USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 5
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For many years after the settlement of Fort Lewis, great amity and good will existed between the neighboring Indians and the white settlers, whose numbers increased apace, until they became quite a formidable colony. It was then that the jealousy of their red nelghbors became aroused, and a war broke out, which, for cool though desperate courage and activity on the part of the whites, and ferocity, cunning and barbarity on the part of the Indians, was never equaled in any age or country. John Lewis was, by this time, well stricken in years, but his four sons, who were now grown up, were well qualified to fill his place, and to act the part of leaders to the gallant little band who so nobly battled for the protection of their homes and families. It is not my purpose to go into the details of a warfare, during which scarcely a settlement was exempt from monthly attacks of the savages, and during which Charles Lewis, the youngest son of John, is said never to have spent one month at a time out of active and arduous service. Charles was the hero of many a gallant exploit, which is still treas- ured in the memories of the descendants of the border riflemen, and there are few families among the Alleghanies where the name and deeds of Charles Lewis are not familiar as household words. On one occasion, Charles was captured by the Indians while on a hunting excursion, and after traveling two hundred miles barefoot, his arms pinioned behind him, goaded on by the knives of his remorseless captors, he effected his escape."
It is unnecessary to give more of Howe's account. It is composed of matter which will find a more appropriate place in the history of the Lewis family.
At a point a mile east of Staunton, remarkable for the singular beauty and freshness of the scenery, on the estate owned in 1882 by D. C. Mc- Guffin, Mrs. J. A. Harman, and Capt. John N. Opie, Lewis pitched his tent, calling the place " Bellefont," which a portion of it still bears, from a
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
bold bright spring issuing from the hill side. He was the first to occupy the scene ; no axe had ever before rung through that forest ; no spade had ever turned up that soil; nature had delivered it into his hands in its un- touched virginity, and it was for him to say where, and how, and to what extent labor should mingle with it, and art adorn and enrich it. Here this man, nurtured in high civilization, but by sinister fortune deprived of his position and banished from his country, planted himself-making a home which became his tomb-delighting in the tranquility and independence of his secluded retreat. Here, amidst the deep shadows of the wilderness, he built a stone dwelling, which, with its flanks, formed one side of Fort Lewis, and in this half dwelling, half fortress, he maintained a long strug- gle with the savages, and under its stout walls the infant colony grew in time strong enough to defy every foe. A portion of this old fort still re- mains in 1882, and is occupied as a dwelling by the proprietor. It is the oldest house in the Valley, and though without architectural beauty or pretensions, is one of the most interesting of our historical relics.
In this hitherto unvisited region, amidst beautiful landscapes and grand points of scenery, the old hero spent the remaining years of his life, finally closing his eyes upon a country blooming in cultivated fertility and enlivened by the arts of civilization.
Having pursued the fortunes of Lewis and his family to their settlement in the wilderness, we shall give in the next succeeding chapter a brief sketch of the early settlers, their manners and customs, modes of life, etc., or historical outline of the little colony from its foundation to the year 1749-'50, when Gov. Gooch sailed for England, in the flowery language of an old historian, "amidst the blessings and tears of the people, among whom he had lived as a wise and beneficent father."
Such poetical extravagance on the part of writers would shock the understanding but for its frequency. It certainly distorts the facts of history, and fills her pages with absurdities. Gooch was a moderate and sensible man, who reaped the benefits of Spotswood's administration, and governed Virginia generally in an acceptable manner. But he made mis- takes-committed errors-as what man does not ?- granted lands with lavish prodigality to his favorites, and incurred the hostility of those whom he did not fancy ; indulged in much petty persecution of Dissenters, made enemies, and was far from escaping censure. It is probable, then, that this "wise and beneficent father" of the old historian left as many dry as weeping eyes in Virginia, and was followed to England by as many curses as blessings.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
No census is extant of the population on Lewis creek at the period when the County of Augusta was formed. It is evident from the preamble of the act of 1738 that there had been a considerable increase of the inhabi- tants west of the great mountains, and it was to give these pioneers the benefits of civil government that the county was established. The County of Augusta, thus formed from Orange, which had previously embraced all the country west of the Blue Ridge, was not organized until some years later. Meanwhile the legal business of the people west of the Blue Ridge continued to be transacted at Orange Court-House. The expense, incon- venience and delay caused by this state of affairs, led to the organization of the county, at Staunton, in 1745, when there was a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing justices of the peace and other officers, and erecting courts therein. The first court-house was erected on the site of the present County Clerk's office, as near as may be, and the first court was held on the 9th of Dec., 1745, when the following magistrates, previ- ously commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, took their seats on the bench-viz .: John Lewis, John Brown, Peter Schall, John Pickens, Thos. Lewis, Hugh Thompson, Robt. Cunningham, James Keer, and Adam Dickinson.
John Patton was appointed High Sheriff, and Jno. Madison clerk.
The following gentlemen qualified as attorneys-at-law : Gabriel Jones, William Russell, James Porters, John Quin, Th. Chew. Gabriel Jones was appointed deputy attorney of the county, April 14, 1746, " as a fit person to transact his Majesty's affairs in this county," and qualified the follow- ing May. He was a learned lawyer, and married a Miss Strother, of Staf- ford county, a sister of Mrs. Thomas Lewis and Mrs. Madison, mother of Bishop Madison, and has, in 1882, a grandson livingin Frederick county, namely, Mr. Strother Jones.
On the second day of the court, a commission from William Dawson, President of William and Mary College, was read, appointing Thomas Lewis surveyor.
From a motion now made by the Sheriff, it appears that up to this time there had been no prison in the settlement cr county,-that for a period of nearly fifteen years this pious little community of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians had lived without bolts and bars.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
Lewis, and we must speak much in this chapter of him, though not unmindful of the miserable weakness of inankind, which causes them to look with admiration upon persons glorious for mischief, and to be better pleased when reading of the destroyer than the founder of a state ; who had entered the wilderness alone, or, at most, with a single companion, and whose family afterwards joined him, must be presumed to have given law to those who subsequently assembled around him. When the num- ber increased, these freemen, no doubt joined together and framed a so- ciety as best pleased themselves, in which, we are sure, while they may have, and doubtless did, recognize the founder as head, they took care that such rules as they adopted were for the good of the governed and not the governor. We have a fine picture of freemen, living according to their own will, in the case of Abraham and Lot: they went together into Canaan, continued together as long as was convenient for them, and parted when their substance did not increase, and they became trouble- some to each other. The men who collected in Augusta agreed together and framed a society, and thus became a complete body, having all power in themselves over themselves, subject to no other human law than their own. All those who composed the society being equally free to enter into it or not, no man could have any prerogative above others, unless it was granted by the consent of the whole, and nothing obliging them to enter into this society but the consideration of their own good; that good or their opinion of it must have been the rule, motive and end of all that they did ordain. It is lawful for such bodies to set up one or a few men to govern them, and he or they who are thus set up have no power except what is conferred upon them by the multitude, and should exercise those powers according to the ends for which they were given. That the Foun- der was thus constituted the leader of the community until 1745, cannot be doubted. In '45, he was placed at the head of the court, and continued in this position until he went down, nearly twenty years later, in peace to the grave.
In William I. Lewis' narrative, he speaks of the "industry, piety, and stern integrity of the young couple, John Lewis and Margaret Lynn," and we see in the significant fact that there was no prison in Augusta for nearly fifteen years after the Founder set down on the banks of Lewis creek, the legitimate fruit of their characters and example.
The people took their tone from the heads of the colony, and thus lived in the enjoyment of greater order and quiet than is commonly the lot of communities furnished with a regular system of laws and administration.
Such facts enable us to understand better the people themselves and the state of society in those days than would otherwise be possible. It must not be inferred, because the early colonists lived in the wilderness, beset with Indians and wild beasts, that they themselves lacked cultivation-par-
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took of the nature of their surroundings. It was an infant colony, com- posed of grown men-a settlement in the wilds of the new world made up of men trained in the schools and civilization of the Old World. There were men of learning among them, and means were early applied for educating the rising generation. A general taste for literature prevailed, as is obvious from the attention paid to the erudite men who, from time to time, came among them as clergymen ; from the collections of books in their houses-the libraries of the King's counsel, Gabriel Jones, and that of Hon. Thomas Lewis being famous-and from the early period atwhich schools, and particularly the Augusta Academy, were established.
Col. and Mrs. Lewis were indeed persons of gentle blood, of education, refine nent and independent fortune. They were not adventurers, who came to America seeking wealth or social or political position. They were the innocent victims of adverse circumstances, of sinister fortune, and had crossed the sea and changed their climate, but not their characters. And what is true of them is true of others. Lewis, himself, was a man endowed with many noble qualities. Of a martial spirit and heroic cour- age, he was formed to excel in war ; the ardent friend of progress, of pub- lic improvements, of trade and commerce, wise in his conceptions and persevering in his plans, he was equally adapted for peace. Irreproacha- ble in his public and private morals; courteous, affable, and eloquent ; fond of society and excelling in conversation, he excited the love and admiration of the people who adhered to him and the policy he pointed out, as well from their attachment to his person as because of their respect for his talents and his character. Had he continued in Europe his abilities and accomplishments, which had already given him a high local reputa- tion and position, could not have remained long unknown and unrewarded by his Sovereign. He was destined, however, for another career, a more appropriate theatre for his ardent and restless genius. Providence or- dained him to become a pioneer of civilization-to erect the standard of the Cross in the wilderness. In the colony which he founded the Church anticipated the town and the county. Before either was established the Gospel was preached in the houses of the settlers or under the shade of the trees. In Col. Lewis' house, indeed, the first sermon ever delivered in the county was preached by Mr. James Thompson, in 1739. A little later, log buildings were erected for the worship of God, called, in the language of the day, " meeting-houses." There was no settled pastor, no organized church, but the rude walls of the meeting-house resounded to the bold, zealous, impassioned and enthusiastic words of the old-school ministers, who, from time to time, passed through the settlement.
Lewis was not one of those men of overweening vanity, who fancy they can do without other men. He felt that he needed the counsel of others, and was not able to manage and direct all things alone. Accordingly, he
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early associated with himself in his labors persons of merit, employing each of these according to his talents, and left to them the management of minor matters, which only consume time, and deprived him of the liberty of mind so necessary in the conduct of important affairs. He thus prevented envy and jealousy, by dividing a power which is apt to be offensive when united in a single person, as if all merit centred in him alone. This wise course facilitated the execution of affairs, and made their success more cer- tain. The value of a man of such rare parts-such disinterested soul-in a primitive community, cannot be exaggerated. Men, as Iago says, are but men. They must be treated, ministered to, provided for, and gov- erned as such. In the Augusta settlement, they were freer than free- dom, and in danger of running into licentiousness. Lewis saw, what uni- versal experience has proved to be necessary, namely : that for prosperous self-government, a moral tone must pervade the community, a sound pub- lic sentiment prevail, and laws, though rude and unwritten, must exist, and are best upheld by it. He and his leading associates, by word and deed, accomplished the great task of moulding the opinions and forming the character of the people between 1732 and 1745. Without the aid of civil, military, or ecclesiastical establishments, by their wisdom and firmness, their humanity and justice, they maintained law and order in the colony, cultivated in all a respect for the rights of others, restrained vice, and asserted the majesty of moral virtue. Liberty is precious and dear to all men, and no people were more jealous of theirs than these pioneers, who had tasted the bitter fruits of slavery in their native lands. To preserve liberty-the rights and liberties of all-was the great motive principle of their actions, and became, in a manner, the soul of their laws, customs, and whole frame of government, as they afterwards existed, and as we see them to-day in America.
These grand men of the frontier, our primitive colonial fathers, not only rescued their fields from the forest, but cultivated them with their own hands, performing, without reluctance, the offices of domestics. Thus the colony soon became, and naturally enough, noted for its prosperity and honored for its citizens. Possessing an ample fortune, Col. Lewis dis- pensed much hospitality, especially to strangers. While entertaining with generosity, he was careful that his establishment should not degenerate into luxury. The spirit of hospitality extended to all, and when any stranger happened to pass through Augusta, he was not only received, lodged, and maintained everywhere, but the inhabitants disputed with each other the honor of having him for their guest. This inviolable re- gard to hospitality is still preserved among our rural population.
Each returning season brought accessions to the population from abroad. Many were good and true men, and many were turbulent spirits, impa- tient of control, and the enemies of law and order. The difficulties of the
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
Founder's position increased, but he and his associates exercised an írre- sistible influence in behalf of all measures for the public good. The men who, after 1745, (as many had done before,) united with him in his labors and exertions, were the Madisons, Pattons, Prestons, Browns, Keers, Dickinsons, Pickens, Breckenridges, and others. Many of those early set- tlers founded families which have since become famous in the land. Madi- son was the father of the Right Rev. James Madison, DD., Bishop of Vir- ginia, the first bishop consecrated in America by the three American bish- ops previously consecrated in Great Britain, of whom the first was Dr. Seabury, of Connecticut, consecrated by the Scotch Episcopal Church, who admitted him to the Scotch Episcopate 1784, by the hands of the Bishops of Aberdeen, Ross, and Moray. The second and third bishops were Drs. White and Prevost, the elect respectively of the conventions of Pennsylvania and New York, who were consecrated at Lambeth Palace, 1787, by Archbishops Moore and Markham, and Bishops Moss, of Bath and Wells, and Hinchcliff, of Peterborough.
John Preston and Robert Breckenridge were the founders of the distin- guished families of their names in Virginia and Kentucky, and from other early settlers are descended the extensive and highly respectable families bearing their names in this county, the State, the West and South.
The Augusta colony, which was soon noted for its enterprising popula- lation, its good order, its industry and progress, was thus physically and socially in advance of other frontier settlements. It must be remembered, however, that all the settlers in this community were not worthy men. Augusta was not, as we have mentioned, thus signally blessed.
The subject of public improvements soon engaged the attention of the leading men, and they quickly discovered difficulties, besides those of na- ture, in their way. In every population there are two orders of men-one, who with little difficulty are open to a conviction that improvements are desirable, and another, who either from excess of ignorance or perversity, can tolerate no change whatever. With the former of these, the Founder had no difficulty. They readily came into his plans and appreciated his general policy, even acknowledging, with gratitude, the benefits and bless- ings that had already arisen from the schemes he had introduced of public improvement, elementary education, etc. They anticipated other and greater benefits from those he now proposed. The enemies of innovation and improvement, the suspicious, the prejudiced, the grumblers, were harder to manage, but they were, for the most part, in time, skillfully won over, and in the end he was supported by a large majority of even these.
Though the Founder, from the early years of the colony, called to his aid, as we have observed, the best men in it, there were such difficulties to encounter in executing his wise and benevolent plans, that only the most unwearied patience and self-denying virtue could have surmounted them.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
One of the chief wants of the community was good roads, and particu- larly of a road communicating with the more improved parts of Eastern Virginia, whence their supplies were drawn. Lewis perceived this on his difficult journey into the wilderness, and every day satisfied him more fully that there could be no solid improvement or prosperity among them while this was the case. It was difficult to communicate any news or treat of affairs with other settlements far and near, being obliged to send a courier at great charge and loss of time, or wait for the departure of some person going north or east of the mountains, to take their letters-a preca- rious and uncertain method.
Calling into council the chief men, the Founder proposed that they should widen and improve the so-called road leading to Goochland, and finding his views favorably received, the project was announced to the people. We can imagine their astonishment at the boldness of his plans ; how some of the more timid and indolent would declare the thing impos- sible ; how others would find an excuse, in their private affairs, for not en- couraging or wishing to engage in such an enterprise; how it would be argued that the Indian trails through the mountain gaps answered a very good, if not every purpose; how it would be said that by those paths they had arrived in the country and were doing well, and how those who were not satisfied with doing well, ought to be allowed to leave-to go farther and fare better ; how it would be reiterated that they could get, and actually did get on pack horses, their salt, iron, steel castings, powder and shot, and whatever they needed, including dress and personal ornaments ; how these croakers would dwell upon the time and labor such a work would cost, and finally, when it was constructed, upon the dangers which would menace the community, as by it luxury would be let in in time of peace, and the enemy in time of war. Nothing is too absurd for the dis- contented to urge on such an occasion. The men, however, who promoted this scheme, were not easily discouraged. Without losing time with mal- contents, they explained to the public the advantages to be derived from having a good outlet for the produce of their fields and facilities for pro- curing the multitude of comforts and conveniences of which they were des- titute. Soon the better part of the community was on their side, and the enterprise was begun.
Let us attempt to call up the scene when this work was taken in hand. There comes the venerable "Lord of the hills," as Lewis was called, with Brown, Keer, Pickens, Jones, Preston, Patton, and the leading spirits gen- erally. They are about to go forth with Thomas Lewis, the Surveyor, as Chief Engineer, to locate this highway. A motley crowd assembles in the streets and about the inn door, where horses stand, on whose backs men are packing tents and panniers with provisions. In this crowd stand men in hunting shirts and moccasins, leaning upon their long rifles, and sympa-
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
thizing, if at all, in the movement, in a listless way. These still hunters, or deer-stalking pioneers, are almost as much opposed as the Red Men to their hunting-grounds being disturbed-opened up by roads. Business is at a stand-still on this morning in the little hamlet, now the city of Staun- ton, and women and children peer curiously from their doors. It is evident from the stir that a movement of no ordinary importance is on foot. At length the expedition starts, the crowd disperses, and the village relapses into its habitual drowsiness. Weeks pass, and the place is again astir. The venerable fathers reappear on the outskirts of the hamlet at the head of the surveying party and the mass of the people themselves,-all are excited,-some in a lively state of enthusiasm. The road has been located, every preliminary arranged, and the work of its construction is now to begin. The chief men-the elders-are all present and mingle in the crowd; the scene is graced, too, by the presence of ladies-a "store of ladies whose bright eyes rain influence." See the sturdy old pioneer, the venerable Founder, coming to the front, after the blessing of Heaven has been asked upon their undertaking, and casting up the first spadeful of earth, and hear the loud cheers which make the welkin ring! Behold every one now pressing forward to lend a helping hand-even the malcon- tents, catching the spirit of the hour, hurrying to the front and taking part in the good work. There was a moral grandeur in such a spectacle, in the initiation of such an enterprise,-of turning to practical account, of thus giving a right direction to the industry of the people.
It was no holiday task, but, for that little community, without accumu- ted capital or mechanical appliances, a prodigious undertaking. The com- pletion of the work,-and it was completed in due time,-ameliorated the condition of the settlers, and it was from time to time followed by other improvements. Thus we see that on the 19th of May, 1749, this order en- tered of record by the County Court : " That Jas. Montgomerie, and 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 court-house of Lunenburg to meet the road already cleared by the inhabitants of Au- gusta."
A good road, for those days, having been constructed over the moun- tains to the East, the people used it to market their produce, furs, cattle, etc., obtaining, in return, all necessary articles, and sometimes the luxu- ries and elegancies of life. The parties which brought in these supplies were so large that they were called Caravans. Soon shops, called " stores," and still so called, were established, and dealers supplied the public wants. About this time a division of labor occurred, and carpenters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, masons, tailors and shoemakers set up their trades. Work was now done at home, which hitherto, with much delay and expense, was executed at a distance.
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