Annals of Augusta County/Chapter 1

As far as known, the country now embraced in Augusta county was never entered by white men until the year 1716. Six years earlier, however, some portion of the Valley of Virginia had been seen from the top of the Blue Ridge by Europeans. Governor Spotswood, writing to the Council of Trade, London, December 15, 1710, says that a company of adventurers found the mountains "not above a hundred miles from our upper inhabitants, and went up to the top of the highest mountain with their horses, tho' they had hitherto been thought to be unpassable, and they assured me that ye descent on the other side seemed to be as easy as that they had passed on this, and that they could have passed over the whole ledge (which is not large), if the season of the year had not been too far advanced before they set out on that expedition."—[Spotswood Letters, Vol. I, page 40.] It would seem that the adventurers referred to looked into the Valley from the mountain in the neighborhood of Balcony Falls, but no description of the country seen by them is given.

This portion of the Valley was then entirely uninhabited. The Shawnee Indians had a settlement in the lower valley, at or near Winchester, and parties of that tribe frequently traversed this section on hunting excursions, or on warlike expeditions against Southern tribes, but there was no Indian village or wigwam within the present limits of the county. At an early day. Indians, or people of some other race, had doubtless resided here, as would appear from several ancient mounds, or burial places, still existing in the county.

​The face of the country between the Blue Ridge and the North Mountain was, of course, diversified by hill and dale, as it is now, but forest trees were less numerous than at the present time, the growth of timber being prevented by the frequent fires kindled by hunting parties of Indians. Old men living within the writer's recollection, described this region as known by them in their boyhood. Many acres, now stately forests, were then covered by mere brushwood, which did not conceal the startled deer flying from pursuit.

At the time of which we speak, wild animals abounded in this section. The buffalo roamed at will over these hills and valleys, and in their migrations made a well-defined trail between Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge, and Buffalo Gap, in the North Mountain, passing by the present site of Staunton. Other denizens of the region at that day were the bear, wolf, panther, wildcat, deer, fox, hare, etc. It would appear that wolves were very numerous There were no crows, blackbirds, nor song birds, and no rats, nor honey bees till the coming of the white people.^[1]

The first passage of the Blue Ridge, and entrance into the Valley by white men, was made by Governor Spotswood in 1716.^[2] About the last of July, or first of August in that year, the Governor, with some members of his staff, starting from Williamsburg, proceeded to Germanna, a small frontier settlement, where he left his coach and took to horse. He was there joined by the rest of his party, gentlemen and their retainers, a company of rangers, and four Meherrin Indians, comprising in all about fifty persons. These, with pack-horses laden with provisions, journeyed by way of the upper Rappahannock river, and after thirty-six days from the date of their departure from Williamsburg, on September 5th, scaled the mountain at Swift Run Gap, it is believed. Descending the western side of the mountain into the Valley, they reached the Shenandoah River and encamped on its bank. Proceeding up the river, they ​found a place where it was fordable, crossed it, and there, on the western bank, the Governor formally "took possession for King George the First of England." The rangers made further explorations up the Valley, while the Governor, with his immediate attendants, returned to Williamsburg, arriving there after an absence of about eight weeks, and having traveled about 440 miles out and back.^[3]

The only authentic account we have of the expedition is the diary of John Fontaine, and that is very meagre. The gentlemen of the party were: Governor Spotswood, Robert Beverley, the historian. Colonel Robertson, Dr. Robinson, Taylor Todd, Fontaine, Mason, Clouder, Smith and Brooke. They crossed the Shenandoah river on the 6th of September, and called it Euphrates. The river is said to have been very deep, and "fourscore yards wide in the narrowest part." The Governor had graving irons, but could not grave anything, the stone was so hard. "I," says Mr. Fontaine, "graved my name on a tree by the river side, and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed, on which he writ that he took possession of this place in the name of King George First of England." The most astonishing thing related by the diarist, however, is the quantity and variety of liquors lugged about and drank by the party. He says: "We had a good dinner" [on the 6th], "and after it we got the men together and loaded all their arms, and we drank the King's health in champagne and fired a volley, the Princess's health in Burgundy and fired a volley, and all the rest of the royal family in claret and a volley. We drank the Governor's health and fired another volley. We had several sorts of liquors, viz: Virginia red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, cider, &c." Bears, deer and turkeys were abundant, and in the Valley the foot-prints of elk and buffalo were seen.—[Dr. Slaughter's History of St. Mark' s Parish.]

​It was in commemoration of this famous expedition that Governor Spotswood sought to establish the order of "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" But the Governor's account of the expedition, as far as we have it, is very tame and disappointing. He was thinking chiefly of protecting the English settlements from the encroachments of the French, and apparently cared little for anything else. He also either misunderstood the Indians whom he encountered, or was grossly deceived by them in regard to the geography of the country. In his letter to the Board of Trade, under date of August 14, 1718, he said:

"The chief aim of my expedition over the great mountains, in 1716, was to satisfye myself whether it was practicable to come at the lakes. Having on that occasion found an easy passage over that great ridge of mountains w'ch before were judged unpassable, I also discovered, by the relation of Indians who frequent those parts, that from the pass where I was it is but three days' march to a great nation of Indians living on a river w'ch discharges itself in the Lake Erie; that from ye western side of one of the small mountains w'ch I saw, that lake is very visible, and cannot, therefore, be above five days' march from the pass afore-mentioned, and that the way thither is also very practicable, the mountainsto the westward of the great ridge being smaller than those I passed on the eastern side, w'ch shews howeasy a matter it is to gain possession of those lakes."—[Spotswood Letters, Vol. II, pp. 295-6.]

The country thus discovered by Governor Spotswood, and claimed by him for the British crown, became a part of the county of Essex, the western boundary being undefined. Spotsylvania was formed from Essex and other counties in 1720, and Orange from Spotsylvania, in 1734.

The expedition of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," trivial as it may now appear, was at the time regarded as very hazardous; and it no doubt led to important results. The glowing accounts given by Spotswood's followers, if not by himself of the beauty and fertility of the Valley, attracted immediate attention, and induced hunters and other enterprising men to visit the country. Of such transient excursions, however, we have no authentic account; and at least sixteen years were to pass before any extensive settlements were made by Europeans in this region.

At length John and Isaac Vanmeter, of Pennsylvania, in 1730, ​obtained from Governor Gooch a warrant for 40,000 acres of land to be located in the lower valley, and within the present counties of Frederick, Jefferson, etc. This warrant was sold in 1731, by the grantees, to Joist Hite, also of Pennsylvania. Hite proceeded to make locations of his land, and to induce immigrants to settle on his grant. He removed his family to Virginia, in 1732, and fixed his residence a few miles south of the present town of Winchester, which is generally believed to have been the first permanent settlement by white men in the Valley.

Population soon flowed in to take possession of the rich lands offered by Hite; but a controversy speedily arose in regard to the proprietor's title. Lord Fairfax claimed Hite's lands as a part of his grant of the "Northern Neck." Fairfax entered a caveat against Hite, in 1736, and thereupon Hite brought suit against Fairfax. This suit was not finally decided till 1786, long after the death of all the original parties, when judgment was rendered in favor of Hite and his vendees. The dispute between Fairfax and Hite retarded the settlement of that part of the Valley, and induced immigrants to push their way up the Shenandoah river to regions not implicated in such controversies. In 1738 there were only two cabins where Winchester now stands. That town was established by law in 1752.

A strange uncertainty has existed as to the date and some of the circumstances of the first settlement of Augusta county Campbell, in his "History of Virginia" (pages 427-9), undertakes to relate the events somewhat minutely, but falls into obvious mistakes. He says: "Shortly after the first settlement of Winchester (1738), John Marlin, a peddler, and John Sailing, a weaver, two adventurous spirits, set out from that place" (Winchester) "to explore the 'upper country,' then almost unknown." They came up the valley of the Shenandoah, called Sherando, crossed James river, and reached the Roanoke river, where a party of Cherokee Indians surprised and captured Sailing, while Marlin escaped. Sailing was detained by the Indians for six years, and on being liberated returned to Williamsburg. "About the same time," says Campbell, "a considerable number of immigrants had arrived there, among them John Lewis and John Mackey. * * Pleased with Sailing's glowing picture of the country beyond the mountains, Lewis and Mackey visited it under his guidance," and immediately all three located here.

​Whatever the truth may be in regard to other matters, Campbell's dates are entirely erroneous. He would seem to postpone the settlement of Lewis in the valley to the year 1744, although he immediately refers to him as residing here in 1736.

Foote, in his "Sketches of Virginia," is silent as to the date of the settlement. He mentions, upon the authority of the late Charles A. Stuart, of Greenbrier county, a descendant of John Lewis, that the latter first located on the left bank of Middle river, then called Carthrae's river, about three miles east of the macadamized turnpike. Thence he removed to Lewis' Creek, two miles east of Staunton, where he built a stone house, known as Fort Lewis, which is still standing. According to Foote, Mackey and Salling came with Lewis, or at the same time, Mackey making his residence at Buffalo Gap, and Salling his at the forks of James river, below the Natural Bridge.

We are satisfied that Mackey and Salling did explore the Valley, but that it was about the year 1726, before there was any settlement by white people west of the Blue Ridge. Withers, in his "Border Warfare," gives the following account of Salling's captivity:

Salling, he says, was taken, to the country now known as Tennessee, where he remained for some years. In company with a party of Cherokees he went on a hunting expedition to the salt licks of Kentucky, and was there captured by a band of Illinois Indians, with whom the Cherokees were at war. He was taken to Kaskaskia and adopted into the family of a squaw whose son had been killed. While with these Indians he several times accompanied them down the Mississippi river, below the mouth of the Arkansas, and once to the Gulf of Mexico, The Spaniards in Louisiana desiring an interpreter purchased him of his Indian mother, and some of them took him to Canada. He was there redeemed by the French governor of that province, who sent him to the Dutch settlement in New York, "whence he made his way home after an absence of six years."—[Border Warfare, page 42.] Peyton, in his "History of Augusta County," gives an account of the coming of Lewis to the Valley quite different from Campbell's version of the matter, and somewhat at variance with Foote' s narrative. He says Lewis "had been some time in America, when, in 1732, Joist Hite and a party of pioneers set out to settle upon a grant of 40,000 acres ​of land in the Valley. * * Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta." Lewis is represented as coming, not from Williamsburg, but from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the date of his arrival here is given as "the summer of 1732." These statements and the authority upon which they are made appear conclusive of the matter.

John Lewis and his sturdy sons were just the men to battle with the adverse circumstances which surrounded them in this wilderness country. He was a native of Donegal county. Province of Ulster, Ireland, and of Scottish descent. He came to America from Portugal, in which country he had taken refuge after a bloody affray with an oppressive landlord in Ireland. It is stated, however, that upon an investigation of the affray, Lewis was formally pronounced free from blame. The story as related is briefly as follows: An Irish lord who owned the fee of the land leased by Lewis undertook to eject the latter in a lawless manner. With a band of retainers he repaired to the place, and on the refusal of the tenant to vacate, fired into the house killing an invalid brother of Lewis and wounding his wife. Thereupon, Lewis rushed from the house and dispersed his assailants, but not until their leader and his steward were killed.

It is a question what number of sons John Lewis had. Various writers state that he brought with him to America four sons, viz: Samuel, Thomas, Andrew, and William, and that a fifth, Charles, was born after the settlement here, but others mention only four, omitting Samuel. Ex-Governor Gilmer, of Georgia, a great-grandson of John Lewis, gives an account of the family in his book called "Georgians," printed in 1854, and is silent as to Samuel. Governor Gilmer's mother, a daughter of Thomas Lewis, lived to a great age, and it is hardly possible that she could have been ignorant of an uncle named Samuel, and that her son should not have named him if there had been such an one. All the others were prominent in the early history of the country, and we shall have occasion to speak of them often in the course of our narrative.

The permanent settlement of Lewis was in the vicinity of the twin hills, "Betsy Bell and Mary Gray," which were so called by him, or some other early settler, after two similar hills in County Tyrone, Ireland.

Concurrenriy with the setdement of Lewis, or immediately ​afterward, a flood of immigrants poured into the country. There was no landlord or proprietor to parcel out the domain; the land was all before them where to choose, and for several years the settlers helped themselves to homes without let or hindrance. It is believed that all the earliest settlers came from Pennsylvania and up the Valley of the Shenandoah. It was several years before any settlers entered the Valley from the east, and through the gaps in the Blue Ridge. We may accompany, in imagination, these immigrants on their way from the settlements north of the Potomac, through the wilderness to their future homes. There was, of course, no road, and for the first comers no path to guide their steps, except, perhaps, the trail of the Indian or buffalo. They came at a venture, climbing the hills, fording the creeks and rivers, and groping through the forests. At night they rested on the ground, with no roof over them but the broad expanse of heaven. After selecting a spot for a night's bivouac, and tethering their horses, fire was kindled by means of flint and steel, and their frugal meal was prepared. Only a scanty supply of food was brought along, for, as game abounded, they mainly "subsisted off the country." Before lying down to rest, many of them did not omit to worship the God of their fathers and invoke His guidance and protection. The moon and stars looked down peacefully as they slumbered, while bears, wolves and panthers prowled around. It was impossible to bring wagons, and all their effects were transported on horseback. The list of articles was meagre enough. Clothing, some bedding, guns and ammunition, a few cooking utensils, seed corn, axes, saws, &c., and the Bible, were indispensable, and were transported at whatever cost of time and labor. Houses and furniture had to be provided after the place of settlement was fixed upon. In the meanwhile there was no shelter from rain and storm. The colonial government encouraged the settlement of the Valley as a means of protecting the lower country from Indian incursions. The settlers were almost exclusively of the Scotch-Irish race, natives of the north of Ireland, but of Scottish ancestry. Most of those who came during the first three or four decades were Dissenters from the Church of England, of the Presbyterian faith, and victims of religious persecution in their native land. They were generally a profoundly religious people, bringing the Bible with them, whatever they ​had to leave behind, and as soon as possible erected log meeting houses in which to assemble for the worship of God, with school-houses hard by.

Although the Church of England was established by law throughout the colony, and a spirit of intolerance inseparable from such a system prevailed in lower Virginia, the Dissenters of the Valley, as far as we know, had comparatively little to complain of in this respect.

For about twenty years the immigrants were unmolested by the Indians. "Some," says Foote, " who had known war in Ireland, lived and died in that peace in this wilderness for which their hearts had longed in their native land." During this halcyon time, the young Lewises, McClanahans, Mathewses, Campbells, and others were growing up and maturing for many a desperate encounter and field of battle.

But the authorities at Williamsburg had by no means relinquished the rights of the British crown, as held by them, to the paramount title to the lands of the Valley. In assertion of those rights, and without ability on the part of the people of the Valley to resist, on September 6, 1736, William Gooch, "Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia," in pursuance of an order in council, dated August 12, 1736, and in the name of "George II, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith," etc., issued a patent for the "Manor of Beverley." The patentees were William Beverley, of Essex; Sir John Randolph, of Williamsburg; Richard Randolph, of Henrico, and John Robinson, of King and Queen; and the grant was of 118,491 acres of land lying "in the county of Orange, between the great mountains, on the river Sherando," etc. On the next day, September 7, the other grantees released their interest in the patent to Beverley. This patent embraced a large part of the present county of Augusta, south as well as north of Staunton.

William Beverley was a son of Robert Beverley, the historian of Virginia, and grandson of the Robert Beverley who commanded the royal forces at the time of "Bacon's Rebellion." He was a lawyer, clerk of Essex County Court from 1720 to 1740, a member of the House of Burgesses and of the Governor's Council, and County-Lieutenant of Essex. He ​died about the first of March, 1756. At the time of his death, his only son, Robert, was a minor.^[4]

The question is often asked. In what part of the county was Beverley's Manor? Readers generally could not ascertain from a perusal of the patent, and we have applied to several practical surveyors, the best authorities on the subject, for information. To Messrs. John G. Stover and James H. Callison we are indebted for the following description, which, although not perfectly accurate, will answer the present purpose: Beginning at a point on the east side of South river, about four miles below Waynesbo rough, thence up the same side of the river to a point opposite to or above Greenville; thence by several lines west or southwest to a point near Summerdean; thence northeast to Trimble's, three miles south of Swoope's Depot; thence northeast by several lines, crossing the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, five or six miles, and the Churchville road about three miles, from Staunton, to a point not known to the writer; and thence east by one or more lines, crossing the macadamized turnpike at or near Augusta church, to the beginning. The description given in the patent begins at five white oaks on a narrow point between Christie's creek and Beaver run (Long Meadow creek), near the point where those streams enter Middle river, and thence north seventy degrees; west, etc.

From the familiar mention in the patent of various natural features of the country—"Christie's Creek," "Beaver run," "the Great Springs," "Black Spring," etc., it is evident that the country had by that time, in the short space of four years, been explored and to a great extent settled. The grant, of course, covered the lands already occupied by settlers, who were in the view of the law and of the patentee, mere "squatters" on the public domain. Beverley, however, seems to have dealt towards the people with ​a liberal spirit; at any rate, there is no proof or tradition of anything to the contrary. On February 21, 1738, he conveyed to John Lewis 2,071 acres, a part of the Beverley Manor grant, the deed being on record in Orange county, within which the grant then lay.

In the spring of 1736, Benjamin Borden,^[5] the agent of Lord Fairfax, came up from Williamsburg, by invitation, on a visit to John Lewis. He took with him, on his return, a buffalo calf, which he presented to Governor Gooch, and was so successful in ingratiating himself with the Governor as to receive the royal patent for a large body of land in the Valley, south of Beverley Manor. The first settlers in Borden's grant were Ephraim McDowell and his family. His daughter, Mary Greenlee, related in a deposition taken in 1806, and still extant, the circumstances under which her father went there. Her brother, James McDowell, had come into Beverley Manor during the spring of 1736, and planted a crop of corn, near Woods' Gap; and in the fall her father, then a very aged man, her brother John, and her husband and herself came to occupy the new settlement. Before they reached their destination, and after they had arranged their camp on a certain evening, Borden arrived and asked permission to spend the night with them. He informed them of his grant, and offered them inducements to go there. The next day they came on to the house of John Lewis, and there it was finally arranged that the party should settle in Borden's tract.

As early as 1734, Michael Woods, an Irish immigrant, with three sons and three sons-in-law, came up the Valley, and pushing his way through Woods' Gap, settled on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge.

At an early day, the people living on the east side of the Blue Ridge received the soubriquet of Tuckahoes, from a small stream of that name, it is said, while the people on the west side were denominated Cohees, as tradition says, from their common use of the term "Quoth he," or "Quo' he," for "said he."

Beverley and Borden were indefatigable in introducing settlers from Europe. James Patton was a very efficient agent in this enterprise. He was a native of Ireland, was bred to the sea, ​and had served in the royal navy. Afterward he became the owner of "a passenger ship," and traded to Hobbes' Hole, Virginia, on the Rappahannock river. He is said to have crossed the Atlantic twenty-five times, bringing Irish immigrants, and returning with cargoes of peltries and tobacco.—[R. A. Brock, "Dinwiddle Papers," Vol. I, page 8.]

Most of the people introduced by Patton were the class known as "Redemptioners," or "indentured servants," who served a stipulated time to pay the cost of their transportation.^[6] The records of the county court of Augusta show that this class of people were numerous in the county previous to the Revolutionary war. They were sold and treated as slaves for the time being. Up to the Revolution there were comparatively few African slaves in the Valley.

Missionaries, says Foote, speedily followed the immigrants into the Valley. "A supplication from the people of Beverley Manor, in the back parts of Virginia," was laid before the Presbytery of Donegal, Pennsylvania, September 2, 1737, requesting ministerial supplies. "The Presbytery judge it not expedient, for several reasons, to supply them this winter." The next year, however, the Rev. James Anderson was sent by the Synod of Philadelphia to intercede with Governor Gooch in behalf of the Presbyterians of Virginia. Mr. Anderson visited the settlements in the Valley, and during that year, 1738, at the house of John Lewis, preached the first regular sermon ever delivered in this section of the country.

The proceedings of Synod, just referred to, were taken "upon the supplication of John Caldwell,^[7] in behalf of himself and many families of our persuasion, who are about to settle in the back parts of Virginia, desiring that some members of the Synod may be appointed to wait on that government to solicit their ​favor in behalf of our interest in that place."—[Extract from records of Synod, quoted by Foote, First Series, page 103.]

Mr. Anderson was the bearer of the following letter:

"To the Honourable William Gooch, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Virginia, the humble address of the Presbyterian ministers convened in Synod May 30th, 1738. May it please your Honour, we take leave to address you in behalf of a considerable number of our brethren who are meditating a settlement in the remote parts of your government, and are of the same persuasion as the Church of Scotland. We thought it our duty to acquaint your Honour with this design, and to ask your favour in allowing them the liberty of their consciences, and of worshipping God in a way agreeable to the principles of their education. Your Honour is sensible that those of our profession in Europe have been remarkable for their inviolable attachment to the house of Hanover, and have upon all occasions manifested an unspotted fidelity to our gracious Sovereign, King George, and we doubt not but these, our brethren, will carry the same loyal principles to the most distant settlements, where their lot may be cast, which will ever influence them to the most dutiful submission to the government which is placed over them. This, we trust, will recommend them to your Honour's countenance and protection, and merit the free enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties. We pray for the divine blessing upon your person and government, and beg to subscribe ourselves your Honour's most humble and obedient servants."

To this document the Governor replied, in a letter to the Moderator of the Synod, as follows:

"Sir,—By the hands of Mr. Anderson I received an address signed by you in the name of your brethren of the Synod of Philadelphia. And as I have always inclined to favour the people who have lately removed from other provinces to settle on the western side of our great mountains, so you may be assured that no interruption shall be given to any minister of your profession, who shall come among them, so as they conform themselves to the rules prescribed by the Act of Toleration in England, by taking the oaths enjoined thereby, and registering the place of their meeting, and behave themselves peaceably towards the government. This you may ​please to communicate to the Synod as an answer to theirs. Your most humble servant, William Gooch."

The loyalty of the Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley to the house of Hanover is not over-stated by the Synod in their address to the Governor. Indeed, that spirit was characteristic of their race. Froude remarks, in substance, that of all the people of Ireland, the Presbyterians of Ulster had most cause to complain of the severities of the British government, for while uniformly loyal they received no favors in return.

The Governor, in his reply, alludes to the "toleration" of Dissenters provided by law. This was on certain conditions. Their places of worship, or meeting-houses, were required to be licensed and registered in the county courts. In eastern Virginia the number of such places in a county was limited, but in the Valley there appears to have been no restriction of the kind. All ministers of the gospel were obliged to take divers and sundry oaths, and especially to abjure the "Pretender" to the throne of Great Britain, the Pope of Rome, and the doctrine of transubstantiation. The people were not liable to fine for not attending the parish churches, but they were compelled to contribute to the support of the established religion, and their ministers were not allowed to celebrate the rite of marriage. Until the year 1781 any couple desiring to be legally married had to send for or go to some minister of the Established Church, however far off he might live.

Governor Gooch is regarded as being averse to persecuting measures, yet he is supposed to have encouraged the settlement of the Valley chiefly from a desire to remove the frontier of civilization further from Williamsburg, and to place a hardy and enterprising race of people between the capital and the savage Indians.

Up to the time to which we have now arrived, the whole region west of the Blue Ridge constituted a part of the county of Orange. In the year 1738, however, on November I, the General Assembly of the colony of Virginia passed an act establishing the counties of Frederick and Augusta. The new counties were so named in honor of Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II, and father of George III, and his wife, the Princess Augusta. The act separated all the territory west ​of the Blue Ridge, and extending in other directions "to the utmost limits of Virginia," from Orange county, and erected it into the two counties named. The line between them was "from the head spring of Hedgman's river to the head spring of the river Potomack." Augusta was much the larger of the two counties. It embraced, northward, the present county of Rockingham and a part of Page; to the south, it extended to the border of Virginia; and to the west and northwest, it extended over the whole territory claimed by Great Britian in those quarters. It included nearly all of West Virginia, the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and, as contended by Virginians, a part of western Pennsylvania.

The act provided that the two new counties should remain part of the county of Orange and parish of Saint Mark until it should be made to appear to the Governor and council that there was "a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing justices of the peace and other officers, and erecting courts therein." In the meanwhile, the inhabitants were exempted from "the payment of all public, county and parish levies in the county of Orange and parish of Saint Mark"; but no allowance should be made "to any person for killing wolves within the limits of the said new counties." The act further provided for the payment of all levies and officers' fees "in money or tobacco at three farthings per pound," and also for the election, by freeholders and housekeepers, of twelve persons in each county, to constitute the vestries of the respective parishes as required by the laws relating to the Established Church. As we shall see, the county of Augusta was not fully organized and started on its independent career till the year 1745.

The Presbyterians of Augusta continued their "supplications" to the Presbytery of Donegal for a pastor to reside amongst them. In 1739, they first applied for the services of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, who came and preached for a time. Next they presented a call to the Rev. John Craig. At a meeting of Presbytery, in September, 1740, "Robert Doak and Daniel Dennison, from Virginia, declared in the name of the congregation of Shenandoah, their adherence to the call formerly presented to Mr. Craig;" and on the next day Mr. Craig "was set apart for the work of the Gospel ministry in the south part of Beverley's Manor."

​The Rev. John Craig was born in 1709, in County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at Edinburgh; landed at New Castle upon the Delaware, August 17, 1734; and licensed by the Presbytery to preach in 1737. As stated, he came to Augusta in 1740. "I was sent," he recorded, "to a new settlement in Virginia of our own people, near three hundred miles distant."

At his death, in 1774, Mr. Craig left a manuscript giving some account of himself and the times in which he lived. Referring to his settlement in Augusta, he says: "The place was a new settlement, without a place of worship, or any church order, a wilderness in the proper sense, and a few Christian settlers in it with numbers of the heathens travelling among us, but generally civil, though some persons were murdered by them about that time. They march about in small companies from fifteen to twenty, sometimes more or less. They must be supplied at any house they call at, with victuals, or they become their own stewards and cooks, and spare nothing they choose to eat and drink."

It is interesting to learn how the Dissenters of the Valley managed their congregational affairs; and here is a copy of the obligation subscribed by the people of Tinkling Spring: "Know all men by these presents, yt us, ye undernamed subscribers, do nominate, appoint and constitute our trusty and well-beloved friends, James Patton, John Finley, George Hutchison, John Christian, and Alexander Breckenridge, to manage our public affairs; to choose and purchase a piece of ground arid to build our meeting-house upon it; to collect our minister's salary, and to pay off all charges relating to said affair; to lay off the people in proportion to this end; to place seats in our said meeting-house, which we do hereby promise to reimburse them, they always giving us a month's warning by an advertisement on the meeting-house door, a majority of the above five persons, provided all be apprised of their meeting, their acting shall stand; and these persons above-named shall be accountable to the minister and session twice every year for all their proceeds relating to the whole affair. To which we subscribe our names in the presence of Rev. Mr. John Craig, August 11th, 1741."

One of the subscribers having failed to pay his subscription, or assessment, was sued in the County Court, and the commis​sioners obtained a verdict and judgment against him for six pounds.

When James Patton located in the county he took up his abode on South River above Waynesborough, at or near the present Porcelain Works, and called the place Springhill. Beverley's patent embraced the land occupied by Patton, and the latter had no deed till February 21, 1749, when Beverley conveyed to him the tract, 1,398 acres, more or less, for the nominal consideration of five shillings [83⅓ cents].

Outside the large land grants to Beverley, Borden and others, patents were issued from time to time for small tracts to various persons. One of the earliest of this class, which we have seen, is dated September i, 1740, and is signed in the name of King George II by James Blair, acting Governor. It granted to James Anderson 270 acres "lying in that part of Orange county called Augusta, on a branch of Cathry's river, called Anderson's branch," &c., in consideration of the importation of five persons to dwell within this our Colony and Dominion of Virginia, whose names are: John Anderson, Jane Anderson, Esther Anderson, Mary Anderson, and Margaret Anderson," and the further consideration of five shillings—provided the "fee rent" of one shilling for every fifty acres be paid annually, and three acres in fifty be cultivated and improved within three years. The tract is probably the same now owned by Thomas S. Hogshead, near StribHng Springs. But no stream in that neighborhood is known at this day as Anderson's branch.

The inhabitants of the new county discovered before long that living without payment of taxes was not desirable. Poor people could not be provided for; roads could not be cleared, nor bridges built; and, especially, the wolves were multiplying beyond all endurance. They, therefore, made "humble suit" to the assembly, and in accordance with their wishes, in May, 1742, an act was passed "for laying a tax on the inhabitants of Augusta county." The act provided that the County Court of Orange should divide the county of Augusta into precincts, and appoint persons to take lists of tithables therein, and that each tithable should pay two shillings (33⅓ cents) yearly to James Patton, John Christian and John Buchanan, to be laid out by them in hiring persons to kill wolves, etc., etc., in such ​manner as should be directed by the court-martial to be held annually in the county.

What the people had to sell, and where they sold their products, are questions we cannot answer. Probably peltries and such live-stock as they could raise and send to market were their only means of obtaining money.

The state of the country and of society in the settlement, from its origin till the year 1745, was quite singular. The dwellings of the people were generally constructed of logs, and the furniture was simple and scanty. There were no roads worthy of the name, and probably no wheeled vehicles of any kind; horseback was the only means of transportation. There was no minister of religion till Mr. Craig arrived, except transient visitors on two or three occasions; no marriage feasts, nor funeral rites, and very few sermons on the Sabbath to call the people together. There were no courts and court days, except at Orange Courthouse, beyond the mountain. From allowances by the vestry for professional services to the poor, subsequent to 1747, we learn the names of several physicians who lived in the county at an early day. Drs. Foyles and Flood are mentioned in 1753, but we have no other information in regard to them. No lawyer was known in this bailiwick till 1745, when we find Gabriel Jones, the "king's attorney," residing on his estate near Port Republic. But the sturdy Scotch-Irish people pressed into the country, and by the year 1745 the Alexanders, Aliens, Andersons, Bells, Bowyers, Breckenridges, Browns, Buchanans, Campbells, Christians, Craigs, Cunninghams, Dickinsons, Doaks, Finleys, Johnstons, Kerrs, Lewises, Lyles, Matthewses, Millers, Moores, McNutts, Moffetts, McPheeterses, McClanahans, McClungs, McDowells, Pattons, Pickenses, Pattersons, Pilsons, Poages, Prestons, Robinsons, Scotts, Sithngtons, Stuarts, Tates, Thompsons, Trimbles, Wilsons, Youngs, and others abounded in the settlement. Other immigrants of the same races came in afterwards.

It has been thought that the German inscription on an ancient tomb-stone in an abandoned grave-yard near Conrad's store (now Elkton), in Rockingham county, proved that a settlement of German people existed in that part of the Valley at least as early as 1724. ​The supposition was, that some of the Germans of Germanna followed on the track of Governor Spotswood, crossed the Blue Ridge at Swift Run Gap, and settled on the Shenandoah river at Elkton soon after the Governor's expedition of 1716. An account of Virginia, by the Rev. Hugh Jones, published about 1724, says: "Beyond Col. Spotswood's furnace, above the Falls of Rappahannock River, within view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from some Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now moved up further." Colonel Byrd, in his "Progress to the Mines," in 1732, refers to these Germans as "now removed ten miles higher, in the forks of Rappahannock, to land of their own." The first colony of Germans came in 1714, and consisted of twelve families. In 1717 twenty additional Protestant German families arrived and settled near their countrymen. The names of some of these people were Spillman, Hoffman, Kemper, Fishback, Wayman, Marten, Hitt, Holtzclaw and Weaver. Finding Governor Spotswood a hard task-master, a portion of the people went off in 1718, and founded Germantown, in Fauquier. Others, previous to 1724, it would seem, moved up to the present county of Madison. There is no historical account, however, of the settlement of any of these colonists in the Valley.

The inscription on the old tombstone plainly exhibits the year 1724; but the question was, whether that was the date of death or of birth. The work was done by an illiterate stonecutter, or one who did not understand the German language. Some of the words are misspelled, others are compounded of several words, and others still are divided into several parts, so that the inscription is unintelligible to most scholars. But Professor Scheie De Vere, of the University of Virginia, has kindly deciphered the hieroglyphics, and furnished translations in German and English. The German, he says, was intended to be—

Den ers: Novom: ist der Jacob B I geboren, aber der Gerechte ob er gleich zur Zeit auch stirbt, ist er dock in der Ruhe, dem seine Seele gefallt Gott da.

A literal English translation is as follows:

"The first November is the Jacob B I born, but the righteous although he at the time also dies, is (he) still in (the) rest, for his soul pleases God there."

The figures 1724 are at the top of the inscription, and appear to indicate the year of birth. Nothing, therefore, is proved by the inscription in regard to the date of settlement in the Valley. It is strange that the name of the deceased is not given in full, but it is supposed to be Jacob Bear.

Another proof, however, is said to exist of a settlement in the Valley earlier than 1732. Adam Miller resided at and owned the place now known as Bear's Lithia Spring, near Elkton, and the certificate of his naturalization, issued under the hand of Governor ​Gooch, March 13, 1741, set forth that he was a native of Scherstien, in Germany, and had lived on the "Shenandoa" for fifteen years next before the date of the paper. Mr. Charles W. S. Turner, of Elkton, informs us that he has seen the paper, and if there be no mistake as to date, etc., Miller must have settled in the Valley as early as 1726. He and his associates may have been Germans from Germanna, but being few in number, and out of the track of the tide of immigration which afterwards poured in, they remained unknown, or unnoticed, by the English-speaking people.