USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 22
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
grievous acts and measures. In hopes that Great Britain would restore the colonists to happiness and prosperity by a repeal of the obnoxious laws, they resolved, for the present, only to pursue peaceable measures, such as a loyal address to his Majesty, an address to the people of Great Britain, and non-intercourse. Congress having finished this important business in less than eight weeks, dissolved themselves on the 26th of October, after giving their opinion that another Congress should be held at Philadelphia on the Ioth of May next. Accordingly, on the 10th of May, 1775, the second Congress met in Philadelphia, of which that distin- guished Virginian, Hon. Peyton Randolph, was President.
Previous to the meeting of this Congress, the threatening aspect of affairs led the Royal Governor of Virginia secretly (April, 1755,) to re- move the gunpowder from the magazine at Williamsburg to a British man- of-war anchored off Yorktown. Exasperated at the Governor's conduct, the people of Virginia were only restrained from taking up arms to " de- fend the laws, the liberties, and the rights of this or any sister colony," by the advice of Peyton Randolph and Edmund Pendleton. Every county in Virginia was now aroused to the dangers that beset them, and commit- tees were appointed to take measures of defence.
Foremost among the counties to act was Augusta, and the spirit which animated her people is derived from the proceedings of a public meeting held in Staunton on the 22d of February, 1775. This meeting occurred two months prior to the removal of the gunpowder from Williamsburg, and the resolutions adopted amounted to a declaration of independence on the part of Augusta-a declaration of a determination on the part of her citizens to be a free people.
MEETING OF THE FREEHOLDERS OF AUGUSTA.
" After due notice given to the freeholders of the county of Augusta to meet in Staunton, for the purpose of electing delegates to represent them in colony convention at the town of Richmond on the 20th of March, 1775, the freeholders of said county thought proper to refer the choice of their delegates to the judgment of the committee, who, thus authorized by the general voice of the people, met at the court-house on the 22d of Feb- ruary, and unanimously chose Capt. Thos. Lewis and Capt, Sam'l Mc- Dowell to represent them in the ensuing convention.
Instructions were then ordered to be drawn up by Rev. Alex. Belmaine, Mr. Samson Mathews, Capt. Alex. McClanechan, Mr. Michael Bowyer, Mr. William Lewis, and Capt. Geo. Mathews, or any three of them, to be delivered to the delegates thus chosen, which are as follows :
To MR. THOMAS LEWIS AND CAPT. SAM'L MCDOWELL : The commit- tee of Augusta county, pursuant to trust reposed in them by the free- holders of the same, have chosen you to represent them in Colony Con- vention, proposed to be held in Richmond on 2d of March instant. They desire that you may consider the people of Augusta county as impressed with just sentiments of loyalty and allegiance to His Majesty, King George, whose title to the imperial crown of Great Britain rests on no other foun- dation than the liberty, and whose glory is inseparable from the happiness
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of all his subjects. We have also respect for the parent State, which re- spect is founded on religion, on law, and on the genuine principles of the Constitution. On these principles do we earnestly desire to see harmony and good understanding restored between Great Britain and America.
Many of us and our forefathers left our native land and explored this once savage wilderness, to enjoy the free exercise of the rights of con- science and of human nature. These rights, we are fully resolved, with our lives and fortunes, inviolably to preserve ; nor will we surrender such inestimable blessings, the purchase of toil and danger, to any ministry, to any Parliament, or any body of men on earth, by whom we are not repre- sented, and in whose decisions, therefore, we have no voice.
We desire you to tender, in the most respectful terms, our grateful ac- knowledgments to the late worthy delegates from this colony for their wise, spirited, and patriotic exertions in the General Congress, and to assure them that we will uniformly and religiously adhere to their resolu- tions, providentially and graciously formed for their country's good.
Fully convinced that the safety and happiness of America depend, next to the blessing of Almighty God, on the unanimity and wisdom of her people, we doubt not you will, on your parts, comply with the recommen- dations of the late Continental Congress, by appointing delegates from this colony to meet in Philadelphia the 10th of next May, unless American grievances be redressed before that time. And so we are determined to maintain unimpaired that liberty, which is the gift of Heaven to the sub- jeets of Britain's empire, and will most cordially join our countrymen in such measures as may be deemed wise and necessary to secure and per- petuate the ancient, just and legal rights of this colony and all British America.
Placing our ultimate trust in the Supreme Disposer of every event, with- out whose interposition the wisest schemes may fail of success, we desire you to move the Convention that some day, which may appear to them most convenient, be set apart for imploring the blessing of Almighty God on such plans as human wisdom and integrity may think necessary to adopt for preserving America happy, virtuous and free .*
In obedience to these instructions, the following letter was addressed : To the Hon. Peyton Randolph, President, and the other Delegates from this Colony to the General Congress :
Gentlemen,-We have it in command from the freeholders of Augusta County, by their committee, held on the 22d of February, to present you with the grateful acknowledgements of thanks for the prudent, virtuous and noble exertions of the faculties with which Heaven has endowed you in the cause of liberty, and of everything that man ought to hold sacred, at the late General Congress,-a conduct so nobly interesting that it must command the applause not only from this but succeeding ages. May that sacred flame that has illumined your minds and influenced your conduct in projecting and concurring in so many salutary determinations for the preservation of American liberty ever continue to direct your conduct to the latest period of your lives! May the bright example be fairly tran- scribed on the hearts and reduced into practice by every Virginian, by every American! May our hearts be open to receive, and our arms
*These resolutions, printed on white satin, were distributed throughout the colonies.
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strong to defend, that liberty and freedom, the gift of Heaven, now being banished from its latest retreat in Europe! Here let it be hospitably en- tertained in every breast, here let it take deep root and flourish in ever- lasting bloom, that under its benign influence the virtuously free may en- joy secure repose and stand forth the scourge and terror of tyranny and tyrants of every order and denomination till time shall be no more.
Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept of their grateful sense of your impor- tant services, and of their ardent prayers for the best interest of this once happy country ; and vouchsafe, gentlemen, to accept of the same from your most humble servants,
THOMAS LEWIS, SAMUEL McDOWELL, ยง Delegates.
To Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell, Esqs .:
Gentlemen,-Be pleased to transmit to the respectable freeholders of Augusta County our sincere thanks for their affectionate address approv- ing our conduct in the late Continental Congress. It gives us the greatest pleasure to find that our honest endeavors to serve our country on this ar- duous and important occasion have met their approbation,-a reward fully adequate to our warmest wishes ;- and the assurances from the brave- spirited people of Augusta that their hearts and hands shall be devoted to the support of the measures adopted, or hereafter to be taken, by the Congress for the preservation of American liberty, give us the highest satisfaction, and must afford pleasure to every friend of the just rights of mankind. We cannot conclude without acknowledgments to you, gentle- men, for the polite manner in which you have communicated to us the sen- timents of your worthy constituents, and are their and your obedient and humble servants,
PEYTON RANDOLPH, and the other delegates from Virginia.
The Augusta resolutions are attributed to Rev. A. Belmaine by Bishop Meade. But for this, posterity would, doubtless, have credited them to Col. William Lewis, from whom they would have come more naturally. It must be remembered that the Episcopal clergy were pensioners on the bounty of the British Government, and were not likely to engage in efforts for its overthrow. In the southern colonies, it is true, there were some warm Whigs among the clergy, who, foreseeing the downfall of the reli- gious establishment from the success of the Americans, zealously espoused the patriotic cause. Mr. Belmaine was evidently a southern Whig, as his course now and later demonstrates. It is a small matter by whom they were penned. They but embody the sentiments of the people of Augusta -sentiments which prevailed with the entire population west of the moun- tains. This is evident from a meeting, held about this time, at Pittsburg, to give public expression to the views and opinions of the inhabitants of that remote district. Dr. Joseph Smith, in his "Old Redstone, or Sketches of Western Presbyterianism," thus refers to this matter : " This difficulty (the boundary line between Virginia and Pennsylvania) had brought the western people, at one time, almost to the verge of civil war. And yet,
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though they were also involved in hostilities with Indian tribes, when the United States began their Revolutionary struggle, there was but one com- mon feeling among both parties on that subject. They held two meetings on the 16th of May, 1775, only four weeks after the battle of Lexington, the Virginia party mainly, not exclusively, at Pittsburg, calling it a meet- ing of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta County west of Laurel Hill; the Pennsylvania party at Hannastown ; both adopting unanimously strong Whig resolutions, in consonance with the public feeling of the land." Among the proceedings of the Virginia meeting, it was deter- mined that the "landholders of the district of West Augusta shall be con- sidered a distinct county, and have the liberty of sending two delegates to represent them in a convention for devising a plan to resist the oppressions of the mother country."
THE DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA.
The first mention in the Statute Book of West Augusta occurs in an Act of the General Assembly, passed October, 1776, for ascertaining the boundary between the County of Augusta and the District of West Augusta. The preamble to this Act is in these words : Whereas, it is expedient to ascertain the boundary between the County of Augusta and the District of West Augusta: Be it, therefore, enacted, That the boun- dary between the said district and county shall be as follows : Beginning on the Alleghany mountains, between the heads of the Potomac, Cheat and Greenbrier rivers, (Haystack Knob, or north end of Pocahontas county,) thence along the ridge of mountains which divides the waters of Cheat river from those of Greenbrier, and that branch of the Monongehela river called Tyger's Valley river, to the Monongehela river ; thence up the said river and the west fork thereof to Bingerman's creek, on the northwest side of the said west fork ; thence up the said creek to the head thereof; thence in a direct course to the head of Middle Island creek, a branch of the Ohio, and thence to the Ohio, including all the waters of said creek in the aforesaid District of West Augusta, all that territory lying to the northward of the aforesaid boundary, and to the westward of the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland, shall be deemed and is hereby declared to be within the District of West Augusta.
At a court of the District of West Augusta, held at Fort du Quesne, (Pittsburg), September 18, 1776, the court decided that on the passage of the ordinance they became a separate and distinct jurisdiction from that of East Augusta, and, as such, West Augusta assumed and exercised inde- pendent jurisdiction over its entire territory.
After the Declaration of Independence, the Legislature of Virginia passed an Act, 20th August, 1776, enabling the present magistrates of West Augusta to continue the administration of justice until the same can be more amply provided for.
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JUSTICES' COURTS.
Lord Dunmore, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, organized justices' courts as early as 1774, and issued a commission adjourning the County Court of Augusta from Staunton to Fort Dunmore. This fort was origi- nally called Fort Pitt, but in 1773, the British Government abandoned it, and Dr. John Connelly took possession of it in the name of Virginia, and named it Fort du Quesne. It is evident, therefore, that three years be- fore the Declaration of Independence, Pittsburg and the surrounding country was claimed as belonging to the District of West Augusta.
The District of West Augusta was, by Act of the Legislature of Vir- ginia, November 8, 1776, divided into three counties-viz. : Youghiogheny, Ohio and Monongalia.
Previous to the ratification of the report of the surveyors by the Legis- lature of Virginia, October 8, 1785, Ohio county had been formed from Youghiogheny by the line of Cross Creek. On the settlement of the boundary question, that portion of Youghiogheny county lying north of Cross Creek was added to Ohio county, being too small for a separate county, and the county of Youghiogheny became extinct.
The courts of each district were required to administer and dispense justice, establish ferries, confirm roads when reported as necessary, bind out orphan children, grant letters of administration, probate wills, appoint subordinate officers, grant tavern licenses, try for crimes and misdemeanors, and perform such duties as would advance the interests of the community. Many of these duties had been performed, before the Revolution, by the vestry boards.
NATURALIZATION.
Previous to the Revolution, naturalization partook of a religious rite or ceremony. The certificate ran as follows. Let us preserve it as a relic of the past :
" I do hereby certify that at a court held at -, before - judges of the court, the following foreigner, having inhabited and resided for the space of seven years in his Majesty's colonies in America, and not having been absent out of the said colonies for a longer space than two months at one time during the said seven years, and having produced to the said court a certificate of having taken the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper within three months before the said court, took and subscribed the oaths, and did make and repeat the declaration, according to the di- rections of an act of Parliament, made 13th year of George II, entitled, 'An act for naturalizing such foreign Protestants and others therein men- tioned, as are settled or shall settle in any of his Majesty's colonies in America'; therefore was admitted to be H. M.'s natural-born subject of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
A .- B .- , Clerk."
During the troublous times of the Revolution, the courts granted pass- ports indorsing the character of good and true citizens. The following was the form :
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WAR OFFICE, YORKTOWN, October 15, 1777. "To all Continental Officers, and others whom it may concern :
" Tacitus Gilliard, esq., late an inhabitant of the State of South Carolina, being on his way to Florida, or some of the countries or places on this side thereof, or adjacent thereto, where he purposes to form a settlement ; and having applied for a passport to enable him to go and travel through the parts of the country in allegiance to and in amity with the United States of America, and having produced the testimony of his having taken the oaths of allegiance and fidelity to the said States: these are to permit the said T. G., esq., freely to pass with his family, servants, attendants and effects down the Ohio river, and all persons are desired not to molest the said T. G., esq., and his family, servants and effects on any account or pretence whatever.
" By order of the Board of War.
" RICHARD PETERS, Sec'y."
All classes of the people, more especially the Dissenters, were attached to the cause of independence, feeling that the final success of Great Brit- ain would result in the establishment of a church hierarchy.
From these events, affairs moved on to a formal declaration of indepen- dence, July 4th, 1776, and the war of the Revolution began. The colonies were poor, and had placed themselves in open hostility to the most pow- erful empire in the world. They were confident, nevertheless, for it is not scarcity of money that debilitates a State ; it is the want of men, and men of spirit and ability ; and this want America did not suffer.
A regular system of military opposition having been decided upon by Congress, Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and among the Augustians now and shortly afterwards commissioned were Andrew Lewis as a Brigadier-General ; as Colonels, William Lewis George Mathews, Alexander McClenechan and Thomas Fleming ; Majors, M. Donovan, John Lewis. Gen. Lewis took command of that portion of the American army stationed at and near Williamsburg, Va., and his orderly book from March 18th to August 28th, 1776, has been preserved and published. The circumstances connected with the preservation of the MS. are not known. From it we republish the following orders, which illustrate his character as a disciplinarian :
"WILLIAMSBURG, May 14th, 1776.
PAROLE-LIBERTY.
" The many applications for furlough make it necessary for Brigadier- General Lewis to mention it in orders as improper in our critical situation, and he hopes that no request of this kind for the future (until circum- stances will admit) will be made.
"Officer of the day to-morrow, Lieut .- Col. McClenechan ; officers for guard, Lieutenant Garland, Ensign Barksdale. For guard, 8 p. 1 s. 1 c." " WILLIAMSBURG, May 17th, 1776.
PAROLE-CONVENTION.
" Let it not be forgot that this day is set apart for humiliation, fasting and prayer ; the troops to attend divine service."
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On the next day he issued the following order :
" WILLIAMSBURG, HEADQUARTERS, March 19th, 1776. PAROLE -- MARYLAND.
"All officers, upon their coming into camp, are to consider it their indis- pensable duty to wait on the commanding officer to make him acquainted with their arrival. The Brigadier-General leaves the camp to-day ; he expects the soldiers will pay the strictest attention to their duty and exert themselves to learn the discipline, so necessary to their own honour and safety ; that they will behave themselves with decency to their fellow-citi- zens, whose persons and property they were ordained to protect and de- fend, and that they will not by any unworthy conduct disgrace the profes- sion of a soldier. It is recommended and expected of all officers that they will, to the utmost of their power, keep order and decorum in camp, be diligent in learning their own duty and instructing the soldiers in theirs, that they will spare no pains nor think much of any labor or difficulty to make themselves fit for that important end they were intended to answer- that of defending the darling Rights of Liberty and property of their country."
" WILLIAMSBURG, April 21st, 1776.
PAROLE-LEE.
" Brigadier-General Lewis is happy to find himself with part of the army from whom he has all the inclination imaginable to believe that their country will have reason to be satisfied with their service, and more so under conduct of Major-Gen. Lee, whose experience and confessed abili- ties have deservedly led him to the command. The army, which has the happiness to serve under him, may with great confidence rest assured that the strictest justice to every officer and soldier will be observed, and he flatters himself they will distinguish themselves by their regularity and compliance with good order and discipline ; and that none will be so re- gardless of their character and the duty they owe their country as to com- mit such improper and immoral actions as will bring them to disgrace and punishment. That none may plead ignorance, the articles of war are to be read frequently at the head of each company ; the captains to exam- ine the men's arms daily, and their ammunition, of which they are to be very careful, and be answerable," &c.
" SPRINGFIELD, June 16th, 1776. PAROLE-STAUNTON .*
"As the centinals have of late made a practice of firing in the night at nothing, the officers on guard will, for the future, give them a caution about discharging their muskets, which they are by no means to do unless at an enemy."
" SPRINGFIELD, July 17th, 1776.
"General Lewis hopes that the reports of some of the officers gaming to excess is without foundation. He begs that the field officers will make diligent enquiry into it, and, if true, to arrest such officers, that a total stop may be put to such infamous practices.
"Officer of the day, Lieut .- Colonel Weedon."
*Staunton was founded by John Lewis, the father of Gen. Lewis, which no doubt caused the selection of this parole.
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"SPRINGFIELD, July 24th, 1776.
" The Declaration of Independence is to be proclaimed to-morrow in the city of Williamsburg, by order of the council, when all the troops off duty are to attend."
" WILLIAMSBURG, July 26th, 1776.
PAROLE-STEPHEN.
"A fatigue of one captain, two subalterns, two sergeants, and sixty rank and file, to be warned from the college camp, to carry on the work in- tended to be thrown up on the road to Jamestown."
War was no sooner seen to be inevitable between England and her colonies than both parties made extensive preparations for the contest. England not only directed her vast resources against the colonies, trans- porting to our shores large armies recruited from her own population, but the mercenaries of a foreign prince. Still dubious of success in a bad cause, she sought, in order to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny in America, to bring on the "inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known mode of warfare is an undistin- guished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." The savages, burning with grief and indignation at their wrongs, were easily won over by British diplomacy, and inflicted terrible sufferings on the colonists dur- ing the Revolution, making the year 1777 memorable in the annals of the frontier as the "bloody year," though all of them were bloody enough. Directed by the superior intelligence of their European allies, supplied with arms, ammunition, food and clothing, the red men were more efficient tools in the hands of George III than his own troops or his Hessian hire- lings. In the language of the late Earl of Beaconsfield, the savages were " educated " for their diabolical work ; were informed that they should rely upon their superior craft and sagacity to get the better of an enemy, and not venture to meet the settlers in pitched battles. To satisfy any scru- ples these barbarians might have,-and the Indian is punctilious on the point of honor as he understands it,-it was impressed upon them that man is naturally prone to subtlety rather than open valor, because of his physical weakness in comparison with other animals, and, therefore, it was his right and duty to resort to craft and cunning to gain an advantage over an enemy. Even the untutored Indian could understand this logic. He had long practised on it without analyzing his motives. It was explained to him that the lower animals are endowed with weapons of defence, with horns, with tusks, with hoofs and talons-that man, alone, was born weak and helpless, and had to depend upon his superior sagacity. In all his encounters with the beasts, his proper enemies, he had a right to resort to strategem, and when warring with his fellow man, the British now told him, that he should continue the same subtle mode of warfare. Thus pre- pared in mind and body for the fray, the red men were soon on the war- path, and separating into small detachments, or "scalping parties," they penetrated at various points into the settlements.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
How different might have been the fate of the red men and the lives of the settlers had the policy of Penn towards the Indians been generally adopted; how futile would have been England's diplomacy, her efforts to array them against the settlers. Lest a better opportunity should not occur, we may here say, for the information of the reader, that Penn enacted, with regard to the native inhabitants, that "whoever should hurt, wrong or offend any Indian should incur the same penalty as if he had offended, in like manner, against his fellow-planter "; also, that the planters should not be their own judges in case of any difference with the Indians, but that all such differences should be settled by (12) referees, (6) Indians and (6) planters under the direction, if need be, of the governor of the province and the chief of the Indians concerned. Penn's letter to the natives, sent with the first passengers to settle on his grant, is worthy of a place here for its singular plainness and the engaging honesty of its manner. It is as follows :
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