Thomas Maury, and a Mr. Jew were killed, and were buried in the meadow of Thomas Cross near Spring- field. Mrs. Renick was released a few years later. Her daughter died in cap- tivity, and her son Joshua became a chief of the Miamis. The other children returned with their mother. Mrs. Dennis was a woman of much resourcefulness and determination. She learned the Shawnee tongue, painted as the red men did, and because of her skill in treating illness she was given much liberty. She
*This name should probably be Paul instead of Maxwell.
A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
therchy found a chance to escape, crossed the Ohio on a driftwood log, and made her way back to her frontier home. This was in 1763.
It is very probable that several minor raids took place, no clear recollection of wlach has been handed on to the present day. An occurrence can easily be given a wrong setting by its being accidentally merged with some larger event. Sometimes a single Indian would go on the warpath for himself, and when the party was very small only depredations on a small scale were likely to be com- mitted. There were instances where some white scoundrel would disguise himself as an Indian and perpetrate an outrage. Such may be the explanation of the tragedy at the home of John Mathews, Jr., the nature of which recalls the Pettigrew horror of 1846. Sampson Mathews made oath that his brother John, with his wife and their six children, were burned to death in their house. A neighbor named Charles Godfrey Milliron was arrested on suspicion and held for trial at the capital. We do not know the result, but Milliron seems to have been acquited.
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