USA > Virginia > Culpeper County > Culpeper County > A history of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper County, Virginia, with notes of old churches and old families, and illustrations of the manners and customs of the olden time > Part 6
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1876. PRESENT STATUS OF THE CHURCHES IN ST. MARK'S PARISH.
St. Stephen's Church, Rev. J. G. Minnegerode, Rector :- Communicants 170, Sunday school teachers and scholars 200, of whom 50 arc colored.
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ST. MARK'S PARISH.
Christ and St. Paul's Churches, Rev. C. Y. Steptoe, Rector :- Communicants, after subtracting those transferred, 80.
The present writer officiates at Emmanuel Church. Of his work there it does not become him to speak, except to say, that he deems it a privilege at this eleventh hour of his ministry to be permitted to do even a day's work in the vineyard. Communicants 36, the number having just trebled since the institu- tion of regular services.
At the last Convention St. Mark's was again divided, and Ridley Parish taken out of its eastern side, by a line beginning at Jameson's Mill, on Muddy Run, with that Run to Hazel (Eastham's) River, thence with that river to the Rappahannock River, with Rappahannock to the mouth of the Rapidan, up the Rapidan to the mouth of the Robinson, up the Robinson to Crooked Run, up that run to Way- land's Mill, thence to the top of Mount Poney, thence to the beginning. The new parish includes Christ's, St. Paul's, and Emmanuel churches, and leaves to the now mutilated St. Mark's only St. Stephen's Church at Culpeper, and the old Centennial Brick Church in the Little Fork, the only representative in this parish of the Church of England in the " Colony and Dominion " of Virginia.
We have said in the text that we had not been able to fix the precise date of the building of St. Stephen's Church, Culpeper C. H. General Edward Stevens (the Revolutionary hero), who lived in the house now occupied by Mrs. Lightfoot, in his will, recorded in August, 1820, "confirms his promise to give one acre of land in Fairfax " for an Episcopal church, one acre adjoining the village for a Presby-
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
terian church, and one acre to Free Masous' Lodge of Fairfax adjoining his family burying-ground for a cemetery. St. Stephen's was built between 1820 and 1823.
ST. THOMAS PARISH, ORANGE COUNTY.
This parish was cut off from St. Mark's in 1740, carrying James Barbour and Benjamin Cave, vestry- men, along with it. Before the separation St. Mark's had built a church, since known as the Old Orange Church, near Ruckersville, and a chapel where Robert Brooken now lives. There was also a chapel ordered at Bradley's or Batley's quarter, whose site was to have been fixed by Benjamin Cave. After the sepa- ration, St. Thomas' vestry built the Pine Stake Church, near Raccoon Ford, on land originally pat- ented by Francis Taliaferro; and a middle church below Orange C. H., on land now owned by Erasmus Taylor. All trace of the Pine Stake Church is gone. The writer remembers in his boyhood to have been at a barbecue at the church spring. The middle church was of brick, and was well preserved as late as 1806. Some years later it shared the fate of many other old churches, which were assumed to be common property, and were torn down and carried off piece by piece. The gilt altar-piece, with other ornaments of the chancel, were attached to household furniture. The old communion service, engraved with the name of the parish, given by the grandmother of President Madison and other good women, has been recovered and is now in use.
Unhappily the old records of St. Thomas Parish have been lost, so that it is no longer possible to
G
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
reproduce the chief early actors in it. The Rev. Mungo Marshall was minister in 1753. There was once a tombstone over his grave, but that too was appropriated, and was used in a tannery to dress hides upon. In 1760 he was succeeded by the Rev. Wm. Giberne. In 1761 the Rev. James Marye fol- lowed, and his first official act was the funeral sermon of the paternal grandmother of President Madison. In the family record it is said, "her funeral sermon was preached by Rev. J. Marye, jr., from Rev. 14 ch. 13 verse." In 1767-8 the Rev. Thomas Martin succeeded. He was a tutor of President Madison, and lived for a time in the family at Montpelier. He was a brother of Governor Martin of North Carolina. A letter from Mr. Madison to him expressing a great respect and affection for his preceptor, may be seen in "Reves' Life and Times of Madison." Rev. John Burnett succeeded Martin about 1770, and was fol- lowed by Rev. Jno. Wingate, the last of the colonial clergy, who being suspected of want of loyalty to Virginia, soon took his leave. The disloyal odor this man left behind him may have been the reason why the vestry, who were very patriotic (James Madison, the vestryman, was chairman of the Orange commit- tee), did not have another minister for twenty-three years, contenting themselves with occasional services by the Rev. Matthew Maury of Albemarle. The old churchwarden, Major Moore, buried the dead with the church service, and the Rev. Mr. Belmaine, while paying his court to Miss Lucy Taylor, and on his visits after his marriage, officiated. The Rev. Henry Fry (Methodist) was sometimes called upon to preach, always preceding his sermons with the old church service (says Col. Frank Taylor in his
:
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
diary.) In 1780 the vestry engaged the blind Pres- byterian minister Mr. Waddell (whose eloquence has been so glorified and transfigured by the genius of Mr. Wirt) to officiate for them once a month in the Brick (Middle) Church, and gave him 60 pounds. Mr. O'Neil was the minister from 1790 to about 1800. In 1809-11 the Rev. Hugh C. Boggs officiated at Orange C. H. and the Pine Stake Church, which was standing as late as 1813.
This brings us to the time when the minister from Culpeper began services in Orange, of which an account will be found in the body of this work. The church at Orange C. H. is modern, having been built in 1833-34. The history of the services of the Messrs. Jones, Earnest, Davis, Carson, and Hansbrough, are within the knowledge of those now living, and need not be reproduced here; it not being within the scope of this book to give more than a brief sketch of Bromfield and St. Thomas, as having been originally within the bounds of St. Mark's Parish.
Col. Frank Taylor's diary enables one to form a life-like conception of the animated social circle of which Orange C. H. was the centre from 1786 to 1799. The circle embraced Montpelier, Coleman's Springs, Clarke's Mountain, and parts of Culpeper and Madison counties. The persons who figured in it were Col. Frank Taylor, James Taylor (Clerk of the County), Dr. Ch. Taylor, the family physician, and Erasmus, Robert, John, and other Taylors, whose name is legion. Col. Thomas Barbour and his brother James, James Barbour, Jr., Dr. Thomas Barbour, Richard Barbour-Ambrose, Gabriel, Philip, son of Thomas ; Philip, son of Ambrose ; and another Philip. Barbour. Major Moore, Robert, John, and
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
William Moore, and many more. Col. James Madison, Sr., Col. James, Jr. (President), Ambrose, William, Ca tlett; and other Madisons. Crump, Charles, Ben, and Abner Porter. William and R. B. Morton, Andrew Shepherd, Sr. and Jr., and John and Alex- ander Shepherd. A whole chime of Bells-John, William, Thomas, and Charles. Col. Lawrence, Hay, Frank, and William Taliaferro. Capt. Catlett, Frank, John Catlett, Jr., and Henry Conway. Col. James Pendleton, Nat., Henry, John, Bowie, Philip, and countless other Pendletons, chiefly from Culpeper. Capt. William and Francis Dade. Andrew and John Glassell, Reuben Smith, James and John Walker. Zachary, Robert, and John Burnley, and Isaac and John Williams, and Samuel Slaughter. Divers Alcockes, Lees, and Gibsons, &c., &c. Among the young ladies were Lney, Sally, and Fanny Barbour; Naney, Sally, Betsy, Patsy, Lucy, and Polly Taylor; Franky Alexander, Milly and Polly Glassell, Han- nah Watkins, Lucy Gaines; Mary, Betsy, Sally, and Suky Conway; Fanny, Elizabeth, Joanna, and two Katies Pendleton ; Sally, Betsy, and Judy Burnley ; Sally, Nelly, Elizabeth, and Frances Madison ; Fanny and Polly Moore, the Misses Gilbert, Sally Throg- morton, the Misses Chew, &c., &c. And then there was an almost continuous influx of visitors, chiefly from Spotsylvania, Caroline, and Culpeper, and a stream of travellers to and from Kentucky by way of Culpeper, Winchester, and Red Stone in Monongalia.
These people seem to have had a gay time-dining parties of twenty-five to thirty from house to house; quilting parties, winding up with a dance; balls at Sanford's, Bell's, and Alcocke's hotels in the winter, varied with hare, fox, and wolf-hunting, especially
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
when Major Willis and Hay Taliaferro came up with twenty hounds. In the summer they had fish-fries and barbecues at Dade's Mill, Waugh's Ford, Wood's Spring, Leathers' Spring, and Herndon's Spring. Col. Taylor seems never to have missed an election ; he always records the names of the candidates for office and the number of votes for each. He brings before us Mr. Madison as candidate for Congress, Assembly and Convention, addressing the people in defence of the Constitution, to which the ignorant were opposed. He is said to have spoken from the steps of the old Lutheran Church, now in Madison, with the people standing in the snow, and the cold so intense that the orator's ears were frost-bitten. He records the votes for General Stevens of Culpeper as Presidential Elector, for French Strother for Senator, and for Tom Barbour and C. Porter for Assembly. He tells us about vestry meetings which elected Tom Barbour and William Moore deputies to the Convention ; of Col. Oliver Towles, Wm. Wirt, Robert Taylor, &c., pleading at the bar. We see the ladies shopping at Lee's, and Shepherd's, and Taylor's, and Wilson's stores, and the men playing at the five batteries. Weddings too seem to have been more common than now. Under the date of January 1786 he says: Wm. Madison and the ladies have just returned from the marriage of Mordecai Barbour and Miss Strode. 27th March, 1787, large company at J. Taylor's, at the marriage of Tom Barbour and Mary Taylor, by Rev. Mr. Stevenson. July 1st, at the marriage of John Bell and Judy Burnley, and then he varies the seene by saying : " Went to church 2d Dec., and Mr. Waddell told the people that he had heard that it would be agreeable to them for him not
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ST. THOMAS PARISH.
to attend here again till March, and he would not." 1788, 24th March, election for Convention :- James Madison 202 votes, James Gordon 187, C. Porter 34. Madison's election gave great satisfaction. May 14th, 1788, James Madison, Jr., at Goodlet's school examining the boys. The next marriage, Nov. 10th, 1789, Archy Tutt to Caty Pendleton, of Culpeper; Dec. 8th, John Stevens to Polly Williams of Culpeper ; 1790, then comes the marriage of Thos. Macon and Sally Madison, and on the 5th of Sept., R. William- son and Caty Pendleton ; Oct. 10th, John Harrison and Sally Barbour; Dec. 11th, Henry Bell and Betsy Alcocke. 1791, Ch. Porter died. April 27th, James Blair and Nelly Shepherd. 29th July, John Bell, of Culpeper, died. B. Wood married Miss Porter. May 3d, Henry Fitzhugh and Betsy Conway. Nov., Wm. Dade and Mrs. Sarah Dade. Nov. 29th, Joshua Fry married Kitty Walker. 1794, James Madison mar- ried Mrs. Todd. July 19th, Erasmus Taylor died, eighty-three years old. 29th, Col. Thomas Barbour's wife died. 1795, May 18th, Mrs. Sarah Thomas died, eighty-four years of age. James Barbour; Jr., married Lucy Johnson. Dec., James Bell married Hannah Gwatkin. 22d, James Taylor, Jr., married Fanny C. Moore. Thos. Bell (Courthouse) married Sally Burnley. Jno. Walker (son of James) married Lucy Wood, of Madison. 1796, Feb. 5th, Fortunatus Winslow married Polly Alcocke. D. Turner married Miss E. Pendleton, of Caroline. March 2d, James Coleman (Springs) and Thos. Bell died. 5th, Henry Pendleton married Elizabeth Pendleton, of Culpeper. 22d, Col. Richard Barbour married Polly Moore. 23d, Thos. Scott, of Madison, died. 26th, Col. T. Moore died. Mrs. Alcocke, formerly Mrs. Dr. Walker,
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BROMFIELD PARISHI.
died. Nov. 16th, Adam Darby married Betsy Shep- berd. Dec. 3d, Reuben Smith married Milly Glassell. 19th, Anthony Buck married Mary Shepherd. 1797, March 14th, Baldwin Taliaferro married Ann Spots- wood, of New Post. 16th, Hay Taliaferro married Sukey Conway, and my son and daughter went to the wedding - the horses ran away and they did not get back. Nov. 19th, Ambrose Macon married Miss Thomas. Dec. 7th, Camp Porter married a daughter of Jno. Alcocke. Wm. Mallory married Mary Gibson. 1798, March 12th, Rev. Mr. O'Neil and Phil. Barbour (son of Thomas) came here this morning. Mr. O'Ncil had been to Tom Barbour's to marry T. Newman and Lucy Barbour. 1799, Jan. 8th, large company at James Taylor's, at the marriage of Thomas Crutch- field, and Col. James Barbour came home with me. G. Terrill bad petition to Assembly for bridge at Barnett's Ford.
The churches in St. Thomas Parish are St. Thomas, Orange Courthouse, Rev. Jno. S. Hans- brough, Rector, who reported in 1876 eighty-six communicants.
Christ Church, Gordonsville, Rev. F. G. Scott, Rector, communicants (1876) forty-six.
BROMFIELD PARISH.
Bromfield was cut off from St. Mark's by Act of Assembly in 1752. The dividing line has been marked in the body of this work. Its western boundary starts from John Spotswood's corner on Crooked Run (near Wayland's Mill) and runs north by east to the junction of White Oak Run with the Rappahannock River; thus including what is now
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BROMFIELD PARISH.
Madison and Rappahannock Counties, and a small section of Culpeper. Bromfield, after this date, had its ministers, vestries, and records, of which there is now scarcely a trace. In the absence of such registers, I can only reconstruct the history of this parish with the few materials gleaned from different and distinct sources. The very name has been re- cently and unconsciously changed into Bloomfield, in which form it appears on the Journals of Conven- tion ever since 1833, except in 1839 when it was represented by Jno. F. Conway, who restored the right name. After this one effort to recover its his- torical name, it relapsed into Bloomfield, and has been so called ever since. Even Bishop Meade calls it "Old Bloomfield Parish." The word is Saxon, and means Broomfield. Perhaps this is the origin of what we call in Virginia a broom-straw or broom- sedge field. However applicable the term may have been to the lower part of the parish (the Piney Woods), Bloomfield is more descriptive of the Pied- mont portion, which had not then been developed. Let us hope that the lost name may be restored for history's sake.
We know the names of at least two of the old vestrymen of Bromfield, Martin Nalle and Ambrose Powell, who in 1754 negotiated with the vestry of St. Mark's about running the dividing line between the old and the new parish. Henry Field and Philip Clayton had been ordered in 1752 to attend the surveyor in running these lines. The courses threw " Tennant's Church " and the church in the Fork of Devil's Run and the Hazel River into Bromfield Parish. Later in the century there was a church at F. T., so called from the initials of
8z
BROMFIELD PARISH.
Frank Thornton being cut on an oak tree near the spring, that being a corner in his survey. There was also a church not far from the present site of Washington, near where Frank Slaughter now lives.
The first minister of Bromfield probably was the Rev. Adam Menzies, who had been a respectable schoolmaster, for I find in the " Fulham MSS." that he was licensed for Virginia, and his name is set down in 1754-5 as minister of Bromfield. There was also a James Herdman (1775), some of whose books are now in my possession (Sherlock's, Secker's, and Atterbury's sermons), which were bought in Rappahannock as the remnant of an old English parson's library. The late Samuel Slaughter, who died about 1857, in his 90th year, said that he, in bis boyhood, went to school to a Rev. Mr. Harrison, minister of Bromfield. Thomas, great-grandson of Burr Harrison, of Chippawamsic (who was bap- tized at Westminster in December, 1637, and was the first of the family in Virginia), was the father of the late Philip Harrison of Richmond, and of Mrs. Freeman, mother of Mrs. MeCoy, of Culpeper. In 17 90 there was a minister named Iredell who offici- ated at the South Church, four miles below Madison C. H. He was followed by O'Neil, an athletic Irishman, who was one of those old-time school- masters who believed in what Hudibras ealls " Apos- tolic blows and knocks " more than in the Apostolic succession. He was a disciple of Solomon and never "spoiled the child by sparing the rod." He sus- pended them upon a stout negro's back when he ad- ministered the flagellations. He taught school near the Pine Stake Church, in the family of Col. Talia-
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BROMFIELD PARISH.
ferro, and also in Madison. The late Judge Barbour and the Hon. Jere and Dr. Geo. Morton were among his pupils, and retained a lively recollection of his discipline. The memory of that mother in Israel, Mrs. Sarah Lewis, already referred to, went back to O'Neil's time. The Rev. J. Woodville made occa- sional excursions to these churches, when vacant, and the Lutheran minister, Mr. Carpenter, baptized and buried the Episcopalians when without a pastor.
The leading Episcopal families who adhered to the church of their fathers through evil as well as good report, were the Lewises, Burtons, Vawters, Caves, Gibbs, Strothers, Thorntons, Barbours, Con- ways, Gibsons, Pannills, Gaines, and Beales. The last name reminds me that Reuben Beale was a Lay Delegate to the first Convention in 1789 and 1793. After the revival of the church in the Rev. Mr. Lamon's time (1834-5), when there were large accessions to its communion, the ministers have been the Rev. A. H. Lamon, deceased, Wm. T. Leavell, John Cole, deceased, R. T. Brown of Mary- land, Joseph Earnest, deceased, Rev. Dr. Shield of Louisville, Ky., Wm. H. Pendleton, deceased, J. G. Minnegerode of Culpeper, Rev. Mr. Wroth of Balti - more, with occasional services by other clergym en. There is a church at Madison C. H. which, in 1834, had forty communicants whose names are now before me, a church at Woodville, and one at Washington . These churches have been so depleted by emigration to the south and west, and by infrequent and inter- mittent services, that they are hardly able to stand alone, and are now (Dec. 1876) like sheep scattered on the mountains, without a shepherd.
The Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe as indicated by Journal'of John Fontaine one of
From Germanna to Shenandoah river
IN AUG.& SEPT. 1716
ROUTE OF GOV. SPOTTSWOOD
Port Republics
Shonun
Spotswood
River
Mts
Beaseley Mill
Brooks
Prices
Rul
Swift
* Robertson's
QStanardsvil
Page's Mill
10
MUO). ..
.. * Taylor's
South Prong
River
ig
sidan
Mason'S o
Run
Bank's Mill
OWolftown
Blue Run
Liberty Mills
OMadison
Poplar Run
Smith's
Barnett's Ford
Peyton's Ford
Roberts
Crooked
Run
W.C
Slaughters Mts.
V.M. & G.S. R.R.
Mitchele
Sta .
*Smith's
Somerville's Ford
Rut
Moul
Racoon Ford .
verduck
ain Rullah
*Todd's
Verdiersville
Run'
Zoard
Run
Mine
* Expe dition
Big Russel
Little Russe
OGermanna
Road
Wilderness
Rapt
Dr.Robinson 95
Marsh Kun
Rapidan River
S
1
Z
Somerset ?.
Rive /Twronghfare,Mis.
... Orange C.H.
Swift Run Gap Turnpike
-
Culpeper Gau
Sam
Walnut
MAP OF
Thornton
Historical Excursions.
THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE- SHOE.
Sic juvat transcendere Montes.
Governor Spotswood's expedition over the great mountains, as he called it, is one of the most romantic passages in the history of Virginia. Indeed, it has been happily chosen as the theme of a romance by Dr. Caruthers, entitled " The Knights of the Horseshoe," a traditionary tale of the cocked hat gentry in the Old Dominion. The author seems to have used due diligence in gathering the fugitive traditions of this adventure which lingered dimly in the minds of his generation. The popular idea of this expedition seems to have been derived from the " traditionary tale," as the author fitly calls it. One is reluctant to unmask a popular idol by substi- tuting facts for fancies and showing the historical basis upon which it stands. Until the publication of John Fontaine's journal, the facts known about this expedition were but few. Robert Beverly, one of the party, in his Preface to the History of Vir- ginia, 1722, merely said, "I was with the present Governor at the head-spring of both these rivers (York and Rappahannock), and their fountains are in the highest ridge of mountains." The Rev. Hugh Jones, Chaplain to the House of Burgesses, in his " Present State of Virginia (1724), says :- " Governor Spotswood when he undertook the great discovery
-
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HISTORICAL EXCURSIONS.
of a passage over the mountains, attended with a sufficient guard of pioneers and gentlemen, with a supply of provisions, passed these mountains and cut his Majesty's name upon a rock upon the highest of them, naming it Mt. George, and in complaisance to him the gentlemen called the mountain next to it Mt. Alexander. For this expedition they were obliged to provide a great quantity of horseshoes, things seldom used in the eastern part of Virginia, where there are no stones. Upon which account the Governor, upon his return, presented each of his companions with a golden horseshoe, some of which I have seen covered with valuable stones resembling heads of nails, with the inscription on one side, 'Sic juvat transcendere Montes.' This he intended to encourage gentlemen to venture backward and make discoveries and settlements; any gentleman being entitled to wear this golden shoe who could prove that he had drunk his Majesty's health on Mt. George."
It has always been assumed that Gov. Spotswood communicated an account of his expedition to the home government, and it tends to confirm this assertion that Chalmers in his "Annals " says the British Government penuriously refused to pay the cost of golden horseshoes. But nothing has yet been produced from Spotswood on this subject. The present writer has recently gone through the Spots- wood manuscripts recovered from England, whither they had been carried by Feathershaugh, and which are now the property of the Historical Society of Virginia. We only discovered one allusion to the subject in these papers. In a letter to the Board of Trade, 1718, Spotswood says :- " The chief aim of
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KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE.
my expedition over the great mountains in 1716 was to satisfy myself whether it was practicable to come at the lakes. Having found an easy passage over that great ridge of mountains hitherto deemed un- passable, I discovered from the relations of Indians which frequent these parts, that from the pass where I was it was but three days' march to a great nation of Indians, living on a river which discharges itself into Lake Erie ; and that from the west side of the small mountain that I saw that lake is very visible. The mountains on the other side of the great ridge being smaller than those I passed, shows how easy a matter it is to gain possession of these lakes." To account for these crude notions of the geography of the country it must be remembered that all west of Germanna was at that time a vast unexplored wilderness, covered by a dense forest, never trodden by the foot of the white man, except the flying rangers who hovered upon the frontiers of popula- tion to watch the Indians.
John Fontaine, son of Rev. James Fontaine (Huguenot), and brother of the Rev. Peter Fontaine and of the Rev. James Fontaine, clergymen of the Church of England in Virginia, was an ensign in the British army. He came to Virginia in 1713, for the purpose of exploring the country and choosing lands for the settlement of the family when they should come over. He made the acquaintance of Governor Spotswood at Williamsburg, and under his auspices visited the new settlement at Germanna, and accom- panied Spotswood to his Indian school at Christanna, on the Meherrin River, and also on his expedition over the great mountains. He kept a journal of his daily doings, which furnishes the only authentic H
.
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HISTORICAL EXCURSIONS.
account we have of this stirring adventure. His plain, unvarnished tale dispels the mist which the popular fancy had peopled with hostile Indians haunting the march, assassins stealing into camp at dead of night and committing murder, perpetrating massacres, and doing battle in the mountain passes. The recent publication of this journal rescues the facts from traditionary perversions and restores them to their true historical proportions. From him (an eye-witness) we learn that Governor Spotswood came from Williamsburg by way of Chelsea (King William) and Robert Beverly's (Middlesex), where the Governor left his chaise, and bringing Beverly along, came on horseback to Germanna, where, on the 26th August, 1716, they were met by other gen- tlemen, four Meherrin Indians, and two small companies of rangers. The names of the gentlemen of the party, deduced in part from the camps which were called after them, were: Governor Spotswood, John Fontaine, Robt. Beverly, the historian ; Col. Robertson, Dr. Robinson, Taylor Todd, Mason, Captains Clonder, and Smith, and Brooke, the ances- tor of the late Judge Brooke. Campbell says :- "The whole company was about fifty persons. They had a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors."
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