USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
3. Samuel Bell, son of Thomas and Rebecca, married Sarah Eidson, and had seven children. His son, Thomas P., sergeant of Company C, Fifth regiment, was mortally wounded at Hatcher's Creek, Dinwiddie county, February, 1865. Another son, John V., served in Fitz. Lee's cavalry. Four sons and one daughter survive.
VII. Nancy Bell, daughter of James and Agnes, was the first wife of Major Samuel Bell, of North Mountain.
VIII. Sally Bell, daughter of James and Agnes, was the wife of Francis Bell, of North Mountain.
Of the descendants of James and Agnes Bell, eighteen were soldiers in the Confederate army during the war of 1861-'5; five were killed in battle or died of wounds, and six died of disease contracted in the army. S
CAPTURE AND RESCUE OF MRS. ESTILL AND JAMES TRIMBLE.
Allusion is made on page 126 to the capture by Indians of "one of the Trimbles " near the present village of Churchville; and on page 191 the capture of Mrs. Estill is referred to. Since the publication of the ANNALS, the writer has obtained much information in regard to the capture of the persons named, and the circumstances are too interesting to be omitted here.
434
SUPPLEMENT TO THE
Mrs. Estill and young Trimble, her half-brother, afterwards Captain James Trimble, were captured at the same time, but in what year was until recently unknown. One writer puts the date as 1752; another, 1758; a third, 1770, and a fourth, 1778. The incident occurred, how- ever, in 1764, during the last Indian raid into the county, and about the time of the second Kerr's Creek massacre. All accounts agree in the statement that John Trimble, the father of James and step-father of Mrs. Estill, was killed at the time of the capture, and the records of the county show that his death occurred in the fall of 1764. He lived on Middle river, two miles from Churchville, five from Buffalo Gap, and seven from Staunton, or thereabouts.
Besides the date of this occurrence, there is much diversity of state- ment in regard to many of the circumstances. The memoir of Mrs. Jane Trimble, wife of Captain James Trimble, written by her grandson, the Rev. Joseph M. Trimble, D. D., a minister of the Methodist Church, gives the most detailed account of the affair which we have seen. The author states that a white man named Dickinson, who had fled from Virginia to escape punishment for crime, entered the Valley at the head of thirty Indians, and encouraged them in their cruel work. They raided the dwelling of John Trimble, and killed him as he was going out in the morning to plow. James, then a boy about eight years old, his half-sister, Mrs. Estill, and a negro boy were taken prisoners. Mr. Estill, according to this account, was wounded, but escaped. Where Mrs. Trimble and other members of the family were at the time, or how they escaped, is not stated. A strong stone house stood then, as now, on the opposite side of Middle river, within a mile of Trimble's, and possibly some of the family had taken refuge there. It was called a fort. and is known as the "Old Keller House." The Indians must have passed this house in coming from Alexander Craw- ford's to John Trimble's. The Trimble dwelling was stripped by the Indians of its most valuable contents, and then burned. Four horses were taken and loaded with the plunder. The Indians, with their prisoners and horses, retreated to a cave in the North Mountain, where they had arranged to meet two other divisions of their party. They traveled all night and met their comrades in the morning, who had secured prisoners and plunder in other settlements. The united bands prosecuted their retreat with great rapidity for five days and nights.
The statement that Trimble was going out to plow when the Indians assailed him is a local tradition.
The morning after the murder of John Trimble, Captain George Moffett, his step-son, and the brother of Mrs. Estill, was in pursuit of the enemy, with twenty-five men collected during the previous night. The Indians had fifteen hours' start, but Moffett and his party rapidly gained on them. The fact that the pursuers moved more rapidly than the pursued was a well known one in Indian warfare, the latter being generally encumbered and losing time in the effort to conceal their trail. In the morning of the fifth day, the whites in front of their party
435
ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
discovered the Indians on a spur of the Alleghany Mountain, and upon a consultation it was concluded to pause in the pursuit and make an attack after dark.
The Indians had stopped at a spring near the foot of the mountain. Their food was exhausted, and Dickinson had gone in search of game. Moffett's party were within a mile of the savages, and stealthily draw- ing nearer, when they were startled by the report of a gun. Supposing they had been discovered, the whites dropped their knapsacks and started in a run towards the Indians. They had gone only a few hun- dred yards when a wounded deer bounded across their path. One of the men struck the animal in its face with his hat, which caused it to turn and run back. Another report of a gun and a whoop, satisfied the whites that one of the Indian party had killed the deer, and that the whoop was a call for help to carry it into camp. An Indian on horse- back was immediately seen approaching at a rapid pace. The whites, concealed in tall grass, were not discovered by him till he was in the midst of them; and they dispatched him in an instant, before his com- panions in camp were aware of their approach.
Some of the prisoners were tied with tugs, while the women and boys were unconfined. Mrs. Estill was sitting on a log sewing ruffles on a shirt of her husband, at the bidding of the Indian who claimed her as his prize. James Trimble was at the spring getting water. The In- dians had barely time to get their guns before the whites were upon them. At first, most of the startled prisoners ran some distance, and, becoming mingled with the Indians, it was impossible for the rescuers to fire; but discovering their mistake, they turned and ran to their friends. Then the firing began on both sides. The negro boy was shot, and from the blood discovered on the trail of the flying Indians, it was evident that several of them were wounded.
Moffett and his party desisted from the pursuit, and collecting the stolen property and removing to a distance, spent the night. Early the next morning they began their homeward journey. The Indians, how- ever, rallied, and getting ahead of the whites sought to ambush them in a narrow pass. In this they failed, as also in another attempt of the same kind, in a laurel thicket. They then fell to the rear and followed the whites for several days ; but being foiled in all their schemes, they turned off to an unprotected settlement, which was assailed in their usual manner. The Augusta men reached home unhurt, except one who was wounded in the mountain pass, and was carried on a litter. The loss of the Indians was six killed and several badly wounded.
Such is the account given in the memoir of Mrs. Trimble.
In Collins's History of Kentucky (volume II, page 767), we find a sketch of Captain James Trimble, which gives a different version of the affair. The writer of this account states that the prisoners were captured by a party of nine Indians, led by a half-breed named Dickson ; that immediately after the capture, James Trimble was adopted as a son by Dickson; that Captain Moffett raised a party of eighteen men, and
436
SUPPLEMENT TO THE
overtook the Indians near the present White Sulphur Springs ; and that at the first fire all the Indians were killed, except Dickson, who escaped.
The late John A. Trimble, of Ohio, a son of Captain James Trimble, in one of his numerous and interesting communications to the Hillsboro Gazette, gave a third account of the affair. Describing a trip he made on horseback from Mossy creek, in Augusta county, to his home in Ohio, probably in 1827, Mr. Trimble said :
"I was soon in the wild pass of the North Mountain, and approaching Buffalo Gap, in the vicinity of the early home of my father, when I over- took a venerable old gentleman on horseback, who gave me his name, William Kincaid, and inquired my name and residence. He said the name was familiar; he had known a Captain James Trimble who was a native of Augusta. When informed that he was my father, the old gentlemen was startled; he stopped his horse and shook hands most cordially. 'Is it possible !' he exclaimed. 'Why, I was a young man of eighteen when your father was a prisoner, with his sister, young Mrs. Edmonson, afterwards Estill, and I was one of the twelve men who went with Colonel George Moffett in pursuit, and rescued the prisoners away across the Alleghanies. Why, it seems as fresh to my memory as of yesterday, and we are now within a few miles of where your grand- father was killed and his house pillaged by Dickson and his ferocious band of Shawnees. But we had our revenge, and Dickson, their leader, with a boy, were the only ones who escaped from our rifles, for we took them completely by surprise, feasting and sleeping around their camp- fire.'" Mr. Kincaid said that " at one time Colonel Moffett seemed dis- couraged, having lost the trail, when, fortunately, one of the men found the blue-worsted garter of Mrs. Edmonson hanging on a bush, where she had placed it while traveling at night."
Kincaid and James Trimble were both members of Captain George Mathews's company at Point Pleasant, in 1774.
We may add that a family of "Edmistons " lived in the county as early as 1746, but we have no information other than the above that Kitty Moffett was the widow of one of them when she married Benja- min Estill.
We have still another account of the killing of John Trimble and capture of his son and step-daughter, embraced in a letter written by Mr. John A. Trimble, March 28, 1843, a copy of which is in the hands of Judge John H. McCue, of Staunton.
In this letter Mr. Trimble gives the date as 1770, an error of six years, his grandfather having been killed .in 1764. He says his father, James Trimble, and a negro boy named Adam, while plowing corn, were sur- prised by a party of Indians and made prisoners. [It is probable that the negro was plowing for wheat, as James Trimble was too young at the time to hold the plow, being only eight years old, and the season (October) was too late for corn.] The alarm was given at the house by the horses running off, and, suspecting the cause, the father, John Trim- ble, proceeded with his gun to reconnoitre. The Indians, having secured
437
ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
the prisoners and left them in charge of several lads, started to the house. On the way they encountered John Trimble in a strip of woods, and shot and scalped him. His wife escaped from the dwelling and concealed herself near enough to witness the plundering and burning of the premises. Mrs. Estill (so called here by Mr. Trimble) was enceinte, and being unable to fly was made prisoner. Nothing is said in reference to Mr. Estill.
While this was going on, the young Indians were amusing themselves by throwing their tomahawks at the tree to which James Trimble was tied, often just missing his head.
The account given by Mr. Trimble, in this letter, of the retreat of the Indians, the pursuit by Captain Moffett, and the rescue of the prisoners, is substantially the same as that given by the Rev. Dr. Trimble. He, however, says nothing about "a cave in the North Mountain," or any other parties of Indians, and says the number of men with Moffett was fifteen or twenty. The number of Indians he puts at eight or nine.
Dickson is said to have been a renegade half-blood Indian, who was well-known to the white settlers, among whom he had lived for several years. When hostilities broke out he joined a band of Shawnees, and became a formidable leader. He had often been at John Trimble's house, and after scalping Trimble, exhibited the trophy to the boy James, saying : "Jim, here's the old man's scalp. Do you know it? If you stay with me, I will make a good Indian of you; but if you try to run off, I will have your scalp." He treated Mrs. Estill with respect, walking constantly by her side as she rode on a horse through the passes of the mountains. Mrs. Estill's first child was born a few weeks after her return.
The negro boy Adam was a native African of recent importation, and spoke but little English. Mr. Trimble often heard him, in his old age, relate the incidents of his captivity. During the retreat of the Indians, Adam one day stirred up a "yellow jacket's nest," just as the sparsely- clad savages were filing along, and some of them were assailed and stung by the insects. This so pleased the simple-minded negro that he was about to repeat the act, when the Indian boys administered to him a sound beating.
Just before the arrival of the whites at the Indian camp, Dickson sent James Trimble to the spring for water, which, being somewhat muddy when presented, was thrown in the face of the boy, who was threatened with the toniahawk, and ordered to bring another supply. He returned to the spring, and while waiting for the water to clear was startled by the report of rifles. Surmising that rescuers were at hand, he ran in the direction of the sound and placed himself among his friends.
At the moment of the firing, Dickson was standing by Mrs. Estill, leaning on his gun, and giving directions about ruffling a shirt she was making for him. She sprang to her feet and ran towards the whites, taking the precaution to snatch up a tin vessel and cover her head with it. Dickson pursued her, and hurling his tomahawk, knocked the vessel
438
SUPPLEMENT TO THE
off without injury to her person. He almost immediately confronted Captain Moffett, at whom he fired, but missed, and then turned and fled, making good his escape. Moffett's gun was empty.
Adam had concealed himself during the firing behind a tree, and being mistaken for an Indian was shot at by one of the white men and wounded slightly in the arm.
Mr. Trimble states that, except Dickson, all the Indians fell at the first fire, either killed or mortally wounded. Dickson followed the whites on their return, and fired upon and wounded one of them, named Russell, who was carried home on a litter. Russell encountered Dickson at the battle of Point Pleasant, and killed him in a hand-to- hand conflict.
It is said that the whole number of prisoners carried off by the Indians and rescued as described was six or eight ; but who they were, besides those mentioned, is not stated.
MASSACRE OF THOS. GARDINER AND HIS MOTHER.
Thomas Gardiner, Jr., lived on a farm lying on Dry Branch, Augusta county, two and a half miles northeast of Buffalo Gap, where John A. Lightner now lives. According to tradition, he and his mother were killed by Indians, but exactly when is not known. His wife, Rebecca, qualified as administratrix of his estate, June 19, 1764, and it is pre- sumed that his death occurred a short time before that date. Tradition states that, on a Sunday evening, he went out to see after a cow and calf, and was killed at the spring, within a hundred yards of his dwell- ing. No one knows by what means his wife and children escaped, nor where his mother was when killed. He had two sons, one of whom, Samuel, was the ancestor of the Mint Spring Gardiners. The other, Francis, was a soldier of the Revolution, who died July 26, 1842, father of the late James and Samuel Gardiner and others.
Thomas Gardiner was a near neighbor of Alexander Crawford, who also was killed by Indians, as related elsewhere in this Supplement. [See "The Crawfords."] Their dwellings were about two miles apart. Gardiner was killed before June 19, 1764, as stated, and possibly Craw- ford's death occurred at the same time. If the Indians came through Buffalo Gap, they must have passed Crawford's dwelling to reach Gardiner's, and it would seem unaccountable that the one should be taken and the other left. But the proceedings of Indians were often as eccentric as the devastations of a spring frost, which cuts down one stalk of corn and passes over another. All we know certainly in regard to Crawford's latter days is, that he was alive February 18, 1762, when he became one of the securities of Thomas Gardiner, Jr., in a guardian's bond; and that he was dead by November court, 1764,
439
ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
when his administrator qualified. He owned an unusual amount of personal property, and in the ordinary course of affairs his administra- tor would qualify as soon as possible after his death. It is, therefore, probable that he was a victim of the Indian raid of October, 1764.
We have no information of any Indian raid into the county in the spring, or early summer, of 1764, except the fact of the Gardiner mas- sacre, just mentioned. This massacre may have been perpetrated by a single Indian, who penetrated by himself into the settlement. It is not said, however, that even one Indian was seen by a white man at that time, and a white ruffian may have committed the murders for the sake of plunder. An old story says that Gardiner had money buried in an iron pot, which his descendants could never find. Quite recently an empty ancient pot was found on the premises, having been washed out by a freshet, and it is thought to give color to the story.
SOME CURIOUS ORDERS OF COURT .- The November term, 1764, of the County Court of Augusta was a very busy one. It began on the 20th and continued five days. The proceedings cover seventy-six folio pages. At this term, Silas Hart qualified as high sheriff, and Dabney Carr, of Albemarle, as attorney-at-law. The estates of John Trimble and Alexander Crawford, both of whom had been killed by Indians in October preceding, were committed to their respective administrators. William Fleming, Sampson Mathews, George Skillern, Alexander Mc- Clanahan and Benjamin Estill were recommended for appointment as justices of the peace.
Among the orders we find the following: "Jacob Peterson having pro- duced a certificate of his having received the Sacrament, and having taken the usual oaths to his Majesty's person and government, sub- scribed the abjuration oath and test, which is, on his motion, ordered to be certified, in order to his obtaining Letters of Naturalization."
The clerk who wrote the orders sometimes set the rules of grammar and spelling at defiance, as witness the following, which we copy liter- ally :
" On complaint of Patrick Lacey, setting forth that his master, William Snoden, doth not provide cloaths for him, nor will Imploy him as his servant : It is ordered that the said Snoden be summoned to appear here the next Court, to answer the said complaint; and it is further or- dered that the Church-wardens provide him Necessary Cloaths and that they in the meantime hire him out to such persons that may think proper to Imploy him."
Patrick was no doubt a white "indented servant " (see page 17). His complaint came up at March court, 1765, and was dismissed, very likely to the relief of the master, who thus escaped being clothed and hired out by the church-wardens, as the order required he should be.
Another order of November term, 1764, is equally curious : " Ordered
440
SUPPLEMENT TO THE
that the church-wardens of Augusta Parish bind Michael Eagin of the age of nine years in September last, son of Patrick Eagin, to John Pat- rick, the father of the said Michael having runaway according to law."
THE ACADIAN FRENCH-ALEXANDER McNUTT.
The history of the expulsion of the Acadian French from Nova Scotia is one of the darkest pages in the annals of Great Britain. The ancestors of these people settled in the province before the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. They occupied a beautiful and fertile country, and in course of time farm-houses and villages sprang up over the country. By the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the province was ceded to Great Britain, and the French population submitted to the transfer without opposition. They, however, for some years, re- fused to swear allegiance to the new Government. When war again arose between England and France, the French of Nova Scotia were regarded with distrust by their British rulers, and it was determined to expel them from the province. Their villages were laid waste, and the country was reduced to a solitude. Seven thousand men, women and children were driven on board ships, and scattered among the English colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. In 1755, eleven hundred and forty of these "French Neutrals," as they were called, were landed at Hampton, in Virginia, without means of support, or previous notice of their coming. Governor Dinwiddie and his Council maintained them at the public expense for four months, but the opposition on the part of the people to their remaining in the colony was universal. No public land remained in lower Virginia upon which to settle them, and west of the Blue Ridge the French and Indians were waging a ruthless war upon the frontier settlers, rendering it unsafe to send them to that region. The Governor described them in one of his numerous letters as "bigoted Papists, lazy, and of a contentious behavior." Finally, when the General Assembly met, it was determined by that body to ship the unfortunate people to England, and this was done at a cost to the colony of £5,000.
·
On pages 46, 82 and 84 mention is made of Alexander McNutt as a resident of Augusta county. He is supposed to have been in confidential relations with Governor Dinwiddie, to whom (and not to Governor Fau- quier) he delivered his account of the Sandy Creek Expedition of 1756. After his affray in Staunton with Andrew Lewis, he went to England, and, being recommended by the Governor of Virginia, was admitted to an audience by the King. Ever afterwards he wore the prescribed court dress. The French having been driven out of Nova Scotia as related, McNutt received from the Government grants of extensive
441
ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
tracts of land in that province upon condition of introducing other settlers. He accordingly brought over many people from the north of Ireland, including persons of his own name, and a sister, who married a Mr. Weir. Admiral Cochrane, of the British navy, is believed to be a descendant of Mrs. Weir, and other of her descendants are now living in Nova Scotia.
A letter from Halifax. Nova Scotia, published in the Boston Gazette of October 26, 1761, says : " Last Friday arrived here the ship Hopewell, of Londonderry, by which came upwards of two hundred persons for the settlement of this Province, with Colonel Alexander McNutt, who, we are informed, has contracted for five thousand bushels of wheat, five thousand bushels of potatoes, etc., etc., for the use of the Irish settlers." In November, 1762, McNutt arrived with one hundred and seventy settlers, and at different times with many more. The last men- tion of him in the archives of the Province is in 1769, when the Attor- ney-General complained that he had parceled out certain lands without authority.
While living in Nova Scotia, in 1761, McNutt executed a power of attorney, authorizing his brother, John, to sell and convey his real estate. In pursuance of this instrument, John McNutt, on August 16, 1785, con- veyed to Thomas Smith, in consideration of {110, lot No. 10 in Staun- ton, which was purchased by Alexander in 1750 for £3, as stated on page 46. Buildings afterwards erected on the lot were long known as the " Bell Tavern." Captain Thomas Smith was the father-in-law of Michael Garber, who came into possession of the property and owned it for many years.
Alexander McNutt seems to have returned to Nova Scotia after the Revolution, as in the deed of 1785 he is described as "late of Augusta county, now of Halifax, Nova Scotia." But he did not remain there long. He appears to have been a visionary man, and in his latter years, at least somewhat of a religious enthusiast. While living in Nova Scotia, he attempted to found there a settlement to be called "New Jerusalem." It is presumed that his lands in that Province were confis- cated when he came away and joined the American "rebels "; but in 1796 he undertook to convey by deed 100,000 acres in Nova Scotia to the Synod of Virginia, in trust for the benefit of Liberty Hall Academy, in Rockbridge, among other purposes "for the support of public lec- tures in said seminary annually, on man's state by nature and his recov- ery by free and unmerited grace through Christ Jesus, and against oppo- site errors." Possibly finding that this deed would not do, he executed another the next year directly to the trustees of Liberty Hall, for the same uses. The second deed was witnessed by Andrew Alexander, Conrad Speece and Archibald Alexander. It is unnecessary to say that Liberty Hall did not get the land.
McNutt never married, and left no posterity. His old-fashioned. dress sword was preserved by his collateral descendant, Alexander McNutt Glasgow, of Rockbridge; but at the time of " Hunter's Raid," in 1864,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.