University of Virginia Library

First House on the Mountain

It was not until years after the first cabins were
built on the creeks below, that Bent Mountain, or that
part of Roanoke County comprised in the Plateau of
Virginia, was settled. The records show that a large
boundary of land, comprising some twenty odd thousand
acres, descended to Colonel Andrew Lewis of Montgomery

County. He was the fourth son of General
Andrew Lewis, and he built what is reputed to be the
first house on top of the mountain. It was called
"Longwood," a more minute sketch being given in the
succeeding pages. The immense territory comprised
in the Lewis grants embodied about eight thousand
acres of land on top of the mountain and extended back
almost to the Floyd line, while a great portion of it
was mountain land and comprised the famous Back
Creek pippin apple section of to-day.