USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 21
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Mrs. Kinkead stated that the Indians treated her personally with kindness, and that at the time of her confinement everything possible was done for her comfort. The maiden name of Mrs. Kinkead was Eleanor Guy. Her maternal grand-father was in the siege of Londonderry .*
William Kinkead was captain of a company sent to protect the frontier in 1777. He also commanded a company in Col. Sampson Mathews' regiment which served in lower Virginia, in 1781, having Jacob Warwick as his Lieutenant. He sold his farm in 1789, and re- moved to Kentucky, where he died in 1820.
Thomas Gardiner, Jr., lived on a farm lying on Dry Branchi, 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 presumed 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 dwelling. 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.
* For most of the facts of this narrative, we are indebted to Miss Elizabeth Shelby Kinkead, of Lexington, Kentucky, a daughter of Judge William B. Kin- kead, and great-grand-daughter of William Kinkead; and to the Hon. John S. Wise, whose wife is a descendant of Andrew and Isabella Hamilton.
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Thomas Gardiner was a near neighbor of Alexander Crawford, who also was killed by Indians, as will be related. Their dwellings were about two miles apart. Gardiner was killed before June 19, 1764, as stated, and possibly Crawford'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.
We have no information of any Indian raid into the county in the early summer of 1764, except the fact of the Gardiner massacre, 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.
No doubt, the violent acts of lawless whites were sometimes attri- buted to Indians. The ancestor of the "Stone Church Bells " and his wife were ruthlessly murdered by a white man, but at what date is not known. It may have been before 1764 .- The circumstance is thus related by Thomas Bell of Greenbrier, the oldest survivor (in 1892) of the family :
The old couple, Josepli Bell and wife, were sitting in their dwell- ing on a certain day-their only son, also named Joseph, having gone to a blacksmith's shop; but two female white servants being present. A white male "indentured " servant also belonged to the family, and wished to marry one of the females referred to, but Mrs. Bell opposed the match on account of the bad character of the man, and thus in- curred his ill-will. This man came in from a field on the day referred to, saying that he had finished his work. Mrs. Bell was spinning fine flax, and the man enquired what she proposed to make. She replied that she intended to weave linen grave-clothes for her husband and herself, if she lived long enough. "Do you think you will live long enough?" said the man, and, remarking that he would go out and kill a squirrel, took down the gun. Going to the door, he turned and fired at Mrs. Bell, mortally wounding her and instantly killing hier husband. Mrs. Bell died the next day. The man fled and was never
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captured. If there had been no witness to the tragedy, it would probably have been attributed to Indians.
In October, 1764, says Withers, [Border Warfare, pages 72, 73,] about fifty Delaware and Mingo warriors ascended the Great Sandy and came over on New river, where they separated-one party going towards the Roanoke and Catawba (a small stream in Botetourt coun- ty), and the other in the direction of Jackson's river, in Alleghany. They were discovered by three white men, who were trapping on New river,-Swope, Pack and Pitman,-who hastened to give warning, but the Indians were ahead of them, and their effort was in vain. The savages who came to Jackson's river passed down Dunlap's creek, and crossed the foriner streamn above Fort Young. They proceeded down that river to William Carpenter's, where there was a stockade fort in charge of a Mr. Brown. Meeting Carpenter near his house they killed him, and coming to the house captured a young Carpenter and two Browns, small children, and one woman. The other people belonging to the place were at work some distance off, and therefore escaped. Despoiling the house, the savages retreated precipitately by way of the Greenbrier and Kanawha rivers.
The report of the gun when Carpenter was killed, was heard by those who were away at work, and Brown carried the alarm to Fort Young. The weakness of the garrison at this fort caused the men there to send the intelligence to Fort Dinwiddie,* where Captain Audley Paul + commanded. Captain Paul immediately began a pur- suit with twenty of his men. On Indian creek they met Pitman, who had been running all the day and night before to warn the garrison at Fort Young. He joined in the pursuit, but it proved unavailing. This party of Indians effected their escape.
As Captain Paul and his inen were returning they encountered the other party of Indians, who had been to Catawba, and committed some murders and depredations there. The savages were discovered about midnight, encamped on the north bank of New River, opposite an island at the mouth of Indian creek. Excepting some few who were watching three prisoners, recently taken on Catawba, they were lying
* Fort Dinwiddie was on Jackson's river, five miles west of the Warm Springs. It was called also Warwick's fort and Byrd's fort. Washington visited it in the fall of 1755, coming from Fort Cumberland, on a tour of inspection. There was no road between the two points, but the trail he is said to have pur- sned is still pointed out.
t Capt. Paul's daughter Ann, who married James Taylor, was the mother of the widely-known Missionary Bishop William Taylor, of the Methodist church, who was born in Rockbridge county, in 1821.
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around a fire, wrapped in skins and blankets. Paul's men, not know- ing there were captives among the Indians, fired into the midst of them, killing three, and wounding several others, one of whom drowned himself to preserve his scalp. The remaining Indians fled down the river and escaped.
The three white captives were rescued on this occasion, and taken to Fort Dinwiddie. Among them was Mrs. Catherine Gunn, an Eng- lish lady, whose husband and two children had been killed two days before, on the Catawba. The Indians lost all their guns, blankets and plunder.
Young Carpenter, one of the prisoners captured on Jackson's River, came home some fifteen years afterwards, and became Doctor Carpenter, of Nicholas county. The younger Brown was brought home in 1769, and was afterwards Colonel Samuel Brown of Green- brier. The elder Brown remained with the Indians, took an Indian wife, and died in Michigan in 1815. It is said that he took a con- spicuous part in the war of 1812-14.
We pause here to give the sequel of the above story, as related by the late Colonel John G. Gamble, premising that Colonel Gamble's mother was a sister of Colonel Samuel Brown's wife.
Colonel Gamble says : "The last time I visited Colonel Brown I met there Colonel Brown's aged mother, a Mrs. Dickinson, a second time a widow. She was a very sensible and interesting old lady, and at that time could think and speak only of her long-lost first-born, who had been to see her some time before my visit.
"Colonel Brown's father had formerly lived in what is now Bath county, then a frontier settlement. In one of the inroads made by the Indians, they pounced upon a school-house near Mr. Brown's residence, killed the teacher, captured the children, and among them Colonel Brown's elder brother, then a little white-headed chap, and carried him off ; and for more than fifty years afterwards he was not heard of. The child fell to the lot of an Indian who lived on Lake Hnron, and thither he was taken. Some time afterwards a French trader, who had married and lived among the Indians, bought the boy, adopted him, and taught him to read. The lad, grown up, married a squaw and became a chief. He had remembered and retained his name of ' Brown,' and the circumstances of his capture were such as not to be obliterated from his memory. Fifty years afterwards, upon a meeting of the Indians and whites for the purpose of making a treaty, he met with a man who knew his family, and assured him that his mother was still living. The old chief at once determined to visit her, and, attended by a son and daughter and some of his warriors, came to his
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brother's, in Greenbrier, and remained some months with his family. What a meeting between the aged mother and her long-lost son 1
" Every effort was made to induce him to remain, but of course unavailing ; for no Indian chief was ever prevailed upon to exchange his mode of life for a residence among the whites.
" His son and daughter were described to me as being fine speci- mens of their race, and the daughter as possessing uncommon beauty. Much persuasion was used to retain her ; but the girl was in love, and was to be made the wife of a young chief on her return home. How could they expect her to remain ?
" At the death of their father, Brown, the law of primogeniture was in force in Virginia, and the old chief was the legal owner of all the paternal property, which was in fact nearly all that Colonel Brown possessed. The old chief was made acquainted with his rights, and before his departure conveyed to his brother all his title in the property."
It will be observed that Colonel Gamble makes no allusion to the taking off and return of the younger Brown. Moreover, the interval of fifty years between the capture and return of the older brother is inconsistent with the dates given by others. Without attempting to reconcile discrepancies, we resume our narrative.
Withers is silent in regard to an Indian raid upon Kerr's creek, in 1764, or at any time. He refers, as we have seen, to an assault upon the settlement on Catawba, in Botetourt, in October, 1764, but this, if he is correct. was by Delawares and Mingoes. The Rev. Samuel Brown states that the second Kerr's creek inassacre was per- petrated by Shawnees, and in regard to this there can be no doubt, as the prisoners carried off, some of whom returned, would know to what tribe the Indians belonged. In his published narrative, Mr. Brown mentions October 10, 1765. as the date of the inroad ; but he is now satisfied that it occurred at least a year earlier, probably in the fall of 1764.
The people on Kerr's creek had repaired the losses they sustained in 1763, as far as possible. For some time, says Mr. Brown, there had been vague reports of Indians on the warpath, but little or no un- easiness was excited. At length, however, the savages came, but more cautiously than before. They crossed the North mountain and camped at a spring in a secluded place, where they remained a day or two. Some one discovered their moccasin tracks in a corn-field, and then, from the top of a hill, saw them in their camp. Their number is supposed to have been from forty to fifty.
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The aların being given, the people, to the number of about a hundred, of both sexes and all ages, assembled at the house of Jonathan Cunningham, at the "Big Spring." They were packing their horses in haste, to leave for Timber Ridge, when the savages fell upon them. A Mrs. Dale, who was hidden a short distance off, wit- nessed the awful tragedy. The terror-stricken whites ran in every direction, trying to hide ; and the Indians, each singling out his prey, pursued them round and round through the weeds, with yells. The white men had but few arms, and in the circumstances resistance was vain. The wife of Thomas Gilmore, standing with her three children over the body of her husband, fought with desperation the Indian who rushed up to scalp him. She and her son, John, and two daughters, were made prisoners. The bloody work did not cease until all who could be found were killed or taken prisoners.
Very soon the Indians prepared to leave, and gathered their prisoners in a group. Among the latter were Cunninghams, Hamil- tons and Gilmores. An entire family of Daughertys, five Hamiltons, and three Gilmores were slain. In the two incursions, from sixty to eighty white people were killed, and in the second, from twenty-five to thirty were carried into captivity, some of whom never returned.
Late in the evening the Indians, with their captives, reached their first encampment near the scene of the massacre. Among the booty found at the "Big Spring " was a supply of whiskey. This was carried to the encampment, and that night was spent by the savages in a drunken frolic, which was continued until the afternoon of the next day. The prisoners hoped all night that a company would be raised and come to their relief, as the Indians could easily have been routed during their drunken revels. But there was a general panic all over the country, and those who might have gone in pursuit were hiding in the mountains and hollows. Some had fled as far as the Blue Ridge. The captives related that the Indians took other prisoners as they returned to Ohio. These, Mr. Brown thinks, were taken on the Cowpasture river, as it is known, he says, that some were captured there about that time. Withers, however, as already related, attributes the captures on the Cowpasture, in October, 1764, to another band of Indians.
During the march westward the savages dashed out against a tree the brains of a sick and fretful infant and threw the body over the shoulders of a young girl, who was put to death the next day. On another day an infant was sacrificed, by having a sharpened pole thrust through its body, which was elevated in the air, and all the prisoners made to pass under it.
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After crossing the Ohio, the Indians, elated with their success, demanded that the captives should sing for their entertainment, and it is said that Mrs. Gilmore struck up, with plaintive voice, the 137tl Psalm of Rouse's version, then in use in all the churches-
"On Babel's stream we sat and wept, When Zion we thought on, In midst thereof we hanged our harps, The willow tree thereon.
" For there a song requested they, Who did us captive take ; Our spoilers called for mirth and said A song of Zion sing."
The Indians then separated into several parties, dividing the prisoners amongst themselves. Mrs. Gilmore and her son, John. fell to one party and her two daughters to another. The last she ever heard of the latter was their cries as they were torn from her. No intelli- gence was ever received in regard to their fate. After some time, the mother and son were also parted, she being sold to French traders and the boy retained by the Shawnees. Finally he was redeemed and brought back by Jacob Warwick to Jackson's river, where he remained till his mother's return, when they were united at the old homestead.
A number of other captives were eventually found and brought back by their friends, among them Mary Hamilton, who had a child in her arms when the attack was made at the spring. She hid the child in the weeds and found its bones there when she returned.
Alexander Crawford and his wife were murdered by Indians, in October, 1764, it is believed. 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, when his administrator qualified.
His wife's maiden name was Mary McPheeters. He acquired an extensive tract of land in Augusta, covering a part of the Little North mountain, and extending far out into the plain. It embraced sixteen hundred and forty acres. His dwelling stood on a knoll, at the eastern base of the mountain, and looked out towards the rising sun on a wide tract of level land. It was "beautiful for situation." The spot is abont two miles northeast of Buffalo Gap, and a hundred yards south of the present residence of Baxter Crawford, a great-grand-son of Alexander and Mary. The site of the house is now marked by a thicket, surrounding a pile of unhewn stones which composed the chimney.
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Here Alexander and Mary Crawford had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. They had an abundance of all the good things the times and country afforded, and until the Indian wars arose, lived in peace and plenty. They belonged to a God-fearing race, and doubtless walked in the old ways of their pious ancestors. The father and mother, were, however, both slaughtered by savages, on their premises, with no human eye near enough to witness the tragedy.
Much uncertainty has existed as to the date of the occurrence. But at November County Court, 1764, William McPheeters qualified as administrator of Alexander Crawford, and, although some of the latter's descendants insist upon an earlier date, it seems highly prob- able, if not absolutely certain, that the slaughter was perpetrated in October of the year mentioned.
The rumor had gone abroad that an invasion by Indians was threatened, and all the Crawford family had taken refuge in a house at the Big Spring. This house was called a fort, being better able to resist an attack than most dwellings of the period, and was often re- sorted to by the people around in time of danger. It is probably the ancient stone house, still standing and used as a dwelling, on the south side of Middle river, two miles south of the present village of Churchville, and about three miles from Alexander Crawford's. It has long been known as the "old Keller house." The windows are few in number and very narrow, hardly more than a foot wide.
On the day of the slaughter, early in the morning, it is said, Alexander Crawford and his wife returned home to procure a supply of vegetables, while two of their sons, William and John, went upon the mountain to salt the horses which had been turned out to graze. From their elevation on the side of the mountain, the two youths saw the smoke and flames of the burning homestead.
We may imagine that the men of the neighborhood were some- what slow to assemble. No one knew but his house would be at- tacked next, and every man felt it necessary to protect his own family if possible. When the people rallied and repaired to the Crawford place, the dwelling had been consumed by fire. The charred re- mains of Alexander Crawford were found in the ashes, showing that he had been killed in the house. His wife's body was found outside, and it was inferred that she had attempted to escape, but was over- taken and tomahawked. The remains of both were gathered up and buried in the Glebe graveyard.
The sale bill of Alexander Crawford's personal estate amounted to £333, 175, 9d, about $1, 114, a larger sum than was common at that day. We mention as some indication of the state of the times,
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that among the articles sold by the administrator were a still and a wolf trap. All the family records and other household effects perished with the dwelling.
In 1764, John Trimble lived on Middle river, two miles from Churchville, five from Buffalo Gap, and seven from Staunton, or thereabout. His white family consisted of himself and wife and his son James, a boy. His step-daughter, Mrs. Kitty Moffett Estill, was also with the family at the time of the occurrence to be related.
One writer puts the date as 1752; another 1758; a third 1770; and fourth, 1778 .- The incident occurred, however, in 1764, during the last Indian raid into the county. All accounts agree in the statement that John Trimble was killed at the time of Mrs. Estill's capture, and the records of the county show that his death occurred in the fall of 1764 .- The probability is that the Indians who murdered Alexander Crawford and his wife, proceeded down to Middle river a few miles and fell upon the Trimble family.
Besides the date of this occurrence, there is much diversity of statement 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., 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 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. The Indians must have passed the old Keller house in coming from Alexander Crawford'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.
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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 mnen 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 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 moun- tain. Their food was exhausted, and Dickinson had gone in search of game. Moffett's party were within a mile of the savages, and stealthily drawing 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 hundred 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 horseback 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 in- stant, before his companions 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 hier as his prize. James Trimble was at the spring getting water. The Indians 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.
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