USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 18
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Dr. Walker's report of his discoveries to the Loyal Company must have been satisfactory. Though it was greatly hampered by the Ohio Company, it made strenuous effort to anticipate that company in finding and loeating the best lands in the New River territory and in the Clineh and Holston valleys. In fact, in October, following Dr. Walker's return from his exploring tour in 1750, the Loyal Company had one surveyor and possibly others at active work in the Holston and Clinch valleys. As previously stated, John Buchanan, on October 14th, 1750. surveyed the "Crabapple Orchard" tract, at Pisgah, three miles west of Tazewell, for John Shelton, it being the same boundary that Thomas Witten settled on in 1767. And on the 16th of October, Buchanan surveyed another traet of 1,000 acres on a "Braneh of Clinch River," for Shelton. Both of these tracts were located under the grant of 800,000 to the Loyal Company. Summers says: "About this time the 'Ohio Com- pany entered a caveat against the 'Loyal Company,' and the 'Loyal Company' got into a dispute with Colonel James Patton, who had an unfinished grant below where this company were to begin, and no further progress was made until June 14th, 1753."
Notwithstanding these obstructions to its enterprise, Dr. Walker, and other surveyors of the company, by the end of the year 1754 had loeated 224 tracts of land in Southwest Virginia, aggregating more than 45,000 aeres. Most of these lands were sold to prospee- tive settlers, and a goodly number had been promptly occupied by the purchasers.
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Though the "Ohio Company" did not get its exploring agent, Christopher Gist, into the field until October, 1750, after starting he was quite as energetic in the prosecution of the work for his company as Dr. Walker had proved to be in his performances for the Loyal Company. As before related, Christopher Gist set out on his exploring expedition, from his home on the Potomac River. in October, 1750. Following the instructions of his employers. he crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and passed through what is now West Virginia to the Ohio River and explored the country along that stream as far down as the Great Falls, where the city of Louis- ville is now located. He devoted the entire winter of 1750-51 to exploring Kentucky. In the spring of 1751 he reached the Cumber- land Mountain at Pound Gap, and came through that gap to the southeast side of the Cumberland range, entering the present Wise County, Virginia. Then he traveled down Gist River (now called Guest's River) to the Powell and Clinch valleys. From that region he made his way northeastward, pursuing very nearly the same route that Dr. Walker had followed the preceding summer. His course was along what is named on the maps the "Dividing Ridge," which divides the watersheds of the Clinch and Sandy valleys. It is possible that he was also making notes of the coal and other minerals, and that he was at or in the vicinity of Pocahontas. He passed through Mereer and Summers counties, West Virginia, and on Tuesday, the 7th day of May, 1751, crossed the New River at a point near what is known as Crump's Bottom, one of the finest boundaries of land in the Middle New River section. This fine estate is now owned and occupied, by a Tazewell man. George W. Harman, a descendant of Mathias Harman, the mighty Indian fighter. Summers says, in his History of Southwest Virginia, that, after crossing New River, Gist traveled in an easterly direction and that :
"On Saturday, the 11th, he came to a very high mountain, upon the top of which was a lake or pond about three-fourths of a mile long northeast and southwest, and one-fourth of a mile wide, the water fresh and clear. its borders a clean gravely shore about ten yards wide, and a fine meadow with six springs in it.
"From this description, it is evident that Gist visited Salt Lake mountain, in Giles county, Va., as early as 1751, and found the lake as it now is.
"It is evident from this journal that the traditions that we so
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often hear repeated about this lake are nothing more than mythical, and that this lake existed as it now is at the time of the earliest explorations of the white man."
Commenting on these assertions of Summers, the late Judge David E. Johnston, in his "History of the Middle New River Set- tlements," says: "If tradition well authenticated is to be taken when supported by well attested evidence, then Christopher Gist never saw Mountain Lake in Giles county. The earliest settlers in the vicinity of the lake and who lived longest, left the unbroken tradition that when they first knew the place where the lake now exists there was a deep depression between the mountains into which flowed the water from one of the springs which found its outlet at the northeastern portion of the depression, and in this gorge or depression was a favorite salting ground in which the settlers salted their cattle by whose continued tramping the crevices through which the water from the springs found an escape, became elosed and the depression began to fill with water. This filling began in 1804 and by 1818 the water in the depression had risen to about one-half its present height."
As late as the summer of 1861, the writer of this volume had intimate association with a gentleman who had owned the basin previous to the existence of the lake in question and while it was forming. This gentleman was Hon. Henley Chapman, the most distinguished citizen Giles County has ever produced, and one of the pioneers of that section. His father was John Chapman, who moved with his family from Culpeper County to the Shenandoah. Valley in 1766; and after living in that valley two years came on to New River, where he settled at the mouth of Walker's Creek, in the present Giles County, in 1768. His son, Henley, was born there, where he lived an honored citizen until the year 1864. He was a lawyer by profession, was the first Commonwealth's Attorney of Giles County, one of the first attorneys who qualified to practice law in the county court of Tazewell County after its organization in 1800, and was a member of the convention that framed the Vir- ginia Constitution of 1829.
Mr. Chapman told me that he owned the place where Mountain Lake is now seen, and ranged his cattle, as did other settlers, on the mountain thereabout; and that he and others used the basin as a salting ground for their cattle. His account of the formation of the lake was precisely the same as that given by Judge Johnston.
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I was fourteen years old in 1861, and was spending the summer with my uncle, Albert G. Pendleton, who then lived at "Fort Branch", just southeast of Pearisburg, where Judge Martin B. Williams now lives. During this visit I went to the "Salt Pond," as it was then called, with a party of young people, among whom were two grand- sons and two granddaughters of Mr. Chapman. Even at that early age I was intensely interested in the local history of Southwest Virginia, and an ardent lover of its great physical beauty. The splendid lake of fresh water on the summit of the lofty mountain made a deep impression upon my young mind and heart. Together with the Chapman boys, I rowed out on the lake in a small boat ; and we could see large forest trees still standing erect in the lake, beneath the crystal water. After returning from the expedition to the "Salt Pond" I made a visit of several days at Mount Pleasant, the home of Mr. Chapman, near the mouth of Walker's Creek. The old gentleman was very fond of playing checkers, and was the best player I ever tackled. While we were playing checkers in his room I mentioned the "Salt Pond" and my recent visit to it; and he said the trees I had seen in the lake were there, alive and full of foilage in the summer time, when he salted his cattle in the basin. and before the water began to accumulate in a body.
The testimony I have cited is not tradition, but is given by a man who was born and reared within a dozen miles of "Salt Pond," and had actual personal knowledge of the origin of the lake. It proves beyond a doubt that Gist could not have seen the "Salt Pond," as it was not in existence when he made his exploring trip in 1750 for the Ohio Company. Moreover his description of the physical surroundings of the lake do not correspond with those of the "Salt Pond." The "gravelly shore about ten yards wide." and "a fine meadow with six fine springs in it." are physical impossi- bilities at the location of "Salt Pond," on "Salt Pond Mountain." The very name fixes the origin of the lake. It was never called Mountain Lake until after the Civil War, when it was purchased by General Haupt, of Pennsylvania, from the heirs of Henley Chap- man. I visited the "Salt Pond" again in August, 1871, ten years after my first visit. It then presented the same appearance, and, from a boat, the forest trees were still visible, still standing erect in the transparent water.
When Dr. Thomas Walker made his second exploring visit to that portion of Southwest Virginia which lies west of New River.
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a current of immigration had already started in this direction. He found settlers all along the Upper Roanoke Valley. at Draper's Meadows, and the Dunkard colony at Dunkard's Bottom on the west side of New River. On Reed Creek. near Max Meadows, he lodged with James McCall and bought from him a supply of bacon for his exploring party. In the Middle Holston Valley, at a point somewhere between Marion and Seven Mile Ford. he found Samuel Stalnaker preparing for a permanent settlement, and the Walker party gave a day to helping the pioneer "raise" his house. Stal- naker, it seems, was then the most advanced settler west of New River; and when Dr. Walker and his companions separated from him. Walker wrote in his journal: "We left the Inhabitants."
Dr. John Hale, in his intensely interesting book, the "Trans- Alleghany Pioneers," states that the settlement at Draper's Meadows was made in 1748. It is evident that the first settlers at that place came in the wake of the Patton-Walker exploring expedition of that year. They consisted, so far as is known, of Thomas Ingles and his three sons, William, Matthew, and John : Mrs. George Draper and her son, John, and daughter, Mary; Adam Harmon. Henry Lenard. and James Burke. Their homes were built upon the present site and lands of the Virginia Poly- technic Institute, at Blacksburg. the land they occupied being pur- chased from Colonel Patton. The Ingles, the Harmons and James Burke were later on prominent figures in the settlement of the Clinch Valley and Burke's Garden. In the spring of 1749, Adam Harmon moved from Draper's Meadows to the New River Valley and settled at the place now known as Eggleston's Springs. Very soon thereafter Philip Lybrook moved in and settled on New River, near the mouth of Sinking Creek, about three miles below Harmon ; and a little later on the Snidows, Chapmans and others came from the Shenandoah Valley and settled near Lybrook. There were other settlements made about the same time at several points in the present counties of Pulaski, Wythe and Smyth; but no permanent settlements were made in the present Tazewell County until nearly twenty years after Colonel Patton's first visit to Burke's Garden, in 1748, and Dr. Walker's visit to the coal bearing regions about Poca- hontas. in 1750.
Colonel Thomas L. Preston. in his Reminiscences of an Octo- genarian. says, that in 1749 Colonel Patton and William Ingles went to Burke's Garden and located and surveyed land there. This statement. I believe, is incorrect. The records in the Land Office
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of Virginia show that Colonel Patton and William Ingles surveyed lands in Burke's Garden for Ingles, acting under the 800,000 acre grant to the Loyal Company, in 1753. In the same year they sur- veyed traets for William Ingles on the headwaters of Clineh River and on Bluestone Creek in Abb's Valley. The patent for the Abb's Valley tract was issued to William Ingles on the 5th of July, 1774, and was for 1,000 aeres, situated in Abb's Valley on the waters of Bluestone Creek, a branch of New River. The patents for the boundaries in Burke's Garden and on the branches of Clinch River were not issued until November 1783; and were then issued to Wil- liam Christian and Daniel Trigg, as Executors of William Ingles, deceased. Ingles had not completed his titles to these traets pre- vious to his death, owing to causes that will hereafter be mentioned. His executors brought a suit in the District Court of Montgomery County to perfeet the title of their deeedent to various traets of land. The District Court entered a deeree in favor of the executors, and the ease was appealed by the opposing litigant to the Court of Appeals of Virginia. On the 2nd day of May, 1783, the Court of Appeals entered a deeree confirming the deeree of the Distriet Court, and ordered that patents be issued to William Christian and Daniel Trigg, Executors of William Ingles, for two traets of land, one of 345 aeres and one of 200 acres, situated in Burke's Garden, as per surveys made on April 18th, 1753, under order of Council, which gave authority to the Loyal Company to take up and survey 800,000 aeres of land west of the Alleghany Mountains. And shortly afterward patents were issued to the said executors of Wil- liam Ingles for five traets of 140 acres, 70 aeres, 61 acres, 210 aeres, and 131 aeres, respectively, all situated on the headwaters of Clineh River.
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CHAPTER III
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
In 1754 what is known in history as The French and Indian War was begun, and it was not concluded until the year 1763. It was the beginning of the final struggle between France and England for supreme control of the North American Continent. The war was occasioned by three distinct causes, and the first of these was the conflicting claims of these two nations for a large part of the territory now embraced in the United States. England claimed by right of discovery nearly all the territory south of Canada, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, basing her claim upon the discoveries made by Scbastian Cabot. France, however, asserted superior title to the territory because she had been the first to establish colonies on the St. Lawrence River and its tribu- taries. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, France had pushed her explorations westward along the shores of the Great Lakes to the headwaters of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Wisconsin, and St. Croix rivers; and southward through the Valley of the Mississippi to the-Gulf of Mexico. These explorations were begun by zealous Jesuit missionaries, for the dual purpose of converting the natives to Catholicism and to secure the vast territory as a possession of France. Charles Raymbault was the pioneer among these Jesuit explorers. He made his way over the waters of Lake Huron, and passed through the Straits and explored Lake Superior in 1641. For the succeeding thirty years the Jesuits prosecuted their explorations and missionary enterprises with unabated ardor. In 1682 Robert de La Salle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico; and in 1684, he brought a colony from France to Mata- gorda Bay and established it in Texas; and attached that territory to the province of Louisiana. By the year 1688 France had planted colonies, built forts and placed garrisons in them at Frontenac, at Niagara, at the Straits of Mackinaw, and on the Illinois River. And by the year 1750 the French had made permanent settlements at Detroit, at the mouth of St. Joseph, at Green Bay, at Vincennes, at Kaskaskia, at Fort Rosalie, where Natchez is located; and at the head of the Bay of Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico. The English Government had not pushed its frontiers beyond the Alleghany Mountains, though Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, in 1716 had
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recommended that the Virginia settlements be advanced to the lakes and westward as far as possible, to prevent the French from joining the "Dominion of Canada to their new colony of Louisiana." All that was necessary for France to do to effect the union of her Dominion of Canada with her Province of Louisiana was to occupy the Ohio Valley. This she was seeking to accomplish, and, in fact, was doing when the French and Indian War was precipitated in 1754.
The second cause for this war was the long nourished hatred between France and England as nations. This bitter animosity was the outgrowth of racial antipathies and religious prejudices. The French people were of the Gallic race, while the people of England were of mingled Teutonic and Celtic blood. France had been for many years the leading Catholic country of Europe, and England was the first among the Protestant nations. When to these racial antipathies and religious prejudices was added intense commercial jealousies between the American colonies of the two nations, war became inevitable. And when the French began to build forts on the disputed territory, and sought to monopolize the fur trade of the Indians, Great Britain realized that she would have to repel the encroachments of her enemy or be forced to con- fine her territorial possessions to the country east of the Alleghanies. Governor Spottswood had given warning in 1716 that these condi- tions would arise, unless Great Britain built forts and established settlements west of the Alleghanies, and even on the shores of the Great Lakes.
The third cause of the war was more potent and immediate than either of the other two. It was the jealousy that existed between the French traders of Canada and the traders from Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania, who were competing for the fur trade with the Indians on the Ohio River and its tributaries. As has been repeatedly stated, Virginia made claim under the charters given by James I. to all the territory embraced in the present states of West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and the portions of Michigan and Wisconsin that lie east of the Mississippi River. Her claim was vindicated by the treaty of Paris in 1763. The French traders continued to invade the territory of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania. The "Ohio Company" was organized in 1750 for the pur- pose of taking possession of a part of the disputed territory, and thereby stop the encroachments of France. This company was com- posed of Virginians, among whom were Governor Dinwiddie, Law-
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rence and Augustus Washington, and Thomas Lee, the latter then being president of the Virginia Council. The company obtained a grant for 500,000 acres of land to be located between the Kanawha and Monongahela Rivers, or on the northern branch of the Ohio River. One of the provisions of the grant was that the lands should be rent free for ten years, but requiring the company to settle one hundred families thereon in seven years.
In October, 1753, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, sent George Washington, then a young surveyor, as a commissioner or messenger with a protest to General St. Pierre, who was commander of the French forces in the West and was stationed at Erie. This action, it is likely, was largely procured by the "Ohio Company," of which Dinwiddie and the two Washingtons were conspicuous members. The official communication which George Washington bore to St. Pierre warned the French authorities against further intrusions upon the territory of Virginia. This mission of the young com- missioner was a serious one, and the journey was attended with mueh danger and severe hardships. Washington's party consisted of himself and four armed companions and an interpreter; and Christopher Gist, agent and explorer of the Ohio Company, acted as guide. They traveled up the Potomac and its tributaries, erossed the mountains to the headwaters of the Ohio River, and followed those streams down to the site of Pittsburgh. Then they proceeded to Logstown and held a eouneil with the Indians, who renewed their pledges of friendship to the English colonists and fidelity to the British Government. From Logstown the party went to the French fort at Venango, and the officers stationed at that post made no eoneealment of the intention of France to unite the Dominion of Canada with the Province of Louisiana by taking possession of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. From Venango, Washington traveled through the forest to Fort le Bœuf, which was situated on French Creek, fifty miles above its junction with the Alleghany River. There he found St. Pierre engaged in strengthening the fortifiea- tions. He was received courteously by the French general, but the latter declined to enter into any discussion with Washington touching the rival elaims of the French and English. St. Pierre informed Washington that he was aeting under instructions from the governor of New France and would obey his orders to the letter. A polite reply to Governor Dinwiddie's communication was given to Washington, in which St. Pierre stated that France elaimed title
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to the Ohio country by virtue of discovery, exploration and occupa- tion; and was resolved to maintain its claims by force of arms, if necessary. While at Fort le Bœuf, Washington discovered that the French had built a fleet of fifty birch-bark canoes and a hundred and seventy boats from pine lumber for transporting men and sup- plies down the river to the junction of the Alleghany and Monon- gahela. The French had recognized the strategie importance of the spot where Pittsburgh is now located and had determined to build a fort there.
It was midwinter when Washington, with Christopher Gist as his sole companion, started on his return journey to Williamsburg, bearing the answer of General St. Pierre to Governor Dinwiddie. The perils and sufferings of that journey are familiar to all inter- ested readers of Virginia and Colonial history. Garbed in an Indian fur robe, with rifle on his shoulder and knapsack on his back, the young patriot tramped and struggled through the wilderness, enduring sufferings from eold and hunger that it would seem impos- sible for any man to withstand; but Washington arrived at Wil- liamsburg in due season and delivered St. Pierre's defiant note to Governor Dinwiddie. This was the first publie service rendered by the future "Father of His Country," and from that time until the day of his death Washington beeame a eentral figure in the affairs of his country, and he still remains the most revered of American patriots.
The Ohio Company, which had earnestly directed the attention of the British Government to the French invasion of the Ohio regions, in the winter of 1753-51 organized a company of thirty- three men and placed it under command of a man by the name of Trent, with orders to procced as quiekly as possible to the source of the Ohio River and build a fort there. This company marehed as instructed, and in March, 1754, arrived at the confluenee of the Alleghany and Monongahela, and built a rude stoekade fort on the present site of Pittsburgh. As soon as the ice gorges in the river were broken up St. Pierre left Venango with his fleet of eanoes and boats, and swept down the river and foreed Trent and his party to withdraw from the country. The French eleared away the forest and began to build à fort, which later became famous in history as Fort Du Quesne.
In the meantime George Washington had been given a com- mission as lieutenant colonel, with authority to raise a regiment of volunteers to go to the relief of Trent and his company. He was
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stationed at Alexandria, but before he could get his regiment organized Trent had been forced to surrender on the 17th of April. Early in May, 1754, Washington set out from Alexandria, with about one hundred and fifty men, to recapture the place surrendered by Trent. He was instructed to march to the source of the Ohio, to construct a fort, and to drive out all persons who opposed the settlement of Englishmen in that region.
On the 26th of May the small force of Virginians arrived at the Great Meadows, about thirty miles south of Pittsburgh. Wash- ington built there a stockade, to which he gave the name of Fort Necessity. His Indian scouts soon discovered that a company of the French was secretly scouting in the vicinity, and Washington determined to surprise and capture the party. Two of the Indians discovered the French concealed in a rocky ravine. The Virginians, with Washington leading them, gun in hand, advanced cautiously upon the enemy; but the French became aware of their approach and siezed their guns, whereupon Washington gave the command, "Fire!" This was the first volley that was fired in the French and Indian War, which did not terminate for nine years. Jumonville, was in command of the French company, and ten of his men were killed and twenty were made prisoners.
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