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 68
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PRINCE GEORGE.
PRINCE GEORGE was formed in 1702, from Charles City, Its aver- age length is about 21, and its breadth about 11 miles. The James forms its NE., and the Aps mattox its ww. boundary Pop.
440
PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY.
in 1840, whites 2,692, slaves 4,004, free colored 469 ; total, 7,175. The C. H. is situated near the centre of the county, 28 miles southeasterly from Richmond.
City Point is on the James, at the junction of the Appomattox. and although a small village-containing 1 Episcopal and 1 Meth- odist church, and about 25 dwellings -- is a place of considerable importance, being the outport of Richmond and Petersburg. At City Point are several wharves projecting into the James, within a short distance of which ships of the largest class can float. " Not only is a large foreign shipping business done here. but the white sails of domestic commerce daily gladden the eye, as it passes and repasses this port, freighted, in its progress upwards, with the wealth, and productions, and exports of every clime, while its return carries to every port of our happy Union the produce of our soil and our mines." Besides the ordinary shipping, steam, freight, tow, and passage-boats stop here on their way up and down the river. City Point is a much better site for a commercial town than Richmond, and, it is said, would have been the seat of government, had not its owner, a Dutchman, refused to sell on any terms. A rail-road also connects this place with Petersburg. The Appomattox has latterly been discovered to be navigable for vessels of considerable size as far up as Waltham's Landing, half way to Petersburg, at which place there is a short branch rail-road. lately constructed, connecting with the Petersburg and Richmond rail-road.
John Randolph of Roanoke, there is good reason to suppose, was born at Cawson's, in this county, the family seat of his ma- ternal grandfather, Theodorick Bland, Sen. The years of his boy- hood were passed at Matoax, near Petersburg.
GEORGE KEITH TAYLOR Was, we believe, a native of this county. He was a member of the legislature in '98 and '99, during the famous discussion of the alien and sedition laws, in the advocacy of which he bore a conspicuous part. He was a leader of the federal party, and a confederate of John Marshall, whose sister he married. As an ad- vocate in criminal cases he was distinguished : his oratorical powers have been described as little inferior to those of Patrick Henry ; and, like him, his manner on commencing was anprepossessing. In Gilmer's " Sketches and Essays" there is a note which says that " Mr. Taylor was one of the most eminent lawyers of his state-acute, profound, logical, and persuasive ; of fine wit, of exquisite humor, of brilliant fancy, and of the most amiable disposition."
Col. THEODORICK BLAND, JUN., a worthy patriot and statesman, and a descendant o. Pocahontas, was born in this county about the year 1742. In 1753, when about 11 years of age, he was sent to England to be educated, and in 1761 he repaired to Edinburgh tu study medicine. He was among the first persons from Virginia that devoted themselves to the study of medicine-a profession in that day but little cultivated in the colony, and in the improvement of which, from his diligence, he is entitled to the merit of having been one of its earliest pioneers. After an absence of about 12 years from America, he returned to Virginia, and entered upon the practice of his profession. But he was not an indifferent spectator of the political commotions of the day. In December, 1774, in writing to a mercantile friend in England, he says, "I should have vested the small proceeds in goods, but the present political disputes between these colonies and the mother country, which threaten us with a deprivation of our liberties, forbid such a step,
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PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY.
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and induce us to exert every nerve to imitate the silkworm, and spin from our own bowels. although the web should be our winding-sheet." The battle of Lexington was the subject of a patriotic poetical effusion by him. On the 24th of June, 1775, Dr. Bland was one of a party of 24 gentlemen who, shortly after the flight of Dunmore, removed certain arens from the governor's palace at Williamsburg. In the following December he wrote, apparently for publication, certain philippics against Dunmore, in which the political corruption and private prodigacy of his lordship's character are de- picted in the blackest hues. In June, 1776, he was captain of the first troop of Virginia cavalry. He was subsequently appointed lieutenant colonel of horse, and in September, 1777, joined the main army. From a letter, it would appear that towards the close of this year he was a member of the senate of Va. " While in the army, he frequently signalized himself by brilliant actions."* In November, 1778, he superintended the march of the British troops of convention-inade prisoners at Saratoga, to Virginia ; aud on their arrival, or shortly after, was appointed by Washington to the command of the post at Charlottesville. From 1780 to '83, he was a member of Congress. In 1781, . Farmingdale, his residence in Va., was plundered by the enemy. While in Congress he manifested his usual spirit and industry in the public cause, particularly in the financial department. In 1735 he was appointed, by Gov. Henry, lieutenant of this county. He was in that minority in the convention of Va., convened to consult upon the adoption of the federal constitution, that believed it repugnant to the interests of the country, and therefore voted against its ratification. On its adoption, however, he acquiesced i :: the will of the majority, and was elected to represent his district in the first Congress held under the constitution. While serving in that capacity, he died at New York, June Ist, 1790, aged 48. " In person, Col. Bland was tall -- in his latter days corpulent-and of a noble countenance. Itis manners were marked by ease, dignity, and weli-bred re- pose. In character he was virtuous and enlightened, of exemplary purity of manners and integrity of conduct, estimable for his private worth, and respectable for his public services. His career was distinguished rather by the usefulness of plain, practical quali- fications, than by any extraordinary exhibitions of genius. 'Animated, from his child- hood, by a profound love of country, with him patriotism was not an impulse but a prin- ciple. In style, be is fluent and correct, and if sometimes too florid or diffuse, he is at others wanting neither in energy of thought nor in elegance of diction. Moderation and good temper pervade his correspondence, and it is nowhere sullied by profanity or indelicacy."t
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RICHARD BLAND Was another of the many prominent Virginians who acted ou the theatre of the revolution. Wirt, in speaking of him before the war, says he " was one of the most enlightened men of the colony. He was a man of finished education, and of the most unbending habits of application. His perfect mastery of every fact con- nected with the settlement and progress of the colony, had given him the name of the Virginian antiquary. He was also a politician of the first class ; a profound logician, and was also considered as the first writer in the colony ;" but he was a most ungraceful speaker in debate. " He wrote the first pamphlet on the nature of the connection with Great Britain, which had any pretension to accuracy of view on that subject ; but it was a singular one : he would set out on sound principles, pursue them logically, till he found them leading to the precipice which we had to leap ; start back, alarmed ; then resume his ground, go over it in another direction, be led again by the correctness of his reason- ing to the same place, and again tack about and try other processes to reconcile right and wrong ; but left his reader and himself bewildered between the steady index of the compass in their hand, and the phantasm to which it seemed to point. Still there was more sound matter in this pamphlet, than in the celebrated Farmer's Letters, which were really but an ignis fatuus, misleading us from true principle." Mr. Bland was a member of Congress from 1774 to 1776 ; he died in 1778.
* Sketch of Col. Bland, in the History of Va. by J. W. Campbell.
+ The foregoing memoir de abrilved from that in the introduction of "The Bland Papers, being a seice- tion from the manuscripts of Col. Theodorick Bland. Jr., etc. etc.," edited by Charles Campbell, of Peters- burg, and published there. in 1940. My Ralmitted and Julian C. Rutin-an octavo volume of about 30 pages, and composed principally of an interesting collection of letters written by the first personages in the country during the revolutionary era.
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442
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY.
PRINCE WILLIAM.
PRINCE WILLIAM Was formed in 1730, from Stafford and King George. It is about 35 miles long, and 12 wide. The Potomac forms its eastern boundary. Pop. in 1840, whites 4,867, slaves 2,767, free colored 510; total, 8,144.
Brentsville, the county-seat, is situated 101 miles from Richmond. and 33 N. of Fredericksburg. in the heart of the county, at the head of Occoquan River. It is a small village, containing 3 stores and about 20 dwellings. The county buildings are handsomely situated on a public square, containing 3 acres. Thoroughfare and Liberia are small places in the county, containing each a few dwellings. Dumfries is situated on Quantico creek, near the Potomac. It was once the county-seat; but in 1822 the courts were removed to Brentsville, and the old court-house is converted into an Episcopal church. Dumfries is a very old town, and once had considerable commerce ; but from a combination of causes it has gone rapidly to decay, and many of the houses have been removed out of town.
Occoquan, situated near the mouth of a river of the same name, was established by law in 1804. It contains a large cotton factory, an extensive flouring mill, several stores, and about 40 dwellings. A handsome bridge is erected over the river at this place. The Occoquan here has a fall of 72 feet in one and a half miles, afford- ing excellent sites for manufactories. This is the market for many of the most important shad and herring fisheries on the Potomac. The scenery around this village is uncommonly picturesque.
WILLIAM GRAYSON died at Dumfries, whither he had come on his way to Congress, March 12th, 1790, and his remains were deposited in the family vault, at the Rev. Mr. Spence Grayson's. He was first appointed a member of Congress from Virginia, in 1784, and continued a number of years. " In June, 1788, he was a member of the Vir- ginia convention which was called for the purpose of considering the present constitu- tion of the United States. In this assembly, rendered illustrious by men of the first talents, he was very conspicuous. His genius united with the eloquence of Henry, in opposing the adoption of the constitution. While he acknowledged the evils of the old government, he was afraid that the proposed government would destroy the liberty of the states. His principal objections to it were, that it took from the states the sole right of direct taxation, which was the highest act of sovereignty ; that the limits between the national and state authorities were not sufficiently defined ; that they might clash. in which case the general government would prevail ; that there was no provision against raising such a navy, as was more than sufficient to protect our trade, and thus would excite the jealousy of European powers, and lead to war ; and that there were no ade- quate checks against the abuse of power, especially by the president, who was respousi- ble only to his counsellors and partners in crime, the members of the senate. After the constitution was adopted, Mr. Grayson was appointed one of the senators from Virginia. in the year 1789 ; his colleague was Richard Henry Lee. His great abilities were united with unimpeached integrity."
Immediately after Duamore was driven from Gwyn's Island, in July, 1776, he sullea up the Potomac to this section of the state. The reception he met with from the in- habitants is thus related by Girardin :
Ascending the Potomac, he left, on many parts of its banks, hideous traces of pirati- cal and depredatory warfare. A little above the mouth of Aquia creek, Mr. William
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413
PULASKI COUNTY.
Brent's elegant brick house was burnt to the ground. Tt ~ichboring militia, seized with causeless alarm, retired without opposing the rava". "Jess freebooters, who, after the destruction of the house, were proceedings .. varm . valuable merchant mill, at a small distance, when 30 of the Prince William militia happily arrived. ad- vanced with fearless step, and drove them on board. The spirit and bravery of the peo- ple of Stafford county in general, amply redeemed, on subsequent occasions, the mo- mentary disgrace of that unaccountable panic; but the circumstance is yet well remembered in the environs; and we have heard more than once, on the very ruins of the prostrated edifice, the ludicrous account which the senile garrulity of some among the surviving actors in that scene, was ever ready to give. It appears that the Stafford militia mistook the detachment from Prince William for Englishmen, and exerted all the agility and ingenuity of which they were capable to avoid falling into their hands. Dan- more's fleet, consisting of the Roebuck, Mercury, Otter, an armed ship, some gondolas, and several tenders, having taken in fresh water, fell down the river on the ensuing day. They had, in this expedition, met with a severe gale of wind, which drove on shore several small vessels with the friends of the British government on board. These were made prisoners, and sent to Williamsburg under an escort. The third regiment and other troops had been stationed along the banks of the Potomac, to watch the motions of the enemy, while the infant Virginian fleet, consisting of some armed brigs and row-galleys, was cruising for them in the bay. The Roebuck alone could protect Dunmore and his wretched followers. The expected conflict was provented by the flight of the foe. The excessive heat of the season, the putridity of the water, the scantiness and bad quality of the provisions on board, and the crowded and inconvenient situation of the people there, engendered complicated and malignant diseases, which hourly plunged into a watery tomb multitudes of the motley band. Thus, loaded with the execration of the country ; defeated in all bis schemes of civil discord, and of servile and savage hostility ; hunted from station to station by the resentment of an injured people, naturally prone to loyalty, gratitude, and attachment ; pursued, as it were, by Heaven and the elements themselves, Dunmore, with a wounded and humbled spirit, saw himself reduced to flee from these shores, where he had hoped triumphantly to plant the standard of despotism, and to sa- tiate his vindictive and haughty passions with the tears and abjection of the feeble, and the blood of the brave. After burning such vessels as he was able to spare, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Americans, he steered for Lynnhaven Bay with about 40 or 50 sail ; and then parting with the miserable companions of his disastrous fate, he sent some of them to St. Augustine, under convoy of the Otter, some to Bermuda, some to the West Indies, and some to Europe. With the rest, he repaired to Sir P. Parker's fleet, and, on the 14th of August, reached Staten Island, where General Howe had lately been joined by his brother, and the fleets under convoy of Commodore Hotham, . and the Repulse. Towards the close of this eventful year, he returned to England in the Fowey.
PULASKI.
PULASKI Was formed in 1839, from Montgomery and Wythe, and named from Count Pulaski. It is 23 miles long, with a mean width of 18 miles. New River passes through the eastern part, and then, curving to the left, with Little River, divides the county from Montgomery. The face of the country s. and ww. of the C. H., is generally level and adapted to grain and grazing ; s. and s. of the C. H., it is more broken ; yet on and near New River it is very fertile and productive in wheat. There is considerable moun- tain land in the county. Beef cattle are at this time the great staple of the county ; but her es, swine, sheep, grain, tobacco, and hemp, could be produced in the greatest abundance. Population in 1840, whites 2.769, slaves 954, free colored 17: total. 3.73.
Newbern, the county-seat, is on the great stage-route from Bal-
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444
RANDOLPH COUNTY.
timore to Nashvil' Tenn., 222 miles southwesterly from Rich-
mond, 19 m. "istiansburg, and 28 from Wytheville, It ix the only village in the county, and one of considerable business for an inland town : its location is high and airy, giving a fine view of the neighboring valleys and mountains. It contains 5 mer- cantile stores, I Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, and a popu- lation of about 300. Peak Knob, 4 miles south of Newbern, is a · prominent projection in Draper's mountain, rising about 1,000 feet, and presenting from its summit a delightful and extensive land- scape. Iron ore exists in abundance in this mountain, and also coal of a good quality. In its vicinity are mineral springs, sup- posed to possess valuable medicinal qualities. On the north bank of New River, near Newbern, there is a bluff called the Glass Win- dows, consisting of vertical rocks, nearly 500 feet high. and forming the immediate bank of the stream for a distance of four miles, They are considered a great curiosity. The face of these rocks is per- forated by a vast number of cavities, which no doubt lead to caves or cells within the mountain. Some of these cells have been ex- plorod and found to contain saltpotre, stalactitos, and other con- cretions.
RANDOLPH.
RANDOLPH Was formed in 1787. from Harrison. It is 85 miles long, with a mean width of 25 miles. This county is made up of several parallel ranges of mountains, with their intervening val- leys : it is drained by the head-waters of Elk River, and the Monongahela. The mountains are covered with the finest timber, and abound in coal and iron ore. Much of the soil of the moun- tains is rich, and they abound in slate, freestone, and limestone, In some parts are small caves having a kind of copperas, which is used for a dve; and along some of the water-courses, alum projects in icicle-like drops. Salt springs are numerous. Within the last twelve years, elk and braver have been seen in small numbers. Randolph is principally a stock-raising county, and live stock of every description are annually exported to market. Population in 1840, whites 5,709, slaves 216, free colored 193; total, 6,208.
Beverly, the county-seat. is 210 miles ww. of Richmond, CO s. of Morgantown, and 45 SE. of' Clarksburg. It is situated near Ty- gart's Valley River, on a handsome piain, and contains a population of about 200.
An attempt was made as early as 1754, to settle this section of country, by David Tygart and a Mr. Files. About this time, " these two men, with their families, arrived on the east fork of the Matosgalite and, after examining the country, selected posi- tions for their future residence. Files chose a spot on the river, at the mouth uf u creek which still bears his name, where Beverly has since been established. Tygart settled a few miles further up, and also on the river. The valley in which they had thus taken
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445
RANDOLPH COUNTY.
up their abode, has since been called Tygart's Valley, the east forl- of the Monon- gahela, Tygart's Valley River.
" The difficulty of procuring bread-stuff's for then .. . ifico, wuun' contiguity to an Indian village, and the fact that an Indian war-path passed near their dwellings, soon determined them to retrace their steps. Before they carried this determination int effect, the family of Files became the victims of savage cruelty. At a time when all the family were at their cabin, except an elder son, they were discovered by a party of Indians, supposed to be returning from the South Branch, who inhumanly butchered them all. Young Files boing not far from the house, and hearing the uproar, approached until he saw too distinctly the deeds of death which were doing ; and feeling the utter impossibility of affording relief to his own, resolved, if he could, to effect the safety of Tygart's family. This was done, and the country abandoned by them."*
A writer in the American Pioneer, Mr. Felix Renick, has given some anecdotes of "Big Joe Logston," who lived somewhere in this region in the latter part of the last century. " No Kentuckian." says he, " could ever, with greater propriety than be, have said, . I can out-run, out-hop, out-jump. throw down, drag out, and whip any man in the country."" Big Joe removed from the vicinity of the source of the N. branch of the Potomac, to Kentucky, about the year 1790. during the prevalence of the Indian wars. Mr. Renick gives the following account of a desperate fight which he had in that country with two Indians:
Riding along a path which led into a fort, he came to a fine vine of grapes. He laid his gun across the pommel of his saddle, set his hat on it, and filled it with grapes. He turned into the path, and rode carelessly along, eating his grapes ; and the first intima- tion he bad of danger, was the crack of two rifles, one from each side of the road. One of the balls passed through the paps of his breast, winch, for a male, were remarkably prominent, almost as much so as those of many nurses. The ball just grazed the skin between the paps, but did not injure the breast-bone. The other ball struck his horse behind the saddle, and he sunk in his tracks. Thus was Joe eased off his horse in a manner mere rare than welcome. Still he was on his feet in an instant, with his rifle in his hands, and might have taken to his heels ; and I will venture the opinion that no Indian could have caught him. That, he said, was not his sort. He had never left a battle-ground without leaving his mark. and he was resolved that that should not be the first. The moment the guns fired, one very athletic Indian sprang towards him with tomahawk in hand. His eye was on him, and his gun to his eye, ready, as soon as he approached near enough to make a sure shot, to let him have it. As soon as the Indian discovered this, he jumped behind two pretty large saplings, some small distance apart, neither of which was large enough to cover his body, and, to save himself as well as he could, he kept springing from one to the other. .
Joe, knowing he had two enemies on the ground, kept a look-out for the other by a quick glance of the eye. He presently discovered him behind a tree loading his guy. The tree was not quite large enough to hide him. When in the act of pushing down his bullet. he exposed pretty fairly his hips. Joe, in the twinkling of an eve. wheeled, and lec him hove his load in the part exposed. The big Indian then, with a inighty " Ugh !" rushed towards him with his raised tomahawk. Here were two warriors met, each determined to conquer or die -- each the Goliath of his nation. The Indian had rather the advantage in size of frame, but Joe in weight and muscular strength. The Indian made a halt at the distance of fifteen or twenty feet, and threw his tomahawk with ail his force, but Joe had his eye on him and dodged it. It Hew quite out of the reach of either of them. Joe then clubbed his gan and made at the Indian. thinking to knock bim down. The Indian sprung into some brush or saplings, to avoid his blows. The Indian depended entirely on dodging. with the help of cie saplings. At length Joe, thinking he had a pretty fair chance, made a side blow with such force, that. this. sing the dodging Indiaa, the gan. now reduced to the naked barrel, was diein quite out of his hands, and flew catirely out of reach. The Indian now gave another exulting
* Withers' Border Warfare.
446
RANDOLPH COUNTY.
" Ugh !" and sprang at hi. i all the savage fury he was master of. Neither of thein had a weapon !! 'e Indian, seeing Logston bleeding freely, thought be
could throw him watch him. In this he was mistaken. They seized each other, and a desperate scuffle ensued. Joe could throw him down, but could not hold him there. The Indian being naked, with his hide oiled, had greatly the advantage in a ground scuffle, and would still slip out of Joe's grasp and rise. After throwing him five or six times, Joe found, that between loss of blood and violent exertions, his wind was leaving him, and that he must change the mode of warfure or lose his scalp, which he was not yet willing to spare. He threw the Indian again, and without at. tempting to hold him, jumped from him, and as he rose, aimed a fist blow at his head, which caused him to fall back, and as he would rise, Joe gave him several blows in succession, the Indian rising slower each time. He at last succeeded in giving him a pretty fair blow in the barr of the ear, with all his force, and he fell, as Joe thought, pretty near dead. Joe jumped on him, and thinking he could dispatch him by choking, grasped his neck with his left hand, keeping his right one free for contingencies. Joe soon found the Indian was not so dead as be thought, and that he was making some use of his right arm, which lay across his body, and, on casting his eye down, dis. covered the Indian was making an effort to unsheath a knife that was hanging at his belt. The knife was short, and so sunk in the sheath that it was necessary to force it up by pressing against the point. This the Indian was trying to effect, and with good success. Joe kept his eye on it, and let the Indian work the handle out, when he suddenly grabbed it, jerked it out of the sheath, and sunk it up to the handle into the Indian's breast, who gave a death groan and expired.
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