 | [39] CHRONICLES
OF
BORDER WARFARE. Chronicles of border warfare, or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres in that section of the state |  |
[39] CHRONICLES
OF
BORDER WARFARE.
CHAPTER I.
At the time when Virginia became known to the whites,
it was occupied by many different tribes to Indians, attached
to different nations. That portion of the state
lying north west of the Blue ridge, and extending to the
lakes was possessed by the Massawomees. These were a
powerful confederacy, rarely in amity with the tribes east
of that range of mountains; but generally harrassing
them by frequent hostile irruptions into their country.
Of their subsequent history, nothing is now known.
They are supposed by some to have been the ancestors of
the Six Nations. It is however more probable, that they
afterwards became incorporated with these, as did several
other tribes of Indians, who used a language so essentially
different from that spoken by the Six Nations, as to render
the intervention of interpreters necessary between
them.
As settlements were extended from the sea shore, the
Massawomees gradually retired; and when the white population
reached the Blue ridge of mountains, the valley
between it and the Alleghany, was entirely uninhabited.
This delightful region of country was then only used as
a hunting ground, and as a highway for belligerant parties
of different nations, in their military expeditions against
each other. In consequence of the almost continued hostilities
between the northern and southern Indians, these
expeditions were very frequent, and tended somewhat to
retard the settlement of the valley, and render a residence
the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio river, within the
present limits of Virginia, there were some villages interspersed,
inhabited by small numbers of Indians; the most
[40] of whom retired north west of that river, as the tide
of emigration rolled towards it. Some however remained
in the interior, after settlements began to be made in their
vicinity.
North of the present boundary of Virginia, and particularly
near the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela
rivers, and in the circumjacent country the Indians
were more numerous, and their villages larger. In 1753,
when Gen. Washington visited the French posts on the
Ohio, the spot which had been selected by the Ohio company,
as the site for a fort, was occupied by Shingess, king
of the Delawares; and other parts of the proximate
country, were inhabited by Mingoes and Shawanees.[1]
When the French were forced to abandon the position,
which they had taken at the forks of Ohio, the greater
part of the adjacent tribes removed farther west. So that
when improvements were begun to be made in the wilderness
of North Western Virginia, it had been almost entirely
deserted by the natives; and excepting a few straggling
hunters and warriors, who occasionally traversed it
in quest of game, or of human beings on whom to wreak
their vengeance, almost its only tenants were beasts of
the forest.
In the country north west of the Ohio river, there
were many warlike tribes of Indians, strongly imbued with
feelings of rancorous hostility to the neighboring colonists.
Among the more powerful of these were the Delawares,
who resided on branches of Beaver Creek, Cayahoga, and
inhabitants—The Shawanees, who to the number of
300, dwelt upon the Scioto and Muskingum—The Chippewas,
near Mackinaw, of 400—Cohunnewagos, of 300, and
who inhabited near Sandusky—The Wyandots, whose
villages were near fort St. Joseph, and embraced a population
of 250—The Twightees, near fort Miami, with a like
population—The Miamis, on the river Miami, near the fort
of that name, reckoning 300 persons—The Pottowatomies
of 300, and the Ottawas of 550, in their villages near to
forts St. Joseph and Detroit,[2] and of 250, in the towns
near Mackinaw. Besides these, there were in the same
district of country, others of less note, yet equally inimical
to the whites; and who contributed much to the annoyance
[41] of the first settlers on the Ohio, and its tributaries.
There were likewise the Munsies, dwelling on the
north branch of the Susquehanna, and on the Allegheny
river—The Senecas, on the waters of the Susquehanna,
Ontario and the heads of the Allegheny—The Cayugas,
on Cayuga lake, and the Sapoonies, who resided in the
neighborhood of the Munsies. In these tribes was an aggregate
population of 1,380 souls, and they likewise aided
in committing depredations on our frontiers.
Those who ventured to explore and occupy the south
western portion of Virginia, found also in its vicinity some
powerful and warlike tribes. The Cherokees possessed
what was then, the western part of North Carolina and
numbered 2,500—The Chicasaws, residing south of the
Cherokees, had a population of 750—and the Catawbas,
on the Catawba river in South Carolina with only 150 persons.
These latter were remarkably adventurous, enterprising
and courageous; and notwithstanding their remote
situation, and the paucity of their numbers, frequently
traversed the valley of Virginia, and even penetrated
the country on the north branch of the Susquehanna,
war upon the Delawares. Their success in many of these
expeditions, is preserved in the traditions of the Delawares,
who continue to regard them as having used in
these wars, a degree of cunning and stratagem, to which
other tribes have never approached.[3]
Such were the numbers and positions of many of the
proximate Indians about the time settlements were begun
to be [42] made on the Monongahela river and its branches.
Anterior to this period, adventurers had explored, and
established themselves, in various parts of the valley between
the Blue ridge and the Alleghany mountain. That
section of it, which was included within the limits of the
Northern-Neck, was the first to become occupied by the
whites. The facilities afforded by the proprietor for obtaining
land within his grant, the greater salubrity of
climate and fertility of soil near to the Blue ridge, caused
the tide of emigration to flow rapidly towards the upper
country, and roll even to the base of that mountain. Settlements
were soon after extended westwardly across the
Shenandoah, and early in the eighteenth century Winchester
became a trading post, with sparse improvements
in its vicinity.
About this time Thomas Morlin, a pedlar trading
from Williamsburg to Winchester, resolved, in conjunction
with John Salling a weaver also from Williamsburg,
to prosecute an examination of the country, beyond the
of other adventurers. With this view, they travelled
up the valley of the Shenandoah, and crossing James river
and some of its branches, proceeded as far as the Roanoke,
when Salling was taken captive by a party of Cherokees.
Morlin was fortunate enough to elude their pursuit, and
effect a safe retreat to Winchester.
Upon the return of the party by whom Salling had
been captivated, he was taken to Tennessee where he remained
for some years. When on a hunting expedition
to the Salt licks of Kentucky, in company with some
Cherokees to kill buffalo, they were surprised by a party
of Illinois Indians, with whom the Cherokees were then
at war, and by them Salling was again taken prisoner.
He was then carried to Kaskaskia, when he was adopted
into the family of a squaw whose son had been killed in
the wars.
While with this nation of Indians, Salling frequently
accompanied parties of them on hunting excursions, a considerable
distance to the south. On several occasions he
went with them below the mouth of the Arkansas, and
once to the Gulph of Mexico. In one of those expeditions
they met with a party of Spaniards, exploring the country
and who needed an interpreter. For this purpose they
purchased Salling of his Indian mother for three strands
of beads and a Calumet. Salling attended them to the
post at Crevecœur; from which [43] place he was conveyed
to fort Frontignac: here he was redeemed by the Governor
of Canada, who sent him to the Dutch settlement in New
York, whence he made his way home after an absence of
six years.[4]
The emigration from Great Britain to Virginia was then
very great, and at the period of Salling's return to Williamsburg,
there were then many adventurers, who had but
recently arrived from Scotland and the north of England.
Among these adventurers were John Lewis[5]
and John
general interest, and drew around him many, particularly
of those who had but lately come to America, and to whom
the narrative of one, who had been nearly six years a
captive among the Indians, was highly gratifying. Lewis
and Mackey listened attentively to the description given
of the country in the valley, and pleased with its beauty
and fertility as represented by Salling, they prevailed on
him to accompany them on a visit to examine it more
minutely, and if found correspondent with his description
to select in it situations for their future residence.
Lewis made choice of, and improved, a spot a few miles
below Staunton, on a creek which bears his name—Mackey
on the middle branch of the Shenandoah near Buffalo-gap;
and Salling in the forks of James river, below the
Natural Bridge, where some of his descendants still reside.
Thus was effected the first white settlement ever made on
the James river, west of the Blue ridge.[6]
In the year 1736, Lewis, being in Williamsburg, met
with Benjamin Burden (who had then just come to the country
as agent of Lord Fairfax, proprietor of the Northern
Neck,) and on whom he prevailed to accompany him home.
Burden remained at Lewis's the greater part of the summer,
and on his return to Williamsburg, took with him a
buffalo calf, which while hunting with Samuel[7]
and Andrew
Lewis (elder sons of John) they had caught and afterwards
tamed. He presented this calf to Gov. Gooch, who thereupon
entered on his journal, [44] an order, authorizing
Burden to locate conditionally, any quantity of land not
exceeding 500,000 acres on any of the waters of the Shenandoah,
conditions of this grant were, that he should interfere
with no previous grants—that he should settle 100 families,
in ten years, within its limits; and should have 1000 acres
adjoining each cabin which he should cause to be built,
with liberty to purchase any greater quantity adjoining, at
the rate of fifty pounds per thousand acres. In order to
effect a compliance with one of these conditions, Burden
visited Great Britain in 1737; and on his return to Virginia
brought with him upwards of one hundred families
of adventurers, to settle on his grant.[8] Amongst these
adventurers were, John Patton, son-in-law to Benjamin
Burden, who settled on Catawba, above Pattonsburg[9] —
the son of Ephraim,[10] who settled at Fairfield, where Col.
James McDowell now lives—Hugh Telford, who settled at
the Falling spring, in the forks of James river—Paul
Whitley, who settled on Cedar creek, where the Red Mill
now is—Archibald Alexander, who settled on the North
river, opposite Lexington—Andrew Moore, who settled
adjoining Alexander—Sampson Archer, who settled at
Gilmore's spring, east of the Bridge tavern, and Capt.
John Matthews, who married Betsy Archer, (the daughter
of Sampson) settled where Major Matthews lives, below
the Natural bridge.
Among others who came to Virginia at this time,
was an Irish girl named Polly Mulhollin. On her arrival
she was hired to James Bell to pay her passage; and with
whom she remained during the period her servitude was
to continue. At its expiration she attired herself in the
habit of a man; and with hunting shirt and mocasons,
went into Burden's grant, for the purpose of making improvements
and acquiring a title to land. Here she erected
thirty cabins, by virtue of which she held one hundred
acres adjoining each. When Benjamin Burden the
younger, came on to make deeds to those who held cabin
rights, he was astonished to see so many in the name of
to the great mirth of the other claimants. She resumed
her christian name and feminine dress, and many of
[45] her respectable descendants still reside within the limits
of Burden's grant.[11]
When in 1752 Robert Dinwiddie came over as governor
of Virginia, he was accompanied by many adventurers;
among whom was John Stuart,[12]
an intimate friend
of Dinwiddie, who had married the widow of John Paul
(son of Hugh, bishop of Nottingham.) John Paul, a partizan
of the house of Stuart, had perished in the siege of
Dalrymple castle in 1745, leaving three children—John,
who became a Roman catholic priest and died on the eastern
shore of Maryland—Audley, who was for ten years an
officer in the British colonial forces,—and Polly, who
married Geo. Matthews, afterwards governor of Georgia.
Mrs. Paul (formerly Jane Lynn, of the Lynns of LochLynn,
a sister to the wife of John Lewis) had issue, by
and Betsy, who became the wife of Col. Richard Woods
of Albemarle.
The greater part of those, who thus ventured "on the
untried being" of a wilderness life, were Scottish presbyterian
dissenters; a class of religionists, of all others perhaps,
the most remarkable for rigid morality. They
brought with them, their religious principles, and sectional
prepossessions; and acting upon those principles acquired
for their infant colony a moral and devotional character
rarely possessed by similar establishments. While these
sectional prepossessions, imbibed by their descendants,
gave to their religious persuasions, an ascendency in that
section of country, which it still retains.
They were also men of industry and enterprise. Hunting,
which too frequently occupies the time, of those who
make the forest their dwelling place, and abstracts the
attention from more important pursuits, was to them a
recreation—not the business of life. To improve their
condition, by converting the woods into fertile plains, and
the wilderness into productive meadows, was their chief
object. In the attainment of this, they were eminently
successful. Their individual circumstances became prosperous,
and the country flourishing.
The habits and manners of the primeval inhabitants
of any country, generally give to it a distinctive character,
which marks it through after ages. Notwithstanding the
influx of strangers, bringing with them prejudices and
prepossessions, at variance with those of the community
in which they come; [46] yet such is the influence of example,
and such the facility with which the mind imbibes
the feelings and sentiments of those with whom it associates,
that former habits are gradually lost and those
which prevail in society, imperceptibly adopted by its new
members.
In like manner, the moral and religious habits of those
who accompanied Burden to Virginia, were impressed on
the country which they settled, and entailed on it that
high character for industry, morality and piety, which it
still possesses, in an eminent degree.
At the time of the establishment of this settlement, all
that part of Virginia lying west of the Blue ridge mountains,
was included in the county of Orange. At the fall
session, of the colonial legislature, in 1738, the counties of
Frederick and Augusta were formed out of Orange—The
country included within the boundaries of the Potomac
river, on the north, the Blue ridge, on the east, and a line,
to be run from the head spring of Hedgman, to the head
spring of Potomac, on the south and west, to be the county
of Frederick; the remainder of the state west of the Blue
ridge, to the utmost limits of Virginia to constitute Augusta.
Within its limits were included, not only a considerable
portion of Virginia as she now is, but an extent
of territory out of which has been already carved four
states, possessing great natural advantages, and the extreme
fertility of whose soil, will enable them to support
perhaps a more dense population, than any other portion
of North America of equal dimensions. As the settlements
were extended, subdivisions were made, 'till what was once
Augusta county south east of the Ohio river, has been
chequered on the map of Virginia, into thirty-three counties
with an aggregate population ef 289,362.[13]
[48] About the year 1749 there was in the county of
Frederick, a man subject to lunacy, and who, when laboring
under the influence of this disease, would ramble a
considerable distance into the neighboring wilderness. In
one of these wanderings he came on some of the waters
of Greenbrier river. Surprised to see them flowing in a
westwardly direction, on his return to Winchester he
made known the fact, and that the country abounded very
this information two men, recently from New England,
visited the country and took up their residence on the
Greenbrier river.
Having erected a cabin and being engaged in making
some other improvements, an altercation arose, which
caused Stephen Suel,[14]
one of them, to forsake the cabin
and abide for some time in a hollow tree not far from the
improvement, which was still occupied by his old companion.
They were thus situated in 1751, when John
Lewis, of Augusta and his son Andrew were exploring
the country; to whom Suel made known the cause of their
living apart, and the great pleasure which he experienced
now in their morning salutations, when issuing from their
respective habitations; whereas when they slept under the
same roof, none of those kindly greetings passed between
them. Suel however did not long remain in the vicinity
of Martin, the other of the two adventurers; he moved
forty miles west of his first improvement, and soon after
fell a prey to Indian ferocity. Martin is said to have returned
to the settlements.
There was no other attempt made by the whites, to
improve the Greenbrier country for several years. Lewis
and his son thoroughly examined it; and when permission
Lewis was a member) to locate 100,000 acres, on the waters
of this river, they became agents to make the surveys and
locations. The war between France and England in 1754
checked their proceedings; and when they, on the restoration
of peace, would have resumed them, they were interdicted
by a royal proclamation, issued in 1761, commanding
all those who had made settlements on the western
waters to remove from them; and those who were engaged
in making surveys to desist. Sound policy requiring, that
a good understanding should be maintained with the Indians
(who claimed the country) to prevent a further cooperation
on their part with France.[15]
Previous to the issuing of this proclamation, some
families had moved to Greenbrier and made two settlements—the
one on Muddy creek, the other in the Big-Levels.
These, disregarding the command of his royal
majesty and rather regardless of their own safety, remained
until they were destroyed by the Indians, in 1763.[16]
From this time 'till 1769 Greenbrier was altogether uninhabited.
Capt. John Stuart and a few other young men,
then began to settle and improve the country; and although
to exterminate them, yet they ever after continued in possession
of it.
[49] In the year 1756 settlements were also made on New
river and on Holstein.[17]
Among the daring adventurers
who effected them, were Evan Shelby, William Campbell,
William Preston and Daniel Boone, all of whom became
distinguished characters in subsequent history. Thomas
Walden,[18]
who was afterwards killed on Clinch river and
rivers derived its name, was likewise one of them. The
lands taken up by them, were held as "corn rights"—each
acquiring a title to an hundred acres of the adjoining land,
for every acre planted in corn.
Nearly cotemporaneous with these establishments, was
that at Galliopolis, on the north western bank of the Ohio,
and below Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa.
This was made by a party of French Jesuits, by
whom the Indians were incited to make incursions, and
commit the most enormous barbarities on the then frontiers.[19]
This place and the mouth of Great Sandy were the
chief points of rendezvous for the Ohio Indians. From
and Greenbrier rivers, and from thence crossing the mountains
enter into Augusta; or after having ascended the
Kenhawa, go up the New river, from which they would
pass over to the James and Roanoke. From the mouth
of Great Sandy they would ascend that river, and by the
way of Bluestone fall over on the Roanoke and New river.
From those two points, expeditions were frequently made
by the Indians, which brought desolation and death into
the infant settlements of the south west, and retarded their
growth very much. In the spring of 1757 nearly the whole
Roanoke settlement was destroyed by a party of Shawanees,
who had thus made their way to it.
That portion of the valley of Virginia in which establishments
were thus begun to be made, was at that time
one continued forest; overspreading a limestone soil of
great fertility; and intersected by rivers affording extensive
bottoms of the most productive alluvial land. Indeed
few rivers of equal size, are bordered with as wide and
fertile levels of this formation of earth, as those which
water that section of country: the Roanoke particularly
affords large bodies of it, capable of producing in great
abundance hemp, tobacco and the different kinds of grain
usually grown. In the country generally, every species of
vegetable, to which the climate was congenial, grew with
great luxuriancy; while the calcareous nature of the soil,
adapted it finely to the production of that kind of grain, to
which European emigrants were mostly used.
The natural advantages of the country were highly
improved by the persevering industry of its inhabitants.
Its forests, felled by untiring labor, were quickly reduced
to profitable cultivation, and the weeds which spontaneously
sprang from the earth, were soon succeeded by the
various grasses calculated to furnish the most nutritious
food, for the lowing herds with which their farmers were
early stocked; these yielded a present profit, and laid the
sure foundation [50] of future wealth. Some of the most
extensive and successful graziers of Virginia, now inhabit
that country; and reap the rich reward of their management
market of Richmond.
In the infancy of these establishments, their only
market was at Williamsburg. Thither the early settlers
packed their butter and poultry, and received in exchange
salt, iron, and some of the luxuries of life; their beef and
other stock was taken to the same place. In the process
of time, as the country east of the Blue ridge became
more improved, other markets were opened to them; and
the facilities of communication were gradually increased.
Their successors have already derived great advantage
from those improvements; and the present generation will
not only witness their farther extension, but most probably
see the country first tenanted by Lewis and his cotemporaries,
a great thoroughfare for the produce of several
of the western states—a link of communication
between the Chesapeak bay and the Gulph of Mexico.
King Shingiss was a famous village chief, "a terror to the frontier
settlements of Pennsylvania." A brother, and later the successor of
King Beaver, his camp was at the mouth of Beaver Creek, which
empties into the Ohio twenty-six miles below "the forks" (site
of Pittsburg). Christopher Gist visited him November 24, 1750. In
1759, when Fort Pitt was built, Shingiss moved up Beaver Creek to
Kuskuskis on the Mahoning, and finally to the Muskingum. The land
about the mouth of Beaver Creek is called "Shingis Old Town" in the
Ft. Stanwix treaty, 1784.—R. G. T.
The numbers here set down and those given below, are as they
were ascertained hy Capt. Hutchins, who visited the most of the tribes
for purpose of learning their population in 1768.
A tradition among the Delawares says that formerly the Catawbas
came near one of their hunting camps and remaining in ambush at night
sent two or three of their party round the camp with Buffalo hoofs
fixed to their feet, to make artificial buffalo tracks and thus decoy the
hunters from their camp. In the morning the Delawares, discovering
the tracks and supposing them to have been made by buffaloes, followed
them some time; when suddenly the Catawbas rose from their
covert, fired at and killed several of the hunters; the others fled, collected
a party and went in pursuit of the Catawbas. These had brought
with them, rattle snake poison corked up in a piece of cane stalk; into
which they dipped small reed splinters, which they set up along their
path. The Delawares in pursuit were much injured by those poisoned
splinters, and commenced retreating to their camp. The Catawbas discovering
this, turned upon their pursuers, and killed and scalped many
of them.
John Peter Salling, sometimes spoken of as Peter Adam Salling, was,
if not of German birth, of German descent. With his brother Henry,
he early settled in the forks of James River and North Branch, in the
southern part of what is now Rockbridge county, Va. The details of
his early explorations in the West are involved in doubt, but that he
had such adventures there seems no good reason to doubt. It will be
noticed that Withers omits the date; some writers have placed it at
about 1724, but the probable time was 1738-40. His descendants told
Draper (about 1850) that the family tradition was, that Salling and a
son were employed by the governor of Virginia to explore the country
to the southwest; and when near the present Salem, Roanoke county,
they were captured by Cherokees and carried to the Ohio River—one
account says by way of the Tennessee, another by the New (Great
Kanawha), their boat being made of buffalo skins. They appear by
this tradition to have escaped, and in descending the Mississippi to
have fallen into the hands of Spaniards. The son died, and the
father was sent in a vessel bound for Spain, there to be tried as a British
spy; but the Spaniard being captured by an English vessel, our hero
was landed at Charleston, whence he reached his frontier home after
an absence of over three years. This story differs in many details from
the one in Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia, and also that in
Withers's text, above. Salling kept a journal which was extant in
1745, for in the Wisconsin Historical Society's library is a diary kept
by Capt. John Buchanan, who notes that in that year he spent two days
in copying a part of it. In Du Pratz' History of Louisiana (London, 1774),
Salling and one John Howard are said to have made this trip in 1742,
and the authority is said to be a Report of the Government of Virginia,
But Salling must have returned home by 1742, for his name is in the
roll of Capt. John McDowell's militia company, and he was probably in
the fight with the Indians (Dec. 14) that year, in which McDowell lost
his life. In 1746, we found Salling himself a militia captain in the
Rockbridge district of Augusta county. In September, 1747, he was
cited to appear at court martial for not turning out to muster—and this
is the last record we have of him. Descendants, named Sallee, now live
in Kentucky and Tennessee.—R. G. T.
John Lewis, the father of Gen. Andrew Lewis, was probably of
Welsh descent, and born in 1678 in County Donegal, Ireland. About
1716 he married Margaret Lynn, of the famous Lynns of Loch Lynn,
Scotland. In a dispute over his tenancy (1729), he killed a man of high
station,—some say, his Catholic landlord,—and fled to Portugal, whence
in 1731, after strange adventures, he emigrated to America, and was
joined there by his family. Fearing to live near a sea-port he established
himself on the frontier, in the Valley of Virginia, two miles east of the
present site of Staunton. His house was of stone, built for defense, and
in 1754 it successfully stood an Indian siege. Lewis was colonel of the
Augusta county militia as early as 1743, presiding justice in 1745, and
high sheriff in 1748. In 1751, then 73 years of age, he assisted his son
Andrew, then agent of the Loyal Company, to explore and survey the latter's
grant on Greenbrier River. It was because the old man became entangled
in the thicket of greenbriers, that he gave this name to the
stream. He died at his old fort homestead, February 1, 1762, aged 84
years. Some accounts state that he was a Presbyterian; he was, however,
an Episcopalian.—R. G.T.
Lewis soon afterwards obtained leave from Governor Gooch to locate
100,000 acres of land in separate parcels on the waters of the Shenandoah
and James rivers; and when he would go out in search of good
land to locate, Mackey would accompany him to hunt buffalo. The
former amassed a large estate, while the latter lived and died in comparative
poverty.
As Col. John Lewis had no son Samuel, probably Thomas Lewis, the
elder brother of Andrew, though near-sighted, may have engaged in
buffalo hunting.—L. C. D.
Of the origin of Benjamin Borden, Sr. (the name was mispronounced
Burden, on the frontier), little is known. He was probably from
New Jersey, and early became a fur trader on the Virginia frontier; later
he was in Lord Fairfax's employ as a land agent. As such, he visited
Governor Gooch and obtained from him several valuable tracts—one of
them (October 3, 1734), Borden Manor, on Sprout run, Frederick county;
another, 100,000 acres at the head of the James, on condition of locating
thereon a hundred families. At the end of two years he had erected
92 cabins with as many families, and a patent was granted him November
8, 1739, for 92,100 acres. He died in 1742, before further development
of his enterprise. His son Benjamin succeeded to his vast estate,
but died of small-pox in 1753. In 1744, he married the widow of John
McDowell, mentioned on the next page, who had been killed in the
Indian fight of December 14, 1742.—R. G. T.
The daughter of John Patton subsequently became the wife of
Col. W. Preston, and the mother of James Patton Preston, late a governor
of Virginia.
Comment by L. C. D.—This note of Mr. Withers, derived from Taylor's
sketches (mentioned below), is erroneous both as to Patton and Preston.
Col. Patton's first name was not John, but James, as both the records and
his own autograph sufficiently attest. Neither did John Preston, nor his
son Col. Wm. Preston, marry Col. Patton's daughter, but John Preston
married his sister. Miss Elizabeth Patton, while crossing the Shannon
in a boat, met the handsome John Preston, then a young ship carpenter,
and an attachment grew out of their accidental meeting. But as Miss
Patton belonged to the upper class of society, there was a wide gulf between
their conditions, and a runaway match was the only way out of
the difficulty. Gov. James Patton Preston was named after his granduncle.
James Patton was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, in 1692.
For many years he was a prosperous navigator, and crossed the Atlantic
twenty-five times with "redemptioners" for Virginia; he was also an
officer in the royal navy in the wars with the Netherlands. Having obtained
a grant of 120,000 acres above the Blue Ridge, he himself settled
in Virginia in 1735. A man of wealth, enterprise and influence, he was
a justice, sheriff, Indian treaty commissioner, and finally county lieutenant
of Augusta. In 1755, he was killed by Indians while conveying
ammunition to the borderers.
Capt. John McDowell was of Scotch descent, and born in Ulster,
Ireland, but in early manhood came to America, settling first in Pennsylvania,
and then the Virginia Valley (autumn of 1737). He at once
became one of Benjamin Borden's surveyors, and for five years made
surveys on Borden's Manor. Becoming a captain in the Augusta militia,
he was ordered to go out against a party of Northern Indians who, on
the war-path against the Catawbas, had taken in the Virginia Valley on
their way, and annoyed and plundered the white settlers. The savages
were overtaken on the North Branch of James River, some fifteen
miles from McDowell's place, and an engagement ensued (Dec. 14, 1742),
in which McDowell and seven others lost their lives. The Indians
escaped with small losses. This was the first battle between whites and
Indians, in the Virginia Valley.—R. G. T.
This incident is well authenticated. See the deposition of Mrs.
Mary Greenlee, preserved in the famous Borden land suit, among the
court records of Augusta county, Va. Mrs. Greenlee was the sister of
Capt. John McDowell, and among the very earliest settlers of that part
of Augusta, now Rockbridge county. Mrs. Greenlee's deposition is published
in full in Peyton's History of Augusta County, Va. (Staunton, Va.,
1882), pp. 69-74.—L. C. D.
The late Charles A. Stuart, of Greenbrier, son of Col. John Stuart,
after the appearance of Hugh Paul Taylor's sketches over the signature
of "Son of Cornstalk," published in the Staunton Spectator of August 21,
1829, over the signature of "Son of Blue Jacket," a brief criticism, in the
nature of some corrections regarding his own family, to this effect: That
Mrs. Jane Paul was no relative of Mrs. Margaret Lewis, wife of Col. John
Lewis; that her first husband, Mr. Paul—not John, but probably Hugh
Paul—was apparently from the north of Ireland—their son Audley Paul
was born before the migration of the family to Pennsylvania; Mr. Paul,
Sr., it is said, became the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of Chester,
in that province; but as Chester was a Quaker settlement, it is
more likely that he located in some Presbyterian community in that region,
and there must have died. Mrs. Paul, for her second husband,
married Col. David Stuart, also from Ireland, by whom she had John
Stuart and two daughters. Mrs. Stuart's grandchild, Charles A. Stuart,
resided many years in Augusta, representing that county in the State
senate, subsequently removed back to Greenbrier county, where he
died about 1850, at the age of about sixty-five years. He was a man of
sterling qualities.—L. C. D.
The following table exhibits a list of the several counties west of the
Blue ridge—the counties from which each was taken—when established—their
area in square miles—population in 1830, and amount of
taxation for the same year.
| Counties. | From what taken. |
When formed. |
Area. | Population | Taxation. |
| Augusta, | Orange, | 1738 | 948 | 19,925 | 6,734 |
| Alleghany, | Bath, Botetourt and Monroe, |
1822 | 521 | 2,816 | 526 |
| Bath, | Augusta, Botetourt and Greenbrier, |
1791 | 795 | 4,068 | 865 |
| [47] Brooke, | Ohio, | 1797 | 202 | 7,040 | 1,136 |
| Berkeley, | Frederick, | 1772 | 308 | 10,528 | 3,356 |
| Botetourt, | Augusta, | 1770 | 1057 | 16,354 | 3,809 |
| Cabell, | Kanawha, | 1809 | 1033 | 5,884 | 629 |
| Frederick, | Orange, | 1738 | 745 | 26,045 | 9,396 |
| Greenbrier, | Botet't & Montg'ry, | 1778 | 1409 | 9,059 | 1,716 |
| Giles, | Montgomery, Monroe and Tazewell, |
1806 | 935 | 5,300 | 541 |
| Grayson, | Wythe, | 1793 | 927 | 7,675 | 537 |
| Harrison, | Monongalia, | 1784 | 1095 | 14,713 | 1,669 |
| Hampshire, | Augusta & Fredik, | 1754 | 989 | 11,279 | 2,402 |
| Hardy, | Hampshire, | 1786 | 1156 | 5,700 | 2,633 |
| Jefferson, | Berkeley, | 1801 | 225 | 12,927 | 4,721 |
| Kanawha, | Greenb'r & M'tg'ry, | 1789 | 2090 | 9,334 | 1,453 |
| Lewis, | Harrison, | 1816 | 1754 | 6,241 | 630 |
| Logan, | Giles, Kanawha, Cabell & Tazewell, |
1824 | 2930 | 3,680 | 245 |
| Lee, | Russell, | 1793 | 512 | 9,461 | 789 |
| Monongalia, | District of W. A'g'ta, | 1776 | 721 | 14,056 | 1,492 |
| Monroe, | Greenbrier, | 1799 | 614 | 7,798 | 1,158 |
| Morgan, | Berkeley and Hampshire, |
1820 | 271 | 2,702 | 546 |
| Montgomery, | Fincastle, | 1777 | 1089 | 12,306 | 1,666 |
| Mason, | Kanawha, | 1804 | 904 | 6,534 | 915 |
| Nicholas, | Kanawha, Greenbrier and Randolph, |
1818 | 1431 | 3,338 | 373 |
| Ohio, | District of W. A'g'ta, | 1776 | 375 | 15,590 | 1,968 |
| Preston, | Monongalia, | 1818 | 601 | 5,144 | 441 |
| Pendleton, | Augusta, Hardy and Rockingham, |
1788 | 999 | 6,271 | 1,120 |
| Pocahontas, | Bath, Pendleton and Randolph, |
1821 | 794 | 2,542 | 405 |
| Randolph, | Harrison, | 1787 | 2061 | 5,000 | 644 |
| Russell, | Washington, | 1786 | 1370 | 6,717 | 739 |
| Rockingham, | Augusta, | 1778 | 833 | 20,663 | 5,056 |
| Rockbridge, | Augusta & Botetourt, | 1778 | 680 | 14,244 | 3,276 |
| Scott, | Lee, Russell and Washington, |
1814 | 624 | 5,712 | 503 |
| Shehandoah, | Frederick, | 1772 | 767 | 19,750 | 4,922 |
| Tyler, | Ohio, | 1814 | 855 | 4,308 | 757 |
| Tazewell, | Russell & Wythe, | 1799 | 1305 | 5,573 | 727 |
| Washington, | Fincastle, | 1777 | 1754 | 15,614 | 2,918 |
| Wythe, | Montgomery, | 1790 | 1998 | 12,163 | 2,178 |
| Wood, | Harrison, | 1799 | 1223 | 6,418 | 1,257 |
| Total, | 378,293 | 76,848 |
Little and Big Sewell mountains, dividing Fayette and Greenbrier
counties, seem to perpetuate the name and memory of this early and
adventurous pioneer. Col. John Stuart states, that Sewell's final settlement
was forty miles west of his primitive one, and on a creek bearing
his name originating in Sewell mountain, and flowing into Gauley.
Col. Preston, in his Register, gives September, 1756, as the date of Stephen
Sewell's death by the Indians, and Jackson's River as the locality.
Mrs. Anne Royall, in Sketches of the History, Life and Manners of the
United States, (New Haven, 1826), p. 60, who visited the Greenbrier
country in 1824, gives the name of Carver as Sewell's companion.
"These two men," says Mrs. Royall, "lived in a cave for several years,
but at length they disagreed on the score of religion, and occupied different
camps. They took care, however, not to stay far from each other,
their camps being in sight. Sewell used to relate that he and his friend
used to sit up all night without sleep, with their guns cocked, ready to
fire at each other. `And what could that be for?' `Why, because we
couldn't agree.' `Only two of you, and could you not agree—what did
you quarrel about?' `Why, about re-la-gin.' One of them, it seems,
was a Presbyterian, and the other an Episcopalian."—L. C. D.
An error as to date. King George's proclamation was dated Oct.
7, 1763. For full text, see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI., pp. 46 et
seq.—R. G. T.
Thomas King, one of the ablest of the Iroquois chiefs, related an
incident at an Indian conference held at Easton, Pa., Oct. 18, 1758,
which may explain why the Indians evinced so much hostility against
the Greenbrier settlements. "About three years ago," said Chief King,
"eight Seneca warriors were returning from war, with seven prisoners
and scalps with them; and, at a place called Greenbrier, they met with
a party of soldiers, not less than one hundred and fifty, who kindly
invited them to come to a certain store, saying they would supply them
with provisions. Accordingly they travelled two days with them, in a
friendly manner, and when they came to the house, they took their
arms from the Senecas. The head men cried out, `here is death; defend
yourselves as well as you can,' which they did, and two of them
were killed on the spot, and one, a young boy, was taken prisoner.
This gave great offense; and the more so, as it was upon the warrior's
road, and we were in perfect peace with our brethren. It provoked us
to such a degree that we could not get over it. He wished the boy returned,
if alive; and told his name, Squissatego." See Hazard's Penna.
Register, V., p. 373; and Penna. Records, VIII., pp. 197-98.—L. C. D.
There were settlers on both New and Holston rivers prior to 1756
—Vause, Stalnacker and others on New River; and Stephen Holston, at
least, on the river bearing his name, which was known as such anterior
to April, 1748, when Dr. Walker, in his Journal of 1750, refers to it by
that designation. But William Campbell did not settle on Holston until
1767; Wm. Preston settled in 1769; Evan Shelby and family in 1771;
and, while Daniel Boone passed through that country as early, it is believed,
as 1760, he never "settled" there.
A further notice of Stephen Holston, or Holstein, seems fitting in
this connection. He was of an adventurous turn, and prior to 1748 had,
during a hunt, discovered the river named after him. It was after this
discovery that he settled on the Little Saluda, near Saluda Old Town, in
South Carolina, where, in the summer of 1753, a party of Cherokees returning
from a visit to Gov. Glen, at Charleston, behaved so rudely to
Mrs. Holston, in her husband's absence, as to frighten her and her domestics
away, fleeing several miles to the nearest settlement, when the
house was robbed of utensils and corn, and two valuable horses were
also taken. Holston and some of his neighbors settled on Holston's
River, in what subsequently became Botetourt county: soon after this,
they constructed canoes, and passed down the Holston into the Tennessee
River, through the Muscle Shoals, and down the Ohio and Mississippi
as far as Natchez. Returning from this notable adventure, his
name became fixed to the noble stream which he discovered, and upon
which he made the primitive settlement. His location on Holston was
at the head spring of the Middle Fork; his log cabin was on the hill
side some thirty rods from the spring. In 1774, one Davis occupied the
place, and related that Holston had left several years before that date.
On the breaking out of the Indian war in 1754, he seems to have retired
with his family to Culpeper county, which was then not exempt from
Indian forays; and Holston, about 1757, was captured by the Indians.
But in due time he returned to the Holston country, served in the battle
of Point Pleasant in 1774, on Christian's campaign against the Cherokees
in 1776, and was reported in service in 1776 or 1777. As we hear
no more of him, he probably did not long survive after this period.—
L. C. D.
The first name of Walden was not Thomas—Elisha Walden was
his proper name. He was a son-in-law of William Blevins, and both
Walden and Blevins lived, in 1774, at the "Round-About" on Smith's
River, two miles east of what is now Martinsville, Henry county, Virginia.
He was then about forty years of age, nearly six feet in height,
a rough frontiersman, and a noted hunter. He and several others, in
1761, penetrated into Powell's Valley, naming Walden's Mountain and
Walden's Creek, and proceeded on through Cumberland Gap to Cumberland
River, and a few miles beyond to the Laurel Mountain, where
meeting a party of Indians, they returned. In subsequent years, Walden
settled on Holston, about eighteen miles above Knoxville, where
he was residing in 1796; a few years later, he removed to Powell's Valley,
but soon after migrated to Missouri, where he lived hunting up to
extreme old age. Save what is related from Haywood's Hist. of Tennessee
about the trip of 1761, this information was communicated to the
writer in 1849, by Maj. John Redd, of Henry county, Va., who personally
knew the old hunter very well.—L. C. D.
A curious misconception, this. Some of the founders of Marietta
acquired in 1788 a large tract west and north of their own, and as a private
speculation organized the Scioto Company. Joel Barlow, the poet,
was sent to Paris to negotiate the sale of the lands. To the "Society of
the Scioto," formed by him there, he sold three million acres, and France
was deluged with rose-colored immigration pamphlets written by Barlow.
In February, 1790, six hundred Frenchmen—chiefly professional
men and small artisans from the large towns, with not an agriculturist
among them—arrived in Alexandria, Va., en route for the Scioto. They
found that the Society, not having paid for its lands, had forfeited
its rights, and deeds granted to the intending settlers were void.
Five hundred finally went west, and founded Gallipolis. Poor, not
knowing how to work the soil, and simple folk with no notions of
independence, they suffered from famine, Indians, and yellow fever.
They finally repurchased their lands, and upon the cessation of the border
war gained some strength; but Gallipolis was never more than a
weakling until Americans and Germans came in and put it on its feet.
—R. G. T.
| [39] CHRONICLES
OF
BORDER WARFARE. Chronicles of border warfare, or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres in that section of the state | |