USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 44
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On one occasion, while the noise was going on, Mr. Wesley sternly addressed " the spirit," saying : "Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost thou frighten these children that cannot answer for them- selves ? Come to me in my study, that am a man !" Instantly there was a knocking as if it would shiver a board in pieces. The Rev. Mr. Toole, another minister of the church of England, was present at the time. The next evening, as Mr. Wesley attempted to go into his study, the door was thrust back with such violence as al- most to throw him down. At another time, his trencher (a wooden plate) danced upon the table without anybody touching it.
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Finding that the unseen agent of the disturbance inflicted no bodily injury, the children finally made merry over it. A man named Jeffery had died in the house, and "the ghost" was nicknamed " Old Jeffery." Night after night a gentle tapping at the head of the bed in which the girls lay, began between 9 and 10 o'clock ; and they then commonly said to each other, " Jeffery is coming : it is time to go to sleep."
These disturbances continued till the end of January, 1716, and then ceased. During the latter part of the time they occurred by day as well as at night. No solution of the mystery was ever discovered.
Southey remarks that "An author who in this age relates such a story, and treats it as not utterly incredible and absurd, must expect to be ridiculed ; but the testimony upon which it rests is far too strong to be set aside because of the strangeness of the relation." So we say in regard to the following narrative.
Dr. John McChesney, an intelligent physician, lived on his farm, about a mile north of the village of Newport, Augusta county, and the same distance west of the main road leading from Staunton to Lexington, by way of Middlebrook and Brownsburg. His wife was a sister of Thomas Steele, who lived on the main road, a mile from Dr. McChesney's. Mrs. Mary Steele, widow of Capt. William Steele and mother of Thomas and Mrs. McChesney, lived in Rockbridge, two miles west of Midway.
William Steele, a son of Thomas, is now (1889) one of the few surviving witnesses of the occurrences to be related, and to him we are indebted for all our detailed statements. He was a child at the time, six years of age, but distinctly remembers what he saw and heard ; and, we may add, his veracity is unquestionable. His testi- mony before any tribunal in Augusta county would be implicitly believed.
In 1825, Dr. McChesney's family consisted of his wife, four young children, and sundry negro servants, one of the latter a girl named Maria, probably eight years of age. One evening in January or February, while the white family were at supper, Maria came in from the kitchen, which was 20 or 30 feet from the dwelling, very much frightened apparently, and saying that an old woman with her head tied up had chased her. Little or no attention, however, was given to this incident. But Maria continued for some days to com- plain of being frightened when by herself, and other circumstances connected with the girl attracted the attention of the family. Soon after this, vollies of stones began to descend upon the roof of the dwelling house, and continued to fall at intervals, in day-time and also
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at night. The stones averaged about the size of a man's fist, and some of them were too large to be thrown by a person of ordinary strength. Occasionally, some of the stones were hot, and scorched the dry grass on which they fell.
Reports of the stone-throwing circulated through the country, and hundreds of people from miles around came to witness the spectacle. On some days the yard was full of people, on all sides of the house, eagerly watching to see where the stones came from ; but all retired without making any discovery. The descent of stones did not occur every day, and visitors on the off-days generally went away incredulous about the whole matter. During the whole time Maria complained of being chased and frightened.
As Maria seemed to be the centre of the disturbance, Dr. Mc- Chesney concluded to send her away, and ordered her to go to the residence of his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Steele. While she was on the way across the hills, Mrs. Steele and her children (including her son William), a young white woman, and a negro woman and her children were under a tree in the yard. Mrs. Steele was knitting, and the negro woman was engaged in washing. Mr. Steele was not at home. Suddenly a loud noise was heard in the house, as if it were full of frightened and stamping horses. The white woman ran first to the house, and called to Mrs. Steele to come. In the centre of the large room all the movable furniture was piled up promiscuous- ly,-bed, bureau, chairs, andirons etc. While the spectators were looking on and wondering, stones began to fall on the house, and then Maria was seen approaching. She stated, as usual, that she had been chased by an old woman, and her evident terror was distressing to behold.
Maria was sent home, but the fall of stones continued at Mr. Steele's. The missiles entered the house, how and from whence no one could discover, and broke the glass in the cupboard doors and many of the plates and dishes. The furniture was severely pelted, and some articles still preserved show the marks to this day.
There was no cessation of the occurrences at Dr. McChesney's. One day in the spring, the weather still cool, the family were sitting around the fire. The persons present were, Dr. and Mrs. Mc- Chesney, Mrs. Mary Steele, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Steele, their son, William, and others. The doors were closed and the window sashes were down, when a stone, seeming to come from a corner of the room, near the ceiling, struck Mrs. Thomas Steele on the head. She was the only person struck at any time. A lock of her hair was severed as if by scissors, and her scalp was cut to the boue, causing profuse
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bleeding. Mr. Steele became enraged, and denounced the invisible agent for "taking its spite on a woman," and not on him. He then took his seat in the front door, and immediately was pelted with clods of sod and earth, coming from the inside of the house. He sat there till the missiles were piled around him, and then, at the earnest solicitation of his mother, who cried that " the thing " would kill him, left the spot and was not pursued. The reader will observe the similarity of this occurrence to that related of the Rev. Samuel Wesley.
Wishing to remove the McChesney and Steele children out of the way, they were sent to their grand-mother's near Midway ; but Maria was sent also. Soon the disturbances began at Mrs. Steele's,- stones flew about, furniture in the kitchen moved of its own accord, etc., etc. One day a large kitchen bench pranced over the floor like a horse. The children present were at first amused, as the Wesley children had been with their ghost ; and young John M. Steele (after- wards Dr. Steele, now dead,) proposed to bridle the steed and ride lıim. They did so, but became so much alarmed at the antics of the bench that young Steele fainted. During this time, Mrs. Steele's farm servants found that food and tools taken by them to the fields, disappeared and turned up at the house.
While at Mrs. Steele's, Maria frequently complained of being beaten. Mrs. Steele took her between her knees, drew her skirt about her, and with a stick struck around as if to beat off an invisible foe. Maria continued to cry out that she was beaten and pricked with pins. The " slaps," says William Steele, were distinctly heard, but no one could see the vindictive enemy. At last the victim fell upon the floor, exhausted and apparently dead, but soon revived. She continued to be punished as described for many weeks.
Worn out with these troubles, Dr. McChesney, as a last resort, sold Maria, and she was taken Soutli. As soon as she left the disturbances ceased and they never followed her in her new home.
An old negro woman lived in Dr. McChesney's neighborhood, who was reputed to be a witch. William Steele says "she walked with a stick and chewed tobacco," and that in his boyhood he was always careful to give her the road when they met. It was said that this old woman received some impudence from Maria, who had an evil tongue, and threatened her with punishment. Of course, readers who believe in witches nunderstand now why and from whom the troubles came ! We have no explanation or theory to advance. We cannot, however, refuse to believe that many strange things hap- pened, as related, without repudiating all human testimony.
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Similar occurrences have taken place in Rockingham, Albemarle and Culpeper counties, the last in September, 1889.
In the year 1825, January 22nd, the Legislature passed an act establishing the Western Lunatic Asylum. Five commissioners were appointed to select the site, General B. G. Baldwin being one of them, and after considering other places, the asylum was finally located at Staunton. The act provided for only four acres of land, and restricted the expenditure for lands and buildings to $10,000. A further appro- priation was made in 1827. As stated heretofore, the first physician was Dr. William Boys ; but during his term of service the appro- priations were small, and the asylum was kept on a very moderate scale. Afterward the Legislature becaine inore liberal, and during the incumbency of Dr. F. T. Stribling* as superintendent, the insti- tution was greatly enlarged and improved.
The 4th of July, 1825, was celebrated by the firing of cannon, by the Staunton Artillery, a dinner at Rocky Spring (afterwards called " Buttermilk Spring "), etc., etc. George Geiger, proprietor of the Eagle Tavern, prepared the dinner. Major Daniel Sheffey acted as President, and John H. Peyton, Esq., as Vice-President. Colonel Briscoe G. Baldwin read the Declaration of Independence. Ladies as well as gentlemen attended the dinner.
One improvement generally leads to another ; and the Scottsville turnpike having been made, the people thought it desirable to extend the road westward. Accordingly, in 1827, an act of the Legislature was procured authorizing a company to raise $50,000 by lottery to construct a road from Staunton " to the State road between the waters of the James and Kanawha rivers." L. L. Stevenson and James Points were the agents of the company for conducting the lottery. Such schemes are now wisely prohibited by law, but the country had not then waked up to the evils attending them. Some years earlier a lottery was announced in Staunton, to be superintended by two Presbyterian elders, who, before they died, considered the lottery a deadly sin. The road was made only from Staunton to Buffalo Gap, and those ten miles afterward became a part of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike.
On October 5, 1829, a convention of delegates to revise the State Constitution, assembled in Richmond. The delegates were elected by districts, and those from the district including Augusta were Chap-
* Dr. Francis T. Stribling was born in Staunton, January 20, 1810. As Superintendent of the Western Lunatic Asylum for many years, he became widely known and highly distinguished. He died July 23, 1874.
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man Johnson, Briscoe G. Baldwin, Samuel McD. Moore and William McCoy. Mr. Johnson had then removed to Richmond, but during his life he was identified with Augusta county. The convention ad- journed January 15, 1830, and the new Constitution was afterward ratified by the vote of the people. The right of suffrage was extended to housekeepers and heads of families who had duly paid their taxes, but the number of voters was not thereby greatly increased.
The Constitution of 1829-'30, made another change in the judiciary system of the State. The district courts of chancery were abolished, and law and chancery jurisdiction were vested in the same judge. The first session of the "Circuit Superior Court of law and chancery for Augusta county " was held May 20, 1831, Judge Lucas P. Thompson, of Amherst county, presiding. John H. Peyton was appointed prosecuting attorney (which office he had previously held), and Nicholas C. Kinney clerk. Samuel Clarke and Thouias J. Michie were appointed commissioners in chancery. Judge Thompson removed to Staunton some ten years after his elevation to the bench, and spent the remainder of his life here.
The Harrisonburg and Warm Springs Turnpike Company was chartered by the Legislature January 29, 1830. This road passes through the northwest part of Angusta, and the charter provided that it should pass through Jennings' Gap and by Miller's iron works. By some means, however, Jennings' Gap was left out of the line of improvement.
The subjects which chiefly interested the people of Augusta in 1831, were the proposed Valley railroad and the abolition of slavery.
The agitation in regard to the railroad was kept up for several years, and, in 1836, was vigorously renewed, but the scheme came to naught.
The people of the county seem to have been ripe, in 1831-'32, for the gradual abolition of slavery. John McCue, one of the dele- gates from Augusta, presented a memorial to the Legislature in December, 1831, signed by two hundred and fifteen ladies, praying for emancipation. Similar petitions, numerously signed, were gotten up in the county. In presenting the memorial of the ladies, Mr. McCue delivered a vigorous speech in opposition to slavery. The contrary sentiment prevailed in the State; but at the next election, April court-day, 1832, John McCue was returned to the Legislature from Augusta. His colleague was Thomas Jefferson Stuart.
The institution of slavery never had a strong hold upon the people of Augusta. The Scotch-Irish race had no love for it, and the
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German people were generally averse to it. Most farmers cultivated their own lands with the assistance of their sons. In 1840, out of a total population of 19,628, the number of slaves in the county was 4,135. In 1860, the last census year before emancipation, the num- ber of negroes, slave and free, was 6,202, while the total population was 27,749. The institution, as it existed in the county, was as mild and beneficent as possible. The slaves seemed contented and happy. Many privileges were granted to them here which were denied to those of the same class elsewhere. Every farmer who owned slaves had a headman, who was next to his master in authority on the plantation. He wagoned the produce to market, sold it, and received the money, acting generally as confidential agent. The holidays and pastimes of the slaves were numerous and hilarious. A corn-shucking at night was an occasion to be enjoyed by participants and spectators alike. Scores of hands attended from far and near, and a large crop of corn was usually shucked in a few hours. The work was enlivened by songs, and at the close there was a bountiful supper.
Early in 1832 politics were very lively in Augusta. The follow- ers of Henry Clay took steps to bring him forward as a candidate for the presidency. Among the active Clay men in the county were Judge Stuart and his sons, General Porterfield, Samuel Clarke, General Baldwin, the Kinneys, Waddells, Bells, Eskridges, Craw- fords, McCues, Guys, Pattersons, Cochrans, Sowers, Michie, Harns- berger, and others. The supporters of General Jackson, though less numerous, were equally active. Among them were some who after- wards became Whigs, such as Mr. Peyton, W. W. Donaghe, Colonel Robertson, and Captain Sterrett. But some of those who proved life- long adherents to the Democratic party were then on hand in behalf of Old Hickory. A few of them were Michael Garber, John Ran- dolph, William A. Abney, L. L. Stevenson, Lewis Harman, James Points, the Baylors and the Heiskells. Dr. Speece was a Jackson man, as far as he meddled in politics, and some of the other party sought to weaken his influence by attributing his partiality to the fact that Jackson was a Presbyterian. The Jackson men held a meeting February 8, 1832, and passed resolutions denouncing Clay and Cal- houn for voting in the Senate to reject the nomination of Van Buren as a minister to England "as a most disgraceful attempt to over- throw a patriotic rival."
General Jackson's route from the Hermitage to Washington was through Augusta, but he is said to have avoided Stauntou because of the popular opposition to him here.
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General Jackson was depicted by his co-temporaries who were hostile to him as passionate, rude and illiterate. He was no doubt a man of quick and violent temper, but his manners were habitually gentlemanly and refined. He certainly possessed the art of winning friends. On his trips between the Hermitage and Washington city, he sometimes passed, in his private carriage drawn by four gray horses, through the eastern part of Rockingham county, and would make it convenient to spend a night at the house of Mr. Tobias McGahey, one of his personal and political admirers. Arriving there one evening, the family were in some trouble, and he went on to Mr. Jere Harnsberger's to obtain shelter for the night. He was hospitably entertained, although Mr. Harnsberger had been up to that time an earnest anti-Jackson man. The result of this casual visit was, that ever after the host and all his sons and retainers were zealous parti- sans of Old Hickory .*
Colonel Robert Doak, a soldier of the Revolution, long a delegate in the Legislature from Augusta, a justice of the peace and high sher- iff of the county, and elder in Bethel church, died March 12, 1832.
In the summer of 1832, a breeze of excitement was caused in Staunton by the passage through the town of a detachment of United States troops, returning to Fort Monroe from the "Black Hawk War," in northwestern Illinois. The detachment consisted of six companies of artillery, serving as infantry, taken, two each, from the First, Third and Fourth regiments, and was commanded by Captain John Munroe. The commissary was Lieutenant W. A. Thornton, and one of the lieu- tenants was Joseph E. Johnston, who became the distinguished Con- federate General. The troops marched through Main street from the west in military array, and rested in the meadow where the freight depot of the Valley Railroad now stands, to take their midday meal. Arms were stacked and knapsacks unslung, and the soldiers, producing from the latter bread and bacon, partook of their dinner on the grass. The officers dined at the Washington Tavern, then kept by Lewis Har- man. In the afternoon the command went on towards Waynes- borough.
Major Robert Anderson, who commanded at Fort Sumter in 1861, was a lieutenant of the Third artillery in 1832; but whether he was with the detachment which came through Staunton, we do not know.
A political convention met in Staunton July 15, 1832, which was regarded as very imposing and influential. It was largely attended, by young men especially, from every part of the State. Charles James
* This circumstance was related to me by Richard Mauzy, who was reared in the neighborhood.
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Faulkner, of Berkeley county, presided. The members called them- selves "National Republicans." Resolutions offered by Lyttelton Waddell, of Augusta, recommending Mr. Clay for the presidency, were adopted.
Samuel Miller, of Augusta, was on the electoral ticket nominated by the convention. Smith Thompson was door-keeper of the conven- tion, witlı George D. Lancaster, David Brown, William Carroll and Jacob Carroll as assistants.
General Jackson, then President, lodged at Waynesborough Friday night, July 27th, on his way to Tennessee. As usual, he avoided Staunton. His custom was to arrange his trips so as to spend a Sun- day at Lexington. He always attended church, and was particular to sit in the pew of James McDowell, afterwards the governor.
Mr. Clay, on his way to Kentucky, arrived in Staunton Sunday evening, July 29th, and remaining till noon on Monday, was called upon by many citizens. At the presidential election in November he was defeated, General Jackson being elected a second time.
The venerable Judge Stuart died in 1832. When quite a young man, he was elected Professor of Mathematics in William and Mary College, but declined the position. He was one of three commission- ers appointed by the Legislature to run the dividing line between Vir- ginia and Kentucky. From 1808 to 1828, inclusive, on six occasions, he acted as presidential elector. As a Judge, he maintained much of the ancient etiquette in the court-room. At the beginning of his judicial service, it was customary for the high sheriff, carrying a drawn sword, to escort the judges from their lodgings to the court- house at the opening of each term. Judge Stuart never entirely laid aside the dress worn by gentlemen in the early days of the Republic. His hair was usually combed back from his forehead, and ended in a queue, and till a short time before his death he wore breeches tliat buckled at the knee, and fair-top boots. His children were four sons,- Thomas Jefferson, Archibald P., Gerard B., and Alexander H. H. Stuart.
Every town has amongst its population one or more odd people, who are well known by all the other inhabitants, and, like gnarled shrubbery in a park, though not attractive to look upon singly, often enhance the general picturesqueness of the place. During the decade from 1830 to 1840, Staunton had several persons of the sort referred to. Lawrence Tremper, the postmaster, was one of the eccentric men of the time. He was long a childless widower, and for many years
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there was no one with him in his dwelling except his colored servant, a mulatto named Remus, and the wife of the latter. He was general- ly surly and unaccommodating, at least the children who went on errands to the postoffice thought so ; and only now and then he re- laxed into a smile, or gave expression to a good-humored remark. Nobody ever thought of complaining of him to the department. He had been appointed in the administration of Washington,-it was so generally supposed, but he was appointed during the administra- tion of John Adams,-that gave a sort of sanctity to his right of possession, and the postoffice was conceded to him as his private property, to do as he pleased with it. Remus was his prominent as- sistant in the office as well as in all domestic affairs. Strange to say, Mr. Tremper seemed to feel no pride in the fact that he had been a Revolutionary soldier. He never took part in Fourth of July cele- brations, and was unknown in street processions, except of the Masonic fraternity.
Another old man, a bachelor, taller and stouter than Mr. Trem- per, was known as James Berry Hill, although his name originally was James Berryhill. He was born in Rockbridge while it was a part of Augusta, but spent most of his life in Staunton as the keeper of a retail liquor shop on Main street, a door or two west of Augusta street. At the northwest corner of those streets was a deep well with a pump in it, which supplied many families with water. Mr. Hill constituted himself the Cerberus of the pump, and many times a day did he order off servants and children who tarried at the corner to play or gossip. He always looked remarkably clean in a light drab suit, and until late in life wore the old-fashioned costume. His shoes were kept polished, and to escape the mnd in our unpaved streets he sometimes carried chips to throw down and step on1.
Michael Puffenbarger lived on the west side of New street, about midway between Frederick and Main, and had an open well in his back yard. He was a patron of Hill's shop, or some similar establish- ment, and very often was overcome by his potations. On one of these occasions he fell into his well. The news flew through town, and in a short time nearly the whole population assembled in the yard. With much trouble the half-drowned man was brought to the surface, drip- ping wet but somewhat sobered. Seeing the crowd of people on his premises he fell into a rage, and declared that things had come to a pretty pass when a man could not fall into his own well without stirring up a mob. He was a potter by trade.
Smith Thompson was by birth a Scotchman, and in his vigorous manhood a barber by trade. During the Revolution he was at the battle of Guilford and the "siege of York." Unlike Mr. Tremper, he was fond of " shouldering his crutch," etc., etc. After he became too feeble to walk in procession, nothing pleased him better than to be drawn about the town in a carriage on the Fourth of July. Having been reared in the goodly town of Glasgow, he, of course, knew all
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the people of the place, and is said to have claimed a particular acquaintance with Bailie Nicol Jarvie, of Rob Roy fame.
In our catalogue of notable people we must not omit to mention a certain female resident of Staunton. An Irisliman and his wife, named McCausland, but called Macaslin, lived here for many years, and conducted a school for small children. After the husband's death his wife continued the school, and of her only the writer had any personal knowledge. She lived in an old wooden house on the southeast corner of New and Courthouse streets, opposite the Wash- ington tavern. There, for long years, she "ruled her little school," teaching only spelling and reading, if, indeed, she taught anything. The lower apartment of the house served for her kitchen, parlor, chamber and school-room. In the loft she kept stored away many articles of old-fashioned jewelry, and wearing apparel of divers fabrics. Well does the writer remember toddling after her up the stairway, to be indulged, as a reward of merit, with the sight of her "gold-and-green " silk gown. Her official baton was a short stick, having leather thongs tacked to one end, called cat-o'-nine-tails." Every urchin stood in wholesome dread of this implement, but Mrs. Macaslin was not unmerciful in the use of it. She was lamed for life by the act of one of her pupils, who pitched an axe at her while she was attempting to chastise him. For at least fifty years she flourished in Staunton, during which time nearly every boy and girl reared here passed through her hands. Such teachers as she, have passed away. WVe ne'er shall look upon her like again.
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