USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers > Part 19
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The village of Greenville was doubtless so called by some of the Augusta soldiers who had served under General Nathaniel Greene in the South.
ARCHIBALD STUART, a native of Ireland, having been engaged in some disturbance in his native country, fled to America, leaving his family behind. After living in Pennsylvania for some time, he was relieved by a general amnesty, and sending for his family came with them to Augusta in 1738. His wife was Janet Brown, a sister of the Rev. John Brown, of New Providence. He died in 1759. His sons were Benja- min, Thomas and Alexander. The last named-the Major Stuart of the Revolution-was born in Pennsylvania, in 1735. He lived first on South river, about nine miles from Staunton, but spent the latter years of his life in Rockbridge. He was the father of Judge Archibald Stuart, of Staunton, and Judge Alexander Stuart, of Missouri, the grand-father of General J. E B. Stuart.
Rev. SAMUEL DOAK, D. D., was born in Augusta county, in August, 1749. He graduated at Princeton in 1775, and was licensed as a preacher by Hanover Presbytery, October 31, 1777. His wife was Hester Mont- gomery, sister of the Rev. John Montgomery. After preaching for some time in Washington county, Virginia, he removed to East Tennessee, then a part of North Carolina, where, with other settlers, he had now and then to take arms against the Indians. He founded Washington College, Tennessee, and was distinguished as a preacher and teacher. His death occurred December 12, 1830.
The Rev. JOHN POAGE CAMPBELL was born in Augusta, 1767, and when about fourteen years of age removed with his father to Kentucky. He subsequently studied with the Rev. Archibald Scott, in his native
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county, and graduated at Hampden Sidney College in 1790. Having been licensed to preach in 1792, he was for a time associated with the Rev. William Graham as pastor of Lexington and other congregations. In 1795 he removed to Kentucky, and on the 4th of November, 1814, died near Chilicothe, Ohio. Dr. Dwight, of Yale College, pronounced Mr. Campbell "a remarkably accomplished scholar and divine."
Rev. GIDEON BLACKBURN, D. D., was (according to Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit ) born in Augusta county, August 27, 1772. His father removing to East Tennessee, the son was placed under the in- struction of the Rev. Dr. Doak. He was licensed as a preacher by Ab- ingdon Presbytery in 1792 or 1795 (it is uncertain which). With his Bible, hymn-book, knapsack and rifle, he plunged into the wilderness of Tennessee, and made his first preaching station at a fort built for the protection of the frontier. He soon attracted attention as an unusually eloquent preacher. He also engaged in teaching at various places. From 1827 to 1830 he was president of Centre College, Kentucky. In 1833 he removed to Illinois, and established a theological seminary at Carlinsville, which bore his name. He died at Carlinsville August 23, 1838. He was a nephew of General Samuel Blackburn.
The Rev. Dr. GEORGE A. BAXTER, D. D., was born in 1771, in Rocking- ham, then Augusta. His parents were natives of Ireland, and, on coming to the Valley, settled near Mossy creek. He was educated at Liberty Hall, of which he became rector in 1798. Afterwards, for many years, he was president of Washington College and pastor of Lexington and New Monmouth congregations. During the last ten years of his life he was a professor in Union Theological Seminary, Prince Edward county. He was an able and eloquent preacher, but never appeared as an author. His wife was a daughter of Colonel William Fleming, of Botetourt. Dr. Baxter's death occurred April 24, 1841. His son, Sidney S. Baxter, was long Attorney-General of Virginia previous to 1850.
Until Rockbridge county was established, North river was the boun- dary between Augusta and Botetourt. In April, 1772, a child was born seven miles east of the site of Lexington, but on the north side of the stream mentioned, and therefore in Augusta, who became highly distinguished and widely known-ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. He was a son of William Alexander, who was a son of Archibald (or Ersbel, as he was called,) a captain in the Sandy Creek expedition, and first high sheriff of Rockbridge. In his personal recollections, Dr. Alex- ander mentions as an instance of the privations of the Revolutionary war, that his school teacher found it difficult to procure a knife to make and mend the quill pens of his pupils. The teacher to whom he was indebted for his first acquaintance with Latin, was a young Irishman named John Reardon, an "indentured servant," or convict banished to America for crime, and purchased for a term of years,
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in Philadelphia, by his pupil's father. Reardon enlisted as a soldier in Captain Wallace's company, and was desperately wounded in a battle in North Carolina; but survived, and returned to school-teach- ing on Timber Ridge. Young Alexander was further educated at Liberty Hall, under the Rev. William Graham. When not yet twenty years of age, he was licensed as a preacher by Lexington Presbytery, October 1, 1791, at Winchester. He states that among the hearers of his first sermon after he was licensed, was General Daniel Morgan. Returning to Lexington late in 1791, he stopped in Staunton. "The town," he says, "contained no place of worship but an Episcopal church, which was without a minister. It was proposed that I should preach in the little Episcopal church; to which I consented with some trepidation; but when I entered the house in the evening it was crowded, and all the gentry of the town were out, including Judge Archibald Stuart," [not then Judge,] "who had known me from a child." In course of time Dr. Alexander became President of Hamp- den Sidney College. From that position he was transferred to Phila- delphia, as pastor of a church in that city; and after a few years was appointed a professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1851. He was a voluminous author. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. James Waddell.
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CHAPTER VIII.
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION TO THE YEAR 18CO.
Before the Revolutionary war many German people found their way to the new world, and several of our Valley counties were largely settled by them. They were, for the most part, Luthe- rans and Tunkers, or German Baptists, and have transmitted their religious faith, with their steady habits, to their posterity. They brought their German Bibles with them, and for several generations the language of the fatherland was used by them in their households. Indeed, many of the older people never learned to read or speak English. Before the close of the Revo- lution a considerable part of the best lands in Augusta county was occupied by people of this race.
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Peter and George Hanger, the ancestors of the numerous family of that name, settled in Augusta in 1750, it is said, having been born in Germany, but coming here from Pennsylvania. The former lived at Spring Farm, near Staunton, and died there in 1801. In 1780 he was appointed a justice of the peace, but declined to qualify. One of his sons, of the same name, lived at the place on the Winchester road, since called Willow Spout, but formerly widely known as "Hanger's," during the days of Bockett's stages, Knoxville teams and militia musters.
The most numerous family in the county, and possibly in the country, is that known as Koiner, Coiner, and Coyner. Michael Koiner came to America, from Germany, between 1740 and 1745, and settled in Pennsylvania. He had ten sons and three daugh- ters.' Two of his sons-George Adam and Casper-came to Augusta county, and in 1787 were followed by their father, who
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proceeded to purchase farms. His other sons-Martin, Philip, Frederick and George Michael -- also came to Augusta, and set- tled and died here. The three eldest sons were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. The ancestor died in 1796, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, near South river .- [ Peyton's History of Augusta County.]
Before the Revolutionary war arose, the descendants of the early Scotch Irish settlers of Augusta began to scatter abroad. Some of the Lewises, Breckenridges and McClanahans went to Botetourt county. Andrew Lewis and Robert McClanahan, Jr., were living in Botetourt before the battle of Point Pleasant. Thomas Lewis," living near Port Republic, became a citizen of Rockingham after that county was organized. William Lewis" removed to the Sweet Springs about the year 1790. Some of the family located in Bath county. Soon after the Revolution, several of the Breckenridges went to Kentucky, and from one of them descended the distinguished men of that name. Imme. diately after the war, in 1783, the Rev. Dr. Waddell, of Tinkling Spring, who came to Augusta from Lancaster county in 1776, removed to the neighborhood of Gordonsville, where he died in 1803. He sold the Springhill place, for which he had paid £1,000, in two parcels-one of 840 acres to Mr. James Powell Cocke for {1,050 ; and the remainder, or the greater part of it, called " Round Meadow," to Samuel Hunter for £1,200. To show the gradual enhancement in the price of land, we mention further that Mr. Cocke sold his 840 acres, Springhill proper, in 1793, to John Swisher, of Rockingham, for £1,600; and Swisher's heirs sold it in 1812 to John Coalter for £4,110. Thus the prices of the tract were in dollars, in 1783-'5, $3,500; in 1793, $5,333.337/3 ; and in 1812, $13,7co.
Just before he removed from the county, Dr. Waddell was invited to preach one-half his time to the Presbyterians in Staun- ton, and it is curious to observe that the call on behalf of the
" Thomas Lewis died in 1790. His sons were Andrew, Thomas, Charles and William B.
" William Lewis died in 1812. His sons were John, a captain at Point Pleasant and an officer during the Revolution; Thomas, an officer in Wayne's army; and William I, who was a member of Congress from the Campbell District in 1815-'17 .- [ Peyton's History.]
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town people was signed by Alexander St. Clair and William Bowyer, the last church-wardens of Augusta parish, of whom we have any account.
An anecdote in relation to Dr. Waddell, which has come down to us, gives some idea of the state of the times. During his residence here coffee was very little used in the county, but hav- ing been accustomed to it in lower Virginia, he continued to use it after he came to the Valley. Some of his flock were scanda- lized at his indulgence in such a luxury, and felt called upon to administer a rebuke. They, however, to strengthen their cause, made out of the matter a case of flagrant Sabbath-breaking. Therefore the minister was charged with the offence of having hot coffee on Sunday morning as well as other days! He met the accusation calmly, and asked, "What do you have for breakfast?" They replied, "Mush and milk." "But," he asked further, "is the mush hot or cold?" "Hot, of course," they replied. "Well," said he, "You have cold mush on Sun . day, and I will have cold coffee."
Dr. Waddell was succeeded at Tinkling Spring by the Rev. John McCue, who, while living in the county, preached more or less statedly in Staunton for some years. There was, however, no regular Presbyterian church organization in Staunton till 1804. The early Presbyterian settlers were generally engaged in farming and grazing, and sought rural shades in which to worship, turning away, apparently, from towns and villages. Hence, throughout the Valley, their country churches antedate those in the towns.
Colonel Robert Porterfield, a native of Pennsylvania, but living in Jefferson or Berkeley county when the Revolutionary war arose, settled here, on South river, near Waynesborough, at the close of the war. He attained the rank of captain in the Conti- nental army, and was afterward made colonel and general of Virginia militia. Revolutionary soldiers, not exempt by age or physical infirmity from military duty, were enrolled in the militia at the close of the war. General Porterfield was a member of Captain Thomas Turk's company, and by a court-martial held November 25, 1787, was fined for failing to muster.
Archibald Stuart, a native of Augusta, but reared in Rock- bridge county, located in Staunton, in 1785, to practice law. While a very young man he was elected by the people of Bote-
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tourt to represent them in the State Legislature, residence of delegates in the county not being required at that time.
Jacob Peck, long an enterprising citizen, was living here in 1780, having come from Pennsylvania.
The first meeting of Free Masons in Staunton was "under dispensation," March 31, 1785. Staunton Lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, at Richmond, October 28, 1786, " the charter names" being Alexander Long, William Cham- bers, and John Paris.
Jacob Swoope and John Boys came to Staunton from Phila- delphia, in 1789, and embarked in mercantile business. Both of them married here, but the wife of the latter dying in a short time, he returned to Philadelphia, where he died in 1798. Mr. Swoope remained in Staunton, and acquired wealth and promi- nence.
Some time between 1785 and 1790, several persons came to Staunton from different places, all of whom were prominent and influential in their day, and some of whom reared large families. We refer to John Wayt (the senior of that name), Joseph Cowan, Andrew Barry, Peter Heiskell, Michael Garber, Law- rence Tremper, and a school teacher named Clarke. Mr. Wayt came from Orange county. He was a merchant, a magistrate, and high sheriff, several times a member of the Legislature, and long active in all affairs concerning church and state. He died in 1831, leaving no child. Mr. Cowan and Mr. Barry were na- tives of Ireland, and leading merchants; Mr. Garber came from Pennsylvania, and Mr. Heiskell from Frederick county. Law- rence Tremper was born in New York and married there. Dur- ing the war he was a lieutenant in the Continental army. He was by trade a leather-breeches maker. During the administra- tion of Washington he was appointed postmaster at Staunton, and held the office continuously till his death in 1841. He also retailed drugs, patent medicines, and candy. Mr. Clarke, the school teacher, came from Pennsylvania, like so many others. He left four sons, Samuel, John, William, and Thomas, who long resided in the county, and the first of whom, in a quiet way, filled a large space in the community for many years.
Three brothers came to Staunton from Nelson county, prob- ably about the year 1790, Chesley, Jacob, and William Kinney. The first named was clerk of several of the courts which sat
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here, and the father of five sons and a daughter. Jacob Kinney was a lawyer. His only child was a daughter, the wife of the late Erasmus Stribling, and mother of Dr. F. T. Stribling and others. William Kinney, Sr., was a bachelor, and pursued no regular business during the latter years of his life, but he was noted for genial traits which made him a welcome guest in many homes.
An act of assembly, passed November 6, 1787, added twenty- five acres of land belonging to Alexander St. Clair to the town of Staunton. This addition has always been known as New- town. Other land, belonging to Judge Stuart, in the northeast part of the town, was added in 1811.
The earliest returns of commissioners of the revenue for Augusta county, found in our local archives, are for the year 1787. Parts of Bath and Pendleton counties were then included in Augusta. The commissioners of the revenue were James Ramsey, Joseph Bell, and Charles Cameron. Alexander Mc- Clanahan was clerk of the County Court. The number of horses and mules in the county was 7,747 ; cattle, 15,692 ; ordinaries, 5, kept by John Bosang, Windle Grove, Peter Heiskell, James McGonigle, and Thomas Smith ; practicing physicians, 4, Drs. William Grove, Alexander Humphreys, Alexander Long, and Hugh Richie. It seems that lawyers were not taxed, as none were assessed. The number of gigs was two, owned by John Ermitage and Robert Richardson. There were no four-wheeled riding-carriages in the county ..
Pendleton county was formed from Augusta, Rockingham, and Hardy in 1788.
In the State Convention of 1788, which ratified the Constitu- tion of the United States, Augusta was represented by Zachariah Johnston and Archibald Stuart.
Zachariah Johnston was born in Augusta about the year 1743, near the present village of Fishersville. He is described as a man of a religious temper, of great simplicity of manners, and utterly void of hypocrisy. As we have seen, he was a member of the House of Delegates during the Revolution. He was also a member in 1785, and warmly supported the act for establishing religious freedom. While that act was pending, he is said to have delivered an effective speech in favor of it, declaring that he would leave his own church if it should become a State
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church. Near the close of the convention of 1788, he delivered quite a long speech in favor of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, which may be found in the volume of Vir- ginia Debates, page 460. We copy one paragraph. Mr. John- ston said:
" It is my lot to be among the poor people. The most that I can claim, or flatter myself with, is to be of the middle rank. I wish no more, for I am content. But I shall give my opinion unbiased and uninfluenced-without erudition or eloquence, but with firmness and candor. And in so doing I will satisfy my conscience. If this Constitution be bad, it will bear equally as hard on me as on any member of society. It will bear hard on my children, who are as dear to me as any man's children can be to him. Having their happiness at heart, the vote I shall give in its favor, can only be imputed to a conviction of its utility and propriety."
Mr. Johnston removed to Rockbridge in 1793, and died there in 1800.48
" His children were: 1. James, who was born in 1763, and had a large family, among them Thomas, Zachariah, Polly, Mrs. Turk, &c., &c. 2. Dr. John, of Roanoke county, born in 1764, whose wife was a sister of the late James Bell of Augusta. He left five sons and three daughters. 3. William, born in 1766. 4. Elizabeth, born in 1768, wife of Robert McChesney. She had seven children, among them Zachariah J., Adam, James (killed by a lunatic,) Ann, wife of Colonel Isaiah McBride; Mary, wife of Matthew White of Lexington; Eve line, wife of George Moffett; and Betsy, wife of Daniel Brown. 5. Zachariah, born in 1770, and lived near Brownsburg. His descen- dants are Blakeys, Grays and Cultons. 6. Thomas, born in 1772. He had eight children, one of whom was the mother of Dr. Z. J. Walker of Rockbridge. Others of his descendants are Lewises, Armentrouts, &c 7. Ann, born in 1774, wife of Joseph White, a merchant of Brownsburg, and brother of Robert and Matthew White. She had seven children, of whom William White of Lexington is the only sur vivor. One of her daughters married the Rev. Thomas Caldwell. 8. George, born in 1777, and drowned while young in Jackson's river. 9. Alexander, born in 1779. Had one son and two daughters. One of the latter married Thomas Wilson, and the other a Mr. McClung. 10. Margaret, born in 1781, wife of Captain Robert White of Lexing- ton. She had nine children, of whom George, Robert, Joseph and Mrs. McDowell survive. 11. Jane, born in 1783, and married James Sharpe of Tennessee.
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Until the year 1789, the County Court was the only court of record which sat in Staunton. As stated heretofore, it had an extensive jurisdiction in law and chancery. The higher law tri- bunal, called the General Court, composed of gentlemen "learned in the law," sat in Richmond.
In 1777, a High Court of Chancery was constituted, consisting of three judges-George Wythe Edmund Pendleton and John Blair ; but by a subsequent act the number of judges was re- duced to one. From that time for twenty years George Wythe was the sole chancellor in the State.
In 1789 the Legislature passed an act establishing district courts of law. The counties were arranged in districts, in each of which two judges of the General Court were required to hold terms. Augusta, Rockbridge, Rockingham and Pendleton con stituted a district, and the court sat in Staunton. Judges Mercer and Parker held the first court here. Judges Tyler, Carrington, Tucker (the elder) and others also sat here at different times.
The first clerk of the district court at Staunton was James Lyle. He was succeeded, in 1793, by John Coalter, afterwards judge; he by Micajah Coalter, and he by Chesley Kinney.
Kercheval, in his History of the Valley, states that after the French Revolution broke out, in 1789, breadstuffs of every kind suddenly became enormously high. For several years afterwards it was no uncommon thing for the farmer of the Valley to sell his crop of wheat from one to two, and sometimes two and a half dollars per bushel, and his flour from ten to fourteen dollars per barrel in our seaport towns.
In the latter part of the century the Presbyterian churches of the Valley were disturbed by dissensions in regard to psalmody. The version of the Psalms by Rouse " had been universally used, and when the smoother version by Dr. Isaac Watts was intro- duced, there was strenuous opposition to it on the part of many people. It is related that, in 1789 or 1790, the Rev. William Graham, a somewhat imprudent man, precipitated a controversy
"Sir Francis Rouse was, in 1653, speaker of the British Parliament, called the Little Parliament, which he was instrumental in dissolving, and turning over the government to Cromwell. He was also a mem- ber of Cromwell's first Parliament in 1654, and one of the new Lords created by the Protector in 1658.
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on the subject in New Providence congregation. Rouse's ver- sion had been used there as elsewhere, but Mr. Graham, while assisting the pastor at a communion service, without conferring with any one, introduced Watts's psalms and hymns. Some of the older members left the church immediately, and a schism occurred. The seceders repaired to Old Providence church, in Augusta, and reopened that place of worship, which had been abandoned for some time. Rouse continued to be used for twenty years longer at Tinkling Spring and other churches, but was gradually superseded by Watts .- [ Ruffner's History of Washington College.]
The first Lutheran church in Augusta, was built in 1780, on South river, near Waynesborough, and called Trinity. The next was Mount Tabor, near Middlebrook, built in 1785. Nine others have been built during the present century, most of them since 1840.
The Tunker (German Baptist) church was first organized in the county about the year 1790. The German Reformed church in the county also dates back to the last century, but the place and exact date of the organization cannot be ascertained.
The first Methodist Episcopal church building in the county was erected, probably in 1797, in Staunton, on the site of the present church, although Staunton circuit does not appear on the minutes of the Conference before 1806.
Bath county was formed from Augusta, Botetourt and Green- brier, in 1791, by which act Augusta was reduced to her present dimensions, about thirty-three miles long and twenty-nine miles wide. At its formation, and for more than fifty years after- wards, Bath embraced about one-half the present county of Highland.
The first County Court of Bath was held May 10, 1791, in the house of Mrs. Margaret Lewis, at the Warm Springs. The first justices were Sampson Mathews, Jr., Samuel Vance, John Wilson, Charles Cameron, John Bollar, John Dean, James Poage, William Poage, John Kinkead, George Poage, Jacob Warwick, John White. John Peebles, John Lewis, Samuel Shrewsberry, and John Oliver. John Dickinson and Alexander Crawford were ap- pointed, but declined. Charles Cameron was the first clerk, and Sampson Mathews the first sheriff. William Poage was recom- mended for appointment to the office of surveyor. The follow-
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ing persons were recommended as justices to fill vacancies : James Stephenson, George Messingbird, John Brown, James Robinson, William Crawford and Robert Sitlington. On the same day Archibald Stuart was " recommended to the attorney- general as a proper person to execute the office of deputy-attor- ney for this county." No lawyers qualified till the June term, 1791, and then John Coalter and James Reid were admitted as attorneys. At August term, 1791, the first entry is as follows : " Ordered that the court adjourn to some trees down the lane near the highway." Upon meeting under the trees, Archibald Stuart and William H. Cavendish qualified as attorneys.
The Staunton Academy, a high school for boys, was incorpo- rated by act of the Legislature, December 4, 1792. The first trustees were the Rev. John McCue, Rev. William Wilson, Rev. Archibald Scott, Gabriel Jones, Alexander St. Clair, Sampson Mathews, Sr., Archibald Stuart, Robert Gamble, William Bow- yer, Alexander Humphreys, David Stephenson, Robert Porter- field, James Powell Cocke, Alexander Nelson, John Steel, James Lyle, Robert Grattan, William Lewis, and John Tate.
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