USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 3
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3. James Campbell, third son, lost his eye-sight from small-pox, and died at fifty years of age.
4. William Campbell died in his youth before the family moved to the Holston.
5. David Campbell, fifth son of David, was a lawyer and removed to Tennessee. He was first the Federal Judge in the Territory, and then one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State. His death occurred in 1812, in the sixty-second year of his age. He had been appointed Federal Judge of the Territory which afterwards formed the State of Alabama, but died before he removed his family to the new country.
6. Robert Campbell, sixth son of David, was nineteen years old when he went with his brother to the Holston. He was a volunteer in the expe- dition of 1774, and a member of his brother John's company at the Long Island Flats, in 1776. In October, 1776, he was in Christian's campaign, and in 1780 was an ensign under Colonel William Campbell at King's Mountain. In December, 1780, he served under Colonel Arthur Camp- bell, his brother, against the Cherokees. After acting as a magistrate in Washington County for more than thirty years, he removed to the vicinity of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he died in 1831.
7. Patrick Campbell, the youngest son of David, was a volunteer at King's Mountain. He remained with his father and inherited the home- stead. In his old age he removed to Williamson County, Tennessee, and died when about eighty years old.
The daughters of David and Mary Campbell-
I. Margaret married the David Campbell who erected a block-house
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in Tennessee, widely known as "Campbell's Station." She was con- spicuous for many excellent traits of character. Her death occurred in 1799, at the age of fifty-one.
2. Mary married William Lockhart before the family removed from Augusta.
3. Ann married Archibald Roane, who was first a teacher at Liberty Hall Academy, Rockbridge, and successively Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Governor of the State, and Judge again. She died at Nashville in 1831, about seventy-one years of age.
Several other families of Campbells, not related as far as known to those just mentioned, were amongst the early settlers of Augusta. One of these was represented for many years by Dr. Samuel Campbell, of Lexington, uncle of Charles Campbell, the historian ; and another by the late Rev. William G. Campbell and his nephew, Professor John L. Campbell, of Washington and Lee University.
THE BORDENS, McDOWELLS AND McCLUNGS.
Benjamin Borden, Sr., a native of New Jersey, obtained from Gov- ernor Gooch a patent, dated October 3, 1734, for a tract of land in Frederick county, which was called "Borden's Manor." He was promised, also, one hundred thousand acres on the waters of James River, west of the Blue Ridge, as soon as he should locate a hundred settlers on the tract. As stated on page 16, Ephraim McDowell and his family were the first people who settled there, in 1737. They located on Timber Ridge, originally called "Timber Grove," being attracted by the forest trees on the ridge, which were scarce elsewhere in the region. Borden offered a tract of one hundred acres to any one who. should build a cabin on it, with the privilege of purchasing more at fifty shillings per hundred acres. Each cabin secured to him one thous- and acres. Mrs. Mary Greenlee related in her deposition, referred to on page 16, that an Irish girl, named Peggy Millhollen, a servant of James Bell, dressed herself in men's clothes and secured five or six cabin rights. John Patterson, who was employed to count the cabins, was surprised to find so many people named Millhollen, but the trick was not discovered till after the return was made. Among the settlers in " Borden's Grant" were William McCausland, William Sawyers, Robert Campbell, Samuel Woods, John Mathews (father of Sampson and George), Richard Woods, John Hays and his son, Charles, and Samuel Walker. Borden obtained his patent November 8, 1739. He died in the latter part of 1743, in Frederick, leaving three sons, Benjamin, John and Joseph, and several daughters. The next spring his son Benjamin appeared in Rockbridge (as it is now) with authority under his father's
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will to adjust all matters with the settlers on the grant. He had, how- ever, been in the settlement before his father's death.
Mrs. Greenlee says Benjamin Borden, Jr., was "altogether illiterate," and did not make a good impression on his first arrival, but he proved to be an upright man, and won the confidence of the people. The saying : " As good as Ben. Borden's bill," passed into a proverb. He married Mrs. Magdalene McDowell (originally a Miss Woods, of Rock- fish), widow of John McDowell, who was killed by Indians in Decem- ber, 1742, (see page 31,) and by her had two daughters, Martha and Hannah. The former became the wife of Robert Harvey, the latter never married.
Benjamin Borden, Jr., died of small-pox in 1753. His will was ad- mitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, November 21, 1753. The executors appointed were John Lyle, Archibald Alexander and testator's wife, but the first named declined to serve. His personal estate was large for the time. During her second widowhood Mrs. Magdalene Borden contracted a third marriage with Colonel John Bowyer.
Joseph Borden, brother of Benjamin, Jr., was frequently in the settle- ment after the latter's death. In course of time he instituted the chancery suit of Borden vs. Bowyer, &c., out of which grew the cause of Peck vs. Borden, both of which have been pending in the courts of Augusta county for a hundred years, more or less.
The children of John and Magdalene McDowell were two sons, Samuel and James, and a daughter, Martha, wife of Colonel George Moffett, of Augusta.
For mention of Samuel McDowell, see pages 148, 179, 191. He had seven sons and four daughters. In 1783 he removed to Kentucky with his wife and nine younger children, leaving two married daughters in Virginia. One of these daughters was the wife of Andrew Reid, the first clerk of Rockbridge County Court, and father of the late Colonel Samuel McDowell Reid, of Lexington. The other married daughter, whose name was Sally, was the first wife of Caleb Wallace of Char- lotte county (subsequently of Botetourt), who was first a Presbyterian minister, then a lawyer, and finally a judge of the Supreme Court of Kentucky.
Samuel McDowell was one of the three judges of the first Kentucky Court, and President of the Convention which framed the first Consti- tution of Kentucky. His son, Dr. Ephraim McDowell, studied medicine with Dr. Humphreys, in Staunton, completed his professional education in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was very eminent as a surgeon. Among the numerous descendants of Judge McDowell were General Irvine McDowell, of the United States Army, General Humphrey Marshall, and James G. Birney, the "Liberty " candidate for President of the United States in 1840 and 1844.
James McDowell, son of John and Magdalene, had one son, also
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named James, the Colonel McDowell of 1812 (see pages 224, etc.), and father of the late Governor James McDowell.
The wife of Judge Samuel McDowell was Mary McClung. Her brother, John, was the father of William McClung, who removed to Kentucky and became a judge of considerable distinction. He died in 1815. His wife was a sister of Chief Justice Marshall, and his sons, Colonel Alexander K. McClung and the Rev. John A. McClung, D. D., were highly distinguished. A brother of Judge McClung, the late Mr. Joseph McClung, lived and died on Timber Ridge.
THE BROWNS.
The Rev. John Brown (see page 32) was a native of Ireland, educated at Princeton, New Jersey, and pastor of New Providence congregation for forty-four years. His residence was first near the village of Fair- field, and afterwards near the church, on the spot where the late John Withrow long resided.
I. John Brown, the oldest son of the Rev. John Brown, was born at Staunton (probably at Spring Farm, where his maternal grandmother lived), September 12, 1757. He was sent to Princeton College, and when the American army retreated through the Jerseys, joined the troops, crossed the Delaware with them, and remained some time as a volunteer. He afterwards was a member of a Rockbridge company, and with it served under La Fayette. His education was completed at William and Mary College. The sketch of him in Collins's History of Kentucky (Volume II, page 252), says he "assisted the celebrated Dr. Waddell for two years as a teacher in his school, read law in the office of Mr. Jefferson, and removed to Kentucky in 1782." After Kentucky became a State he was three times consecutively elected a United States Senator. He was also a member of the House of Represen- tatives one or more terms. In 1805 he retired to private life, and after that declined all overtures to take office. He died August 28, 1837, at Frankfort. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Mason, of New York, sister of the distinguished Rev. John M. Mason.
The late Judge Mason Brown, of Frankfort, was a son of the Hon. John Brown. One of Judge Brown's sons was the late Benjamin Gratz Brown, of Missouri, the candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the United States on the " Greeley Ticket," in 1872. Another of his sons is Colo- nel John Mason Brown, of Louisville.
2. James Brown, the second son of the Rev. John Brown, was distin- guished as a lawyer in Kentucky. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Henry Clay. Upon the acquisition of Louisiana, he removed to New Orleans,
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was associated with Livingston in compiling the civil code of that State, was several times elected to the United States Senate, and was subse- quently Minister to France. He died in Philadelphia, in 1836, without issue.
3. Dr. Samuel Brown, the third son, studied in Edinburgh, and for many years was a professor in Transylvania University.
4. Dr. Preston W. Brown. the youngest son, studied his profession in Philadelphia, practiced in Kentucky, and died in 1826.
The Rev. John Brown became pastor of New Providence in 1753, and continued such till 1796, when he followed his sons to Kentucky. He died at Frankfort in 1803, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, his wife having died in 1802 in her seventy-third year.
Mr. Brown had two daughters-Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, of Tennessee, son of the Rev. Alexander Craighead (see page 69), and Mary, wife of Dr. Alexander Humphreys.
John Humphreys, whose wife was Margaret Carlisle, lived in the county of Armagh, Ireland. His oldest son, David Carlisle Humphreys, came to America in 1763, when he was about twenty-two years old, and lived for eight years in Pennsylvania. There he married Margaret Finley, who is the Mrs. Margaret Humphreys mentioned on page 176. In 1771 he removed to Augusta county, and purchased a farm near Greenville, where he died in 1826, aged eighty-five years. His children were three sons, John, Samuel and Aaron Finley, and five daughters who were the wives respectively of Samuel Mccutchen, Samuel Black- wood, David Gilkeson, James S. Willson and Archibald Rhea.
Dr. Alexander Humphreys was a brother of David C. Humphreys. He came to America some years later than David C. and lived first near New Providence Church. He afterwards removed to Staunton, where he practised his profession till his death, in 1802. His widow and children then removed to Frankfort, Kentucky.
MRS. FLOYD'S NARRATIVE. 1
Mrs. Letitia Floyd, a daughter of Colonel William Preston and wife of the first Governor Floyd, in the year 1843 wrote an account of the Preston faniily, for the perusal of which, in manuscript, we are indebted to Mr. Howe P. Cochran. Mrs. Floyd evidently wrote from her own recollection of family traditions, without verifying her statements by reference to authentic contemporary history, and is, therefore, incorrect in sundry particulars, especially in regard to dates. But she states much that is interesting, and, no doubt, true. Many of the facts related by her are given in the body of the ANNALS, and a few others will be men- tioned here.
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Colonel James Patton had four sisters, two of whom married "men of quality " in the old country. The youngest sister, Elizabeth, while crossing the river Shannon in a boat, had as a fellow-passenger a young man of striking appearance, who proved to be a ship carpenter named John Preston. This casual interview led to acquaintance and a run- away marriage. The young lady thus placed herself "out of the pale of her family." Her brother, James Patton, having afterwards retired from the sea and settled in America, induced Mr. and Mrs. Preston to emigrate also. Mrs. Floyd puts the date of their arrival in the Valley as 1735, and says John Preston died seven years afterwards at "Gib- son's old place, eight miles below Staunton." But it appears from the records of Augusta County Court that his death occurred in 1747, and if he lived only seven years after coming, he must have arrived in 1740 with Alexander Breckenridge and many others, as is generally supposed to have been the fact. While living in Augusta, remote from the sea- board, John Preston employed himself as a cabinetmaker, constructing household furniture for himself and neighbors.
William, only son of John Preston, was born in the town of Newton, Ireland, November 25, 1729. He received most of his education in America, from the Rev. John Craig. Mrs. Patton was a haughty woman, says Mrs. Floyd, and kept aloof from the Prestons. A silly prediction of an Irish woman that William Preston would get his uncle's fortune, so impressed her with dread of a marriage between the nephew and one of her daughters, that she allowed no inter- course between the young people. She died soon after the marriage of her daughters-one to a kinsman of hers named Thompson, and the other to John Buchanan. Colonel Patton then induced his widowed sister to remove to Spring Farm, in the vicinity of Staunton, and went to live with her.
William Preston's first regular employment was posting the books of Staunton merchants and aiding his uncle in his extensive business He became deputy for Wallace Estill, when the latter was high sheriff of Augusta. He was also clerk of the vestry of Augusta parish and clerk of the County Court Martial. Step by step he rose to higher employ- ments. In 1766, he was the colleague of John Wilson in the House of Burgesses. His letters and official reports which have come down to us, show that he was a man of more culture than was common in his time and section of country. Mrs. Floyd says that Colonel Preston, Thomas Lewis and others employed Gabriel Jones to purchase libraries for them in London.
As stated elsewhere, Lettice, the second daughter of Mrs. John Pres- ton, was the second wife of Major Robert Breckenridge. Major Breck- enridge's first wife was a Miss Poage, of Augusta, and by her he had two sons, Robert and Alexander. These sons, not living harmoniously with their step-mother, were sent to Hanover county to learn the car- penter's trade with Francis Smith, Colonel William Preston's brother. in-law. They became skilful workmen, and were employed by Colonel
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Preston to build the dwelling at Smithfield. They served as soldiers during the Revolution, and finally settled in Kentucky. (See page 141.) Alexander Breckenridge married the widow of Colonel John Floyd, a daughter of Colonel John Buchanan and grand-daughter of Colonel James Patton. Thus, the first Governor Floyd, of Virginia, and James D. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, were half-brothers.
Colonel Preston was taken ill at a regimental muster, June 28, 1783, and died the following night. He was five feet, eleven inches in height, inclined to corpulency, of ruddy complexion, with light hair and hazel eyes. His wife survived till June 18, 1823, having lived a widow forty years.
Mrs. Floyd was personally acquainted with Mrs. Mary Ingles, and gives a detailed account of her adventures. She states that Mrs. Ingles gave birth to a female child three months after her capture, and not three days, as stated by Dr. Hale and repeated on page 74. In other respects her account is substantially the same as that given in the ANNALS. But a great-grand-daughter of Mrs. Ingles earnestly denies the correctness of the whole report in regard to the birth and desertion of an infant. She says " such a thing did happen " to Mrs. Rebecca Davidson, an acquaintance of Mrs. Ingles's, and that Mrs. Floyd fell into the error of attributing to the one what occurred to the other. Mrs. Charlton, the only surviving grand-child of Mrs. Ingles, was fourteen years old when her grandmother died, but never heard the story of the infant until it was mentioned by Mrs. Floyd. Mrs. Ingles died in 1813, aged eighty-four.
We find in Mrs. Floyd's narrative a brief account of the assault by Indians on the house of David Cloyd, which is referred to on page 126. Colonel William Preston, who then lived at Greenfield, had gone to Staunton, in March, 1764, when one day, early in the morning, Mrs. Preston was startled by the report of two guns in quick succession in the direction of a neighbor's house half a mile distant. Presently Joseph Cloyd rode up on a plow-horse with the gearing on and related that Indians had killed his brother John, had shot at him (the powder burning his shirt), and having gone to the house had probably killed his mother. Mrs. Preston immediately sent a young man who lived at her house to notify the garrison of a small fort on Craig's Creek, and then despatched a white man and two negroes to Mr. Cloyd's. The latter found Mrs. Cloyd tomahawked in three places, but still alive and conscious. She told about the assault by the Indians, their getting drunk, ripping up the feather beds, and carrying off the money. One of the Indians wiped the blood from her temples with a corn-cob, saying, " Poor old woman !" She died the next morning. The sequel of the story, as far as known, is given on page 126.
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THE FLOYDS .- It is stated on page 74 that Colonel John Buchanan's wife (a daughter of Colonel James Patton) had only one child at the date of Colonel Patton's will. Another daughter, named Jane, was born afterwards and became the wife of Colonel John Floyd and mother of the first Governor Floyd.
The first Floyds in America were two brothers who came from Wales to Accomac county, Virginia. William Floyd, a son of one of these brothers, married Abadiah Davis, of Amherst county, who was of Indian descent. John Floyd, a son of this couple, was born about 1750. At about eighteen years of age he married a Miss Burwell, who was fourteen years old, and died in a few months. Ten years after- wards he married Jane Buchanan, a second cousin of Colonel William Preston. From 1772 to 1776 Colonel Preston was county surveyor of Fincastle county, which embraced all Kentucky. He appointed John Floyd one of his deputies and sent him to survey lands on the Ohio river, which led to the settlement of the latter in Kentucky. His son, John, was born near Louisville, April 24, 1783, came to Virginia when he was twenty-one years of age, served in the Legislature and Congress, was Governor from 1829 to 1834, and died in 1837, aged fifty-four. The late John B. Floyd, also Governor, etc., etc., was a son of the first Gov- ernor Floyd. Their home was in Washington county.
THE LOGANS.
General Benjamin Logan's parents were natives of Ireland, but married in Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage they removed to Augusta county, and here, in 1743, their oldest child, Benjamin, was born. The Rev. John Craig's record shows that Benjamin, son of David Logan, was baptized May 3, 1743. When young Logan was fourteen years of age his father died, and according to the law of primogeniture then in force, he inherited all the real estate which had been acquired. Upon coming of age, however, he refused to appropriate the land to himself, and after providing a home for his mother and her younger children, went to the Holston. His wife was a Miss Montgomery. He was a sergeant in Colonel Henry Bouquet's expedition in 1764 (see page 124), and was with Dunmore in his expedition of 1774. He was one of the people of the Holston settlement who signed the " call" to the Rev. Charles Cummings to become their pastor, in 1773. (See page 52.) In 1775 he went to Kentucky, with only two or three slaves, and established Logan's Fort, near the site of the present town of Stanford, Lincoln county. His family removed to Kentucky in 1776. In May, 1777, the fort. was invested, for several weeks, by a hundred Indians. As the ammunition of the small garrison was becoming exhausted, Logan, with
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two companions, repaired for a supply to the Holston settlement and returned in ten days. In 1779 he was second in command of an expe- dition against the Indian town of Chillicothe, which terminated rather disastrously. He was in full march to reinforce the whites at the Blue Licks, in 1782, when that fatal battle occurred, but could only receive and protect the fugitives from the field. He was a member of the Kentucky Conventions of 1792 and 1799, and repeatedly a member of the State Legislature. Logan county, Kentucky, was called for him. (Collins's History of Kentucky, Volume II, page 482.)
William Logan, oldest son of General Logan, born where Harrods- burg now stands, December 8, 1776, is said to have been the first white child born in Kentucky. He became a Judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and a Senator in the Congress of the United States His death occurred August 8, 1822. (Collins, Volume II, page 713.)
To the Rev. Robert Logan, of Fort Worth, Texas, we are indebted for some further information in regard to his family. Mr. Logan thinks the ancestor who came to America was named James. He belonged to a Scotch family which had removed to Lurgan, in Ireland. Upon com- ing to the Valley, he settled near New Providence church, in what is now Rockbridge county. The names of only two of his children are known-Benjamin and James. The former, after his father's death, on coming of age, settled his mother and her younger children on Kerr's Creek, and went himself to the Holston, as related. The family resided on Kerr's Creek in 1763-'4, but, as far as known, none of them were killed or captured by the Indians in those years.
James Logan remained with his mother. His wife was Hannah Irvin, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, and he had eight sons and four daughters.
John Logan, one of the sons of James and Hannah, married Rachel McPheeters, daughter of William McPheeters, and sister of the Rev. Dr. McPheeters. He lived near Greenville, Augusta county, and was long an Elder in Bethel Church. Among his children were a son named Eusebius, a minister, who died in 1827; the Rev. Robert Logan, of Fort Worth ; and Joseph A. Logan, and Mrs. Theophilus Gamble, deceased, of Augusta.
Alexander Logan, also a son of James and Hannah, moved to Ken- tucky. One of his sons was a minister, and his son is the Rev. Dr. J. V. Logan, now President of Central University at Richmond, Kentucky.
Robert Logan, another son, was a Presbyterian minister who lived many years and died at Fincastle, Virginia. He was the father of the late John B. I. Logan, of Salem, Roanoke county.
Joseph D. Logan, a fourth son, was a Presbyterian minister. His first wife was Jane Dandridge, a descendant of Pocahontas, who left one son. His second wife was Louisa Lee, one of whose children is Dr. Joseph P. Logan, of Atlanta, Georgia.
Benjamin Logan, a fifth son of James and Hannah, was the father of the late J. A. Logan, of Staunton.
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A daughter of James and Hannah Logan, whose name is not known, was the wife of the school teacher, Mckinney, at Lexington, Kentucky, who had the conflict with a wildcat, of which there is an account in McClung's "Western Adventure." Sitting alone in his log-cabin school- house one morning in May, 1783, Mckinney discovered a wildcat glaring in at the door. Before he could arm himself with a heavy ruler, the animal was upon him, with its teeth fastened in his side and its claws tearing his clothing. By pressing the cat against the sharp edge of a desk he succeeded in overcoming it, just as the people, aroused by the mingled cries of the man and beast, came to the rescue.
COLONEL WILLIAM FLEMING.
Having fallen into some errors in regard to Colonel Fleming (see page 110) we give the following sketch, being indebted to one of his descendants for some of the facts.
In August, 1755, the month after Braddock's defeat, William Fleming landed in Norfolk. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and served for some years as a surgeon in the British Navy. Not liking that profession he resigned and came to Virginia. As we have seen (page 83), he was a lieutenant in the Sandy Creek expedition of 1756 and acted as surgeon. He was afterwards appointed ensign in the First Virginia Regiment, commanded by Washington. In 1758, he was commissioned lieutenant, and served in the campaigns of Forbes and Abercrombie. He was made captain in 1760 and stationed at Staunton, it is said. After his marriage, in 1763, he resumed at Staunton the practice of medicine and surgery.
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