Annals of Augusta County/Chapter 5

Before the departure of Dinwiddle, the Earl of Loudoun, commander-in-chief of British forces in America, was commissioned Governor of Virginia, but it is believed he never visited the colony. Francis Fauquier was afterwards appointed, and arrived in June, 1758, the duties of the office being discharged in the meanwhile by John Blair, President of the Council.

It is stated that in the early part of 1758 sixty persons were murdered by Indians in Augusta county, but exactly where and when we are not told.—[Campbell's History of Virginia, page 500.] Possibly the allusion is to the massacre at Seybert's fort.

This fort was in the northern part of the present county of Highland, then Augusta. There the inhabitants of the surrounding country had taken shelter from the Indians. Between thirty and forty persons of both sexes and all ages were in the enclosure. No Indians having yet appeared, a youth named James Dyer and his sister went outside one day for some purpose, and had not proceeded far before they came in view of forty or fifty Shawnees going towards the fort. Hurrying back to provide for their own safety and give the alarm, they were overtaken and captured. The place was incapable of withstanding a vigorous assault, and the garrison was poorly supplied with ammunition. Captain Seybert, therefore, determined to surrender, and did so in spite of the opposition of some of the people. The gate was thrown open, and the money and other stipulated articles were handed over to the Indians. Thereupon, one of the most ruthless tragedies of Indian warfare was perpetrated. The inmates of the fort were arranged in two rows and ​nearly all of them were tomahawked. A few, spared from caprice or some other cause, were carried off into captivity. Young Dyer was the only captive who ever returned.

He was taken to Logstown, thence to the Muskingum, and thence to Chilicothe, where he remained a prisoner nearly two years. Accompanying the Indians to Fort Pitt, he there concealed himself in a hovel, and after two years more returned home.

At a court-martial held at the courthouse May 19, 1758, upon the complaint of Edward McGary, the conduct of Captain Abraham Smith on a recent occasion was inquired into. Captain Smith was "out with a part of his company on the South Branch after Seybert's fort was burned by the enemy," and was accused by McGary, a member of the company, of cowardice. The court declared the charge without foundation and malicious. They then took McGary in hand, found him guilty of insubordination, and fined him forty shillings for that offence and five shillings "for one oath."

Another expedition for the capture of Fort Duquesne was set on foot early in 1758. It was under command of General Forbes, a meritorious British officer, but in a feeble state of health. Washington was still commander-in-chief of the Virginia troops, now consisting of two regiments, one led by himself and the other by Colonel Byrd. Forbes's command consisted of about 1,600 British regulars, 2,700 men contributed by Pennsylvania, and the Virginia regiments of 1,800 or 1,900, making altogether an army of more than 6 000 men, besides some Indian allies.

Washington gathered his regiment at Winchester, several of the companies being recalled from Augusta, and from that place was ordered to Fort Cumberland, where he arrived on the 2d of July, and was detained there till the middle of September. The troops being scantily supplied with clothing, Washington equipped two companies, under the immediate command of Major Lewis, in hunting shirts, and that style soon became all the fashion.

Colonel Bouquet, who commanded the advanced division of the army, took his station at Raystown, in the centre of Pennsylvania. General Forbes arrived at that place in September, and ordered Washington to join him there. Bouquet then made a further advance, and, while upwards of fifty miles from Du​quesne, sent on a detachment under Major Grant to reconnoitre. This body consisted of eight hundred picked men, some of them British regulars, others in Indian garb, a part of the Virginia regiment, and commanded by Major Lewis.

Arrived in the vicinity of the fort, Grant posted Lewis in the rear to guard the baggage, and, forming his regulars in battle array, sent an engineer to take a plan of the works, in full view of the garrison. When he was completely thrown off his guard, "there was a sudden sally of the garrison, and an attack on the flanks by Indians hid in ambush. A scene now occurred similar to that at the defeat of Braddock. The British officers marshaled their men according to European tactics, and the Highlanders for some time stood their ground bravely, but the destructive fire and horrid yells of the Indians soon produced panic and confusion. Major Lewis, at the first noise of the attack, left Captain Bullitt with fifty Virginians to guard the baggage, and hastened with the main part of his men to the scene of action. The contest was kept up for some time, but the confusion was irretrievable. The Indians sallied from their concealment, and attacked with the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Lewis fought hand to hand with an Indian brave, whom he laid dead at his feet, but was surrounded by others, and only saved his life by surrendering himself to a French officer. Major Grant surrendered himself in like manner. The whole detachment was put to the rout with dreadful carnage."—[Irving's Life of Washington, Volume I, page 285.]

Captain Bullitt rallied some of the fugitives, and made a gallant stand. He finally drove off the pursuing Indians, and then collecting as many of the wounded as he could, hastily retreated. The routed detachment returned in fragments to Bouquet's camp, with the loss of twenty-one officers, and two hundred and seventy-three privates, killed and taken. Washington's regiment lost six officers and sixty-two privates.

The Highlanders of Grant's command were not acquainted with the Indian custom of scalping, and it is said that when Lewis was advancing with his provincials he met a Highlander flying from the field, and inquiring about the battle, was answered that they were "a' beaten, and Donald McDonald was up to his hunkers in mud, with a' the skeen af his heed."

​No doubt many Augusta men were in the affair just mentioned; but Andrew Lewis is the only one of them whose name we know. Nor do we know how long Major Lewis remained a prisoner. He will not appear again in these Annals till 1763, when he was at home, but preparing to go to war.

The army of General Forbes resumed its march in November, Washington commanding a division and leading the way. Nearing Fort Duquesne, the ground was strewed with human bones, the relics of Braddock's and Grant's defeats. Arriving in sight of the fort, the place was found to be abandoned. The French, not exceeding five hundred in number, deserted by the Indians, and without a sufficient supply of provisions, had set fire to the fort and retreated down the Ohio in boats. On the 25th of November, Washington marched in, and planted the British flag on the smoking ruins. The fortress was repaired, and the name changed to that of Fort Pitt.

The officers and men of Forbes's army united in collecting the bones of their fellow-soldiers who had fallen in the recent battles and routs, and burying them in a common grave.

Washington soon retired from the army, and was not again engaged in war till called out at the Revolution. In 1758, he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses from Frederick county.

The County Court of Augusta and the vestry of the parish held regular meetings in 1758, but we find litde that is interesting in their proceedings. The vestry appear to have been faithful in taking care of the poor, at least in burying them; and at every pauper burial there was a liberal allowance of liquor at public expense. At one time the parish collector was credited by six shillings expended by him, "for a poor child's burial, two gallons of liquor." At the same time credit was given for 5s. 8d. "for nine quarts of liquor at burial of William Johnson." James Wiley cost the parish, one year, £13, 1s. He seems to have been "a beggar on horseback," as John Young was allowed 10s. for keeping his horse, and 2s. for shoeing the same. He was also allowed 2s. 6d. for leather breeches, and 2s. 3d. for making a shirt. Possibly Wiley was an old ranger who had been disabled in the public service.

At the meeting of the vestry in November, 1758, James Lockhart moved to "lay a levy for building a church in the parish," ​but the proposition was defeated, the vote standing: for a church, James Lockhart, John Archer, Sampson Archer and John Matthews; against, Colonel Buchanan, John Buchanan, John Christian, Robert Breckenridge and John Smith.

From the close of 1758 till 1761, the people of Augusta appear to have been relieved from the alarms of savage warfare. We have no account of any massacre or raid during that time. The year 1759 is a blank in our Annals, affording not one item.

In 1760, however, a tragedy occurred in the present county of Rockingham, then part of Augusta, which must be briefly related. Two Indians came to Mill Creek, now Page county, and were pursued by three white men. One of the Indians was killed, but the other escaped with the loss of his gun. The fugitive encountered a young woman named Sechon, on horseback, near the site of New Market. Dragging her from the horse, he compelled her to accompany him. After traveling about twenty miles, chiefly in the night, and getting nearly opposite Keezeltown, in Rockingham, the poor girl broke down, it was supposed, and was beaten to death with a pine knot. Her cries were heard by persons in the neighborhood, and the next day they found her body stripped naked.

We are indebted to Kercheval (page 138) for this narrative. He has preserved accounts of many Indian massacres, but all of them, except the above, occurred outside of Augusta county, even as it was originally, and therefore do not come within the scope of these Annals.

In or about the same year, 1760, a party of eight or ten Indians crossed the Blue Ridge, and murdered some people living east of the mountain, in what was then Bedford or Halifax county. They took several women and children prisoners, and loading horses with plunder returned by way of the New River settlement. A man from the Ingles Ferry fort, who was out in search of strayed horses, discovered the Indians in their camp at night, six miles from that fort. William Ingles assembled sixteen or eighteen men, and, guided by the man who had made the discovery, proceeded to attack the Indians. The assault was made while the Indians were preparing their breakfast, and a sharp fight ensued. One white man was killed. Seven Indians were shot down, and the remainder escaped. All the captives and stolen property were recovered. This is ​said to have been the last battle with Indians in that region.—[Dr. Hale's narrative.]

The vestry of Augusta county, at their meeting in May, 1760, unanimously agreed to build a church in Staunton, on the ground laid off for that purpose. A committee was appointed to let out the work, which was to be done in a fashionable and workmanlike manner." The dimensions of the building were 40 feet by 25 feet, and the total cost £499, or $1,663.33⅓. Francis Smith, of Hanover county, contracted to build the church, of brick, and to finish it by December 1, 1762. He entered into bond, with William Preston and Charles Lewis as his securities.

In 1761 the Indians renewed the war with all its horrors, if indeed it had ever been suspended. But from this time, for several years, there is much uncertainty in respect to dates and the scenes of occurrences which are related more or less circumstantially. Our chief authority for some two years is Withers's "Border Warfare," and we shall repeat the narratives of that writer without being able to elucidate the history.

Withers states that in the summer of 1761 about sixty Shawnee warriors penetrated the settlements on the head waters of James river. They avoided the fort at the mouth of Looney's creek, and passed through Bowen's gap in Purgatory mountain (near Buchanan, in Botetourt county). Coming to the settlements, they killed Thomas Perry, Joseph Dennis and his child, and made prisoner his wife, Hannah Dennis. Proceeding to the house of Robert Renix, who was not at home, they captured Mrs. Renix (a daughter of Sampson Archer, one of the vestrymen of Augusta parish) and her five children—William, Robert, Thomas, Joshua and Betsey. At the house of Thomas Smith, they shot and scalped Smith and Renix, and captured Mrs. Smith and a servant girl named Sally Jew.

George Mathews, of Staunton, and William and Audley Maxwell were on their way to Smith's house at the time of the assault. Hearing the report of the guns as they approached, they supposed there was a shooting match at the place; but on riding up to the house, they discovered the dead bodies of Smith and Renix lying in the yard. The Indians had concealed themselves in and behind the house when they saw Mathews and his companions approaching, and fired upon them as they wheeled ​to ride back. The curl of Mathews's cue was cut off, and Audley Maxwell was slightly wounded in the arm.

The Indians then divided their party, twenty of them with their prisoners and plunder returning to Ohio, while the remainder started towards Cedar creek to commit further depredations. But Mathews and the Maxwells had aroused the settlement, and all the people soon collected at Paul's fort, at the Big Spring, near Springfield. Here the women and children were left to be defended by Audley Maxwell and five other men; twenty-one men led by Mathews, going in search of the enemy. The Indians were soon encountered, and, after a severe engagement, took to flight. They were pursued as far as Purgatory creek, but escaped in the night, and overtaking their comrades at the mouth of the Cowpasture river, proceeded to Ohio without further molestation. Three whites (Benjamin Smith, Thomas Maury and the father of Sally Jew) and nine Indians were killed in the engagement. Returning to the battlefield the next morning, Mathews and his men buried the dead Indians on the spot. The whites slain there, and those murdered on the preceding day, were buried near the fork of a branch in what was (in 1831) the Meadow of Thomas Cross, Sen.

Mrs. Dennis was detained by the Indians at Chilicothe towns till 1763, when she made her escape, as will be related. Mrs. Renix remained with the Indians till 1767.

The town of Staunton was at last chartered by act of assembly, in November, 1761. The first trustees of the town were, William Preston, Israel Christian, David Stuart, John Brown, John Page, William Lewis, William Christian, Eledge McClanahan, Robert Breckenridge, and Randal Lockheart. The act provided that two fairs might be held annually, in June and November, but positively prohibited the building of wooden chimneys in the town.

An aged man named James Hill, testifying in 1807, in the cause of Peter Heiskell vs. The Corporation of Staunton, gave some account of the town in 1762 when he settled here. Sampson and George Mathews kept store at the northeast corner of Beverley and Augusta streets. Sampson Mathews also kept an ordinary in the long frame building, a story and a half high, with dormer windows, which formerly stood on the east side of Augusta street below Frederick. The lot at the southwest cor​ner of Augusta and Frederick was, in 1762, "Mathews's stable lot." Mrs. Woods lived on the west side of Augusta street, about midway between Beverley and Frederick. Mrs. Cowden lived on the west side of Augusta street, a little north of Beverley, and Daniel Kidd lived where the Lutheran church now stands. The deposition of Hill and the diagram which accompanied it show that most of the twenty-five acres donated by Beverley in 1749 to the county, was occupied by town lots and streets in 1762.

Sampson Mathews was the father-in-law of the late venerable Samuel Clark, of Staunton, and of Mr. Alexander Nelson, whose descendants are quite numerous George Mathews has already been mentioned, and will often appear again.

Colonel John Lewis, the pioneer, was a member of the Greenbrier Company, and acquired landed possessions in the region named. We have seen that he and his son, Andrew, were prospecting in that region in 1751. The Indian wars checked the proceedings of the Company, and retarded the settlement of the country, but a few families moved there and made two settlements, holding on in spite of the dangers to which they were exposed.

Colonel Lewis died February 1, 1762, having attained the age of eighty-four years. His will, executed November 28, 1761, and admitted to record November 18, 1762, expressed the writer's pious hopes. He was buried on the farm where he lived, two miles east of Staunton. The executors were the testator's three sons, Thomas, Andrew, and William. Charles is named in the will, but no mention is made of Samuel. In person Colonel John Lewis is described as having been tall and muscular, and he is said to have been the best backwoodsman of his day. He was born in the reign of Charles II, and lived through the reigns of James II, William and Mary, Queen Anne, George I, George II, and during two years of the reign of George III.

The proceedings of the vestry, in 1762, furnish to us several curious items. Samuel Craige was allowed £6, 2s. 6d. "for keeping a Dutchman;" and another item was allowed on account of "goods for the Dutchman." An order was entered in November, 1762, authorizing the purchase of one hundred acres of land, within ten miles from Staunton, on which to erect ​a poorhouse. The buildings were to have wooden chimneys, and to cost not more than £30—$100, In 1763, the building was postponed for a year, and the work was not resumed till November, 1764.

In 1762, Hugh Green preferred a bill against the parish for keeping Mary Leeper, a pauper, and for her funeral expenses. Among the items of the latter were three gallons of liquor, 9s.; a bushel of flour for cakes, 3s.; and three and a half pounds of sugar, 2s. 11d.

In the same year an account of the widow Young against the parish was recorded in the Vestry Book as follows: "To laying-in, and charges with the attendance of two children; also half pound of pepper, and half pound of allspice, and three quarts and one pint liquor. I likewise acted as granny for Elianor Dunn—£2." Among the items of another account was one "for three pints of wine for sacrament—3s. 9d.

Dr. William Fleming was practising his profession in the parish in 1762, living in the part of the county which is now Botetourt. For professional services to paupers the parish was indebted to him £15, 11s.^[1]

The parish church at Staunton was finished early in 1763, and was accepted by the vestry June 25th. Two members of the vestry—Sampson Mathews and John Poage—voted against receiving the building, they "supposing the brick in the church to be insufficient."

Canada was conquered by the English in 1759, but peace between Great Britain and France was not formally concluded till 1763. The savage allies of the French, however, having acquired a taste for blood, continued the war on the English settlements until the latter part of 1764. Cornstalk, the cele​brated Shawnee warrior, appears in history for the first time in 1763. Nothing is known of his youth.

Mrs. Dennis, who was captured by the Indians, in 1761, on the upper James river (now Botetourt county), made her escape, as stated, in 1763. She left the Chilicothe towns in June of that year, under pretext of gathering herbs for medicinal purposes. When her flight was suspected, she was pursued and fired at by the Indians, but managed to conceal herself in the hollow limb of a fallen tree. Crossing the Ohio river on a log, and subsist- ing on roots, herbs, and wild fruit, she arrived, nearly exhausted with fatigue and hunger, on the Greenbrier river. There, after giving up all hope of surviving, she was found by Thomas Athol and others, and taken to the settlement at Archibald Clen- 'denin's, called the Levels. Remaining at this place for a lime to recuperate, she was then taken on horseback to Fort Young [Covington], from whence she was conducted home to her relations.

We have two independent accounts of the immediately succeeding occurrences—one by Withers, and the other by Colonel John Stuart, of Greenbrier, in his "Memoir of the Indian Wars." We shall mainly follow the latter.

A few days after Mrs. Dennis had gone from Clendenin's, a party of about sixty Indians, headed by Cornstalk, came to the settlement on Muddy creek, one of the only two white settlements in Greenbrier. It is supposed that these Indians were in pursuit of Mrs. Dennis. They professed to be friendly, and were treated hospitably by the white people, who imagined that the war was over. Small parties of them were entertained at the various cabins, until, to the astonishment of the unprepared settlers, the savages rose on them and tomahawked all except a few women and children, whom they reserved as prisoners.

From Muddy creek the Indians passed over into the Levels, where some families were collected at Clendenin's—numbering between fifty and one hundred persons, men, women and children. There, says Colonel Stuart, they were entertained, as at Muddy creek, in the most hospitable manner. "Clendenin having just arrived from a hunt, with three fat elks, they were plentifully feasted. In the meantime, an old woman with a sore leg, was showing her distress to an Indian and inquiring if he could administer to her relief; he said he thought he could, and ​drawing his tomahawk instantly killed her and all the men almost that were in the house.

"Conrad Yolkorn only escaped, by being some distance from the house, where the outcries of the women and children alarmed him. He fled to Jackson's river and alarmed the people, who were unwilling to believe him, until the approach of the Indians convinced them. All fled before them; and they pursued on to Carr's creek [now Rockbridge county], where many families were killed and taken by them.

"At Clendenin's a scene of much cruelty was performed; and a negro woman, who was endeavoring to escape, killed her own child lest she might be discovered by its cries.

"Mrs. Clendenin did not fail to abuse the Indians, calling them cowards, &c., although the tomahawk was drawn over her head with threats of instant death, and the scalp of her husband lashed about her jaws.

"The prisoners were all taken over to Muddy creek, and a party of Indians detained them there till the return of the others from Carr's creek, when the whole were taken off together. On the day they started from the foot of Keeney's Knob, going over the mountain, Mrs. Clendenin gave her infant to a prisoner woman to carry, as the prisoners were in the centre of the line with the Indians in front and rear, and she escaped into a thicket and concealed herself. The cries of the child soon made the Indians inquire for the mother, and one of them said he would bring the cow to the calf." Taking the child by the heels he beat its brains out against a tree and throwing it in the path the savages and horses trampled over it. " She told me," says Colonel Stuart, "she returned that night in the dark to her own house, a distance of more than ten miles, and covered her husband's corpse with rails which lay in the yard where he was killed in endeavoring to escape over the fence with one of his children in his arms." Mrs. Clendenin seems to have been partially crazed from the beginning of the massacre. That night, after giving what burial she could to her husband's body, she was seized with mortal terror, thinking she saw a murderer standing over her. Upon recovering her reason, she resumed her flight, and reached the settlements in safety. Colonel Stuart states that the Indians continued the war till 1764, making incursions within a few miles of Staunton.

​Thus the last vestiges of white settlements in the Greenbrier country were exterminated. The number of whites living there is believed to have been at least a hundred. From 1763 to 1769 the country was uninhabited. In the latter year John Stuart, whose narrative we have just quoted, and a few other young men, made the first permanent settlement there.

Withers makes no mention of either of the massacres of Kerr's creek. Stuart merely alludes to the first, in 1763, writing the name, however, "Carr's" instead of "Kerr's." For the only detailed account of these tragedies we are indebted to the Rev. Samuel Brown, of Bath county, who collected the incidents from descendants of the sufferers many years ago.

The settlement on Kerr's creek, says Mr. Brown, was made by white people soon after the grant of land to Borden in 1736. The families located there, consisting of Cunninghams, McKees, Hamiltons, Gilmores, Logans, Irvins, and others, thought themselves safe from the dangers of more exposed parts of the country.

The Indians who exterminated the Greenbrier settlements are described by Colonel Stuart as following Conrad Yolkom to Jackson's river, and there Mr. Brown's narrative takes them up. He says, some knowledge of their approach had been obtained, and they were met by a company of men under command of Captain Moffett, at or near the mouth of Falling Spring valley, in the present county of Alleghany. The whites fell into an ambush, were taken by surprise, and some of them slain. Among the slain was James Sitlington, a recent immigrant from Ireland. After this, the Indians went some miles down Jackson's river, and came up the valley of the Cowpasture, to the residence of a blacksmith named Daugherty. He and his wife and two children barely made their escape to the mountain, while their house and shop were burned. Daugherty removed to the South, and rose to considerable distinction, being many years afterwards mentioned by General Jackson, in one of his reports, as the "venerable General Daugherty."

From Daugherty's, the Indians passed up the Cowpasture to a point near the site of Old Millborough. There they divided their company, the larger party returning westward, and the smaller moving towards the settlement on Kerr's creek.

Let us, like Mr. Brown, first follow the larger band of Indians ​on their retreat. After leaving Millborough, they killed a man whom they met in the narrows, at the Blowing Cave, and whose body fell into the river. They crossed the Warm Spring mountain and camped at the head of Back creek. In the meanwhile, a company of men hastily raised, under command of Captain Christian, was in pursuit of this band of savages, and came upon them at the place last mentioned. The assault was made by the whites prematurely; but, nevertheless, the Indians were routed, a number of them killed, and nearly all of their equipage was taken. Among the spoils, was the scalp of James Sitlington, which was recognized by the flowing locks of red hair. Captain John Dickinson, of Windy Cove, and John Young, who lived near the church since known as Hebron, were with Captain Christian, and also, it is said, some of the young Lewises of Augusta. Thomas Young, brother of John, was slain in the fight. His body was buried on the field, but his scalp, torn from his head by the Indian who killed him, was brought home and buried in the Glebe grave yard.

The Indians who escaped from Christian and his men were again encountered by a company of white men coming up the south branch of the Potomac. More of them were killed, and the remainder driven into the fastnesses of Cheat mountain.

The smaller band of Indians made their descent upon Kerr's creek, on the 17th of July. Their number was twenty-seven, Robert Irvin having counted them from a bluff near the road at the head of the creek. Some weeks before, two boys, named Telford, reported that when returning from school they had seen a naked man near their path. This report was not much thought of till the massacre, when it was supposed that the man seen by the boys was an Indian spy sent out to reconnoitre.

Leaving the site of old Millborough, the savages passed over Mill mountain at a low place still called the "Indian Trail." Coming on the waters of Bratton's Run, they crossed the North mountain, where it is now crossed by the road leading from Lexington to the Rockbridge Alum Springs, and where there is a large heap of stones, supposed to have been piled up by Indians. From this point they had a full view of the peaceful valley of Kerr's creek. Hastening down the mountain, they began the work of indiscriminate slaughter. Coming first to the house of Charles Daugherty, he and his whole family were mur​dered. They next came to the house of Jacob Cunningham, who was from home, but his wife was killed, and his daughter, about ten years of age, scalped and left for dead. She revived, was carried off as a prisoner in the second invasion, was redeemed, and lived for forty years afterwards, but finally died from the effects of the scalping. The Indians then proceeded to the house of Thomas Gilmore, and he and his wife were killed, the other members of the family escaping at that time. The house of Robert Hamilton came next. This family consisted of ten persons, and one-half of them were slain. By this time the alarm had spread through the neighborhood, and the inhabitants were flying in every direction. For some reason the main body of the Indians went no further. Perhaps they were sated with blood and plunder; most probably they feared to remain longer with so small a band. A single Indian pursued John McKee and his wife as they were flying from their house. By the entreaty of his wife, McKee did not wait for her, and she was overtaken and killed. He escaped. His six children had been sent to the house of a friend on Timber Ridge, on account of some uneasiness, caused probably by the report about the naked man.

The Indians hastened their departure, loaded with scalps and booty, and unincumbered by prisoners. As far as known they joined the party left at Muddy creek, in Greenbrier, without being assailed on the way.

"From one cause," says Mr. Brown, " the lives of some were saved no doubt. A number had gone that day to Timber Ridge church, where services were conducted by the Rev. John Brown. During the intermission between the morning and evening sermons some alarm was given, but such reports were frequently started without foundation, and therefore not much attention was paid to this. The people went into the church for the second sermon, when a messenger arrived with the sad tidings from Kerr's creek. All was immediately confusion and dismay. The congregation was dismissed, and fled in every direction it was thought would afford them safety."

An account of the second and more disastrous raid upon Kerr's creek, about a year after the first, remains to be given. The lamentable occurrence just related spread alarm throughout the county. Some persons residing in Staunton fled across the ​Blue Ridge. Measures of defence were, however, immediately adopted. At the August court, Andrew Lewis qualified as lieutenant of the county, or commander-in-chief of the county militia; William Preston qualified as colonel, and the following persons as captains: Walter Cunningham, Alexander McClanahan, William Crow and John Bowyer. John McClanahan, Michael Bowyer and David Long qualified as lieutenants, and James Ward as ensign.

A fragment of a letter, which was probably written by Colonel William Preston to his brother-in-law, the Rev. John Brown, and preserved by Colonel John Mason Brown, of Kentucky, throws some light upon the state of the times. It is dated "Greenfield, 27th July, 1763" The writer says:

"Our situation at present is very different from what it was when we had the pleasure of your company in this country. All Roanoke river and the waters of Mississippia are depopulated, except Captain English with a few families on the New river, who have built a fort, among whom are Mr. Thompson and his family. They intend to make a stand till some assistance be sent them. Seventy-five of the Bedford militia went out in order to pursue the enemy, but I hear the officers and part of the men are gone home, and the rest gone to Reed creek to help in James Davies and two or three families there that dare not venture to travel.

"I have built a little fort in which are eighty-seven persons, twenty of whom bear arms. We are in a pretty good posture of defence, and with the aid of God are determined to make a stand. In five or six other places in this part of the county they have fallen into the same method and with the same resolution. How long we may keep them is uncertain. No enemy have appeared here as yet. Their guns are frequently heard and their footing observed, which makes us believe they will pay us a visit. My two sisters and their families are here and all in good health. We bear our misfortunes so far with * * * * and are in great hopes of being relieved. I have a thousand things * * * * Captain Christian can't wait * * * I give you joy."^[2]

The asterisks indicate parts of the letter torn out.

We have quoted Colonel John Stuart, of Greenbrier, and a ​brief notice of him and his connections is appropriate here. Among the partisans of the house of Stuart in 1745, was a John Paul, who was killed at the siege of Dalrymple castle. He left a widow, niece of Colonel John Lewis's wife, and three children—John, who became a Roman Catholic priest and died in Maryland; Audley, who was active and prominent in the Indian wars in West Virginia, and Polly, who married George Mathews, of Staunton. When Governor Dinwiddle came to Virginia in 1752 he was accompanied by his intimate friend, John Stuart, the elder, who had previously, it is presumed, married the widow of John Paul. His children were John Stuart, known first as Captain and afterwards as Colonel Stuart, of Greenbrier, and Betsy, wife of Colonel Richard Woods, of Albemarle. John Stuart, the younger, married the second daughter of Thomas Lewis, the surveyor, and was the father of two sons—Lewis Stuart, of Greenbrier, and Charles A. Stuart, who for some years lived in Augusta, but spent most of his life in Greenbrier, where he died.