USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 3rd ed > Part 5
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Near the Shenandoah Springs, on the lands of Mr. Fairfax, an Indian grave, some years since was opened, in which a skeleton of unusual size were discovered.}
Mr. E. Paget informed the author, that on Flint Run, a small rivulet of the South River, in the county of Shenandoah, a skeleton was found by his father, the thigh bone of which measured three feet in length, and the under jaw bone of which would pass over any common man's face with ease.
Near the Indian village described on a preceding page, on Capt. Oliver's land, a few years ago, some hands in removing the stone covering an Indian grave, discovered a skeleton, whose great size attracted theirattention. The stones was carefully taken off without disturbing the frame, when it was discovered, that the body had been laid at full length on the ground, and broad flat stones set round the corpse in the shape of a coffin. Capt. Oliver measured the skelton as it lay, which was nearly seven feet long.||
In the further progress of this work the author will occasionally advert to the subject of Indian antiquities and traits of the Indian character. This chapter will now be concluded with some general reflections on the seemly hard fate of the unfortunate race of peo- ple. It appears to the author that no reflecting man can view so
* Mr. Thomas Barrett, who was born in 1755, stated to the author, that within his recollection the signs of the Indian wigwams were to be seen on Babb's Marsh.
+ Mr. John Shobe, a very respectable old citizen of Martinsburg, stated to the author, that Mr. Benjamin Beeson, a highly respectable Quaker, in- formed him, that the Tuscarora Indians were living on the Tuscarora Creek when he (Beeson) first knew the county.
# Mr. George W. Fairfax gave the author this information.
| Maximus, a Roman Emperor in the third century, "was the son of a Thracian shepherd, and is represented by historians as a man of gigantic statute and herculean strength. He was fully eight feet in height, and per- fectly symmetrical in form." Abridged U. History, vol. ii, p. 35.
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INDIAN SETTLEMENTS.
many burying places broken up, their bones torn up with the plow, reduced to dust, and scattered to the winds, without feeling some degree of melancholy regret. It is to be lamented for another reason. If those mounds and places of burial had been permitted to remain undisturbed, they would have stood as lasting monuments in the history of our country. Many of them were doubtless the work of ages, and future generations would have contemplated them with great interest and curiosity. But these memorials are rapidly disap- pearing, and the time perhaps will come, when not a trace of them will remain. The author has had the curiosity to open several In- dian graves, in one of which he found a pipe, of different form from any he has ever seen. It is made of a hard black stone and glazed or rather painted with a substance of a reddish cast. In all the graves he has examined, the bones are found in a great state of decay, except the teeth, which are generally in a perfect state of preservation.
It is no way wonderful that this unfortunate race of people re- luctantly yielded their rightful and just possession of this fine country. It is no way wonderful that they resisted with all their force the intrusion of the white people (who were strangers to them, from a foreign country), upon their rightful inheritance. But per- haps this was the fiat of heaven. When God created this globe, he probably intended it should sustain the greatest possible number of his creatures. And as the human family, in a state of civil life, increases with vastly more rapidity than a people in a state of nature or savage life, the law of force has been generally resorted to, and the weaker compelled to give way to the stronger. That a part of our country has been acquired by this law of force, is undeniable. It is, however, matter of consoling reflection, that there are some honora- ble exceptions of this arbitrary rule. The great and wise William Penn set the example of purchasing the Indian lands. Several re- spectable individuals of the Quaker Society thought it unjust to take possession of this valley without making the Indians some compen- sation for their right. Measures were adopted to effect this great object. But upon inquiry, no particular tribe could be found who pretended to have any prior claim to the soil. It was considered the common hunting ground of various tribes, and not claimed by any particular nation who had authority to sell.
This information was communicated to the author by two aged and highly respectable men of the Friends' Society, Isaac Brown and Lewis Neill, each of them upwards of eighty years of age, and both residents of the county of Frederick.
In confirmation of this statement, a letter written by Thomas Chaukley to the monthly meeting on the Opequon, on the 21st of May, 1738, is strong circumstantial evidence ; of which the follow- ing is a copy :
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INDIAN SETTLEMENTS.
LETTER FROM MR. THOMAS CHAUKLEY.
VIRGINIA, AT JOHN CHEAGLE'S, May 21st, 1738.
" To the friends of the monthly meeting at the Opequon :
"Dear friends who inhabit the Shenandoah and Opequon :- Having a concern for your welfare and prosperity, both now and hereafter, and also the prosperity of your children, I had a desire to see you ; but being in years, and heavy, and much spent and fatigued with my long journeyings in Virginia and Carolina makes it seem too hard for me to perform a visit in person to you, wherefore I take this way of writing to discharge my mind of what lies weighty thereon ; and
"First. I desire that you be very careful (being far and back inhabitants) to keep a friendly correspondence with the native Indians, giving them no occasion of offense; they being a cruel and merciless enemy, where they think they are wronged or defrauded of their rights; as woeful experience had taught in Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, and especially in New England, &c .; and
"Second. As nature had given them and their forefathers the possession of this continent of America (or this wilderness), they had a natural right thereto in justice and equity ; and no people, according to the law of nature and justice and our own principle, which is according to the glorious gospel of our dear and holy Jesus Christ, ought to take away or settle on other men's lands or rights without consent, or purchasing the same by agreement of parties concerned ; which I suppose in your case is not yet done.
"Third. Therefore my counsel and christian advice to you is, my dear friends, that the most reputable among you do with speed endeavor to agree with and purchase your lands of the native Indians or inhabitants. Take example of our worthy and honor- able late proprietor William Penn ; who by the wise and religious care in that relation, had settled a lasting peace and commerce with the natives, and through his prudent management therein hatlı been instrumental to plant in peace one of the most flourishing provinces in the world.
"Fourth. Who would run the risk of the lives of their wives and children for the sparing a little cost and pains? I am con- cerned to lay these things before you, under an uncommon exercise of mind, that your new and flourishing little settlement may not be laid waste, and (if the providence of the Almighty doth not intervene), some of the blood of yourselves, wives or children, be shed or spilt on the ground.
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INDIAN SETTLEMENTS.
"Fifth. Consider you are in the province of Virginia, holding what rights you have under that government ; and the Virginians have made an agreement with the natives to go as far as the moun- tains and no farther ; and you are over and beyond the mountains, therefore out of that agreement ; by which you lie open to the in- sults and incursions of the Southern Indians, who have destroyed many of the inhabitants of Carolina and Virginia, and even now destroyed more on the like occasion. The English going beyond the bounds of their agreement, eleven of them were killed by the Indians while we were traveling in Virginia."
"Sixth. If you believe yourselves to be within the bounds of William Penn's patent from King Charles the second, which will be hard for you to prove, you being far southward of his line, yet if done, that will be no consideration with the Indians without a purchase from them, except you will go about it to convince them by fire and sword, contrary to our principles ; and if that were done, they would ever be implacable enemies, and the land could never be enjoyed in peace.
"Seventh. Please to note that in Pennsylvania no new settle- ments are made without an agreement with the natives ; as witness Lancaster county, lately settled, though that is far within the grant of William Penn's patent from King Charles the second ; wherefore you lie open to the insurrections of the Northern as well as Southern Indians ; and
"Lastly. Thus having shown my good will to you and to your new little settlement, that you might sit every one under your own shady tree, where none might make you afraid, and that you might prosper naturally and spiritually, you and your children ; and hav- ing a little eased my mind of that weight and concern (in some measure) that lay upon me, I at present desist, and subscribe my- self, in the love of our holy Lord Jesus Christ, your real friend,
T. C."
This excellent letter from this good man proves that the Quakers were among our early settlers, and that this class of people were early disposed to do justice to the natives of the country.
Had this humane and just policy of purchasing the Indian lands been first adopted and adhered to, it is highly probable the white people might have gradually obtained possession without the loss of so much blood and treasure.
The ancestors of the Neills, Walkers, Bransons, Mckays. Hackneys, Beesons, Luptons, Barretts, Dillons. and others, were among the earliest Quaker immigrants to our Valley. Three Quak- ers by the name of Fawcett settled at any early period about eight or nine miles south of Winchester, near Zane's old iron works, from whom a pretty numerous progeny has descended. They have, how- ever, chiefly migrated to the west.
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INDIAN SETTLEMENTS.
Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia says, "That the lands of this country were taken from them, (the Indians), by conquest, is not so general a truth as is supposed. I find in our historians and records, repeated proofs of purchase, which cover a con- siderable part or the lower country ; and many more would doubt- less be found on further search. The upper country we know has been acquired altogether by purchase in the most unexception- able form.
Tradition relates, that several tracts of land were purchased by Quakers from the Indians on Apple-pie Ridge, and that the Indians never were known to disturb the people residing on the land so obtained.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
CHAPTER III.
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
In the year 1732, Joist Hite, with his family, and his sons-in- law, viz : George Bowman, Jacob Chrisman and Paul Froman, with their families ; Robert Mckay, Robert Green, Williamn Duff, Peter Stephens, and several others, amounting in the whole to sixteen fam- ilies, removed from Pennsylvania, cutting their road from York, and crossing the Cohongoruton about two miles above Harper's Ferry. Hite settled on Opequon, about five miles south of Winchester, on the great highway between Winchester and Staunton, now the resi- dence of the highly respectable widow of the late Richard Peters Barton, Esq., and also the residence of Richard W. Barton, Esq. Peter Stephens and several others settled at Stepensburg, and founded the town ; Jacob Chrisman at what is now called Chrisman's Spring, about two miles south of Stephensburg ; Bowman on Cedar Creek, about six miles farther south ; and Froman on the same Creek, eight or nine miles northwest of Bowman. Robert Mckay settled on Crooked Run, eight or nine miles southeast of Stephensburg. The several other families settled in the same neighborhood, wherever they could find wood and water most convenient. From the most authentic information which the author has been able to obtain, Hite and his party were the first immigrants who settled west of the Blue Ridge. They were, however, very soon followed by numner- ous others.
In 1734,* Benjamin Allen, Riley Moore and William White, removed from Monoccacy, in Maryland, and settled on the North Branch of the Shenandoah, now in the county of Shenandoah, about twelve miles South of Woodstock.
In 1733, Jacob Stover an enterprising German, obtained from the Governor of Virginia, a grant for five thousand acres acres of land on the South Fork of the Gerando ; River, on what was called Mesinetto Creek.±
* Mr. Steenbergen informed the author that the traditionary account of the first settlement of his farm, together with Allen's and Moore's, made it about 106 years ; but Mr. Aaron Moore, grandson of Riley Moore, by refer- ing to the family records, fixes the period pretty correctly. According to Mr. Moore's account, Moore, Allen and White, removed from Maryland in 1734.
+ This water course was first written Gerando, then Sherandoah, now Shenandoah.
¿ Mesinetto is now called Masinutton. There is considerable settlement of highly improved farms, now called "the Masinutton settlement," in the new county of Page, on the west side of the South River, on Stover's ancient grant.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
Tradition relates a singular and amusing account of Stover and his grant .* On his application to the executive for his grant, he was refused unless he could give satisfactory assurance that he would have the land settled with the requisite number of families within a given time. Being unable to do this, he forthwith passed over to Eng- land, petitioned the King to direct his grant to be issued, and in order to insure success, had given human nanies to every horse, cow, hog and dog he owned, and which he represented as heads of families, ready to migrate and settle the land. By this disingenious trick he succeeded in obtaining directions from the King and Council for securing his grant ; on obtaining which he immediately sold out his land in small divisions, at three pounds (equal to ten dollars) per hundred, and went off with the money.
Two men, John and Isaac Vanmeter, obtained a warrant from Governor Gooch for locating forty thousand acres of land. This warrant was obtained in the year 1730. They sold or transferred part of their warrant to Joist Hite; and from this warrant eminated several of Hite's grants, which the author has seen. Of the titles to the land on which Hite settled, with several other tracts in the neighborhood of Stephensburg, the originals are found on this warrant.
In the year 1734, Richard Morgan obtained a grant for a tract of land in the immediate neighborhood of Shepherdstown, on or near the Cohongoruton. Among the first settlers on this water course and its vicinity, were Robert Harper (Harpers-Ferry), William Stroop, Thomas and William Forester, Israel Friend, Thomas Shep- hard, Thomas Swearengen, Van Swearengen, James Forman, Ed- ward Lucas, Jacob Hite,; John Lemon, Richard Mercer, Edward Mercer, Jacob Vanmeter, and brothers, Robert Stockton, Robert Buckles, John Taylor, Samuel Taylor, Richard Morgan, John Wright, and others.
The first settlers on the Wappatomaka (South Branch) were Coburn, Howard, Walker and Rutledge. This settlement com- inenced about the year 1734 or 1735. It does not appear that the first immigration to this fine section of country had the precaution to secure titles to their lands, until Lord Fairfax migrated to Virginia, and opened his office for granting warrants in the Northern Neck. The earliest grant which the author could find in this settlement bears date in 1747. The most of the grants are dated in 1749. This was a most unfortunate omission on the part of these people. It left Fairfax at the discretion of exercising his insatiable disposition for the monopoly of wealth ; and instead of granting these lands upon the usual terms allowed to other settlers, he availed himself of the opportunity of laying off in manors, fifty-five thousand acres, in
* Stover's grant is described as being in the county of Spottsylvania, St. Mark's Parish. Of course, Spottsylvania at that period i. e., 1733, crossed in the Blue Ridge.
+ One of Joist Hite's sons.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
what is called the South Branch inanor, and nine thousand acres on Patterson's Creek.
This was considered by the settlers an odious and oppressive act on the part of his lordship, and many of them left the country .* These two great surveys were made in the year 1747. To such tenants as remained, his lordship granted leases for ninety-nine years, reserving an annual rent of twenty shillings sterling per hundred acres ; whereas, all other immigrants only two shilling per hundred was reserved, with a fee simple title to the tenant. Some further notice of Lord Fairfax and his immense grant will be taken in a fu- ture chapter.
Tradition relates that a man by the name of John Howard, and his son, previous to the first settlement of our Valley, explored the country, and discovered the charming Valley of the South Branch, crossed the Alleghany mountains, and on the Ohio killed a very large buffalo bull, skinned him, stretched his hide over ribs of wood, made a kind of boat, and in this frail bark descended the Ohio and Missis- sippi to New Orleans, were they were apprehended by the French as suspicious characters, and sent to France ; but nothing criminal ap- pearing against them, they were discharged. From hence they crossed over to England, where Fairfax by some means got to hear of Mr. Howard, sought an interview with him, and obtained from him a description of the fertility and immense value of the South Branch, which determined his Lordship at once to secure it in manors .; Notwithstanding this selfish monopoly on the part of Fairfax, the great fertility and value of the country induced numerous tenants to take leases, settle and improve the lands.
At an early period many immigrants settled on Capon (anciently called Cacaphon, which is said to be the Indian naine), also on Lost River. Along Back Creek, Cedar Creek, and Opequon, pretty numerous settlements were made. Two great branches of the Shenandoah, from its forks upwards, were among our earliest settlements.
An enterprising Quaker, by the name of Ross, obtained a war- rant for surveying forty thousand acres of land. The surveys on this warrant were made along Opequon, north of Winchester, and up to Apple-pie Ridge. Pretty numerous immigrants of the Quaker profession removed from Pennsylvania, and settled on Ross's sur- veys. The reader will have observed in my preceding chapter, that as early as 1738, this people had regular monthly meetings estab- lished in Opequon.#
The lands on the west side of the Shenandoah, from a little below the forks, were first settled by overseers and slaves, nearly
* William Heath, Esq., of Hardy, gave the author this information.
t Also related by Mr. Heath.
# See Chaukley's letter to the monthly meeting on Opequon, May 21, 1738, page 42.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
down to the mouth of the Bullskin. A Col. Carter,* of the lower country, had obtained grants for about sixty-three thousand acres of land on this river. His surveys commenced a short distance below the forks of the river, and ran down a little below Snicker's ferry, upwards of twenty miles. This fine body of land is now subdivided into a great many most valuable farms, a considerable part of which are now owned by the highly respectable families of Burwell's and Page's. But little of it now remains in the hands of Carter's heirs.
Another survey of thirteen thousand acres was granted to an- other person, and lies immediately below and adjoining Carter's line, running a considerable distance into the county of Jefferson. This fine tract of land, it is said, was sold under the hammer at Williams- burg, some time previous to the war of the revolution. The owner had been sporting, lost money, and sold the land to pay his debt of honor. General Washington happened to be present, knew the land, and advised the late Ralph Wormley, Esq.,f to purchase it. Wormley bid five hundred guineas for it, and it was struck off to him. It is also said that Mr. Wormley, just before or at the time of the sale, had been regaling himself with a social glass, and that when he cooled off, he became extremely dissatisfied with his purchase, con- sidering it as money thrown away. Washington hearing of his uneasiness, immediately waited on him, and told him he would take the purchase off his hands, and pay him his money again, but ad- vised him by all means to hold it, assuring him that it would one day or other be the foundation of an independent fortune for his children ; upon which Wormley became better reconciled, and con- sented to hold on. And truly, as Washington predicted, it would have become a splendid estate in the hands of two or three of his children, had they known how to preserve it. But it passed into other hands, and now constitutes the splendid farms of the late firm of Castleman & McCormick, Hierome L. Opie, Esq .. the honorable judge Richard E. Parker, and several others. In truth all the coun- try about the larger water courses and mountains was settle before the fine country about Bullskin, Long Marsh, Spot Run, &c.
Much the greater part of the country between what is called the Little North Mountain and the Shenandoah River, at the first settl- ing of the Valley was one vast prairie, and like the rich prairies of the west, afforded the finest possible pasturage for wild animals. The country abounded in the larger kinds of game. The buffalo,
* Col. Robert Carter obtained grants in September, 1730, for sixty-three thousand acres.
+ Mr. Warmley, it is believed, resided at the time in the county of Mid- dlesex.
# There are several aged individuals now living, who recollect when there were large bodies of land in the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick, barren of timber. The barren land is now covered with the best of forest trees.
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FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY.
elk, deer, bear, panther, wild-cat, wolf, fox, beaver, otter, and all other kinds of animals, wild fowl, &c., common to forest countries, were abundantly plenty. The country now the county of Shenan- doah, between the Fort Mountain and the North Mountain, was also settled at an early period. The counties of Rockingham and Augusta also were settled at an early time. The settlement of the upper part of our Valley will be more particularly noticed, and form the subject of a second volume hereafter, should the public demand it.
From the best evidence the author has been able to collect, and for this purpose he has examined many ancient grants of land, fam- ily records, etc., as well as the oral tradition of our ancient citizens, the settlement of our Valley progressed without interruption from the native Indians for a period of about twenty-three years. In the year 1754, the Indians suddenly disappeared, and crossed the Alle- ghany Mountains. The year preceeding, emissaries from the west of the Alleghany Mountains came among the Valley Indians and in- vited them to move off .* This occurrence excited suspicion among the white people that a storm was brewing in the west, which it was essential to prepare to nieet.
Tradition relates, that the Indians did not object to the Penn- sylvanians settling the country. From the high character of William Penn, (the founder of Pennsylvania), the poor simple na- tives believed that all Penn's men were honest, virtuous, humane and benevolent, and partook of the qualities of the illustrious founder of their government. But fatal experience soon taught them a very different lesson. They soon found to their cost that Pennsylvanians were not much better than others.
Tradition also informs us that the natives held in utter abhorence the Virginians, whom they designated "Long Knife," and were warmly opposed to their settling in the Valley.
The author will conclude this chapter with some general re- marks in relation to the circumstances under which the first settle- ment of the Valley commenced. Tradition informs us, and the oral statements of several aged individuals of respectable character coll- firm the fact that the Indians and white people resided in the same neighborhood for several years after the first settlement commenced, and that the Indians were entirely peaceable and friendly. This statement must in the nature of things be true ; because if it had been otherwise, the white people could not have succeeded in effecting a settlement. Had the natives resisted the first attempts to settle, the whites could not have succeeded without the aid of a pretty consider- able army to awe the Indians into submission. It was truly fortun- ate for our ancesters that this quiescent spirit of the Indians afforded them the opportunity of acquiring considerable strength as to num-
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