USA > Virginia > Washington County > Washington County > History of southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870 > Part 10
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Dec. 12, 1770.
Article 1st.
Pursuant therefore to his Majesty's orders to & power and autho- rity vested in John Stuart, Esqr. Agent for and Superintendent of the Affairs of the Indian Tribes in the Southern District: It is agreed upon by the said John Stuart, Esqr. on behalf of his most sacred Majesty, George Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., and by the subscribing Cherokee Chiefs and Warriors on behalf of their said Nation in consideration of his Majesty's paternal goodness, so often demonstrated to them, the said Cherokee Indians, and from their affection and friendship for their Brethren, the Inhabi- tants of Virginia as well as their earnest desire of removing as far as possible all cause of dispute between them and the said inhabi- tants on account of encroachments on lands reserved by the said In- dians for themselves, and also for a valuable consideration in various sorts of goods paid to them by the said John Stuart, on behalf of the Dominion of Virginia that the hereafter recited line be ratified and confirmed, and it is hereby ratified and confirmed ac-
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
cordingly : and it is by these presents firmly stipulated and agreed upon by the parties aforesaid that a line beginning where the boun- dary line between the province of No. Carolina and the Cherokee hunting grounds terminates and running thence in a west course to a point six miles east of Long Island in Holston's river and thence to said river six miles above the said Long Island, thence in a course to the confluence of the Great Canaway and Ohio rivers, shall remain and be deemed by all his Majesty's white subjects as well as all the Indians of the Cherokee Nation, the true and just boundaries of the lands reserved by the said Nation of Indians for their own proper use, and dividing the same from the lands ceded by them to his Majesty's within the limits of the province of Virginia, and that his Majesty's white subjects, inhabiting the pro- vince of Virginia, shall not, upon any pretense whatsoever, settle beyond the said line, nor shall the said Indians make any settlements or encroachments on the lands which by this treaty they cede and confirm to his Majesty; and it is further agreed that as soon as his Majesty's royal approbation of this treaty shall have been signified to the Governor of Virginia or Superintendent, this treaty shall be carried into execution.
Article 2nd.
And it is further agreed upon and stipulated by the contracting parties, that no alteration whatsoever shall henceforward be made in the boundary line above recited, and now solemnly agreed upon, ex- cept such as may hereafter be found expedient and necessary for the mutual interest of both parties, and which alteration shall be made with the consent of the Superintendent or such other person or persons as shall be authorized by his Majesty, as well as with the consent and approbation of the Cherokee Nation of Indians, at a Congress or general meeting of said Indians, to be held for said purpose, and not in any other manner.
In testimony whereof, the said Superintendent, on behalf of his Majesty, and the underwritten Cherokee Chiefs on behalf of their Nation have signed and sealed this present treaty at the time and place aforesaid.
John Stuart, (L. S.)
Oconistoto, YC., (L. C.)
Kittagusta, O., (L. C.)
-
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
Attacallaculla, X., (L. C.)
Keyatoy's mark NG., (L. C.)
Unkayonla, C., (L. C.)
Chuckamuntas, C., (L. C.)
Kinalilaps, NG., (L. C.)
Skyagusta Tucelicis, S., (L. C.)
Wolf of Keewees, G., (L. C.)
Skyagusta Tiftoy, (L. C.)
Terrapino,
(L. C.)
Ency of Tugalo,
(L. C.)
Scaliluskey of Sugar Town, (L. C.)
Thus all claim asserted by both the northern and southern In- dians to any of the lands located within the present bounds of Washington county was extinguished, and the settlement of these lands was greatly expedited thereby. This portion of Virginia now opened to settlement was one vast forest overspreading a limestone soil of great fertility and excellently watered, and this, accompa- nied by the comparative security and quiet succeeding the French- Indian war of 1763, contributed greatly to the rapid settlement of Southwestern Virginia.
In the year 1770, Col. James Knox,* accompanied by about forty hunters from the settlements on New river, Holston and Clinch, passed oved the Cumberland mountains for the purpose of hunting and trapping, and penetrated to the lower Cumberland. They were equipped with their rifles, traps and dogs, and the usual outfit of backwoods hunters, and thus originated the name Long Hunters. The usual mode of hunting followed by what were known as the Long Hunters, in those days, was for not more than two or three men to go in one company, each man having two horses, traps, a large surplus of powder and lead, a small hand vise and bellows and files and screw plates for the purpose of fixing guns, if any should get out of fix. They usually set out from their homes about the first of October and returned the latter part of March or first of April. The most noted Long Hunters were Elisha Walden, William Carr, William Crabtree, James Aldridge, William Pitman and Henry Scaggs.
During the season above mentioned, large numbers of hunters
* Afterwards Gen. Knox. The last named erected a fort near the present site of Knoxville, Tenn., to which was given the name of Fort Knox.
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
visited the valleys of the Holston, Clinch and Powell's rivers, and oftentimes penetrated into the very heart of Kentucky.
In the year 1971, Absalom Looney settled in Abb's Valley, Taze- well county, Virginia, and from him the valley received its name. Thomas Witten and John Greenup settled at Crab Orchard, a few miles west of Tazewell C. H. ; Mathias, Jacob and Henry Harmon settled a few miles east of Tazewell C. H., and John Craven, Joseph Martin, John Henry, James King and John Bradshaw set- tled in Tazewell county, on the headwaters of the Clinch.
In the year 1:11, a company of about twenty men from near the Natural Bridge in Virginia and from the New river settle- ments met about eight miles below Fort Chiswell on New river, whence they traveled to the head of the Holston, and thence down the Holston Valley, and on into Kentucky, where they continued to hunt for about nine months.
The Holston settlements received during this year a large num- ber of emigrants from North Carolina. The government of North Carolina was in the hands of a class of people who were very haughty and oppressive in their manner towards the poorer classes of citizens, which caused great numbers of the people of North Carolina to organize themselves into bands called Regulators. They petitioned Governor Tryon for relief, which was denied ; tu- mult and violence succeeded, the courts were prevented from sit- ting and the laws were disobeyed. The principal ground of com- plaint was that the people were taxed without the right to vote and send representatives to the House of Commons of North Carolina. About three thousand Regulators banded themselves together, and on the 16th of May, 1221. a battle was fought at the Alamance, between the Regulators and the forces commanded by Governor Tryon. The Regulators, being undisciplined and poorly armed, were defeated with the loss of nine killed and many wounded, the Governor's forces having lost twenty-seven killed and many wounded. And thus it is said was fought the first battle of the Revolution, and thus was shed the first blood for the enjoyment of liberty. The Regulators being thus defeated and dispersed, many of their number found homes on the waters of the Holston and Clinch rivers. At this time the settlements extended down the north side of the Holston river as far as Carter's Valley, about fourteen or fifteen miles above Rogersville, Tenn., and that por-
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
tion of the country being supposed to be a part of Virginia, it was soon settled by people from the Wolf Hills in Virginia.
A settlement was made on the Watauga as early as the year 1770, upon the idea that the lands were in Virginia, and that the set- tlers would be entitled to take up the lands given to settlers under the laws of Virginia, to-wit: To each actual settler who should erect a log cabin and cultivate one acre in corn, four hundred acres, located so as to include all improvements, with the right to buy a thousand acres adjoining at a nominal price. Most of the early settlers on the Watauga came from near the Wolf Hills and, being loyal Virginians, they did not contemplate establishing a residence in the State of North Carolina, but thought they were near the boundary between the two States.
In the fall of the year 1771, Anthony Bledsoe ran the boundary line between the Colonies of Virginia and North Carolina, far enough west to ascertain that the Watauga settlement was in North Carolina, and Alexander Cameron, the British agent, immediately ordered the settlers on the Watauga to move off of the Indian lands. James Robertson and John Sevier, two of the leading members of the Watauga settlement, immediately set about to devise ways and means by which they could avoid the order of the British agent. They could not buy the lands from the Indians, because the purchase was prohibited, but there was no law prohibiting a lease of the land, and in the year 1774, the Indians leased to the settlers on the Watauga the lands in the Watauga Valley and all was peace once again.
The stream of emigration that poured over the mountains ex- tended along the Holston as far as Carter's Valley and on the lands belonging to the Indians. They were all from Virginia and of Scotch-Irish descent, their wealth consisting of strong arms and stout hearts.
In the year 1772, James Moore and James Poage settled in Abb's Valley, William Wynn at Locust Hill, John Taylor and Jesse Evans on the north fork of Clinch; Thomas Maxwell, Benja- min Joslin, James Ogleton, Peter and Jacob Harmon, Samuel Ferguson and William Webb, near Tazewell C. H .; Rees Bowen, at Maiden Spring, David Ward in the Cove, and William Garri- son at the foot of Morris' Knob. William Wynn erected a fort on
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
Wynn's Branch, Thomas Witten at Crab Orchard, and Rees Bowen at Maiden Spring.
The early settlers of Southwest Virginia came principally from the Valley of Virginia, western Pennsylvania and Maryland, some of them coming directly from Ireland. They were of a mixed . race, and a large majority were Scotch-Irish. In studying the nationality of the carly settlers of Southwest Virginia, it must be kept in mind that there was a great difference between the people inhabiting the eastern shores of Virginia and the early set- tlers in the mountains of western Virginia. They differed both in their ancestry and in their religion.
The early settlers of Eastern Virginia were English by birth and Episcopalians in religion ; while the carly settlers of Southwest Virginia were Scotch-Irish by birth and Presbyterians in religious belief.
The government of the Colony of Virginia, early in the eigh- teenth century, adopted the policy of offering inducements to the dissenters from the established church to settle and make their homes in the Valley of Virginia and in the Southwest, and thereby sought to establish a barrier between the Indian tribes and the set- tlers east of the mountains.
In the adoption of this policy the government of the Colony of Virginia was actuated by selfish motives; they little dreamed that they were thus giving a foothold to a vigorous people, who were destined to play a strong part in the future history of their country.
The people thus invited to settle the garden spot of Virginia were the sons of the men who followed Cromwell. They were men who regarded themselves, according to Macaulay, as "kings by the right of an earlier creation and priests by the interposition of an Almighty hand." King James I, when speaking of a Scotch Pres- bytery, said, "Presbytery agreeth as well with monarchy as God and the devil." They were Protestants and detested the Catholics, the enemies of their forefathers, and they despised the Episcopalians, their oppressors. They constituted the outposts of our earlier civiliza- tion, their homes being in the mountains. A distinguished writer, in speaking of these people, says: "That these Irish Presbyte- rians were a bold and hardy race is proved by their at once pushing past the settled regions and plunging into the wilderness as the
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
leaders of the white advance. They were the first and last set of emigrants to do this; all others have merely followed in the wake of their predecessors. But indeed they were fitted to be Americans from the very start; they were the kinsfolk of the Covenanters; "they deemed it a religious duty to interpret their own Bible, and held for a divine right the election of their own clergy. The creed of the backwoodsmen who had a creed at all was Presbyterianism, for the Episcopacy of the tidewater lands obtained no foothold in the mountains, and the Methodists and Baptists had but just be- gun to appear in the west,* before the Revolution broke out."
Governor David Campbell, who lived and died at Abingdon, in speaking of these people, says: "The first settlers on Holston river were a remarkable race of people, for their intelligence, enterprise and hardy adventure." The greater portion of them had emi- grated from the counties of Botetourt, Augusta and Frederick, and others from along the same valley and from the upper counties of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and generally, where they had any religious opinions, were Presbyterians.
A very large proportion were religious, and many were mem- bers of the church. It is generally supposed that the motive actuating the early explorers and settlers of this country was the acquisition of wealth, and while such motive may have had its influence on some, we cannot believe that such was the real motive of the great body of our early settlers. The early settlers and forefathers had been persecuted in their homes across the Atlantic because of their independent spirit and their undying fealty to the doctrines taught by Calvin and Knox; and when they crossed the waters they were driven, by the intolerant spirit of the estab- lished church, beyond the lowlands to the very mountains, where they sought a place and opportunity to exercise their religion ac- cording to the dictates of their consciences. The important part played by this people in the early history of our country cannot be overestimated.
Our forefathers were inspired and governed by the same senti- ments that actuated the founders of our nation. The theology of Calvin, the founder of the republic of Geneva, combined with the sturdy independence of the Scotch-Irish settlers of the American colonies, gave birth to our republic. "The first voice raised in
*The Winning of the West, Vol. I., page 138.
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
America to destroy all connection with Great Britain came from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians .* "
The Hon. Wm. C. Preston, of South Carolina, a native of Wash- ington county, in speaking of the resemblance between the consti- tution of the Presbyterian Church and the constitution of our country, said : "Certainly it was the most remarkable and singular coincidence that the constitution of the Presbyterian Church should bear such a close and striking resemblance to the political con- stitution of our country."t
Not only were they the first to demand the separation of the colonies from the mother country, but they were the first to de- mand religious liberty and the separation of Church and State.
Hanover Presbytery, of which the Rev. Chas. Cummings was an honored member, prepared a petition with this object in view and presented it to the General Assembly of Virginia on the 24th of October, 1776, the petition being as follows :
"A memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover was presented to the House, and read : setting forth that they are governed by the same sentiments which have inspired the United States of America, and are determined that nothing in their power and influence shall be wanting to give success to the common cause: that Dissenters from the Church of England in this country have ever been desir- ous to conduct themselves as peaceable members of the civil gov- ernment, for which reason they have hitherto submitted to several ecclesiastick burthens and restrictions, that are inconsistent with equal liberty, but that now when the many and grievous oppres- sions of our mother country have laid this continent under the necessity of casting off the yoke of tyranny, and of forming inde- pendent governments, upon equitable and liberal foundations, they flatter themselves they shall be freed from all the encumbrances which a spirit of domination, prejudice or bigotry hath interwoven with most other political systems : that they are more strongly en- couraged to expect this, by the declaration of rights, so universally applauded for the dignity, firmness and precision with which it delineates and asserts the privileges of society and the prerogatives of human nature, and which they embrace as the Magna Charta of the Commonwealth, which can never be violated without endanger-
*Bancroft's His. U. S., Vol. X., page 77.
¡Scotch-Irish Seeds, page 346.
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
ing the grand superstructure it was destined to support: There- fore they rely upon this declaration, as well as the justice of the Legislature, to secure to them the free exercise of their religion, according to the dictates of their consciences : and that they should fall short in their duty to themselves and to the many and nu- merous congregations under their care, were they upon this occasion to neglect laying before the House a statement of the religious griev- ances under which they have hitherto labored, that they may no longer be continued in the present form of government: that it is well known that in the frontier counties which are justly sup- posed to contain a fifth part of the inhabitants of Virginia, the dissenters have borne the heavy burthens of purchasing glebes and supporting the established clergy, where there are very few Episco- palians either to assist in bearing the expense or to reap the ad- vantage : and that throughout the other parts of the country there are also many thousands of zealous friends and defenders of the State who, besides the invidious disadvantageous restrictions to which they have been subjected annually, pay large taxes to sup- port an establishment from which their consciences and principles oblige them to dissent, all which are so many violations of their natural rights, and in their consequences a restraint upon freedom of inquiry and private judgment. In this enlightened age, and in a land where all are united in the most strenuous efforts to be free, they hope and expect that their representatives will cheerfully concur in removing every species of religious as well as civil bond- age. That every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion, and that there is no argument in favor of establishing the Christian religion but what may be pleaded for establishing the tenets of Ma- homet by those who believe in the Alcoran: or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects which profess the Christian faith, without erecting a chair of infallibility which would lead us back to the Church of Rome. That they beg leave farther to repre- sent that religious establishments are highly injurious to the tem- poral interests of any community, without insisting upon the ambi- tion and the arbitrary practices of those who are favored by govern- ment, or the intriguing seditious spirit which is commonly excited by this, as well as every other kind of oppression. Such establish-
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ments greatly retard population and consequently the progress of arts, sciences and manufactures: witness the rapid growth and improvement of the northern provinces compared with this. That no one can deny the more carly settlement, and the many supe- rior advantages of our country, would have invited multitudes of artificers, mechanics and other useful members of society, to fix their habitation among us, who have either remained in the place of their nativity, or preferred worse civil government, and a more barren soil, where they might enjoy the rights of conscience more fully than they had a prospect of doing in this: from which they infer that Virginia might now have been the capital of America, and a match for the British arms, without depending upon others for the necessaries of war. had it not been prevented by her reli- gious establishment. Neither can it be made appear that the gos- pel needs any such civil aid: they rather conceive that when our Blessed Savior declares his kingdom is not of this world, he renounces dependence upon State power, and as his weapons are spiritual and were only designed to have influence upon the judg- ment and heart of man, they are persuaded that if mankind were left in the quiet possession of their unalienable privileges, Chris- tianity, as in the days of the Apostles, would continue to prevail and flourish in the greatest purity by its own native excellence, and under the all-disposing providence of God. That they would also humbly represent, that the only proper objects of civil gov- ernment are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence, the security of the life, liberty and property of the citizens, and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual : but that the duty they owe their Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal judge, and that therefore they ask no ecclesiastical establishments for themselves, neither can they approve of them when granted to others, and earn- estly entreating that all laws now in force in this Commonwealth which countenance religious denominations may be speedily re- pealed. that all and every religious sect may be protected in the full exercise of their several modes of worship, and exempted from the payment of all taxes for the support of any church whatever.
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farther than what may be agreeable to their own private choice, or voluntary obligations."*
But few of the inhabitants of this beautiful country at the present time have even a slight idea of the dangers and priva- tions endured by the early settlers, the dim shadows of which are vanishing like the tints in a dissolving scene. The men who worked their way from the settlements in the valley to their future
The First Temples.
home, groping through the forest without a road and with nothing to guide them in their course, except the trail of the Indian and the buffalo; at night resting on the ground with no roof over them save the branches of the mighty oak or the broad expanse of heaven ; exploring an unknown wilderness, surrounded by insur- mountable obstacles and momentarily threatened with assault from their deadly enemies, the rattlesnake, the Indian and the wild beast of the forest, but always accompanied by a trust in their God, came, "with the Bible in one hand and a cross in the other, tread- ing the sombre shades of these dark old woods and often with a boulder of granite for a footstool, and the eternal cataracts thunder-
*Journal Va. House of Delegates, 1776. This petition preceded Jefferson resolution by many years.
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Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786.
ing amid the everlasting solitudes for an organ, these devout mon worshipped their God according to the dictates of their consciences." Each emigrant brought with him some clothes, a little bedding. guns and ammunition, cooking utensils, seed corn, an axe, a saw and the Bible. Such were the men and the manner of their com- ing. who cleared the forests and opened the beautiful and rich farms that are now spread out upon our hills and mountain sides and grassy plains.
The early settlers in their intercourse with others were kind. beneficent and disinterested : extending to all the most generous hospitality that their circumstances could afford. That selfish- ness which prompts to liberality for the sake of remuneration and professes the civilities of life with an eye to individual interest was unknown to them. They were kind for kindness' sake and sought no other recompense than the never failing concomitant of good deeds, the reward of an approving conscience.
There existed in each settlement a perfect unison of feeling. Similitude of situation and community of danger operated as a magie charm and stifled in their birth those little bickerings which are so apt to disturb the quiet of society .*
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