USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers > Part 3
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" Some persons of this class were well educated, and were employed as teachers. The maternal grandfather of the Rev. Dr. Baxter pur- chased a young Irishman, who called himself McNamara, and the father of the Rev. Dr. Alexander purchased another named Reardon, and to these, respectively, were Drs. Baxter and Alexander indebted for their early instruction in Latin, &c.
& Grandfather of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Mr. Caldwell, however, never lived in the Valley, but in Charlotte county.
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favor in behalf of our interest in that place."-[Extract from records of Synod, quoted by Foote, First Series, page 103.]
Mr. Anderson was the bearer of the following letter :
"To the Honourable William Gooch, Esquire, Lieutenant- Governor of the Province of Virginia, the humble address of the Presbyterian ministers convened in Synod May 30th, 1738. May it please your Honour, we take leave to address you in behalf of a considerable number of our brethren who are medi - tating a settlement in the remote parts of your government, and are of the same persuasion as the Church of Scotland. We thought it our duty to acquaint your Honour with this design, and to ask your favour in allowing them the liberty of their consciences, and of worshipping God in a way agreeable to the principles of their education. Your Honour is sensible that those of our profession in Europe have been remarkable for their inviolable attachment to the house of Hanover, and have upon all occasions manifested an unspotted fidelity to our gra- cious Sovereign, King George, and we doubt not but these, our brethren, will carry the same loyal principles to the most distant settlements, where their lot may be cast, which will ever influence them to the most dutiful submission to the government which is placed over them. This, we trust, will recommend them to your Honour's countenance and protection, and merit the free enjoy. ment of their civil and religious liberties. We pray for the divine blessing upon your person and government, and beg to subscribe ourselves your Honour's most humble and obedient servants."
To this document the Governor replied, in a letter to the Moderator of the Synod, as follows :
"Sir,-By the hands of Mr. Anderson I received an ad- dress signed by you in the name of your brethren of the Synod of Philadelphia. And as I have always inclined to favour the people who have lately removed from other prov- inces to settle on the western side of our great mountains, so you may be assured that no interruption shall be given to any minister of your profession, who shall come among them, so as they conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the Act of Toleration in England, by taking the oaths enjoined thereby, and registering the place of their meeting, and behave them- selves peaceably towards the government. This you may
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please to communicate to the Synod as an answer to theirs. Your most humble servant, William Gooch."
The loyalty of the Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley to the house of Hanover is not over-stated by the Synod in their address to the Governor. Indeed, that spirit was char- acteristic of their race. Froude remarks, in substance, that of all the people of Ireland, the Presbyterians of Ulster had most cause to complain of the severities of the British gov- ernment, for while uniformly loyal they received no favors in return.
The Governor, in his reply, alludes to the " toleration" of Dissenters provided by law. This was on certain con- ditions. Their places of worship, or meeting-houses, were required to be licensed and registered in the county courts. In eastern Virginia the number of such places in a county was limited, but in the Valley there appears to have been no restriction of the kind. All ministers of the gospel were obliged to take divers and sundry oaths, and especially to abjure the " Pretender" to the throne of Great Britain, the Pope of Rome, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. The people were not liable to fine for not attending the parish churches, but they were compelled to contribute to the support of the established religion, and their ministers were not allowed to celebrate the rite of marriage. Until the year 1781 any couple desiring to be legally married had to send for or go to some minister of the Established Church, however far off he might live.
Governor Gooch is regarded as being averse to persecuting measures, yet he is supposed to have encouraged the settle- ment of the Valley. chiefly from a desire to remove the frontier of civilization further from Williamsburg, and to place a hardy and enterprising race of people between the capital and the savage Indians.
Up to the time to which we have now arrived, the whole region west of the Blue Ridge constituted a part of the county of Orange. In the year 1738, however, on November I, the General Assembly of the colony of Virginia passed an act establishing the counties of Frederick and Augusta. The new counties were so named in honor of Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II, and father of George III, and his wife, the Princess Augusta. The act separated all the territory west
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of the Blue Ridge, and extending in other directions "to the utmost limits of Virginia," from Orange county, and erected it into the two counties named. The line between them was "from the head spring of Hedgman's river to the head spring of the river Potomack." Augusta was much the larger of the two counties. It embraced, northward, the present county of Rock- ingham and a part of Page; to the south, it extended to the border of Virginia; and to the west and northwest, it extended over the whole territory claimed by Great Britian in those quar- ters. It included nearly all of West Virginia, the States of Ken- tucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and, as contended by Virginians, a part of western Pennsylvania.
The act provided that the two new counties should remain part of the county of Orange and parish of Saint Mark until it should be made to appear to the Governor and council that there was "a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing jus- tices of the peace and other officers, and erecting courts therein." In the meanwhile, the inhabitants were exempted from "the pay- ment of all public, county and parish levies in the county of Orange and parish of Saint Mark"; but no allowance should be made "to any person for killing wolves within the limits of the . said new counties." The act further provided for the payment of all levies and officers' fees "in money or tobacco at three farthings per pound," and also for the election, by freeholders and housekeepers, of twelve persons in each county, to constitute the vestries of the respective parishes as required by the laws relating to the Established Church. As we shall see, the county of Augusta was not fully organized and started on its independ- ent career till the year 1745.
The Presbyterians of Augusta continued their "supplications" to the Presbytery of Donegal for a pastor to reside amongst them. In 1739, they first applied for the services of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, who came and preached for a time. Next they pre- sented a call to the Rev. John Craig. At a meeting of Presby- tery, in September, 1740, "Robert Doak and Daniel Dennison, from Virginia, declared in the name of the congregation of Shenandoah, their adherence to the call formerly presented to Mr. Craig; " and on the next day Mr. Craig " was set apart for the work of the Gospel ministry in the south part of Beverley's Manor."
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
The Rev. John Craig was born in 1709, in County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at Edinburgh; landed at New Castle upon the Delaware, August 17, 1734; and licensed by the Pres- bytery to preach in 1737. As stated, he came to Augusta in 1740. "I was sent," he recorded, "to a new settlement in Vir- ginia of our own people, near three hundred miles distant."
At his death, in 1774, Mr. Craig left a manuscript giving some account of himself and the times in which he lived. Referring to his settlement in Augusta, he says: "The place was a new settlement, without a place of worship, or any church order, a wilderness in the proper sense, and a few Christian settlers in it with numbers of the heathens travelling among us, but generally civil, though some persons were murdered by them about that time. They march about in small companies from fifteen to twenty, sometimes more or less. They must be supplied at any house they call at, with victuals, or they become their own stew- ards and cooks, and spare nothing they choose to eat and drink."
It is interesting to learn how the Dissenters of the Valley managed their congregational affairs; and here is a copy of the obligation subscribed by the people of Tinkling Spring : " Know all men by these presents, yt us, ye undernamed subscribers, do nominate, appoint and constitute our trusty and well-beloved friends, James Patton, John Finley, George Hutchison, John Christian, and Alexander Breckenridge, to manage our public affairs; to choose and purchase a piece of ground and to build our meeting-house upon it; to collect our minister's salary, and to pay off all charges relating to said affair; to lay off the people in proportion to this end; to place seats in our said meeting-house, which we do hereby promise to reimburse them, they always giving us a month's warning by an advertisement on the meeting-house door, a majority of the above five persons, provided all be apprised of their meeting, their acting shall stand ; and these persons above- named shall be accountable to the minister and session twice every year for all their proceeds relating to the whole affair. To which we subscribe our names in the presence of Rev. Mr. John Craig, August 11th, 1741."
One of the subscribers having failed to pay his subscription, or assessment, was sued in the County Court, and the commis-
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sioners obtained a verdict and judgment against him for six pounds.
When James Patton located in the county he took up his abode on South River above Waynesborough, at or near the present Porcelain Works, and called the place Springhill. Bever- ley's patent embraced the land occupied by Patton, and the latter had no deed till February 21, 1749, when Beverley con- veyed to him the tract, 1,398 acres, more or less, for the nomi- nal consideration of five shillings [83} cents].
Outside the large land grants to Beverley, Borden and others, patents were issued from time to time for small tracts to various persons. One of the earliest of this class, which we have seen, is dated September 1, 1740, and is signed in the name of King George II by James Blair, acting Governor. It granted to James Anderson 270 acres "lying in that part of Orange county called Augusta, on a branch of Cathry's river, called Ander- son's branch," &c., in consideration of the importation of five persons to dwell within this our Colony and Dominion of Virginia, whose names are: John Anderson, Jane Anderson, Esther Anderson, Mary Anderson, and Margaret Anderson," and the further consideration of five shillings-provided the "fee rent" of one shilling for every fifty acres be paid an- nually, and three acres in fifty be cultivated and improved within three years. The tract is probably the same now owned by Thomas S. Hogshead, near Stribling Springs. But no stream in that neighborhood is known at this day as Anderson's branch.
The inhabitants of the new county discovered before long that living without payment of taxes was not desirable. Poor people could not be provided for ; roads could not be cleared, nor bridges built ; and, especially, the wolves were multiplying beyond all endurance. They, therefore, made "humble suit" to the assembly, and in accordance with their wishes, in May, 1742, an act was passed "for laying a tax on the inhabitants of Augusta county." The act provided that the County Court of Orange should divide the county of Augusta into precincts, and appoint persons to take lists of tithables therein, and that each tithable should pay two shillings (33} cents) yearly to James Patton, John Christian and John Buchanan, to be laid out by them in hiring persons to kill wolves, etc., etc., in such
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manner as should be directed by the court-martial to be held annually in the county.
What the people had to sell, and where they sold their products, are questions we cannot answer. Probably pel- tries and such live-stock as they could raise and send to market were their only means of obtaining money.
The state of the country and of society in the settlement, from its origin till the year 1745, was quite singular. The dwell- ings of the people were generally constructed of logs, and the furniture was simple and scanty. There were no roads wor- thy of the name, and probably no wheeled vehicles of any kind ; horseback was the only means of transportation. There was no minister of religion till Mr. Craig arrived, except tran- sient visitors on two or three occasions; no marriage feasts, nor funeral rites, and very few sermons on the Sabbath to call the people together. There were no courts and court days, except at Orange Courthouse, beyond the mountain. From allowances by the vestry for professional services to the poor, subsequent to 1747, we learn the names of several physicians who lived in the county at an early day. Drs. Foyles and Flood are mentioned in 1753, but we have no other information in regard to them. No lawyer was known in this bailiwick till 1745, when we find Gabriel Jones, the "king's attorney," residing on his estate near Port Republic. But the sturdy Scotch-Irish people pressed into the country, and by the year 1745 the Alexanders, Allens, Andersons, Bells, Bowyers, Breck- enridges, Browns, Buchanans, Campbells, Christians, Craigs, Cunninghams, Dickinsons, Doaks, Finleys, Johnstons, Kerrs, Lewises, Lyles, Matthewses, Millers, Moores, McNutts, Mof- fetts, McPheeterses, McClanahans, McClungs, McDowells, Pat- tons, Pickenses, Pattersons, Pilsons, Poages, Prestons, Robin- sons, Scotts, Sitlingtons, Stuarts, Tates, Thompsons, Trimbles, Wilsons, Youngs, and others abounded in the settlement. Other immigrants of the same races came in afterwards.
It has been thought that the German inscription on an ancient tomb-stone in an abandoned grave-yard near Conrad's store (now Elkton), in Rockingham county, proved that a settlement of German people existed in that part of the Valley at least as early as 1724.
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
The supposition was, that some of the Germans of Germanna fol- lowed on the track of Governor Spotswood, crossed the Blue Ridge at Swift Run Gap, and settled on the Shenandoah river at Elkton soon after the Governor's expedition of 1716. An account of Virginia, by the Rev. Hugh Jones, published about 1724, says : "Beyond Col. Spotswood's furnace, above the Falls of Rappahannock River, within view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from some Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now moved up further." Colonel Byrd, in his " Progress to the Mines," in 1732, refers to these Germans as " now removed ten miles higher, in the forks of Rappahannock, to land of their own." The first colony of Ger- mans came in 1714, and consisted of twelve families. In 1717 twenty additional Protestant German families arrived and settled near their countrymen. The names of some of these people were Spillman, Hoffman, Kemper, Fishback, Wayman, Marten, Hitt, Holtzclaw and Weaver. Finding Governor Spotswood a hard task-master, a portion of the people went off in 1718, and founded Germantown, in Fauquier. Others, previous to 1724, it would seem, moved up to the present county of Madison. There is no historical account, however, of the settlement of any of these colonists in the Valley.
The inscription on the old tombstone plainly exhibits the year 1724; but the question was, whether that was the date of death or of birth. The work was done by an illiterate stonecutter, or one who did not understand the German language. Some of the words are mis- spelled, others are compounded of several words, and others still are divided into several parts, so that the inscription is unintelligible to most scholars. But Professor Schele De Vere, of the University of Virginia, has kindly deciphered the hieroglyphics, and furnished translations in German and English. The German, he says, was intended to be-
Den ers : Novom : ist der Jacob B I geboren, aber der Gerechte ob er gleich zur Zeit auch stirbt, ist er doch in der Ruhe, dem seine Seele gefallt Gott da.
A literal English translation is as follows:
"The first November is the Jacob B I born, but the righteous although he at the time also dies, is (he) still in (the) rest, for his soul pleases God there."
The figures 1724 are at the top of the inscription, and appear to indicate the year of birth. Nothing, therefore, is proved by the in- scription in regard to the date of settlement in the Valley. It is strange that the name of the deceased is not given in full, but it is supposed to be Jacob Bear.
Another proof, however, is said to exist of a settlement in the Valley earlier than 1732. Adam Miller resided at and owned the place now known as Bear's Lithia Spring, near Elkton, and the cer- tificate of his naturalization, issued under the hand of Governor
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Gooch, March 13, 1741, set forth that he was a native of Scherstien, in Germany, and had lived on the "Shenandoa" for fifteen years next before the date of the paper. Mr. Charles W. S. Turner, of Elkton, informs us that he has seen the paper, and if there be no mistake as to date, etc., Miller must have settled in the Valley as early as 1726. He and his associates may have been Germans from Germanna, but being few in number, and out of the track of the tide of immigration which afterwards poured in, they remained unknown, or unnoticed, by the English-speaking people.
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CHAPTER II.
FROM THE FIRST COURT TO THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
At length the time for the organization of the county had arrived. On October 30, 1745, Governor Gooch issued "a Commission of the Peace," naming the first magistrates for the county, viz: James Patton, John Lewis, John Buchanan, George Robinson, Peter Scholl, James Bell, Robert Campbell, John Brown, Robert Poage, John Pickens, Thomas Lewis, Hugh Thompson, Robert Cunningham, John Tinla (Finley ?), Richard Woods, John Christian, Robert Craven, James Kerr, Adam Dickinson, Andrew Pickens, and John Anderson-in all, twenty- one.
At the same time, the Governor issued a commission to James Patton as sheriff of the county. John Madison was ap- pointed clerk of the county court by "commission under the hand and seal of Thomas Nelson, Esq., Secretary of Virginia," and Thomas Lewis was commissioned surveyor of the county by "William Dawson, president, and the masters of the college of William and Mary."
In anticipation of the organization, William Beverley, the patentee, had erected a courthouse, no doubt a rough struc- ture, on his land, and at the southwest corner of the present courthouse lot. On the day the commissions to the county officers were issued at Williamsburg, Beverley wrote from the same place to the justices of Augusta, informing them that he had erected the house referred to at his "mill place," and would before spring make a deed for the "house and two acres of land about the same to the use of the county to build their prison, stocks, etc., on." It will be observed that nothing
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
was said about Staunton as the county-seat. There were doubtless some dwellings and other houses here, but the spot was then only known as Beverley's " Mill Place."
The justices appointed by the Governor assembled at the courthouse on December 9, 1745, and took the prescribed oaths of office. Next, the commission of the sheriff was read, and he was duly qualified. Thereupon, "court was pro claimed," the following justices being on the bench : John Lewis, John Brown, Thomas Lewis, Robert Cunningham, Peter Scholl, John Pickens, Hugh Thompson, James Kerr, and Adam Dickinson.
Thus was started the County Court of Augusta, which con- tinued without material change till the year 1852, when justices of the peace became elective by the popular vote. Previously, during a period of one hundred and seven years, the justices assembled in court nominated new members from time to time, as the exigencies of the county required; and the executive of the colony, and afterwards of the State, con- firmed the nominations by issuing the necessary .commissions.
The justices received no pay, except that after a time the system was introduced of conferring the office of high sheriff of the county, for a term of two years, upon the justices in rotation, according to seniority of commission; the sheriffs " farming out" the office to deputies who discharged all its duties. Upon the expiration of the term of office, the high sheriffs reverted to the position of justice of the peace, and awaited their turn for the lucrative office, which, however, very few obtained a second time.
The first business in order after the justices took their seats on the bench and the court was proclaimed, was to receive and ap- prove the official bond of the sheriff. The clerk was also quali- fied; and William Russell, James Porteus, Gabriel Jones, John Quin, and Thomas Chew qualified to practice as attorneys-at- law.
On the next day, December 10, the commissions of Thomas Lewis, surveyor, and his deputy, James Trimble, were produced in court, and those officers were sworn in. The sheriff on the same day, "moved the court to be informed how he was to se- cure his prisoners, there being no prison." The provident Col. Beverley had not thought of that. The court, however, ordered
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ANNALS OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
the sheriff to summon a guard, and " to provide shackles, bolts, handcuffs, etc." A committee was also appointed to "build a prison and erect stocks." Great importance was evidently at- tached in those days to "stocks." It was thought quite impos- sible for a well-ordered community to get along without them.
After a short session on the 10th, the court adjourned till the next court in turn. In pursuance of the Act of 1738, the court then met on the second Monday in each month.
The business of the county court, as indicated by the order books, was heavy and diversified. The first session of court was held, as stated, in December, 1745, and by the February term following there was a large docket of causes for trial. Single justices had jurisdiction of causes involving less than twenty-five shillings. In all other causes at law and in equity, civil and criminal, (not involving loss of life or member), the court had jurisdiction, there being, however, a right of appeal to the general court, which was then composed of the Governor and his council. Attendance at the county court every month became burdensome to the people, and in October, 1748, an act of assembly was passed, establishing quarterly courts for the trial of causes. Four or more justices were required to consti- tute a court.
We may mention that the first clerk of the county court, John Madison, was the father of the Rev. Dr. James Madison, for some time bishop of the Episcopal church in Virginia. John Madison, the clerk, Gabriel Jones, the lawyer, and Thomas Lewis, the surveyor, whose wives were sisters (Misses Strother, from Stafford county), lived in the same neighborhood, near Port Republic.
Among the first justices of the peace we find John and An- drew Pickens. One of these was the father of the distinguished General Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina. General Henry Lee states in his "Memoirs of the War" (page 594), that Gen- eral Pickens was born in Paxton township, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1739. His parents were from Ireland. When he was a child his father removed to Augusta county, Vir- ginia, and in 1752 to the Waxhaw settlement, in South Caro- lina. He was actively engaged in the Indian wars and the Revolution. He was conspicuous for his valor at the Cowpens, Haw River, Augusta (Georgia) and Eutaw; and Lee declares
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that he contributed in an equal degree with Sumpter and Marion to the liberation of the Southern States. After the war he served in the Legislature of South Carolina and the United States Congress. "This great and good military chieftain," as General Lee styles him, died August 11, 1817, at his seat in Pendleton District, South Carolina, which had been the scene of one of his earliest Indian battles. "He was," says Lee, "a sincere believer in the Christian religion, and a devout observer of the Presbyterian form of worship."
The first will presented in the County Court of Augusta was that of Robert Wilson. It was executed November 3, 1745, and was proved and admitted to record February 11, 1746, not 1745, as the record is made to say by a blundering copyist.
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