USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 6
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
In the absence of a system of laws, order was preserved and individual rights protected by virtue of public opinion and what is termed the forest code, - that mysterious power of public opinion, which it is impossible to resist, and than which nothing is more unsteady, more vague or more powerful, and which, capricious though it may be, is nevertheless just and reasonable more frequently than is supposed,-and that backwoodsman's code (a relentless and martial one it is), written in the constitution of their natures and the circumstances of their position. Every State must have its policies, kingdoms have edicts, cities have their charters, and even the wild outlaw, in his forest walks, keeps yet some touch of civil discipline. It is not easy for those never subjected to frontier trials to understand the fierce wrongs which sometimes heat the pioneers' strong passions to the fever point, and the necessity for this martial code. As to the forest code, it is well known that the punishments inflicted by it were well adapted to secure the end in view. Hazing was one of the punishments under it, and intended either to reform or expel an obnoxious character. The term hazing was not then in use, but the practice prevailed, and base conduct on the part of a man led to his being hazed out, or, as the pioneers styled it, " hated out" of the community. The unlucky individual who aroused public indignation was forced to make atonement and to reform, or incur the worse penalty of banishment. This mode of chastisement was com- mon among the Greeks, and is an effectual remedy. Few men have the hardihood to face the general indignation of an outraged community.
Two crimes met with peculiar punishment at the hands of the pioneers,- the first, theft, which was held in such detestation that the culprit was ban- ished, but not before thirty-nine lashes were well laid unon his bare back. The second, seduction, which was punished by death. To extort a confes- sion, they sometimes resorted to the torture of sweating ; that is, suspend- ing the accused by the arms pinioned behind his back until he confessed. Thus the stern morality of the leaders became the prop and support of their government. We need not enter further upon the forest code, the spirit and effect of which is clearly seen from the foregoing.
Our sketch would be incomplete without a reference to some of the social customs and rural superstitions of the pioneers. When new comers arrived, or young married people contemplated housekeeping, all united to build them a dwelling. When land was cleared, all aided, as also at har- vest, hay-making, and other busy seasons. In times of danger, all men performed military duty, and no case is on record of a pioneer seeking to evade such service. As a rule, the men were brave and the women pretty, seeming to have inherited virtue and valor from their adventurous ances- tors. Personal difficulties, when they could not be amicably adjusted by the good offices of friends, were settled by wager of battle-a primitive mode of deciding causes between parties of high antiquity among the rude
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
military people of Europe. This mode of settling disputes made people more conservative and less vulgar in expressing their opinions of others than is common now-a-days. Family pride in Augusta was always great, and family honor was jealously guarded. Such was the chivalric character of our forefathers, that no personal insult or injury to a man or a member of his family was unavenged. Thus it was that crime and license were prevented from distorting humanity in the infantile colony.
People in those days dressed plainly, in half-savage, half-civilized style ; the men generally in a hunting shirt, a kind of loose frock, resembling the Roman tunic, fastened by a belt or girdle about the waist, with loose sleeves, and a cape to throw off the rain. In the belt of the tunic the Roman carried his money-in the hunting shirt the pioneer stored away his luncheon. By his side was suspended his knife and tomahawk, both in leathern cases. The hunting-shirt was made of Linsey-Wolsey, or dressed deer skin for Winter, and of tow linen for Summer. The breeches were usually of the same material, and the feet were encased in mocca- sins.
Previous to the Revolution, the married men usually shaved their heads, and either wore wigs or white linen caps-a custom adopted, no doubt, from the severity of our Summer climate, the heats of which are beyond anything prevailing in Western Europe. The women dressed, ordinarily, in the same plain stuff, woven, during the first twenty years of the colony, by themselves, for they were skilled at the loom and spinning-wheel, thus exemplifying Probs. xxxi .: "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hand holdeth the distaff." Their duties were to educate their children, take care of their household, and live retired with their families ; their pleasures, to visit, give feasts, where there was much mirth and enjoyment. They were spiritual and healthful women, and wholly unaffected by that worldliness which so often depraves in fashionable society all the powers and faculties of the soul. From these peerless women sprung the heroic sons whose deeds have since made Virginia famous the world over. We trust the young women of the present day will not be unmindful of their bright example, or despise the duties of ordinary life. There is no position which exonerates a woman from the discharge of female duties, and the higher her talents, the more cultivated her understanding, the better regulated will be her household, the more eminently qualified will she be to per- form all the duties of her station, whether it be of high or low degree.
Thus on the frontier grew up a race of vigorous and spirited men, pure and virtuous women, and within a few years the " wilderness ceased to be their habitation, a barren land their dwelling-place." Though remote from the world of ton and commerce, they were eminently a happy peo- ple-their peace and morals not contaminated with the vices of fashionable life, the rooted depravity of a pretended civilization and a spurious and
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
mock Christianity. The mass of them were poor, it is true, but their poverty might be styled the truest riches, since those who want le.ist ap- proach nearest the gods, who want nothing.
The first settlers of Augusta, as their names indicate, were Scotch and Irish, but soon a few English and many Germans and persons of German lineage, from Pennsylvania, joined the community. Each party brought with them the religion, habits and customs of their ancestors, and this led to the erection of churches of different denominations and to a variety of little social circles, which, however, were never at any time very exclusive. The prevalence of German names evidences that a considerable part of the immigrants were of Teutonic origin. The superior intelligence of the people was due to the fact that the county was populated with adults, and it requires both talent and enterprise to produce voluntary change of country. It may be assumed with confidence as a truth, in our opinion, that there was as much talent, intelligence and spirit in the people of Augusta in 1732-'50, as falls to the lot of any equal number of people in the world.
As the country was, while this influx of immigrants was flowing in, without roads, immigrants made their way into the interior on foot or horseback, following the Indian or buffalo trails, or guided by blazed trees, carrying their worldly goods upon their backs or in packs lashed to horses or mules, crossing water courses on a fallen tree, which served as a bridge, or, in case of rivers or high water, swimming the streams. The men had, for the most part, seen military service in Europe, and became inured, in Pennsylvania, to the hardships of frontier life. The experience of the women must have been terribly severe, though doubtless every possible effort was made to ameliorate their situation. These immi- grants are uniformly represented to have been, as a rule, men of staid habits, sterling worth, of high spirit, and untiring energy. And this is no doubt strictly true, for it is only, let us repeat, the courageous and self-reliant who venture on such enterprises. The houses of the pioneers were built of wood and covered with clap-boards : the flooring was split puncheons, smoothed with the broad-axe; the chimneys of stone, or brick dried in the sun. Their furniture was rudely fashioned from the timbers of the forest, oak, walnut, maple; their beds stuffed with feathers from the backs of their geese. It was not until long after 1732, that the pewter plates, dishes and spoons, wooden bowls, treanchers and noggins, strangely mingled on the pioneer's table with family plate brought from Europe by some of the settlers, were replaced by glass, china and silver ware.
Let no one imagine from the rudeness and simplicity of their dwellings and furniture that our conclusions are hastily drawn as to the cultivation and refinement of the early settlers. The people were restrained in im- provements by want of labor, the absence of machinery, tools, &c.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTT.
Moreover, the industry of the community was specially directed to the fields, where it was certain of an ample reward. as a means of supplying not only their own wants, but the heavy demands of incoming parties of stran- gers. And their immediate wants were for the necessaries, not the luxuries of life.
In front of every house a garden was cultivated in flowers, and hard by in a truck patch, their vegetables. They nourished their bodies by the same earth out of which they were made, and to which all must return. Water was their pure and innocent beverage, though they sometimes in- dulged in the luxury of blackberry wine or spruce beer.
In the elegant mansions of the present, where one sees displayed the delicacies of every clime, served on plate from the mines of Potosi or Nevada, and which contain accumulated treasures of mahogany, uphol- stery, pictures, china, glass, etc., one can scarcely realize the brief period within which these transformation scenes have occurred. Our young men no longer disport Linsey-Wolsey hunting-shirts and bear-skin moccasins, but are clothed in fine linen and patent-leather boots. Verily, "Jeroboam has clad himself with new garments."
On arriving in the settlement, the first work which engaged the colonist was the erection of such log huts, or cabins, as we have described. A site having been selected, a hut was erected of round or rifted logs. Each family was supplied by the common labor of all with these rude dwellings, and in a few days after ending their journey the little community of in- comers was put under cover of their own roof. The sites of the settle- ments were always in or alongside of groves, near some spring of pure water. These log huts, which were built around a square, were united by palisades, and thus presented a wooden wall to their enemies. The doors opened into the common square, on the inner side. As an additional protection, around the whole settlement a stockade inclosure was built, with block-houses at the angles, and these rude fortifications formed an impregnable barrier against the red skins. These block-houses were two stories high, the upper story projecting over the lower, that the inmates might discharge their rifles from above upon an enemy. They were of such strength that they afforded perfect security to those within, if the efforts of the Indians to burn them by lighted arrows could be prevented. These cabins, block-houses and stockades were constructed without the aid of a nail or spike.
The two first buildings of a public kind which were erected were the church, or "meeting-house," and the school-house, where religion and the elements of a sound and liberal education were taught, and by the same instructors-the Presbyterian clergymen. Those pious, patient, laborious men, who brought to the wilderness the cultivation and refinement of Europe, became the preceptors of little grammar schools at their own
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
houses, or in the immediate neighborhoods, and gave their pupils a thorough if not extensive course of education. In a word, these good men formed the youth of Augusta, taught them to love their country and to honor their parents, and by their examples and admirable lessons sought to engage them more warmly in the pursuit of virtue. The first of these teachers in Augusta was Rev. John Craig, who did not confine himself to penman- ship, history and mathematics, but in his course embraced a classical edu . cation. In these schools all received the rudiments of education, and those who wished to pursue a more elaborate course entered the schools of Eastern Virginia- among which may be mentioned that of Rev. James Waddell, where William and Charles Lewis were trained. And in the year 1749, the "Augusta Academy " was established, near the present town of Lexington. In 1782, it was organized, by a charter, as Liberty Hall Academy, and in 1796, Geo. Washington transferred to the institution a gift from the State of Virginia to him for his services in the Revolution, of 100 shares of his James river canal stock, and subsequently the Legisla- ture made this amount $50,000. The name was then changed to Wash- ington Academy, and, in 1813, to Washington College. From these be- ginnings sprang Washington and Lee University, now one of the principal seats of learning in the South-an institution in which the leading men of Virginia have always manifested a deep interest, and among whose list of trustees the names of such distinguished men appear as Col. Arthur Campbell, Gen. Andrew Moore, Judge Arch'd Stuart, Col. James McDow- ell, Gen. Sam'l Blackburn, Hon. John Brown, Hon. Allen Taylor, Rev. George Baxter, Hon. James McDowell, Hon. John Howe Peyton, Charles L. Mosby, Esq., Hon. J. W. Brokenborough, Judge Wm. Mclaughlin, Rev. Wm. S. White, etc.
In 1865, after the surrender of the Confederate armies, Gen. Lee was appointed President of the University, and on his death, in 1870, the name was changed from Washington College to Washington and Lee Univer- sity. Since, it has steadily increased in prosperity and usefulness.
Ignorant and illiberal foreigners have, until recently, reproached America with a want of scholars and literary men-thus ungenerously in- sinuating that our soil is unfavorable to letters, or our people so degraded as to take a pleasure in condemning to obscurity everything formed to diffuse lustre and glory around a state. It is unnecessary to descant on such a fallacy. The local and temporary causes which have retarded our literary development were a virgin soil to be brought under cultivation, roads, canals, bridges, and every kind of public work to be constructed, and this, too, by a sparse and scattered population, inadequately supplied with im- plements of industry, entirely without capital, and pressed by their own personal necessities. Ours was a country of proprietors, it is true, but every proprietor was a laborer. What opportunity, what leisure, had
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
such a people to devote to letters? "The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure; and he that hath little business shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad ; that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors ; and whose talk is of bullocks." -- [Ecclesiasticus : c. 38, v. 24-25.]
But to return from this digression. When cultivation was going on around these stockade forts, strong places, or infant settlements, pickets were posted to give warning of an enemy's approach. The women and children, when an alarm was raised, retired within the stockade, but the men, seizing their rifles and taking to the trees, contested every inch of ground, rarely seeking the shelter of the fort until every effort to drive off the red skins failed.
Until a supply of domestic animals was reared, one of the most impor- tant employments of the men was the taking of game. This was styled hunting, and included the pursuit of both hairy and feathered game. The fur obtained from the wild beast found ready sale east of the mountains, and thus gave them the means of supplying their necessities. The Au- tumn was devoted to hunting until a Winter's supply of meat was secured. The pioneers soon learned the habits of wild animals, and knew where to find them in all the different stages of the weather. They became guides, hunters, trappers, soldiers, knew every mountain peak and valley, every path and stream. They were fleet and agile as the deer, tireless as the red man, and as indifferent to hunger and cold. The following was one of their devices for taking wild beasts : Wolf pits, fox holes, or bear traps, were excavations thus formed : a hole was dug, say ten feet deep, small at the top and growing wider on all sides as it descended, sloping inwards so much that no beast could climb up. Two sticks were fastened together in the middle at right angles, the longer one confined in the ground, and the shorter-to the inner end of which was attached the bait-swinging across the middle of the pit, so that when the wild beast attempted to seize it, he was precipated to the bottom.
As the means of support were easily procured, the cost of living mode- rate, the inhabitants married young, families were large, and the increase of population astonishingly rapid. A brief description of a wedding may not inappropriately, in this connection, be introduced in further illustration of frontier life. The few indoor amusements of the early settlers made a wedding a social event of the highest importance. It attracted the atten- tion of the entire settlement, and was anticipated by old and young with impatient delight. From the house of his father, the groom, attended by his best man and friends, proceeded, on the morning of the happy day, to the home of the bride-elect. Here, the bride and bride's-maids, mounted on fine horses, joined the party, and they made their way to the clergy- . man's. The ceremony performed, the cavalcade set out on the return to
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
the bride's residence, and now what was called running, or racing, for the bottle occurred. While the wedding party was absent, the father, or next friend of the bride, prepared at the bride's residence a bottle of the best spirits, around the neck of which a white ribbon was tied. When within a mile or two of the house, on their return from the clergyman's, the young men prepared to race for the bottle. Taking an even start, their horses were put at full speed, dashing over mud, rocks, stumps, in total disregard of all impediments. The race was run with as much desire to win as is ever manifested on the turf. The father or next friend of the bride, expecting the racers, stood with the bottle in his hand, ready to de- liver it to the successful competitor. On getting it, he forthwith returned to meet the bride, to whom the bottle was presented, and who must at least taste it, then the groom and the attendants. Arrived at the bride's home, instead of the champagne breakfast of the present, with its Bohe- mian glass and épergnes of silver, its lobster salad, savory jellies, etc., a substantial dinner awaited them. It was generally dinner time when the party returned from the clergyman's. During the dinner, and while the healths were being drunk in blackberry wine or spruce beer, dashed with whiskey, the wedding cake was cut and handed about. The bride's father proposed the health of the bride and groom. They replied themselves, or by friends, and generally with such wit and humor as to bring down the house. After the speechifying, during which there was great hilarity, the gentlemen retired to the shade-trees until the preparations for dancing were completed. Before this, we must not omit to mention, while din- ner was progressing, the custom of stealing the bride's shoe was ob- served. This custom is said to have afforded heart-felt amusement to the guests. To succeed in it the utmost dexterity was required on the part of the younger portion of the company, while equal vigilance was manifested by the attendants to defend her against the theft ; and, if they failed, they were in honor bound to pay a penalty, a bottle of wine, for the redemption of the shoe. As a punishment to the bride, she was not allowed to dance until the shoe was restored. The successful robber, on getting possession of the shoe, held it up in triumph to the view of the assemblage.
Dancing having once commenced, it did not stop until the light of the- following morning. If any of the dancers showed signs of weariness, there were loud cries to the musicians from the others to strike up with, " Hang out till to-morrow morning."
While the dance was proceeding, the bride made her escape, and the groom, under the guidance of the best man, was soon snugly by her side. If it was a wedding among the Germans, the young people were now ad- mitted to the bed-chamber, and another custom was observed. A stock- ing rolled into a ball was given to the young females, who, one after the other, would go to the foot of the bed, stand with their backs to it, and
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
throw the stocking over their shoulders at the bride's head, and the first who succeeded in touching her cap or head, was the next to be married. The young men then threw the stocking at the groom's head, in like man- ner, with the like motive, and hence their eagerness and dexterity in throw- ing the stocking. These gaieties were kept up for several days at the houses of the parents, until the whole company, completely exhausted by loss of sleep, retired for a long rest, which was necessary before they could return to their ordinary avocations. There was no bridal tour in those days-no traveling dress was to be assumed. Within a few days of the marriage ceremony, on a plot of land given by one of the parents, preparations were made for building the young couple a residence. This rustic edifice hav- ing been finished and furnished, the house-warming took place. This consisted of a stout meal similar to the marriage dinner, followed by a night's dancing, after which the happy pair were left to themselves. As far as the means of the respective parents would admit of it, they aided the young couple. In all of their affairs our fathers were prudent and economical, but not mean or niggardly. They knew that extreme avarice is folly, and that to make a proper use of the goods of this world, is to enjoy them. They therefore not only lived well themselves, but assisted the young married of their households to do likewise.
There were no towns of consequence in the early days of Augusta. The churches were all in the country, and around these was the burial-place or grave-yard. Owing to the absence of doctors and the want of medi- cines, many died who might have been easily cured.
The following were the principal diseases among the pioneers, and their specifics, mode of treatment, &c., in the absence of any disciple of Escu- lapius :
They gave a solution of common salt, sulphate of iron, or green cop- peras, to children afflicted with worms.
Roasted onions and garlic, for croup.
Slippery elm bark was applied to burns.
A purging pill was made from the inner bark of the white walnut tree. For snake bite, the snake was killed and cut into pieces, split open and laid on the wound to draw out the poison. The wound was then poul- ticed with the boiled leaves of the chesnut. After this the snake was burnt to ashes.
Another remedy was a poultice made of the white plantain. As a ma- jority of the settlers were from Ireland, where no poisonous reptiles are found, it is doubtless from the Indians they learned these treatments.
Cupping, sucking the wound, and making deep incisions, which were filled with salt and gunpowder, were among the earliest remedies for snake bites used by the whites, and may be regarded in the light of experiments in the healing art.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
Since this work went to press, the efficacy of one of the above modes of treatment has been tested in the writer's family, as will be seen by the fol- lowing extract from the Staunton (Va.) VALLEY VIRGINIAN of July 20. 1882:
A SERIOUS SNAKE BITE .-- On Tuesday last, as Col. Peyton and family were crossing North Mountain, fifteen miles from Staunton, for an outing in the Shenandoah mountains, his bright and intelligent little son, Law- rence, who was walking up the mountain with his mother and a man-ser- vant, stepped upon a moccasin snake coiled under a tuft of grass on the roadside. The venomous reptile instantly struck his fangs deep into the leg of the little fellow, who sprang forward, crying out that he was bitten. The Colonel jumped from his carriage and immediately put his lips to the wound and sucked out the poison, sucking until he had raised a blister. He then steeped the wound in French brandy, and ordered the coachman to return, only delaying a moment to kill the snake, by which time the child's leg was much swollen and very painful. Upon reaching home, Law- rence was placed under the skillful treatment of Dr. Gibson, and is now, we are glad to say, rapidly recovering. We congratulate Colonel and Mrs. Peyton upon what, but for his heroic treatment in extracting the poi- son, would have proved a fatal calamity.
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