USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 38
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Rochefoucault, the French philanthropist, visited Staunton in 1797. He does not give a flattering picture of the place, but as a faithful annalist we reproduce it, protesting, however, that Staunton and its people are very different now-a-days. He says there were eight inns here, fifteen to eighteen stores, and about eight hundred inhabi- tants. Two market days were kept weekly, but badly furnished with
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provisions. Fresh meat sold at six pence per pound (eight cents), flour at eleven dollars per barrel. A newspaper was published twice a week (?). The inhabitants, like the generality of Virginians, were fond of gambling and betting. The traveler witnessed here two mis- erable horse races. Manners were much like those of Richmond, nor were the people " actuated by a superior desire to discharge the debts which they contracted." During his stay at the inn he "saw great numbers of travelers pass by, merchants or sellers of land, going to Greenbrier and Carolina, or persons on their way to the medicinal springs." The goods sold by the storekeepers were brought from Baltimore or Philadelphia.
Rochefoucault states that at the time of his visit a Presbyterian church was going up in Staunton. He is clearly mistaken as to the denomination, as the Presbyterians had no building till twenty years afterwards, and it was no doubt the first house of worship erected by the Methodists that attracted his attention.
At the time the French traveler was in Staunton, Bob Bailey, the noted gambler, made his headquarters here. He was an elegant gentleman, very insinuating, and very likely sought the acquaintance of the stranger. A few years afterwards he was in the hands of the District Court upon the charge of "exhibiting faro," but fled to escape the penalty of the law.
In 1797, William Blount of Tennessee, being detected in a con- spiracy to invade the Spanish possessions, was expelled from the United States Senate. On his way home from Philadelphia, he was arrested near Staunton as a fugitive from justice and detained till in- formation came that he had been released on bail. [McMaster, Vol. 2, p. 342.]
In the same year ( 1797) the County Court was much occupied by business brought before it by an individual who constituted himself censor of public morals. At March court, the Grand Jury, on the in- formation of the person referred to, presented many people for various offences-profane cursing and swearing, keeping disorderly houses, and other immoralities. Counter-charges were preferred against the informer, but he was finally let off on the ground that he was "oc- casionally subject to be disordered in his understanding."
Archibald Stuart, of Staunton, was elected a Judge of the General Court in 1799, and for some years presided, with an associate, in the District Courts. At the time of his election he was a member of the Legislature.
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A hill about a mile south of the village of Greenville, on the main road from Staunton to Lexington, is called "Staley's Hill," from a tragedy which occurred there at sometime near the year 1800. Several children going to school one morning, saw a traveler on horseback moving northward, who was overtaken by a man walking and carrying a gun. The two proceeded together for a while, and then the foot- man fell behind and deliberately shot and killed the other. Taking the traveler's saddlebags and mounting his horse, the murderer fled, and was never heard of afterwards. The victim proved to be a mer- chant from East Tennessee, named Staley, who was going to Baltimore to purchase goods.
JACOB WARWICK.
The Southern Historical Magazine for August, 1892, contains an article by the Rev. William T. Price, entitled "Pioneer History," from which we have obtained most of the following facts in regard to Jacob Warwick and his family.
The father of Jacob Warwick came to Augusta county from Williamsburg probably about the year 1740. He was a Lieutenant in the service of the British Government, and was employed in surveying and locating land grants in Augusta. His Christian name is not given, but we find a deed on record, from James Gay to John War- wick, dated March 21, 1759, and presume that the grantee was the same as Lieutenant Warwick, so called. According to the article re- ferred to, he married Elizabetlı Dunlap, who lived near the present village of Middlebrook ; but another account says his wife was a Miss Gay. He obtained for himself a tract of land called Dunmore, in the present county of Pocahontas, then a part of Augusta. After the birth of four children,-Charles, Elizabeth, Jacob and John-and set- tling his family on the Dunmore estate [at the great risk of being murdered by Indians,] Lieut. Warwick concluded to visit England. He was never heard of after his departure, and being given up for dead, his widow subsequently married Robert Sitlington. In the mean while she had managed to have the Dunmore estate settled upon her son, Jacob. It is said that Joseph Bell became the guardian of Jacob and John Warwick, but of this there is no record proof. Nor, as far as the archives of Augusta show, was there any administration 011 the estate of Lieut. Warwick.
Jacob Warwick married a Miss Vance, daughter of Col. John Vance of North Carolina. For a number of years he lived at'Dunmore, and there all his children were born. Afterwards he removed to land he had acquired in what is now Bath county. He was a man of great enterprise and considerable wealth in land and cattle. But he seems to have been unambitious, and during his life held no conspicuous
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public office. Like all frontiersmen, he was of necessity an Indian fighter. He was never sure, however, that he had ever killed more than one savage. This was in a hand-to-hand fight, aud the tree at which it occurred was remembered by people living in 1891. It was always a grief to him that he had caused the death of one human being.
It is related that on one occasion a scout from Millborough warned Warwick that a large party of Indians were returning from the east, and that he and about twenty men waited in ambush for them, on the mountain south of Clover Lick. The white men fired, and with such precision that every shot killed or wounded an Indian, causing the survivors hastily to retire. Mrs. Warwick with servants followed her husband and friends, carrying provisions to them. The date of this occurrence is not given.
On another occasion Warwick went to the region of Randolph county, with a party of land agents and surveyors, and as they appre- hended no danger, on account of the inclemency of the season, they went unarmed, [very improbable.] They, however, encountered a band of Shawnees, who fired upon and killed three of them. War- wick's horse was wounded and fell, but recovered himself and bore his master and another man safely home, thirty miles off, in one day.
Elsewhere we have stated that Jacob Warwick redeemed and brought back the boy John Gilmore, who was carried off by the Indi- ans from Kerr's Creek in 1764. Mr. Price says the rescue occurred soon after the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, when Warwick was on a trading expedition among the Indians, and that the boy was stolen from the Indians at Fort Pitt, without their consent. He is undoubt- edly mistaken as to the date and place. The Indians were compelled by Col. Bouquet, in the latter part of 1764, to deliver up their white captives, and it is hardly possible that they detained the boy named for ten years longer, and then brought him to Fort Pitt, still holding him a prisoner.
It is supposed that Warwick was a member of Capt. George Mathews' company at the battle of Point Pleasant, and unless tradi- tion is entirely unreliable, he contributed materially to the success of the whites in that memorable conflict. When the battle began he, with others, was remote from the camp securing a supply of meat. Hearing the firing, he and his party hastened to rejoin the army, arriving at a critical moment, and the Indians mistaking them for a reinforcement under Col. Christian, who was known to be approach- ing, abandoned the conflict.
Jacob Warwick was actively engaged during the Revolutionary war, but we do not know the extent of his services. All that is cer- tainly known is, that he was Lieutenant of Capt. William Kincaid's company which served in lower Virginia, in the early part of 1781. When Bath county was organized in 1791, he was one of the Justices of the Peace.
His death occurred in January, 1826, in the 83rd year of his age. He was buried on the west branch of Jackson's river, six miles from
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the Warm Springs, and his descendant, Mr. Price, says pathetically : "Were it the grave of Campbell's 'Last Man,' it could not be in a much less frequented place."
Mrs. Warwick died in 1823, when she was 80 years of age. She is described as eminent for piety and many excellencies.
The children of Jacob Warwick and wife were one son, (Andrew), and six daughters. One of the daughters was the wife of Charles Cameron.
CHARLES CAMERON.
From an account of the Cameron family, by Mrs. Maria Boys Cochran Sterrett, a great-grand-daughter of Col. Charles Cameron, we have obtained most of the information embraced in the following sketch.
The first of the family who came to America, from Scotland, was Dr. John Cameron, who is said to have been a nephew of Cameron of Lochiel, chief of the clan. Dr. Cameron was one of the men who, fol- lowing Lochiel, took up arms in behalf of Charles Edward, the young Pretender, in 1745. After the disastrous battle of Culloden, in 1746, he made his escape to Spain, coming from that country to the West Indies, and from thence to New York. In New York, he met and married a widow, Mrs. Margaret Murray, a native of Ireland, of Scotch descent, who had two daughters, Saralı and Mary Murray.
From New York Dr. Cameron came to Norfolk, Virginia, and there his two children were born. The older of the two, called Charles Edward, was born February 22, 1753, and the younger, George Hugh, several years afterwards.
When Charles Cameron was six years of age his father with his family removed to Staunton. After that, but exactly when is not known, it being safe for him to return to Scotland, Dr. Cameron em- barked for that country, hoping to recover his property, but was lost at sea.
Charles Cameron found employment in a store in Staunton, and a few years later went to the Mossy Creek Iron Works to act as clerk for Henry Miller. When only nineteen years of age he married Mr. Miller's daughter, Nancy, who died about six months after her mar- riage.
Col. Charles Lewis' wife was Sarah Murray, the half sister of Charles Cameron, and the latter and his brother George were mem- bers of Col. Lewis' regiment in the expedition to Point Pleasant in 1774. Charles and others were sent out to hunt for game, and when he returned he found the battle over and both his brother and brother- in-law slain.
On the 3rd of December, 1776, the Court Martial of Augusta county met at the court-house, and proceeded to choose by ballot officers "to raise two companies of regulars according to act of assem-
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bly." John Syme was chosen Captain of the first company, and Charles Cameron First Lieutenant. At a meeting of the Court held February 1, 1777, it was reported that Capt. Syme had recruited 28 men and Lieut. Cameron 20. The company was a part of the roth Virginia regiment, commanded by Col. Stevens, and participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. On the 3rd of January, 1778, Lieut. Cameron resigned his commission in the regular army, and retired to private life. What his occupation was, we are not in- formed ; probably he was a farmer and grazier. Early in 1781, he was in the military service again as Captain of Augusta militia under Col. Sampson Mathews, in lower Virginia, for a tour of three months. In the summer of 1781, he was in the field again as Captain, and was present at the battle of Jamestown, or Green Spring, in June, serving at this time for two months. His last military service was as commis- sary of the district composed of Augusta, Rockbridge and Rocking- ham counties, for furnishing supplies to the stations in Western Vir- ginia and aiding in recruiting for the regular army. After the war he became Colonel of militia.
In 1790, Col. Cameron was a Justice of the Peace for Augusta coun- ty. At this time he probably lived in the part of Augusta which is now Bath county ; and when the latter county was organized, early in 1791, he was one of the first Justices commissioned by the Governor. He was, however, appointed Clerk of the County Court, and his office of Justice was vacated. His nephew, Charles L. Francisco, whose mother was Mary Murray, succeeded him as clerk, and held the office many years
In 1793, Col. Cameron married his second wife, Rachel, daughter of Jacob Warwick, who, like hier mother, was distinguished for her piety. She was the mother of three children, two of whom died in infancy. The third, Andrew Warwick Cameron, was born June 6, 1806.
Col. Cameron died July 14, 1829. His widow survived till 1858, when she was 86 years of age.
Col. Andrew W. Cameron, only son of Charles Cameron, removed from Bath county to the vicinity of Lexington, in 1840. During the late war between the States, he had four sons in the Confederate army, and on the 18th of July, 1861, rode to Lexington to enquire the news. The stage coach from Staunton arrived at the Lexington hotel, and was surrounded by a crowd of people anxious to hear from the army, Col. Cameron being among them. One of the passengers carried a a loaded minnie rifle, which was accidentally discharged, and the ball striking Col. Cameron he was instantly killed. Young William McClung was mortally wounded by the same ball, and a third person was somewhat hurt.
The Rev. WILLIAM GRAHAM, resigned the office of Rector of Liberty Hall, September 25. 1796, and immediately set out on a jour- ney to the western part of the State, in pursuance of a plan he had
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long contemplated. He purchased a large tract of land on the Ohio, to which he proposed to invite chosen families who "might live retired, in abundance, in Christian intercourse, in the worship of God," and rear religious and patriotic offspring. He embarked all his means in the enterprise, and removed his family to his land of Canaan in the wilderness. But he encountered one difficulty after another. People whom he most wished to accompany lim declined to emigrate, and he became involved in litigation. In the course of his business he traveled from the Ohio to Richmond on horseback, suffered much from expo- sure on the way, was taken sick, and died at the house of Colonel Gamble, in Richmond, June 8, 1799. He was buried in old St. John's church yard.
Mr. Graham had six children, -the eldest, Jahab, became a Pres- byterian peacher, and died early, in Staunton, at the house of his father-in-law, Mr. Peter Heiskell, leaving no child. The youngest of Mr. Graham's children, William, became a physician, settled in Georgia and left a family. His daughters were Mrs. Murdock and Mrs. Braken, of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Riel, of Kentucky.
ALEXANDER NELSON was born in Ireland, January 14, 1749. He came to America when a bov of probably ten years of age, and lived first in Philadelphia, where he was patronized by the celebrated Rob- ert Morris, thie financier of the Revolution. From Philadelphia hie came to Richmond, and there engaged extensively in merchandising. It is not known at what date he came to Augusta. Here his business was that of a farmer, owning and living on a large plantation on Lewis' creek, six miles from Staunton. From the frequent mention of him in the county archives, it is evident that he was a prominent and influen- tial citizen. He died January 2, 1834. His wife was a daughter of
Sampson Mathews, of Staunton. Their children were : Dr. Thomas Nelson, of Richmond; John M. Nelson, of Ohio; James Nelson, long one of the commissioners of the revenue for the county ; Alexander Frank- lin Nelson, a higlily respectable farmer ; Lockhart Nelson, who died in Paris while a medical student there ; Mrs. Mary Ann Bell, wife of Joseph Bell ; and Mrs. Elizabeth Montgomery, wife of John Mont- gomery.
JAMES LYLE, the first clerk of the District Court at Staunton, was a member of the Rockbridge family of that name, and a brother of Capt. William Lyle, long a prominent citizen of Rockbridge. His wife was Margaret Baker, from the lower Valley, a cousin of Mrs. Judge Stuart, and aunt of Mrs. Judge L. P. Thompson. He died in 1793, and his wife survived him about forty years. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Lyle was a daughter named Juliet, who became the wife of Abram Smith, of Rockingham. The second wife of Robert S. Brooke, of Staunton, was a daughter of Abram and Juliet Smith.
CHAPTER XIV.
MADE UP OF SUNDRIES.
We again go back to relate several events of more or less interest. All Staunton people know of a cave in the hill formerly called " Abney's Hill," along the northern base of which the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad passes. The entrance to the cave is near the top of the hill, immediately opposite the southern termination of New Street, and above the Virginia Hotel, where the Washington Tavern once stood. It is very rugged and precipitous, and comparatively few per- sons have made the descent and attempted to explore the cavern. Marvelous accounts have sometimes been given of the interior of the cave, but the settled belief is that there is nothing there worth going to see. In the year 1788, however, the cave became famous as the recepticle of the body of a supposed murdered man. Several reputable citizens of the town were suspected of the crime, and groundless as the imputation undoubtedly was, it followed the accused all their sub- sequent lives. Intelligent and unprejudiced people generally regarded the suspicion as the offspring of misconception or malice, and un- worthy of credence.
On May 19, 1788, an inquest was held by Joseph Bell, Coroner, over the body of a human being found in the cave. The body was discovered by Michael Grove, John Robinson and Robert Jacob, prob- ably adventurous boys. The jury was composed of seventeen men. John Griffin was foreman, and among the members was Michael Garber, [doubtless the senior of that name], Samuel Merrit, William and Hugh McDowell, Francis Huff and John Gorden. The body was "much consumed," but the jury found that it was the corpse of a white man named William R. Watson, who was an "inhabitant of Staunton" in November previous, and that he was wilfully murdered by some person or persons unknown.
On the 9th of June, 1788, a majority of the jury were called be- fore the coroner to consider the matter further, upon the testimony of Dr. Alexander Humphreys and William Wardlaw. These witnesses testified that in the previous March, Wardlaw and James McPheeters, students of Dr. Humphreys, took up the body of a negro for dissec-
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tion, and when done with it sewed it in a bag and put it in the cave. Wardlaw stated that the body "appeared of an aslı color," and Dr. Humphreys is reported as saying that "after a negro lies some time in his grave, the odds cannot be known between him and a white per- son as to color, and in the state the negro was then, being a state of putrescence."
Michael Garber and two other members of the jury published the record of proceedings of the jury on both occasions, in the Winchester Advertiser, alleging in their note to the editor that many of the country people desired to see the testimony and verdict.
Thereupon, Dr. Humphreys sued Garber for defamation. The writ was issued August 8, 1788, and Garber was arrested and went to jail, but was released on paying a fee of fifteen shillings. The suit was not prosecuted, and, on August 20, 1789, was discontinued at the cost of the plaintiff.
In September, 1790, Garber brought suit against Humphreys for sending him to jail, etc., without legal cause of action. In the course of this suit the testimony of Zachariah Taliaferro, a deputy sheriff, was taken. He stated that before the suit of Humphreys against Garber a report was current that a person had been murdered, whose supposed remains were found in a cave near Staunton, aud hints were thrown out that Dr. Humphreys was privy to the transaction ; that he had reason to believe the report originated with, or was propagated by Michael Garber ; that he believed Dr. Humphreys instituted the suit to put a stop to the report, but discontinued it through the per- suasion of his friends ; and that Garber went to jail " to take an ad- vantage of the Doctor." The case was decided, September 7, 1791, the jury rendering a verdict in favor of Dr. Humphreys.
It was impossible, however, to stop the report. The rumor went afar that a man had been murdered in the Washington Tavern and his body thrown into the cave. Certain splotches on the floor of one of the chambers, including the impression of a naked human foot, were supposed to have been made by the blood of the victim. They re- mained visible to all comers as long as the house stood ; and till the tavern was taken down, in 1847, it was common for travellers stopping to spend a night, to stipulate that they should not be put in "the haunted chamber." The discoloration of the floor is believed to have been made by a slovenly painter or servant.
The gossips never agreed as to who the murdered man was. Some said he was a Kentucky drover returning from the eastern market ; others that he was a pedler ; and others that he was a dissolute young
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Englishman. The last-mentioned person is probably the William R. Watson named by the coroner's jury. According to the tradition, he had been a common loafer in Staunton, but going to England and return- ing with a large sum of money, was last seen in the Washington Tavern. Or a peddler may have been named Watson. No one knows who or what the supposed victim was.
Dr. Humphreys was an intelligent and learned man, and his im- mediate connections were the first people in the country. He could not have used the language attributed to him by the clerk of the in- quest. Nor would he have ventured to say that the body brought out of the cave was that of a negro if the evidence of the hair had been against that supposition. Possibly the cranium of the corpse was entirely bare, and the jury neither saw nor sought for any hair. One tradition has it, however, that the body was headless, just what might have been expected in regard to the "subject" of young medical students. But Watson had disappeared and here are human remains, so the jury hasten to declare that the latter are all that can be found of the missing man. The " blood-stained " floor of the tavern cham- ber of course indicated the scene of the murder, confirming the belief of the credulous and malignant, and inspiring the superstitious with a great dread of that particular room.
Within the memory of the writer, the town was thrown into an excitement by the discovery by boys of human bones in the cave ; but by that time the community was prepared to believe that they were thrown in by medical students, of whom there were always some in town in the first forty years of the century.
During the last decade of the 18th century, -how long before and how long after we have not inquired,-horse-stealing was a capital offence in Virginia, and many persons convicted of the crime were sentenced to death. It would seem from documents printed in the Calendar of Virginia State Papers, that in every case the sentence was followed by a petition, more or less numerously signed, asking the Governor to pardon the condemned, which shows that popular senti- ment was not in favor of inflicting the death penalty .* At any rate we know of only one hanging for horse-stealing, and that was at Staunton.
The name of the unhappy man was John Bullitt, the "black sheep " of a most respectable family. He was arrested in Rocking- ham county. At that time, and for long afterwards, white persons
* The State penitentiary was not opened till March, 1800.
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accused of felony were arraigned before a Court of five Justices of the Peace, who heard the testimony and either discharged the accused or held him for trial before a higher tribunal, first the District Court, and afterwards the Superior Court for the county. The "Examining Court" of Rockingham sent Bullitt on for trial before the District Court, and in October, 1790, he was committed to jail in Staunton. He lay in jail the following winter, " without a spark of fire and but little bed covering," as stated in the petition for his pardon. At April term, 1791, of the District Court, only one Judge attended, and the prisoner claimed a continuance till the next term. By the time the September term arrived, the Commonwealth's Attorney had discovered that the crime was committed in Augusta, aud therefore that the Justices of Rockingham had not jurisdiction of the case. The indict- ment which had been found was dismissed, and the prisoner re-com- mitted for re-examination in Augusta.
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