USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers (A Supplement) > Part 18
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usual for worship, when a strange man, arrested in the vicinity, was brought to the church. This man was one of four who had been captured, but the others had escaped. He was dressed partly in the uniform of a British soldier, and was supposed to be a spy sent forward by Tarleton. The excitement at the church may be imagined. The pastor addressed the congrega- tion, urging the men to obtain arms and hasten to Rockfish Gap. But what should be done with the prisoner ? A guard of several men could not be spared, and a young man named Long, who had carried his trusty rifle to church, volunteered to bring the stranger to Staunton and lodge him in jail. By command of Long, the prisoner marched on before and moved obedient to orders till they arrived at Christian's creek. There, Long wished to take off his moccasins, but the spy persisted in coming on, wading the stream in his jack-boots. Long repeatedly warned him to stop, and finally shot him down. After a few days he died, confessing that he was a British soldier, and had been sent in advance by Tarleton. These facts were related to the writer by the late Joseph Long, who was a son of the young man who shot the spy.
The alarm having arisen, riders traversed the county to notify the people. From Lexington to the Peeked Mountain, now Massanutten, the people were aroused. The men hastened to Rockfish Gap, while the women and children hid their silver spoons and other portable articles of value. Two venerable men, who were children in 1781, many years ago related to the writer their recollections of the time. One of these remembered that his father came home from Tinkling Spring church and took down his gun, to the boy's great astonishment, as it was the Sabbath day ; the other told of his anxiety to bury his only treasure, a little bar of lead. The wife of Colonel William Lewis is said to have dispatched her younger sons, mere boys, to the mountain- the older sons being with the Northern army-with the injunc- tion to do their duty, or return no more.
By Monday morning the mountain at Rockfish Gap was lined with men. Some, who could not procure guns, provided piles of stones to hurl at the invaders. The force under General Mc- Dowell, encountered by Lieutenant Brooke, was doubtless com- posed of the hasty levies referred to.
On the day the alarm first arose, the Rev. William Graham,
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of Lexington, was coming to Staunton. He heard the exciting report before he arrived here, and immediately returned home to call out the militia. With a company of men he went on the next day to Rockfish Gap. Finding that Tarleton did not come, part of the militia, accompanied by Mr. Graham, went in quest of the enemy, and joined La Fayette below Charlottesville. During a short stay with the army, Mr. Graham had evening prayers in the company to which he belonged. The services were not well attended, except on one occasion, when a battle was anticipated, then the men generally assembled, and appeared to listen with much attention .- [Foote, First Series, page 454. ]
At some period during the war, an accusation was preferred by Thomas Hughes against Zachariah Johnston, one of the dele- gates from Augusta, of instigating opposition in the county to the act of assembly for raising troops. While the Legislature sat at Staunton, June 14, Mr. Henry reported that Mr. Johnston had uniformly recommended obedience to the law, and that the accusation was groundless.
On June 23, the assembly adjourned at Staunton, to meet in Richmond in October following.
At a court-martial held August 23, 1781, one man convicted of deserting from Captain Mccutchen's company, while under com- mand of Brigadier-General Campbell, was sentenced to serve an additional six months. Another was tried for not going with the twenty days' men ordered out under command of Lieutenant- Colonel Bowyer, and acquitted. The court was kept busy during this year trying men for desertion and other offences. An of- fence charged against some of the accused, was "failing to appear at the rendezvous when ordered under command of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Lewis, August 8, 1781."
On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, at Yorktown, and the war of the Revolution ended, although peace was not formally concluded till 1783.
As a part of the history of the county, we mention that the Presbytery of Hanover, about the year 1773, determined to establish " Augusta Academy," and it was at first proposed to locate the institution at Staunton. At a meeting of Presbytery, in April, 1775, persons were appointed to solicit subscriptions in behalf of the academy, among whom were William McPheeters and John Trimble, at North Mountain; Thomas Stuart and Wal-
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ter Davis, at Tinkling Spring; Sampson Mathews at Staunton; and George Mathews, George Moffett and James Allen, in Au- gusta congregation.
In May, 1776, the Presbytery determined to locate the school on Timber Ridge, " as there was no one in Staunton to take the management, and it was uncertain whether there ever would be." At the same time the Rev. William Graham was elected rector, and a young man named John Montgomery his assistant. Mr. Graham was born in Pennsylvania, in 1746, and was educated at Princeton College. Mr. Montgomery was born in Augusta, and graduated at Princeton in 1775. He spent the last years of his life as pastor of Rocky Spring church, in Augusta. Trustees were also appointed: Rev. John Brown, Rev. James Waddell, Thomas and Andrew Lewis, William Preston, Sampson Ma- thews, Samuel McDowell, George Moffett, and others.
In 1779, the school was removed to Lexington, and called "Liberty Hall." An act of incorporation by the Legislature was obtained in 1782, and the institution has now become "Washing- ton and Lee University."
The subject of religious liberty occupied the attention of the people of Virginia as soon as the Revolutionary war arose. At a meeting of the Legislature, in October, 1779, all laws provid- ing salaries for ministers were repealed, and it was generally understood that no denomination should be favored in that res- pect ; but the scheme of a "general assessment," for the benefit of ministers of all sects, was proposed and advocated by Patrick Henry and others.
In April, 1780, Hanover Presbytery met at Tinkling Spring, and held a session on the 28th at the house of Mr. Waddell. A memorial, praying the Legislature to abstain from interference with the government of the church, was prepared, and Messrs. Waddell and Graham were appointed to request Colonel Mc- Dowell and Captain Johnston, the delegates from Augusta, to present the memorial to the assembly. Another memorial on the subject was adopted at Bethel, May 19, 1784, and still another in October, 1784. A convention of Presbyterians was held at Bethel, August 10, 1785, and a final memorial, drawn by Mr. Graham, was adopted on the 13th. The Legislature met Octo- ber 17, 1785, and on December 17, Mr. Jefferson's bill "for estab- lishing religious freedom " became a law.
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Early in 1782 the Marquis de Chastellux, a French officer, traveled extensively in Virginia, and subsequently published an account of his trip. In April he visited the Natural Bridge, crossing the Blue Ridge at Rockfish Gap On the eastern side of the mountain he was joined by an Augusta man on horseback who appeared "much at his ease," and who entertained him with an account of the battle of the Cowpens, in which he had participated. His description of the battle agreed with General Morgan's official report of it. One incident of the battle he did not know of, but it was related by Morgan himself. The old hero was accustomed to say in his latter days that people thought he never was afraid, but he was often miserably afraid. After arranging his troops at the Cowpens, he said, as he saw the glit- tering array of the British army coming on, he trembled for the result. Retiring to the rear he poured out a prayer to God and then returned to the lines and cheered his men for the fight. The French officer pronounced the battle of the Cowpens the most extraordinary event of the war.
The Marquis and his party forded South river, where Waynes- boro now is, and put up for the night at a little inn kept by a Mrs. Teaze, of which Mr. Jefferson had told him. He says the inn was one of the worst in all America. A solitary tin vessel was the only wash-bowl for the family, servants, and guests. The travelers did not pass through Staunton, but hurried on to a better inn than Mrs. Teaze's, promised them near the site of Greenville. They were doomed to disappointment, as the land- lord, Mr. Smith, had neither food for the men nor forage for the horses. The war just closed had impoverished the country to that extent. Mr. Smith encouraged the party, however, to expect supplies at a mill further on The miller, who also kept a public house, was a handsome young man of about twenty-five years of age, and had a handsome wife. He was found to be physically disabled, and upon inquiry explained that he was still suffering from fifteen or sixteen wounds received at the battle of Guilford. This was David Steele, of Midway. His wife brought the piece of skull clipped from his head by a British sabre to exhibit. The most serious injuries were received after he was taken prisoner by the enemy. Mr. Steele kept no spirits, and his guests farcd upon cakes baked upon the cinders, and butter and milk.
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The Marquis spent a night at a Mr. Grigsby's, near the Natu- ral Bridge, and says : "The other guests were a healthy, good- humored young man of eight and twenty, who set out from Philadelphia with a pretty wife of twenty, and a little child in her arms, to settle five hundred miles beyond the mountains in a country lately inhabited bordering on the Ohio, called the country of Kentucky. His whole retinue was a horse, which carried his wife and child. We were astonished at the easy manner with which he proceeded on his expedition." And the natural charms of the young wife, says the Marquis, " were embellished by the serenity of her mind."-[ Travels in North America, pages 234, &c.]
We conclude this chapter with a synopsis of what seems now a curious act of the Legislature, passed in 1783. The act author- ized the payment of one half of taxes in tobacco, hemp, flour and deer skins. Warehouses were established at Staunton, Win- chester and the stone-house in Botetourt; and at those places flour was to be received at the rate of fourteen shillings per hundred pounds, with an allowance of two shillings and six pence for casks and inspection. At the same place, and also Louisville (Kentucky), deer skins were to be taken at the price of one shil- ling and eight pence per pound for gray skins, and two shillings for red and blue skins.
THE GAMBLE FAMILY .- About the year 1735, Robert Gamble left Londonderry, Ireland, his native place, and with other emigrants from the same section settled in Augusta county. The name Gamble had been prominently connected with the history of Londonderry, and one of the family died, or was killed, there during the famous siege in 1689. Robert Gamble was a married man when he came to America, and brought with him a son named James, who was born in 1729. He had another son named Joseph, who was probably the ancestor of the Gam- bles of Ohio and Missouri.
On the 6th of March, 1746, Robert Poage conveyed to Robert Gamble 306 acres of land, in consideration of £15. This tract lies about a mile northeast of the village of Springhill, and is the farm lately owned by Theophilus Gamble, and now by the heirs of R. B. Hamrick, deceased.
James Gamble inherited his father's farm, and reared his family there. His children were two sons, Robert and John, and three daughters, Mrs. Agnes Davis, Mrs. Elizabeth Moffett and Mrs. Esther Bell. Mrs. Bell
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left no children. Mrs. Moffett's descendants-Moffetts, Tates and others-are numerous.
Robert Gamble, the younger, was born on his father's farm, Septem- ber 3, 1754. He received an unusually good education for the time, at Liberty Hall Academy. When he had just attained his majority, and begun the business of a merchant, the troubles with Great Britain cul- minated in war. At the first call to arms he was made first lieutenant of the first company raised in the county. He soon became captain of the company, but as promotion in the Continental time was slow, he ap pears to have remained in that position for some years.
Captain Gamble was in active service during the entire war, and par- ticipated in many battles at the north, including the battles of Princeton and Monmouth. As we have seen, he served under General Wayne on the Hudson, in 1779. It is said that he led one of the assailing parties at the storming of Stony Point. He with his men mounted the wall in the immediate vicinity of a cannon, and seeing the match about to be applied, barely had time to lower his head and order his men to fall flat before the gun was discharged. He was, however, permanently deaf- ened by the concussion. His company immediately moved on, and were the first to enter the fort. Being busily engaged in securing prisoners, the British flag was overlooked, until Lieutenant-Colonel Fleury observed it and pulled it down. At this stage the Pennsylvania troops entered the fort.
General Wayne's report of the affair was unsatisfactory, and upon learning all the facts he wrote another, giving the Virginians the credit to which they were entitled. At that time there was much jealousy between the troops from different colonies, and before the revised re- port was published General Washington made a personal appeal to the Virginians to let the matter drop for the good of the cause. Such an appeal from such a source was irresistible, and the error was allowed to remain.
During the latter part of the war, Captain Gamble served under Gen- eral Greene, in the South, and for a short time acted on the staff of Baron De Kalb. He was taken prisoner in South Carolina, and confined on a British vessel in Charleston harbor. He afterwards frequently complained of the treatment he received while a prisoner, his food con- sisting exclusively of rice. For many years before his death he was styled colonel, but he appears not to have attained that rank in the army, during the war, having been allotted pension lands for service as a captain only.
Colonel Gamble's wife was Catharine Grattan, daughter of Mr. John Grattan, who lived on North river, near the present village of Mount Crawford. On the 17th of May, 1780, James Gamble, and Agnes, his wife, conveyed to their son, Robert, a tract of four hundred and twenty- seven acres, adjoining the homestead of three hundred and six acres. Colonel Gamble made his home in the country on the farm thus
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acquired by him, and there his children were born, in a house still standing. Not long after the war, however, he embarked in mercantile business in Staunton, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Robert Grattan. The store of Gamble & Grattan was at the northeast corner of Main and Augusta streets, in a low frame house then standing, and subsequently occupied during many years by the post-office. Colonel Gamble's town residence was the frame house on the west side of Au- gusta street, about midway between Main and Frederick streets. On the 17th of April, 1787, he was a member of a court-martial held in Staunton, as lieutenant-colonel of Augusta militia. In 1792, or early in 1793, he removed to Richmond, where he became a prosperous business man and influential citizen. His residence in Richmond was on the eminence called for him, Gamble's Hill, and his business was conducted in a large building at the corner of Main and Fourteenth streets. His sons, Colonels John G. and Robert Gamble, were his part- ners. Both the sons were officers in the war of 1812, and both removed to Florida in 1827, where they were prosperous and influential. One of Colonel Gamble's daughters was the wife of the celebrated William Wirt, and the other, of Judge William H. Cabell, who was Governor of Virginia in 1806-'8, afterwards a judge of the general court, and, finally, president of the court of appeals till his death, in 1849. After leaving Staunton, Colonel Gamble sold his Augusta farm, October 15, 1793, to his brother, John, who transmitted it to his son, William.
Colonel Gamble was in the habit of riding on horseback every morn- ing from his residence to his counting-room. On the 12th of April, 1810, as he was thus on his way, reading a newspaper, some buffalo skins were thrown from the upper window of a warehouse he was passing, his horse took fright, started, and threw him, which produced concus- sion of the brain, and terminated his life in a few hours. Mr. Wirt said of him, in a letter to a friend : " He was a faithful soldier of the Revolu- tion, a sincere and zealous Christian, one of the best of fathers, and honestest of men." His house in Richmond was the seat of an elegant hospitality, and within its walls were frequent gatherings of the veterans of the Revolution and others, including Generals Washington and Knox, and Chief-Justice Marsliall. But he did not forget the friends of his early days and native county, and by them and their posterity his name and memory have always been revered and cherished.
- John Gamble, Colonel Robert Gamble's brother, was also a soldier during the Revolution, but where or in what capacity he served is not known. He was called Captain Gamble, and in 1794 was captain of an Augusta militia company. His wife was Rebecca McPheeters, a sister of the Rev. Dr. McPheeters, and his children were James (a minister), William, Philander, Robert, Theophilus, Mrs. Ramsey and Mrs. Irvin. He died in 1831, on the farm where he was born. By his will, he left five hundred acres of land to his daughter, Rebecca, and grand- daughter, Mary J. Ramsey. This land is described as " lying in the dis-
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trict set apart for the officers and soldiers of the Continental line, on the waters of Little Muddy creek, in Logan county, Kentucky-granted to said Gamble the 15th of September, 1795."
GEORGE MATHEWS was a son of John Mathews, who emigrated from Ireland and settled in Augusta county about the year 1737. He was born in 1739 and, therefore, was a mere youth when he was engaged in the Indian foray of 1761, as related on page 107. In 1762 he and his elder brother, Sampson, were merchants in Staunton. His first wife, according to one account, was a Miss Paul, sister of Audley Paul ; accord- ing to another, a Miss Woods, of Albemarle. He was captain of one of the Augusta companies at Point Pleasant in 1774, and in 1775 was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Virginia regiment. This regi- ment, though raised for the protection of Accomac and Northampton counties, was soon ordered to join the main army under Washington. Mathews therefore participated, in command of the regiment, in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and his conduct gained him great credit. At Germantown he and his whole regiment were cap- tured by the enemy. He was confined in a prison ship in New York harbor, and not exchanged till late in the war. Then he was ordered to the south and joined the army under General Greene, as commander of the Third Virginia regiment. While serving in the south he purchased a tract of land in Georgia, to which he removed in 1784.
Colonel Mathews was elected Governor of Georgia in 1786, and again in 1794, and between those dates was the first representative of Georgia in the United States Congress after the adoption of the Federal Consti- tution. During his second term as Governor, a scheme, known after- wards as the " Yazoo fraud," for disposing of the public lands of Georgia, was consummated. These lands embraced the present States of Ala- bama and Mississippi. The Governor, though he had opposed all such schemes, was induced to sign the bill passed by the Legislature. No sooner did the measure become a law than a popular clamor arose. All who had aided the scheme were accused of fraud and corruption. Stout as the Governor was, he was driven from Georgia by the storm and took refuge in Florida. It is not believed, however, that he was justly chargeable with any wrong. He died in Augusta, Georgia, Sep- tember 30, 1812, while on his way to Washington city, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard, of that city. Howe states that Mathews county, in Virginia, formed in 1790, was called for him, but others say it was called for Colonel Thomas Mathews, who was Speaker of the House of Delegates for many years.
He is described as a short, thick man, standing very erect, and carry- ing his head thrown back. His features were bluff, his hair light red and his complexion florid. He admitted no superior but Washington. John Adams, when President, nominated Mathews for Governor of Mississippi territory, but afterwards recalled the nomination. This
,
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greatly enraged the Governor. He hastened to Philadelphia on horse- back, dismounted at the President's door and stalked in, wearing his old army sword at his thigh and his three-cornered cocked hat on his head. He proceeded to administer a rebuke to the President, but being like Mr. Adams a hot Federalist, means were found to appease his wrath, and he returned home pacified. In 1812 he took exception to some act of President Madison, and was on his way to rebuke him, or to administer personal chastisement, it is said, when he died : s stated.
His children were four sons and three daughters. One of his sons was an eminent judge in Louisiana. One of the daughters was the first wife of Andrew Barry, of Staunton (whose second wife was a daughter of Rev. John McCue). Another daughter was the wife of General Samuel Blackburn, and the third was Mrs. Telfair, whose son, Dr. Isaac Telfair, lived in Staunton many years ago.
After the death of his first wife, Governor Mathews married Mrs. Margaret Reed, of Staunton. They were, however, divorced for some cause, and she resumed her former name.
SAMUEL McDOWELL was a son of John McDowell, who was killed by Indians near the forks of James river, in 1742, as related on page 31. He was born in 1733. In 1773 he was a member of the House of Bur- gesses, and in 1775-'6 he and Thomas Lewis represented Augusta in the State Convention. At the close of the Revolutionary war he re- moved to Kentucky, and died there in 1817, aged eighty-four. His wife's maiden name was Mary McClung.
GEORGE MOFFETT Was the son of John and Mary Christian Moffett. He had three brothers-Robert, John and William-and a sister, Mrs. Estell, the mother of the late Captain John M. Estell, of Long Glade, Augusta, and Judge Benjamin Estell, of Southwest Virginia. There is a reliable tradition that Mrs. Estell was once carried off by Indians, and was rescued by her brother George ; but when and where cannot be ascertained. Colonel Moffett's wife was a sister of Colonel Samuel McDowell. He lived on the Middle River farm owned for many years past by the Dunlap family, called Mount Pleasant, and built the stone dwelling house still on the place. He was not only prominent during the Indian wars and the Revolution, but was so also in civil affairs, having been a justice of the peace, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and one of the first trustees of Washington College, Lexington. He is said to have been a man of commanding presence, and eminently . religious. He died in 1811, aged seventy-six years, and was buried in Augusta church graveyard. His children were John, James McD., Samuel, William, Mrs. General McDowell, of Kentucky, Mrs. Dr. Mc- Dowell, of North Carolina, Mrs. Kirk, of Kentucky, and Mrs. James Cochran, of Augusta county. James McDowell Moffett was the father of the late Mrs. John McCue, and Mrs. Cochran was the mother of Messrs. John, George M., and James A. Cochran.
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JAMES TATE, killed at Guilford, was one of four brothers who came with their parents from Pennsylvania to Augusta early in the eigh- teenth century. He lived in the neighborhood of the present village of Greenville, and left a widow and child who removed to the West. His son, John, died in Missouri, at an advanced age, about 1866 or 1868. A grand-son of this John is the Rev. John C. Tate of Kentucky. JOHN TATE, brother of James, also lived near Greenville. He repre- sented the county in the House of Delegates at one time, and is said to have voted against the famous resolutions of 1798-'9. His sons went to the west at an early day; his daughters married, respectively, the Rev. John D. Ewing, Jacob Van Lear, Samuel Finley and John Moffett. WILLIAM TATE, third brother of James, was at the battles of Point Pleasant, Brandywine, and probably others. He removed to Southwest Virginia, and became a general of militia. His descen- dants are numerous. ROBERT TATE, the youngest brother of James, had three sons and six daughters, and from them the Tates and others of Augusta are descended.
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