Annals of Augusta County/Chapter 6

We now rapidly approach the end of Indian troubles in Augusta county. As white population advanced, the savages receded, and the people of Augusta, as it now is, were delivered from danger and alarm. Indeed, none of the massacres, of which we have given an account, occurred within the present limits of the county; but the scenes of disaster being, at the various times mentioned, parts of the county, the incidents could not be omitted in our history. We presume no reader will think we have devoted too much space to the history of these times. The events related were of thrilling interest. The narrative shows what toil and suffering our ancestors endured to obtain homes for themselves, and to transmit a goodly heritage to us. As we now sit under our vine and fig tree, with none to molest or make us afraid, let us devoutly thank God for present peace and safety.

In October, 1764, says Withers, [Border Warfare, pages 72, 73,] about fifty Delaware and Mingo warriors ascended the Great Sandy and came over on New river, where they separated—one party going towards the Roanoke and Catawba (a small stream in Botetourt county), and the other in the direction of Jackson's river, in Alleghany. They were discovered by three white men, who were trapping on New river—Swope, Pack and Pitman—who hastened to give warning, but the Indians were ahead of them, and their effort was in vain. The savages who came to Jackson's river passed down Dunlop's creek, and crossed the former stream above Fort Young. They proceeded down that river to William Carpenter's, where there ​was a stockade fort in charge of a Mr. Brown. Meeting Carpenter near his house they killed him, and coming to the house captured a young Carpenter and two Browns, small children, and one woman. The other people belonging to the place were at work some distance off, and therefore escaped. Despoiling the house, the savages retreated precipitately by way of the Greenbrier and Kanawha rivers.

The report of the gun when Carpenter was killed, was heard by those who were away at work, and Brown carried the alarm to Fort Young. The weakness of the garrison at this fort caused the men there to send the intelligence to Fort Dinwiddie,^[1] where Captain Audley Paul commanded. Captain Paul immediately began a pursuit with twenty of his men. On Indian creek they met Pitman, who had been running all the day and night before to warn the garrison at Fort Young. He joined in the pursuit, but it proved unavailing. This party of Indians effected their escape.

As Captain Paul and his men were returning they encountered the other party of Indians, who had been to Catawba, and committed some murders and depredations there. The savages were discovered about midnight, encamped on the north bank of New river, opposite an island at the mouth of Indian creek. Excepting some few who were watching three prisoners, recently taken on Catawba, they were lying around a fire, wrapped in skins and blankets. Paul's men, not knowing there were captives among the Indians, fired into the midst of them, killing three, and wounding several others, one of whom drowned himself to preserve his scalp. The remaining Indians fled down the river and escaped.

The three white captives were rescued on this occasion, and taken to Fort Dinwiddle. Among them was Mrs. Catherine Gunn, an English lady, whose husband and two children had been killed two days before, on the Catawba. The Indians lost all their guns, blankets and plunder.

​Young Carpenter, one of the prisoners captured on Jackson's river, came home some fifteen years afterwards, and became Doctor Carpenter, of Nicholas county. The younger Brown was brought home in 1769, and was afterwards Colonel Samuel Brown, of Greenbrier. The elder Brown remained with the Indians, took an Indian wife, and died in Michigan in 1815. It is said that he took a conspicuous part in the war of 1812-14.

We pause here to give the sequel of the above story, as related by the late Colonel John G. Gamble, premising that Colonel Gamble's mother was a sister of Colonel Samuel Brown's wife.

Colonel Gamble says: "The last time I visited Colonel Brown I met there Colonel Brown's aged mother, a Mrs. Dickinson, a second time a widow. She was a very sensible and interesting old lady, and at that time could think and speak only of her long lost first-born, who had been to see her some time before my visit.

"Colonel Brown's father had formerly lived in what is now Bath county, then a frontier settlement. In one of the inroads made by the Indians, they pounced upon a school-house near Mr. Brown's residence, killed the teacher, captured the children, and among them Colonel Brown's elder brother, then a little white-headed chap, and carried him off; and for more than fifty years afterwards he was not heard of The child fell to the lot of an Indian who lived on Lake Huron, and thither he was taken. Some time afterwards a French trader, who had married and lived among the Indians, bought the boy, adopted him, and taught him to read. The lad, grown up, married a squaw and became a chief He had remembered and retained his name of 'Brown,' and the circumstances of his capture were such as not to be obliterated from his memory. Fifty years afterwards, upon a meeting of the Indians and whites for the purpose of making a treaty, he met with a man who knew his family, and assured him that his mother was still living. The old chief at once determined to visit her, and, attended by a son and daughter and some of his warriors, came to his brother's, in Greenbrier, and remained some months with his family. What a meeting between the aged mother and her long lost son!

"Every effort was made to induce him to remain, but of course unavailing; for no Indian chief was ever prevailed upon to exchange his mode of life for a residence among the whites.

​"His son and daughter were described to me as being fine specimens of their race, and the daughter as possessing uncommon beauty. Much persuasion was used to retain her; but the girl was in love, and was to be made the wife of a young chief on her return home. How could they expect her to remain?

"At the death of their father Brown, the law of primogeniture was in force in Virginia, and the old chief was the legal owner of all the paternal property, which was in fact nearly all that Colonel Brown possessed. The old chief was made acquainted with his rights, and before his departure conveyed to his brother all his title in the property."

It will be observed that Colonel Gamble makes no allusion to the taking off and return of the younger Brown. Moreover, the interval of fifty years between the capture and return of the older brother is inconsistent with the dates given by others. Without attempting to reconcile discrepancies, we resume our narrative.

Withers is silent in regard to an Indian raid upon Kerr's creek, in 1764, or at any time. He refers, as we have seen, to an assault upon the settlement on Catawba, in Botetourt, in October, 1764, but this, if he is correct, was by Delawares and Mingoes. The Rev. Samuel Brown states that the second Kerr's creek massacre was perpetrated by Shawnees, and in regard to this there can be no doubt, as the prisoners carried off, some of whom returned, would know to what tribe the Indians belonged. In his published narrative, Mr. Brown mentions October 10, 1765, as the date of the inroad; but he is now satisfied that it occurred at least a year earlier, probably in the fall of 1764.

The people on Kerr's creek had repaired the losses they sustained in 1763, as far as possible. For some time, says Mr. Brown, there had been vague reports of Indians on the warpath, but little or no uneasiness was excited. At length, however, the savages came, but more cautiously than before. They crossed the North mountain and camped at a spring in a secluded place, where they remained a day or two. Some one discovered their moccasin tracks in a corn-field, and then, from the top of a hill, saw them in their camp. Their number is supposed to have been from forty to fifty.

The alarm being given, the people, to the number of about a hundred, of both sexes and all ages, assembled at the house of ​Jonathan Cunningham, at the "Big Spring." They were packing their horses in haste, to leave for Timber Ridge, when the savages fell upon them. A Mrs. Dale, who was hidden a short distance off, witnessed the awful tragedy. The terror-stricken whites ran in every direction, trying to hide; and the Indians, each singling out his prey, pursued them round and round through the weeds, with yells. The white men had but few arms, and in the circumstances resistance was vain. The wife of Thomas Gilmore, standing with her three children over the body of her husband, fought with desperation the Indian who rushed up to scalp him. She and her son, John, and two daughters, were made prisoners. The bloody work did not cease until all who could be found were killed or taken prisoners.

Very soon the Indians prepared to leave, and gathered their prisoners in a group. Among the latter were Cunninghams, Hamiltons, and Gilmores. An entire family of Daughertys, five Hamiltons, and three Gilmores were slain. In the two incursions, from sixty to eighty white people were killed, and in the second, from twenty-five to thirty were carried into captivity, some of whom never returned.

Late in the evening the Indians, with their captives, reached their first encampment near the scene of the massacre. Among the booty found at the "Big Spring" was a supply of whiskey. This was carried to the encampment, and that night was spent by the savages in a drunken frolic, which was continued until the afternoon of the next day. The prisoners hoped all night that a company would be raised and come to their relief, as the Indians could easily have been routed during their drunken revels. But there was a general panic all over the country, and those who might have gone in pursuit were hiding in the mountains and hollows. Some had fled as far as the Blue Ridge. The captives related that the Indians took other prisoners as they returned to Ohio. These, Mr. Brown thinks, were taken on the Cowpasture river, as it is known, he says, that some were captured there about that time. Withers, however, as already related, attributes the captures on the Cowpasture, in October, 1764, to another band of Indians.

During the march westward the savages dashed out against a tree the brains of a sick and fretful infant and threw the body over the shoulders of a young girl, who was put to death ​the next day. On another day an infant was sacrificed, by having a sharpened pole thrust through its body, which was elevated in the air, and all the prisoners made to pass under it.

After crossing the Ohio, the Indians, elated with their success, demanded that the captives should sing for their entertainment, and it is said that Mrs. Gilmore struck up, with plaintive voice, the 137th Psalm of Rouse's version, then in use in all the churches—

The Indians then separated into several parties, dividing the prisoners amongst themselves; Mrs. Gilmore and her son, John, fell to one party and her two daughters to another. The last she ever heard of the latter was their cries as they were torn from her. No intelligence was ever received in regard to their fate. After some time, the mother and son were also parted, she being sold to French traders and the boy retained by the Shawnees. Finally he was redeemed and brought back by Jacob Warwick to Jackson's river, where he remained till his mother's return, when they were united at the old homestead.

A number of other captives were eventually found and brought back by their friends, among them Mary Hamilton, who had a child in her arms when the attack was made at the spring. She hid the child in the weeds and found its bones there when she returned.

With this painful narrative we close our account of Indian massacres in Augusta county.

In the meanwhile a general war between the whites and Indians was raging. Colonel Bouquet defeated the latter, August 2, 1764, at Bushy Run, in western Pennsylvania. Soon afterward, however, the British government made various efforts to establish friendly relations with the Indians. Colonel Bouquet, commanding at Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), issued a proclamation forbidding any British subject from settling or hunting west of the Alleghany mountains without written permission; and in the fall of 1764, proceeded with a body of troops to the Muskingum, in Ohio, then in Augusta county. On November 9, he concluded a treaty of peace with the Delawares and Shawnees, and received from them two hundred and six white prisoners. Of these, ninety were Virginians, thirty-two men and ​fifty-eight women and children. Some of the captives, who had been carried off while young, had learned to love their savage associates and, refusing to come voluntarily, were brought away by force.

Mrs. Renix, who was captured on Jackson's river, in 1761, was not restored to her home till the year 1767. In pursuance of the terms of Bouquet's treaty, she was brought to Staunton in the year last mentioned. Her daughter died on the Miami; two of her sons, William and Robert, returned with her; her son, Joshua, remained with the Indians and became a chief of the Miamis.

A corps of Virginia volunteers accompanied Bouquet's expedition, and was assigned the places of honor on the march, a portion of them forming the advance guard and the remainder bringing up the rear. A part, if not all, of this corps were Augusta men. Charles Lewis and Alexander McClanahan were captains of companies, and John McClanahan was one of the lieutenants. As late as 1779, John McClanahan being then dead, his infant son was allowed two thousand acres of bounty land for his father's services in the expedition.

The County Court of Augusta did not meet in October, 1764. At April court, 1765, a vast number of military claims were ordered to be certified—for provisions furnished to the militia, for horses pressed into service, etc. William Christian, William McKamy and others presented claims "for ranging," and Andrew Cowan "for enlisting men to garrison Fort Nelson." The orders are curt and unsatisfactory, giving no clue as to when and where the services were performed.

Almost every neighborhood in the county has traditions in regard to Indian inroads, but all are vague and uncertain as to dates and circumstances. It is related that at one time the Indians came into the Churchville neighborhood, and carried off a boy named McNeer, who lived on Middle river, at the mouth of Jennings's branch. This boy was taken to Georgia, it is said, and lived and died with the Indians, visiting, however, his relations in Augusta repeatedly. A man named Clendenin, who lived near Shutterlee's mill, was shot in the shoulder by an Indian lurking in the tall weeds on the bank of the river, at some time now unknown. The Anderson farm, near Shutterlee's, is known as the "Burnt Cabin place," from the fact that ​a cabin which stood there was burnt by the Indians. It is said also that, in 1763, the Indians captured and carried off one of the Trimbles from near the site of Churchville, seven miles northwest of Staunton.

The papers in a law suit, tried in the County Court of Augusta, in 1766, give some facts in regard to an Indian invasion of 1764, which do not appear elsewhere. It seems that in March, 1764, a party of Indians came into the upper part of the county, now Botetourt or Montgomery, and rifled the house of David Cloyd, carrying off upwards of £200 in gold and silver. They were pursued by a party of the militia, and one of them was killed on John's creek, at a distance of thirty miles or more from Cloyd's house. The dead Indian was found in possession of £137, 18s. A dispute arose among the militia as to whether the money belonged to them or to Cloyd, and until the question should be settled, the coin was deposited in the hands of James Montgomery. It was distributed by Montgomery to the militia, many of whom, however, returned their portions to Cloyd, to the amount of £106, 17s. 2d. Cloyd thereupon paid to each of the men who returned the money, the sum of thirty shillings ($5), the reward he had previously offered, and sued Montgomery for the remainder—£31, 10d. The suit was decided November 27, 1766, in favor of Cloyd, but an appeal was taken to the General Court, and we do not know the result. Gabriel Jones was attorney for Cloyd, and Peter Hogg for Montgomery.

It is interesting to see the names of the coins then in circulation. The sum of £137, 19s. 8½d. was made up as follows: "13 Double Loons, 36 Pistoles, 1 Half Double Loon, 4 Guineas, 4 Loodores, 16 Round Pistoles, 3 Half Pistoles, 2 Half Johannas, 9 Dollars, and some small silver."

The pistole was a Spanish coin, worth $3.60; the doubloon was also Spanish, and worth $7.20; the guinea was English, and worth $4.66; the louis-d'or, called loodore, was French, worth $4.44; and the Johannas, called joe, was Portuguese, worth $8.

The story of Selim, "the converted Algerine," falls in here; at least, it may be related here as well as elsewhere. It belongs in great part to Augusta county, and is too interesting to be omitted. For the earlier part of the narrative we are indebted to the Rev. David Rice, a Presbyterian minister who removed ​from Virginia to Kentucky before the present century. Bishop Meade collected the latter part, and preserved the whole in his work called "Old Churches," &c.

About the close of the war between France and England, called in Virginia "Braddock's War" (probably 1763 or '4), a man named Samuel Givens, an inhabitant of Augusta county, went into the backwoods of the settlement to hunt. He took with him several horses to bring home his meat and skins. As he was one day ranging the woods in search of game, he saw in the top of a fallen tree an animal, which he supposed to be some kind of wild beast. He was about to shoot it, but discovered in time that it was a human being. Going up, he found a man in a pitiable condition—emaciated, evidently famishing, entirely naked except a few rags tied round his feet, and his body almost covered with scabs. The man could not speak English, and Givens knew ho other language. He, however, supplied the forlorn creature with food, and when he had acquired sufficient strength, after several days, mounted him on one of his horses and took him to Captain Dickinson's, near the Windy Cove. There he was entertained for some months, during which the stranger acquired sufficient knowledge of English to communicate with the hospitable people into whose hands he had fallen.

He stated that his name was Selim, a native of Algiers, in Africa, and the son of a wealthy man; that he had been educated in Constantinople, and while returning to Algiers the ship he was aboard of was captured by a Spanish man-of war. Spain was then in alliance with France, and the Spanish ship falling in with a French vessel, Selim was transferred to the latter and taken to New Orleans. After some time he was sent up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the Shawnee towns, and left a prisoner with the Indians. A white woman captured on the frontiers of Virginia, was held as a prisoner by the Indians at the same time, and from her Selim learned by signs that she came from the east. He was sufficiently acquainted with geography to know that the English had settlements on the eastern shore of the continent, and inferred that the woman came from one of them. He thereupon resolved to escape, and constantly keeping to the rising sun finally reached the border settlement of Augusta county, in the plight mentioned.

On a court day, Captain Dickinson brought Selim with him ​to Staunton, where he attracted much attention. Among the throng of people was the Rev. John Craig, who immediately riveted the attention of the Algerine. The latter afterwards explained that in a dream a person like Mr. Craig had appeared to him as a teacher or guide, able to impart valuable instruction. He expressed a desire to accompany Mr. Craig to his home, and was kindly taken there. The minister of course sought to impart to the Mohammedan stranger the truths of the Christian religion, and his efforts were aided by Selim's knowledge of the Greek language, being thus able to read the New Testament in the original tongue. He soon professed conversion, and Mr. Craig, being satisfied of his intelligence and sincerity, publicly baptized him in the old stone church. He was afterwards seized with a desire to return to his native land, and his new friends could not dissuade him from it. Mr. Craig therefore raised a sum of money for him, and giving him a letter to the Hon. Robert Carter, of Westmoreland county, then living in Williamsburg, sent him on his way. Mr. Carter did all that was asked of him, furnishing more money to Selim, and securing for him passage to England.

Some time after this Selim returned to Virginia in a state of insanity. In lucid intervals he stated that he had found his way home, but had been rejected and driven off by his father when he learned that the son had abjured Mohammedanism and become a Christian. He came again to Captain Dickinson's, and from thence wandered to the Warm Springs, where he met a young clergyman named Templeton, who put a Greek Testament in his hands, which he read with great delight. From the Warm Springs he went to Mr. Carter's residence in West moreland. He awakened the sympathy of all who knew him. Governor Page, while a member of Congress at Philadelphia, took him to that city, and had his likeness taken by the artist Peale. From Philadelphia he went home with a South Carolina gentleman. He was also once, or oftener, in Prince Edward county, where he learned to sing Watts's hymns. For a time he was confined in the Lunatic Asylum at Williamsburg, but he finally died in a private house, where and at what time are not mentioned.

From 1764, for about ten years, no war or rumor of war disturbed the inhabitants of Augusta. They appear to have pur​sued the even tenor of their way in comparative security. On court days Staunton was doubtless crowded with people. Litigation was brisk; the number of causes tried in the county court exceeded anything known in modern times. Hunting or trapping wolves was one of the most important industries. Every year the court granted certificates for hundreds of wolf heads, and for more or less winter-rotted hemp, for which also the law offered a bounty.

The last hostile inroad by Indians into the Valley occurred, it is said, in 1766.^[2] We mention it because it was the last, although it did not occur in Augusta. A party of eight Indians and a white man crossed Powell's Fort mountain to the south fork of the Shenandoah river, now Page county. They killed the Rev. John Roads, a Menonist minister, his wife and three sons. A daughter, named Elizabeth, caught up an infant sister and escaped by hiding first in a barn and then in a field of hemp. Two boys and two girls were taken off as prisoners, but one of the boys and both girls were killed while crossing Powell's Fort. The other boy returned home after three years. The place where one of the lads was killed while endeavoring to escape is still called Bloody Ford.

At a court martial held by the militia officers of the county, April 11, 1766; Lieutenant Michael Bowyer was fined for appearing at the genera] muster on the 10th without a sword.

From the proceedings of the vestry of Augusta parish, and also from Hening's Statutes at Large, it appears that in 1752 an act was passed by the Assembly at Williamsburg on the petition of Mr. Jones, the rector, increasing his salary from £50 to £100. This act was repealed by proclamation of the king in 1762, and the rector's salary stood as before, at £50 a year. But until 1765 payment had been made at the rate of £100, and the vestry then refusing to pay more than the £50, Mr. Jones threatened to bring suit. At the meeting of October 21, 1765, it was ordered that Sampson Mathews "gel of Mr. Gabriel Jones a ​fair state of the case," to be laid "before Mr. Attorney and Mr. [Benjamin] Waller and get their opinion thereon." The "Mr. Attorney" referred to was Peyton Randolph, Attorney-General of the colony. Mr. Waller was a distinguished lawyer of Williamsburg. The opinion of Messrs. Randolph and Waller was laid before the vestry by Mr. Mathews, November 22, 1766, and it was ordered that each be paid £2 therefor. They advised that Mr. Jones's salary was only £50, and there the matter rested.

The trustees to purchase land for a poor-house, reported in November, 1766, that they had purchased a hundred acres on the waters of Christian's creek, from Sampson and George Mathews, for £40. A year later Daniel Perse and his wife were appointed keepers of the poor-house, on a salary of £35.

In November, 1767, a minute was entered in the vestry book, that all the members then present had subscribed a declaration "to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England." At a subsequent meeting, several members entered their protest against the signing of the proceedings by Israel Christian and (Mr.) John Buchanan, they having refused to sign the declaration.

On laying the parish levy, November 21, 1769, the Rev. Mr. Jones was allowed, by agreement, a salary of £150. At the same meeting William Bowyer was elected a vestryman in place of Colonel John Buchanan, deceased, Thomas Madison was chosen in place of Captain Israel Christian, and Captain Peter Hogg in place of Major Robert Breckenridge, "the said Breckenridge and Christian having refused subscribing to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England."

On the 22d of November, 1769, it was entered of record by the vestry, that the Rev. John Jones, being incapacitated by age and infirmity, consented "to accept of fifty pounds and perquisites in full of his salary for ensuing year, and to allow the residue levied for him by agreement to hire a curate to officiate in his stead."

No other meeting of vestry was held till November 22, 1771. This fact is not explained in the vestry book, but we find from an act of Assembly, published in Hening (Vol. VIII, page 438), why it was. This act, passed at the session which began in November, 1769, declares that a majority of the vestry of Augusta parish, being dissenters from the Church of England, the vestry ​is dissolved, and that an election of vestrymen be held on the 20th of September, 1770, the freeholders elected being required, before serving, to take and subscribe in court the oaths prescribed by law, to take and subscribe the oath of abjuration, to repeat and subscribe the test, and also to subscribe the declaration to be conformable, &c. Oaths and declarations were never so piled up, till immediately after the late war, the Federal Government waked up to the immense efficiency of such things. But surely one would think there was ample time, after the passage of the act referred to, and before the 20th of September, for the sheriff of Augusta to give the required notice and hold the election ordered. The sheriff, however, did not think so, and probably the people were not unwilling to try the experiment of getting along without any vestry and parish levies. So it was for two years there was no meeting, because there were no vestrymen authorized to meet, and all parish officers and creditors, including Mr. Jones, the rector, had to do without their pay. This state of affairs was reported to the Assembly, and in July, 1771, another act was passed to correct the matter. Some apology for the failure of the election in 1769 was necessary, and therefore the act recites that, "owing to the remote situation" of Augusta county, the sheriff did not have notice of the act of 1769 in time to hold the election. He was, however, ordered to proceed, on the 1st of October, 1771, to have twelve freeholders duly elected as vestrymen, who were peremptorily required to swear and subscribe as directed by the former act This election was duly held, and Augusta parish being again equipped with a full complement of public officers, taxes were levied, and the rector, sexton, &c., received their salaries as before.

The first division of the territory of Augusta county was made in 1769, when an act was passed creating the county of Botetourt. The new county embraced a part of the present county of Rockbridge—the North river, near Lexington, being the boundary line between Augusta and Botetourt—and also part of Alleghany and Bath, and all of Greenbrier, Monroe, &c.

The first County Court of Botetourt was held February 13, 1770, the justices commissioned being Andrew Lewis, Robert Breckenridge, William Preston, Israel Christian, James Trimble, John Bowyer, Benjamin Hawkins, William Fleming, John Maxwell and George Skillern. The five justices first named were ​on the bench and constituted the court. John May having been appointed clerk by the proper authority at Williamsburg, was duly qualified. In like manner, Richard Woods was appointed and qualified as sheriff. James McDowell and James McGavock qualified as under sheriffs. The following attorneys were admitted to practice in the court: Edmund Winston, John Aylett, Luke Bowyer and Thomas Madison. William Preston qualified as county surveyor, coroner, escheator and colonel of militia, Robert Breckenridge as lieutenant-colonel, and Andrew Lewis also as coroner. On the third day of the term, additional justices were recommended to the Governor for appointment, viz: William Ingles, John Howard, Philip Love, James Robertson, William Christian, William Herbert, John Montgomery, Stephen Trigg, Robert Dodge, Walter Crockett, James McGavock, Francis Smith, Andrew Woods, William Matthews, John Bowman, William McKee and Anthony Bledsoe.

William Preston, Israel Christian and Robert Breckenridge removed to the "upper country" some time after 1761. In that year they resided at Staunton, and were members of the first board of trustees appointed for that town.

The county of Botetourt was named in honor of Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt, who was Governor of Virginia in 1768. Israel Christian made a present of forty acres of land to the justices for the use of the county, and the town of Fincastle was built thereon. This town was established by law in 1772, and called after Lord Botetourt's county seat in England.^[3]

The new vestry of Augusta parish met November 22, 1771, ​and ordered that the collector for 1769 pay to Mr. Jones one hundred pounds "which was then levied for a curate, as none such has been employed."

In March, 1772, it was "ordered that Mr. William Bowyer employ a curate for this parish to supply the curacy of the same as directed by the present rector." From subsequent proceedings, it appears that the Rev. Adam Smith was the curate employed for a few months. In 1783 he was the rector of Botetourt parish.

In November, 1772, Thomas Mathews was allowed £2 as sexton for one year. A reader "at the Dutch meeting near Picket mountain" was allowed £5, and the "clerk of the church, if one, he got" £6.

In August, 1773, the Rev. Adam Smith, late curate, was allowed £41, 13s. 4d. for officiating five months. William Bowyer, who had previously objected to paying Mr. Jones anything, on the ground that he was incapacitated, now objected to the deduction from Mr. Smith's pay as ungenerous. Michael Bowyer suggested that Mr. Smith might make up the lost time.

At the meeting, November 9, 1773, the Rev. John Jones agreed to receive the Rev. Alexander Balmaine as curate and to pay him at the rate of £100 a year, directing his attorney, Robert McClanahan, to pay the same out of his salary. The vestry ratified this arrangement November i8th, but ordered that the collector make payment of the £100 directly to Mr. Balmaine.

Mr. Jones appeared no more at meetings of the vestry. He had evidently become imbecile, and his business affairs were transacted by his attorney-in-fact, Robert McClanahan. But we imagine that his young and talented curate created quite a sensation in the parish on his appearance here.

Mr. Balmaine, says Bishop Meade, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1740, and educated at St. Andrew's with a view to the Presbyterian ministry. He and his brother, a lawyer, at an early day espoused the cause of the American colonies and, in consequence, found it necessary to leave Scotland. They went to London, and there became acquainted with Arthur Lee, agent of Virginia, who recommended Mr. Balmaine as a private tutor to Richard Henry Lee. While ​waiting in London he took orders in the Church of England, and after arriving in Virginia, became curate to Mr. Jones. During his service in this capacity he paid several visits to the Episcopalians at Pittsburg, which was regarded as within his parish. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, he entered the army as chaplain, and at the close became rector of Frederick parish, residing at Winchester for thirty years, till his death.

At the meeting of vestry, November i8, 1773, it was determined to build a chapel in the neighborhood of Cook's creek, now Rockingham. In November, 1774, we find those sturdy Scotch-Irishmen, Alexander St. Clair and John Hays, elected members of the vestry, and, more surprising still, John Lyle and John Grattan were elected church-wardens.

On the 18th of December, 1773, a number of the inhabitants of Boston, disguised as Indians, boarded the English tea ships in the harbor, broke open the chests, and emptied the contents into the sea. A boy from Virginia participated in that famous adventure. Christian Bumgardner, who lived in what is now Shenandoah county, was then in Boston with his wagon and team, accompanied by his son, Jacob. The youth was drawn into the scheme, and helped to throw the tea overboard. During the war of the Revolution, Mr. Bumgardner removed to Augusta, and settled on the farm near Bethel church, where some of his descendants now reside. Jacob Bumgardner was a Revolutionary soldier, and lived to a venerable age. He was the father of Messrs. Lewis and James Bumgardner.

The Rev. John Craig^[4] died on the 21st of April, 1774. He had retired from Tinkling Spring ten years before, and that congregation had no pastor for about twelve years. They extended an invitation to the Rev. James Waddell, then living in Lancaster county, but he declined it. Mr. Craig was succeeded at Augusta church, but not till 1780, by the Rev. William Wilson, a native of Pennsylvania, but reared in that part of Augusta county now Rockbridge. He officiated at the stone church till 1814, when, owing to his infirmities, he retired, but ​his life was protracted till 1835. Mr. Wilson was considered an admirable classical scholar and an attractive preacher. Upon recovering from an illness at one time, he had wholly forgotten his native language, but his knowledge of Latin and Greek remained. Gradually he recovered his English.

But the happy days of peace did not last. In the early part of 1774 the Indians assumed an attitude of hostility towards the whites. The whole race was alarmed at the attempts of white men to occupy Kentucky. They were, moreover, not without provocation, on account of the ruthless conduct of encroaching settlers and hunters. Single murders, on both sides, were committed on the Ohio frontier; and finally, in the month of April, the family of Logan, a noted Indian chief, was slaughtered in cold blood, not far below Wheehng, by a party of whites. A general war immediately began, and Logan led one of the first of the marauding parties against the settlers on the Monongahela. Logan was so called after James Logan, the secretary of Pennsylvania. His Indian name is unpronounceable. He was the son of a celebrated Cayuga chief, who dwelt on the Susquehanna. Until the unprovoked slaughter of his family he was friendly with the whites. Then he became a fiend incarnate, carrying fire and death through the frontier settlements. He is described as an Indian of extraordinary capacity.

Colonel Angus McDonald, at the head of a small force, advanced from Wheeling into the Indian country, but returned without accomplishing any important result. The Indians continued hostile, and proceeded to form extensive alliances amongst themselves.

The government at Williamsburg then took steps to protect the western frontier. Lord Dunmore, the Governor, ordered Andrew Lewis, then a brigadier-general, and residing in Botetourt, to raise a force of eleven or twelve hundred men and march to the Ohio; while he at the head of a similar force raised in the lower valley, should move to Fort Pitt, and thence to meet Lewis at Point Pleasant.

Eight companies raised in Augusta county formed a regiment of four hundred men, commanded by Colonel Charles Lewis. His captains were George Mathews, Alexander McClanahan, John Dickinson, John Lewis (son of Colonel William Lewis), Benjamin Harrison (of the Rockingham family), William Paul, ​Joseph Haynes, and Samuel Wilson. Colonel William Fleming, of Botetourt, commanded a regiment of about the same number of men, and one of his captains was Robert McClanahan, a native of Augusta, and brother of Alexander. Robert McClanahan's wife was the eldest daughter of Thomas Lewis, the surveyor. She afterwards married a Mr. Bowyer.

The Augusta companies rendezvoused in Staunton the latter part of August. Sampson Mathews's ordinary seems to have been headquarters. Here, no doubt, grog was freely dispensed for several days, but tradition states only one fact in connection with the gathering. It is said that the heights of the men of Captain George Mathews's company were marked on the barroom walls, nearly all the men being over six feet two inches in their stockings, and not one under six feet.

Of the departure from Staunton and march to Camp Union (Lewisburg) we have no account. At the latter place General Lewis assembled his command about the 4th of September.

On September 11th, the command began the march to the Ohio. Captain Matthew Arbuckle, of Greenbrier, acted as guide. There was no track of any kind, and few white men had ever gone down the Kanawha valley. Of course wagons could not be employed, and provisions were transported on pack-horses. Many cattle also were driven along to supply food for the army. In nineteen days the command advanced from Camp Union to Point Pleasant, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, averaging eight and a half miles a day.

Here we must repeat a story of the supernatural, as related by Governor Gilmer, without, however, vouching for its truth:

"About mid-day on the 10th of October, 1774," says Governor Gilmer, "in the town of Staunton, a little girl, the daughter of John and Agatha Frogge, and grand-daughter of Thomas and Jane Lewis, was sleeping near her mother, when suddenly she waked, screaming that the Indians were killing her father. She was quieted by her mother, and again went to sleep. She again waked, screaming that the Indians were killing her father. She was again quieted and went to sleep, and was waked up by the same horrid vision, and continued screaming beyond being hushed. The child's mother was very much alarmed at the first dream. But when the same horrid sight was seen the third time, her Irish imagination, quickened by inherited superstition, pre​sented to her the spectacle of her husband scalped by the Indians. Her cries drew together her neighbors, who, upon being informed of what had happened, joined their lamentations to her's, until all Staunton was in a state of commotion.

"It so happened that the great battle of the Point between the western Indians and the Virginians was fought on the very day when all Staunton was thus agitated. And what was still more wonderful, John Frogge, the father of the child who saw in her dream the Indians killing her father, was actually killed by the Indians on that day." It is said that Captain Frogge was a sutler, but took a gun and fought with the rest. He was gaudily dressed in bright colors, and his hat was adorned with ribbons and feathers.

Of this extraordinary occurrence there is no tradition in Staunton. We may add that Mrs. Frogge's second husband was Captain John Stuart, afterwards Colonel Stuart.

Early Monday morning, October l0, the Virginians were suddenly attacked by a large body of Indians led by Cornstalk and Logan. The battle raged all day, and was one of the most noted conflicts that ever occurred between Indians and white men. Seventy-five of the whites, including Colonels Lewis and Field, and Captain Robert McClanahan,^[5] were killed, and one hundred and forty were wounded. The loss of the Indians is unknown, but they were signally defeated.

Sundry articles captured from the Indians were sold at auction after the battle, and brought £74, 4s. 6d.

After burying the dead and providing for the wounded, General Lewis proceeded to join Governor Dunmore, in order to penetrate the Indian country in pursuance of the original scheme, but an express met him with orders from the Governor to return to the mouth of the Big Kanawha. The integrity of the Governor was suspected. The Revolutionary troubles having begun, it was believed that Dunmore was seeking to win the Indians to the side of Great Britain against the Colonies. The men of Lewis's command refused to obey the Governor's order, and continued to advance till he met them and made such ​representations as to the prospect of peace as induced them to retire.

Dunmore went into Ohio, and halted his command eight miles from the Indian town of Chilicothe, calling the place Camp Charlotte. Eight chiefs, with Cornstalk at their head, came to Dunmore's camp, and in the course of a few days a treaty of peace was concluded. Interpreters were sent to Logan to request his attendance, but he refused to come, saying "he was a warrior, not a counsellor." His speech, which, it is said, the interpreters delivered on their return, is regarded as a fine specimen of untutored eloquence:

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him no meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I have even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."

Mr. Jefferson, it is said, found this speech at Governor Dunmore's, in Williamsburg, and afterwards published it in his Notes on Virginia. The genuineness of the speech has been questioned, but it is generally believed to be authentic. The charge against Cresap, however, who was captain in the division of the army under Dunmore, appears to have been unfounded. Logan did not name him in the speech, or message, which he sent to Dunmore.

Of Cornstalk it is said: "If in the battle of Point Pleasant he displayed bravery and generalship, in the negotiation at Camp Charlotte he exhibited the skill of a statesman, joined to powers of oratory rarely, if ever, surpassed."

​The news of the battle of Point Pleasant could not well have reached Staunton until about the 24th of October. The anxiety of the people at home, while waiting the result of the expedition, may be imagined.

There is no record or tradition in regard to it, but the County Court records indicate the state of feeling. The October term of the court began on the 18th, but no business was transacted, except the qualification of several new justices of the peace. The court met again on the 19th, but only to adjourn to the next term. The whole community was too anxiously awaiting intelligence from the west to attend to ordinary affairs.

When November court came round the surviving heroes of Point Pleasant had returned to their homes. One of them, Andrew Moore, appeared in court on November 15, and qualified to practice law. Alexander McClanahan sat as a magistrate on the County Court bench August 22, and then hurried with his company to Camp Union; he was on the bench again on November 16, soon after his return.

By January court, 1775, the men who were in the expedition had gotten up their accounts against the government for pecuniary compensation. Many were for "diets of militia;" some for "sundries for the militia;" others for "driving pack horses." William Sharp and others presented claims for services as spies. John Hays demanded pay for himself and others as "pack-horse masters." William Hamilton had a bill for riding express, and William McCune another as "cow herd."

Colonel Charles Lewis executed his will August 10, 1774, on the eve of his departure for Point Pleasant, and the instrument was admitted to record January 17, 1775. The testator seems to have been a man of considerable wealth. Four children survived him—John, Andrew, Elizabeth and Margaret, and one was born after his death. His wife was Sarah Murray, a half sister of Colonel Cameron, of Bath county.

We anticipate the course of events to relate briefly the fate of Cornstalk. A fort had been established at Point Pleasant, and in 1777 was garrisoned by a small force. The Indians having recently shown an unfriendly disposition, a larger force was ordered there, with a view to an advance into the Indian country, to overawe the savages. Colonel Skillern, of Botetourt, commanded several companies raised in Augusta and Botetourt, ​and with him arrived a company of Greenbrier men. Captains Stuart and Arbuckle, of Greenbrier, were also present. Cornstalk, and another chief called Redhawk, came to the fort professedly to give warning that the Shawnees intended to take part with the British against Virginia, and were detained as hostages. Elinipsico, the son of Cornstalk, afterwards arrived to inquire, about his father. This being the state of things at the fort, two young men, named Gilmore and Hamilton, from Kerr's creek, belonging to a company commanded by Captain John Hall, went across the Kanawha to hunt. On their return, as they approached the river, some Indians hid in the weeds fired upon them. Gilmore was killed and scalped, but Hamilton was rescued by some of his comrades. They brought the bloody body of Gilmore across the river, and no doubt instantly thought of the terrible inroads upon Kerr's creek, led by Cornstalk, it was believed, years before. The cry arose, "Let us kill the Indians in the fort!" Hall's men, with the captain at their head, rushed in, and, notwithstanding the intervention of Stuart and Arbuckle, accomplished their purpose.