University of Virginia Library

FIRST SETTLEMENTS WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS—"WESTWARD THE STAR
OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY."

Many daring adventures crossed the rocky barrier during the succeeding
years, but it was not until the year 1732 that a permanent setlement
was made west of the mountains. In this year sixteen families
from Pennsylvania came over and began a settlement near where Winchester
now stands. They were guided to the location by a gentleman
named Joist Hite, and to them is due the credit of having first planted
the standard of civilization in Virginia, west of the mountains. (Kerchevel,
page 65.)

The second settlement was made in 1734 by Benjamin Allen and three
others on the north branch of the Shenandoah, about twelve miles
south of the present town of Woodstock. Other adventurers pushed on
and settlements gradually extended west, crossing the Capon river,
North Mountain and the Alleghany range, until finally they reached
the tributaries of the Monongahela (MS. volume of Dr. Ruffner). For
twenty years after the settlement about Winchester, the natives inhabiting
the mountains and intervening vales remained in a state of comparative
quiet; but about this time a circumstance occurred which led
to a much better acquaintance with the vast and unexplored regions of
the West. Two men, Thomas Morlen and John Salling, determined to
explore those unknown regions, and accordingly set out from Winchester.
They journeyed up the Shenandoah, crossed the James river near
the Natural Bridge, and had progressed as far as the Roanoke, when they
were attacked by a party of Cherokees, and Salling was made prisoner.
Morlen made his escape from them and returned in safety to the settlement.
Salling was carried captive into what is now called Tennessee,
where he remained with them for several years. While on a hunting
expedition with some of his tribe, they were attacked by a party of Illinois
Indians, who were the deadly enemies of the Cherokees, and Salling
was a second time borne off a prisoner.

This occurred in what is now the State of Kentucky, which was at
that time the favorite hunting-ground of all the tribes of the Mississippi
Valley. Salling was taken by his new captors to Kaskaskia, and was
afterward sold to a company of Spanish traders on the Lower Mississippi,
who in turn sold him to the governor of Canada, and he transferred
him to the Dutch authorities at Manhattan; thence he succeeded in
reaching Williamsburg, after an absence of more than six years. (De
Hass, page 38.)

About the time that Salling returned to Williamsburg, a considerable
addition was made to the population of Virginia by the arrival of emigrants
at Jamestown, among whom were John Lewis and John Mackey,
both of whom were desirous of securing land in the West. Struck with
Salling's description of the country which he had traversed, where
mighty rivers, flowing from unknown sources amid the icy fountains of
the far North, rolled their transparent waters in majestic grandeur to
the South; where stretched away vast plains fringed with primeval forests

which seemed to be the culminating point of the plant regions of the
Northern Hemisphere, they determined to visit it, having first engaged Salling
as a guide. The three crossed the mountains, and descending the western
declivities, they were so much pleased with the country that they decided
to locate and take up their final abode. Accordingly they both
set about finding a suitable location. Lewis selected as the place of his
future residence a site on a stream which still bears his name. Mackey
chose a spot on the Shenandoah; and Salling, having concluded to remain,
chose a tract of land on the waters of the James, where he built his
cabin.

Lewis made application for and received a grant of one hundred thousand
acres of land; and while in Williamsburg perfecting his claim, he
met with Benjamin Burden, who had just arrived from England as the
agent of Lord Fairfax, to whom James II. had granted five hundred
thousand acres of land to be located west of the Blue Ridge, and prevailed
upon him to accompany him to his home. Burden remained at
Lewis' the greater part of the summer, and on his return to Williamsburg
took with him a buffalo calf which he and Andrew Lewis (afterward
General Lewis) had caught and tamed. He presented it to Governor
Gooch, who was so much pleased with his mountain pet that he
entered on his journal a patent authorizing Burden to locate any quantity
of land not exceeding five hundred thousand acres on any of the
waters of the Shenandoah or James rivers west of the Blue Ridge. One
of the conditions of this grant was that he should settle one hundred
families in ten years within its limits, and for this purpose Burden sailed
for Europe in the year 1737, and upon his return to Virginia brought
with him upward of one hundred families of adventurers to settle upon
his grant. Among these emigrants were many who became the founders
of some of the most distinguished families of Virginia. Of these were
the Alexanders, Crawfords, McDowells, McLures, Moores, Matthews,
Pattons, Prestons, Tolfords, Archers and others.