USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 24
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At a court martial held by the militia officers of the county April 11, 1766, Lieutenant Michael Bowyer was fined for appearing at the general muster on the roth withont a sword.
From the proceedings of the vestry of Augusta parish, and also from Hening's Statutes at Large, it appears that in 1752 an act was passed by the Assembly at Williamsburg on the petition of Mr. Jones, the rector, increasing his salary from £50 to £100. This act was re- pealed by proclamation of the king in 1762, and the rector's salary stood as before, at £50 a year. But until 1765 payment had been
* We give the date as stated by Kercheval, but feel quite sure that it is not correct. Bouquet concluded a treaty with the Indians in 1764, and it is not probable that the massacre mentioned was perpetrated nearly two years after- wards during a time of peace. Most likely it occurred in August, 1764.
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made at the rate of {100, and the vestry then refusing to pay more than the £50, Mr. Jones threatened to bring suit. At the meeting of October 21, 1765, it was ordered that Sampson Mathews "get of Mr. Gabriel Jones a fair state of the case," to be laid " before Mr. Attorney and Mr. [Benjamin] Waller and get their opinion thereon." The "Mr. Attorney " referred to was Peyton Randolph, Attorney-General of the colony. Mr. Waller was a distinguished lawyer of Williams- burg. The opinion of Messrs. Randolph and Waller was laid before the vestry by Mr. Mathews, November 22, 1766, and it was ordered that each be paid {2 therefor. They advised that Mr. Jones' salary was only £50, and there the matter rested.
The trustees to purchase land for a poor-house, reported in No- vember, 1766, that they had purchased a hundred acres on the waters of Christian's creek, from Sampson and George Mathews, for £40. A year later Daniel Perse and his wife were appointed keepers of the poor-house, on a salary of £35.
In November, 1767, a minute was entered in the vestry book, that all the members then present had subscribed a declaration "to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England." At a subsequent meeting, several members entered their protest against the signing of the proceedings by Israel Christian and (Mr.) John Buchanan, they having refused to sign the declaration.
On laying the parish levy, November 21, 1769, the Rev. Mr. Jones was allowed, by agreement, a salary of £150. At the same meeting William Bowyer was elected a vestryman in place of Colonel John Buchanan, deceased, Thomas Madison was chosen in place of Captain Israel Christian, and Captain Peter Hogg in place of Major Robert Breckinridge, " the said Breckinridge and Christian having re- fused subscribing to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England."
On the 22d of November, 1769, it was entered of record by the vestry, that the Rev. John Jones, being incapacitated by age and infirmity, consented " to accept of fifty pounds and perquisites in full of his salary for ensning year, and to allow the residue levied for him by agreement to hire a curate to officiate in his stead."
No other meeting of vestry was held till November 22, 1771. This fact is not explained in the vestry book, but we find from an act of Assembly, published in Hening (Vol. VIII, page 438), why it was. This act, passed at the session which began in November, 1769, declares that a majority of the vestry of Augusta parish, being dissenters from the Church of England, the vestry is dissolved, and that an election of vestrymen be held on the 20th of September, 1770,
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the freeholders elected being required, before serving, to take and subscribe in court the oaths perscribed by law, to take and subscribe the oath of abjuration, to repeat and subscribe the test, and also to subscribe the declaration to be conformable, etc. Oatlıs and declara- tions were never so piled up, till immediately after the late war thie Federal Government waked up to the immense efficiency of such things. But surely one would think there was ample time, after the passage of the act referred to, and before the 20th of September, for the sheriff of Augusta to give the required notice and hold the election ordered. The sheriff, however, did not think so, and probably the people were not unwilling to try the experiment of getting along with- out any vestry and parish levies. So it was for two years there was no meeting, because there were no vestrymen authorized to meet, and all parish officers and creditors, including Mr. Jones, the rector, had to do without their pay. This state of affairs was reported to the Assembly, and in July, 1771, another act was passed to correct the matter. Some apology for the failure of the election in 1769 was necessary, and therefore the act recites that, "owing to the remote situation " of Augusta county, the sheriff did not have notice of the act of 1769 in time to hold the election. He was, however, ordered to proceed, on the Ist of October, 1771, to have twelve freeholders duly elected as vestrymen, who were peremptorily required to swear and subscribe as directed by the former act. This election was duly held. and Augusta parish being again equipped with a full complement of public officers, taxes were levied, and the rector, sexton, etc., received their salaries as before.
The first division of the territory of Augusta county was made in 1769, when an act was passed creating the county of Botetourt. The new county embraced a part of the present county of Rockbridge- the North river, near Lexington, being the boundary line between Augusta and Botetourt-and also part of Alleghany and Bath, and all of Greenbrier, Monroe, etc.
The first County Court of Botetourt was held February 14, 1770, the justices commissioned being Andrew Lewis, Robert Breckinridge, William Preston, Israel Christian, James Trimble, John Bowyer, Benjamin Hawkins, William Fleming, John Maxwell and George Skillern. The five justices first named were on the bench and con- stituted the court. John May having been appointed clerk by the proper authority at Williamsburg, was duly qualified. In like man- ner, Richard Woods was appointed and qualified as sheriff. James McDowell and James McGavock qualified as under sheriffs. The fol- lowing attorneys were admitted to practice in the court : Edmund
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Winston, John Aylett, Luke Bowyer and Thomas Madison. William Preston qualified as county surveyor, coroner, escheator and colonel of militia, Robert Breckinridge as lieutenant-colonel, and Andrew Lewis as a coroner. On the third day of the term, additional justices were recommended to the Governor for appointment, viz : William Ingles, John Howard, Philip Love, James Robertson, William Christian, William Herbert, John Montgomery, Stephen Trigg, Robert Dodge, Walter Crockett, James McGavock, Francis Smith, Andrew Woods, William Mathews, John Bowman, William McKee and Anthony Bledsoe.
William Preston, Israel Christian and Robert Breckinridge re- moved to the " upper country " some time after 1761. In that year they resided at Staunton, and were members of the first board of trustees appointed for that town.
The county of Botetourt was named in honor of Norborne Berke- ley, Lord Botetourt, who was Governor of Virginia in 1768. Israel Christian made a present of forty acres of land to the justices for the use of the county, and the town of Fincastle was built thereon. This town was established by law in 1772, and called after Lord Botetourt's country seat in England .*
The new vestry of Augusta parish met November 22, 1771, and ordered that the collector for 1769 pay to Mr. Jones one hundred pounds "which was then levied for a curate, as none such has been employed."
In March, 1772, it was "ordered that Mr. William Bowyer em- ploy a curate for this parish to supply the curacy of the same as direct- ed by the present rector." From subsequent proceedings, it appears that the Rev. Adam Smith was the curate employed for a few months. In 1783 he was the rector of Botetourt parish.
In November, 1772, Thomas Mathews was allowed £2 as sexton for one year. A reader "at the Dutch meeting near Picket mountain " was allowed £5, and the " clerk of the church, if one he got " £6.
* In 1772, Botetourt was reduced by the formation of Fincastle county, which embraced all southwest Virginia and also Kentucky. Fincastle, however, existed for only a few years. Iu 1776, its territory was divided into the three counties of Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky. During its short existence, its county seat was at Fort Chiswell, now iu Wythe county. This fort was built in 1758 by the colonial government, and named for Colonel Johu Chiswell, who owned and worked the New River lead mines. Chiswell died in the jail of Cumberland county, while awaiting trial for murder, having killed his antagonist in a personal encounter. The property subsequently fell into the hands of Moses Austin, father of Stephen F. Austin, famous in Texan history .- [Hale's Trans- Alleghany Pioneers.
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In August, 1773, the Rev. Adam Smith, late curate, was allowed £41, 135. 4d. for officiating five months. William Bowyer, who had previously objected to paying Mr. Jones anything, on the ground that he was incapacitated, now objected to the deduction from Mr. Smith's pay as nngenerous. Michael Bowyer suggested that Mr. Smith might make up the lost time. *
At the meeting, November 9, 1773, the Rev. John Jones agreed to receive the Rev. Alexander Balmaine as curate and to pay him at the rate of {100 a year, directing liis attorney, Robert McClanahan, to pay the same out of his salary. The vestry ratified this arrange- ment November 18th, but ordered that the collector make payment of the £100 directly to Mr. Balmaine.
Mr. Jones appeared no more at meetings of the vestry. He had evidently become imbecile, and his business affairs were transacted by his attorney-in-fact, Robert McClanahan. But we imagine that his young and talented curate created quite a sensation in the parish on his appearance here.
Mr. Balmaine, says Bishop Meade, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1740, and educated at St. Andrew's with a view to the Presbyterian ministry. He and his brother, a lawyer, at an early day espoused the cause of the American colonies and, in consequence, found it necessary to leave Scotland. They went to London, and there became acquainted with Arthur Lee, agent of Virginia, who recommended Mr. Balmaine as a private tutor to Richard Henry Lee. While waiting in London he took orders in the Church of England, and after arriving in Virginia, became curate to Mr. Jones. During his service in this capacity, he paid several visits to the Episcopalians at Pittsburg, which was regarded as within his parish. At the begin- ning of the Revolutionary war, he entered the army as chaplain, and at the close became rector of Frederick parish, residing at Winchester for thirty years, till his deatlı.
* Mr. Smith became rector of Botetourt parish in 1773. He came from Ireland to America on account of some family misfortunes, leaving his wife and children behind, but his youngest child, a boy, afterwards joined him. On December 26, 1781, he applied to Governor Harrison for leave to go to Ireland for his two daughters, his wife being dead. Col. Fleming wrote to the Governor in Mr. Smith's behalf, testifying to his loyalty, etc. He wrote his name Smyth. It is presumed that Gen. Alexander Smyth is the son alluded to. He was born in Ruthlin, Ireland, in 1765, and came to America in 1775, started as a lawyer at Abingdon in 1789, but settled permanently in Wythe county in 1792. In 1808, President Jefferson appointed him colonel of a regiment in the U. S. army, and in 1812 he was appointed Inspector General. Failing in an invasion of Canada, his commission was revoked. He was a member of Congress many years, from 1817 to 1830. Smyth county was called for him.
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At the meeting of vestry, November 18, 1773, it was determined to build a chapel in the neighborhood of Cook's creek, now Rocking- ham. In November, 1774, we find those sturdy Scotch-Irishmen, Alexander St. Clair and John Hays, elected members of the vestry, and, more surprising still, John Lyle and John Grattan were elected church-wardens.
From an account filed in the snit of Patrick Coutts' administrator against William Bowyer, we learn what products of Augusta county were articles of export from 1766 to 1775. Coutts was a merchant in Richmond, and Bowyer a merchant in Staunton. The principal arti- cles sent by Bowyer to Richmond were hemp, butter, beeswax, gin- seng, cheese and deer skins. In 1770, 755 deer skins and 4 elk skins were forwarded ; and in 1774, 332 of the latter, worth in Richmond £104, 18s, or $348.6623. Only thirteen barrels of flour were sent dur- ing the period covered by the account, -8 in 1769, 3 in 1772, and 2 in 1774. The price of flour in 1769, was $5 a barrel. Coutts' clerk, writing in 1775, apologizes for allowing an Angusta wagon to return empty, for the reason that there was not a sack of salt in Richmond. He betrays a Tory proclivity by blaming the various "Committees" for the scarcity.
On the 18th of December, 1773, a number of the inhabitants of Boston, disguised as Indians, boarded the English tea ships in the harbor, broke open the chests, and emptied the contents into the sea. A boy from Virginia participated in that famous adventure. Christian Bumgardner, who lived in what is now Shenandoah county, was then in Boston with his wagon and team, accompanied by his son Jacob. The youth was drawn into the scheme, and helped to throw the tea overboard. During the war of the Revolution, Mr. Bumgardner removed to Augusta, and settled on the farm near Bethel church, where some of his descendants now reside. Jacob Bumgardner was a Revolutionary soldier, and lived to a venerable age. He was the father of Messrs. Lewis and James Bumgardner.
The Rev. John Craig died on the 21st of April, 1774. He had retired from Tinkling Spring ten years before, and that congregation had no pastor for abont twelve years. They extended an invitation to the Rev. James Waddell, then living in Lancaster county, but he declined it. Mr. Craig was succeeded at Augusta church, but not till 1780, by the Rev. William Wilson, a native of Pennsylvania, but reared in that part of Augusta county now Rockbridge. He officiated at the stone church till 1814, when, owing to his infirmities, he retired, but his life was protracted till 1835. Mr. Wilson was considered an admirable classical scholar and an attractive preacher. Upon recover-
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ing from an illness at one time, he had wholly forgotten his native language, but his knowledge of Latin and Greek remained. Gradual- ly he recovered his English.
But the happy days of peace did not last. In the early part of 1774 the Indians assumed an attitude of hostility towards the whites. The whole race was alarmed at the attempts of white men to occupy Kentucky. They were, moreover, not without provocation, on ac- count of the ruthless conduct of encroaching settlers and hunters. Single murders, on both sides, were committed on the Ohio frontier ; and finally, in the month of April, the family of Logan, a noted Indian chief, was slaughtered in cold blood, not far below Wheeling, by a party of whites. A general war immediately began, and Logan led one of the first of the marauding parties against the settlers on the Monongahela. Logan was so called after James Logan, the secretary of Pennsylvania. His Indian name is unpro- nounceable. He was the son of a celebrated Cayuga chief, who dwelt on the Susquehanna. Until the unprovoked slaughter of his family he was friendly with the whites. Then he became a fiend incarnate, carrying fire and death through the frontier settlements. He is de- scribed as an Indian of extraordinary capacity.
Colonel Angus McDonald, at the head of a small force, advanced from Wheeling into the Indian country, but returned without ac- complishing any important result. The Indians continued hostile, and proceeded to form extensive alliances amongst themselves.
The government at Williamsburg then took steps to protect the western frontier. Lord Dunmore, the Governor, ordered Andrew Lewis, then a brigadier-general, and residing in Botetourt, to raise a force of eleven or twelve hundred men and march to the Ohio; while he at the head of a similar force raised in the lower valley, should move to Fort Pitt, and thence to meet Lewis at Point Pleasant.
Eight companies raised in Augusta county formed a regiment of four hundred men, commanded by Colonel Charles Lewis. His cap- tains were George Mathews, Alexander McClanahan, John Dickinson, John Lewis (son of Thomas Lewis), Benjamin Harrison (of the Rock- ingham family), William Paul, Joseph Haynes, and Samuel Wilson. William McCutchen was Lieutenant and Joseph Long ensign of Alexander McClanahan's company.
Col. William Fleming of Botetourt commanded a regiment of about the same number of men. His captains were, Matthew Ar- buckle, John Murray, John Lewis (son of Andrew), James Robertson, Robert McClanahan, James Ward and John Stuart.
·
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The force under Col. William Christian consisted of three inde- pendent companies commanded by Captains Evan Shelby, William Russell, and - Hubert, from the Holston and New River settle- ments, then Fincastle county ; a company of scouts under Capt. John Draper, of Draper's Valley ; and an independent company under Capt. Thomas Buford, of Bedford county.
Col. John Field led an independent company raised by him in Culpeper county.
In the files of an old Irish newspaper, preserved at Belfast, Dr. Hale fotind a letter giving an account of the battle of Point Pleasant. The letter, which was written by Isaac Shelby, is published in Roosevelt's " Winning of the West." The writer mentions a Captain McDowell as commanding a company, who is not elsewhere spoken of in connection with the battle. He is supposed to have been Samuel McDowell of Augusta, afterwards of Kentucky, and his company was probably composed of scouts .*
Sampson Mathews was commissary of Col. Lewis' regiment, but as the subsistence of the troops consisted mainly of cattle driven afoot, he was styled "master driver of cattle."
Notwithstanding the large number of companies, the aggregate strength of General Lewis' command was only about eleven hundred.
Alexander and Robert McClanahan were brothers. The latter was a physician. He, with John Stuart, Thomas Renick and William Hamilton, made the first permanent settlement in the Greenbrier country, about where Frankfort now is, in the year 1769. This coun - try became, in that year, a part of Botetourt county. It must have been settled very rapidly to furnish at least three companies of men in the fall of 1774,-McClanahan's, Stuart's and Arbuckle's.
The Augusta companies rendezvoused in Staunton the latter part of August. Sampson Mathews' ordinary seems to have been head- quarters. Here, no doubt, grog was freely dispensed for several days, but tradition states only one fact in connection with the gathering. It is said that the heights of the men of Captain George Mathews' com-
* In the Journal of the Virginia Convention of 1776, page 95, under date of January 13, 1776, we find that the treasurer of the Colony was ordered to pay to Capt. Samuel McDowell the sum of {800 " to be by him applied to the payment of the wages of the company that served under him in the late expedition against the Indians, and also a ranging company, on his giving hond with sufficient security, for the due and faithful application of it to the purpose aforesaid."
Again, in the House of Delegates, May 31, 1777, James Smith, a sergeant in Capt. McDowell's company in the expedition against the Shawnees, was allowed the pay of a sergeant, over and above the soldier's pay he had received, viz : one shilling a day for 134 days, amonnting to 56. 14s.
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pany were marked on the bar-room walls, nearly all the men being over six feet two inches in their stockings, and not one under six feet.
From a letter written by Col. William Christian we learn that the Augusta meu took with them 400 pack horses, carrying 54,000 pounds of flour, and 108 beeves.
Of the departure from Staunton and march to Camp Union, called also Fort Savannah, (Lewisburg), we have no account. At the latter place General Lewis assembled his command about the 4th of Septem- ber.
On September 11th, the command began the march to the Ohio. Captain Matthew Arbuckle, of Greenbrier, acted as guide. There was no track of any kind, and few white men had ever gone down the Ka- nawha valley. Of course wagons could not be employed, and provis- ions were transported on pack-horses. Many cattle also were driven along to supply food for the army. In nineteen days the command advanced from Camp Union to Point Pleasant, a distance of one hun- dred and sixty miles, averaging eight and a half miles a day.
Here we must repeat a story of the supernatural, as related by Governor Gilmer, without, however, vouching for its truth.
" About mid-day on the roth of October, 1774," says Governor Gilmer, " in the town of Staunton, a little girl, the daughter of John and Agatha Frogge, and grand-daughter of Thomas and Jane Lewis, was sleeping near her mother, when suddenly she waked, screaming that the Indians were killing her father. She was quieted by her mother, and again went to sleep. She again waked, screaming that the Indians were killing her father. She was again quieted and went to sleep, and was waked up by the same horrid vision, and continued screaming beyond being hushed. The child's mother was very much alarmed at the first dream. But when the same horrid sight was seen the third time, her Irish imagination, quickened by inherited super- stition, presented to her the spectacle of her husband scalped by the Indians. Her cries drew together lier neighbors, who, upon being in- formed of what had happened, joined their lamentations to her's, until all Staunton was in a state of commotion.
" It so happened that the great battle of the Point between the western Indians and the Virginians was fought on the very day when all Staunton was thus agitated. And what was still more wonderful, John Frogge, the father of the child who saw in her dream the Indians killing her father, was actually killed by the Indians on that day." It is said that Captain Frogge was a sutler, but took a gun and fought with the rest. He was gaudily dressed in bright colors, and his hat was adorned with ribbons and feathers.
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Of this extraordinary occurrence there is no tradition in Staunton. We may add that Mrs. Frogge's second husband was Captain John Stuart, afterwards Colonel Stuart.
Early Monday morning, October 10, the Virginians were sudden- ly attacked by a large body of Indians led by Cornstalk and Logan. The battle raged all day, and was one of the most noted conflicts that ever occurred between Indians and white men. Seventy-five of the whites, including Colonels Lewis and Field, and Captain Robert Mc- Clanahan,* were killed, and one hundred and forty were wounded. The loss of the Indians is unknown, but they were signally defeated.
Sundry articles captured from the Indians were sold at auction after the battle, and brought £74, 4s. 6d.
Colonel James Smith says in his narrative :- " The loss of the Virginians in this action was seventy killed, and the same number wounded. The Indians lost twenty killed on the field, and eight wlio died afterwards of their wounds .- This was the greatest loss of men that I ever knew the Indians to sustain in any one battle. They will commonly retreat if their men are falling fast ; they will not stand cut- ting like Highlanders or other British troops ; but this proceeds from a compliance with their rules of war rather than cowardice. If they are surrounded they will fight while there is a man of them alive, rather than surrender."
After burying the dead and providing for the wounded, General Lewis proceeded to join Governor Dunmore, in order to penetrate the Indian country in pursuance of the original scheme, but an express met him with orders from the Governor to return to the mouth of the Big Kanawha. The integrity of the Governor was suspected. The Revolutionary troubles having begun, it was believed that Dunmore was seeking to win the Indians to the side of Great Britain against the Colonies. Tlie men of Lewis' command refused to obey the Gover- nor's order, and continued to advance till he met them and made such representations as to the prospect of peace as induced them to retire.
Dunmore went into Ohio, and halted his command eight miles from the Indian town of Chillicothe, calling the place Camp Charlotte. Eight chiefs, with Cornstalk at their head, came to Dunmore's camp, and in the course of a few days a treaty of peace was concluded. In- terpreters were sent to Logan to request his attendance, but he refused to come, saying "he was a warrior, not a counsellor." His speech, which, it is said, the interpreters delivered on their return, is regarded as a fine specimen of untutored eloquence :
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