USA > Virginia > Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. > Part 29
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I had been there before. I remember when a boy of little more than ten year: cl, to case been taken to that spot, and how my unpractised nerves forsook me at the awful sublimity of the scene. On this day it was as new av ever; as wild, wonderful, and sublime, as if I had never before baked frodi those isolated rocks, or stood on that lotty standart. On one side, towards eastern Virginia, by a com. pamtively level country, in the distance, bearing a strong reserublance to the ocean ; on the other hand,
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were ranges of high mountains, interspersed with cultivated spots, and then terminating in piles of mountains, following in successive ranges, until they were lost also in the haze. Above and below, the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies ran off in long lines; sometimes relieved by kaolls and peaks, and in one place above us making a graceful curve, and then again running off in a different line of direction. Very near us stood the rounded top of the other peak, looking like a sullen sentinel for its neighbor. We paused in silence for a time. We were there almost cut off from the world below, standing where it was fearful even to look down. It was more hazy than at the time of my last wish, but not too much so to destroy the in- terest of the scene.
There was almost a sense of pain, at the stillness which seemed to reign. We could hear the Rapping of the wings of the hawks and buzzards, as they seemed to be gathering a new impetus after sailing through one of their circles in the air below us. North of us, and on the other side of the Valley af Virginia, were the mountains bear Lexington, just as seen from that hemutual village-the Jump, North, and House Mountains succeeding each other ; they were familiar with a de deand assertions of only childhood, seeming mysteriously, when away from the spot to bring my early home before me-not in imagination, such as had offen haunted nie when I first let it to find another je the world. bat hrenb- stantial reality. Further on down the valley, and at a great distance, was the top of a large mantain, which was thought to be the great North Mountain. away can in Shopdeal eraty-I am atend to say how far off. Intermediate between these mountains, and extending opposite and far above as, was the Valley of Virginia, with its numer us and highly cul waterd farms Across Pus valley, and in the distance, lay the remotest ranges of the Alleghany and the mountains about ; and I suppose beyond the White Sulphur Springs. Never us, and separating eastern and western Virginia, was the Blue Ridge, more than ever showing the propriety of its cognomen of the "backbone ;" and on which we conld distinctly sce two zigzag turnpikes, the one leading to Fincastle, and the other to Buchanan; and over which latter we had travelled a few days before. With the spyglass we could distinguish the houses in the village of Fincastie, some twenty-five or thirty iniles off, and the road leading to the town.
Turning towards the direction of our morning's ride, we had beneath us Redford county, with its smaller mountains, farias and faria-houses-the beautiful village of Liberty, the county roads, and occa- sionally a mill-pond, reflecting the sun like a sheet of polished silver. The houses on the hill at Lynch- burg, twenty-five or thirty iniles distant, are distinctly visible on a clear day, and also Willis' Mountain away down in Buckingham county.
I had often visited Bedford, and had been more or less familiar with it from childhood ; but at our elevation, disidades wird es aminated, un ap ManGONO changed, that IS Held Acuvedly vec Chio the most familiar objects. After some difficulty, we at length made out the residence of Dr. M. we had that moruing left, and at that moment rendered more than usually interesting, by containing, in addidon to the other very dear relatives, two certain ladies, who sustained a very interesting connexion with the doctor and myself. and one of whom had scarcely laid aside the blushes of her bridal hour.
A little beyond this, I recognised the former residence of a beloved sister, now living in a distant southern state. It was the same steep hill ascending to the gate, the same grove around the house, as when she lived there, and the same as when I played there in iny boyhood. And it was the first time I had seen it since the change of owners. I then saw it from the Peaks of Otter: but it touched a thou- sand tender cords; and I almost wept when I thought, that those I once there loved were far-away, and that the scenes of my youthful days could not return.
Myself and companions had, some time before, gotten on different rocks, that we might not interrupt each other in our contemplations. I could not retiain, however, from saying to one of them, " What little things we are ! how tactitions our ideas of what is expensive in territory and distance !" A splendid estate was about the size I could stop over; and I could stand and look at the very house where i used often to start in days gone by, and follow with my eye my day's journey to the spot where, wearing and worn down. I dismounted with the setting sun. Yet I could look over what seemed so great a space, with a single glance. I could also look away down the Valley of Virginia, and trace the country, and, in imagination, the stage-coach. as it slowly wound its way, day and night for successive days, to reach the termination of what I could throw my eye over in a moment. I was impressively reminded of the extrethe littleness with which these things of earth would all appear, when the tie of life which binds tts here is broken, and we shall be able to look back and down upon them from another world. The scene and place are well calculated to excite such thoughts.
It is said that John Randolph once spent the night on these elevated rocks, attended by no one but his servant; and that, when in the morning he had witnessed the sun rising over the majestic scene, he turned to his servant, having no other to whom he could express his thoughts, and charged him, "never from that time to believe any one who told him there was no God."
I confess, also, that my mind was most forcibly carried to the judgment-day ; and I could but call the attention of my companions to what would, probably, then be the sublime terror of the seere we now beheld, when the mountains we saw and stood upon. should all be melted down like wax; when tho flames should be driving over the immense expanse before us ; when the heavens over us should be " passing away with a great noise ;" and when the air beneath and around us should be filled with the very inhabitants now dwelling and busied in that world beneath us.
BERKELEY.
BERKELEY was formed in 1772, from Frederick. Its mean length is 222 miles ; mean breadth, 13 miles. The surface is much broken and mountainous. Back and Opequan creeks run through the county and empty into the Potomac. Some of the land bordering these streams and the Potomac River, is very fertile. Anthracite coal is found in the western section of this county. Population : 1830, 10,528; 1840, whites 8,700, slaves 1,919, free colored 293 ; total
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10.972. Darksville and Gerardstown contain each from 30 to 40 dwellings. Martinsburg, the county-seat, lies on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 169 miles www. of Richmond, 77 from Washington, and 20 from Harper's Ferry.
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Central View in Martinsburg.
It is compactly built, and contains 2 newspaper printing offices ; 7 stores ; a market; 1 Presbyterian, I Lutheran, 1 Episcopal, 1 German Reformed, 1 Methodist, and I Catholic church ; and a population of about 1700. This town was laid out by Adam Stephen, Esq., and established by law in 1778, when the following gentlemen were appointed trustees: James M.Alister, Joseph Mitchell. Anthony Noble, James Strode, Robert Carter Willis, William Patterson, and Philip Pendleton. It derived its name from the late Col. T. B. Martin. The Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road passes through the village.
The public building, in the centre of the view, is the court-house, which was built a year after the formation of the county, in the reign of George III. The jail at this place is rarely tenanted, and but one individual has been sent to the penitentiary within the last 12 years. Traces of the road cut by Braddock's army on their unfortunate expedition to the west, are discernible near the town. In St. Clair's defeat, about 80 citizens of the county were killed. In the vicinity of Leetown, (in the adjoining county of Jefferson.) there lived within a fow miles of each other, after the war of the revolution, three general officers of the American army-Alexan der Stephens, Horatio Gates, and Charles Lee. The will of the latter is now in the clerk's office, in this county. The accompany- ing extract from it, is in keeping with its eccentric author :
"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian er Anabap- tist meeting-house, for since I have resided in this country, i have kept so much bad company while living, that i do not choose to continue it when dead."
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BERKELEY COUNTY.
General Lee's unbounded ambition led him to envy the great fame of Washington, and it was supposed his aim was to supersede him in the supreme command. lie wrote a pamphlet, filled with sourrilous imputations upon the military talents of the com- mander-in-chief. In consequence, he was challenged by Col. Laurens, one of Wash. ington's aids, and was wounded in the duel which ensued. Degraded in the opinions of the wire and rattous, he retired to this section of country, where, secluded from so- ciety, he lived in a rude hovel, without windows or plastering, or even a decent article of furniture, and with but few or no companions but his books and dogs. In 1780, Congress resolved that they had no further occasion for his services in the army. In the autumn of 1782, wearied with his forlorn situation and broken in spirits, he went to Philadelphia, where, in his lodgings in an obscure public-house he soon died, a martyr to chagrin and disappointment. In his dying moments, he was, in imagination, on- the field of battle: the last words he was heard to utter were, "Stand by me, my brace grenadiers !"
Gen. Gates, of whom the prediction of Gen. Lee was verified, " that his northern laurels would be covered with southern willow," was, after the disastrous battle of Camden, suspended from mili- tary command until 1782, when the great scenes of the war were over. Gates was one of the infamous cabal who designed to sup- plant Washington : but he lived to do justice to the character of that great man.
After the war, Gates lived aboat seven years on his plantation in Virginia, the re- mainder of his life he passed near New York city. In 1800, he was elected to the legislature of that state by the anti-federal party. He died in 1806, aged 78 years. "A few years before his death, he generously gave freedom to his slaves, making provision for the old and infirm, while several testified their attachment to him by remaining in his family. In the characteristic virtue of a planter's hospitality, Gates had no com- petitor, and his reputation may well be supposed to put this virtue to a hard test. He. had a handsome person, and was gentlemanly in his manners, remarkably courteous to all, and carrying good humor sometimes beyond the nice limit of dignity." Both Lee and Gates were natives of England, and all three, Lee, Gates, and Stephens, had com- mand of Virginia troops.
Many of the early settlers of the county were Scotch-Irish, who were Presbyterians. " It is said that the spot where Tuscarora meeting-house now stands, is the first place where the gospel was publicly preached and divine service performed, west of the Blue Ridge. This was, and still remains, a Presbyterian edifice. Mr. Semple, in bis history of the Virginia Baptists, states that in the year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this denomination, with several others, removed from New England. 'They halted first at Opequon, in Berkeley county, Va., where he formed a Baptist church, under the care of the Rev. John Gerard.' This was probably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue Ridge."
There is an interesting anecdote, related by Kercheval, in his account of Indian in- cursions and massacres in this region, of a young and beautiful girl, named Isabella Stockton, who Was taken prisener in the attack on Neally's jort, and carried and sold to a Canadian in Canada. A young Frenchinan, named Plata, becoming enamored with her, made proposals of matrimony. This she declined, unless her parents' con- seat could be obtained -- a strong proof of ber filial affection and good sense. The Frenchman conducted her home, readily believing that his generous devotion and at- tachment to the daughter would win their consent But the prejud'ces then existing against the French, made her parents and friends peremptorily reject his overtures. Isa- bella then agreed to clope with Him, and mounting two of her father's horses, they fled,
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but were overtaken by her two brothers in pursuit, by whom she was forcibly torn from her lover and protector and carried back to her parents, while the poor Frenchman wis warned that his life should be the forfeit of any farther attempts.
The Hon. FELIX GRUNDY was born on the lith of Sept., 1777, in a log house on Sleepy Creek, in this county. His father was a native of England. When Felix was but two years of age, his family removed to what is now Brownsville, Penn., and in 1780 to Kentucky, where he lived from childhood to maturity, and in 1807 or 1808, re- moved to Tennessee.
Mr. Grundy was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the western states. When in the councils of the nation, he had but few superiors. He was always a zealous and most efficient supporter of the democratic party. " His manners were amiable, his conversation instructive, abounding in humor and occasionally sarcastic. Hlis cheerful disposition gained him friends among his political opponents, and rendered him the delight of the domestic circle. His moral- were drawn from the pare fouetin of Christianity, and, while severe with hanself, he was charitable to others. Integrity and justice controlled his transactions with his fellow-men."
" COL. CRAWFORD emigrated from Berkeley county in 1768, with his family, to Pen- sylvania. He was a captain in Forbes' expedition, in 1758. He was the intimate friend of Washington, who was frequently an innate of his humble dwelling, during his visits to the then west, for the purpose of locating lands and attending to public busi- nes3. Cal. Crawford was one of the bravest men on the frontier, aud often took the lead in parties against the Indians across the Ohio. His records and papers were never preserved, and very little else than a few brief anecdotes remain to perpetuate his fame. At the commencement of the Revolution, he raised a regiment by his own exertions, and held the commission of colonel in the continental army. In 1782, he accepted, with great relectance, the command of an expedition to ravage the Wyandott and Mo- ravian Indian towns on the Muskingum. On this espedition, at the age of 50, he was taken prisoner, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures."
BRAXTON.
BRAXTON was formed in 1836, from Lewis, Kanawha, and Nicho- las, and named from Carter Braxton, one of the signers of the Declaration of American Independence : it is about 45 miles long, with a mean width of 20 miles. It is watered by Elk and Little Kanawha Rivers, and their branches. The country is rough, but well watered, and fertile. Pop. 1840, whites 2,509 : slaves 61 free col'd. 2; total, 2,575.
Sutton, the county-seat, on Elk River, 289 miles w. of Rich. mond. is a small village; the only public buildings being those belonging to the county. The locality called Bolltown, where there is a post-office, was so named from the fact that ahout sixty years since, it was the residence of a small tribe of Indians, the name of whose chief was Captain Bull.
BROOKE.
BROOKE was formed from Ohio co., in 1797. It is the most north. erly county in the state, and is a portion of the narrow neck of land lying between Pennsylvania and the Ohio River called the "pa handle." Its mean length is 31 miles, mean breadth 6 1-2. The sur
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BROOKE COUNTY.
face is billy, but innich of the soil is fertile. The county abounds in coal. Large quantities are quarried on the side hills on the Obio. There is not at the present time, (Sept. 18:13.) a licensed tavern in the county, forretailing ardent spirits, and not one distillery ; boriss there been a criminal prosecution for more than two years. Pop. 1820, 7,040 ; 1810, whites 7,080, slaves 91, free cof'd. 77 ; total, 7,915,
Fairview, or New Manchester, les on the Ohio, 22 miles s. of Wellsburg, on an elevated and healthy situation. It contains about 25 dwellings. The churches are Presbyterian and Methodist. Holliday's Cove is a long and scattering village, about 7 miles above Wellsburg, in a beautiful and fertile valley, of a semi-cir- cular form. It contains 1 Union church, 1 Christian Disciples' church, an academy, and about 60 dwellings. Flour of a superior quality is manufactured at the mills on Harmon's Creck, in this valley. Bethany is beautifully situated, 8 miles E. of Wellsburg. It contains a few dwellings only. It is the residence of Dr. Alex- ander Campbell, the founder of the denomination generally known as "the Campbellite Baptists :" a name, however, which they themselves do not roceg ice, taking that of " Disciplos, on Christian Baptists."
Bethany College, Brooke County.
Bethany College was founded by Dr. Alexander Campbell, in 1841. Its instructors are the president, (Dr. Campbell,) and 4 pro- fessors. The institution is flourishing, numbering something like a hundred pupils, including the preparatory department. The buildings prepared for their reception are spacious and conve- nient.
The following historical sketch of " the Disciples of Christ," with a view of their religious opinions, is from Hayward's Book of R ... ligions :
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BROOKE. COUNTY.
The rise of this society, if we only look back to the drawing of the lines of demarestion between it and other professors, is of recent origin. About the commencement of the present century, the Bible alone, without any human addition in the form of creeds or confessions of faith, began to be preached by many distinguished ministers of different denominations, both in Europe and America.
With various success, and with many of the opinions of the various sects buperceptibly carried with them fran the denominations to which they once belonged, did the advocates of the Bible cause phe for the union of Christians of every name, on the broad basis of the apostles' teaching But it was not until the year 1-23 that a restoration of the original gospel and order of things, began to be advocated . A periodical edited by Alexander Campbell, of Bethany. Virginia, entitled " The Christian Baptist."
He and his father. Thomas Campbell, renounced the Presbyterian system, and were immersed, in the year lela. They, and the congregations which they had formed, united with the Redstone Bongini As- sociation, protesting against all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjection to the Bible alone. This union took place in the year 1813. But, in pressing upon the attention of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of the sacred Scriptures for every thing necessary to the perfection tu Christian character -whether in the private or social relations of life, in the church. or in the world,- - they began to be opposed by a strong creed-party in that association. After some ten years' debating and conteuding for the Bible alone, and the apostles' doctrine, Alexander Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united with the Mahoning association, in the Western Reserve of Ohio; that association being more favorable to his views of reforin.
In his debates on the subject and action of baptism with Mr. Walker, a receding minister, in the year 1820, and with Mr. M'Calla, a Presbyterian minister of Kentucky, in the year 1823, his views of reforma- tion began to be developed, and were very generally received by the Baptist society, as far as these works were read.
But in his " Christian Baptist," which began July 4, 1823, his views of the need of reformation were more folly exposed : and, as these gained ground by the pleading of various ministors of the Baptist de- nomination, a party in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the spread of what they were ple ised to call heterodoxy. But not till after great numbers began to act upon these principles, was there any attempt towards separation. After the Mahoning association appointed Mr. Walter Scott, an evan- gelist, in the year 1827, and when great numbers began to be inuner ed into Christ, under his labors, and new churches began to be erected by him and other laborers in the Bold. did the Baptist associations be- gin to declare non-fellowship with the brethren of the reformation. Thus, by constraint, not of choice. they were obliged to form societies out of those communities time Split, apon the ground of adherence to the apostles' doctrine. The distinguishing characteristics of their views and practices are the follows .
They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian world as having. in greater or less degree, de- printed from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians, and as forming what the apostle Paul calis " the apo.ticy." This defection they attribute to the great varieties of specul ition and mett- ยท physical dogmotism of the countless creeds, forintlaries, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as bonds of union, and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Luther.in reforin ition, The effect of these syno dient covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of ecclesiastical polity, has been the introduction of a new nonmenelature .- a haurin vocabulary of reli- gious words, phrises, and technicalities, which his displaced the style of the living oracles, and athixed to the sacred diction ideas wholly unknown to the apostles of Christ.
To remedy and obviate these aberrations, they propose to ascertain from the Holy Scriptures. accord- ing to the commonly received and well-established rules of interpretation, the ideas attached to the lead- ing termsand sentences found in the Holy Scriptures, and then- to use the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolle acceptation of them.
By thus expressing the ide is communicated by the Holy Spett, in the tennes and phrases Learned from the apostles, and by avoiding the artist that die bed lang prof -ennlavue theology. they propose to restore a pure sprech to the hon hold of frith : wed, by pren sip muy the family of God to use the lan- guage and dialect of the Heavenly Father, they expect to pana or the sanctification of one another through I'm mal ere retraite those dieus and cont which have always originated from the words which man's wisdom touches, and from a revercatial regard and esteem for the style of the great noters of polem'e divinity ; believing that speaking the same things in the same style, is the only certain way to thinking the same things.
They mike a very marked difference between filth and opinion ; between the testimony of God and the reasonings of wien ; the words of the Spirit and buron inferonees. Faith in the testimony of God, and obedience to the commandments of Jesus, are their bond of union, and not an agreement in any ab- struct views or opinions upon what is written or spoken by divine authority. Hence all the speculations. questions, debates of words, and abstract reasonings, found in homin creeds have no place in their reli- glous fellowship. Regarding Calvinista and Arminianism, Trinitarianism and Pnitorinism, and all the opposing theories of religious sectaries, as extremes begotten by each other, they cautiously avoid them, as equidistint from the shinplicity and practient tendency of the promises and precepts, of the doctrine and fiets, of the exhortations and provedenis, of the Christian institution.
They look for unity of spirit and the bond of peace in the pre de las knowledgement of one faith, one Lord, one immersion, one hope, one by, one Spirit, one God and Father of all; not in unity of opinions nor in unity of forms, ceremonies, or modes of worship.
The Holy Scriptures of both Testament; they regard as containing revelations from God, and as all necessary to make the man of God perfect, and accomplished for every good word and work ; the New Testament, or the living oracles of Jesus Christ, they understand as containing the Christian religion ; the testimonies of Matthew, Mark. Luke, and John, they view as illustrating and proving the great proposi- tion on which our religion rests, viz .. that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the only begotten and well- beloved Son of God, and the only Saviour of the world; the Act of the Apesties as a divinely authorized narrative of the beginning and progress of the reign or kingdom of Jesus Christ recording the full develop- ment of the gospel by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, and the procedure of the apostles in setting up the Church of Christ on earth ; the Episties as carrying out and applying the doctrine of the apostles w the practice of individuals and congregations, and as descloning the fond ness of the angel in the behavior of its professors ; and all as forming a complete stand ird of Christian faith and morals, adapted ( the interval between the ascension of Christ and his return with the kingdom which he had Received Brott God ; the Apocalypse, or Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, In Patmos, as a figurative and pro- pective view of all the fortunes of Christianity, from it> date to the return of the Saviour.
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