USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers > Part 5
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Governor Dinwiddie, a native of Scotland, trained to business in a West India custom-house, and recommended for promotion by his detection and exposure of some gigantic frauds prac- ticed by his official superiors there, arrived in Virginia early in 1752, and immediately gave offence by declaring the king's dissent to various acts which his predecessor had approved. The Assembly remonstrated against this exercise of the royal prerogative, but in vain.
The biographers of the celebrated Daniel Boone state that he came from Pennsylvania on an excursion to Augusta, about 1748-'9, with his cousin, Henry Miller. The latter returned to the county, and built on Mossy Creek the first iron furnace in the Valley.
From the proceedings of the vestry, August 22, 1748, it appears that John Lewis had contracted to erect the public buildings of the parish for 4,148, and it was ordered that he be paid £74 on " raising the said buildings, and the remainder on their completion." From a bond executed by Colonel Lewis, with Robert McClanahan as security, at the date just mentioned, but not recorded till November 28, 1753, it ap- pears that one of the buildings was a dwelling house for the parish minister. According to tradition, this was the old frame house which lately stood on the southwest corner of Augusta street and Irish Alley.
We continue the extracts from the records of the court:
May 19, 1749 .- "Ordered that James Montgomery and
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Richard Burton, or any one of them, wait on the court of Lunenburg, and acquaint them that the inhabitants of Augusta have cleared a road to the said county line, and desire that they will clear a road from the courthouse of Lunenburg to meet the road already cleared by the inhabitants of Augusta."
Lunenburg and Augusta were therefore adjoining counties at that time.12 It will be observed that here, as well as elsewhere, nothing is said about grading the road -- it was only "cleared." Till many years afterward nothing else was attempted, and it was not till the present century that our road surveyors could be persuaded that the distance was as short round a hill as over it.
November 28, 1749 .- " A commission to Robert McClanahan, gent., to be sheriff of this county during his majesty's pleasure, was produced in court," etc. Adam Breckenridge qualified as deputy sheriff.
Robert McClanahan was a native of Ireland, and came to Augusta at an early day. A brother of his, Blair McClanahan, was a merchant in Philadelphia, a prominent politician and member of Congress after the Revolution. The wife of Ro- bert McClanahan was Sarah Breckenridge, and his children were four sons and two daughters. Three of the sons, Alex- ander, Robert and John, were prominent in the Indian wars, and Alexander was a lieutenant-colonel during the Revolution. One of his daughters married Alexander St. Clair, who came from Belfast, Ireland, and was long a prosperous merchant at Staunton, and an active member of the County Court. Mr. St. Clair also represented Augusta in the State Senate in the years 1791-'3.18
12 In 1752 Halifax county was formed from the southern part of Lu- nenburg, adjacent to Augusta; and in 1753 Bedford was formed from the northern part, so that after 1753, for several years, Augusta was bounded on the east by the counties of Orange, Albemarle, Bedford and Halifax. New London, at first the county seat of Lunenburg, and afterwards of Bedford, is now in Campbell county.
18 Robert McClanahan, after living at various places in Staunton, re- moved to his farm, a mile south of town, now (1886) owned by Mrs. Gay and her children. This farm was conveyed to McClanahan, in 1748, by Robert Beverley, and was left by the former at his death, in
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The grand juries of the county were apparently determined to enforce the observance of the Sabbath day. In 1749, An- drew McNabb was presented for a breach of the Sabbath-in what way is not stated ; in 1750, Jacob Coger was presented "for a breach of the peace by driving hogs over the Blue Ridge on the Sabbath;" and in 1751, James Frame was presented "for a breach of the Sabbath in unnecessarily traveling ten miles."
At laying the county levy in 1750, allowance was made for two hundred and fifty-six wolf heads-the entire head had to be produced. In 1751 allowance was made for two hundred and twenty-four heads. In 1754 William Preston obtained an allowance for one hundred and three heads. They were hardly all trophies of his own skill, but most, if not all of them, were probably purchased by him. Indeed, wolf heads constituted a kind of currency.
The court and grand juries were extremely loyal. In 1749, Jacob Castle was arrested "for threatening to goe over to and be aiding and assisting of the French ag'st his Majesty's forces." In 1751, Owen Crawford was presented "for drinking a health. to King James, and refusing to drink a health to King George." The accused made his escape, and the presentment was dismissed.
Constables were appointed at various times on the Roanoke and New rivers.
The first classical school west of the Blue Ridge was opened in 1749, by Robert Alexander, two miles southwest of the present village of Greenville. The teacher was educated at Trinity Col- lege, Dublin. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1736, and to the Valley in 1743. How long Mr. Alexander conducted the school we do not know. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Brown, and the school was removed first to Old Providence, then to New Providence, and shortly before the Revolutionary war to Mount Pleasant, near Fairfield. It was latterly under the care of Han- over Presbytery.
1791, to his executors, Alexander McClanahan and Alexander St. Clair, to do with it as they pleased. The terms imply a secret trust. At any rate, the executors conveyed the farm to Robert McClanahan, the third of the name, and grandson of the first. In 1808, the last named Robert sold the farm to John McDowell, who built the present handsome brick dwelling on the hill, having lived in the meanwhile, as the first Robert McClanahan had, in a small house near the Greenville road.
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The next extract from the records of the court is of peculiar interest. Under date of August 29, 1751, we find the following : "Ordered that the sheriff employ a workman to make a duck- ing stool for the use of the county according to law, and bring in his charge at laying the next county levy."
An act of assembly, passed in 1705, in accordance with the old English law, prescribed ducking as the punishment for women convicted as "common scolds." The ducking stool was no doubt made as ordered, but we have searched in vain for an in- stance of its use "according to law." The failure to use it was certainly not because there were no scolding women in the county at that time; for soon after the machine was constructed, or ordered, one Anne Brown went into court and "abused William Wilson, gentleman, one of the justices for this county, by calling him a rogue, and that on his coming off the bench she would give it to him with the devil." Mrs. Brown was taken into cus- tody, but not ducked, as far as we can ascertain. Nor was the failure to use the stool due to timidity or tender heartedness on the part of members of the court. They lashed women as well as men at the public whipping-post, and were brave enough to take Lawyer Jones in hand on one occasion for "swearing an oath." After thorough investigation and mature reflection, we have come to the conclusion that the making of the ducking stool was an " Irish blunder " on the part of our revered ances- tors. Having provided a jail, stocks, whipping-post, shackles, etc .- all the means and appliances necessary in a well-ordered community-they ordered a ducking stool without reflecting that there was no water deep enough for its use within reach of the court-house.
Let us now refer again to the Rev. John Craig and his narra- tive. The territory occupied by his congregation was "about thirty miles in length and nearly twenty in breadth." The people agreed to have two meeting-houses, expecting to have two congregations, as afterwards came to pass. The people of the Augusta, or stone church neighborhood, amongst whom Mr. Craig lived, "were fewer in numbers, and much lower as to their worldly circumstances, but a good-natured, prudent, governable people, and liberally bestowed a part of what God gave them for religious and pious uses ; always unanimous among themselves." "I had no trouble with them," says Mr.
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Craig, "about their meeting house. * * * They readily fixed on the place, and agreed on the plan for building it, and contributed cheerfully, money and labor to accomplish the work, all in the voluntary way, what every man pleased." But the people of the other section were, according to Mr. Craig's way of thinking, a stiff-necked and perverse generation. He says : "That part now called Tinkling Spring was most in num- bers, and richer than the other, and forward, and had the public management of the affairs of the whole settlement ; their leaders close-handed about providing necessary things for pious and religious uses, and could not agree for several years upon a plan or manner, where or how to build their meeting-house, which gave me very great trouble to hold them together, their disputes ran so high. A difference happened between Colonel John Lewis and Colonel James Patton, both living in that con- gregation, which was hurtful to the settlement but especially to me. I could neither bring them to friendship with each other, or obtain both their friendships at once, ever after. This con- tinued for thirteen or fourteen years, till Colonel Patton was murdered by the Indians. At that time he was friendly with me. After his death, Colonel Lewis was friendly with me till he died."
The feud between Colonel Lewis and Colonel Patton must have begun in 1741 or 1742. What it was all about, we do not know, but it probably related, in part, to the location of Tinkling Spring church. Mr. Craig himself was not a neutral nor lamb-like in that strife. He, and doubtless Colonel Lewis also, wanted the church built north of the site finally selected; while Colonel Patton and most of the people insisted upon Tinkling Spring as the place. Mr. Craig at last appealed to James Pilson, an aged man, to settle the controversy, and when the latter cast his vote for Tinkling Spring, the irate pastor is said to have exclaimed : "Are you too against me, Jimmy ! Well, I am resolved that none of that water shall ever tinkle down my throat." And he kept his word.
It is said that Mr. Craig generally walked the five miles from his residence to the stone church. His morning service con- tinued from 10 o'clock till after 12. The afternoon service lasted from 1 o'clock till sunset, and it was sometimes so late that the clerk found it difficult to read the last psalm. His only printed sermon is from 2 Samuel, xxiii, 5, and being on the
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old-fashioned, " exhaustive method," contains fifty-five divisions and sub-divisions. He was once sent by Hanover Presbytery to organize churches among the settlements on New River and Holston, and on his return reported a surprising number of elders whom he had ordained. Being questioned how. he found suitable materials for so many, he replied in his rich idiom : "Where I cudna get hewn stanes, I tuk dornacks." He was regarded as very orthodox, but somewhat lax as to church discipline .- [Davidson's History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, page 24.]
Withers, in "Border Warfare" [page 48], gives the following account of the discovery and first occupancy of the Greenbrier country :
About the year 1749 there was in Frederick county a man subject to lunacy, who was in the habit of rambling into the wilderness. In one of his wanderings he came to some of the waters of Greenbrier river. Surprised to see them flowing west- wardly, he made report of it on his return to Winchester, and also the fact that the country abounded in game. Thereupon, two men, named Sewel and Martin, recently arrived from New England, visited the Greenbrier country, and took up their abode there. They erected a cabin and made other improve- ments, but an altercation arising Sewel went off a short dis- tance and lived for some time in a hollow tree. Thus they were found in 1751-Martin in the cabin and Sewel in the tree- by John Lewis and his son, Andrew, who were exploring the country. They were, however, by that time on friendly terms. Sewel soon afterwards moved forty miles west, and fell a prey to the Indians, and Martin returned to the settlement.
After this brief excursion beyond the frontier, let us return to the county seat. We have several times alluded to the twenty-five acres of land conveyed by Beverley to the county, April 24, 1746. In 1750, the County Court employed Andrew Lewis as surveyor, to lay off the tract in town lots, extending several existing streets, and opening new ones. The first street opened by Lewis, east of and parallel with Augusta, was called New street. The four main squares, constituting the heart of Staunton, were fixed by this survey, each square containing two acres, and being divided into four lots of half an acre each. Three lots, of forty-eight poles each, were laid off between
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Courthouse street and the creek. The court retained for the use of the county only two of the lots-the half acre on which the courthouse stood, designated on the plat as No. 2, and the lot of forty-eight poles, immediately opposite, across Court- house street where the county jail now stands, designated as No. I. The courthouse was at the southwest corner of the lot on which it stood, and the jail on the southeast corner of the same lot.
The court appointed Andrew Lewis, Robert McClanahan and Robert Breckenridge, commissioners, to convey the lots to purchasers. Thomas Paxton purchased three lots for £8, ($26.662/3, ) viz : the half acre at southwest corner of Beverley and New streets, the corresponding lot diagonally opposite, and the lot of forty-eight poles, southeast corner of New and Court- house streets. Alexander McNutt purchased for £3 the lot of forty-eight poles adjoining and east of the present jail lot, where the Bell Tavern afterwards stood. The half acre lot, southeast corner of Augusta and Frederick streets, was pur- chased by Joseph Kennedy for £3. Robert McClanahan pur- chased two half acre lots-northwest corner of Beverley and New Streets, (where the Wayne Tavern afterwards stood, ) and the northwest corner of Courthouse and New streets-for £2, IOS.
In giving possession of these lots, the old English custom of "livery of seizin" was practiced, the commissioners and pur- chasers going on the premises, and the former delivering to the latter a handful of earth in token of the delivery of the whole.
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 indication 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 impassable. 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 in- formation in regard to the matter, except several hints in the pro- ceedings of the court. The following order was entered Novem- ber 28, 1750 : "On the motion of Peter Scholl, gent., it's ordered that the sheriff demand of Joseph Powell a saddle supposed to belong to Ute Perkins and his followers, and that John Harrison
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deliver the several goods in his possession (supposed to belong to the said Perkins or some of his followers) 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 command 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 Rockingham.
On the 29th of November, 1750, the Rev. John Todd. a Dis- senting 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 him- self, according 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 dismal experience, and gives ex- pression 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 excessive great rain, &c., frost freezing on the trees and branches, as also 2 nights, and the snow beginning before day this morn- ing, so overloaded the trees and branches, that their falling is as constant as 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 Eminent 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
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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 immedi- . ately." 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 such date,) petitioned the court, setting forth that he had been "at considerable expense in coming from the northward and settling in these parts," and had rented three lots in the new erected town of Staunton, through which runs a good and convenient 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 Kentucky 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, on the Ohio river, sixteen miles below Pittsburg, and conclude a treaty with them. Under date of December 13, 1751, the Governor instructed Patton to pro- ceed immediately to Fredericksburg, "and there receive from Mr. Strother the goods sent as a present by His Majesty to the Indians, and provide 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 Mississippi river, in the county of Augusta."
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The vestry of the parish held no meeting during the year 1749. At their meeting on 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 pas- tor, "not doubting 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, Novem- ber 15th, with a salary of £50 a year. The glebe buildings not being finished, Colonel Lewis, the contractor, 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 what- ever, except from the records of the vestry. Bishop Meade, in his voluminous work called "Old Churches and Old Fami- lies 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 held 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 infirmity, 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 represen- tative, successor, nor estate 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 church was not begun till 1760, and the rector officiated in the courthouse and such dwell- ings as he had access to. The first meeting-houses of Tinkling Spring and Augusta were probably built before the year 1740.
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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 erection, transporting sand from Middle river on horseback, and timber and stone in like manner. The current belief is, that the building was completed in 1748. The original log meeting- house stood in the old burying ground.
In the year 1746, the Rev. John Blair,14 a New Side minister from the north, visited the county and organized four Presbyte- rian congregations-Forks of James, Timber Ridge, New Provi. dence, and North Mountain. The first named afterwards became Hall's meeting-house, then New Monmouth, and finally Lexington. North Mountain meeting-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 con- gregation never had a separate pastor, but depended during most of its existence on "supplies," and the labors of neigh- boring 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 con- gregation, through the influence of Colonel Doak, North Moun- tain was abandoned, the worshippers dividing between Bethel and Hebron.
Mr. Blair also visited the Big Calf Pasture in 1746. This beautiful Valley was occupied by emigrants, and the congrega- tion of Rocky Spring was organized, in a short time after the first settlement of the county.
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