USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 1st ed > Part 7
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The peaceable and orderly deportment of this hardy and industrious race of people, together with their per- fect submission to the restraints of the civil authority, has always been proverbial. They form at this day a most valuable part of our community.
Among our early settlers, a number of Irish Presby- terians removed from Pennsylvania, and settled along Back creek, the North mountain and Opequon. A few Scotch and English families were among them.
The ancestors of the Glasses, Allens, Vances, Ker- fotts, &c. were among the earliest settlers on the upper waters of the Opequon. The ancestors of the Whites, Russells, &c. settled near the North mountain. There were a mixture of Irish.and Germans on Cedar creek and its vicinity : the Frys, Newells, Blackburns.t Wil- sons, &c. were among the number. The Irish, like the Germans, brought with them the religion, customs and habits, of their ancestors. The Irish wedding was al- ways an occasion of great hilarity, jollity and mirth. Among other scenes attending it, running for the bottle was much practiced. It was usual for the wedding par- ties to ride to the residence of the clergyman to have the ceremony performed. In their absence, the father or next friend prepared, at the bride's residence, a bottle of the best spirits that could be obtained, around the neck of which a white ribin was tied. Returning from the clergyman's, when within one or two miles of the home - of the bride, some three or four young men prepared to . run for the bottle. Taking an even start, their horses were put at full speed, dashing over mud, rocks, stumps,
* Christian Miller, an aged and respectable man near Woodstock, related this custom to the author.
Gen. Samuel Blackburn, it is said, descended from this family.
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and disregarding all impediments. The race, in fact, was run with as much eagerness and desire to win, as is ever manifested on the turf by our sporting charac- ters. 'The father or next friend of the bride, expecting the racers, stood with the bottle in his hand, ready to de- liver to the successful competitor. On receiving it, he forthwith returned to meet the bride and groom. When met. the bottle was first presented to the bride, who must taste it at least, next to the groom, and then hand- ed round to the company, every one of whom was re- quired to swig it.
The Quakers differed from all other sects in their marriage ceremony. 'The parties having agreed upon the match, notice was given to the elders or overscers of the meeting, and a strict inquiry followed whether there had been any previous engagements by either of the parties to other individuals. If nothing of the kind appeared, the intended marriage was made known pub- liely ; and if approved by all parties, the couple passed meeting. This ceremony was repeated three several times ; when. if no lawful impediment appeared, a day was appointed for the marriage, which took place at the meeting-house in presence of the congregation. A wri- ting, drawn up between the parties, purporting to be the marriage agreement, witnessed by as many of the by- standers as thought proper to subscribe their names, con- cluded the ceremony. They had no priest or clergy- man to perform the rite of matrimony, and the whole proceeding was conducted with the utmost solemnity and decorum. This mode of marriage is still kept up, with but little variation.
Previous to the war of the revolution, it was the prac- tice o publish the bans of matrimony, between the par- ties intending to marry, three successive Sabbath days in the church or meeting-house; after which, if no law- ful impediment appeared, it was lawful for a licensed minister'of the parish or county to join the parties in wedlock. It is probable that this practice, which was anciently used in the English churches, gave rise to the
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custom, in the Quaker society, of passing meeting. The peaccable and general moral deportment of the Qua- kers is too generally known to require particular notice in this work.
The Baptists were not among our earliest immigrants. About fourteen or fifteen families of that persuasion mi- grated from the state of New-Jersey, and settled pro- bably in 1742 or 1743 in the vicinity of what is now called Gerardstown, in the county of Berkeley .*
Mr. Semple, in his history of the Virginia Baptists, states, that in the year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this sect, with several others, removed from New-Eng. land. " They halted first at Opequon, in Berkeley county, Virginia, where he formed a Baptist church un- der the care of the Rev. John Gerard." This was pro- bably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue ridge in our state.
It is said that the spot where Tuscarora meeting- house now stands, in the county of Berkeley, is the first place where the gospel was publicly preached and divine service performed west of the Blue ridge.t This was and still remains a Presbyterian edifice.
It is not within the plan of this work to give a gene- ral history of the rise and progress of the various reli- gious societies of our country. It may not, however, be uninteresting to the general reader to have a brief sketch of the difficulties and persecutions which the Quakers and Baptists had to encounter in their first at- tempts to propagate their doctrines and principles in Virginia.
In Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. pp. 532-33, the following most extraordinary law, if indeed it deserves
." Mr. M'Cowen, an aged and respectable citizen of the neighborhood, communicated this fact to the author.
t This information was communicated to the author by a highly respecta- ble oh! lady, of the Presbyterian church, in the county of Berkeley. She also stated, that, in addition to the general tradition, she had lately heard the venerable and reverend Dr. Matthews assort the fact, Mr. Mayers, now in his 87th year, born and raised on the Potomac, in Berkeley, stated hisopinion to the author, that there was a house erected for public worship at the Fall- ing Water about the same time that the Tuscarora meeting-house was built. Both these churches are now under the pastoral care of the Rev. James M. Brown.
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the name, was enacted by the then legislature of Vir- ginia, March 1660 :
" An act for the suppressing the Quakers.
" Whereas there is an vnreasonable and turbulent sort of people, comonly called Quakers, who contrary to the law do dayly gather together vnto them vnlaw'il assemblies and congregations of people, teaching and publishing lies, miracles, false visions, prophecies and doctrines, which have influence vpon the comunities of men, both ecclesiasticall and civil, endeavouring and at- tempting thereby to destroy religion, lawes, comunities, and all bonds of civil societie, leaveing it arbitrarie to everie vaine and vitious person whether men shall be safe, lawes established, offenders punished, and goverr .- ours rule, hereby disturbing the publique peace and just interest : to prevent and restraine which mischiefe, It is enacted, That no master or comander of any shipp or other vessell do bring into this collonie any person or persons called Quakers, vnder the penalty of one hun- dred pourds sterling, to be leavied vpon him and his es- tate by or ler from the governour and council, or the comissioners in the severall counties where such ships shall arrive : That all such Quakers as have been ques- tioned, or shall hereafter arrive, shall be apprehended wheresocver they shall be found, and they be imprison- ed without baile or mainprize, till they do adjure this country, or putt in security with all speed to depart the collonie and not to return again : And if any should dare to presume to returne hither after such departure, to be proceeded against .as conterners of the lawes and magistracy, and punished accordingly, and caused again to lepart the country, and if they should the third time - be so audacious and impudent as to returne hither, to be proceeded against as ffelons : That noe person shall entertain any of the Quakers that have heretofore been questioned by the governour and council, or which shall hereafter be questioned, nor permit in or near his house any assemblies of Quakers, in the like penalty of one hundred pounds sterling : That comissioners and offi-
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cers are hereby required and authorized, as they will answer the contrary at their perill, to take notice of this act, to see it fully effected and executed : And that no person do presume on their perill to dispose or publish their bookes, pamphlets or libells, bearing the title of their tenets and opinions."
This highhanded and cruel proceeding took place in the time of Oliver Cromwell's usurpation in England, and at a time when some glimmering of rational, civil, and religious liberty, manifested itself in the mother country. The preamble to this act is contradicted by the whole history of Quakerism, from its foundation to the present period. In all the written and traditional accounts handed down to us, the Quakers are represent- ed as a most inoffensive, orderly, and strictly moral peo- ple, in all their deportment and habits.
This unreasonable and unwise legislation, it is pre- sumed, was suffered to die a natural death, as, in the progress of the peopling of our country, we find that many Quakers, at a pretty early period, migrated and formed considerable settlements in differents parts of the state.
It has already been noticed that the Baptists were not among the number of our earliest immigrants. Mr. Semple says: "The Baptists in Virginia originated from three sources. The first were immigrants from England, who about the year 1714 settled in the south east part of the state. About 1743 another party came from Maryland, and founded a settlement in the north west .* A third party from New-England, 1754."
This last was Mr. Stearns and his party. They set- tled for a short time on Capon river, in the county of Hampshire, but soon removed to North Carolina. Mr. Stearns and his followers manifested great zeal and in- dustry in the propagation of their doctrines and princi- ples. Their religion soon took a wide range in the Ca-
" It is probable this is the party who settled in the neighborhood of Ge- rardstown. If so, Mr. S. is doubtless misinformed as to the place of their ori- gin. The first Baptist immigrants who settled in Berkeley county were cer- tainly from New-Jersey.
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rolinas and .Virginia. They met with violent opposi- tion from the established Episcopal clergy, and much persecution followed. To the credit of the people of our valley, but few if any acts of violence were commit- ted on the persons of the preachers west of the Blue ridge. This is to be accounted for from the fact that a great majority of the inhabitants were dissenters from the Episcopal church. East of the Blue ridge, however, the case was widely different. It was quite common to imprison the preachers, insult the congregations, and treat them with every possible indignity and outrage. Every foul means was resorted to, which malice and hatred could devise, to suppress their doctrines and reli- gion. But instead of success, this persecution produ- ced directly the contrary effect. " The first instance," says Mr. Semple, "of actual imprisonment, we believe, that ever took place in Virginia, was in the county of- Spottsylvania. On the 4th June, 1768, John Waller, Lewis Craig, James Childs, &o. were seized by the she- rif, and hauled before three magistrates, who stood in the meeting-house yard, and who bound them in the penalty of £1000 to appear at court two days after. At court they were arraigned as disturbers of the peace, and committed to close jail." And in December, 1770, Messrs. William Webber and Joseph Anthony were imprisoned in Chesterfield jail.
The author deems it unnecessary to detail all the cases of persecution and imprisonment of the Baptist preachers. He will therefore conclude this narrative with the account of the violent persecution and cruel treatment of the late Rev. James Ireland, a distinguish- ed Baptist preacher of our valley.
Mr. Ireland was on one occasion committed to the jail of Culpeper county,* when several attempts were made to destroy hin. Of these attempts he gives the following narrative :
" A number of my persecutors resorted to the tavern
* In the Life of Ireland, no dates are given, The time of his commitment was probably about the year 1771 or 177-
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of Mr. Steward, at the court-house, where they plotted to blow me up with powder that night, as I was inform- ed ; but all they could collect was half a pound. They fixed it for explosion, expecting I was sitting directly over it, but in this they were mistaken. Fire was put to it, and it went off with considerable noise, forcing up - a small plank, from which I received, no damage. The next scheme they devised was to smoke me with brim- stone and Indian pepper. They had to wait certain opportunities to accomplish the same. The lower part of the jail door was a few inches above its sill. When the wind was favorable, they would get pods of Indian pepper, empty them of their contents, and fill them with brimstone, and set them burning, so that the whole jail would be filled with the killing smoke. and oblige me to go to cracks, and put my mouth to them in order to prevent suffocation. At length a certain doctor and the . jailer formed a scheme to poison me, which they actu- ally effected."
From this more than savage cruelty Mr. Ireland be- came extremely ill, was attended by several physicians, and in some degree restored to health and activity ; but he never entirely recovered from the great injury which his constitution received. .
The author had the satisfaction of an intimate perso- nal acquaintance with Mr. Ireland, and lived a near neighbor to him for several years before his death. He was a native Scotsman ; of course his pronunciation was a little broad. He had a fine commanding voice, easy delivery, with a beautiful natural elocution in his sermonizing. His language, perhaps, was not as purely classical as some of his cotemporaries ; but such was his powerful elocution, particularly on the subject of the crucifixion and sufferings of our Savior, that he ne- ver failed to cause a flood of tears to flow from the eyes of his audience, whenever he touched that theme. In his younger years he was industrious, zealous, sparing no pains to propagate his religious opinions and prin- ciples, and was very successful in gaining proselytes :
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hence he became an object of great resentment to the established clergy, and they resorted to every means within their reach, to silence and put him down. But in this they failed. He at length triumphed over his persecutors, was instrumental in founding several churches, and lived to sce his labors in the ministry crowned with great success.
CHAPTER VI.
Breaking out of the Indian war.
It has been noticed in a preceding chapter, that in the year 1753, emissaries from the Western Indians came among the Valley Indians, inviting them to cross the Allegany mountains, and that in the spring of the year 1754, the Indians suddenly and unexpectedly moved off, and entirely left the valley.
That this movement of the Indians was made under the influence of the French, there is but little doubt. In the year 1753, Maj. George Washington (since the illustrious Gen. Washington,) was sent by governor Dinwiddie, the then colonial governor of Virginia, with a letter to the French commander on the western wa- ters, remonstrating against his encroachments upon the
territory of Virginia. This letter of remonstrance was disregarded by the Frenchman, and very soon after- wards the war, commonly called "Braddock's war," be- tween the British government and France, commenced. In the year 1751, the government of Virginia raised an armed force, with the intention of dislodging the F'rench from their fortitied places within the limits of the colony. The command of this army was given to Col. Fry, and George Washington was appointed lieutenant-colonel under him. Their little army amounted to three hun-
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dred men. "Washington advanced at the head of two companies of this regiment, early in April, to the Great Meadows, where he was informed by some friendly In- dians, that the French were erecting fortifications in the forks between the Allegany and Monongahela rivers, and also that a detachment was on its march from that place towards the Great Meadows. War had not been formally declared between France and England ; but as neither were disposed to recede from their claim to the lands on the Ohio, it was deemed inevitable, and on the point of commencing. Several circumstances were supposed to indicate a hostile intention on the part of the French detachment.
Washington, under the gui- dance of some friendly Indians, on a dark rainy night surprised their encampment, and firing once, rushed in and surrounded them. The commander, Dumonville, was killed, with 8 or 9 others ; one escaped, and all the rest immediately surrendered. Soon after this af- fair, Col. Fry died, and the command of the regiment devolved on Washington, who speedily collected. the whole at the Great Meadows. Two independent com- panies of regulars, one from New-York and one from" South Carolina, soon after arrived at the same place. Col. Washington was now at the head of nearly four - hundred men. A stockade, afterwards called Fort Ne- cessity, was erected at the Great Meadows, in which a small force was left, and the main body advanced with a view to dislodging the French from Fort Duquesne,* which they had recently erected at the confluence of the Allegany and Monongahela rivers. They had not proceeded more than thirteen miles, when they were in- formed by friendly Indians that the French, as nume- rous as pigeons in the woods, were advancing in an hos- tile manner towards the English settlements, and also tha, Fort Duquesne had been strongly reinforced. In this critical situation a council of war unanimously re- commended a retreat to the Great Meadows, which
* Fort Duquesne, so called in honor of the French commander, was, after it fell into the hands of the English, rallied Fort Pitt, and is now Pittsburg.
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was effected without delay, and every exertion made to render Fort Necessity tenable, before the works in- tended for that purpose were completed. Mons. de Vil- lier, with a considerable force, attacked the fort. The assailants were covered by trees and high grass .* The Americans received them with great resolution, and fought some within the stockade, and others in the sur- rounding ditch. Washington continued the whole day on the outside of the fort, and conducted the defence with the greatest coolness and intrepidity. The en- gagement lasted from 10 o'clock in the morning till night, when the French commander demanded a par- ley, and offered terms of capitulation. His first and se- cond proposals were rejected, and Washington would accept of none but the following honorable ones, which were mutually agreed upon in the course of the night : The fort to be surrendered on condition that the garrison should march out with the honors of war, and be per- mitted to retain their arms and baggage, and to march unmolested into the inhabited parts of Virginia."i
In 1753 the British government sent Gen. Brad- dock, at the head of two regiments, to this country. Col. Washington had previously resigned the command of the Virginia troops. Braddock invited him to join the service as one of his volunteer aids, which invita. tion he readily accepted, and joined Braddock near Al- exandria.# The army moved on for the west, and in their march out erected Fort Cumberland.§ The cir- cumstances attending the unfortunate defeat of Brad- dock, and the dreadful slaughter of his army near Pitts-
* It is presumable that the grass here spoken of by Dr. Ramsay was of the growth of the preceding year. It is not probable that the grass, the growth of the year 1754, so early in the season, had grown of sufficient hight to con- cea! a man.
t Ramsay's Life of Washington.
# Then called Bellhaven.
6 Fort Cumberland was built in the year 1755, in the fork between Wills creek and North branch of the Potomac, the remains of which are yet to be geen. It is about 55 miles north west of Winchester, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. There is now a considerable town at this place. The car- Bison left at it was commanded by Maj. Livingston. Mr. John Tomlinson gave the author this information. On the ancient site of the test, there are seicral dwelling houses, and a new brick Episcopal church.
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burg, are too generally known to require a detailed ac- count in this work : suffice it to say that the defeat was attended with the most disastrous consequences to our country: The whole western frontier was left exposed to the ravages of the forces of the French and Indians combined.
After the defeat and fall of Braddock, Col. Dunbar, the next in command of the British army, retreated to Philadelphia, and the defence of the country fell upon Washington, with the few troops the colonies were able to raise. The people forthwith erected stockade forts in every part of the valley, and took shelter in them. Many families were driven off, some east of the Blue ridge, and others into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Immediately after the defeat of Braddock, Washing- ton retreated to Winchester, in the county of Frederick, and in the autumn of 1755 built Fort Loudoun. The venerable and highly respectable Lewis Neill, who was born on Opequon, about 5 miles east of Winchester, in 1747, stated to the author, that when he was about 8 years of age, his father had business at the fort, and that he went with him into it. Mr. Thomas Barrett, another aged and respectable citizen, states that he has often heard his father say, that Fort Loudoun was built the same year and immediately after Braddock's defeat. Our highly respectable and venerable general John Smith, who settled in Winchester in 1773, inform- ed the author that he had seen and conversed with some of Washington's officers soon after he settled in Win- chester, and they stated to him that Washington mark- ed out the site of the fort, and superintended the work; that he bought a lot in Winchester, erected a smith's shop on it, and brought from Mount Vernon his own blacksmith to make the necessary iron work for the fort. These officers pointed out to Gen. Smith the spot where Gen. Washington's huts or cabins were erected for his residence while in the fort. The great highway lead- ing from Winchester to the north, passes through the fort precisely where Washington's quarterz were erect-
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ed. It stands at the north end of Loudoun-street, and a considerable part of the walls are now remaining. It covered an area of about half an acre; within which area, a well, one hundred and three feet deep, chiefly through a solid limestone rock, was sunk for the con- venience of the garrison .* The labor of throwing up this fort was performed by Washington's regiment ; so says Gen. Smith. It mounted six 18-pounders, six 12-pounders, six 6-pounders, four swivels, and two how- itzers, and contained a strong garrison t No formidable attempts were ever made by the enemy against it. . A French officer once came to reconnoiter, and found it too strong to be attacked with any probability of suc- cess.#
For three years after the defeat of Braddock, the French and Indians combined carried on a most destruc- tive and cruel war upon the western people. The French, however, in about three years after Braddock's defeat, abandoned Fort Duquesne, and it was immedi- ately taken possession of by the British and colonial troops under the command of Gen. Forbes. Washing- ton soon after resigned the command of the Virginia forces, and retired to private life. A predatory warfare was nevertheless continued on the people of the valley by hostile Indian tribes for several years afterthe French had been driven from their strong holds in the west ; the particulars of which will forin the subject of my next chapter.
* The water in this well rises near the surface, and in great floods of rain has been known to overflow and discharge a considerable stream of water. The site of the fort is opon more elevated ground than the head of any springs in its neighborhood. Upon what principle the water should here rise above the surface the author cannot pretend to explain.
i ( en. John Smith stated this fact to the author. .. The camion were remov- ed from Winchester early in the war of the revolution. Dome. further Rc- count of this artillery will be given in a future chapter. GIr. Henry W. Bp- ker, of Winchester, gave the author an account of the number of cannon mounted on the fort.
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