USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 > Part 9
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It is a question as to how the town was entered from the east in the early days of the settlement. The plots alluded to give no indica- tion of a road or street leading, as at present, from the Virginia Hotel to the creek near the Valley railroad depot ; and it is probable that the land between the points named was swampy and ordinarily impas-
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sable. If so, the road must have passed over Abney's or Garber's hill.
It appears that, in 1750, a man called Ute Perkins, and others, were perpetrating robberies in the county ; but we have no informa- tion in regard to the matter, except several hints in the proceedings of the court. The following order was entered November 28, 1750 : "On the motion of Peter Scholl, gent., it's ordered that the sheriff de- mand of Joseph Powell a saddle supposed to belong to Ute Perkins and his followers, and that Jolin Harrison deliver the several goods in his possession (supposed to belong to the said Perkins or some of his fol- lowers) to the said Scholl, he being one of the coroners, till further order." And again, February 19, 1751 : "The petition of John and Reuben Harrison, praying a reward for killing two persons under the commaud of Ute Perkins, who were endeavoring to rob them, was read and ordered to be certified." The Harrisons lived in the northern part of the county, now Rockingliam. Perkins and his gang were probably horse thieves.
On the 29th of November, 1750, the Rev. John Todd, a Dissent- ing minister, appeared in court and took the prescribed oaths. Mr. Todd was a Presbyterian minister and lived in Louisa county. He never resided in Augusta, but his object was to qualify himself, ac- cording to law, for officiating here occasionally .*
In the early winter of 1750, the country was visited by a storm of unusual violence, as we learn from a paper found in the clerk's office of the circuit court, having been filed in the old cause of Stuart vs. Laird, &'c. There is no signature to the paper, but it is endorsed, ' Hart's Field-Notes." In the answer the notes are called "Trimble's" and it is probable that the writing was scribbled on the back of his field-notes by the assistant county surveyor, who was caught out in the storm while on a professional excursion. He thus relates his dis- mal experience, and gives expression to his alarm, but, at the same time, deep piety :
"December 21, 1750, being fryday, and being the most dismal Judgment-like day that I have seen, the day before having been ex- cessive great rain. &c., frost freezing on the trees and branches, as also 2 nights, and the snow beginning before day. this morning, so overloaded the trees and branches, that their falling is as constaut as
* Mr. Todd was an uncle of Col. John Todd, who went to Kentucky about 1775. Col. Todd was a delegate from Kentucky county to the Virginia Legisla- ture in 1780, and commanded at the battle of the Blue Licks, August 19, 1782, in which he was killed. His only child was the wife of Robert Wickliffe, Sr., of Kentucky.
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clock-work, so that there seems to be scarce a whole tree left in the woods. Doubtless whoso lives to hear of the end of this storm thence will account of many men and cattle lost and killed ; and this day was 8 years, was the Day that 8 corps killed by the Indians, was bury'd at Mr. Bordin's, where I am now storm-stead or weather bound, being 22 years since I was cast away, but through God's Great Mercy preserved on the windy Saturday in harvest, being the 24th of August, 1728. Blessed be Almighty God who has saved me hitherto from many Emi- nent Dangers. O Lord, Grant it may be taken as special warnings to me and others."
The following order of the County Court of Augusta was entered February 19, 1751 : "Catherine Cole being presented by the grand jury for having a bastard child and refusing to pay her fine or give security for the same according to law, it is ordered that she receive on her bare back at the public whipping post of this county twenty lashes well laid on, in lieu of said fine, and it is said to the sheriff that execution thereof be done immediately." Another woman was ordered at the same time to be punished in like manner for the same offence.
On May 30, 1751, John David Wilpert, (the only man with three names, locally recorded to said date), petitioned the court, setting forth that he had been "at considerable expense in coming from the north- ward and settling in these parts," and had rented three lots in the new erected town of Staunton, through which runs a good and conve- nient stream of water, and praying leave to build a grist and fulling mill. The petition was resisted by John Lewis, who had a mill within a mile of town, and the case was taken by appeal to the General Court. How it was ultimately decided we are not advised, but the petition no doubt indicates the origin of "Fackler's mill," which stood on the creek south of Beverley street and between Water and Lewis streets. Wilpert was afterwards prominent in the Indian wars, and received from the government six hundred acres of bounty land. He went to Kentticky and gave his name to a creek in that state, which has been changed, however, into Wolfert's creek.
In the year 1751, Governor Dinwiddie appointed James Patton, Joshua Fry, and Lunsford Lomax, commissioners, to meet the Indians at Logstown, and conclude a treaty with them. Logstown was an im- portant Indian town on the west bank of the Ohio river, 18 miles be- low Pittsburg, and consisted of sixty or seventy cabins, inhabited by a number of confederated tribes, including Shawnees. Under date of December 13. 1751, the Governor instructed Patton to proceed imme- diately to Fredericksburg, "and there receive from Mr. Strother the goods sent as a present by His Majesty to the Indians, and provide
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everything necessary for the gentlemen appointed commissioners on behalf of this government, to meet and treat with the Indians, and to order all to be laid down at Mr. George Parish's near Frederick Town." The treaty was concluded June 13, 1752, but was observed for a short time only. [Dinwiddie Papers, Vol. I, page 9 ]
Several acts were passed by the Assembly of Virginia, in the year 1752, "for encouraging persons to settle on the waters of the Missis- sippi river, in the county of Augusta."
The vestry of the parish held no meeting during the year 1749. At their meeting of May 21, 1750, it was ordered that £64, 17s. Id. be paid to Colonel John Lewis, the balance due to him on the glebe buildings.
On the 16th of October, 1752, Governor Dinwiddie wrote to the vestry, introducing the Rev. John Jones "as a worthy and learned divine," and recommending him to them as their pastor, "not doubt- ing but his conduct will be such as will entitle him to your favour by promoting peace and cultivating morality in the parish." Mr. Jones was accordingly inducted, November 15th, with a salary of £50 a year. The glebe buildings not being finished, Colonel Lewis, the con- tractor, agreed to allow Mr. Jones {20 a year in the meanwhile. A "Reader to this parish, to be chosen by Mr. Jones," was allowed pay at the rate of {6, 5s. a year. A cellar under the minister's house was ordered to be dug. Many poor children, male and female, were bound out by the church-wardens from time to time.
Of the Rev. John Jones we can obtain no information whatever, except from the records of the vestry. Bishop Meade, in his volumi- nous work called "Old Churches and Old Families in Virginia," gives sketches of many ministers, relating with perfect candor the bad as well as the good, but he could find little to say about Mr. Jones. Although the latter lived here and hield a prominent position for more than twenty years, no anecdote or tradition in regard to him has come down to us. He was probably a bachelor, and a man of mature age when he settled at Staunton. We should judge that he was a kindly, good man, generally respected, though, possibly, from physical infir- mity, not very energetic. There is no record of the date of his death, and at the close of the old vestry book he disappears from view as mysteriously as he came, leaving no representative, successor, nor es- tate behind him.
Up to the year 1760, and indeed for long afterwards, there was no meeting-house for religious worship in the county, except those of the Presbyterian denomination. The Church of England, established by law, had a rector and vestry, as we have seen, but the building of a
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church was not begun till 1760, and the rector officiated in the court- house and such dwellings as he had access to. The first meeting- houses of Tinkling Spring and Angusta were probably built after the year 1740. At what date the present "Augusta stone church" was built is not known. It was some time between 1740 and 1755, and according to tradition, men, women and children labored at the erec- tion, transporting sand from Middle river on horseback, and timber and stone in like manner. The current belief is, that the building was completed in 1749. The original log meeting-house stood in the old burying ground.
In the year 1746, the Rev. John Blair,* a New Side minister from the north, visited the county and organized four Presbyterian congre- gations, -Forks of James, Timber Ridge, New Providence, and North Mountain. The first named afterwards became Hall's meeting-house, then New Monmouth, and finally Lexington. North Mountain meet- ing-house was a little to the right of the road leading from Staunton to Middlebrook, about nine miles from the former, and on land now [1886] owned by Charles T. Palmer. No trace of the former use of the spot remains at this day, except the old burying ground, "where the forefathers of the hamlet sleep." There repose many Moffetts, Tates, Trimbles and others. North Mountain congregation never had a separate pastor, but depended during most of its existence on "sup- plies," and the labors of neighboring ministers. The Rev Charles Cummings was pastor at Brown's meeting-house [Hebron] from 1767 till 1773 ; and the Rev. Archibald Scott, a native of Scotland, was pastor of Brown's meeting-house and North Mountain congregations from 1778 to about 1798. After the organization of Bethel congrega- tion, through the influence of Colonel Doak, North Mountain was abandoned, the worshippers dividing between Bethel and Hebron.
Mr. Blair also visited the Big Calf Pasture in 1746. This beanti- ful Valley was occupied by emigrants, and the congregation of Rocky Spring was organized, in a short time after the first settlement of the county.
The vestry of the parish met August 21, 1753, and ordered the church-wardens "to pale in a church yard one hundred feet square," and also "to pale and clear out a garden of half an acre at the glebe."
* The Rev. John Blair, a native of Ireland, while living in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, made two visits to Virginia, the last in 1746. He officiated for a time as Vice-President of Prineeton College, and died in Orange county, New York, in 1771. He was the father of the Rev. John D. Blair, the first Pres- byterian minister in Richmond, Virginia. Another son, William Lawrence became a lawyer and settled in Kentucky.
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At the meeting on November 28th, Robert Campbell, of whom the glebe land was purchased, acknowledged payment of £60 in full. Colonel John Lewis acknowledged payment to him of £148, the "full sumn agreed on for building the glebe work according to bargain;" and renewed his obligation to pay Mr. Jones {20 a year till the build- ings should be finished, Mr. Jones consenting thereto.
In the fall of 1753, a party of Moravians, consisting of twelve men, came through Staunton, on their way from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to found a new settlement at a place called by them Bethabara, but now known as Old Tavern, in Forsythe county, North Carolina. Their archives state that they "traveled by Winchester and Augusta Court-house, now Staunton, Va., a small town of twenty houses, in the mountains." They came in a wagon drawn by six horses, with articles necessary for their comfort, and not infrequently had to unload in part and transport their goods in parcels over the hills.
The Colonial Assembly passed an act at their session which began in November, 1753, reciting that part of the county and parish of Augusta was within the bounds of the Northern Neck belonging to Lord Fairfax, and setting off this portion of Augusta and a part of Frederick to form the county of Hampshire.
The "returns" of the early sheriffs give us an idea of the state of the country and the times in which those officers lived. In the year 1751, the sheriff, on an execution issued in the cause of Johnson vs. Brown, made return : "Not executed by reason, there is no road to the place where he lives." Other executions were returned as follows: "Not executed by reason of an axx ;" "Not executed by reason of a gun." In Emlen vs. Miller, 1753: "Kept from Miller with a club, and Miller not found by Humphrey Marshal." In Bell vs. Warwick, 1754: "Executed on the within John Warwick, and he is not the man." In August, 1755, forty-nine executions were returned : "Not executed by reason of the disturbance of the Indians."
In1 1756, Deputy Sheriff Sampson Mathews assumed the functions of a chancellor. Having an execution in his hands in the case of Ramsay vs. Burton, he made return substantially that the judgment ought not to have been rendered, as the debt had been paid. Another execution, however, was put into his hands, and on that he made the following return : "Not executed by stress of water, and deft. swore if I did get across to him he would shoot me if I touched any of his estate ; also he is gone out of the country."
With the view of ascertaining something about the family life and domestic economy of the people up to the time to which these annals have arrived, we have examined the inventories and appraisements of
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the personal estates of deceased persons, from 1745 to 1752. These inventories include every article of personal property, from horses and cattle to old clothes and glass bottles. The values are stated in pounds, shillings and pence, but we give them here in dollars and cents, estimating one pound Virginia currency as $3.331/3.
The first inventory on record, after the County Court was opened, in 1745, is that of Joseph Martin. Amongst other property he owned a mare, saddle and bridle, appraised at $12.50 ; "bed and bedclothing and crosscut saw," wortli $10.83; and two pocketknives and a glass bottle, put at 25 cents.
For many years after the first settlement there were apparently no feather beds ; but pillows, bolsters and bedticking were appraised, the last-mentioned no doubt filled with straw or chaff.
The next decedent was Abraham Strickler, whose estate was ap- praised April 19, 1746. He was a rich man for the time and country, the total valuation being $722.00. He left 20 cows and calves, ap- praised at $3.331/3 each ; 7 cattle three years old, worth $3.80 each ; 11 hogs, $1.1623 each ; 2 stills and implements, $110; 60 gallons of liquor, 42 cents per gallon ; 4 cart wheels with tire, $13.3373 ; wash tub, 50 cents ; 25 deer skins, $11.50 ; 66 pounds of old brass, $5.50 ; best bed and furniture, $6.6623 ; rifle and smoothbore gun and moulds, $11.6633 ; "all Abraham's wearing clothes," $6.662/3.
The inventory embraces plows, hoes, axes, hay-forks, scythes, sickles, augurs, turner's tools, and implements of rope-making. As far as appears, the deceased owned no tables, chairs, table-knives and forks, spoons, or glass or chinaware.
The mention of " cart-wheels with tires" is the first intimation of a wheel vehicle in the settlement. This decedent and another are the only persons who left stills. No loom is mentioned in any inventory of this period, although coarse cloth was no doubt woven at an early day. But the looms were probably regarded as fixtures, and not a part of the personal property. Many persons had wool-cards and spinning-wheels. There were no pictures, musical instruments or cups and saucers during this period. Nearly everybody owned horses, cattle and Bibles. In 1746, four horses were appraised at $33. 3373, an av- erage of $8.331/3 ; and in the same year "a great Bible " was appraised at $2.91.
John Dobchin owned 12 sheep, valued at 83 cents each. Robert Crockett owned 2 work oxen, worth $18.337/3, and a chest of drawers, worth $8.331/3, but no table or chair.
George Hays, a housekeeper, who died in 1747, had 12 spoons, the lot valued at 25 cents. The spoons were pewter, of course. Many
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persons had spoon-moulds, and kept pewter on hand for making spoons and plates.
Abraham Drake left an unusual quantity of wearing apparel. He had 2 coats, 5 vests, 3 pairs of breeches, 2 pairs of drawers, a hat, and 12 shirts.
Joseph Watson, who died in 1747, had dishes and spoons, worth 50 cents; and knives and forks, worth 58 cents. These are the first knives and forks we find inventoried.
Samuel Cunningham had half a dozen knives and forks, 5 pairs of scissors, 7 clasp-knives, 19 spoons, and 4 pewter dishes.
Next we have the inventory of the wearing apparel of two spins- ters, Frances and Jannet Hutcheson, who died in 1748. Their ward- robe consisted of 8 petticoats, 6 gowns, 2 jackets, 2 short cloaks, 4 old fine shifts, 14 old coarse shifts, 2 silk handkerchiefs, 3 hoods, shoes and stockings, and "old clothes and trumpery," valued at 162/3 cents. They also had 5 coarse sheets, 5 blankets, a rug, bolster and bedtick, basin, porringers and woodenware.
Robert Wilson, the owner of many cattle and some farming imple- ments, left a pair of boots and a pair of shoes, valued at 6623 cents each pair. His bedclothes were appraised at $10.
At last we find a man, Ludovick Freedly, who owned a wagon, which was valued at $5. This was in 1749, seventeen years after the first settlement of the county.
Patrick Cook was a high-liver for the time. He left, in 1749, a stool, 7 chairs, a wig, 2 tablecloths, a table (the first), 3 beds and bed- steads, a lookingglass (the first), worth 162/3 cents, wooden trenchers and dishes, and one knife and 2 forks, worth 813 cents.
The first slave owner appears in 1749. James Coburn owned a negro man, appraised at $66.6623; and a negro woman worth $110. He also had pewter dishes, plates and spoons, an "iron-shod wagon," worth $23.3373, and bed, bedding and bedstead, worth $4.1623. He was a rich man, however, his personal estate amounting to $1122.
Matthew Skeen owned a feather bed and bed clothes, worth $5.50; and Mark Evans, besides 3 sheep, owned 31 books.
Martin Kauffman was of a literary turn, but probably kept books for sale. His library consisted of 4 bibles, 2 testaments, 8 hymn and psalm books, 10 small books called "Golden Apples," and sundry other small books. He had also a "house clock," valued at $16.662/3, 10 stacks of bees, a wagon, much live stock, tools and implements, but very little household furniture. His personal estate was appraised at $777.90.
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The Rev. John Hindman, the first rector of Augusta Parish, died in 1749, leaving the following property : 9 horses, a book of Common Prayer, 15 volumes of sermons, 2 minister's gowns, 5 wigs, 2 shirts and a wallet, valued at 50 cents.
Johu Moffett, whose estate was appraised in 1749, had many horses, 2 beds and bed-clothing, worth $5, 6 knives and forks, and a Bible and 2 small books, worth $3.
Peter Kinder had 2 chairs.
Samuel Scott owned 4 slaves, valued at $283.3373; spoons, noggins, trenchers, &c., $1.6623 ; 2 pairs of breeches, $1.6633-no table or chair.
James Shields, who died in 1750, had, among other property, a knife and fork, valued at 21 cents.
Matthew Shaupe owned a wagon, 21 sheep, 9 bee hives, etc.
Michael Rinehart, among other things, left "a peair of old schlip- pers," worth 813 cents.
After 1751, wagons were quite numerous. One man who died during that year had a nursery of apple trees, valued, however, at only $2.6623.
Col. James Patton, the nabob of the settlement, was killed in 1755, but his personal estate was not appraised till 1758. In the list we find the first mention of silver spoons, but only 3. The other articles, in addition to many bonds, are 12 chairs, 2 tables, a looking glass, 3 cups and saucers, the best bed and furniture, ($16.6623), and 4 holland shirts.
During, at least the first year of the settlement, the people must have subsisted on fresh meat, without bread or salt; and for some years thereafter, their dwellings were not much better equipped with furniture than the Indian wigwams of the period.
From the absence of any report to the contrary, it is inferred that the early settlers enjoyed good health. There was 110 malaria in tlie region, and the people were not swept off by pestilence as were the settlers on the sea coast. Nor did the people suffer from want of food, such as it was. While the colonists in lower Virginia wasted their time in idleness, or in futile search for gold, the sturdy people of the Valley set to work at once to cultivate the soil, and soon had "bread enough and to spare." John Lewis had a mill near Staunton in 1751, but when it was built we do not know. Until it began to grind coru, the people must have relied for food chiefly on the Indian dish, hominy.
The first settlers brought, or rather came on, horses, and probably a few cows were driven along. Dogs, of course, followed their mas-
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ters. When hogs and sheep were brought from Pennsylvania, across the Potomac and up the Valley, we have no means of ascertaining. There is also no record of the birth of the first white child in the set- tlement around the site of Staunton. There were many infants, how- ever, before the year 1740.
NOTE .- Alexander Breckinridge lived not quite five years after he came to the Valley, but the inventory of his personal property, made June 5, 1744, and recorded at Orange C. H., shows that his house was better equipped than the dwellings of most of the early settlers. Besides some wooden and pewter vessels, he had one pot, a candlestick, a pair of tongs and a fire shovel, eight knives, six forks, (worth 50 cents), one oval table and one square table, a looking-glass and oue tumbler. No spoons of any kind.
GABRIEL JONES, THE KING'S ATTORNEY.
Gabriel Jones was the son of John and Elizabeth Jones, of the county of Montgomery, North Wales. At what date this couple came to America is not known. They settled at Williamsburg, Virginia, and on the 13th of August, 1721, their first child, a daughter, named Elizabeth, was born in William and Mary College. Nearly three years later, on May 17, 1724, Gabriel was born, about three miles from Wil- liamsburg. Another son, named John, was born at the same place, June 12, 1725.
John Jones, the father, appears to have died before the year 1727. Mrs. Jones and her children were in England at the beginning of that year, and on February 20th her daughter was baptized at St. Giles-in- the-Fields, London, as shown by the parish record.
In April, 1732, Gabriel was admitted as a scholar of the "Blue Coat School," Christ's Hospital, London, on the presentation of Mr. Thomas Sandford. There he remained seven years. Under date of April 12, 1739, the following entry appears on the records of the school :
Gabriel Jones is this day taken and discharged from the charges of this Hospital forever, by Elizabeth Jones, his mother, and by Mr. John Houghton, of Lyon's Inn, in the county of Middlesex, Solicitor in the High Court of Chancery, with whom he is to serve six years."
This brings his history up to 1745, in which year his mother died. Having served out his term of apprenticeship, the young lawyer, then twenty-one years of age, was no doubt "admitted to the bar." The family were of "gentle blood," but in reduced circumstances. One of Mr. Jones' descendants preserves some old coin, on the paper wrapping of which is written in his own hand : "This is the patrimony I received from my mother. From my father I received nothing." As early as 1750 he used the same crest and coat-of-arms as Sir William Jones, indicating a relationship with that celebrated man.
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Gabriel Jones found means to return to America soon after lie attained his majority and was "free of his indentures." He located first in Frederick county, and on March 1, 1747, bought a tract of land near Kernstown, where he lived for a time. He resided in Frederick in April, 1746, when he was appointed prosecuting attorney for Au- gusta, and was then only twenty-two years old.
On the 16th of October, 1749, Mr. Jones married Margaret Morton, widow of George Morton, and daughter of William Strother, of King George county. Mrs. Jones was born in 1726, and died in 1822, in her ninety-seventh year. She is described as a lady of eminent Christian character.
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