Historical collections of Virginia containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c., relating to its history and antiquities, together with geographical and statistical descriptions : to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia : illustrated by over 100 engravings, giving views of the principal towns, seats of eminent men, public buildings, relics of antiquity, historic localities, natural scenery, etc., etc. |
 |
|
 |
|
BERKELEY. |
 | Historical collections of Virginia |  |
BERKELEY.
Berkeley was formed in 1772, from Frederick. Its mean length
is 22½ miles; mean breadth, 13 miles. The surface is much broken
and mountainous. Back and Opequan creeks run through the county
and empty into the Potomac. Some of the land bordering these
streams and the Potomac River, is very fertile. Anthracite coal
is found in the western section of this county. Population: 1830,
10,528; 1840, whites 8,760, slaves 1,919, free colored 293; total
dwellings. Martinsburg, the county-seat, lies on the line of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 169 miles NNW. of Richmond, 77
from Washington, and 20 from Harper's Ferry.
![illustration](https://iiif.lib.virginia.edu/iiif/uva-lib:427197/full/!1600,1600/0/default.jpg")
Central View in Martinsburg.
It is compactly built, and contains 2 newspaper printing offices;
7 stores; a market; 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Episcopal, 1
German Reformed, 1 Methodist, and 1 Catholic church; and a
population of about 1700. This town was laid out by Adam
Stephen, Esq., and established by law in 1778, when the following
gentlemen were appointed trustees: James M`Alister, Joseph
Mitchell, Anthony Noble, James Strode, Robert Carter Willis,
William Patterson, and Philip Pendleton. It derived its name
from the late Col. T. B. Martin. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
passes through the village.
The public building, in the centre of the view, is the court-house,
which was built a year after the formation of the county, in the
reign of George III. The jail at this place is rarely tenanted, and
but one individual has been sent to the penitentiary within the
last 12 years. Traces of the road cut by Braddock's army on their
unfortunate expedition to the west, are discernible near the town.
In St. Clair's defeat, about 80 citizens of the county were killed.
In the vicinity of Leetown, (in the adjoining county of Jefferson,)
there lived within a few miles of each other, after the war of the
revolution, three general officers of the American army—Alexander
Stephens, Horatio Gates, and Charles Lee. The will of the
latter is now in the clerk's office, in this county. The accompanying
extract from it, is in keeping with its eccentric author:
"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church
or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist
meeting-house, for since I have resided in this country, I have
kept so much bad company while living, that I do not choose to
continue it when dead."
General Lee's unbounded ambition led him to envy the great fame of Washington,
and it was supposed his aim was to supersede him in the supreme command. He wrote
a pamphlet, filled with scurrilous imputations upon the military talents of the commander-in-chief.
In consequence, he was challenged by Col. Laurens, one of Washington's
aids, and was wounded in the duel which ensued. Degraded in the opinions of
the wise and virtuous, he retired to this section of country, where, secluded from society,
he lived in a rude hovel, without windows or plastering, or even a decent article
of furniture, and with but few or no companions but his books and dogs. In 1780,
Congress resolved that they had no further occasion for his services in the army. In
the autumn of 1782, wearied with his forlorn situation and broken in spirits, he went to
Philadelphia, where, in his lodgings in an obscure public-house he soon died, a martyr
to chagrin and disappointment. In his dying moments, he was, in imagination, on the
field of battle: the last words he was heard to utter were, "Stand by me, my brave
grenadiers!"
Gen. Gates, of whom the prediction of Gen. Lee was verified,
"that his northern laurels would be covered with southern willow,"
was, after the disastrous battle of Camden, suspended from military
command until 1782, when the great scenes of the war were
over. Gates was one of the infamous cabal who designed to supplant
Washington: but he lived to do justice to the character of
that great man.
After the war, Gates lived about seven years on his plantation in Virginia, the remainder
of his life he passed near New York city. In 1800, he was elected to the
legislature of that state by the anti-federal party. He died in 1806, aged 78 years. "A
few years before his death, he generously gave freedom to his slaves, making provision
for the old and infirm, while several testified their attachment to him by remaining in
his family. In the characteristic virtue of a planter's hospitality, Gates had no competitor,
and his reputation may well be supposed to put this virtue to a hard test. He
had a handsome person, and was gentlemanly in his manners, remarkably courteous to
all, and carrying good humor sometimes beyond the nice limit of dignity." Both Lee
and Gates were natives of England, and all three, Lee, Gates, and Stephens, had command
of Virginia troops.
Many of the early settlers of the county were Scotch-Irish, who
were Presbyterians. "It is said that the spot where Tuscarora
meeting-house now stands, is the first place where the gospel was
publicly preached and divine service performed, west of the Blue
Ridge. This was, and still remains, a Presbyterian edifice. Mr.
Semple, in his history of the Virginia Baptists, states that in the
year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this denomination, with
several others, removed from New England. `They halted first
at Opequon, in Berkeley county, Va., where he formed a Baptist
church, under the care of the Rev. John Gerard.' This was
probably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue
Ridge."
There is an interesting anecdote, related by Kercheval, in his account of Indian incursions
and massacres in this region, of a young and beautiful girl, named Isabella
Stockton, who was taken prisoner in the attack on Neally's fort, and carried and sold
to a Canadian in Canada. A young Frenchman, named Plata, becoming enamored
with her, made proposals of matrimony. This she declined, unless her parents' consent
could be obtained—a strong proof of her filial affection and good sense. The
Frenchman conducted her home, readily believing that his generous devotion and attachment
to the daughter would win their consent. But the prejudices then existing
against the French, made her parents and friends peremptorily reject his overtures. Isabella
then agreed to elope with him, and mounting two of her father's horses, they fled,
her lover and protector and carried back to her parents, while the poor Frenchman was
warned that his life should be the forfeit of any farther attempts.
The Hon. Felix Grundy was born on the 11th of Sept., 1777, in a log house on
Sleepy Creek, in this county. His father was a native of England. When Felix was
but two years of age, his family removed to what is now Brownsville, Penn., and in
1780 to Kentucky, where he lived from childhood to maturity, and in 1807 or 1808, removed
to Tennessee.
Mr. Grundy was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the western
states. When in the councils of the nation, he had but few superiors. He was always
a zealous and most efficient supporter of the democratic party. "His manners were
amiable, his conversation instructive, abounding in humor and occasionally sarcastic.
His cheerful disposition gained him friends among his political opponents, and rendered
him the delight of the domestic circle. His morals were drawn from the pure fountain
of Christianity, and, while severe with himself, he was charitable to others. Integrity
and justice controlled his transactions with his fellow-men."
"Col. Crawford emigrated from Berkeley county in 1768, with his family, to Pennsylvania.
He was a captain in Forbes' expedition, in 1758. He was the intimate
friend of Washington, who was frequently an inmate of his humble dwelling, during his
visits to the then west, for the purpose of locating lands and attending to public business.
Col. Crawford was one of the bravest men on the frontier, and often took the
lead in parties against the Indians across the Ohio. His records and papers were never
preserved, and very little else than a few brief anecdotes remain to perpetuate his fame.
At the commencement of the Revolution, he raised a regiment by his own exertions,
and held the commission of colonel in the continental army. In 1782, he accepted,
with great reluctance, the command of an expedition to ravage the Wyandott and Moravian
Indian towns on the Muskingum. On this expedition, at the age of 50, he was
taken prisoner, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures."
| Historical collections of Virginia | |