USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 9
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An incident which took place in Botetourt is worthy of mention here. Robert Anderson and his son William-grandfather to William A. Anderson of Lexington-went to a meadow to look after some livestock, and passed the night in a log shelter, the door of which could be strongly barred. Before morn- ing Mr. Anderson woke up and roused his son, telling him the animals were restless and that he feared Indians were near. Bear oil and cabin smoke gave the redskins an oder that was quickly noticed by domestic animals. Voices were presently heard, and father and son held their weapons in readiness for an emergency. The prowlers tried the door, and seeing it did not readily yield, they used the pole as a battering ram, but without visible effect. Much to the relief of the persons within they then desisted and went away. In the morning it was seen that another blow would have forced the door.
The red terror threatened to depopulate the Valley of Virginia and the settlements beyond. Writing in 1756, the Reverend James Maury makes this observation : "Such numbers of people have lately transported themselves into the more Southerly governments as must appear incredible to any except such as have had an opportunity of knowing it. By Bedford courthouse in one week. 'tis said, and I believe, truly said, near 300 inhabitants of this Colony past on their way to Carolina. From all the upper counties, even those on this side of the Blue Hills, great numbers are daily following."
What is known as the Pontiac war broke out very suddenly in June, 1763, and continued more than a year. It was a concerted effort, on the part of a con- federacy of tribes, to sweep the whites out of the country beyond the Alle- chame. To a band of Shawnees was assigned the task of operating in the Rockbridge latitude Their first blow completely destroyed the Greenbrier set-
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STRIFE WITH THE RED MAN
tlements, and their next attention was given to Jackson's River and the Cow- pasture. Thence a party crossed Mill and North mountains to devastate the valley of Kerr's Creek.
There were two raids into this locality and there has been some doubt as to their chronological sequence. That one of them took place July 17, 1763, is evi- dent. There is agreement as to the day and month of the other event ; October 10th. Samuel Brown says the second raid occurred two years after the first, and he places it in 1765. In this he is followed doubtfully by Waddell in his Annals of Augusta. Mr. Brown wrote his account a long while ago, and when people were living whose knowledge of the massacres was very direct. Nevertheless, he is in error. His informants were confused in their recollection of dates.
The record books of Augusta contain no hint of any Indian trouble in the fall of 1764 or 1765. A raid of serious proportions would have constituted a renewal of the Pontiac war, and further military events would be on record in frontier history. But in 1759 and 1760 the number of wills admitted to record. the number of settlements of estates, and the number of orphan children put under guardianship is deeply significant. However, our evidence is more con- clusive. In the suit of Thomas Gilmore against George Wilson, recorded Novem- ber 19, 1761, the plaintiff makes this declaration: "During the late war the Indians came to the plantation where plaintiff lived, and after killing his father and mother, robbed them and plaintiff of almost everything they had. Defendant and several others pursued the Indians several days and retook great part of the things belonging to the plaintiff. The inhabitants of Car's Creek, the plaintiff not being one of them, offered to any persons that would go after the Indians and redeem the prisoners, they should have all plunder belonging to them." The records further tell us that John Gilmore was dead in 1759 and that Thomas Gilmore was his executor. We may therefore affirm that the carlier raid occurred October 10, 1759, and the later. July 17. 1763.
We now proceed to relate the two occurrences, as the particulars have been given to us.
With respect to the first there was a forewarning. Two Telford boys, returning from school, reported seeing a naked man near their path. Little serions thought seems to have been given to the matter. A few weeks later, twenty- seven Indians were counted from a bluff near the head of the creek. The war party first visited the home of Charles Dougherty and killed the whole family. The wife and a daughter of Jacob Cunningham were the next victims. The girl. ten years of age, was scalped, but made a partial recovery. Four Gilmores and five of the ten members of Robert Hamilton's family were afterward slain. The Indians did not go any farther. Accounts differ as to whether any pris-
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
oners were taken by them They killed twelve persons, and according to one statement, thirteen were carried away.
With his usual promptness and energy. Charles Lewis, of the Cowpasture. took the lead in raising three companies of militia, one headed by himself. the others In John Dickenson and William Christian. The Indians were overtaken near the head of Back Creek in Highland County. It was decided to attack at three points. Two men sent in advance were to fire if they found the enemy lad taken alarm. They came upon two of the enemy, one leading a horse. the other holding a buck upon it. To avoid discovery the scouts fired and Christian's company charged with a yell. The other companies were not quite up and the Indians escaped with little loss. However, they were overhauled on Straight Fork, four miles below the West Virginia line, their camp being re- sealed by their fire. All were killed except one, and the cook's brains were -cat- tered into his pot. Their carrying poles were seen here many years later, and ancient guns have been found In the first engagement the loot was recovered. and it was soll for $1.200.
On the second visitation the Indians were in greater force, and made their approach more cautiously. They concealed themselves a day or two at a spring mar the lord of Kerr's Creek. But moccasin tracks were noticed in a cornfield. and some men detected the camp from a hill. A rumor had come to the settle- ment that Indians were approaching, but there was little uneasiness. It is nearly certain that the savages first seen were an advance party, and that this was waiting for a reenforcement. Another probable motive for delay in an attack was to scare the settlers into gathering at some rendezvous, so that they might be fallen upon in a mass. If such was the purpose it was accomplished. The people flocked to the blockhouse of Jonathan Cunningham at Big Spring.
Meanwhile the house of John McKee was attacked and Mrs. McKee was killed There are differing accounts of this incident. According to Alexander Bare. Mr McKee started with his wife and a dog to reach a wooded hill. Their clidien were at Timber Ridge. Because of her condition, Mrs. McKee was unable to walk fast, and the insisted that her husband should go on and effect His own escape. Before doing so, he hid her in a sinkhole filled with bushes and weeds, but the barking dog betrayed the place of concealment. After the red kins had gone on, she was taken to the house, where she soon died This statement is challenged by the author of The Mckees of Virginia and Kentucky. He construes it as a reflection on John Mckee's courage and his duty to his wife. He gave that some of the settlers did not like this pioneer for his bluntness, and that they set afloat a garbled version of the facts The author of the book prefer to believe that John Mckee had gone to a neighbor's to look after some sick children, and finding on his return that his wife was scalped, he took her
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STRIFE WITH THE RED MAN
to the house. Be this as it may, the murder could not have occurred in the first raid, as some statements affirm. The family Bible gives July 17, 1763, as the date of Mrs. McKee's death.
We must now return to the assemblage at Big Spring. A number of the people of the valley were attending a meeting at Timber Ridge, the day being Sunday. Those gathered at Cunningham's were in a field, saddling their horses in great haste, in order to join their friends at the meeting house. The secreted foe seized the coveted moment to cut them off from the blockhouse. The scene which followed was witnessed by Mrs. Dale from a covert on a high point. When the alarm reached her she mounted a stallion colt that had never been ridden, but which proved as gentle as could be desired. The foe was gain- ing on her, and she dropped her baby into a field of rye. In some manner she afterwards eluded the pursuers, but was too late to reach the blockhouse. A relief party found the baby lying unhurt where it had been left. Such is the story, but it is more probable that the mother recovered the child herself after the raiders had gone away.
While the saddling was going on two men started up the creck to reconnoiter, but were shot down, as were also two young men who went to their aid. The onslaught of the foe was immediate, and each redskin singled out his victim. Mrs. Dale said the massacre made her think of boys knocking down chickens with clubs. Some tried to hide in the big pond or in thickets of brush or weeds. All who attempted to resist were cut down. Cunningham himself was killed and his house was burned. There is no record that the Indians suffered any loss.
According to Samuel Brown, sixty to eighty persons were killed in the two Kerr's Creek raids, and twenty-five to thirty carried away. This is an overstatement. William Patton, who was at Big Spring the day after the massacre, helping to bury the dead, says these were seventeen in number. He adds that the burial party was attacked. Among the prisoners, according to Mr. Brown, were Mrs. Jenny Gilmore, her two daughters, and a son named John ; James, Betsy, Margaret, and Henry Cunningham ; and three Hamiltons, Archibald, Marian, and Mary. One of the Cunninghams was the girl scalped in the first raid. She returned from captivity and lived about forty years after- ward, but the wound finally developed into a cancerous affection. According to a rather sentimental sketch in one of the county papers, Mary Hamilton was among the killed, and John McCown, her lover, died two years later of a broken heart and was buried by her side at Big Spring. Mr. Waddell says she had a baby in her arms when she was captured. She threw the infant into the weeds, and when she returned from the Indian country she found its bones where she had left it,
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Mention has been made of a meeting at Timber Ridge the day of the sec- ond massacre. A rumor of the attack reached the congregation at the noon recess, but little was thought of it, since similar alarms had often been given. But an express arrived when the second service was beginning. There was immediate confusion and speedy flight. Some of the Kerr's Creek families sought safety in the Blue Ridge.
On the afternoon of the second tragedy, the Indians returned to their camp on North Mountain, where they drank the whiskey found at Cunningham's still. They became too intoxicated to have put up a good resistance to an assault. Yet they had little to fear, as there was a general panic throughout the Rockbridge area Next day two Indians went back, either to see if they were pursued or to look for more liquor. It seems to have been on this occasion when Mrs. Dale saw them shoot at a man who ventured to ride up the valley. When he wheeled they clapped their hands and shouted. This incident constituted the attack men- tioned by William Patton. During the march to the Shawnee towns, the Indians brained a fretful child and threw the baby on the shoulders of a young girl who was killed next day. At another time, the prisoners were made to pass under an infant pierced by a stake and held over them. On still another occasion, while some of the prisoners were drying a few leaves of the New Testament for the purpose of preserving them, a savage rushed up and threw them into the camp fire. When the column arrived at the Scioto, the captives were ironically called upon to sing a hymn. Mrs. Gilmore responded by singing Psalm 137 as she had been wont to do at Timber Ridge. It is related that she had stood over the corpse of her husband, fighting desperately and knocking a foeman down. Another Indian rushed up to tomahawk the woman, but his comrade said she was a good warrior, and made him spare her. She and her son were redeemed, but she never knew what became of her daughters. Several other captives were also returned.
Some account of the massacres on Kerr's Creek was related many years afterward by Mrs. Jane Stevenson. She was then living in Kentucky, and her story was reduced to writing by John D. Shane, a minister. Mrs. Stevenson. who was born November 15, 1750, speaks of a girl four months older than her dli taken at the age of seven years and held until the Bouquet delivery in 1704 The children had gone out with older companions to gather haws, and the narrator escaped capture only by not going so far as the others. At the first rand an aunt who had two children escaped into the woods, the Indians going down the river. But on the second occasion, this annt and her three children were taken and an uncle and a cousin were killed Two of the children died in cap- tivity, but the aunt and the third child were restored In this second raid Mrs. Steven on thinkx the Indians "had the ground all spied out," and followed a
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prearranged program. She says they "came in like racchorses," and in two hours killed or captured sixty-three persons. One of the prisoners was James Milligan. He escaped on Gauley Mountain and reported having counted 450 captives, as the total collected in the entire raid. Two small boy-captives were James Woods and James McClung, and after their return they had the condi- tion of their cars recorded in the clerk's office at Staunton. Cropping the human ear was in those days a form of punishment, and the person who had an ear mutilated by accident or in a fight went before the county court to have the fact certified, so as not to be regarded as an ex-convict.
Mrs. Stevenson was a daughter of James Gay, who lived seven miles from Kerr's Creek. Her mother, whose maiden name was Jean Warwick, was killed by the Indians about 1759. Mrs. Stevenson relates that the adult male mem- bers of the Providence congregation "carried their guns to meeting as regular as the congregation went." Alexander Crawford was killed about fifteen miles from the meeting house in the direction of Staunton. The narrator says that when "the Indians took Kerr's Creek settlement a second time they were greatly bad," and that it "almost seemed as though they would make their way to Williams- burg." They "shot the cows mightily with bows and arrows." She moved to Greenbrier in 1775, "where there was never a settlement of kinder people," these being "great for dancing and singing." But her statement that William Hamilton and Samuel McChing were the only Greenbrier settlers who were "not Dutch and half-Dutch," cannot be correct at all, unless true of the particular locality where these men settled. It is also to be remembered that she was not yet grown at the time of the doings on Kerr's Creek. As for Milligan, he must have been able to see more than double in order to count 450 prisoners led away by probably not more than one-fifth as many warriors.
It is not known that the settlers on Kerr's Creek had themselves given canse to make their valley a special mark for Indian vengeance. The native venerated the home of his forefathers, and would make a long and perilous journey for no other purpose than to gaze upon a spot known to him only in boyhood or perhaps only by tradition. It may have been resentment, pure and simple, that led him to visit his fury upon the palefaces who had crowded him out of a choice portion of his hunting grounds. So it is not to be wondered at that the children attending Bunker Hill schoolhouse near Big Spring had a super- stitious horror of the field where the massacre took place.
The treaty which ended the Pontiac war stipulated that the Indians should return their white captives, and these were delivered to Colonel Bouquet in November, 1764. However, there were instances where the return did not take place until some time later. According to William Patton, the foray of 1763 was the last that took place on Rockbridge soil. Yet in the Dunmore war,
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
and in the hostilities that contimed intermittently from 1777 to 1795, there was always the possibility of still other incursions. The Indian peril was forever removed from Rockbridge by the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, which was secured by General Wayne's victory in the battle of the Fallen Timbers.
The Dunmore war of 1774 was caused by the extension of white settle- ment into the valley of the Ohio. It was waged between the Virginia militia and a confederacy headed by the Shawnees. Rockbridge men served in the companies from Augusta and Botetourt, and helped to gain the memorable victory of Point Pleasant.
W'e find only one recorded instance where an Indian was held in slavery in Rockbridge. This was in 1777, and is mentioned in Chapter VIL.
It is said that several of the family names on Kerr's Creek were blotted out as a result of the scenes in 1759 and 1763. The record-books for 1758-60 indi- cate an exceptional mortality in the Rockbridge area. We append to this chap- ter seme names that appear to belong to this region, but we do not know that violence was the cause of all the deaths indicated.
Jacob Cunningham-will probated March 18, 1760.
Isaac Cunningham-died 1700-Jean, administrator
Benjamin, orphan of John Gray 1760
Samuel, orphan of Alexander McMurtv, becomes ward of Matthew Ile, 1750 James McGee will probated .August 20, 1759-1 rwin Patterson, administrator. Robert Ramsay-will probated November 21, 1759-Robert Hall, administrator James Rogers hed 1700-Ann Rogers administratrix with Walter Smiley on her bond. James Stephenson-died 1760°.
Thomas Thompson-died 1760."
John Winsard will probated. November 15, 1758 Barbara, executor.
Samuel Wilson-died 1760.
James Young-died 1700.
An episode made much note of in the pioneer history of Kentucky and Tennessee is the story of the "Long Hunters" of 1769-1772. Some writers throw doubt on the narrative, yet it seems founded on fact. From a con- cordance of the various accounts, it would appear that in June, 1769, a party of over twenty men, several of whom were from Rockbridge, started from Reedy Creek on an extended hunting trip in the valley of the Cumberland. They found a grassy prairie and plenty of game. No Indians were found living in that region, although there were mimnerons Indian graves. In June, 1770. keveral of the hunters returned, the others building boats and floating down to Natchez on the Mississippi, where they sold their cargo A portion of the party temamed there and settled, the others returning by way of Georgia. In the fall of 1771, a party of twenty-two went out agam At least five of these
. The date is that of record The person may have died in 1759
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STRIFE WITII THE RED MAN
were members of the first party. This second party was so successful that it could not take back all its pelts, and a portion was deposited in a "skin-house" in what is now Greene county, Kentucky. Ammunition ran low, and all but five returned the next February. One of the five fell ill, and a comrade took him to the settlements. Two of the remaining three of the camp guard were captured by Indians. The seventeen returned after about three months, and continued to hunt and explore, some of the names they gave to certain localities enduring to the present day. Late in the summer of 1772 their camp was plun- dered by Cherokees at a time when they were absent from it, but hunting con- tinued till the end of the season. The only names we can certainly identify as belonging to Rockbridge are those of Robert Crockett and James Graham, of the Calfpasture. Another member was James Knox, who lived at the mouth of the Bullpasture and finally settled in Kentucky. The claim is made with much show of reason that it was this James Knox, and not General Knox, of Washington's army, for whom Knoxville in Tennessee is named. Crockett, who lost his life during the first expedition, is said to have been the first white man killed in that state. The wives of Governor Bramlette and Senator J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky, were granddaughters of Graham.
ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY ESTABLISHED
NEW COUNTIES-NIT OF ASSEMBLY-THE CORNSTALK AFAIRLYNAIS OF 1778-1783
The house that John Lewis built near the site of Staunton in the summer of 1732 was not within the recognized limits of any county. Until 1744 the Blue Ridge was the treaty line between paleface and redskin. The first county organization to cross that barrier was Spotsylvania, which became effective in 1721. Yet it came only to the South Fork of the Shenandoah, one extremity of the line touching the river in the vicinity of Elkton, the other about midway between Front Royal and Bentonville. Orange was created in 1734, and organized in 1735. It was defined as extending westward to the uttermost limit claimed by Virginia. Four years later, the portion of Orange west of the Blue Ridge was divided into the counties of Frederick and Augusta by a line running from the source of the Rapidan to the Fairfax Stone at the source of the North Branch of the Potomac. 'The present boundary between Rockingham and Shenandoah is a portion of this line.
During the westward march of population in Virginia, the practical area of a county has always been co-extensive with its settled portion. The fact that Augusta once extended potentially to the Mississippi, did not mean that a jury- man might have to travel hundreds of miles to attend court. When the first division of Augusta took place in 1769, probably not less than three-fourths of the inhabitants were living within a radius of fifty miles around Staunton. Of the other fourth, nearly all were within a few miles of a trail leading from Buchanan to Abingdon.
The first county to be set off from Augusta was Botetourt, which became effective January 31. 1770. The line separating it from the parent county is thus described in a report by James Trimble, the surveyor:
Begining at two Chestnuts and a Black Oak on the South Mountain by a Spring of Prales Creek en Amberit Line and running thence 55 degrees Weg 4 Miles 21) Poles to a Spamih Oak marked AC on the one Side and BE on the Other Side where the South River or Mary's Creek empties inte the North Branch of James River and up the North Kiver to Kerr's Creek and up Kerr's Creek to the Fork of the said Creek at Gilmore's Gap Tien legiang at a chesti it and three Chestnut Oaks and a Pine at the upper Fork of herr's Creek and runsich the Fame Couric to wit North 55 devices Well. 23 and one- Julf files, trong the Coststure in Donald's Place at a large Poplar on the River marked AC and BC
The course beginning on the top of North Mountain continued to the Olno, which it touched a little below Parkersburg. It is an exact parallel to the
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ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY ESTABLISHED
present line between Rockbridge and Augusta. It does not appear that the sur- veying of this line was ever carried beyond the summit of the Allleghany Divide. The cost of the survey by Trimble was $37.15.
From this old boundary between Attgusta and Botetourt, the airline distance to Fincastle does not vary much from thirty-five miles, and is slightly less than the distance to Stattnton. To the people of the present Rockbridge arca, the journey to a courthouse in 1777 was not excessively long. The need for a new county was very much less than in the case of Rockingham or Greenbrier, all three of these counties being authorized by the same Act of Assembly, which was passed at the October session of 1777. The sections relating to Rockbridge are these :
Section Three. And be it further enacted, That the remaining portion of the said counties and parishes of Augusta and Botetourt be divided into three counties and parishes, as follows, to wit, by a line beginning on the top of Blue Ridge near Steele's mill, and run- ning thence north 55 degrees west, passing the said mill, and crossing the North Mountain to the top, and the mountain dividing the waters of the Calfpasture from the waters of the Cowpasture, and thence along the said mountain, crossing Panther's Gap, to the line that divides the counties of Augusta and Botetourt, and that the remaining part of the county of Botetourt be divided, by a line beginning at Audley Paul's, running thence south, 55 degrees east, crossing James River to the top of the Blue Ridge, thence along the same, crossing James River, to the beginning of the aforesaid line dividing Augusta county, then beginning again at the said Audley Paul's, and running north 55 degrees west till the said course shall intersect a line to run south 45 degrees west, from the place where the above line dividing Augusta terminated. And all other parts of the said parishes of Augusta and Botetourt included within the said lines shall be called and known by the name of Rock- bridge.
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