USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers (A Supplement) > Part 38
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William Strother Jones, the only son of Gabriel Jones, was born March 21, 1756. In the catalogue of students of William and Mary College we find the name of Strother Jones, son of Gabriel Jones, of Augusta, in 1767. His wife was Fanny Thornton, of Fredericksburg, who died about the year 1790. He was a captain in the Continental army during the Revolution, and subsequently a colonel of militia. It is said that he was an accomplished gentleman, but inherited his father's temper. At one time during the war he was ordered under arrest for " beating a sentry while on post and a corporal on guard."
William Strother Jones, Jr., was the only son of the former. He was born October 7, 1783, lived in Frederick county, married, first Ann Maria Marshall, a niece of Chief-Justice Marshall, and, second, Ann Cary Randolph, and died July 31, 1845.
The children of the last-named William Strother Jones were, Mrs, F. L. Barton, of Winchester; Wm. Strother Jones, now of New York ; Captain James F. Jones, who was murdered in 1866; Francis B. Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Virginia regiment, who was killed at Malvern Hill ; and R. B. Jones.
Robert T. Barton, of Winchester, to whom we are indebted for much of the foregoing information, is a great-great-grandson of Gabriel Jones.
John Jones, the brother of Gabriel Jones, had a son named John
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Gabriel, who was born June 6, 1752, and while still a very young man went to Kentucky. In June, 1776, George Rogers Clark and John Gabriel Jones were chosen by a popular meeting at Harrodsburg mem- bers of the General Assembly of Virginia. Before they arrived here the Legislature had adjourned, and Jones directed his steps to the set- tlements on the Holston, leaving Clark to proceed to Richmond. The latter obtained from the council an order for the transportation to Pitts- burg of 500 pounds of gunpowder for the use of the people of Kentucky. At the Fall session of the Legislature the two agents of Kentucky were in attendance. They were not received as members, but through their influence the county of Kentucky was constituted. Clark and Jones conveyed the powder from Pittsburg down the Ohio river to a point eleven miles above the present town of Maysville, and concealed it there. In December following, Colonel John Todd and a party of men, under the guidance of Jones, went for the powder; but on Christmas day, when near the Lower Blue Lick, they were attacked by Indians. Jones and several others were killed and the expedition was aban- doned. In January, 1777, however, Colonel Harrod succeeded in finding the powder and conveying it to Harrodsburg.
John Jones, the brother of Gabriel, was not the rector of Augusta parish in colonial times. Some of the descendants of Gabriel Jones state that as far as they know he had no brother whatever. Others not only give the brother's name, but the date of his birth.
MRS. AGATHA TOWLES, a grand-daughter of Colonel John Lewis, in a brief memoir, written by her in 1837, states that Colonel Lewis pre- ceded his family to America, and lived in Pennsylvania and Virginia three years before their arrival. A brother of his went from Wales to Portugal, and from thence probably to America, but Colonel Lewis came directly from Ireland. After his rencounter with "the Irish Lord," he took refuge in a house on the banks of the Boyne, and as soon as a ship was ready to sail, embarked for America. Mrs. Lewis and her children came over in a vessel with three hundred passengers, all Presbyterians, and landed on the Delaware river, after a voyage of three months. Mrs. Towles gives the names of Colonel Lewis's children, four sons and two daughters, but says nothing of a son named Samuel. She states that her uncle, Andrew, and her father, William Lewis, were at Brad- dock's Defeat, and that the latter was wounded on that occasion. It is hardly probable that she was mistaken in regard to her father, but we still think Andrew Lewis was not with Braddock. (See page 64.) An- drew Lewis having been taken prisoner at Grant's defeat, in 1758, (see page 105), was detained at Quebec for three years, says Mrs. Towles. She describes her father as a man of eminent piety.
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THE CAMPBELLS.
John Campbell came from Ireland to America in 1726, with five or six grown sons and several daughters, and settled first in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Six or eight years afterwards he removed to that part of Orange county, Virginia, which, in 1738, became Augusta county, where many of his numerous descendants lived for many years.
Three of John Campbell's sons came with him to Augusta, viz: Pat- rick, Robert and David.
I. Patrick Campbell, who died in Augusta, had at least two sons- . Charles and Patrick.
I. Charles Campbell, son of Patrick, died in Augusta in 1767. He was the father of General William Campbell, of King's Mountain fame. In his will, dated August 4, 1761, proved in court and admitted to re- cord March 17, 1767, he speaks of himself as a resident of Beverley's Manor. He appointed his wife, Margaret, sole executrix, provided for her support, left 1,000 acres of land on the Holston to his son William, and lands in the same section to his daughters. The inventory of the estate shows a larger amount of personal property than was common at that time.
William Campbell, only son of Charles, was born in 1745. In a short time after his father's death, the whole family moved to the Holston, now Washington county, then in Augusta. The oldest daughter, Eliza- beth, married John Taylor, and from her the Taylors of Botetourt and Montgomery are descended; the second, Jane, married Thomas Tate ; the third, Margaret, married Colonel Arthur Campbell, her second cousin ; and the fourth, Ann, married Richard Poston.
2. Patrick Campbell, second son of Patrick and brother of Charles, went to the southern part of Kentucky, and left many descendants.
II. Robert Campbell, son of John and brother of Patrick (I), was one of the first Justices of the Peace appointed for Augusta county, in 1745. He died in 1768, without leaving a will. His descendants, if any, are not mentioned by Governor David Campbell in his account of the family. (See Foote's Sketches, 2d series, page 117).
III. David Campbell, son of John and brother of Patrick (I) and Robert (II), married, in Augusta, Mary Hamilton, and had seven sons and six daughters, all of whom, except a son who died young, emi- grated to the Holston. The sons were John, Arthur, James, William, David, Robert and Patrick ; and the daughters, Margaret, Mary, Martha, Sarah, Ann, and sixth not named.
I. John Campbell, the oldest son of David, was born in 1741, and received a good English education. He accompanied Dr. Thomas Walker in his exploration in 1765, and purchased for his father a tract of land called the "Royal Oak," near the head waters of the Holston. A year or two afterwards, he and his brother Arthur, and their sister
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Margaret, moved to that place and made improvements. About 1771, the parents and the other children removed to the same place.
John Campbell was a Lieutenant in William Campbell's company, Colonel Christian's regiment, in 1774, which arrived at Point Pleasant too late for the battle of October Ioth. In July, 1776, he was second in command at the battle of the Long Island Flats of Holston, which resulted in a signal victory over the Indians. In October of the same year he commanded a company under Colonel Christian in his expedi- tion against the Cherokee towns (see page 142,) and up to 1781 was almost constantly in military service. He was appointed clerk of Washington County Court in 1778, and held the office till 1824. His death occurred in 1825. He was the father of Governor David Camp- bell.
Edward Campbell, another son of John Campbell, the younger, and brother of Governor Campbell, was a lawyer, and father of the late Judge John A. Campbell and others, of Abingdon. A sister of David and Edward married James Cummings, son of the Rev. Charles Cum- mings (see pages 50 and 52,) and was the mother of Colonel Arthur Campbell Cummings, of Abingdon.
2. Arthur Campbell, second son of David, (see page 98,) died about 18If, in his sixty-ninth year.
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
2
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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 Angusta, 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.
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 family, 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.
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