University of Virginia Library

The First Settlers

James L. Heckman, an aged citizen of Franklin
County who is still living, relates an account of the
coming of the first settlers to this section which was
told him in childhood by his grandfather, and afterwards
repeated to him by his father, to the effect that
four men came into this vicinity from Pennsylvania on
a hunting and trapping expedition. They were Heckman,
Willett, Martin, and Webster. With nothing
but their guns, ammunition, carving knives, and frying
pans they passed down the Valley of Virginia following
the path of the "Great Trail," as mentioned elsewhere
in this volume, leaving civilization in their wake, in
quest of game. There is a tradition to the effect that
Samuel Billups had preceded the quartet named by a
short period. He was a brother-in-law of Henry Webster.

Crossing Roanoke River, the stream then being unnamed,
and seeing the Blue Mountains looming up in
the distance, they made their way southwestward,
until they came to a stream flowing to the east, and
which the reader has already guessed to be Back
Creek. In this veritable wilderness, the hardy huntsmen
found game to be plentiful, and with a salubrious
climate, the fertile bottom lands of Back Creek
furnished an ideal spot for a settlement. Returning to
Pennsylvania for their families, a second trip was made
over the same route by the four venturesome pioneers.
After leaving the Roanoke River, Heckman went
further to the southward and reared his cabin at the
foot of CaHay's Knob in Franklin County. The
other three followed the course of Back Creek, and
formed the first Bent Mountain settlement. Willett,
believed to have been David Willett, took up his abode
at the forks of the creek where the Ferguson school
house now stands. Webster and Martin pushed
further up the right-hand fork of the creek, and
Webster built his cabin on the site now occupied as a
home by the widow of the late Thomas Webster, while
a short distance further up Martin settled, his cabin
being located on the site now occupied by Alvin
Martin, one of his descendants. It is believed, though
no permanent records of the settlement can be found,
that the coming of this trio to this section was soon
after 1740. The names of these first settlers have all
been perpetuated in their numerous descendants, who
still reside in this section of Roanoke County, many of
whom are more prominently mentioned in the succeeding
pages.

With the advent of these first settlers, others came
until in time the fertile creek valleys were dotted over
with cabins. It was not until 1861 that anything
transpired to bring these early settlers prominently
before the public. The tocsins of Civil War being
sounded, many of them as shown by the rosters of the
various military companies formed in Roanoke and
Montgomery counties, responded to their country's
call, and as valiant soldiers as fought through that
bloody struggle responded from the Back Creek and
Bent Mountain sections.