{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33018/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33018","id":"gutenberg_33018","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33018","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - American","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Shenandoah National Park (Va.)","Shenandoah River Valley (Va. and W. Va.) -- History"],"text":"Produced by Mark C. Orton, Louise Pattison and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n LEGENDS\n\n of the\n\n SKYLINE DRIVE\n\n and the\n\n Great Valley of Virginia\n\n\n BY\n CARRIE HUNTER WILLIS\n AND\n ETTA BELLE WALKER\n\n\n RICHMOND, VA.:\n\n THE DIETZ PRESS, _Publishers_\n\n 1940\n\n\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1940\n\n BY\n\n CARRIE HUNTER WILLIS\n\n AND\n\n ETTA BELLE WALKER\n\n _Printed in the United States of America_\n\n\n\n\nForeword\n\n\nTucked away among the hills and valleys in and near the Shenandoah\nNational Park and the Great Valley of Virginia are stories of the\nbeginnings of the white man's life beyond the comparative ease of early\nTidewater Virginia. These stories are true ones and they depict\nsomething of the courage and hardihood of the early Virginia pioneer.\nPerhaps in reading of their lives we may catch something of the majesty\nand charm of their surroundings which were reflected to a marked degree\nin their way of living. Surely they must often have said, \"I will look\nunto the hills from whence cometh my strength\" or how else may we\naccount for the developments which came as the result of their constant\nstruggle for survival?\n\nStories of colonial Virginia on the eastern seaboard are numerous and\nusually exciting but they are quite different from the tales beyond the\nPiedmont. A combination of them may enable us to know Virginia as a\nwhole in a more appreciative way.\n\nLong before the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe ever set foot in the\nwilds of Virginia, intrepid explorers had passed through various parts\nof the Valley country.\n\nIn 1654--more than sixty years before the Governor's expedition--Colonel\nAbraham Wood received permission to explore beyond the mountains. His\npurpose was to establish trade relations with the Indians. His journey\ncarried him through the lower Blue Ridge, crossing the range near the\nVirginia-North Carolina line.\n\nReference is made elsewhere of the explorations conducted by the\none-time monk, John Lederer, whose journal of the trip was first\ntranslated from German and published in London in 1672.\n\nLet us plainly understand however that each of these trips was of a\nmigratory nature; not a thought was entertained by any of the\nparticipants of remaining in the Virginia mountains. Any white man found\nin these sections at this time was there because of good hunting\ngrounds, hopes of good trading, the zeal of a missionary spirit or love\nof adventure and exploration.\n\nThe earliest settlers in the Valley in most part came either from\nMaryland or Pennsylvania. They came in search of rich, cheap land or for\neconomic reasons or in the hope of establishing greater freedom for\nthemselves and their children.\n\nTwo nationalities invaded the Great Valley almost simultaneously: the\nGermans and Scotch-Irish--both fine, sturdy, healthy and thrifty stock\nwhich is reflected in marked degree among the present inhabitants of the\nregion. Their real interest in the new settlements may truthfully be\nsaid to have begun about 1730 when land grants were obtained. About two\nyears later the actual move into the country and the house building\ncommenced in earnest.\n\nThe German settlers located chiefly along the territory extending from\nWinchester to Staunton. The Scotch-Irish on the other hand selected\nStaunton and the valley south of the town for their claims. No nice\ndistinction can be made so easily, for we shall find the two groups\ninterspersed all along the entire length of the Valley. But generally\nspeaking their domains may be defined thus.\n\nSo much fighting during the wars of our country could not have been\nfought in this section of the State without leaving in its wake the\nstories of chivalry, courage and accomplishment, a few of which are\nincluded.\n\nIt is our desire that the trips along the Skyline Drive and in the Great\nValley country may be enriched and the imagination stirred because of\nthe accounts included in this small book.\n\n\n\n\nTable of Contents\n\n\n PAGE\n\n KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE 1\n\n Progress to the Mines 2\n\n ADAM MILLER AND HIS NEIGHBORS 5\n\n JOIST HITE, THE PIONEER 7\n\n GERMAN NEIGHBORS, Quakers 9\n\n Dunkards 11\n\n THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN THE VALLEY 12\n\n INDIANS 15\n\n INDIAN TALES 18\n\n THE MOORE MASSACRE 20\n\n WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD FRIEND--LORD FAIRFAX 24\n\n WINCHESTER--THE FRONTIER TOWN OF THE VALLEY 26\n\n THE VALLEY PIKE 31\n\n BERRYVILLE 33\n\n FRONT ROYAL 34\n\n FLINT HILL 36\n\n THE SKYLINE DRIVE 37\n\n STRASBURG 40\n\n ORKNEY SPRINGS 42\n\n STEPHENS CITY 42\n\n MIDDLETOWN 43\n\n THE STORY TELLER OF THE VALLEY--SAMUEL KERCHEVAL\n\n Pioneer Life 44\n\n WOODSTOCK 53\n\n The Lincoln Family 55\n\n NEW MARKET 56\n\n Endless Caverns 57\n\n LURAY 59\n\n STONEWALL JACKSON'S VALLEY CAMPAIGN 61\n\n BELLE BOYD, THE SPY 67\n\n HARRISONBURG 72\n\n Massanutten Caverns 73\n\n Grand Caverns 73\n\n Massanetta Springs 75\n\n STAUNTON 75\n\n WAYNESBORO AND AFTON 79\n\n NATURAL BRIDGE 81\n\n ROCKBRIDGE 84\n\n The First Academy in the Valley 86\n\n VALLEY INVENTIONS 87\n\n WASHINGTON COLLEGE 88\n\n LEXINGTON 89\n\n THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE 92\n\n CULPEPER MINUTE MEN 94\n\n BLIND PREACHER 95\n\n HEBRON CHURCH 96\n\n HOOVER'S CAMP ON THE RAPIDAN RIVER 97\n\n CHARLOTTESVILLE AND ALBEMARLE COUNTY 98\n\n Jack Jouett's Ride 104\n\n Lewis and Clark Expedition 105\n\n FREDERICKSBURG 106\n\n KENMORE--1752 111\n\n THE MARY WASHINGTON HOUSE 115\n\n RISING SUN TAVERN 117\n\n ROANOKE 121\n\n DRAPER'S MEADOW 124\n\n WASHINGTON COUNTY 127\n\n HUNGRY MOTHER STATE PARK 129\n\n WHITE TOP 129\n\n\n\n\nList of Illustrations\n\n PAGE\n\n George Washington's Headquarters, Winchester, Virginia 27\n\n View Along the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park 38\n\n \"The Cypress Garden\", a Scene in Endless Caverns 57\n\n \"The Manse\", Woodrow Wilson's Birthplace, Staunton, Virginia 76\n\n Woodrow Wilson's Bed, Staunton, Virginia 78\n\n Natural Bridge 81\n\n Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia 90\n\n Virginia Military Institute 92\n\n \"Monticello\", near Charlottesville, Virginia 99\n\n Rotunda of University of Virginia 102\n\n \"Kenmore\", the Home of Fielding Lewis and Betty Washington\n Lewis, Fredericksburg, Virginia 107\n\n James Monroe's Law Office 109\n\n \"The Mary Washington House\", Fredericksburg, Virginia 116\n\n \"Rising Sun Tavern\", Fredericksburg, Virginia 118\n\n Scenic Highway in Southwest Virginia 126\n\n Hungry Mother State Park 130\n\n[Blank Page]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nKnights of The Golden Horseshoe\n\n\nAlexander Spotswood was the first Virginia Governor to become interested\nin the glowing accounts which the hunters and trappers brought back from\nthe hill sections of the colony. He determined to see for himself those\ndistant blue ridges.\n\nAnd while historians have not told us who guided him to the upper or\nwestern boundary of what was then Essex County, we are told that he\nbecame enthusiastic over the rich iron ore which he found in the\npeninsula formed by the Rapidan River. He decided to build iron furnaces\nat a point near the river. Later he had his agent, Baron de Graffenreid,\ngo to Germany and bring master mechanics and their families to Virginia.\n\nThe first German colony came in 1714 to Virginia and journeyed to\nGermanna, as they called their new home on the bank of the Rapidan\nRiver. They were made up of twelve families and numbered forty-two\npeople in all, men, women and children.\n\nThe Virginia Council passed an act which provided protection for the\nGermans. A fort was built for them, ammunition and two cannon were sent\nand an order was given for a road to be made to the settlement.\n\nThese men and women were brave, loyal and deeply religious. They\nbelonged to the German Reformed Church, which was a branch of the\nPresbyterian family of churches. Here they organized the first\ncongregation of that faith in America and here they built their church.\nThey had come from Westphalia, in Germany, and of course had brought\ntheir own customs and manners, which are not entirely gone even in our\nmodern Virginia. Later, as we shall see, many of this first colony left\nGermanna and settled on Licking Run near Warrenton.\n\nIn 1717 came a second German colony to Germanna. They too were brave,\nloyal, and devout; but were different from the first, being Lutherans\nand representing twenty families from Pennsylvania.\n\nTwo years later, the third colony of Germans came to Germanna and from\nthere they settled in Orange and Madison counties.\n\nIf Governor Spotswood earned the title of \"Tubal Cain of America\", it\nwas because these Germans were industrious, thrifty and honest.\n\nThe Governor liked the neighborhood so well that he had a palace built\nfor his family. There was a terraced garden, which one may trace in the\nruins found there today. A courthouse was built there, for a new county\nhad been cut from Essex and was called Spotsylvania, in the Governor's\nhonor. Nearby was a bubbling fountain spring at which tourists stop\ntoday to quench their thirst. This has been marked by the Colonial Dames\nand over it there is a hand-wrought iron standard, giving the legend of\nthe spring.\n\nIn 1732, Colonel William Byrd of Westover visited Governor Spotswood at\nGermanna. He was one of the Commissioners who ran the boundary line\nbetween Virginia and North Carolina. He held many positions of honor and\ntrust in the colony. His writings give an intimate picture of Governor\nSpotswood's settlement:\n\n _Progress to the Mines._\n\n \"Here I arrived about three o'clock, and found only Mrs.\n Spotswood at home, who received her old acquaintance with many\n gracious smiles. I was carried into a room elegantly set off\n with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon to an odd\n misfortune. Amongst other favorite animals to cheer this lady's\n solitude, a brace of deer ran familiarly about the house, and\n one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. But unluckily\n spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring over the\n tea-table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to\n pieces, and falling back upon the tea-table made a terrible\n fracas among the china. This exploit was so sudden and\n accompanied with such a noise, that it surprised me and\n perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But it was worth all the\n damage to show the moderation and good humor with which she\n bore the disaster. In the evening the noble Colonel came home\n from his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs.\n Spotswood's sister, Miss Theky, who had been to meet him _en\n cavalier_, was kind too, as to bid me welcome.\n\n \"We talked over a legion of old stories, supped about nine, and\n then prattled with the ladies till it was time to retire. In\n the meantime, I observed my old friend to be very uxorious and\n exceedingly fond of his children. This was opposite to the\n maxims he used to preach before he was married, that I could\n not forbear rubbing up the memory of them. But he gave a very\n good natural turn to his change of sentiments, by alleging that\n whoever brings a poor gentlewoman to so solitary a place, from\n all her friends and acquaintances, would be very ungrateful not\n to use her and all that belongs to her with all possible\n tenderness.\n\n \"We all kept snug in our apartments till nine, except Miss\n Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met\n over a pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give\n us the palsy. After breakfast the Colonel and I left the ladies\n to their domestic affairs, and took a turn in the garden which\n has nothing but three terraced walks that fall in slopes one\n below the other.... I let him know that I had come to be\n instructed by so great a master in the mystery of making iron\n and that he led the way and was the Tubal Cain of America....\n He assured me he was not only the first in this country, but\n the first in North America who had erected a regular furnace,\n that they ran altogether upon bloomeries in New England and\n Pennsylvania, till his example had made them attempt greater\n works.... At night we drank prosperity to all the Colonel's\n projects in a bowl of rack punch, and then retired to our\n devotions....\n\n \"I sallied out at the first summons to breakfast, where our\n conversation with the ladies, like whipped sillibub, was very\n pretty, but had nothing in it. This it seems was Miss Theky's\n birthday, upon which I made her my compliments, and wished she\n might live twice as long a married woman as she had lived a\n maid. I did not presume to pry into the secret of her age, nor\n was she forward to disclose it.... She contrived to make this a\n day of mourning for having nothing better at present to set her\n affections upon.\"\n\nIt was really from Germanna that the Great Expedition to the Mountains\nbegan. Of course we know that Williamsburg was the scene of great\nexcitement when the Governor and some of his staff gathered for the\nfirst start. The party consisted of the Governor, Fontaine, whose diary\ngives us accounts of the journey, Beverley, the historian of Virginia in\n1703, Colonel Robertson, Austin Smith, Dr. Robinson, Messrs. Talor,\nBrooke and Mason and Captains Smith and Clouder. Others were gentlemen,\nservants and guides. All were delayed when an old trapper told them that\ntheir horses' feet would be ruined if not shod. In the sandy soil of\neastern Virginia it was not necessary to shoe one's horse, but the\nrocks, as one travelled inland, would ruin the horse's feet. The party\nmade the best of the long wait by drinking the health of the King,\ntoasts to the maids left behind and in other farewells.\n\nThe party, after five days, reached Germanna and it is from Fontaine's\njournal that we are told of the details of the trip. He relates the\nhardships; some, including the writer, had fevers and chills and drank\nJesuits' bark tea. Their beds, made of boughs, were not soft enough and\nthe men slept badly and were sore the next day after camping out in the\nwilderness. They made about six miles a day. Their food was bear's meat,\nvenison, and wild game, which they roasted on long wooden forks over\nglowing coals. And each time they ate, they also drank the King's\nhealth, not forgetting any of his children in their toasts. Fontaine\nwrites--\n\n \"We saw when we were over the mountain the footing of elks and\n buffaloes, and their beds. We saw a vine which bore a sort of\n wild cucumber and a shrub with fruit like unto a currant. We\n ate very good wild grapes.... We crossed a river which we\n called the Euphrates. It is very deep, the main course of the\n water is north, it is four score yards wide in the narrowest\n part.... I got some grasshoppers and fished ... we catched a\n dish of fish, some perch and a fish called Chub. The others\n went ahunting and killed deer and turkeys.... I engraved my\n name on a tree by the river's side and the Governor buried a\n bottle with a paper inside, on which he writ that he took\n possession of this place in the name of King George the First\n of England....\n\n \"We had a good dinner, and after it we got the men together and\n loaded all their arms and we drank the King's health in\n champagne and fired a volley, and the Princess's health in\n Burgundy and fired a volley, and all the rest of the Royal\n family in claret and a volley. We drank the Governor's health\n and fired a volley.\n\n \"We had several sorts of liquors, viz Virginian red wine and\n white Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of rum,\n champagne, canary, cherry punch water and cider.\"\n\nIt was thirty-six days after leaving Williamsburg that the party finally\nreached the mountain and scaled Swift Run Gap and for the first time a\ngroup of Englishmen looked down into the fertile valley beyond.\n\nThe Governor was a romantic person, as well as practical, so he wanted\nto have something tangible by which all of his party might remember\ntheir thrilling trip. He asked some of his men what they thought of the\nidea and someone suggested, no doubt in fun, that they call themselves\nthe \"Knights of the Golden Horseshoe\".\n\nAnyway, historians relate that when he returned to Williamsburg, he\npromptly wrote a letter to His Majesty and told him of the wonderful\ncountry \"beyond the mountains\". He also asked for a grant for the Order\nof the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. In due time a proclamation\narrived from England creating The Order of the Golden Horseshoe and also\nfifty tiny golden horseshoes inscribed in Latin \"_Sic jurat transcerde\nmantes_\". There was a seal and a signature and the title of Knight was\nconferred upon the Governor.\n\nThe King also had his own sense of humor and included with all the rest,\nthe bill for the golden horseshoes! And we are told the sporting\nGovernor paid for them out of his own pocket without any regrets.\n\nLet us start our journey from this historic spot and drive along the\nrecently built Skyline Drive. As we go we may look down upon the first\nsettlers' homes, around which are built the thrifty towns of today.\n\n\n\n\nAdam Miller and His Neighbors\n\n\nAmong the earliest settlers in the valley were young Germans, Adam\nMueller and his wife and his sister. Adam, as was his family, was born\nin Germany. Like many others, he had left because of religious\npersecution, devastating wars and social unrest. His first home in the\nnew country was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.\n\nAdam Miller (as his name was soon after spelled) journeyed to\nWilliamsburg, Virginia. There, he told someone, he wanted to make his\nhome. It was not long after the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe had\nreturned with their glowing accounts of the land beyond the mountains.\nAdam listened with deep interest to the descriptions of the Valley where\na native grass grew on which buffalo fattened, where game lived all year\nand where a forest fringed the fertile valleys. He decided to go with\nsome hunters and he found the kind of land which he wanted. Before he\nreturned to Lancaster he had built a rude log cabin. He returned home by\nway of Williamsburg, and soon his wife and sister were getting ready to\nset forth. Many of his German neighbors were interested also, and\nhistorians claim he was the first German to build near Massanutten\nMountain.\n\nHis neighbors were Abram Strickler, Mathias Selser, Phillip Long, Paul\nLong, Michael Rinehart, and Jonathan Rood. Some give the date of this\nsettlement as early as 1726. Adam Miller took out his naturalization\npapers a few years later and today, the visitor may read the quaint\ndocument hanging on the walls of the Miller home, near Elkton, Virginia.\n\nHis log cabin was soon outgrown. He was a good farmer and his wife and\nsister helped him. His crops were larger each year. Besides, Adam was a\nbusiness man. He secured a large land grant and he soon was selling off\nfarms to other Germans who came from Pennsylvania and from Germany.\n\nThe Millers built a larger home and they bought some good sturdy\nfurniture to replace the crude tables and chairs which were home-made.\nThey took pleasure in getting the home all ready before they moved into\nit. They had even spread the beds with the new hand-woven coverlets\nwhich his wife and sister had made during the long winter nights. The\nnext night they would sleep in their new home. But during the night, a\nfire broke out--no one ever knew its origin--and everything was\ndestroyed before the family woke up!\n\nThe Millers were undaunted, so they built again. We are told what good\nneighbors there were in those days. The men took their own axes and cut\ndown the trees. They dressed the lumber, sawed the timbers by careful\nmeasurements, laid foundations, and built chimneys. It did not take so\nlong to build a house. The visitor today will see a big white house on\nthe road between Luray and Elkton, almost beneath the shadow of old\nMassanutten Mountain. He will see the marker which tells him that this\nhouse was built by the Miller family. Inside, the visitor will see\npriceless early American furniture. He will see rosewood and later\nEmpire furniture, too, as other generations added to their heritage. But\nwhen one goes into the log cabin kitchen he will stand in reverence\nbefore a collection of early Dutch tables, chairs, platters, plates of\nDelft and pewter, spoons of the same ware. There is a huge corner\ncupboard which everyone would like to have for his own. This house no\nlonger has a direct descendant of Adam and his good wife to occupy it,\nfor the last one of his line recently died.\n\nAdam Miller was not only a good neighbor to his German friends but we\nare told they did not have much trouble with the Indians during the\nfirst years he lived in the Valley. However, he was a brave fighter\nduring the Indian Wars and his record is given in _Henning's Statutes_.\nHe lived through most of the Revolutionary War and no doubt longed to\nfight in behalf of the country which had given him the opportunity to\ndevelop it.\n\n \"On Sunday evening, Dec. 3rd, 1749 a young Franciscan went with\n us (_Diary of Leonard Schell, a Moravian Missionary_) to show\n us the way to Mathias Schawb, who immediately on my offer to\n preach for them, sent messengers to announce my sermon. In a\n short time a considerable number of people assembled to whom I\n preached. After the sermon I baptised a child of Holland's. We\n stayed overnight with Mathias Schawb. His wife told us we were\n always welcome and we must come to them whenever we came into\n that district.\n\n \"Toward evening a man from another Dutch settlement, Adam\n Miller passed. I told him that I would like to come to his\n house and preach there. He asked if I were sent by God and I\n answered yes. He said if I were sent by God I should be\n welcome, but he said there are at present so many kinds of\n people that often one does not know where they come from. I\n requested him to notify his neighbors that I would preach which\n he did.\n\n \"On Dec. 4th we left Schawb's house commending the whole family\n to God. We travelled through the rain across the South\n Shenandoah to Adam Miller's house who received us with much\n love. We stayed over night.\n\n \"On Dec. 5th I preached at Adam Miller's house on 'Whosoever\n thirsteth let him come to the water and drink.' A number of\n thirsty souls were present. Especially Adam Miller took in\n every word and after the sermon declared himself well pleased.\n In the afternoon we travelled a short distance, staying\n overnight with a Swiss.\"\n\n\n\n\nJoist Hite, the Pioneer\n\n\nWhen Joist Hite arrived in Virginia he and his family were required to\nsettle on the land bought from the VanMeters. His purchase was made in\nJune 1731. In October of the same year, he and Robert McKay obtained a\ngrant from the Colonial Government to have 100,000 acres of land\nsurveyed on the west side of the mountain, with the agreement to bring\nin one hundred settlers within two years. During that year, Hite moved\nin and settled on that land, but he got an extension of time for\nbringing in other settlers. By Christmas of 1735 Hite had brought in\nfifty-four families.\n\nAll this land was in the County of Spotsylvania and Hite found that he\nand his brothers were too far away from the courts so he became\ninterested in getting a new county organized in 1734. This was named\nOrange, in honor of the Duke of Orange. Later on, having acquired more\nland, he found himself again too far removed from a court house. And\nagain he applied for a new county. In fact he needed two counties for\nall his lands and ever-increasing settlers. In 1738 Orange County was\ndivided into three counties, namely: Orange, Frederick, and Augusta to\nthe west of the mountain. With Joist Hite and his wife Anna Maria came\ntheir daughters, Mary, her husband George Bowman, Elizabeth and her\nhusband Paul Froman, Magadelena and her husband Jacob Chrisman, and\ntheir sons John, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and Joseph. Hite, we are told,\nallowed his sons-in-law to choose their own homesteads.\n\nHis wife, Anna Maria, died in 1738 at Long Meadows and soon he married\nagain. We read the following quaint marriage contracts between him and\nhis second wife:\n\n \"In the Name of Jesus\n\n \"Whereas, we, two persons, I, Joist Hite and Maria Magadelena,\n Relict and Widow of Christian Nuschanger, according to God's\n holy ordinance and the knowledge and consent of our Friends and\n Children and Relations are going to enter into the holy state\n of Matrimony. We have made this Nuptial part one with the\n others. First promise to the aforesaid Maria Magadalena all the\n Christian Love and Faithfulness. Secondly, as neither of us are\n a moment secure from death so I promise her Home or Widow Seat\n so long as she lives and the Heir to whom the said House shall\n fall shall provide the necessary Diet and Cloathes and if that\n do not please but that she rather desire to have her\n commendations in any other place, so shall the foresaid Heir to\n the House yearly pay her Six Pounds ready money and this is my\n well considered desire.\n\n \"JOIST HITE.\"\n\n \"And Likewise wife, I Maria Magadalena promise the aforesaid\n Joist Hite. First of all, Love and Obedience. Secondly, I am\n designed to bring with me to him some cattle, money, household\n goods which in agreement with attested witnesses shall be\n Described and should I die before the said Hite so shall the\n said Hite have the half thereof and the other half shall be\n delivered back again to my heirs and this is also my well\n considered desire. Thirdly and Lastly, whoever of the aforesaid\n persons shall die first the half of the portion the Woman\n brings with her shall go back to her heirs.\"\n\nThe following goods were brought by the said Mary Magadelena to Joist\nHite:\n\n \"1 In ready money, twenty two pounds seventeen Shillings and\n four pence.\n\n 2 Two mares one colt value of fourteen pounds.\n\n 3 Two drawing steers value three pounds, ten shillings.\n\n 4 Two coarse beds Cloathes in all three pounds, Sixteen\n Shillings and six pence. And said money is adjudged to be in\n Virginia Currency the 16th day of November, 1741, also one\n horse mare, six pounds.\"\n\nAnother neighbor pioneering in the Valley was Jacob Stover who secured\nland grants. History records that he resorted to unusual methods in\nobtaining them. Upon application, it was necessary to convince the\nauthorities that the applicant could furnish a sufficient number of\nfamilies to settle the land requested. Stover did not have the required\nnumber. He took himself to England to petition the King and in order to\nbe convincing he gave names to every living thing he possessed--dogs,\nsheep, horses, cows and pigs! After his successful trip which resulted\nin receiving the land grant, he commenced selling small acreages to the\nnew-comers. He enriched himself materially, but incurred the wrath of\nhis associates.\n\n\n\n\nGerman Neighbors\n\nQUAKERS\n\n\nLong ago, a shrewd trader from New York, John VanMeter, came into the\nValley. He made friends with the Delawares and often went with them on\ntheir hunting trips. Once he even fought on their side against their\nenemies, the Catawbas. While on this visit South, he saw for the first\ntime the fertile native grass, which grew \"five or six feet high\", in\nthe Valley. When he returned to New York he told his sons about the rich\ncountry, far to the South, and advised them to secure some of it. One of\nthem, Isaac, took his father's advice and came to Virginia in 1736-7 and\nwith a tomahawk cut certain trees, thus making his original claim. This\nwas called the \"Tomakawk Right\".\n\nIsaac and his brother John secured a warrant from Governor Gooch for\nforty thousand acres of land. Later on they sold or transferred part of\ntheir grant to Joist Hite who was later called the \"Old Baron\". The\nlatter was one of the hardiest pioneers and in 1734 was appointed by the\nVirginia Council to act as magistrate. This gave him authority to settle\ndisputes, and to uphold the laws of Virginia as well as to punish all\noffenders.\n\nHite soon built a stone house on Opequon Creek and his sons and\ndaughters grew to be splendid men and women. His sons-in-law, George\nBowman, Jacob Chrisman and Paul Froman and their families had come with\nhim from Pennsylvania. Robert McKay, Robert Green, William Duff, Peter\nStevens and several other families helped each other select land, build\nhomes and a fort.\n\nWe are told that the Indians had heard of the kindly relations which\nexisted between the Indians and William Penn's colonists. We know he\npaid the Indians for their lands, and records show that many of the\nGermans, especially the Quakers, who settled on Apple Pie Ridge also\nbought lands from the Indians. These settlers were never disturbed by\nthe Indians. However, when it came to the lands which we now call the\nGreat Valley of Virginia, the Indians were agreed among themselves that\nno one tribe was to possess any of it. The lands were so fertile and so\nmuch game feasted there, that all should be at peace when in the Valley.\n\nSo when the first Quakers came we find these names recorded: the Neills,\nWalkers, Bransons, McKays, Hackneys, Beesoms, Luptons, Barretts, Dillons\nand Fawcetts.\n\nAnother Quaker, Ross, obtained a warrant for surveying lands and his\nlines were run along the Opequon, north of Winchester, and up to Apple\nPie Ridge. Soon many other Quakers from Pennsylvania were moving into\nthe Valley to settle on Ross's surveys. By 1738 these deeply religious\npeople had built homes and were holding monthly meetings to worship God.\nThey had tiny settlements up and down the Valley. They cultivated their\nfarms, took little interest in politics, cared very little for worldly\nintercourse and made excellent neighbors. Their manners and dress were\nplain, their furniture only what was necessary, their homes were crude,\nbut their barns were large and their cattle were well protected.\n\nThey refused to pay taxes during the Revolutionary War or to bear arms.\nThen their neighbors began to ridicule them, calling them cowards, and\nwere no longer friendly. Officers came and seized their crops or\nproperty and sold them to raise funds with which to carry on the War\nagainst England. The Legislature enacted a law whereby a Quaker either\nhad to fight or pay a substitute to fight for him. Their personal\nproperty was put under the hammer and soon they were reduced to poverty.\nOne incident will give us a picture of those far-off days. James Gotharp\nlived with his neighbors on Apple Pie Ridge. One day during the\nRevolutionary War officers came, demanding that he should march away\nwith them to join the militia; he refused. The men forced him to come\nalong and later he was made a guard. He was placed beside a baggage\nwagon and told to let no man go into the wagon who did not have a\nwritten order from the commanding officer. Along came an officer who\nstarted to climb into the vehicle. James called to him and demanded to\nsee his order of authority. The officer cursed him and stepped up to\nclimb in. James caught him by his legs and pulled his feet off the step.\nThis caused the officer to fall, striking his face against the wagon,\nbruising his nose and mouth severely.\n\nThe dress of the Quakers is still picturesque and many are to be seen in\ncertain sections of the Valley. They wear a broad brimmed hat, a long\nfrock coat, generally black. The women wear full skirts, down to their\nankles, black hose, plain black shoes, with round toes. Their bodices,\nusually black or gray in color, are severely cut, with long plain\nsleeves, with a high neck, relieved by a white collar. They usually wear\na small cap, made of the same material as their dress.\n\n\nDUNKARDS\n\nLending an air of uniqueness yet to the Valley towns is that religious\nsect called Dunkards. One sees the women of that denomination, with\ntheir little black bonnets, on almost any street in any town along the\nLee Highway.\n\nAt one time the sect was called Tunkers. They are an offshoot of the\nSeventh-Day Baptists and had their beginnings in the Valley a little\nafter 1732.\n\nWhen Dr. Thomas Walker passed through the section on his way westward he\nnoted in his journal on March 17th, 1750, \"The Dunkards are an odd set\nof people, who make it a matter of religion not to Shave their Beards,\nly on Beds, or eat Flesh though at present, in the last, they\ntransgress, being constrained to it, as they say, by the want of a\nsufficiency of Grain and Roots, they having not long been seated here. I\ndoubt the plenty and deliciousness of the Venison and Turkeys has\ncontributed not a little to this. The unmarried have no private\nProperty, but live on a common Stock. They don't baptize either Young or\nOld, they keep their Sabbath on Saturday, and hold that all men shall be\nhappy hereafter, but first must pass through punishment according to\ntheir Sins. They are very hospitable.\"\n\nThe Dunkards built a part of their faith around their disapproval of\nviolence, even for self-defense, and their submission to fraud or\nwrongdoing rather than resorting to court trials.\n\n\n\n\nThe Scotch-Irish in the Valley\n\n\nMany reasons caused the people of Europe to emigrate during the\neighteenth century. In Ireland and Scotland an unrest was spreading as\nseen in the story of John Lewis.\n\nHe was born in Ireland and was a thrifty gentleman. He fell in love with\nand married Margaret Lynn, daughter of the laird of Loch Lynn, a\ndescendant of a powerful Scotch clan. They were very happy with their\nthree little sons and soon John Lewis rented more lands from a landlord.\nThese lands brought him more and more wealth and the landlord grew\njealous. He told Lewis that he would not let him continue to cultivate\nthem, although the lease was not expired.\n\nOne day the landlord came to the Lewis home. He brought many of his\nhirelings and demanded that Lewis vacate the house at once. At the time,\nLewis' brother was ill and could not help him defend his home.\nMargaret, his wife, and a few servants quickly barred the doors and\nwindows and defied the landlord to enter.\n\nThe infuriated man began to fire into the house and one shot killed John\nLewis' brother and one wounded Margaret. John could not stand such an\noutrage any longer, so he rushed out and in the fight which followed, he\nkilled the landlord.\n\nHis family and neighbors, knowing the influential Irish would not give\nhim a fair trial, urged him to flee the country. At last he consented to\ngo, but before he did, he carefully wrote down all the details of the\ntrouble and sent it to the proper authorities. Then he hastily left the\ncountry and soon was on his way to Virginia. Lewis went to Williamsburg\nafter landing in Virginia. There he met a weaver, Salling, who told him\nsome of the wildest stories he had ever heard.\n\nThe weaver had known a peddler, named Marlin, who took his pack far into\nthe land beyond the mountains and traded his pewter ware, beads,\ncompasses and other small articles to the Indians for furs. He told\nSalling such marvelous stories of the Indians and country that the\nweaver asked to let him go on one of his trips with him. This he did,\nand the weaver had plenty of adventures before he finally got back to\nWilliamsburg.\n\nThe two men reached the Valley and were far beyond the Blue Ridge\nMountains when the Cherokee Indians, thinking they were spies, took them\nprisoners. Marlin had the good fortune to get away, but Salling was\ncarried farther across another mountain range into what is now Kentucky,\nwhere the Indians went to hunt buffalo. Here the Cherokees were attacked\nby their enemies from Illinois. Salling was again captured and carried\noff to the southwest. He was adopted by an old Indian squaw as her son\nand for some time he lived with her. At last a Spaniard bought him and\ntook him as an interpreter to Canada. There he met the French Governor\nwho sent him to New York and after six years, he at last reached\nWilliamsburg.\n\nYou would think Salling after this would have settled down and become a\nweaver again. But life was too tame. When Lewis asked him about the\nlands in the Valley, Salling decided to take him and the Englishman,\nJohn Mackay, who also wanted to go. Lewis found the country all that\nSalling had promised him and he decided to settle on a creek which bears\nhis name today.\n\nHe obtained authority to 100,000 acres of land in and near the ground on\nwhich he built his fort-like house. Before very long, many of his\nfriends and neighbors from Ireland were on their way to Virginia to join\nhim. Many of them settled in Western Augusta near Fort Lewis. One can\nimagine how happy it made John Lewis to be told that the authorities,\nupon investigation, had granted him a pardon and absolved him from all\nblame in the killing of his landlord before he left Ireland. These\nScotch-Irish, like their German neighbors, did not have very much\ntrouble from the Indians for several years.\n\nThomas, a son of John Lewis, studied and went to represent his county in\nthe House of Burgesses. He was a man of sound judgment and voted for\nPatrick Henry's celebrated resolutions.\n\nAndrew, another son, was a soldier, and made his home in Botetourt\nCounty. During the Indian Wars, he was made a General but not until he\nhad proved his worth in many a battle. He served with George Washington\non July 4th, 1754 when Fort Necessity was taken, and he was present when\nthe articles of the treaty were agreed upon. When Washington was made\nCommander-in-Chief, it is said he asked Lewis to accept the commission\nof brigadier-general. In 1776 he commanded the Virginians when Governor\nDunnmore was driven from Gwynn's Island and we are told he gave the\norder for attacking the enemy and he himself lighted the match to the\neighteen-pounder.\n\nGeneral Lewis resigned in 1780 and on his way home was taken ill with\nfever. He died near Bedford, about forty miles from home.\n\nWe cannot give all the accounts of William, Andrew and Charles, the\nother sons, but if one would read interesting captures and escapes from\nIndians, he will find that of Charles most exciting.\n\nThe sons of John and Margaret Lynn Lewis helped to develop the Valley of\nVirginia and their name is an honored one wherever it is found.\n\n\n\n\nIndians\n\n\nEarly historians give us some accounts of the various Indians in\nVirginia. Opechancanough, a warrior chief from the East, went to war\nwith Sherando, a member of the Iroquois tribe. Opechancanough in\ncrossing the mountains on a foraging expedition was once attacked by\nSherando who felt his tribe should not have to share its hunting grounds\nwith anyone else and resented the invasion. A fierce battle took place,\nwith no one victor.\n\nOpechancanough liked the country, so when he returned to his town below\nWilliamsburg on the Chickahominy, he left his son and a few warriors to\nwatch the hunting grounds which he had found so rich in game. This son,\nShee-wa-a-nee, with his band soon had to fight the main body of the\nIroquois and Sherando drove the Chief east of the mountains.\n\nOpechancanough left the lowlands as soon as the news was brought to him\nby runners. He gathered his warriors and set off with a large force. He\nfell upon Sherando and in the fierce battles which followed, he slowly\ndrove him from his grounds, and he never returned from his home near the\nGreat Lakes.\n\nSheewa-a-nee was left again in charge of the Hunting Grounds and from\nthat day the Shawnees held the lovely Valley until the coming of the\nwhite settlers.\n\nThe settlers kept many of the Indian names for both mountains and\nstreams. Opechancanough river was so called for the Great Chief. Legend\nand history tell us that in his later years he became blind and could no\nlonger hunt in the lovely Shenandoah Valley.\n\nThere were many tribes of Indians in the country and though they did not\nall speak the same language, they did have a common tongue and could\nunderstand each other.\n\nAfter 1710 all the lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains were spoken of\nas Indian Country. The different tribes evidently had understanding\namong themselves about certain boundary lines as individual tribes had\ncertain domains. When one violated these rights, there was a war in\nwhich whole tribes sometimes would be completely wiped out.\n\nThe Shawnees, the most powerful and warlike of all, claimed all the\nhunting grounds west of the Blue Ridge and as far west across the\nAlleghany as the Mississippi. They had three large towns in the Valley.\nOne was near where Winchester stands today, one on the North River in\nShenandoah County, and one on the South Branch, near where Moorefield is\nsituated. They did allow other tribes to visit them in the Valley on\ncondition they pay them tribute in skins or loot.\n\nThe next tribe was the Tuscaroras, and they spent most of their time in\nwhat is now West Virginia.\n\nAnother tribe was an offshoot from the Sherandos and were called\nSenedos. They were completely wiped out by the fierce tribe of Cherokees\nfrom the South, in 1732.\n\nThe Catawbas were from South Carolina and had their towns along the\nriver which still bears that name.\n\nThe Delawares came from Pennsylvania and their villages were along the\nSusquehanna River. The Susquenoughs were a large and friendly tribe on\nthe Chesapeake Bay and they were good to the white settlers until their\nenemies, the Cenela tribes, drove them away from Tidewater Virginia.\nThen they went to the upper Potomac River. The Cenelas soon followed\nthem to the same region. Another tribe, the Piscataway, lived along the\nheadwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.\n\nThe Cherokees had their villages on the Tennessee River down in the\nCarolinas and Georgia and Alabama. This tribe was made up of the nations\nof the South, the Muscogluges, the Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws and\nCreeks. At certain times, all these Indians made forages into the\nValley. Besides these there were those from New York--the Senecas,\nMohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Cayugas. These were called the Five\nNations and they too claimed the right to hunt in the Valley. These\nIndians believed, we are told, that the Great Spirit had given this\nValley to all Indians and it is not surprising that they resented the\ncoming of the white men who soon began to build homes, barns and fences\nand who claimed the right to shoot the Indians if they came on their\nproperty.\n\nThen the French about this time began to build forts along the St.\nLawrence River, the Great Lakes and on down the Mississippi River to the\nGulf of Mexico. The French made every effort to make friends with the\nIndians and told them the British had no right to take their lands. The\nFrench said they would protect their rights if the Indians would let\nthem. Consequently, they became allies of the French and they began to\nmove their villages and towns toward the French lines. They continued to\nkeep a part of their homes and to send back bands of hunters to look\nafter the hunting grounds beyond the mountains.\n\nIf the Indians had not been friendly to those pioneers who dared to\nbuild homes in the Valley, there would not have been any civilization\nthere until a much later date. But as we have seen, many of them came\nfrom Pennsylvania where William Penn and his colonists had dealt so\nfairly with the Indians. Naturally then, the Indians thought all the\nsettlers would be like those. Besides, there were so few of them, they\ndid not at first realize that their hunting grounds were being taken\nfrom them. Consequently, the Delawares and Catawbas in hunting did no\nharm, though they were bitter enemies and the settlers often saw them\nwith prisoners from the other tribes.\n\nThere were Indian villages on the Potomac and on both branches of the\nShenandoah. Numerous Indian mounds and graves are still to be seen in\ncertain sections of the Valley. Many of these have been opened and\nskeletons found to be in a wonderful state of preservation; utensils,\npipes, axes, tomahawks, pots and hominy pestles have been found. Their\npots and utensils were made of a mixture of clay and hard shells, very\ncrude as to workmanship but very strong.\n\nAfter twenty or more years of comparative peace, the Indians suddenly\nleft the Valley. In 1753 messengers came from the Western Indians into\nthe Valley and invited them to cross the Alleghany mountains. Historians\nclaim this was done through the influence of the French and later\nconsequences seem to establish the point.\n\n\n\n\nIndian Tales\n\n\nIn the year 1774 the Indians began to give serious trouble to the\nsettlers on New River. One day several children, those of the Lybrooks'\nand the Snydow's, were playing down by the river. They heard a dog\nbarking and upon looking up, saw some Indians approaching. One of the\nboys ran along the edge of the stream trying to make his escape and warn\nthe family. But one of the Indians ran ahead and cut off that means of\nescape. He also fired at two boys who were farther out in the stream,\nbut fortunately missed them.\n\nWhile the Indian was aiming at the boys, one of them ran up a rough path\nwhich had been made by the animals as they went back and forth to drink.\nThe boy scrambled up this path and darted by the Indian who tried his\nbest to catch him. The Indian gave pursuit and the boy ran until he came\nto a wide gulley about ten feet wide. This the boy easily jumped, but\nthe Indian hesitated and threw a buffalo tug which struck his head and\nhurt his back. But he never stopped running until he reached his\nfather's home and slipped into the fort where he told the parents of the\nattack.\n\nIn the meantime, five of the children who were playing in the river\nclimbed into the canoe. The Indians waded out, then swimming to the side\nof it, pulled out the children, killed them, and took their scalps.\n\nAn older girl, about thirteen years old, turned over the canoe and swam\ndownstream, then jumped to the opposite bank. One of the Indians pursued\nher and she screamed loudly for help. A faithful guard dog came to her\nrescue and as the Indian reached out to grab her, the dog jumped at the\nIndian, tearing the flesh in his thigh, and threw him down. This gave\nthe girl time to make her escape.\n\nThe Indian struck the dog a blow with his club which finally made him\nlet up on the man. The faithful dog went to the canoe and stood guard\nover the five scalped children until their people came to take them away\nfor burial. Then the dog refused to leave the spot and began to howl in\na most pitiful way. He ran into the woods and back again, keeping up his\ncries until one of the men followed him to see what was troubling him.\nThere near a tree, he found a little boy of six years, bleeding to death\nfrom a scalp wound.\n\nIn 1760 two Indians were seen hiding around Mill Creek. Mr. Painter, his\nbrother John and William Moore went in search of them. After some time\nthey came to a newly fallen pine tree which had a very bushy top.\n\n\"We had better be careful,\" Mathias Painter said as they neared the\nfallen tree. \"There may be Indians hidden in it.\" As he spoke, an Indian\nfired from the tree. His bullet grazed John's temple not injuring him.\nThen the other two white men fired at the Indians, striking one of them\nwho fell to the ground. They supposed him to be dead, so they pursued\nthe one who had fled, leaving his gun and loot behind him.\n\nBut the Indian was strong and he outran the two men. Imagine their\nsurprise when they returned, and found the Indian gone whom they had\nsupposed dead, taking the guns and pack of skins with him. The white men\npicked up his trail and followed him. He hid himself in a sink-hole and\nwhen the men came near he opened fire on them. He poured out his powder\non the dry grass in front of him so he could reload his gun more\nquickly. He fired at least thirty times before the two men finally were\nable to kill him.\n\nThe Indian who had gotten away met a young woman of the neighborhood who\nwas riding horseback. He tore her from the horse and forced her to go\nwith him. This happened near where New Market stands today. They\ntravelled about twenty miles or more. The Indian became impatient\nbecause she complained of being so tired. People near Keesleton heard\ncries in the night. The next day when they went to see who had made\nthem, they found a pine knot on which blood was still fresh. Nearby,\nthey found the poor girl, already dead from the cruel blows and from\nloss of blood.\n\n\n\n\nThe Moore Massacre\n\n\nOne of the most beautiful sections in Southwestern Virginia is called\nAb's Valley, in Tazewell County. It was first settled by Captain James\nMoore, one of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who had moved from\nRockingham County in 1775. There was no river running through the ten\nmiles of fertile grounds, but several springs watered the tall grass\nwhich afforded fine grazing for stock and game. Captain Moore's\nbrother-in-law, Mr. Robert Poage, came to live nearby, but they were the\nonly settlers in that neighborhood. Their nearest neighbors and a fort\nwere over twelve miles away.\n\nIn the Spring of 1782 the Indians came to Mr. Poage's house and burst\nthrough the heavy door without any warning. They did not expect to find\nany men there and when they saw there were three they did not attempt to\nenter the house. The next morning, a man named Richardson, who worked on\nthe place, went out to look at some deer skins which he had soaking in a\nnearby pond. The Indians crept up and shot him, taking his scalp.\n\nTwo years passed before the Indians attacked the Moore family. James, a\nyoung boy of fourteen, was sent by Captain Moore to get some horses from\na field about two miles from his home. He wanted James to go to the mill\nand for this he needed an extra horse.\n\nJames had gone only a short distance when three Indians sprang from\nbehind a log and caught hold of the boy. He screamed and the Indian laid\nhis hand over his mouth and in the Indian language told him to keep\nstill.\n\nBlack Wolf was the name of the middle-aged Indian. His son was about\neighteen years old. The other Indian seemed to be one of Black Wolf's\nmen. James said he was not so very much frightened after he was told he\nbelonged to Black Wolf, though he was one of the sternest looking men he\nhad ever seen. Black Wolf gave James some salt and told him to catch\nsome of his father's horses for him. James said he would, meaning he\nwould catch two, and try to make his escape on one of them. But every\ntime he caught a horse the Indians ran up and frightened it so it would\nget away. At last the Indians gathered up their blankets and pots where\nthey were hidden in the grass and motioned for James to fall in line.\nThe young Indian went first, then the Indian man, then James, followed\nby Black Wolf.\n\nJames tried to break off pieces of bushes so his father could tell which\nway he had gone. Black Wolf tapped his shoulder and shook his head. Then\nhe tried to leave signs by digging his toes down into the soft earth.\nAgain Black Wolf shook his head.\n\nAfter they had gone a long way, about sundown Black Wolf gave a long\nwar-whoop. He did the same the next morning at sunrise. The Indians did\nthis to show they had a prisoner. They gave one cry for each prisoner\ntaken. If they had taken scalps, the cry would have been a different\nkind.\n\nBefore they lay down in the thicket that night, Black Wolf searched\nJames to see if he carried a knife. Then he took out a halter and tied\nit fast to James' neck and wrapped the other end around his hand.\n\nThe next morning Black Wolf left James with the other two Indians and\nwent off to get a Dutch oven which he had taken on one of his other\nexpeditions. He gave this to James to carry. He fastened it to James'\nback, but after it rubbed a sore place, James threw it down and refused\nto carry it further. Black Wolf then took off the huge bundle which he\ncarried and told James to take it. But he could not even lift it from\nthe ground. The Indian then pointed to the Dutch oven, and he found it\nwas not so bad to carry after he padded it with leaves.\n\nHe found out how long the Indians could go without much food. For three\nwhole days they had only water in which poplar bark had been steeped. On\nthe fourth day they shot a buffalo. They took a small bit of the meat\nand made a clear broth which they drank but Black Wolf did not let them\neat any of the meat until the next day, this being their custom after\nfasting.\n\nJames said he travelled the whole way barefooted. Of course his feet\nbecame sore from bruises. He saw many rattlesnakes, but he was not\nallowed to kill them as the Indians considered them to be their friends.\n\nJames knew that the Shawnees, of whom Black Wolf was a member, lived far\nto the West. He believed they must be nearing their town after he had\ntravelled for twenty days. He told of how they made a raft of logs on\nwhich they crossed the Ohio and other streams. He learned how to twine\nthe long grapevines around the logs to make the raft. He saw how the\nIndians made crude pictures in the banks of the streams to let other\nIndians know they had a prisoner. Black Wolf stopped and drew three\nIndians and a boy.\n\nWhen the Indians came near their town they painted themselves black.\nThey left him white as an omen of safety. Black Wolf traded James to his\nhalf-sister for a horse. James later found out why he was not taken into\nthe town. It was a time of peace and if they had seen the new prisoner,\nthey might have made him run the gauntlet. The old squaw was kind to him\nand sometimes left him alone in the wigwam for days at a time. He said\nhe prayed to God to keep him safe. We cannot give all his experiences\nwith the Indians, but he was finally sold to a French trader from\nDetroit. His name was Baptist Ariome and he liked James, for he looked\nlike his own son. He gave the old squaw fifty dollars' worth of silver\nbrooches, beads, and other trinkets in Indian money.\n\nJames met a man who was a trader from Kentucky, a Mr. Sherlock. This man\npromised to write to James' father and tell him of his capture, of his\nbeing sold and of his being taken to Detroit. After some time, as we\nshall see, he did get back to Virginia.\n\nBut in the meantime, many other things were happening to the Moore\nfamily. In July 1786, several of the hundred head of horses which\nbelonged to Captain Moore came in to the salt block to get salt. Captain\nMoore went out to see them, about two hundred yards from the house.\nNearby were two of his children, William and Rebecca, who were coming\nfrom the spring; not far away was another child, Alexander. All at once\na stream of bullets began to fly. Thirty Indians had hidden themselves\nin the tall grass which almost surrounded the Moore home. William and\nRebecca were killed instantly. Captain Moore ran to the fence which\nseparated the lot from the house and as he climbed over, he was struck\nby several bullets. The Indians then ran up and scalped him.\n\nTwo men who lived with the Moores were not far away in a field, reaping\nwheat. When they heard the shooting they ran toward the house but when\nthey saw it was surrounded by Indians they made their escape and went\noff to give the alarm to other settlers who were six miles away.\n\nMrs. Moore and Martha Evans, the girl in the house with her, quickly\nbarred the door when they saw the tragedy. They took down the rifles\nwhich had been fired the night before and gave them to an old\nEnglishman, John Simpson, who was ill, to load for them. But the old man\ncould not help them, for he had been struck by a bullet as he lay sick.\n\nMartha Evans soon decided to hide under a loose board in the floor of\nthe cabin. Polly Moore, a little girl of eight, was holding her baby\nsister who was screaming with fear. Martha told Polly to get under the\nboard too, but she decided to stay with the baby.\n\nThen the Indians burst down the door and lunged in. They took Mrs. Moore\nprisoner and four children, John, Polly, Jane, and Peggy. They took\neverything they fancied, then set the house on fire.\n\nPoor Mrs. Moore saw the Indians kill her son because he was sick and\ncould not keep up with them. They killed the baby because it cried so\npitiously. They had to have their hands tied, as had James, and they,\ntoo, fasted.\n\nWhen at last they reached the Indian town, Mrs. Moore and Jane were\nkilled by torture and death at the stake. Polly was treated more kindly\nand was finally sold to a man near Lake Erie, for a half gallon of rum!\n\nNow fate seems to have taken a hand in bringing Polly and her brother\nJames together in that far-away country. While on a hunting expedition\nJames heard about the destruction of his family. He was told that his\nsister Polly had been bought by a Mr. Stogwell, a man of bad character.\nIt was in the Winter, so James waited until Spring when Mr. Stogwell\nmoved into the same section of the country where he was living.\n\nWhen James went to see them he found Polly very miserable. Her clothing\nwas only rags and she had almost lost hope of ever seeing any of her\npeople again. James found that Mr. Stogwell was unkind, too, so he went\nwith Simon Girty to Colonel McKee, Superintendent of Indians, to get her\nrelease. He had Mr. Stogwell brought to trial, but they did not have\nenough evidence and Polly could not leave him. However, after much\ntrouble, James was able to get passage for Polly and himself on a\ntrading boat and came down the Great Lakes. They landed in a Moravian\ntown where they met some friends owning horses. They journeyed to\nPittsburgh and stayed until Spring. Then they set off for Virginia, sad,\nof course, knowing how few there would be to welcome them. Yet they were\ndelighted to find their brother Joseph was still safe. He had been\nvisiting his grandfather in Rockbridge County at the time of the\nmassacre.\n\nPolly met and married the Reverend Samuel Brown, a Presbyterian\npreacher. They had seven sons, and five of them were ministers.\n\n\n\n\nWashington's Boyhood Friend--Lord Fairfax\n\n\n\"The Proprietor of the Northern Neck,\" Lord Fairfax, lived at \"Greenway\nCourt\" after first having a country seat at Belvoir near the Potomac\nRiver in what is now Fairfax County.\n\nAn interesting character this Fairfax must have been. Born with a title\nin England, he moved in intellectual circles there, was acquainted with\nmen of letters such as Addison and actually contributed some articles to\nthe _Spectator_. Either through boredom or a disappointment in not\nwinning the lady of his choice he decided to leave his country and come\nto Virginia.\n\nIt may be of passing interest to learn that Lord Fairfax, although\nproprietor of thousands upon thousands of acres, lived in a\ncomparatively simple way. His home was an unpretentious story and a half\nframe building, situated in a large grove of trees, and surrounded by\nsmaller homes for servants and tenants. \"Greenway Court,\" the name given\nthe home, very probably lacked more indications of elegance and grace\nbecause of Fairfax's bachelor state.\n\nA mile from the house he had erected a white-oak post which served as\nguide for those in search of his dwelling. At White Post, the village\nwhich derived its name from the signpost, one may see a replica of the\noriginal, located on the site of the first one placed there in 1760 by\nthe proprietor.\n\nHis domain, called the \"Northern Neck of Virginia,\" comprised the\npresent counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland,\nStafford, King George, Prince William, Fairfax, Loudon, Fauquier,\nCulpeper, Clarke, Madison and Page in Virginia and numerous counties in\nWest Virginia.\n\nLord Fairfax was exceptionally interested in fox hunting and reserved\ngreat tracts for this sport. Sometimes he spent weeks at a time hunting.\nHe made a rule that whoever caught the fox should cut off its tail and\nhold it aloft and should have no part of the expense of the subsequent\nfrolic. As soon as a fox was started all the young men would gallop off\nat a great rate, while Fairfax waited behind with a servant familiar\nwith the hills and streams and who had a good ear; following the\nservant's directions he frequently stuck the fox's tail in his hat and\nrejoined the hunters!\n\nFamiliar to everyone is the fact that Lord Fairfax engaged Washington, a\nboy of about sixteen, to survey his vast lands beyond the Blue Ridge.\nThrough this undertaking the latter gained a thorough knowledge of\nfrontier life and a reputation for dependability and self-confidence.\nThese attributes were to be needed later for participation in the French\nand Indian War. A warm and lasting friendship grew up between the\nproprietor and Washington.\n\nBeing British by birth and sympathy the course of the Revolution was\nwatched with mingled hopes and anxieties by Fairfax. When news of the\nfinal capitulation at Yorktown arrived late in October 1781 the feeble,\ndisappointed and tired old man called his servant and asked to be put to\nbed since he felt the time had come for him to die. In December of that\nsame year the great proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia died.\n\n\n\n\nWinchester--The Frontier Town of the Valley\n\n\nThe first inhabitants of Winchester were a large tribe of Shawnee\nIndians. Two houses occupied by white men are supposed to have been\nstanding as early as 1738.\n\nKnown as Old Town and Fredericktown it was named Winchester in 1752 in\nhonor of the English home of its founder, Colonel James Wood. The\nsettlement grew so rapidly it was necessary several times to enlarge its\nboundaries. Colonel Wood and Lord Fairfax both donated additional lots\nin order to extend the corporate limits of the town.\n\nDuring the French and Indian War Colonel George Washington was asked to\ngo to Winchester to defend the Valley. He found refugees overrunning the\nplace and determined to build a fort on the outskirts of the town which\nwould afford protection in case of raids. He imported his own blacksmith\nto do the foundry work, so anxious was he to speed the construction of\nthe fortifications. Fort Loudon was the name given, after Lord Loudon\nthe commander of the colonial forces, and a successful defense was made\nagainst the French there. It may be of interest to learn that the fort's\nbastion still remains and the well which supplied water during the\nFrench and Indian War is still in use today.\n\nNo account of Winchester would be complete if the story of General\nDaniel Morgan were omitted. Of Scotch-Irish extraction he came with his\nparents from New Jersey to the new settlement. As a youngster he was\nconsidered something of a bully. The story goes that around\n\"Battletown,\" an intersection in the roads where toughs used to fight\nfor the joy of combat, young Morgan was in the habit of placing large\nstones at strategic points. In case he had to retreat he was able to\ndraw on this supply of ammunition!\n\nTradition has it that on one occasion young Dan Morgan had just arrived\nin Winchester from the Western settlements on the South Branch--as a\ndriver of a pack for the fur traders. George Washington was ready with\nhis small party to go to the Ohio Country with a message to the French\nofficials not to continue their fort building on English property.\n\n[Illustration:-_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nGEORGE WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, WINCHESTER, VA.]\n\nWashington's journal gives the following notes: \"On Ye 17th day of Ye\nmonth of Novemo,--the party consists of one guide and packer, one Indian\ninterpreter, one French interpreter and four gentlemen.\" We know now\nthat the celebrated Gist was his guide and Vanbraam his interpreter. It\nis said that Morgan offered his services too as a guide, and was\naccepted. It was on this perilous trip, perhaps, that each of these\nyoung men realized the fine traits of the other.\n\nIt was Daniel Morgan who, at the outbreak of the Revolution, marched a\nhundred men with one wagon of supplies to Boston to report to General\nWashington. He fought at Quebec and Saratoga and defeated Tarleton at\nCowpens. He had charge of Hessian prisoners captured at Saratoga and\nthere are evidences yet of his supervision of construction of stone\nwalls and homes and the mill at Millwood built with prisoner labor.\n\n\"Saratoga\" is the name he gave his home near Boyce; it was built mainly\nby the Hessian artisans. On his way to Gettysburg in 1863 General Lee\nused the fine old house as headquarters. This estate is on the road\nbetween Winchester and Boyce and is in full view of the highway.\n\nThere is a wealth of amusing tales told about the old city, some dating\nas far back as its conception; others have to do with the activities of\nlater times.\n\nThe story is still heard in Winchester of the time when guests and\nvillage loafers were congregated in one of the taverns at the close of a\nday to discuss weighty topics over their glasses of ale. From a window\nthey saw an old man get out of his gig, taking with him luggage for\novernight accommodation. The gig was comparable to the famed One Horse\nShay in its state of near collapse. Comments were passed among the group\ninside as to the man's shabby appearance, his business and ultimate\ndestination. He was soon forgot in the midst of the ensuing conversation\nbetween several young lawyers, one of whom remarked that he had heard a\nsermon delivered which equalled the eloquence and fluency usually\nreserved to lawyers pleading their cases. This brought forth eventually\na heated discussion of the merits of the Christian religion, argued pro\nand con by those present lasting from six in the evening till eleven.\n\nFinally one young fellow turned to the quiet old traveller. The latter\nhad sat with apparent interest and meekness throughout the five-hour\ndebate and had not joined in. The question was asked, \"Well, old\ngentleman, what's your opinion?\"\n\nThe reply lasted almost an hour; he answered argument for argument in\nthe exact order in which each had occurred and with the greatest\nsimplicity and dignity. At the conclusion no one spoke for some time. At\nlast inquiry was ventured as to his identity. He was Chief Justice John\nMarshall.\n\nIn his _Virginia: A History of the People_ John Esten Cooke relates this\nstory. An Irish laborer and his wife came in 1767 to the lower valley\ncountry and stopped at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Strode, German\nlandowner. For several years they lived with the German family and\nduring the time a son was born. When they decided to push on farther\nsouth the Strode children followed, begging that they leave the little\nboy behind with them. They had become very much attached to the baby and\nwere reluctant to see him go away. The parents naturally refused the\nrequest. While stopping for a short rest they placed the baby on the\nground and the children would have run off with him if they could.\n\nThe family kept its southward course and at last reached the Waxhaws in\nNorth Carolina. Here the boy grew up and later his name was familiar to\nevery one--Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.\n\nThe legend may or may not be true, according to Mr. Cooke. But at least\nthere was a clear, cool spring on the Strode farm called \"Jackson's\nSpring.\"\n\nA pamphlet compiled at Winchester on \"What To See and How To See It\"\ntells us that the town changed hands seventy-six times during the War\nBetween the States. Other sources give a fraction of a smaller figure.\nThe exact number of times the town was under first Federal then\nConfederate forces does not matter, but it is well to know that so much\nof the fighting took place around the neighborhood. More will be said\nabout the Valley warfare later on.\n\nBeginning in November 1861 and continuing until March of the following\nyear General Jackson had his headquarters in Winchester. After finding\nsuitable quarters he sent for his wife who had remained at their home in\nLexington, Virginia. Colonel Henderson in his well-known book,\n_Stonewall Jackson,_ quotes Mrs. Jackson as saying of her stay that\nWinter:\n\n \"The Winchester ladies were amongst the most famous of Virginia\n housekeepers, and lived in a good deal of old-fashioned\n elegance and profusion. The old border town had not then\n changed hands with the conflicting armies, as it was destined\n to do so many times during the war. Under the rose-colored\n light in which I viewed everything that winter, it seemed to me\n that no people could have been more cultivated, attractive, and\n noble-hearted. Winchester was rich in happy homes and pleasant\n people; and the extreme kindness and appreciation shown General\n Jackson by all bound us to them so closely and warmly that ever\n after that winter he called the place our 'war home'.\"\n\nWinchester rightly claims that it is in the \"heart of the apple\nindustry,\" for thousands of acres are devoted to the growing of fine\napples. Over a million barrels are harvested annually and at Winchester,\nwe believe, is the largest cold storage apple plant in the world.\n\nCelebrating its crop each year, the city stages an apple blossom\nfestival during the latter part of April or the first of May when the\norchards for miles around are filled with the delicately tinted pink\nblooms. This is a lavish sort of entertainment. A queen is selected to\nreign over the festivities, her maids are invited from surrounding\nsections of the country to participate in the parades and balls which\nare given during the days' programs. If you haven't been already, plan\nto attend an Apple Blossom Festival and see Virginia in one of her\nprettiest moods--with gay young ladies and bloom-filled orchards.\n\nYou know of the \"Tom, Dick and Harry\" trio of Winchester and its\nneighborhood, don't you? They are the world famous Byrd brothers,\ndescendants of the founder of Richmond, Colonel William Byrd of Westover\non the James. Tom Byrd is a successful planter and orchardist. Richard\nByrd is noted for his polar expeditions; now he is devoting all his\nenergies towards the perpetuation of peace for our country. Harry Byrd\nwas at one time a progressive young Governor of the State and now serves\nas a Senator in the United States Congress.\n\n\n\n\nThe Valley Pike\n\n\n\"Route Eleven\" as the road is called from Winchester to Bristol is one\nof the most historic as well as the most beautiful in all Virginia. It\nstretches, like a broad silver ribbon, for over three hundred and fifty\nmiles. It begins at the northern end of the Valley, near the Potomac\nRiver, and leads one through the fertile Valley, southward and winding\never westward through the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany mountains.\n\nLet us review this famous driveway. Long before the coming of the white\nmen, the Indians followed almost a natural trail, as they journeyed back\nand forth into the richest hunting grounds known anywhere in all their\nworld. Along it they found the big elk, bear, buffalo, wolves, foxes,\nwild turkeys and smaller game.\n\nThe first pioneers followed this Indian Trail, as they called it. Then,\nas they developed the country more and more, they brought in horses and\noxen. This made a wider road and soon they were rolling their hogsheads\nof tobacco and grain over it. They carried their products to market in\nheavy wagons, swapping their wild bees' honey, venison, grain, and\nhand-woven linen for the precious salt, sugar, iron and lead. Over this\nroad came an ever increasing number of other pioneers to settle near\nthose already living in the rich Valley. They brought their furniture,\nguns, and families and a most fervent respect for the priceless liberty\nto be found there. Liberty where one could worship God as one pleased.\nLiberty where one's children could share in the development and in a new\ncountry, full of opportunities.\n\nHistorians claim that the young George Washington surveyed this road\nthrough the Valley. Engineers today say that he did a wonderful work and\nthat they would make a few changes in it. Let us look at some of the\nfamous names of those who lived near or travelled over it. Some of them\nlived within sight of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains while others\nvisited from one end of it to the other. As one travels near Winchester,\nhe reads the names of John Marshall, George Washington, and General\nMorgan. From Charlottesville one reads of Patrick Henry visiting Thomas\nJefferson at Monticello. There, too, were Lewis and Clarke, men famous\nin the development of our West, the McCormicks, the Houstons, the\nAustins and other noted Virginians who went West and settled there.\n\nBy now the Road was being called by many names, such as \"The Old Indian\nTrail\", \"The Great Road\", the \"Settlers's Road\", while still others\ncalled it the \"Wilderness Road\".\n\nThen came peace and prosperity after the French and Indian War and that\nof the Revolution. Finer horses and carriages were being brought into\nthe Valley and so a better road had to be built. Some thrifty soul\nsuggested having a splendid road which should be maintained by\ntollgates. And so was built the famous \"Valley Pike\". This was the\npride, not only of the Valley, but of all Virginia and the South.\n\nInteresting stories are told every day, as one travels over this\nbeautiful road, such as that of Charlotte Hillman who kept a tollgate\nalong the Pike. While Sheridan was making his famous raid through the\nValley (when he remarked that a crow travelling through the countryside\nwould have to carry a knapsack with provisions for his flight), he came\nto the tollgate. Charlotte let down the gate and demanded toll from the\narmy before allowing it to pass. The General and his staff paid the toll\nbut he refused to pay for the entire corps. She lifted the gate but cut\na notch on a tree for every ten soldiers who passed. At the close of the\nWar she presented the United States Government with a bill--which is\nsaid to have been paid in full.\n\nToday Route Eleven is known as the Lee-Jackson Highway, so called in\nhonor of Generals Robert Edward Lee and \"Stonewall\" Jackson. As you\ntravel through the Great Valley of Virginia may you know more intimately\nthe great men and women who have built not only the Great Valley of\nVirginia, but who have helped in the making of America. We hope this\nlittle book may make you know them and love Virginia more ... and we\nhope you will come again and again to enjoy the Great Valley of\nVirginia. Berryville\n\nLong before the County of Clarke was ordered to be carved from\nFrederick, a town was established called Battletown. This was so called,\nsays tradition, because of the rough and-tumble fights of the gang who\nmet there to drink their ale.\n\nDaniel Morgan, a picturesque character of the Valley, thought he had the\nright to stop such fights and so he frequently got into the fray. Old\nrecords show that Morgan sometimes had to pay a fine \"for misbehavior.\"\nBut no doubt it was here that he won his strength and learned to\nout-match the toughs of the neighborhood. Certainly he won a reputation\nfor his prowess, and as a general he won distinction.\n\nThe town changed its name in 1798 when it was granted a charter and\nbecame Berryville. It was named for its founder Benjamin Berry, who\ndonated the land and when Clark County was formed in 1836, Berryville\nwas chosen as the county seat.\n\nTradition tells us that George Washington boarded with Captain Charles\nSmith when he was in the Valley surveying for Lord Fairfax. This home\nwas about a half mile from the present Berryville. His office while in\nthe Valley was a small log building which was used as a spring house for\n\"Soldier's Rest.\" A cold spring of water flows under the floor of the\nfirst room, which is about twelve feet square. George used the room\nupstairs for his sleeping quarters. It was there he kept his instruments\nand carefully recorded in his diary his experiences. It was there he\nmade out his reports for Lord Fairfax. Howe, an early historian, tells\nus about that youth of sixteen. Quoting Bancroft, he writes: \"The woods\nof Virginia sheltered the youthful George Washington, the son of a\nwidow. Born by the side of the Potomac, beneath the roof of a\nWestmoreland farmer, almost from infancy his lot had been the lot of an\norphan. No academy had welcomed him to its shade, no college crowned him\nwith its honors, to read, to write, to cipher--these had been his\ndegrees of knowledge. And now at sixteen years, in quest of an honest\nmaintainance, encountering intolerable toil, cheered onward by being\nable to write to a boyhood friend, 'Dear Richard, a doubloon is my\nconstant gain every day, and sometimes six pistoles.' He was his own\ncook, having no spit but a forked stick, no plate but a large chip;\nroaming over the spurs of the Alleghanies and along the banks of the\nShenandoah, alive to nature, among skin-clad savages, with their scalps\nand rattles, or uncouth emigrants that would never speak English, rarely\nsleeping in a bed, holding a bear skin a splendid couch, glad of a\nresting place for a night upon a little hay, straw or fodder ... this\nstripling surveyor in the woods, with no companion but his unlettered\nassociates, and no implements of science but his compass and chain,\ncontrasted strangely with his fellows. And yet God had not selected a\nNewcastle, nor a monarch of the Hapsburg, nor of Hanover, but the\nVirginia Stripling to give to human affairs and as far as events can\ndepend upon individuals, had placed the rights and destinies of\ncountless millions in the keeping of the widow's son.\"\n\nWhile in the Valley of Virginia the young George Washington learned how\nto tell the age of various trees by the thickness of their bark. The\nolder a tree is, the thicker the bark and it is much rougher and thicker\non the north side of the tree. He learned to know the course of the\nwinds and to get to the leeward of his game when out hunting for food or\nskins. This was done by putting his finger in his mouth and holding it\nthere until it became warm, then holding it high above his head; the\nside which became cold showed him which way the wind was blowing. He\nlearned that the deer always seeks the sheltered places and the leeward\nside of the hills. In rainy weather, they keep in the open woods and on\nthe highest grounds. He found that the fur or skins of animals are good\nin all those months in which an \"R\" is found in the spelling.\n\nHe learned how to track animals, to know the various birds' songs and\ncries. He watched the hunters build their camp fires and learned how to\ncook his own game.\n\n\n\n\nFront Royal\n\n\nAs most of us know, Charles II lived in such extravagant style and had\nsuch a luxurious court he had difficulty in keeping his bills paid. He\nwas accustomed to resorting to one scheme after another in order to\nraise revenue. At one time he dreamt of great wealth from the Virginia\ncolony through its tobacco crop--and it did supply him generously with\ntaxes.\n\nRealizing a lucrative business might be established by trading in furs\nwith the Indians, Charles ordered Governor Berkeley to send explorers\nbeyond the mountains. The governor chose a man of whom history records\nvery little. John Lederer was at one time a Franciscan monk. He\nobviously had leanings towards an adventuresome life. In 1761 he set out\nfor the West, under the compulsion of Governor Berkeley. The party was\ncomposed of five Indian guides and a Colonel Catlett. They went through\nManassas Gap in the neighborhood of Front Royal.\n\nThe expedition proved a failure because of the unfriendly attitude of\nthe Indians and the roughness of the country. Charles was destined for\nanother disappointment.\n\nWhite settlers came to Front Royal as early as 1734 and built their\nlittle houses in sheltered coves near the Shenandoah. Soon, news of the\ndesirable home sites in the Valley attracted other settlers. Lehewtown\nwas the early name given the settlement.\n\nRough characters began to find their way here and shootings, brawls and\nhard drinking were the order of the day--so much so that the place later\nbecame known as \"Helltown.\" However, it acquired more dignity and order\nwith the years and about 1788 it was incorporated under the name of\nFront Royal. And why did the town get its double name? There are several\nexisting legends as to the derivation of the town's present name.\n\nThe trails from Page and Shenandoah valleys crossed at this point. One\naccount states that the settlers going from one place to another met at\na tavern at the crossroads where the Royalist troops were stationed.\nHence ground around the town was a military post. When the sentry on\nguard called out \"Front\" and the settlers were not able to give the\npassword \"Royal.\" The name Camp Front Royal was given the post and later\nit was known by the last two words.\n\n * * * * *\n\nA particularly tragic battle occurred at Front Royal in May, 1862, when\nthe First Maryland Regiment of the Union forces met the First Maryland\nRegiment of the Confederate Army. It happened when Stonewall Jackson\ncame out suddenly from the Page valley and attacked General Banks' left\nwing stationed at this town. The Federals were defeated and were driven\non through Rivertown where they tried hard to burn the bridges and cut\noff the Confederate advance. The cavalry of the latter under Ewell saved\nthe bridges which spanned the two branches of the Shenandoah River.\nAbout two weeks later the Confederates themselves burned the bridges,\nbut this was after Jackson had flanked Banks away from the position at\nStrasburg, followed him to Winchester and won a victory there.\n\n\n\n\nFlint Hill\n\n\nIn 1861 young Albert Willis was a theological student. Like many others,\nhe left his studies to enter the services of the Confederate Army. While\nhe was not a chaplain in Mosby's Rangers in which he had enlisted, he\ndid carry on his pastoral work with the men by giving them Bibles,\nholding some services, and writing home for those who could not write;\nno day passed during which he did not find an opportunity to be of\nservice to the men.\n\nOne day in October, 1864 he was granted a furlough and was riding\nsouthward to Culpeper, hoping to reach his home in that county. Not far\naway from Flint Hill his horse lost a shoe, so he stopped at Gaines\nMill. There was a rickety old blacksmith shop at the crossroads. It had\nbeen raining and he was very wet. While the horse was being shod, he\nstood near the fire to dry his boots. The beat of the hammer on the iron\ndrowned out the sounds of approaching horses on which rode Federal\nsoldiers.\n\nWillis was taken captive and joined another prisoner outside. The two\nConfederates were told that one of them must die in reprisal for the\ndeath of a Federal soldier who had been killed the day before.\n\nThe prisoners were carried before General William H. Powell, Union\nCavalry leader. Someone told General Powell that Mr. Willis was a\nchaplain.\n\n\"If you are a chaplain,\" General Powell told him, \"your life will be\nspared.\"\n\n\"I am not a chaplain,\" the young Confederate replied, \"I am a soldier,\nfighting in the ranks.\"\n\nGeneral Powell then told the Confederates that one of them would be\nhanged within an hour. They would be given straws to draw lots. In this\nway would one be spared.\n\nWillis replied that he was a Christian and was not afraid to die. He\ninsisted that the other Confederate who was a married man, be set free.\nThe doomed man was led out to a spot on the road near Flint Hill. A rope\nwas placed around his neck while the other end was tied to a young\nsapling which had been bent down by the weight of several Federal\nsoldiers.\n\nWhile the preparations were being made, young Willis knelt down and\nprayed. A witness said he never heard such a beautiful prayer, lacking\nall bitterness. When he was through, the men released the tree and it\nsprang into its natural position, swinging Willis high into the air,\nwhere the body was left.\n\nWhen the Federals had gone, Mr. John Ricketts came by with a companion\nand they cut down the rope, took the body of the brave Confederate and\nburied it in the cemetery at Flint Hill. Today there is a stone which\nmarks his resting place and every Spring women go and place flowers on\nhis grave. Nearby is a small chapel named in honor of him--\"Willis\nChapel.\"\n\nGeneral Powell knew that young Willis was not accused as a spy, but he\nwas carrying out an order, issued in August 1864 by General U. S. Grant,\nwhich read: \"When any of Mosby's men are caught hang them without\ntrial.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Skyline Drive\n\n\nThis world famous drive is not very old in point of years, but its lure\nhas and is attracting thousands of visitors every week to see the\nbeauties along its borders. Beginning at the northern entrance at Front\nRoyal, one winds around curving grades of finely built roads which pass\nthrough great forests of oak, walnut, maple and wonderful specimens of\nevergreens.\n\nWest of the Drive one sees the eastern section of the Shenandoah Valley\nand Massanutten Mountain which divides the Shenandoah River into two\nforks for fifty miles or more. The river winds in and out and at one\nplace the guide will point out eleven bits of blue river spots as it\nmakes as many turns through the Valley. One thinks of old patchwork\nquilts as he looks into the Valley below, for there are patches of\ngreen fields, oblong bits of blue water, red roofs of barns and homes,\nbesides the various shades of greenwood lots.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nVIEW ALONG THE SKYLINE DRIVE IN THE SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK]\n\nAnd no matter when or how often one goes, the views are never the same.\nSometimes the blue haze from the Blue Ridge Mountains makes the sunlight\nturn to a golden mist. Clouds often cast huge moving shadows over the\nfields and forests below--and sometimes they shut out the patchwork\nentirely, leaving the visitor in a gray world, with only himself and the\nclouds below and above. But this is unusual.\n\nTall stark gray chestnut trees make a striking contrast against the\ngreens and flowers, especially in the Fall when the leaves are so\nbrilliantly colored. These once-producing nut trees were killed by\nblight years ago.\n\nOccasionally one's attention is caught by a moving object high above on\nsome peak. This will prove, upon investigation, to be a hiker, or maybe\ntwo or more. Every year more and more of these nature lovers are using\nthe Appalachian Trail, which, as you know, is the foot-trail from Maine\nto Georgia. It was through the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club that this\nlink in the trail was included in the Skyline Drive and they maintain\nlocked shelters for hikers along the way within the park.\n\nOther trails invite one to lofty peaks through wild canyons and into\ngroves of giant hemlocks. Another takes one through White Oak Canyon\nwhere a stream of pure water tumbles over huge rocks and makes a\nsnow-white misty spray. Here one sees rare wild flowers, ferns, moss and\nherbs. There are trout lilies, Solomon's-seal, Hepaticae and many other\nvarieties of flowers.\n\nThere is a trail to Big and Little Devil's Staircases where two hundred\nfoot cliffs protect narrow canyons filled with maidenhair fern,\nspleenwort, cinnamon, wild parsley, ginseng and ginger. Tall maple and\ntulip trees are lovingly intertwined by such clinging vines as trumpet\nvines and honeysuckle while at their feet grow rare ferns and carpets of\nmoss. One hears the songs of the birds and sees the flashing of their\nbrilliant colored wings.\n\nNot far from Mary's Rock is Skyland. Here the tourist finds\naccommodations for overnight or longer. Big roaring fires at evening\nmake visitors linger to listen to the stories of the Valley.\n\nHorseback riding is great sport for the Skyline guests who explore the\nvarious trails nearby.\n\nThe visitor may leave the drive at Panorama and go west down the\nmountain to Luray. Or he may go east from Panorama down a lovely road to\nSperryville. Then on Route 211 he may motor north to Washington or, if\nhe would like to go by way of Culpeper, Madison, Orange and\nFredericksburg, he would find a rolling country and inviting roads to\nthe west, south and east.\n\nIf the visitor would continue the drive to Swift Run Gap, he could go\nover the Spotswood Trail to Elkton and to the Valley beyond. If he would\ngo east, he would also use the Spotswood Trail to Stanardsville and\nGordonsville, then to Orange or to Charlottesville.\n\nWho dreamed the dream or had the first vision of the Skyline Drive? What\nfarsighted men started the movement which resulted in our national\ngovernment's making a great scenic park in Virginia?\n\nA bulletin from the _Commonwealth_ gives the following summary:\n\n \"The movement which has made this area a national park was\n begun in 1924 when the director of the National Park Service\n and the Secretary of the Interior conferred on the\n establishment of a park in the southern Appalachian Mountains.\n The Secretary appointed a committee to choose the most\n attractive and suitable area; in December, 1924, his committee\n voted unanimously for the area of the Blue Ridge mountains\n between Front Royal and Waynesboro to be the first large\n national park in the East....\n\n \"Acquisition of the area was a very difficult task. In 1926 the\n newly created Virginia State Commission on Conservation and\n Development started field work, and the Shenandoah National\n Park Association began a campaign to raise funds for the\n purchase of the land. The required area was made up of 3,870\n separate tracts. Most of the owners did not wish to sell; land\n titles were not clear nor boundaries well defined; sufficient\n money to make the purchase was not available. Congress reduced\n the minimum area required for administration, protection, and\n development of the park by the National Park Service. Certain\n individuals made large donations. The Virginia legislature\n appropriated $1,000,000 for acquisition and passed a special\n law providing for wholesale condemnation of the land. Finally,\n in 1935, at a total cost of approximately $2,000,000, 275\n square miles were acquired, and the deed to the park area was\n presented to the United States government by the State of\n Virginia.\n\n \"The completion of this tremendous task of acquiring and\n establishing the Shenandoah National Park has made available to\n the people of the United States, for recreational and\n educational purposes, an unusually attractive region of\n mountains, hollows, dashing streams, forests and flowers.\n\n \"The mountains rise to a maximum height of slightly more than\n 4,000 feet above sea level, or approximately 3,200 feet above\n the surrounding country.\"\n\n\n\n\nStrasburg\n\n\nWe can hardly mention a Valley town which has retained its original name\nthroughout the years. What is now known as Strasburg was in the\nbeginning called Staufferstadt, which indicates its German background.\nPeter Stover was the founder from whom the settlement took its name but\nwhen he had the town incorporated in 1761 he changed it to Strasburg in\nhonor of his home city in Germany.\n\nThere are evidences of the pioneer life of the Valley to be seen near\nhere. A house built about 1755 and occupied by the Hupps was so\nconstructed as to serve efficiently as a fort during the Indian raids;\nthis may still be seen. The home of George Bowman, a son-in-law of Joist\nHite, is also close by Strasburg.\n\nJoist Hite had four famous grandsons born at this Bowman home. John was\na governor of Kentucky. Abraham was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War\nand Isaac also served in that war. Joseph served under General George\nRogers Clark in the expedition to the Northwest Territory.\n\nThe story is told that a party of eight Indians with a white man named\nAbraham Mitchell killed George Miller and his wife and two children just\ntwo miles from Strasburg. They also killed John Dellinger and took his\nwife and baby prisoners.\n\nA group of white men set out to find them and overtook the Indians in\nthe South Branch Mountains. They fired upon the Indians and killed one\nof them, allowing the others to make their escape. Mrs. Dellinger was\nforgotten in their flight so she came home with her neighbors. She told\nthem the Indians had killed her baby by dashing out its brains on a\ntree--a favorite means of execution with them.\n\nSamuel Kercheval, who so frequently is quoted by us and of whom we have\nwritten elsewhere is buried near Strasburg at \"Harmony Hall.\"\n\nThe town saw Union and Confederate troops march by during the length of\nthe war and several battles took place not far distant. A few trench\nlines may still be seen around the countryside. \"Banks' Folly\" was\nerected by General Banks when he expected Jackson to invade the\nterritory from the south and later found to his dismay that the\nConfederates had entered the Valley from the opposite direction. Signal\nKnob on top of Massanutten Mountain was used by the latter general as a\nmeans of communication with the main division of the army on the\nRappahannock River.\n\n\n\n\nOrkney Springs\n\n\nOrkney Springs, earlier known as the Yellow Springs, was named for the\nEarl of Orkney and was surveyed by George Washington, according to some\naccounts. The Springs may be reached by travelling west of Mount\nJackson.\n\n \"The Orkney Springs are composed of several lively springs and\n are strongly chalybeate. Everything the water touches or passes\n through, or over, is beautifully lined with a bright yellow\n fringe or moss. The use of this water is found beneficial for\n the cure of several complaints. A free use of this water acts\n as a most powerful cathartic, as does also a small quantity of\n the fringe or moss, mixed with common water.\"\n\nSo stated the historian Howe concerning the Springs. Around the waters\nthere grew up a tiny village which accommodates the visitors to the\nsection. An excellent hotel caters to the guests who seek either quiet\nand rest or zestful games.\n\nNear Orkney Springs there is a beautiful outdoor shrine where the\nEpiscopal Church holds regular and impressive services during the Summer\nmonths--Shrinemont.\n\n\n\n\nStephens City\n\n\nAn act of the General Assembly in 1758 made Stephens City, or\nStephensburg as it was then known, the second town in the Valley. The\nfirst was Winchester. Lewis Stephens the founder of this town came to\nVirginia with Joist Hite in 1732.\n\nLater on this was a thriving town manufacturing the Newtown-Stephensburg\nwagon that was the pride of teamsters who travelled all roads leading\nsouth and west. They took merchandise into the wilderness and returned\nwith furs, skins and other products sent back by those settlers who had\npushed on farther into the wilds of Virginia. Many a covered wagon which\nsaw the plains of the Middle West had its birth in Stephensburg.\n\nWhen the Forty-Niners created companies which sent supplies to the gold\nfields of California they found that few wagons lasted more than six\nmonths. At last they began to order those being made in Stephensburg.\nThese were found to be sturdier in build and could stand the strain of\nthe rough roads and paths longer than other wagons on the market.\n\nThe stores in the town were good ones, and often covered wagons came in\ndrawn by splendid horses. The drivers of these teams put up overnight at\nthe old taverns and many of the citizens gathered after supper to hear\nthe news of what was going on in Alexandria or in Tennessee. The drivers\nwould be called personal shoppers today, for they brought lists of\narticles to be carried back into the far-off country for the convenience\nof the homesteaders there. The lists probably included sugar, tea and\ncoffee, cloth by the bolt and household articles. You can imagine the\njoy with which the covered wagons would be sighted days later!\n\nDuring Jackson's Valley Campaign the village was known as Newtown and\nmention is made in this book of fighting in the neighborhood.\n\nToday the main industry centers around lime which is found in large\nquantities close by.\n\n\n\n\nMiddletown\n\n\nAs an early village this was known as Senseny Town, in honor of the\ndoctor by that name who owned the land. In 1795 it was called\nMiddletown. Long ago it was a manufacturing town and was noted for the\nfine clocks and watches which were splendid time-keepers for the\npunctual and thrifty Valley folk. In fact, the demands for them came\nfrom far and near. The old wooden wheels were first used, then brass was\nintroduced and the watch-makers learned to make the eight-day\nclocks--the last word in time-keepers until the advent of the modern\nelectric clocks. The manufacturers of the watches and clocks soon made\ninstruments for surveyors as well as the much needed compasses.\n\nThe first successful effort to produce a machine to take the place of\nthe flail and threshing floor for threshing wheat from the straw had its\nstart in this same town. The machines were a marvel in their day and the\nvillagers talked for months at the time when the machine beat out one\nhundred bushels of grain in one day!\n\n\n\n\nThe Story Teller of the Valley--Samuel Kercheval\n\nPIONEER LIFE\n\n\nSamuel Kercheval as a boy saw many of the pioneer men and women who had\ncut their homes out of the wilderness. He never tired hearing of how\nthey had left Germany, and later had come down from Pennsylvania into\nthe Valley. He himself could remember many of the \"Newcomers\" who were\nthemselves pioneers. He loved the stories of the forts, the Indian raids\nand the customs of the Germans and Scotch-Irish. He later began to write\ndown many of these stories and after he was older he rode up and down\nthe Valley gathering more and more stories and reading wills and old\nrecords. Nothing was of too little value for him to record, even\naccounts of the freaks of nature, like a six-legged calf, snakes and\nother animals.\n\nWhen Kercheval's friends insisted that he write a book about the Valley,\nhe objected until they told him how much the children of the country\nwould enjoy stories of their grandparents. His own children (there had\nbeen fourteen of them in all), like all children, loved stories. Now he\nbegan to get his notes in shape and about one hundred years after the\nfirst settlers came into the Valley, Samuel Kercheval's _History of the\nValley of Virginia_ was ready for the publishers.\n\nThis was so popular that all the first edition was soon exhausted. How\npleased he was with the demands for more of them! However, he died\nbefore the second edition came out. He lived at the time of his death in\n1845 at \"Harmony Hall\" near Strasburg. This had at one time been a fort.\nDuring an Indian raid, we are told, sixteen families sought shelter\nwithin its old stone walls. They lived together so peaceably that they\ngave it the name of \"Harmony Hall.\"\n\nIt is from Kercheval that we get the first pictures of the Valley. He\nwrites that it was long beautiful prairie, with tall rich grasses, five\nand six feet tall, with fringes of sturdy timbers following its swiftly\nrunning streams. He describes the kinds of soils and tells which is rich\nand which is poor. For instance he says where one finds slate he may\nrest assured the soil will not produce very good crops. On the other\nhand, where one finds limestone the soil will produce fine products,\ngrains and fruits.\n\nMetal was found in some of the hillsides and mountains. An Englishman\nnamed Powell found silver ore on the mountain which bears his name. He\nsmeltered the silver and from it made coins. This was breaking the laws,\nof course, and soon officers were attempting to arrest him. Powell fled\nto his mountain where he had a small fort hidden, and for years eluded\nthem. After many years men found his little shop where he smeltered the\nore and Kercheval himself saw the crude crucible in which the ore was\nrefined and the iron utensils also.\n\nKercheval tells that many of the farmers found it difficult to plough\ntheir lands and to make crops because of the innumerable small and large\nstones which they found everywhere. At last they decided to get rid of\nthem and built many of the stone walls which one sees up and down the\nmountain sides, along winding roads and enclosing picturesque homes. He\nsays the soil is so rich that seeds do not need to be planted very deep,\nas they will germinate if there is only enough soil to cover them.\n\nThere were great sugar-maple trees too and he tells of those \"sugar\nhills\" in which there are four or five hundred acres of trees. They even\nlook like sugar loaves from a distance and today on Paddy's Mountain you\nmay still see some of them. You may already have guessed that the name\nPaddy was in honor of the owner Patrick Blake, an Irishman who built in\nthe gap which is named for him.\n\nKercheval lists carefully all the various healing springs and gives the\nproperties of each. He even gives the names of many persons who were\nbenefitted by drinking from or bathing in them.\n\nLet us pause here and read about these pioneers, how they built their\nhouses, how they dressed, and something of their superstitions, manners\nand customs.\n\nThe first settlers built plain sturdy houses made mostly from rough hewn\nlogs. Some of these were covered with split clapboards, having weight\npoles to keep them in place. Many of them had no floors except the earth\nitself. If made of wood, they used rough logs, split in two and roughly\nsmoothed with a broad ax. However, as they improved the lands and their\nfamilies grew, some larger houses were built of stone, which the men and\nboys brought in from the fields.\n\nThe married men generally shaved their heads and they wore wigs or linen\ncaps. When the Revolutionary War broke out this custom was stopped for\nthey could no longer buy wigs from Europe and none were made in this\ncountry. There was little linen, so they could not get enough for other\nneeds and they could do without caps.\n\nThe men's coats were mostly made with broad backs and straight short\nskirts. These had huge pockets with flaps. The waistcoats had skirts\nnearly down to the knees and pockets also. Their breeches were so short\nthey hardly reached to their knees, and they were fastened with a tight\nband. Their stockings were drawn up under the knee-hand and tied with a\nred or blue garter below the knee so it could be seen. Their shoes were\nmade of coarse leather, with straps and they were fastened with buckles\nof brass for every day--maybe with silver for Sundays and holidays. The\nmen's hats were either of wool or fur with a round crown three or four\ninches in height and with a very broad brim. The shirt collar was only a\nnarrow band and over it was worn a white linen stock drawn together at\nthe ends and fastened with a broad metal buckle.\n\nThe women wore a short gown and petticoat of plain materials and a\ncalico cap. Their hair was combed back from the forehead and made into a\nplain knot at the nape of the neck.\n\nThe women and girls worked in the fields and wore no shoes except in the\nwinter. They worked from dawn 'til dark, for they milked, churned, made\ncheese, washed and ironed for the family, cooked, spun and wove, knitted\nstockings and quilted in their leisure moments. Kercheval tells us how\nthey made apple butter and sourkrout. Of the latter he wrote:\n\n \"Sourkrout is made of the best of cabbage. A box about three\n feet in length and six or seven inches wide, with a sharp blade\n fixed across the bottom, something on the principle of the\n jack plane, is used for cutting the cabbage. The head being\n separated from the stalk and stripped of its outer leaves is\n placed in this box and run back and forth. The cabbage thus cut\n up is placed in a barrel, a little salt is sprinkled on from\n time to time, then pressed down very closely and covered at the\n open head. In the course of three or four weeks it acquires a\n sourish taste and to persons accustomed to the use of it is a\n very agreeable food. It is said the use of it within the last\n few years on boards of ship has proved it to be the best\n preventive known for scurvy. The use of it is becoming pretty\n general among all classes in the Valley.\"\n\nKercheval even tells us what the pioneers did for medicine. When he was\na boy he saw a man brought into the fort on horseback, who had been\nbitten by a rattlesnake. One of the men dragged the snake, fastened to a\nforked stick, behind the victim. The body of the snake was cut into\nsmall pieces, split and laid on the wounded flesh. This, they claimed,\nwould draw out the poison of the bite. When this was done, the snake was\nburned to ashes. During this process, others gathered chestnut leaves\nand boiled them in a pot. Wide pieces of chestnut bark were applied to\nthe man's wound and the chestnut-leaf mixture poured over some of the\nboiled leaves which had been made into a poultice. This was kept up\nduring the first day and if not improved, the treatment was continued\nthe next.\n\nOthers suggested using boiled plantain, cooked in milk, which was given\nto the patient. Walnut fern was another remedy for snakebite. The braver\npatient submitted to cupping, sucking the wound or having someone cut\nout the flesh around the bite.\n\nGunshot wounds were treated with slippery-elm bark, flax seed poultices\nor by scraping the wound itself and cauterizing it.\n\nThe people suffering from rheumatism were rubbed with oil made from\nrattlesnakes, bears, geese, wolves or any wild animal. This was put on a\nflannel rag and bound to the parts affected.\n\nThere were all kinds of syrups made from herbs such as spike nard and\nelecampane for coughs and tuberculosis. The Germans used songs or\nincantations for the cure of burns, nose-bleed and toothache. For one\nafflicted with erysipelas the blood of a black cat was given. Hence\nthere were few cats which had not lost parts of their ears or tails.\n\nThe sports of the boys in those early days were mostly those which\ndeveloped their physical bodies. The boys were given a gun almost as\nsoon as they were strong enough to carry one. They learned to make their\nown bows and to sharpen their own arrows and many of them could shoot as\nstraight as the Indians who still roamed the hills.\n\nThrowing the tomahawk was another favorite sport. This axe-like weapon\nwith its handle will make so many turns in a given distance. With a\nlittle practice a boy soon learned to throw his tomahawk and strike a\ntree as he walked through the forest.\n\nWhen a boy was twelve, he had his own small rifle and pouch and was made\na member of the fort. He was given a certain port hole through which he\ntook careful aim. He was often allowed to go with older men on hunting\ntrips if he had proved himself worthy to be \"among men.\"\n\nDancing as we know it was unknown, but few ever enjoyed anything more\nthan those boys and girls did dancing their jigs and reels. Their music\nwas simple and singing was something both old and young enjoyed to the\nfullest. Story-telling was an art then, and year by year, old, old tales\ngrew longer and longer and Jack the hero, always conquered all the\ngiants.\n\nThere was witchcraft in the Valley too, and when a crow or calf died or\nwas sick, the owner often thought a witch had shot it with a hair ball\nor with some kind of curse. When a man lost his cunning in his once good\naim, he was sure some one had put a \"spell\" on him. Some actually\nbelieved men were changed into horses and after being bridled, they were\nridden all over the countryside. Many men thought this was why their\nbones ached and they felt too tired to work their farms.\n\nThe men who did strange things were spoken of as wizards. Some called\nthem witch-masters, and these claimed they could stop the mischievous\nwork of the witches and cure baffling diseases.\n\nWhen a child was born with a frail body, or developed rickets, it was\noften thought to be caused by the spells of someone unfriendly to the\nfamily.\n\nIf one would get rid of the witch in his neighborhood a picture of the\nsupposed witch was drawn on a board or on a stump and shot at with a\nbullet which contained a bit of silver. This bullet, if it struck the\npicture, was thought to put a spell on the witch.\n\nWe may smile at the thought of those superstitions, but few of us, if we\nare honest, will not admit that we have one pet superstition just as\nfoolish as those referred to above.\n\nKercheval tells us how difficult it often was for the farmer to retain\nall of his crops. There were so many animals, like the squirrels and\nraccoons, which liked their grains. Storms would come and huge trees\nwould fall on their fences, letting their horses and cattle get into the\nfields.\n\nHe makes us realize how difficult it was to procure the necessities of\nlife. Where, for instance did they get the mills with which to grind\ntheir grains, where the instruments with which to make their farming\nimplements and their household cooking utensils? Who were their weavers,\ntheir shoemakers, tailors, tanners and wagon makers? Of course there\nwere none, for each farmer and his family had to rely on what they could\ndo with their own hands or what they could trade to some neighbor in\nreturn for something done for him.\n\nThe first mills or hominy blocks were made of wood. A block of wood\nabout three feet long was burned at one end, wide at the mouth and\nnarrow at the bottom, so that when the pestle hit the corn it was thrown\nup and as it fell down to the bottom it was mashed. Gradually, each\ngrain of corn was ground to a like size. When the corn was soft, as it\nwas in the Fall, this grinding made a fine meal for mush or \"journey\ncake\" as they called this form of bread. However, this was slow work\nlater on when corn got hard.\n\nThe farmer also used a different kind of mill. He used a sweep made of\nspringy wood, thirty feet or more long. This pole was supported by two\nforks, placed about a third of its length from its butt end where it was\nsecurely fastened to some firm object. To this was attached a large\nmortise, a piece of sapling five or six inches in diameter and eight or\nmore long. The lower end was shaped like a pestle and a pin of wood was\nput through it at a proper height so two people could work the sweep at\nonce.\n\nKercheval says he remembers the one which he helped work in his own\nhome. It was made of a sugar-tree sapling and was kept almost in\nconstant use either by his own family or by the neighbors who came to\nuse it. He says these sweeps were used to make gunpowder from the\nsaltpetre caves which the settlers soon found.\n\nThe women often used a grater for the corn when it was very soft. This\nwas made of a piece of tin, a few holes punched in on one side and then\nnailed to a block of wood and the corn scraped against it. This produced\na form of corn-meal but was a very tedious method. Another kind was a\nmill made of two circular stones. The one on the bottom was called the\nbed stone and the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop with\na spout for discharging the meal. A staff was let into the hole in the\nupper surface of the runner near the outer edge and its upper end\nthrough a hole in a board fastened to a joist above. The grain was put\ninto the runner by hand. This type of mill, is one of the earliest ever\nknown by man.\n\nThen every man tanned his own leather. The tan-vat was a huge tub which\nwas sunk into the ground. A quantity of bark was quickly gotten each\nspring when the farmer cleared his land. This was first dried then\nbrought in and on rainy days, the bark was stripped, shaved and pounded\non a block of wood with an ax or mallet. Ashes were used in place of\nlime for taking off the hair from the skins of animals. They did not\nhave fish-oil, so the settlers substituted bear's grease, or lard made\nfrom boiling the fat of these animals. This oil was used to make the\nleather soft and pliable. The leather was often very coarse, but it was\ntough and wore well. They made their blacking or polish for their shoes\nby mixing soot with lard. Not every man could make shoes, but everyone\ncould make shoepacks, an article similar to the moccasin.\n\nKercheval's father was a master weaver as well as a fine shoe maker. He\nmade all the shoes worn by his family and would not let anyone else make\nhis thread, as he thought no woman could spin it as well as he could. He\nmade all the woodenware called set work. He hand-carved some of them,\nmaking grooves in which he fitted hoops to hold the staves in place.\nDuring the days when every man had to serve in some military service,\nthe elder Kercheval was not strong enough to fight. The men brought all\ntheir firearms to him and he repaired them. He could straighten a\ncrooked gun barrel with ease and file off any broken edges.\n\nKercheval's father had been to school for only six weeks, yet he read,\nworked hard problems in mathematics and wrote letters, not only for\nhimself, but for many of his friends. He drew up bonds, deeds of\nconveyance and wrote other articles for them. He taught his boy to use\nhis hands, for Samuel tells that as a boy, he wove garters, belts and\nshot pouches. He, too, could make looms. He traded well, for he says he\nwould swap a belt for a man's labor for a day, or give one to a man for\nmaking a hundred fence rails.\n\nAn amusing custom developed among the German settlers regarding their\nweddings. Young men and women, termed \"waiters,\" were selected to help\nofficiate at a wedding. The groomsmen were proud to wear highly\nembroidered white aprons on such an occasion, for it was symbolic of\nprotection to the bride. Each waiter tried to keep the bride from having\nher slippers stolen from her feet during the festivities. If she did\nsustain the loss the young man had to pay for it with a bottle of wine,\nsince the bride's dancing depended upon its recovery.\n\nCharacterized by their strong religious beliefs it was only natural for\nthe Scotch-Irish Presbyterians to build their churches as they built\ntheir little homes. Opequon Church south of Winchester is thought by\nmany to be the oldest church in the Valley. Not so with the Germans.\nThey did not attempt to build separate houses of worship for a\ngeneration or more after coming to the new section but they did hold\nregular services in the homes of the settlers and waited until a better\ntime to erect churches.\n\nThere was an interesting custom among the Scotch-Irish at their\nweddings, too. It was called \"running for the bottle.\" Usually the bride\nand groom went to the parson's home for the marriage ceremony, attended\nby their friends on horseback. At the conclusion of the ritual the young\nmen took to their horses and dashed for the bride's father's house. The\nman on the fleetest horse was given a bottle of wine from which the\nreturning bride and groom first drank and then it was passed on to\nothers. In most instances the mad rush to the home was made in spite of\nnumerous trees and small brush which were cut down to serve as obstacles\nin their paths.\n\nAt Winchester these two distinct nationalities got along fairly well\ntogether. An example of their friendly relations is to be seen in their\n\"War of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.\" The Dutch on St. Patrick's Day\nwould parade through the village streets with effigies of St. Patrick\nwearing a necklace of Irish potatoes and his wife carrying an apron full\nof them.\n\nAnd then on the day of St. Michael, the patron of the Dutch, the Irish\nretaliated by holding aloft an effigy of the saint decorated with a\nnecklace of sourkrout.\n\nAs was to be expected these frolics occasionally went to the extreme and\nended before the judge in the log cabin courthouse.\n\nIt was hard for those early settlers to get such articles as salt, iron,\nsteel and casting. There were no stores where they could purchase sugar,\ntea and hundreds of other necessities of today. Pelts, furs or skins\nwere their only money before they had time to raise horses and cattle.\nIn the Fall of the year, after all crops were harvested, every settler's\nfamily formed an association with some of their neighbors for starting a\ncaravan.\n\nThis consisted of two packhorses. A bell and collar was put on each\nhorse, as were a pair of hobbles made from hickory withes. Bags were\npacked on the back of the saddles in which to bring back two bushels of\nalum salt, each bushel weighing eighty-four pounds. Each horse carried\ntwo bags on the return journey. This was not such a heavy load for a\nhorse but one must remember the animal also had to carry its own food.\nSomewhere along the narrow trail, some of this grain was hidden until\nthe return journey. Large pouches or bags were also carried in which\nwere loaves of home-baked bread or \"Journey Cake,\" a mixture of Indian\nmeal and water baked on an iron skillet and boiled ham and cheese.\n\nThe men traded first in Baltimore, Hagerstown and Cumberland. They also\ntook along a cow and a calf, which was what they paid for one bushel of\nthe much needed salt. While the salt was being weighed, no one was\nallowed to walk on the floor.\n\n\n\n\nWoodstock\n\n\nFirst called Muellerstadt after its founder Jacob Miller, Woodstock was\ngranted its charter in 1761 by the General Assembly of Virginia. Miller\nwas farsighted in his plans for the community and provided adequate\nbuilding sites for homes and businesses.\n\nThe historian Kercheval tells an interesting account of the appearance\nof Indians around Woodstock:\n\n \"In 1766, the Indians made a visit to the neighborhood of\n Woodstock. Two men by the name of Sheetz and Taylor had taken\n their wives and children into a wagon, and were on their way to\n the fort. At the narrow passage, three miles south of\n Woodstock, five Indians attacked them. The two men were killed\n at the first onset, and the Indians rushed to seize the women\n and children. The women, instead of swooning at the sight of\n their bleeding, expiring husbands, seized their axes, and with\n Amazonian firmness, and strength almost superhuman, defended\n themselves and children. One of the Indians had succeeded in\n getting hold of one of Mrs. Sheetz's children, and attempting\n to drag it out of the wagon; but with the quickness of\n lightning she caught her child in one hand, and with the other\n made a blow at the head of the fellow which caused him to quit\n his hold to save his life. Several of the Indians received\n pretty sore wounds in this desperate conflict, and all at last\n ran off, leaving the two women with their children to pursue\n their way to the fort.\"\n\nWhen Lord Dunmore came to govern the colony of Virginia in 1772 the\ncitizens passed a resolution endorsing his administration. They\nrequested that a new county be formed from Frederick which would be\ncalled Dunmore County. Five years later, when he began to have trouble\nwith the colonists the people of Woodstock instructed their burgess to\nget the name of their county changed to Shenandoah. This name is\nretained to the present time.\n\nAbout six miles from Woodstock a Mr. Wolfe erected a fort on Stony Creek\nyears and years ago. He had a fine hunting dog and at the time of our\nstory Indians were lurking in the neighborhood. This was during the\nperiod when the savages were endeavoring to rid the Valley of the white\nmen.\n\nMr. Wolfe went out hunting one morning and had not gone far before his\ndog began to run around and around him, blocking his path. Then he\njumped up in front of his master, put his feet on his shoulders and\nseemed to try to stop Wolfe's progress. When the dog found he could not\nstop his master he ran back towards the fort, then back to his master,\nall the time whining a warning.\n\nThe hunter suspected some danger, so he kept his hand on his gun and\nwatched out for Indians. He soon saw two of them behind a tree.\nEvidently they were waiting for their man to come close enough for them\nto get a good shot at him. Mr. Wolfe began to walk backward, making a\nrapid retreat to the fort. Long afterwards someone asked Mr. Wolfe why\nhe did not kill the old dog since his years of usefulness were over and\nhe was apparently uncomfortable. He told the inquirer the story of how\nthe animal had saved his life and added, \"I would sooner be killed\nmyself than suffer that dog to be killed.\"\n\n\"There is a time to every purpose under the heaven--a time of war and a\ntime of peace.\" So spoke one of Woodstock's most famous sons, the\nReverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, in the Lutheran Church one\nSunday morning after the Declaration of Independence had been issued.\nAfter delivering an inspired sermon taken from this text in which he\nreviewed his stand on liberty, he dramatically cast off his black pulpit\nrobes and revealed to his astonished congregation his colonel's uniform\nof the Revolutionary army. He was about thirty years old then and had\nserved the Woodstock flock for four years.\n\nDr. Wayland in his book _The German Element in the Shenandoah Valley of\nVirginia_, suggests that the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg was associated with the\nEpiscopal as well as the Lutheran church and that \"he seems beyond\nquestion to have received Episcopal ordination.... His connection with\nthe Church of England was probably sought in order that his work as a\nclergyman might receive the readier and fuller sanction.\"\n\nAlmost immediately after preaching his patriotic sermon he raised a\nregiment among the Valley folk. Known as the Eighth Virginia, or German\nRegiment, they saw hard service at Germantown, Brandywine and Monmouth\nas well as in some of the southern battlefields.\n\nBefore the close of the war Muhlenberg was made a brigadier-general and\nafter his retirement he lived in Pennsylvania, his original home before\ncoming to the Valley of Virginia.\n\nA movement is under way at the present time to restore the little church\nof the Lutheran faith where the colonel made his firey sermon. Let us\nhope this may be accomplished so that we may catch the inspiration of\nhis remarks.\n\nWoodstock saw the march of many feet during the War Between the States;\nalmost constantly were the troops passing by, causing fields to be laid\nwaste, crops to be confiscated and stock to be carried off. But the\nlittle town conceals her war scars well and today is a progressive\ncommunity.\n\nMassanutten Academy is located here and draws boys from all over\nVirginia and a number of other States.\n\n\nTHE LINCOLN FAMILY\n\nContrary to popular belief, President Lincoln's forebears were not poor\nand shiftless, but were influential and prosperous Virginians who lived\nin the handsome old brick Colonial home which, in a fine state of\npreservation, is still standing, with the Lincoln family cemetery and\nslave burying-ground nearby.\n\nThe Lincoln homestead is near the little village of Edom, not far from\nthe Caverns of Melrose, and can be reached by turning west from U. S.\nHighway 11 at these caverns, six miles north of Harrisonburg. Visitors\nare welcome at this homestead. Exact directions as to how to reach it\ncan be obtained in the Melrose Cavern's Lodge.\n\nThomas Lincoln, father of President Lincoln, was born in this house.\nJohn Lincoln, great-grandfather of the President, moved with his family\ninto Virginia in 1768 where, as an influential pioneer, he built the\nfirst brick unit of the beautiful Colonial home.\n\nJohn Lincoln was known as \"Virginia John.\" Abraham Lincoln, his eldest\nson and grandfather of the President, lived in this homestead and was\ncaptain of a Virginia company during the Revolution.\n\nCaptain Abraham Lincoln, with his son Thomas (father of the President)\nmoved to Kentucky in 1782, leaving Jacob Lincoln, a brother of Captain\nLincoln, in the Virginia homestead. Many Lincolns, descendants of Jacob\nand other sons and daughters of \"Virginia John,\" now live near Melrose\nCaverns, in Harrisonburg and elsewhere in Rockingham county.\n\nOn February 24th, 1829, when Melrose Caverns were known as \"Harrison's\nCave,\" Franklin Lincoln, grandson of Jacob and a cousin of President\nLincoln, entered the caverns and, by the light of torches or candles,\ncarved his name and the date. He later fought in the Civil War as a\nConfederate soldier.\n\nAlso in these caverns is carved the name of John Lincoln, possibly John\nLincoln, Jr., who was one of Jacob's four brothers, or perhaps \"Virginia\nJohn\" the pioneer, great-grandfather of the President. There is no date\ncarved by the name of John Lincoln.\n\nIn April, 1862, during the Civil War, a Federal soldier drew a rough\nportrait of President Lincoln with charcoal upon a wall farther back in\nthe caverns. These Lincoln signatures and this crude portrait can be\ndistinctly seen in Melrose Caverns by visitors today.\n\n\n\n\nNew Market\n\n\nA little later in becoming settled than other Valley towns was New\nMarket, the progressive little place situated at the intersection of the\nValley Pike and Route 211 to Luray. Its charter was granted in 1785 as\nthe result of efforts made by Peter Palsel, an early settler.\n\nThomas Jefferson's father, Peter Jefferson, was among the party of\nsurveyors who ran the land grant boundary for the Proprietor of the\nNorthern Neck, Lord Fairfax. This was done in 1746. The old line is a\nshort distance south of New Market.\n\nThe town was the scene in 1864 of the battle in which the young and\ninexperienced but dauntless cadets from the Virginia Military Institute\nat Lexington took such prominent part. The wounded from their ranks were\ncared for by devoted women in nearby houses. And what a percentage there\nwas either wounded or killed! Forty-six of the former and eight of the\nlatter out of a corps of only two hundred and twenty-one!\n\nNew Market is the center today of the caverns in the Valley, for\nShenandoah Caverns are to the north and Endless to the south, while\nwithin a short drive you may reach Luray, Massanutten, Melrose and Grand\nCaverns. Accommodations for the tourists are numerous and fair\nthroughout the vicinity.\n\nSeveral years ago a re-enactment of the Battle of New Market occurred in\nwhich the corps from the Virginia Military Institute pitted their\nstrength against the United States Marines. Among the spectators to this\nstirring War Between the States encounter was the Secretary of the Navy.\n\nHe was impressed with the majesty of the Shenandoah Valley and the\nlegend of the name. Later he determined to name the new navy dirigible\nShenandoah--\"The Daughter of the Stars.\" For her christening a bottle of\nwater from the meandering Shenandoah River was used. And on her maiden\nflight from her berth at Lakehurst the graceful ship flew over the\nlovely, peaceful Valley from whence came her name.\n\n\nENDLESS CAVERNS\n\nOn the first of October, 1879 two boys went hunting. Their dog chased a\nrabbit up the long slope of Mr. Reuben Zirkle's pasture. The rabbit ran\nfor his life and disappeared over a huge rock.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE CYPRESS GARDENS\", A SCENE IN ENDLESS CAVERNS]\n\nThe boys gave chase and boy-like, when they reached the rock and found\nno rabbit, they pushed aside the heavy stone. Imagine how their eyes\nbulged when they looked down into a great hole in the hill. Here was a\nfind! Here was adventure, for who can resist exploring a cave? The boys\nthought no longer of the rabbit. They went in search of candles and a\nrope. Soon they were seeing for the first time the lovely and strange\nkingdom underground.\n\nThe boys, no doubt like visitors, wondered how Nature had carved these\nmiracles. Today science has answered the question for us and for the\nsake of those inquiring minds we will give in part the story of how\nMother Nature builds her caves.\n\n\"Thousands and thousands of years of surface waters, seeping down\nthrough the earth, have dissolved and carried away the limestone rock\nthrough various tiny cracks and crevices. As each drop worked its way\ndownward it carried coloring matter--iron, maybe copper, which tints the\nbeautiful columns. Tiny bits of limestone formed and gradually built\nthem up from the bottom; these are called stalagmites. Others slowly\nforming from the tops of the cave hung there and are termed stalactites.\nThen through the years these grew until they met and formed the arches\nand columns.\"\n\nThough explorations were carried on for several years no end to the\nrooms was seen. One channel after another was found, and one room after\nanother came into view, hence the name Endless Caverns.\n\nPeople from far and near came to see the wonders, and dances were held\nin Alexander's Ballroom. The musicians had a high rock on which they\nplayed their fiddles. Huge iron circles were fastened to the ceiling and\ncandles placed in them for lights. One night one of the bold boys took a\ncandle and pushed farther into the cave. By the weird light he saw a\nglistening lake, sparkling like diamonds. Upon investigation it turned\nout to be a pool of clearest water and it reflected the white glittering\ncrystal roof which sheltered it. The name \"Diamond Lake\" was given it\nand it has been admired by thousands of visitors.\n\nThen for thirty years the beautiful caverns were closed to the public. A\nparty of visitors came to the Valley. Colonel Edward Brown who stopped\nin New Market was fascinated with the stories of the old caverns. He\nbought the property and the next year the caverns were opened--in 1920.\nToday his son, Major E. M. Brown, is the progressive owner.\n\n\"The old entrance house has been replaced by a unique cave house built\nof limestone boulders from the mountain side. Great gates of\nhand-wrought iron bar the head of the stone steps which lead downward. A\nlone lantern hangs from the arch of the stone roof and accurately\nplaced, at the exact center of the top of the entrance, is a huge\nboulder in the shape of a keystone, set there by the Architect of all\nthe earth many thousands of years ago.\"\n\nNo one can describe the beautiful shapes and designs to be found in the\ncaverns. They must be seen to be appreciated fully and no matter how\nmany caves one has seen, he will not regret the magic time spent here.\n\n\n\n\nLuray\n\n\nThe question is often asked as to the origin of the unusual name of the\ntown of Luray. Legend disagrees as to its derivation. There are some who\nclaim it came from the name of an early settler, Lewis Ramey. He was\nfamiliarly known as Lew Ramey and the contraction Lew Ray might have\nfollowed naturally. The site of Ramey's little log cabin is at the\ncorner of Main and Court streets.\n\nSome citizens of the town insist that the Huguenots who escaped from\nFrance and finally migrated to the Valley named the new settlement\nLorraine after their province in France and that Luray is a corruption\nof the former name.\n\nThere are reminders near this town of former years of struggle. During\nthe French and Indian War the settlers decided upon building \"cellar\nforts\" for protection against Indian raids. These cellars dug under the\nlog homes were large enough for living quarters and were generally\nsupplied with a spring of water. They were so constructed with rocks\nserving as a ceiling that even in case of fire in the house proper, the\noccupants of the cellar would be unhurt. Several of these ingenious\nlittle fortifications remain in Page County, Rhodes Fort and the Egypt\nHouse being good examples of them.\n\nIn the Hawksbill neighborhood, not far from Luray, there lived a long\ntime ago John Stone and his family. In 1758 the Indians came to his home\nwhile he was away. They had little difficulty in carrying off Mrs.\nStone and her baby, a son about eight years old and another boy, George\nGrandstaff, who was sixteen.\n\nThe marauders sacked other residences in the neighborhood and killed a\nnumber of persons. It is possible that when they set out for their own\nsettlements some distance off they found Mrs. Stone's progress impeded\nbecause of carrying the baby. At any rate, they murdered those two and\ncontinued on their way with the boys.\n\nThree years later Grandstaff escaped as their prisoner and returned to\nMr. Stone. Young Stone remained with the savages for a number of years\nand when he did come home he sold his father's property and with the\nmoney in his pockets he went back to the Indian village. No one ever\nheard of him afterwards.\n\nLuray was laid out in 1812 by William Staige Marye, son of Peter Marye,\nwho built the first turnpike--a toll-road--to cross the Blue Ridge from\nCulpeper into the Shenandoah Valley. Near Luray is the Saltpetre Cave.\nDuring the War Between the States the Confederates established a nitrate\nplant there and used the products in their manufacture of ammunition.\n\nOne of the most beautiful drives in Virginia is that leaving Luray,\ncrossing the mountain and entering the Valley Pike at New Market.\n\nOf particular importance to this section are the Luray Caverns. An\nentertaining history is attached to them. As far back as 1793 there was\nknowledge of the existence of the caves, for Joseph Ruffner's son had\nexplored several passages just about this time. Ruffner's property took\non the name of Cave Hill.\n\nThe Ruffners were among the largest landowners in the Valley, their\nproperty extending twelve miles on both sides of Hawksbill Creek. They\nreceived a part of the land through inheritance and bought other tracts.\nDr. Henry Ruffner, a member of this distinguished family, was at one\ntime President of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University\nat Lexington.\n\nFighting during the War Between the States occurred near the town of\nLuray and about two miles south on the Lee Highway there is an old oak\ntree which marks the place where Sheridan's famous Valley ride was\nhalted for a time.\n\nThere are interesting landmarks remaining in the town today which have\nwitnessed the pageant of history, among the most pretentious being\n\"Aventine.\" This home originally occupied the present site of the\nMymslyn Hotel.\n\n\n\n\nStonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign\n\n\nToo much space must not be consumed in this book in presenting the facts\nregarding Jackson's Valley Campaign. We feel justified in devoting more\nthan a comment to this notable feat of war, however, for some of the\nheaviest fighting of the four years' conflict took place on the land you\nmay see in driving over the Valley Pike and along the Skyline Drive.\n\nAt the outbreak of hostilities in the War Between the States Thomas\nJackson left the chair of higher mathematics at the Virginia Military\nInstitute and volunteered his services in the Virginia army. Educated at\nWest Point and trained during the Mexican War he was a welcome addition\nto the Confederate forces, although no one anticipated the conspicuous\nrole he would play in the subsequent events. At the early battle of\nFirst Manassas he earned the name of \"Stonewall\" because of his quiet,\ndignified and unafraid manner in the face of danger.\n\nLt. Col. C. F. R. Henderson's invaluable two volumes, _Stonewall Jackson\nand the American Civil War_, were consulted and are the source quoted\nhereafter in giving the account of the Valley warfare. The First Brigade\nof the Virginia army was recruited from the Valley and participated\nunder Jackson in the first battle of Manassas and for a long period of\ntime thereafter.\n\n \"No better material for soldiers ever existed,\" said Henderson,\n \"than the men of the Valley. Most of them were of Scotch-Irish\n descent, but from the more northern counties came many of\n English blood, and from those in the center of Swiss and\n German. But whatever their origin, they were thoroughly well\n qualified for their new trade. All classes mingled in the\n ranks, and all ages; the heirs of the oldest families, and the\n humblest of the sons of toil; boys whom it was impossible to\n keep in school, and men whose white beards hung below their\n cross belts; youths who had been reared in luxury, and rough\n hunters from their lonely cabins. They were a mountain people,\n nurtured in a wholesome climate bred to manly sports, and\n hardened by the free life of the field and forest. To social\n distinctions they gave little heed. They were united for a\n common purpose; they had taken arms to defend Virginia and to\n maintain her rights; and their patriotism was proved by the\n sacrifice of all personal consideration and individual\n interest.\"\n\nAfter the first battle of Manassas the First Brigade was known as the\n\"Stonewall Brigade.\"\n\nFrom July to November, 1861, Jackson spent the greater part of every day\ndrilling the men under him and in trying to convert them into\nwell-disciplined, obedient troops. During the first week in November he\nwas sent from Manassas to command the Shenandoah Valley district and\nthis meant parting from the soldiers whom he had reason to admire and\nwho in turn held him in highest esteem. A short time later they were\ndestined to reunite under circumstances which would try the courage of\nthe brigade and commander. To the delight of all, the Stonewall Brigade\nwas assigned to Winchester soon after Jackson established his\nheadquarters there and for the next few months rigid training was given\nthem again.\n\nAbout the middle of March 1862, Jackson abandoned Winchester. This was\nafter some of the Union concentration near Manassas and Centreville was\nbroken up and General Banks made no move to offer battle, so the\nConfederates withdrew without a fight and occupied Strasburg eighteen or\ntwenty miles southward. The evacuation of Winchester was made\nreluctantly, for good roads in each direction connected the city with\noutlying districts, fertile farms nearby could furnish the invading army\nwith rations and Banks could receive from or send troops to West\nVirginia or the army south of Washington. Feeling that Jackson's small\nforce was not of any special danger, Shields' corps was sent in pursuit\nof the Confederates and most of Banks' troops were ordered to another\nfield. Jackson continued up the Valley and stopped at Mount Jackson,\nhoping the Federals would follow.\n\nThe Confederate general learned from Ashby, his cavalry commander, that\nthe enemy was retreating. It was Lee's intention that the Union corps in\nthe Valley be retained there so that assistance could not be offered\nMcClellan, the Northern general who was maneuvering in the eastern part\nof Virginia with the ultimate aim of striking Richmond. McClellan hoped\nto attack the capital of the Confederacy by combining his army with\nthat of McDowell, whom he could call to the area of war when necessary.\nSo it was to be Jackson's duty to keep them in the Valley and perhaps to\nwithdraw some of the Northern troops from near Richmond.\n\nOn March 22nd Ashby with his troopers and a few guns engaged Shields in\na skirmish just south of Winchester. He believed there was only a small\nforce of Federals present, so well had Shields hidden his men, and he\nreported to Jackson that the troops were small in number. The next day\nJackson sent reinforcements to Ashby and then followed later with his\nwhole force in the direction of Kernstown which is south of Winchester\nand but a short distance off. There the battle of Kernstown began and\ncontinued until dark. Jackson's troops were defeated and retreated\nsouthward. As a result of this encounter Shields was reinforced and the\nstrong Union force remained in the Valley.\n\nThe Federal generals were apparently satisfied with the victory and in\nspite of urgings from the Secretary of War, Stanton, to pursue Jackson\nthey remained inactive for nearly a month.\n\nBanks assumed the offensive on April 17th, and surprised Ashby, taking\none of his companies prisoner. The Virginians burned the railroad\nstation at Mount Jackson and fell back while the Union cavalry\nestablished themselves at New Market.\n\nThe Confederate General Ewell had a force of 8,000 men on the Upper\nRappahannock which is some distance east of the mountains. This corps\nwas left at its location in order to rush to the defense of\nFredericksburg or Richmond or across the mountains to the Valley.\nJackson knew that he must not allow Banks to control the mountain pass,\nthus severing communication between the two Confederate forces. He\ndetermined upon a forced march for his men and on the eighteenth they\nreached Harrisonburg. He continued over to Swift Run Gap and encamped\nnear there.\n\nBanks followed his cavalry to New Market, crossed over to Luray and\nseized the bridges, driving back a detachment of Jackson's men sent\nthere to defend them. Later he sent two of his five brigades to\nHarrisonburg and the rest stayed at New Market.\n\nJackson's next move was to McDowell, a town about twenty-seven miles\nnorthwest of Harrisonburg. The march was made in the most circuitous\nmanner: from Swift Run Gap to Port Republic, to Brown's Gap which is\nabout twelve miles southeast of their camp at Elk Run Valley, to\nStaunton and then west to McDowell. This strategy was used so that he\nmight deceive Banks, Fremont and Milroy, the Federal commanders in and\nnear the Valley, into thinking for a while that he was leaving the\nValley to join forces at Richmond. Jackson proposed to strike each Union\nforce located in this section of Virginia but he believed an encounter\nwith Milroy commanding the weakest corps should be made before attacking\nBanks. The Battle of McDowell occurred on May 8th, and was a victory for\nJackson. He followed the enemy in their retreat as far as Franklin. A\nsquadron of Ashby's cavalry spent much time in blocking any of the\npasses which Fremont might use in crossing the mountains to reinforce\nBanks. Bridges were burned and rocks and trees were placed across the\nroadways. Jackson's object was thus thoroughly achieved:\n\n \"All combination between the Federal columns, except by long\n and devious routes, had now been rendered impracticable; and\n there was little fear that in any operations down the Valley\n his own communications would be endangered. The McDowell\n expedition had neutralized, for the time being, Fremont's\n 20,000 men; and Banks was now isolated, exposed to the combined\n attack of Jackson, Ewell and Edward Johnson.\"\n\nEwell in the meantime had left his post near Gordonsville and had moved\ninto Swift Run Gap in order to go to Jackson if necessary. After the\nBattle of McDowell, Jackson returned to the Valley. Lee ordered him to\nmake a movement against Banks as speedily as possible, to drive him\ntowards Washington and appear ready to attack the Union capital. Thus he\nhoped to see some of the Northerners leave the vicinity of Richmond and\nreturn to defend their capital.\n\nJackson entered the Valley at Mount Solon and pushed northward at once.\nBanks erected earthworks at Strasburg and considered himself well\nentrenched against the enemy. Ewell, with his Confederates, left Swift\nRun Gap and moved to Luray. Jackson moved north to New Market. The\nConfederates now organized into two divisions, Jackson's and Ewell's,\nnumbering about 17,000 men. The troops under Jackson instead of\ncontinuing northward in their march turned east and crossed the\nMassanutten Mountain and headed north. On May 22nd the advanced guard\ncamped within ten miles of Front Royal. This town was \"held by a strong\ndetachment of Banks' small army.\"\n\n \"Since they had left Mount Solon and Elk Run Valley on May 19th\n the troops in four days had made just sixty miles. Such\n celerity of movement was unfamiliar to both Banks and Stanton,\n and on the night of the 22nd neither the Secretary nor the\n General had the faintest suspicion that the enemy had as yet\n passed Harrisonburg.... There was serenity at Washington....\n The Secretary, ... saw no reason for alarm. His strategical\n combinations were apparently working without a hitch....\n Milroy's defeat was considered no more than an incident of 'la\n petite guerre'. Washington seemed so perfectly secure that the\n recruiting offices had been closed, and the President and\n Secretary, anticipating the immediate fall of Richmond, left\n for Fredericksburg the next day. McDowell was to march on the\n 26th, and the departure of his fine army was to be preceded by\n a grand review....\n\n \"So on this night of May 22nd the President and his people were\n without fear of what the morrow might bring forth. The end of\n the rebellion seemed near at hand. Washington was full of the\n anticipated triumph. The crowds passed to and fro exchanging\n congratulations on the success of the Northern arms and the\n approaching downfall of the slaveholders.... Little dreamt the\n light-hearted multitude that, in the silent woods of the Luray\n Valley, a Confederate army lay asleep beneath the stars. Little\n dreamt Lincoln, or Banks, or Stanton, that not more than\n seventy miles from Washington, and less than thirty from\n Strasburg, the most daring of the enemies, waiting for the dawn\n to rise above the mountains was pouring out his soul in\n prayer.\"\n\nBanks' 10,000 men were distributed in this manner: at Strasburg the\nlargest contingent, at Winchester a small group of infantry and cavalry,\nwith two companies of infantry at Newtown, midway between Strasburg and\nFront Royal. At Rectortown, nineteen miles east of Front Royal was\nGeneral Geary with 2,000 infantry and cavalry independent of Banks.\nFront Royal was held by Colonel Kenly of the First Maryland Regiment, U.\nS. A. On the morning of May 23rd the Confederates struck Kenly's small\nforce. Every line of communication and reinforcement had been severed\nduring the previous night and \"within an hour after his pickets were\nsurprised Kenly was completely isolated.\"\n\nBanks moved north from Strasburg towards Winchester before Jackson could\nscatter his troops along the route and cut off his retreat. Encounters\ntook place at Newtown and Middletown and Kernstown during the early\nmorning of May 24th. The battle of Winchester occurred the following\nday. Particularly hard fighting was done by both sides, but the surprise\nmovements of Jackson during the past few days, the partial\ndemoralization of the Union forces and the keen fighting of the\nConfederate divisions drove Banks' army from Winchester and on to\nMartinsburg.\n\nLee sent instructions to Jackson to threaten an invasion of Maryland and\nan attack upon Washington at this excellent time. So on the 28th the\nStonewall Brigade set out towards Harper's Ferry and at Charlestown they\nmet a Federal force, routing them within twenty minutes. Ewell came up\nto support the Brigade and on the 29th the army of the Valley was\nencamped near Halltown. The greater part of the Federals crossed the\nPotomac River at Harper's Ferry. Jackson, however, learned that the\nUnion soldiers were advancing to cut off his retreat; Shields' division\nwas approaching Manassas Gap and Fremont had left Franklin and was about\nten miles from Moorefield. Jackson felt that Lee's orders had been\ncarried out and decided to retreat along the Valley Pike. The\nSoutherners turned southward towards Winchester. En route Jackson found\nout that the small force left at Front Royal had been driven back and\nthat Shields occupied the town. The Valley army was ordered to\nStrasburg, the First Brigade was called back from Charlestown, the\nprisoners and supplies were picked up at Winchester and moved southward.\n\"From the morning of May 19 to the night of June 1, a period of fourteen\ndays, the Army of the Valley had marched one hundred and seventy miles,\nhad routed a force of 12,500 men, had threatened the North with\ninvasions, had drawn off McDowell from Fredericksburg, had seized the\nhospitals and supply depots at Front Royal, Winchester, and Martinsburg,\nand finally, although surrounded on three sides by 60,000 men, had\nbrought off a huge convoy without losing a single wagon.\"\n\nWhen the Federals learned that Jackson had moved south Shields was sent\ntowards Luray from Front Royal. Fremont moved towards Woodstock. The\nFederal cavalry reached Luray on June 2nd and found that the enemy had\nalready been there and burned the bridges, thus cutting off their\napproach to New Market. A part of the Confederates were repulsed on June\n2nd between Strasburg and Woodstock and the skirmishing continued the\nnext day with the Confederates retreating to Mount Jackson and burning\nthe bridges over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. The Union\ntroops tried to construct their pontoons across the stream but a driving\nrain and high waters prevented their doing so. This failure gave the\nrebels a day's respite.\n\nJackson with his force passed from Harrisonburg over to Cross Keys and\nthere bivouacked. The Northern generals looked upon this move as a\nretreat.\n\nOn June 8th and 9th the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic took\nplace, victories for the Southerners. The Confederates moved on to\nBrown's Gap, a point a bit nearer Richmond. \"The success which the\nConfederates had achieved was undoubtedly important. The Valley army,\nposted at Brown's Gap, was now in direct communication with Richmond.\nNot only had its pursuers been roughly checked, but the sudden and\nunexpected counter-stroke, delivered by an enemy whom they believed to\nbe in full flight, had surprised Lincoln and Stanton as effectively as\nShields and Fremont.\"\n\nThus the plan of McClellan to fall upon Richmond had been postponed and\na division of the Northern forces was made necessary to protect the\nFederal capital and to supply Banks with troops.\n\nLater in the month Jackson's division moved with great secrecy to join\nGeneral Lee near Richmond--but that is a story for another time.\n\n\n\n\nBelle Boyd, the Spy\n\n\n\"In a pretty storied house, the walls completely covered by roses and\nhoneysuckle in luxuriant bloom\" according to Belle Boyd herself, lived\none of the most beautiful women and one of the most famous spies in all\nhistory.\n\nMartinsburg, her home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, was only a\nvillage then and she tells us about her neighbors and her childhood--\"It\nwas all golden and I was surrounded by devoted and beloved parents and\nbrothers and sisters ... our neighbors are some of the best families of\nthe Old Dominion descended from such ancestors as the Fairfaxes and\nWashingtons.\"\n\nWhen Belle was only twelve she was sent to Mount Washington Seminary in\nWashington. At sixteen her education was finished and she made her\ndebut. She wrote how brilliant were the Congressional and Senate balls\nwhere both Northern and Southern belles met and learned to love each\nother as sisters.\n\nThen came the dark days of Secession. Belle's own father was among the\nfirst to enlist in the defense of Virginia. Belle returned home where\nwith other ladies she helped raise funds with which to equip the\nConfederate soldiers. The colors were raised and on them one read these\nwords, \"Our God, Our Country and Our Women.\"\n\nThings were dull for Belle after her father and the boys marched away to\nHarper's Ferry. Soon she went to visit them where she enjoyed the social\nlife until messages came saying the Federal troops were approaching. She\nwas sent home and scarcely had she arrived before the Southern troops\nwithdrew to Falling Waters, near her home. She heard the distant boom of\ncannon and quickly there followed the battle of Martinsburg. After a\nskirmish of five hours, Belle saw General Jackson's troops retreat.\n\nHard upon them were the Federals entering the village with flags flying\nand the fifes playing the now despised \"Yankee Doodle.\"\n\nDawned the Fourth of July and Belle woke to see the Yankee flags flying\nfrom many homes. She heard the drunken soldiers as they planned to force\ntheir way into homes whose doors and blinds were shut tight. Blows began\nto batter down doors and those of the Boyd home were splintered as well\nas those of their neighbors.\n\nSome one had told the Federals that the walls of Belle's room were\ncovered with rebel flags. But though they searched none were found.\nBelle's Negro maid had taken them down and carefully hidden them. The\nsoldiers were furious and began to break furniture, glass ornaments, and\nabuse the Virginia sympathizers. Then they went out and began to raise\nthe United States flag over the Boyd home. This was more than Mrs. Boyd\ncould stand, so she spoke: \"Men, every member of my household will die\nbefore that flag shall be raised over us.\" Let us read Belle's account\nof what followed:\n\n \"Upon this, one of the soldiers, thrusting himself forward\n addressed my mother in language so offensive as it is\n impossible to conceive. I could stand it no longer, my\n indignation was aroused beyond control, my blood was literally\n boiling in my veins, I drew out my pistol and shot him. He was\n carried away mortally wounded and soon after he expired.\"\n\nThen the Boyd home was set on fire, but it was hastily put out. The\nNorthern commander quickly arrived and an investigation followed. After\na long and lengthy trial, during which time the Boyd home was guarded by\nsentries, the officer declared Belle had acted as any normal person\nwould have under similar circumstances.\n\nFrom this time on, Belle gave herself to the Confederate Cause. She met\nand charmed the Federal officers. She remembered their names and got\nthem to tell her their plans. These Belle carefully wrote down and sent\nto General J. E. B. Stuart. Soon she was under suspicion and one of her\nletters was seized by the enemy. She was sent for, arrested and asked if\nshe had written the letter. She acknowledged it, was rebuked and the\nArticles of War regarding such deeds were read to her. Again a\ntrial--and a dismissal.\n\nBelle was undaunted. She not only continued to pick up valuable\ninformation, but she picked up small side arms and pistols and these,\nalong with the information, found their way into the Southern lines.\n\nWhile on a visit to Front Royal the first battle of Manassas was fought.\nThe wounded were rushed into Front Royal and Belle found herself the\nmatron of the large hospital. Soldiers told how she worked night and\nday, tirelessly giving of herself to comfort and help \"the boys.\" After\neight weeks of such a strenuous life, Belle had to go home for a much\nneeded rest.\n\nBefore her mother thought she was strong enough, Belle left to visit her\nfather who was stationed at Manassas. Soon she was riding as a courier\nback and forth for General Jackson and General Beauregard.\n\nOn one occasion Belle was in Front Royal waiting for an opportunity to\ngo to Richmond where her family had gone. She had secured passes from\nsome of her Federal friends and she was staying in the same house in\nwhich General Shields was stopping. Belle's room was over the\nliving-room where the officers were making plans. A small hole in the\ncloset floor gave her a good view of the men--and served to let her hear\nevery word of their next maneuvers. Belle listened until one o'clock,\nwriting down in cypher each plan. Then she carefully stole down the back\nsteps, saddled a horse in the backyard and was off, fifteen miles, to\ncarry the message.\n\nTwice she was held up by Federal sentinels and twice she showed them\nFederal passes. She arrived safely back in Front Royal before day, as\nfresh as a \"morning flower.\"\n\nWe cannot give all of her escapades or her narrow escapes. Once she sped\nthrough Front Royal with a message for General Jackson, her white sun\nbonnet and white apron against a blue dress making her a target for the\nFederals. Several times she felt bullets tear her wide billowing skirt,\nbut she kept on until she had reached the General--giving him the\nposition of the enemy: General Banks, at Strasburg with 4,000 troops,\nGeneral White marching to Winchester and General Fremont approaching the\nValley--all planning to \"bottle up\" Jackson's force.\n\nQuickly the Confederates made plans which resulted in victory and\nGeneral Jackson wrote her, \"Miss Belle Boyd--I thank you for myself and\nfor the Army for the immense service that you have rendered your country\nthis day. Hastily your friend, T. J. Jackson, C. S. A.\"\n\nRomance like danger courted her wherever she was. Finally in 1864 she\ndecided to go to England. President Davis gave her important papers for\nSouthern sympathizers there. She sailed from Wilmington, North Carolina,\naboard the \"Greyhound.\" Vivid pictures are given of the crew throwing\noverboard bales of cotton, but even this did not enable the ship to\noutrun the fast Union vessels. Captain Bier also dropped a keg of money,\nover thirty thousand dollars in gold, in order to lighten the cargo.\nWhen Belle saw they could not avoid capture she destroyed her dispatch\nand managed to put into a belt many gold dollars which belonged to her\nand the captain of the boat. Let us read her description of the Federal\nofficer who said he must take over command of the \"Greyhound\":\n\n\"I confess my attention was riveted by a gentleman--the first whom I had\nmet in my hour of distress. His dark brown hair hung down on his\nshoulders, his eyes were large and bright. Those who judge beauty by\nregularity of feature would not only have pronounced him strictly\nhandsome, but the fascination of his manner was such that my heart\nyielded.\" He begged Belle to consider herself still a passenger, rather\nthan a prisoner, which evidently she did.\n\nThere was a moon, a soft breeze \"which swept the surface of the ocean\nuntil it was like a vast bed of sparkling diamonds.\" Lieutenant\nHardinge, the Federal officer, quoted poetry from Shakespeare and Byron\nand before the vessel reached Boston, Belle had given her heart and her\npromise to marry the lieutenant.\n\nWhile their own course of true love seemed to run smoothly enough\nvarious forces concentrated to keep them apart.\n\nFirst of all, soon after arriving in Boston Captain Bier escaped. And\nwhile Belle took the credit for that, Lieutenant Hardinge was under\nsuspicion. Besides, while Belle was being treated courteously in Boston\nher betrothed had gone to Washington in her behalf. The newspapers of\nthe day flaunted the stories of the beautiful Rebel Spy and everywhere\nshe went great crowds pushed themselves upon her.\n\nWhen Hardinge reached Washington he begged Gideon Welles, Secretary of\nthe Navy, permission for Miss Boyd to visit Canada. This was granted and\na telegram ordered an escort for her and her maid. However, notice was\ngiven her that if she were caught again in the United States she would\nbe shot.\n\nHer lover was captured next and arrested for aiding Captain Bier in\nescaping. Finally, he went to Paris in search of the beautiful woman who\nhad promised to marry him. After some time Belle, who was in Liverpool,\nlearned where he was. She wrote to him and they met in London; they were\nmarried in St. James' Church. There was a large and brilliant breakfast\nat which a huge wedding cake was cut. Lieutenant Hardinge promised to\nrun the blockade and carry pieces of wedding cake to his wife's friends.\nThis he did when he arrived in Wilmington. Later he was arrested in\nBaltimore, charged with being a deserter and was sent to prison.\n\nBelle interested herself in his behalf and we are told that her charms\nand the termination of the war secured his release. And so they lived\nhappily ever after!\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn the foregoing account of the fearless work done by Belle Boyd and of\nher visit to Front Royal during the Battle of Manassas we are reminded\nof an inhabitant of the latter place, a Mr. McLean. Rumor has it that\nthe gentleman resided so close to the scene of battle--and it was a\nbloody encounter--he resolved to quit the place for a quieter section of\nVirginia. He had a distinct distaste for battles and bloodshed. So he\nmoved his family to Appomattox County in Virginia and watched the scene\nof war with a feeling of comparative safety. The reader has guessed the\nrest of the story.\n\nA little previous to April 9th, 1865 the Union and Confederate forces\nmet at a spot not far from the courthouse and negotiations were started\nfor the surrender of General Lee, in command of the Confederates. And on\nthe ninth the surrender was made at the McLean house which marked the\ncessation of war in Virginia. Poor Mr. McLean was present at the\nbeginning and conclusion of the fighting!\n\n\n\n\nHarrisonburg\n\n\nHarrisonburg is called the Friendly City and its people are noted for\ntheir hospitality. It is near famous caverns and historic battlefields.\nIt was named in honor of Thomas Harrison who had fifty acres of his land\nsurveyed and laid out into lots and streets. It might also be called the\ncenter of a large German element whose forefathers settled much of the\nsurrounding country. Harrisonburg is the county-seat of Rockingham\ncounty, which was formed from Augusta in 1778. This is the third largest\ncounty in Virginia.\n\nThese people have always been among the sturdiest and bravest in the\nValley. They gave the best they had to develop their new homes in a new\ncountry and when they were called upon to fight in the French and\nIndian War, there were no braver men to be had nor could any endure more\nhardships than they.\n\nDuring the Revolutionary War they were among the first to respond to the\ncall for volunteers. They were among the first to resent the closing of\nthe Boston Harbor by the British in 1774. We read an old account or\nnotation of Felix Gilbert who kept a shop near the town of Harrisonburg.\nHe agreed to take food-stuffs from his neighbors and send it to the\nrelief of the Bostonians. One of those entries, made in 1775, reads:\n\n \"Rece'd for the Bostonians; Of Patrick Frazier 1 bushel of\n wheat, of Jos. Dictom 2 bushels of wheat, of James Beard 1 bu.\n of wheat, Geo. Clarke 1 bu. wheat, Robt. Scott and Sons, 2 bu.\n wheat.\"\n\n\nMASSANUTTEN CAVERNS\n\nThe owners of the Massanutten Caverns call them the \"gem of the cavern\nworld,\" for they are a combination of the beautiful and the unusual.\nThey are located east of Harrisonburg on the Spotswood Trail.\n\nThese caverns are of rather recent discovery. In 1892 during a thriving\nlimestone industry some workmen blasted rock in the foothills and after\nthe discharge of dynamite was over they looked into a fairyland of\nstrange rooms and strange formations.\n\nThe operator of the caverns called the entrance \"Discovery Gate\" and\nplanned the route through the underground so that visitors begin their\njourney where the discovery was made.\n\nVacationists find themselves unloading their luggage and remaining\neither overnight or for longer periods of time when they see the\nfacilities offered there. The accommodations include a golf course and\nswimming pool as well as a lodge and cottages.\n\n\nGRAND CAVERNS\n\nBack in 1804 Bernard Weyer discovered the unusual caves situated on a\nbluff belonging to his neighbor Mr. Mohler. Nearly a century before, the\ncourageous \"Sir Knights of the Golden Horseshoe\" had passed by this part\nof the Blue Ridge--within ten miles of the entrance of the caverns,\nperhaps, and because of the layout of the land never suspected the\nunderground \"Buried City.\" Today these are called Grand Caverns and are\nlocated between Elkton and Mt. Sidney, the latter town being on the\nLee-Jackson Highway.\n\nYoung Weyer was a great hunter who enjoyed roaming the fields and\nhillsides in search of game. The historian Kercheval tells the story of\nthe day when Weyer went to find an elusive ground-hog, having previously\nset a trap for it. The animal not only had not been captured but for\nsome time had made a successful getaway with each trap set for it. Weyer\ndecided to dig for the ground-hog hide-out. \"A few moments' labor\nbrought him to the antechamber of this stupendous cavern, where he found\nhis traps safely deposited.\" Not content with eleven pages of flattering\nand minute descriptions of every passageway known then, Kercheval used\nanother page with \"Note A\" and \"Note B\" which described later\nexplorations. This makes interesting reading for those who have either\nvisited the Caverns or have not had that privilege and plan to see them.\nIn these accounts he included Congress Hall, The Infernal Regions,\nWashington's Hall, The Church, Jefferson's Hall and numerous others.\n\n_The Historical Collections of Virginia_ by Henry Howe gives a vivid\npicture of Weyer's Cave and the author further states:\n\n \"A foreign traveller who visited the cave at an annual\n illumination, has, in a finely written description, the\n following notice:\n\n \" ... Weyer's Cave is in my judgment one of the great natural\n wonders of this new world; and for its eminence in its own\n class, deserves to be ranked with the Natural Bridge and\n Niagara, while it is far less known than either.... For myself,\n I acknowledge the spectacle to have been most interesting; but,\n to be so, it must be illuminated, as on this occasion. I had\n thought that this circumstance might give to the whole a toyish\n effect; but the influence of 2,000 or 3,000 lights on these\n immense caverns is only such as to reveal the objects, without\n disturbing the solemn and sublime obscurity which sleeps on\n everything. Scarcely any scenes can awaken so many passions at\n once, and so deeply. Curiosity, apprehension, terror, surprise,\n admiration, and delight, by turns and together, arrest and\n possess you. I have had before, from other objects, one simple\n impression made with greater power; but I never had so many\n impressions made, and with so much power, before. If the\n interesting and the awful are the elements of the sublime, here\n sublimity reigns, as in her own domain, in darkness, silence,\n and deeps profound.\"\n\nBear in mind that this account was given long before 1850 and that Grand\nCaverns was first known as Weyer's Cave.\n\nWe learned that the Cave was used as a source of income by its owners\nfirst in 1836, when the large chambers were converted into temporary\ndance halls for the countryside youth. Mentioned above is the fact that\nthe caverns were lighted once a year and admission was charged on this\noccasion. About 1925 the passages were lighted properly and tourists\nbegan their trek to this wonder of nature.\n\nA modern note is to be found in the name \"Linbergh Bridge\"--one not\nmentioned as such by any of the early writers!\n\n\nMASSANETTA SPRINGS\n\nOne of the most delightful places in all the Valley is Massanetta\nSprings. It is one of those beauty spots which one finds after going\nthrough Swift Run Gap, famous for being the first gap through which came\nthe English with Governor Spotswood and his Knights of the Golden\nHorseshoe. It was through here, too, that General George Washington\npassed on horseback in 1784.\n\nLong ago these springs were known as Taylor Springs and during the War\nBetween the States the wounded soldiers were cared for there. Many\nfamous people lived in and around this lovely spring. We are told that\nDaniel Boone's wife lived near here, and that Abraham Lincoln's father,\nThomas Lincoln, was born not more than twelve miles away on Linville\nCreek. Not far away is Singer's Glen where some of the first early\nAmerican hymns and songs were published.\n\nToday various religious denominations hold summer conferences at the\nSprings.\n\n\n\n\nStaunton\n\n\nNear Lewis's Fort a settlement grew up and in 1749 a town was chartered.\nIt was named Staunton in honor of Lady Staunton, wife of Governor Gooch,\nthe official who had given so many land grants to Lewis and his Scotch\nneighbors. At that time, the town was the county-seat of Augusta (formed\nfrom Orange County in 1738), whose boundaries swept far to the west. Old\nrecords show that one time the court adjourned in Staunton and\nreconvened at Fort Duquesne, the colonial outpost which has long since\nbecome Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.\n\nIf one would search further, he would find this was done during the\nFrench and Indian troubles. Five Chiefs, or rather several of the Five\nNations, signed this order or treaty and it is to be seen among other\nhistorical documents in the Court House in Staunton.\n\nAfter the Legislature fled from Charlottesville to Staunton during\nTarleton's Raid, that body met and held its sessions in old Trinity\nEpiscopal Church. During this short time, Staunton was called \"the\nCapital of Virginia.\"\n\nThe area around Staunton is full of War Between the States history too,\nreferred to in other places.\n\nWoodrow Wilson was born here in a lovely old Presbyterian manse which is\nnow a shrine to one of the greatest Presidents of the United States.\nHere, annually, thousands of Americans come to honor him.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\n\"THE MANSE\"\n\nWOODROW WILSON'S BIRTHPLACE, STAUNTON, VA.]\n\nThe town is a center of culture, for there are located many splendid\nschools; among them, for girls are Mary Baldwin and Stuart Hall.\nStaunton Military Academy and nearby Augusta Military Academy are\nrecognized as outstanding schools for boys. There are two business\nschools, Dunsmore and Templeton Business College. The one for the deaf\nand blind is a State institution.\n\nTarleton entered Charlottesville on the fourth day of June in 1781.\nJefferson's term as governor expired four days later. Ex-Governor\nPatrick Henry had been his guest while the Legislature was meeting\nthere. He now hastened to Staunton where the Legislators had fled from\nCharlottesville. Mr. Jefferson, according to one historian, concealed\nhimself in a cave in Carter's Mountain and Patrick Henry, in his flight\nto Staunton, met Colonel Lewis and told him of how the Legislators had\nfled Charlottesville upon Tarleton's invasion.\n\nColonel Lewis, not knowing who Patrick Henry was, replied \"If Patrick\nHenry had been in Albemarle, the British Dragoons never would have\npassed over the Rivanna River.\"\n\nThe Legislators were badly demoralized, for they feared Tarleton would\ncome to Staunton. Many of them left during the night and went to the\nhospitable home of Colonel George Moffett. During Mr. Henry's hasty\nchanges he had the misfortune to lose one of his boots. While eating\nbreakfast the next morning, Mrs. Moffett remarked, \"There was one member\nof the Legislative body whom I knew would not run.\" The question was\nasked by one of the party, \"Who is he?\" Her reply was, \"Patrick Henry,\"\nat that moment a gentleman with one boot colored perceptibly. The party\nsoon left and after their departure a servant rode up and asked for Mr.\nHenry, saying he had forgotten his boot. Of course Mrs. Moffett knew\nwhom the boot fitted.\n\nA tale made more popular perhaps because of a recent revival of interest\nin Salem witchcraft is that of a woman who lived years ago in Augusta\nCounty and who was a great aunt of Governor James McDowell of Rockbridge\nCounty. She was born Mary McDowell and married James Greenlee.\n\nIt is recounted that she was an unusually attractive and intelligent\nyoung woman but was considered highly eccentric in her behavior.\nNeighbors thought that an early love affair had contributed something to\nher peculiar manner. Be that as it may, she was regarded by her\nacquaintances as a witch. They believed she had made a written contract\nwith the devil--a contract drawn up in duplicate form so that each party\nmight retain a copy!\n\nOnce at a quilting party in her home she urged one of the quilters to\ntake a second piece of cake and laughingly remarked that \"the mare that\ndoes double work should be best fed.\" The women misconstrued this to be\nan acknowledgment that she was a witch who rode a mare at night on her\nexcursions to meet the devil. The rumor of her evil activities rapidly\nspread throughout the countryside.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nWOODROW WILSON'S BED, STAUNTON, VA.]\n\nThe neighborhood thought she was capable of placing curses upon them and\nattributed such tragedies as fires, loss of family or stock, or poor\ncrops to the unfortunate woman.\n\nThe fact that she was never brought before the court with the accusation\nof being a witch was due in large measure to the standing of the family.\nThat does not mean, however, that Mrs. Greenlee did not live a wretched\nexistence or that failure to declare her a witch made the people less\nafraid of her powers.\n\nWhile he was President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson returned to\nStaunton and placed a tablet on the wall of the First Presbyterian\nChurch in memory of his father, Dr. Joseph Wilson, a former minister.\nThe church in which Dr. Wilson used to preach and in which the President\nwas christened serves now as the Chapel of Mary Baldwin College.\n\nAn interesting old home in Staunton is the Stuart House, located on\nLewis Street. It was planned by the great architect and builder Thomas\nJefferson. Mr. A. H. Stuart, the owner, was a member of President\nFillmore's Cabinet.\n\nThe main building of the School for the Deaf and Blind is an unexcelled\nexample of Doric architecture. During the War Between the States it was\nused as a hospital.\n\n\n\n\nWaynesboro and Afton\n\n\n\"Mad Anthony Wayne,\" the Revolutionary hero, has a town named for him in\nVirginia--Waynesboro. This is a beautiful place which has become even\nmore popular upon completion of the projected Skyline Drive southward\nfrom Swift Run Gap.\n\nThe State Conservation Commission has erected an historical marker which\nstates briefly:\n\n \"Here on one of the first roads west of the Blue Ridge, a\n hamlet stood in colonial times. The Walker exploring expedition\n started from this vicinity in 1748. Here, in June 1781, the\n Augusta militia assembled to join Lafayette in the East. A town\n was founded in 1797. It was established by law in 1801 and\n named for General Anthony Wayne.\"\n\nIn 1854 the countryside was very much excited over the trip made by the\nfirst train travelling west of the Blue Ridge. Crowds gathered to see\nthe phenomenon and half of them left in fright, we are told, as the iron\nhorse chugged off. Incidentally, mules hauled the first passenger engine\nover the high mountains and set it down for its memorable exodus.\n\nFor the most part the buildings one sees in the town have been erected\nsince 1861, for in that year a devastating fire wiped out the landmarks\nof pioneer days.\n\nThe last battle in Northern Virginia during the War Between the States\noccurred here in March 1865, just about a month before the surrender of\nGeneral Lee at Appomattox. Hoping to protect Rockfish Gap, General Early\nhad his Confederate forces quartered in the town. Sheridan, the Union\nGeneral, surprised him and captured more than half the rebels.\n\nFurnishing power for the large manufacturing interests are the numerous\nsprings of Waynesboro, which have a capacity of millions of gallons of\nwater a day. If you are unfamiliar with springs such as Virginia has,\nyou should stop at Brunswick, Baker's, or Basic Lithia Springs for an\nunusual sight.\n\nSwannanoa, one of the finest estates in Virginia, is on top of the\nmountain between Waynesboro and Afton. It is said by numbers of people\nthat two of the loveliest views in America may be had from this point:\nRockfish and Shenandoah valleys. You will probably agree with the\nstatement when you stand where you may get a commanding view of the\ncountry below you. The large home on the estate is now a country club.\nNearby is the site of \"Old Mountain Top Tavern,\" widely known years ago\nfor its fine hospitality. A group met at the tavern in 1818 to decide\nthe location of the proposed University of Virginia. Among them were\nMadison, Monroe, Marshall and Jefferson.\n\nDriving along the roads you see some of the finest peach orchards in\nVirginia, for the section is famed for its high quality fruit. Not only\ndo peaches abound here, but you will also see splendid apple orchards.\nIf you happen along at the right season you will be able to stop at a\nroadside market to buy the renowned Albemarle Pippins--the apples which\nare grown for miles around--and some of the luscious peaches.\n\n\n\n\nNatural Bridge\n\n\n\"Who first discovered Natural Bridge?\" is a question which nearly every\none asks, and a second one is, \"How high is it?\"\n\nThe answer to the first is given in an old Indian legend which reads\nsomething like this: Long, long ago, years before the Princess\nPocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith, there was a terrible\nwar between some of the tribes. The Shawnees were noted for their\ncruelty and they joined forces with the Powhatans. They roamed through\nVirginia and fell upon the Monocans, a more friendly tribe.\n\n[Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE]\n\nThere had been a famine that year and the Monocans were weakened by\nhunger and many of their braves fell in battle. After a long conflict,\nthe Monocans decided to retreat and they gave way before the enemy. But\nthey were pursued relentlessly. The Monocans sought refuge in a strange\nforest and suddenly they came upon a high chasm, whose steep walls were\nof rock. The braves peered over and were made dizzy when they saw the\ngreat distance to the bottom below, where a swiftly running river looked\nlike a small silver ribbon.\n\nEven the strongest could not have jumped across the wide chasm, for it\nwas over a hundred feet wide. Their swiftest scouts ran hither and yon,\nbut each brought back word that there was no way around.\n\nThe Monocans were in despair and in their distress threw themselves upon\nthe ground and cried aloud to the Great Spirit to spare their lives from\nthe approaching enemy.\n\nOne of the braves arose and went again to the edge of the cliff. He\nstared down at his feet, then turned and shouted, \"Our prayers have been\ngranted us--The Great Spirit has built for us a bridge across the great\nabyss.\"\n\n\"Be careful,\" cried one of the men. \"Send the squaws and children first\nto test it. If they cross in safety, then we will know it will be heavy\nenough to carry our weight also.\"\n\nAnd so the women and children passed over into the shelter of the forest\nbeyond. Even as they went they could hear the war whoops of the\nadvancing enemy.\n\nBut the Monocans were refreshed in spirit. Their courage had returned,\nfor was not the Great Spirit on their side? The braves quickly took\npositions on the bridge, each feeling he stood on sacred ground, and\nlike the Greeks of old at Thermopylae they turned and faced their enemy\nand fought victoriously. From that day, we are told, they called it \"The\nBridge of God\" and worshipped it.\n\nThe first white man to own Natural Bridge was Thomas Jefferson, and one\nmay see the original land grant still hanging on the walls of Monticello\nwhich reads, in part:\n\n \"Know ye that for divers good causes and considerations, but\n more Especially for and in Consideration of the sum of Twenty\n Shillings of good and lawful money for our use paid to our\n Receiver General of our Revenues, in this our Colony and\n Dominion of Virginia, We have Given, Granted and Confirmed, and\n by these presents for us, our heirs and successors, Do give,\n Grant and confirm unto Thomas Jefferson, one certain Tract or\n parcel of land, containing 157 acres, lying and being in the\n County of Botetourt, including the Natural Bridge on Cedar\n Creek, a branch of James River ...\"\n\nWe are told that George Washington surveyed the land in 1750, and while\nthere he climbed up 23 feet and carved his initials \"G. W.\" on the\nsoutheast walls; the guide today will try to point them out to the\nvisitor. A story is also told that George Washington threw a stone from\nthe bottom of Cedar Creek over the Bridge. Evidently he liked to test\nhis strength by such sports, for it is said that he threw a Spanish\ndollar across the Rappahannock River opposite the town of\nFredericksburg.\n\nWhen this story was told to the late President Cleveland, he replied, \"I\ndo not know about that, but I am well assured he threw a sovereign\nacross the Atlantic.\"\n\nIn 1927 another stone was found which scientists think proved George\nWashington surveyed that territory. This stone is a large one and also\nbears his initials which are engraved in a surveyor's cross. Evidently\nhe measured the height of the Bridge by dropping a line from the edge of\nthe bridge to the cross below.\n\nThomas Jefferson called his purchase the \"most Sublime of Nature's\nworks.\" He visited it many times and during his presidency, in 1802, he\nsurveyed the place with his own hands. He later built a log cabin which\ncontained two rooms and one of them was always kept ready for a visitor.\nMany famous people visited there and the list includes such men as John\nMarshall, James Monroe, Henry Clay, Sam Houston and Martin Van Buren.\nWhile in France, Jefferson collected many plants and shrubs which he\nsent to America; many of these were planted at the Bridge, and some are\nstill in existence.\n\nCedar Creek, the parent of the Bridge, has been busy for thousands of\nyears cutting a bit deeper each year.\n\nThe answer to the second question, \"How high is it?,\" is found on a\nGovernment bench which carries a brass plate, \"1,150 feet above the\nsea.\" It is 245 feet high and is 90 feet wide.\n\nBoys and men are especially interested in the exciting story of how Dr.\nChester Reeds actually measured the wonderful Bridge. He had a special\nbasket built which was strong enough to hold him. Two hundred and fifty\nfeet of rope was fastened to it and run through a pulley and one end of\nit was tied to a fence post. He was very dizzy at first and could not\ntake pictures of the side walls of the bridge. Gradually he became\naccustomed to turning around and was able to get many fine ones at\nvarious angles and of the massive supporting walls, the huge slabs of\nlimestone and some of the foliage.\n\nNatural Bridge is a monument to the patience of Old Mother Nature and\nher skill as an artist. Today, one wonders at the deep gorge--by night,\nwith modern electrification, one is spellbound by its beauty--and when\nsweet music fills the glen with its symphonies one's soul is lifted to\nthe Greatest Artist of all--to God in reverence and gratitude.\n\n\n\n\nRockbridge\n\n\nRockbridge County takes its name from the celebrated Natural Bridge and\nwas formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties. A branch of the James\nRiver is called North River and this stream waters the county, flowing\ndiagonally across it. Some of the richest soil in all the Valley is\nfound in Rockbridge. Lexington, which is the county-seat, takes its name\nfrom the town of Lexington in Massachusetts and was founded in 1778. The\nfirst buildings of the old town were mostly destroyed by fire in 1794\nand were replaced with substantial brick buildings. An Englishman who\nwas visiting America long ago described the little town in these words:\n\n \"The town as a settlement, has many attractions. It is\n surrounded by beauty, and stands at the head of a valley\n flowing with milk and honey. House rent is low, provisions are\n cheap, abundant and of the best quality.\"\n\nThe settlers were mostly the Scotch-Irish and of the Presbyterian faith.\nAs soon as they had cleared the lands and built their homes they planted\norchards, built their barns and settled down. These were thoughtful men\nand women who kept their emotions under constant guard. Yet when\noccasion arose, they spoke simply and clearly and were unafraid. They\ndetested civil tyranny and as they were far away from the seat of\ngovernment, to a certain extent they made their own laws and rigidly\nadhered to them.\n\nThey were among the first in the Valley of Virginia to rally to the\ndefense of their country during the War of the Revolution.\n\nIn their moral life, they were almost Puritanical. This was founded on\nreligious principle and often they were considered austere and stern.\nYet those who knew them, felt the kindness and devotion to which they\ndid not give expressions in words. To them, deeds meant more than\npromises. Though they reproved one without a smile, their eyes often\nexpressed understanding and sympathy and the offending one felt the deep\nlove which had moved the other to speak--always for the good of the\noffender. And while some other fault would rear its head, not often was\nthe offense repeated which had called forth the reproach.\n\nThe men and women were deeply religious and family prayers were the\nfirst order of the day. As soon as homes were established provisions\nwere made for religious services to be held. Tiny churches dotted the\nValley wherever the Scotch-Irish settled. If the church was far away, as\nit was from some, on meeting day young and old mounted their horses and\nrode the intervening miles for the long services.\n\nMany of these old Presbyterian churches are still standing today and\nthey serve as monuments to that hardy race of men and women who braved\nall for religious freedom and for civic liberty. The building of these\nchurches meant such labor as we of the present generation cannot know.\nThere were no roads and no sawmills. An old historian tells us how one\nchurch was built:\n\n \"The people of Providence Congregation packed all the sand used\n in building their church from a place six miles distant, sack\n and sack, on the backs of horses! And what is almost\n incredible, the fair wives and daughters of the congregation\n are said to have undertaken this part of the work, while the\n men labored at the stone and timber. Let not the\n great-granddaughters of these women blush for them however\n deeply they would blush themselves to be found in such\n employment. For ourselves, we admire the conduct of these\n females; it was not only excusable, but praiseworthy--it was\n almost heroic! It takes Spartan mothers to rear Spartan men.\n These were among the women whose sons and grandsons sustained\n Washington in the most disastrous period of the Revolution.\"\n\nThere was little social life in those early days such as their eastern\ncousins knew along the James River. Except for their church festivals,\nthey did little entertaining. Twice a year they held the Lord's Supper\nand this lasted for four days, with religious services each day. During\nthese times families living nearest the church invited those who lived\nat great distances to stay with them. Often some young couple would be\nmarried, either just before or immediately after these services. Then\nthere would be a little merriment, extra cakes and a few playful pranks.\n\n\nTHE FIRST ACADEMY IN THE VALLEY\n\nDr. Ruffner has left us a description of Timber Ridge, which was built\nnear Fairfield in Rockbridge County in 1776. The school took its name\nfrom the fine oak trees which grew along its ridge. He writes:\n\n \"The schoolhouse was a log cabin. The fine oak forest, which\n had given Timber Ridge its name, cast its shade over it in\n summer and afforded convenient fuel in winter. A spring of pure\n water gushed from the rocks near the house. From amidst the\n trees the student had a fine view of the country below and the\n neighboring Blue Ridge. In short all the features of the place\n made it a fit habitation of the woodland muse and the hill\n deserved the name of Mount Pleasant. Hither about thirty youths\n of the mountains repaired to 'taste of the Pierian spring.' Of\n reading, writing and ciphering, the boys of the country had\n before acquired such knowledge as primary schools could afford;\n but with a few late exceptions, Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry\n and such like scholastic mysteries were things of which they\n had heard--which they knew perhaps to lie covered up in the\n learned heads of their pastors--but of the nature and uses they\n had no conception whatever.\n\n \"It was a log hut of one room. The students carried their\n dinner with them from the boarding-schools in the neighborhood.\n They conned their lesson either in the schoolroom where the\n recitations were heard, or under the shade of the trees where\n breezes whispered and birds sang without disturbing their\n studies. A horn--perhaps a cow's horn--summoned the school from\n play and scattered classes to recitations.\n\n \"Instead of broadcloth coats, the students generally wore a far\n more graceful garment, the hunting shirt, home-spun,\n home-woven, and home-made, by the industry of wives and\n daughters.\n\n \"Their amusements were not less remote from the modern taste of\n students--cards, backgammon, flutes, fiddles, and even marbles\n were scarcely known among these mountain boys. Firing pistols\n and ranging the field with shotguns to kill little birds for\n sport, they would have considered a waste of time and\n ammunition. As to frequenting tippling shops of any\n denomination, that was impossible because no such catchpenny\n lures for students existed in the country, or would have been\n tolerated. Had any huckster of liquors, knicknacks, and\n explosive crackers, hung out signs in those days, the old\n Puritan morality of the land was yet vigorous enough to abate\n the nuisance. The sports of the students were mostly gymnastic,\n both manly and healthful--such as leaping, running, wrestling,\n pitching quoits and playing ball. In this rustic seminary a\n considerable number of young men began their education, who\n afterwards bore a distinguished part in the civil and\n ecclesiastical affairs of the country.\"\n\n\n\n\nValley Inventions\n\n\nThe Valley of Virginia has often been termed \"the granary of the South.\"\nIt is no wonder that farmers from time to time have tried to shorten\ntheir labor in the wheat fields by inventing machines to do their work.\n\nThe name Robert McCormick means little or nothing to most of us, yet on\nhis farm, Walnut Grove, near Lexington he made repeated attempts to\ninvent a workable reaper. His son, Cyrus, had watched with growing\ninterest each of his father's undertakings. His regrets must have been\nas keen as the elder McCormick's when they realized one May morning in\n1831 that the clumsy machine could not replace the hand scythe and\ncradle.\n\nCyrus knew something of machinery and determined to improve his father's\npoor invention in time for the next harvesting. During the intervening\nsix weeks he stayed in the workshop as much as the busy growing season\nwould allow and secured the ready help of a slave boy, Joe Anderson.\n\nIn July when the wheat was ready to harvest Cyrus and his father moved\nthe machine out to the field. There a crowd of neighbors gathered and\nwatched with fascination as the reaper cut six acres of wheat during the\nday.\n\nMcCormick continued to improve his invention and other farmers risked\ntheir money in purchasing the first six he offered on the market.\nEventually the news spread to the grain fields of the Middle West and he\nopened factories to supply the farmers there.\n\nFor years the inventor strove to improve the reaper; he discovered that\nother labor saving devices were needed equally as badly, and he offered\nother types of farm machinery to the rich farm lands.\n\nInventive genius lay near Lexington along other lines, too. It was near\nhere that James Gibbs invented his common sense stitch sewing-machine\nwhich was a forerunner of our more modern models. And what a\nlabor-saving machine that was to all the housewives!\n\n\nWASHINGTON COLLEGE\n\nThe Scotch-Irish were determined to have the best schools and colleges\nfor their children. The Hanover Presbytery, which in 1776 embraced all\nthe Presbyterian churches in Virginia, established a school which they\ncalled Liberty Hall Academy. This was built in Lexington, Virginia, with\nthe Reverend William Graham, a native of Pennsylvania, as its first\npresident. George Washington, in 1796, gave the school a regular\nendowment, the first of its kind. This is how it was made:\n\nThe Legislature of Virginia \"as a testimony of their gratitude for his\nservices,\" and as \"a mark of their respect,\" presented to George\nWashington a certain number of shares in the Old James River Company, an\nindustry then in progress. Unwilling to accept anything for his own\nbenefit, he gave it to the Liberty Hall Academy.\n\nIn 1812, the Trustees of the school voted to ask the Virginia\nLegislature to change the name to Washington College. Many others\ndecided to follow George Washington's fine example. A Mr. John Robinson\nleft his whole estate to the college; the next to aid it, we are told,\nwas the newly organized Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia.\n\nOld records of the school throw an interesting light regarding the\nexpenses of a student in those far-off days. The treasurer's bill for\ntuition, room rent, deposits and matriculation was $45 per year. Board\nwas $7.50 a month. Laundry, fuel, candles and bed amounted to about\nthree dollars per month. The cost of everything averaged about $140 a\nyear.\n\n\n\n\nLexington\n\n\nWhen he was beset and overwhelmed, and without supplies, Robert Edward\nLee reached Appomattox in April, 1865, and surrendered to General Grant\non April 9th. He realized that the people of the South needed courage\nand strength, and though he was offered many places of honor with\nsplendid salaries, he decided to help rebuild Virginia. When the call\ncame to become president of Washington College in Lexington he accepted\nand took up his duties there in October, 1865.\n\nAs he spoke to the students assembled in the new chapel he saw familiar\nfaces. Many of them had followed him during the years of the War Between\nthe States; they, too, had courage and hope. These boys and men loved\nthe noble man and they were willing to follow him in rebuilding their\nhomes and the Southland.\n\n \"All good citizens must unite in honest efforts to obliterate\n the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They\n must not abandon their country, but go to work and build up its\n prosperity.\n\n \"The young men especially must stay at home, bearing themselves\n in such a manner as to gain the esteem of every one, at the\n same time that they maintain their own respect.\n\n \"It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay\n passion, and to give scope to every kindly feeling.\"\n\nIn every respect he was prepared to be the president of a great school,\nfor he himself had been a model student at West Point. He had already\nserved as Superintendent there for three years.\n\nHe was very happy during the short years he lived in Lexington. He had\nthe grounds improved, planted many trees, and repaired the much worn\nbuildings. He studied and worked over the courses of study and enlarged\nthe faculty.\n\nA young girl who was visiting in the home of General Lee in Lexington,\ntells the following story. It was soon after the Surrender at Appomattox\nand his acceptance of the Presidency of Washington College.\n\nGeneral Lee, with his family, was living in one of the comfortable and\nlarge houses near the college. Their home at Arlington had been\nconfiscated during the War Between the States, and they had no furniture\nexcept some which neighbors had lent them.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nWASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VA.]\n\nOne day a letter came to General Lee, telling him good news. A lady who\nlived in New York wrote him that her husband had died, and having no\nchildren she had decided to give up housekeeping. She had been very\nhappy and had loved her home. Now she wanted the furnishings to belong\nto someone who would appreciate and would care for them. She wrote she\nsympathized with them in not having their own furniture and that there\nwas no one to whom she had rather give hers.\n\nGeneral Lee hated the thought of accepting, until he read on, that if he\ncould not use the furniture himself, perhaps he could use it in his\ncollege. After some time he wrote the lady he would be very grateful and\nwould appreciate it very much.\n\nIn the meantime Mrs. Lee was looking forward to its coming, for her\nlarge rooms were indeed very bare. At last the great boxes came. General\nLee was busy, so Mrs. Lee waited until he could be present to have them\nopened.\n\nAfter lunch one day, General Lee had men come to open them. Mrs. Lee's\neyes shone as the first box revealed two huge red velvet carpets.\n\nShe looked at the General. His eyes were shining too.\n\n\"Look, my dear,\" he said, \"The very thing we need! If we cut them\ncarefully, we will have enough to carpet the platform and the aisles of\nthe new chapel!\"\n\n\"Of course,\" she smiled, never saying one word about how warm and lovely\nthey would make the double parlors in their own home.\n\nThe next box was opened with intense interest. The men lifted out the\nupper part of a handsome bookcase. The next brought the lower half, a\nlovely desk, with many drawers.\n\n\"Oh,\" thought Mrs. Lee. \"That will fill up that terrible space between\nthe windows.\"\n\n\"This is the very thing we want,\" General Lee said, as the men took them\nto the walk. \"We will put that in the basement of the new chapel. We\nwill use it for our records and put our best books in the bookcase, and\nthis will be the beginning of our college library.\"\n\nAnd so it went. He used the best of everything for his college, and Mrs.\nLee took only the odds and ends which did not fit anywhere else.\nSomeone told her she should have taken a stand and insisted upon taking\nsome of the best.\n\n\"Oh, no,\" she laughed, \"it was worth giving all of it up to see the joy\nthe General had in putting it to use in his college. The boys come\nfirst--both of us are so interested in them.\"\n\nGeneral Lee died in October, 1870, loved by men and women, boys and\ngirls in both the North and South. His body rests under a beautiful\nwhite marble figure, which was sculptured by his friend, Edward\nValentine. It is called the Recumbent Statue of General Lee and lies in\nthe Chapel of Washington and Lee. This is now a shrine to which hundreds\ncome daily from all over the world to pay their homage, love and respect\nto this great man.\n\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nVIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE]\n\nTHE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE\n\nVirginia Military Institute was first an academy and was established in\nconnection with Washington College by an act of the Legislature during\nthe years 1838-9. A guard of soldiers had been maintained at the expense\nof the State for the purpose of affording protection to the arms\ndeposited in the Lexington arsenal for the use of the militia in western\nVirginia. It was through the influence of Governor McDowell, who came\nfrom Rockbridge County, that this militia was made into an educational\nunit of Washington College.\n\nOne seldom thinks of the Virginia Military Institute without associating\nwith it the noted Colonel Claudius Crozet--soldier, educator and\nengineer. He was the first president of the V.M.I. Board of Visitors. An\nimposing hall at the Institute is named in his honor.\n\nIn the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hall hangs the painting which depicts\nthe charge of the corps of cadets at the Battle of New Market. \"This\ngreat painting, not a mural, is one of the largest canvas paintings in\nthe country\"--according to authorities there.\n\nAmong other memorial buildings is the one erected in honor of\nBrigadier-General Scott Shipp, a former cadet, instructor and\nsuperintendent; Maury-Brooke Hall, dedicated to Matthew Fontaine Maury,\nthe Pathfinder of the Seas and honoring Commander John Mercer Brooke,\ninventor of the deep-sea sounding apparatus and builder of the first\nsuccessful iron-clad vessel, the \"Merrimac.\"\n\nDuring the War Between the States the greater part of the buildings were\ndestroyed by Federal authority. When General Lee heard of this tragedy\nhe wrote to General F. H. Smith, the superintendent there. We quote his\nletter because of its prophetic message:\n\n \"CAMP PETERSBURG, (VA.) _July 4, 1864_.\n\n \"I have grieved over the destruction of the Military Institute.\n But the good that has been done to the country cannot be\n destroyed, nor can its name or fame perish. It will rise\n stronger than before, and continue to diffuse its benefits to a\n grateful people. Under wise administration, there will be no\n suspension of its usefulness. The difficulties by which it is\n surrounded will call forth greater energies from its officers\n and increased diligence from its pupils. Its prosperity I\n consider certain.\n\n \"With great regards, yours very truly,\n\n \"R. E. LEE.\"\n\n\nThere is a glamor attached to this Virginia school unique in the\ncountry. It comes not alone from the bright cadet uniforms, the parade\ngrounds, the gray stone barracks and the _esprit de corps_ evidenced\nthere; part is kept alive by the hundreds of loyal alumni and friends\nwhose devotion is unlimited. This \"West Point of the South\" maintains\nthe traditions of the time of Stonewall Jackson and graduates young\nofficers for the army and young men for every field of business. A\ncurrent Broadway show of popular appeal and a cinema of note is that of\n\"Brother Rat\" which depicts the life at V.M.I.\n\n\n\n\nCulpeper Minute Men\n\n\nWho can resist a story about the Revolutionary War? There is a\nfascination surrounding the heroes and heroines of that era and most of\nus listen attentively to any legend depicting the action of our\nforefathers.\n\nFrom a point along the Skyline Drive one may look toward Culpeper\nCounty. (In fact, in all probability you passed through a part of this\nold county if you took an east to west route to reach the drive.) Among\nother things Culpeper is justly famous for its Minute Men of the\nRevolutionary War.\n\nThe town was formed from Orange in 1748 and was named in honor of Lord\nCulpeper, Governor of Virginia from 1680 to 1683. This land was a part\nof the original land grant to Lord Fairfax. It was here in the old\nCourthouse that young George Washington produced his commission as\nsurveyor. The record reads:\n\n \"20th July, 1749--George Washington Gent. produced a commission\n from the President and Master of William and Mary College,\n appointing him to be surveyor of this county, which was read,\n and thereupon he took the usual oaths to his majesty's person\n and government, and took and subscribed the abjuration oath and\n test, and then took the oath of surveyor, according to law.\"\n\nSpeaking years later in the Senate, John Randolph of Roanoke remarked\nthat the Minute Men \"were raised in a minute, armed in a minute, marched\nin a minute, fought in a minute, and vanquished in a minute.\" These\nsoldiers chose as part of their uniform green hunting shirts with\n\"Liberty or Death\" stamped in large letters across the front. Buck tails\nhung from their old hats and from their belts swung tomahawks and\nscalping knives. Their wild appearance on reaching Williamsburg, the\ncapital of the colony, set the inhabitants in as much fear as did the\nthought of invasion by the enemy! Lieutenant John Marshall who was later\nto become Chief Justice was among the number--as was his father.\n\nThe slogan of the Minute Men \"Liberty or Death\" brought forth humor from\none wag who said the phrasing was too strong for him; he would enlist if\nit were changed to \"Liberty or Be Crippled.\"\n\nAlmost upon their immediate arrival at Williamsburg they were marched to\nNorfolk County and were participants in the Battle of Great Bridge.\n\n\n\n\nBlind Preacher\n\n\nNot so far from Gordonsville there is a simple marker near the site of\n\"Belle Grove,\" a little church made famous by a blind preacher. And back\nof the monument itself is a story well worth repeating. It is a tale\ntold by William Wirt in his _British Spy_.\n\nIn that account Wirt said:\n\n \"It was one Sunday as I travelled through the county of Orange,\n that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a\n ruinous old wooden house in the forest, not far from the\n roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in\n travelling through these States, I had no difficulty in\n understanding that this was a place of religion.\"\n\nHe stated further that he was filled with curiosity as to the type of\nminister who would preach in such a wilderness as he was passing through\nand so he stopped and joined the worshippers. He described the preacher,\na Presbyterian in faith, as having one of the most striking appearances\nhe had ever seen and a most remarkable delivery.\n\n \"I have never seen, in any other orator, such a union of\n simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude, or\n an accent, to which he does not seem forced by the sentiment\n which he is expressing. His mind is too serious, too earnest,\n too solicitous, and, at the same time, too dignified, to stoop\n to artifice. Although as far removed from ostentation as a man\n can be, yet it is clear from the train, the style, and\n substance of his thoughts, that he is not only a very polite\n scholar, but a man of extensive and profound erudition.\"\n\nJames Waddel was the name of this remarkable old man of God. He was born\nin Ireland in 1739 and was brought to America as an infant.\n\nAnother interesting tale was told in the neighborhood. Waddel's fame as\na preacher had spread through the vicinity. On one occasion a committee\nfrom a different faith prepared to wait on him and urge him to occupy\ntheir pulpit as well as his own. Upon nearing his dwelling they were\nshocked to hear sweet plaintive notes coming from a violin and resolved\nto learn who in his household would dare to play the devil's instrument.\nThey crept softly to the window. Such amazement was theirs when they saw\ntheir potential minister himself drawing the bow--and with apparent\nenjoyment and satisfaction. More quickly than they had approached did\nthey leave the yard and felt righteously thankful that they had seen the\ntrue nature of the man before it was too late!\n\nNot only did the Blind Preacher serve as minister, but like others of\nhis profession he conducted a school.\n\nAnd what happened to the old church itself? Long abandoned as a meeting\nhouse for the Presbyterians, about 1850 it was sold and taken down by\nthe \"Sons of Temperance\" and converted into a temperance hall at\nGordonsville. Later it housed a school. Finally it was sold to a colored\npreacher as a church for his flock.\n\n\n\n\nHebron Church\n\n\nOutstanding among the old churches in this part of Virginia is Hebron\nChurch in Madison County.\n\nThe little colony of Germans at Germanna, to whom we have already\nreferred, and a few immigrants from Holland were responsible for its\nearly establishment. First it was known as \"Old Dutch Church.\" Located\non its original site its existence has been in three different counties:\nOrange, Culpeper and now Madison!\n\nHebron is the oldest Lutheran church not only in Virginia but in the\nSouth. About 1733 the nucleus of the congregation met and sent a\nrepresentative to England for a pastor. It seems a bit surprising that\nno English parson felt the call to tend the flock in an outpost of\nVirginia, but it is true that no one was possessed of the missionary\nspirit to that extent.\n\nIn 1735 a Hessian who had come to America eight years before, the Rev.\nCasper Stoever, left his home in Pennsylvania and became the first\npastor. His annual salary, by the way, was four thousand pounds of\ntobacco or just about forty dollars in currency. This was paid by the\ncongregation in addition to the taxes which were required of the\nNon-Conformist churches towards the upkeep of the established English\nchurch.\n\nEveryone in Madison is vastly proud of the old pipe organ at Hebron. It\nwas built in 1800 at Philadelphia and brought to its present place on\nwagon--a journey which took a long time and infinite pains. Jacob and\nMichael Rouse were entrusted with the task of hauling. The organ cost\ntwo hundred pounds sterling. Interesting, too, is the complete old\ncommunion service which dates back to the church's early beginnings.\n\nIn recent years visiting concert organists have played on the fine old\ninstrument at the request of the congregation.\n\n\n\n\nHoover's Camp on the Rapidan River\n\n\nDuring the administration of former President Hoover a fine camp was\nbuilt on the banks of the Rapidan River in Madison County where the\nChief Executive, his family and friends enjoyed the trout fishing and\nrustic life that the camp afforded. A main lodge was erected for the\nPresident. Guest lodges for the Cabinet members and others were located\nnearby. This retreat is within easy driving distance of the White House\nand was in constant use for week-ends during the summer months. From\nWashington the Presidential parties took route 211 to Warrenton and from\nthere two routes were offered: either a continuation of route 211 to\nSperryville, then south to Criglersville on route 16, or from Warrenton\nto Culpeper to Criglersville.\n\nBoth Mr. and Mrs. Hoover became very much interested in the life of the\nmountaineers who grew to be their friendly neighbors. You have heard\nthe story, no doubt, of the small unlettered boy who brought a gift to\nthe President and who aroused in him and Mrs. Hoover the desire to see a\nschool built in the neighborhood which would serve a large mountain\narea. An excellent little frame building nestles among the sloping hills\nwhich attracts the children of all ages within a radius of many miles.\nOne part of the building is used for class instruction and the rest for\nliving quarters for the teacher. This school was made possible largely\nthrough the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover.\n\nOne may see the school and the entrance to the Rapidan Camp by following\nthe road which leads from Big Meadow, a plateau on the Skyline Drive, to\nCriglersville.\n\nThe camp is still in use at times. Cabinet members and other government\nofficials enjoy its stream and mountain beauties, but not to the extent\nof former times.\n\n\n\n\nCharlottesville and Albemarle County\n\nTHE FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA\n\n\nEvery school child knows the outstanding facts about Thomas Jefferson.\nHe will rattle off quickly that he was born near Charlottesville in\nAlbemarle County, in 1743, that he was at William and Mary College when\nonly seventeen and played his fiddle which he had carried as he rode the\nlong miles between Charlottesville and Williamsburg. He graduated there\nand was admitted to the bar. Thomas Jefferson drafted, at the request of\nthe Committee, the Declaration of Independence. He was Governor of\nVirginia during the trying years of the Revolutionary War. We shall not\ngive all the offices which he held, except to mention that he spent some\nyears abroad in France as United States Minister. For almost forty years\nhe served his country, having been President of it from 1801 to 1809.\n\nIt is from the quaint letters of his granddaughter, Ellenora Randolph,\nthat one may read of the tenderness, the lovable disposition and the\nhuman side of this great American.\n\nShe was said to be his favorite grandchild and she writes of how she sat\non his knee and played with his huge watch chain. He never went to\nPhiladelphia without bringing her little luxuries which it was\nimpossible to buy in Virginia. He brought her a Bible, a lady's side\nsaddle, a Leghorn hat, and a set of Shakespeare.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia Conservation Commission_\n\n\"MONTICELLO\", NEAR CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.]\n\nShe tells how Jefferson's wife had died when his daughters were quite\nyoung and that he had been so kind and sympathetic in \"shaping their\nlives.\"\n\nThere is an interesting love story here, too, for Ellenora met and fell\nin love with Joseph Coolidge of Boston. He came a-wooing the Virginia\nbeauty, and according to the custom of that day, he wrote Mr. Jefferson\nof his intentions to marry his granddaughter before he proposed to her.\n\nThe following is Jefferson's reply to Joseph Coolidge:\n\n \"MONTICELLO, _October 24, 1824_.\n\n \"I avail myself of the first moment of my ability to take up a\n pen to assure you that nothing would be more welcome to me than\n the visit proposed and its object.... I assure you no union\n could give me more satisfaction if your wishes are mutual. Your\n visit to Monticello and at the time of your convenience will be\n truly welcome, and your stay, whatever may suit yourself. My\n gratification will be measured by the time of its\n continuance....\n\n \"I expect in the course of the first or the second week of the\n approaching month to receive here the visit of my ancient\n friend, General LaFayette. The delirium which his visit has\n excited in the North envelopes him in the South also ... and\n the county of Albemarle will exhibit its great affection and\n unending means in a dinner given the General in the building of\n the University, to which they have given accepted invitations\n to Mr. and Mrs. James Madison and myself as guests; and at\n which your presence as my guest would give high pleasure to us\n all, and to name, I assure you more cordially than sincerely\n your friend;\n\n (Signed) \"THOMAS JEFFERSON.\"\n\nThe wedding accounts give the names of fifty distinguished Americans who\ncame to pay their respects to Ellenora and her husband. Every\ndistinguished foreigner came in person; besides these, there came many\nof the men who had known and loved Jefferson during all his years of\nservice. Imagine all the horses that had to be fed, all the gigs and\ncoaches and all the Negro servants who had to be quartered. No one is\nsurprised that what the man had accumulated was fast disappearing with\nso much hospitality.\n\nBut Ellenora had her troubles upon arriving in Boston. Her presents and\nother possessions had been sent by boat and it had sunk! Her letter\ntells of her great distress at losing the trinkets associated with her\nhappy girlhood. But most of all, she expressed her grief upon losing a\nwriting desk which Grandfather Jefferson had had made for her by his\nmaster carpenter, a Negro servant. This was a very talented carver who\nhad faithfully carried out each detailed design which his master had\ngiven him. Now he was old and had grown blind and he could no longer\nmake one. This is Jefferson's letter to his granddaughter--and explains\nhow a most historic desk went a-travelling:\n\n \"It has occurred to me that perhaps I can replace it (desk) not\n indeed to you, but to Mr. Coolidge, by a substitute, not\n claiming the same value from its decorations but the part it\n has bourne in our history, and the event with which it has been\n associated.... Now I happen to possess the writing box on which\n the Declaration of Independence was written. It was made from a\n drawing of my own, by Ben Randall, a cabinetmaker in whose\n house I took lodging on my first arrival in Philadelphia, in\n May, 1776, and I have had it ever since. It claims no merit of\n particular beauty. It is plain, neat and convenient and taking\n no more room on a writing table than a modern quarto volume it\n displays itself sufficient for any writing. Mr. Coolidge must\n do me the favor of accepting this. Its imaginary value will\n increase with the years. If he lives till my age, he may see it\n carried in the procession of our nation's birthday.\"\n\nSo this is how the famous desk went to New England and was finally sent\nto the State Department in Washington by the Coolidges in 1876.\n\nWhen Thomas Jefferson was an old man, he began to carry out his dream,\none which he had had for a long time, to build a university. All his\nlife he had loved to draw plans and he carefully made his own\nblueprints. He drew plans for lovely Monticello when he was twenty-eight\nyears old. His friends came from far and near to get him to draw plans\nfor their homes. Ashlawn, Montpelier and others are monuments to this\nmaster builder. He had his own ideas about educating the young men of\nVirginia. He wanted to see them fitted to be fine citizens by having a\ngood education, for he knew it was through good citizens that a good\ngovernment would be realized. But first he had to educate his friends\nalong this line. Many of them still thought a tutor in the family was\nthe best way. Many did not believe in \"mass education.\" For ten long\nyears he worked to get a bill through the Legislature which called for\nthe establishment of the University of Virginia. At last, in 1825 the\nschool was opened. But many years passed before Jefferson could get the\nbuildings he had dreamed of and had planned. Then when he was\neighty-two, his dream came true.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nROTUNDA OF UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA]\n\nToday one may see his university, set on a sloping hill. The buildings\nare models of architecture and Jefferson himself superintended the\nconstruction of them. It is told that he often watched the carpenters\nfrom Monticello through a telescope. Jefferson also planned those early\ncourses of study and helped in the selection of the faculty. The spirit\nof Jefferson is still felt there today and each generation of students\nhas been enriched by it and the noble traditions of the school.\n\nMany famous students have gone there. Edgar Allan Poe wrote \"The Raven\"\nand \"Anabel Lee\" there. An Arctic explorer from the University was\nElisha Kane. Walter Reed studied medicine and, as we know, won the fight\nagainst yellow fever by his heroic experiments. Each year, men go out\nfrom this great old school who help to build a greater country--just as\nJefferson dreamed they would.\n\nAfter his death on July 4, 1826, someone found a paper on which he had\nwritten these words:\n\n \"Here was buried\n Thomas Jefferson\n Author of the Declaration of American Independence\n of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom\n and Father of the University of Virginia.\"\n\nAnd today, one finds his tomb halfway up the hill to Monticello and the\nwords above are cut upon the simple shaft which marks his grave.\n\nMonticello is open to the public and may be reached by a hard surface\nroad leading out of Charlottesville. Through careful research and\ndiligence the Monticello Memorial Association has brought back to the\nhome much of the fine furnishings which Jefferson himself had collected.\nAt the present time the second and third floors of the mansion are being\nfaithfully restored.\n\n JACK JOUETT'S RIDE\n\n \"Here goes to thee, Jack Jouett!\n Lord keep thy memr'y green;\n You made the greatest ride, sir,\n That ever yet was seen.\"\n\nSo reads the last stanza of an inscription on a tablet erected in his\nmemory. But who was Jack Jouett and what of his \"greatest ride?\"\n\nDuring the stirring days of the American Revolution Thomas Jefferson was\nGovernor of Virginia. Hearing that the British were expected to reach\nRichmond he recommended that the capital of the colony be moved to\nCharlottesville until after danger from the enemy should pass. This was\ndone and Jefferson stayed at his home, Monticello.\n\nAt Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, fifty miles from Charlottesville,\nyoung Jouett was sitting around one night getting the latest news of the\nrebellion, when Tarleton, who commanded a British force, came into the\nplace. Jouett hid from sight and overheard Tarleton talking with several\nother English officers. They said they were impatient to be on their way\nto Monticello to capture Jefferson, Patrick Henry and other Virginia\nleaders. Jack stayed to hear the route they would take to\nCharlottesville and then slipped away on his horse.\n\nThe famous ride occurred on back roads in order to beat the British to\ntheir destination. He crossed to the main road long enough to tell a\nfamily of Walkers that the British were coming for the Governor. Later\nTarleton drew in at the same home and demanded breakfast from Mrs.\nWalker. Knowing that time meant a great deal to the rider going ahead\nwith the news, she delayed the meal as long as possible.\n\nAs Jouett climbed the last hill to Monticello he heard the horses of\nTarleton's party in the distance, so he spurred his animal on and in a\nlast-minute sprint he reached the home. The plans were revealed and\nJefferson hurriedly assembled his family. As their carriage left by a\nback road the English came up another and searched in vain for the\nGovernor.\n\nJouett went from there to Charlottesville to warn the members of the\nlegislature of the impending danger and they fled to Staunton--all but\nseven of the legislators who were overtaken and captured. The story is\ntold of how he saved General Stevens, a member of the Assembly. As they\nrode along, some British soldiers saw them and set their horses at a\ngreat pace. Jack had on a plumed hat which might appear important to the\nsoldiers; he told the general to ride slowly across an open field as if\nhe were the owner out on an inspection tour of his lands. He himself\nwould dash off in the hope of getting the troopers to follow him. The\nplan worked. Jouett finally left the pursuers far behind and later on he\nreturned to his home in Charlottesville.\n\nMuch later the Virginia legislature passed a resolution commending the\nvalor of Jack Jouett and presented him with a pair of pistols and a\nsword as a mark of appreciation of his service to the State. Swan\nTavern, left him by his father, occupied his time after the war. He died\nin Kentucky where he had moved as an old man.\n\n\nLEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION\n\nThomas Jefferson knew the two young men whom he wanted to explore the\ngreat Northwest, for they had been born almost at the foot of\nMonticello. They were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Each of them,\nalmost as boys, had been a soldier and each loved adventure.\n\nMeriwether Lewis had inherited a fortune from his father and he could\nhave settled down to a life of ease. But after eighteen he would not go\nto school any longer. He had fought in the Whiskey Rebellion in\nPennsylvania and then entered the army. He was commissioned captain in\n1800 and served for three years. Then Thomas Jefferson asked him to be\nhis secretary and it was in this office that Jefferson found his\nadmirable qualities.\n\nWilliam Clark was four years older than his friend Lewis. He was born in\n1770 and was a brother of George Rogers Clark. When he was fourteen\nyears old he went with his family to the Ohio River where his brother\nGeorge had built a fort. There he learned the ways of the Indians and\noften he was in the thick of their raids. He, too, joined the regular\narmy and received his commission when he was only eighteen years old.\nHe went to St. Louis and was commissioned as second lieutenant of the\nartillery and ordered to join the great expedition.\n\nCaptain Lewis was first in command and he selected his men carefully.\nThere were fourteen soldiers in the little party and two Canadian\nboatmen, an interpreter, a hunter and a Negro servant.\n\nThomas Jefferson did not give them a lot of orders. The following\ninstructions show his wisdom:\n\n \"Treat them (Indians) in the most friendly and concilliating\n manner which their own conduct will admit; allay all jealousies\n as to the object of your journey; satisfy them of its\n innocence; make them acquainted with the position, extent,\n character, peaceable, and commercial intercourse with them;\n confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual\n emporiums and the articles of most desirable interchange for\n them and us. If a few of their influential chiefs, within\n practicable distance wish to visit us, arrange such a visit\n with them, and furnish them with authority to call on our\n officers on their entering the United States, to have them\n conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them\n should wish to have some of their people brought up with us and\n use such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive,\n instruct, and take care of them.\"\n\nThe fact that so little trouble was had by the party is due to the skill\nwhich Clark used in handling the Indians. We will not go into the\ndetails of the expedition, for everyone knows what a wonderful, rich\nterritory was gained for the United States by that expedition.\n\n\n\n\nFredericksburg\n\n\nFredericksburg, fifty-five miles south of Washington and about the same\ndistance north of Richmond, Virginia, on Route 1, rightly claims to be\none of the most historic cities in the United States. Visitors who make\na tour of the Valley of Virginia and the Skyline Drive may want to begin\ntheir trip here, for it serves as a hub for long or short visits to\nneighboring places of interest. From Fredericksburg one may drive to\nCulpeper, Sperryville and Panorama and enter the Skyline Drive at that\npoint, or he may wish to go from Fredericksburg to Warrenton and thence\nto the Skyline Drive. Another excellent route is by way of Orange and\nStanardsville and on to Swift Run Gap, the Southern entrance to the\nDrive at the present time.\n\n[Illustration: \"KENMORE\", THE HOME OF FIELDING LEWIS AND BETTY\nWASHINGTON LEWIS, FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA]\n\nA splendid trip from this old city is to \"Wakefield,\" the birthplace of\nGeorge Washington, in Westmoreland County, and from there to \"Stratford\nHall,\" the ancestral home of the Lee family and the birthplace of\nGeneral Lee, both in Westmoreland County. About two miles from\nFredericksburg on this route is \"Ferry Farm\" where George Washington\nspent a part of his boyhood.\n\nIn the city itself there are shrines to famous folks of an earlier\nperiod. The home of Mary Washington, mother of the first President, is\nopen to the public. \"Kenmore,\" former home of Betty Washington Lewis and\nColonel Fielding Lewis is well cared for by an association. Both these\nhomes have good examples of eighteenth century furnishings. The Rising\nSun Tavern was the scene years ago of the Victory Ball after the\nsurrender at Yorktown; it was host to most of the famous men of Virginia\nand neighboring States for years. In the Masonic Lodge are a number of\nrelics of Washington's time and an original Gilbert Stuart portrait of\nthe General. General Hugh Mercer, a noted physician of the Revolution\nhad his apothecary shop in Fredericksburg and the visitor may see it\nupon request. Mary Washington's will is on record at the courthouse\nhere.\n\nOn Charles Street in Fredericksburg, Virginia, stands a shrine to the\nmemory of James Monroe, who served his country in more public offices\nthan any other American in the history of the United States. This quaint\nstory-and-a-half brick building, which he occupied from 1786 to 1788,\nwas the only private law office in which Monroe practiced his\nprofession. It was built in 1758 and stands in its original state, even\nto the woodwork and mantles of the interior. Only the old brick floor\nand plastering had to be restored. This was accomplished in 1928, when\nthe building was opened to the public as the first shrine to the memory\nof the fifth President. At that time there was placed in it the largest\nnumber of Monroe possessions in existence, handed down for five\ngenerations in straight line to his descendants, who made the shrine\npossible.\n\n[Illustration: JAMES MONROE'S LAW OFFICE]\n\nJames Monroe brought his bride, the former Elizabeth Kortright of New\nYork, to Fredericksburg, and in the little shrine are hallowed\nintimate possessions of hers as well as those of her distinguished\nhusband; a wedding slipper, a dainty French fan; two handsome court\ngowns, one of silver brocaded on white satin, the other of cream colored\ntaffeta, richly embroidered with dahlias in natural colors; her bonnet\nand veil in which she welcomed Lafayette on his return to the States in\n1824; her lorgnette, which must have added to the reputation she had for\ndignity; her Astor piano and her silver service marked \"J. M.\"\n\nOf Monroe's personal possessions there are many. Here too is his court\ndress with its rare old lace, cut-steel buttons and knee breeches, worn\nat Napoleon's court; the quaint huge umbrella presented him by the City\nof Boston on the occasion of Lafayette's return, with its original\ncovering, whale-bone ribs and ivory handle, all contributing to its\nweight of seven and one-half pounds; his mahogany brass-bound dispatch\nbox in which his Louisiana Purchase papers were carried; his\nsilver-mounted duelling pistols, recalling that Monroe came near\nfighting a duel with Alexander Hamilton; and other articles too numerous\nto mention, including interesting historical letters by and to James\nMonroe from the outstanding men of his day.\n\nPerhaps the outstanding exhibit in the Law Office shrine, however, is\nthe desk on which Monroe signed the message to Congress which formed the\nbasis for the famous Monroe Doctrine. Mahogany, high, brass-bound, this\nhandsome desk forms a part of the furniture bought by the Monroes in\nFrance, brought by them to this country in 1798, and now finally shown\nin the little museum dedicated to their memory. The Monroes, being the\nfirst to move into the rebuilt White House after the original one had\nbeen burned by the British in the War of 1812, and being confronted with\nempty rooms, took with them this lovely furniture. Still later, on\nleaving the White House, the beloved possessions again went with them,\nand it is to this fact that the happy privilege of the public to see\nthese things today can be attributed.\n\nMore than a hundred years later, a successor of Mrs. Monroe was to\nexpress her patriotism and interest in historical accuracy through\ncataloguing and making inventories of the furnishings of the White\nHouse. This lady, Mrs. Herbert Hoover, in searching the records, learned\nof the Monroe furniture and of its ultimate resting place in the Monroe\nshrine, and asked permission to copy it at Government expense, the\ncopies to be placed in the White House. Permission was gladly given and\ntoday there is a \"Monroe Room\" in the White House, furnished with the\nreproductions of this historic furniture. The originals, however, remain\nin the little museum in Fredericksburg, relics of active, public years\nspent by a great statesman on two continents.\n\nThe Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was\nestablished in 1927. Quoting from a booklet which may be secured from\nthe park headquarters we find:\n\n \"This park was established ... to commemorate six major battles\n fought during the great sectional conflict between 1861 and\n 1865--the two Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,\n Salem Church, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House--and to\n preserve for historical purposes the remains of earthworks,\n roads, and other sites of importance on these battlefields....\"\n\nAt the Battle of Chancellorsville General Stonewall Jackson, famous\nConfederate commander, was mortally wounded. A simple shaft marks the\nplace and a wild flower preserve is located near it.\n\n \"While the fundamental purpose of the park is historical\n education, its program is by no means confined to this\n limitation. It offers important recreational and educational\n features aside from critical military history. The Jackson\n Memorial Wild Flower Preserve ... affords excellent instruction\n in botany.... The deep woodlands of the area threaded with foot\n trails leading along the old trenches are a delight to lovers\n of the outdoors....\"\n\n\n\n\nKenmore--1752\n\n\nKenmore, the home of Fielding Lewis and Betty Washington Lewis (George\nWashington's only sister), is an outstanding example of the architecture\nof Colonial Virginia. It is also intimately connected with the stirring\nhistory of Colonial times and with the life of George Washington.\n\nAugustine Washington, about 1739, moved from Hunting Creek to Ferry\nFarm, across the river from Fredericksburg, with his second wife, Mary\nBall, and their five children--George, Betty, Samuel, John Augustine,\nand Charles--for the sake of community life and the religious and\neducational advantages it offered. Here the children grew up and\nreceived their education--Betty at a \"Dame School,\" George under the\ntutelage of Parson Marye. Betty and George were especially intimate\ncompanions because of their nearness of age and their similarity in\npersonality and character.\n\nWhen Betty was sixteen, and a \"mannerly young maid,\" her cousin Fielding\nLewis came seeking her hand in marriage. Lewis had come up from\nGloucester three years previously with his wife and son. Mrs. Lewis died\nin 1749. Shortly thereafter, Fielding started courting young Betty. They\nwere married in 1750, the bride being given away by her brother George,\nand for a time they lived on a plantation adjoining Ferry Farm. In 1752\nLewis bought 861 acres of land, adjacent to Fredericksburg, the survey\nbeing made by George Washington, who had been appointed government\nsurveyor in 1748. On this land, with its fine view of the countryside,\nLewis built Kenmore (called Millbrook at the time) in accordance with a\npromise he had made to his bride.\n\nAs time went on, Fielding Lewis became closely associated with the\npolitical life of Virginia. He was a member of the House of Burgesses\nfor many years. He also served in the French and Indian War and was\nColonel of the Spotsylvania County Militia. It is said that the\nresolution endorsing Patrick Henry in his resistance to the tyranny of\nGovernor Dunmore, passed by the Committee of 600 in the Rising Sun\nTavern in Fredericksburg, was written by him in the Great Room of his\nhome, Kenmore, a paper which for all intents and purposes was a\ndeclaration of independence.\n\nColonel Lewis was best known for the part he played in the War of\nIndependence. In 1776 he became Chairman of the Virginia Committee of\nSafety. Previously, in 1775, the Virginia Assembly had passed an\nordinance providing for a \"Manufactory of Small Arms in Fredericksburg,\nVirginia.\" Five commissioners were appointed to undertake this project,\nbut Colonel Lewis and Charles Dick were the only two who took an active\npart in the work. They were allotted L2,500 with which to secure land,\nbuildings and equipment. Soon thereafter they were at work\nmanufacturing arms. The first L2,500 were quickly spent, and Lewis and\nDick were obliged to draw from their own funds to carry on. Lewis\nadvanced an additional L7,000 and borrowed L30,000 to L40,000 more.\nLewis also built a ship for the Virginia Navy, _The Dragon_, and\nequipped three regiments. Kenmore was heavily mortgaged to meet the\ncosts of all these patriotic enterprises. When Lewis died in 1781,\nlittle of the estate was left.\n\nThereafter, Betty Lewis tried conducting a small boarding school at\nKenmore, but again money had to be raised and piece after piece of the\nland was sold to obtain it. Finally, in 1796, the mansion and its\ncontents were sold and Betty Lewis went to live with her daughter. She\ndied the next year.\n\nAfter many vicissitudes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,\nKenmore was saved for posterity, in 1922, through the great enthusiasm\nand hard work of a group of women who later formed the Kenmore\nAssociation. Through the efforts of this association, the exterior and\nthe interiors of Kenmore were expertly restored to their original\ncharming appearance and it has been furnished with original pieces of\nthe period, many of which have an actual connection with the family.\n\nWho the architect of Kenmore was, is unknown. It is very probable that\nFielding Lewis himself had much to do with the planning of it, making\nuse of books on English architecture. The mansion is typical of the\nformal architecture of Tidewater Virginia in the mid-eighteenth century.\nFlanked on each side by smaller service buildings, both of which are\nidentical in size and appearance, the group is symmetrical around the\ncentral entrance. The exteriors present a picture of fine restraint and\ndignity. Four uniformly placed chimneys in the end walls serve eight\nfireplaces. The windows are well proportioned in relation to the main\nwalls. The walls, of brick laid in Flemish bond, or brickwork pattern,\nare two feet thick--unusually heavy construction for a house of even\nthis size.\n\nThe principal rooms, of stately proportions, are remarkable for their\ndesign and ornament. The richly modelled ceilings, cornices, and\novermantels are outstanding examples of ornamental plater-work--quite\nunsurpassed by anything of its kind in America. It has always been said\nand never contradicted that these ornamental features were planned by\nGeorge Washington himself.\n\nTo the right, as one enters the Reception Hall, tinted in pastel\nblue-gray, is the well designed main stairway, a noteworthy feature of\nwhich is the delicately carved lotus leaf ornament. In back is the\nprized grandfather clock which originally belonged to Mary Washington.\n\nPassing through the arched doorway at the rear of the Hall, one enters\nthe Great Room. For the magnificent ceiling of this room, Colonel Lewis\nemployed the same French decorator whom Washington had employed for the\nornamental ceilings at Mount Vernon. The design motif includes four\nhorns of plenty. Tradition has it that the overmantel in the Great Room\nwas done at a later time than the other decorations by two Hessian\nsoldiers captured at the Battle of Trenton. The design, an adaptation of\nAEsop's fable of the fox, the crow, and the piece of cheese, is supposed\nto have been suggested by George Washington at the request of his\nsister; this particular fable being chosen to teach his nephews to\nbeware of flattery. The rich red of the brocade draperies contrasts with\nthe light green of the walls and the white of the ceiling and mantel. A\ncrystal chandelier of old Waterford glass forms a sparkling accent in\nthe middle of the room. The floor is covered almost entirely with an\nearly eighteenth century Oushak rug. The furniture in this room as well\nas elsewhere generally is American of Chippendale design. Of particular\nnote are two portraits of Fielding, and two of Betty Lewis--all four by\nWollaston.\n\nThe ceiling of the Library has the four seasons for its decorative motif\nand the overmantel is a design of fruits and flowers. The walls, like\nthose of the Great Room, are tinted a soft green.\n\n\"The Swan and Crown\" of the Washington crest is carved in the woodwork\nunder the mantel in the Dining Room. The walls are a deep blue-green,\nthe woodwork a lighter matching shade. Draperies are a soft green\nbrocade. The service building on the Dining Room side of the House\ncontains the kitchen.\n\nOn the second floor are the master bedrooms and guest room where General\nLafayette and many another distinguished visitor stayed. These\neighteenth century rooms, so well treated and furnished, serve as\ntimeless models of good taste in bedrooms.\n\nNext to Mount Vernon, George Washington was most interested in Kenmore.\nHe had taken a keen interest from the beginning in the building of the\nHouse and the landscaping of the grounds. After the War he set out\nthirteen chestnut trees near the House, one for each of the original\nthirteen States. One of these still lives. Mary Washington, mother of\nGeorge and Betty, lived in the cottage on the estate, not far from the\nMain House; a home her son had provided for her at the beginning of the\nWar.\n\nThe restoration of the grounds was undertaken by the Garden Club of\nVirginia in 1929 with funds obtained from the public participation in\nthe first \"Virginia Garden Week.\" One feature of this work is the brick\nwall around the premises, built in 1930. The sunken turf driveway is the\noriginal driveway that used to surround a grassy circle. Handsome box\nbushes, ancient and familiar features of Virginia estates, flank the\napproaches to the House now as of old. The gardens, too, contain flowers\nthat Betty Washington must have enjoyed--bushes of lilac, mock orange,\nand bridal wreath and beds of pansies, sweet william, phlox, verbena and\nlilies of the valley.\n\nKenmore, a background of those lives who helped so importantly to mould\nthe destinies of our nation, vividly portrays the art and the culture of\nits time.\n\n\n\n\nThe Mary Washington House\n\n\nThere stands on the corner of Charles and Lewis Streets in\nFredericksburg, Virginia, an unpretentious but charming little house.\nThere is no spot in America more sacred. It was the home of Mary Ball\nWashington, wife of Augustine Washington, and the mother of George\nWashington.\n\nIt is recorded that on Dec. 8, 1761 lots 107 and 108 upon which the Mary\nWashington House stands were sold by Fielding Lewis and Betty, his wife,\nwith all houses, trees, woods, under-woods, profits commodities,\nhereditaments and appurtenances whatsoever, to Michael Robinson for\nL250 and bought by George Washington Sept. 18, 1772 for L275.\n\nAfter remodeling and adding to the house, George Washington moved his\nmother from the Ferry Farm, which had been her home since 1739, to\nFredericksburg and it was here that she spent her last days.\n\n[Illustration: \"THE MARY WASHINGTON HOUSE\", FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA]\n\nIt was here that she received the courier sent by General Washington to\ntell her of the victory at Trenton. It was here that Washington came\nafter the Battle of Yorktown with the French and American officers and\nshe received him with thanksgiving after an absence of nearly seven\nyears. It was here he came in December, 1783, when Fredericksburg gave\nthe Peace Ball in his honor, and it was at that time that he made his\nmemorable reply to Mayor McWilliams in which he spoke of Fredericksburg\nas \"the place of my growing infancy.\"\n\nIt was here that the Marquis de LaFayette came to pay his respects to\nher, who was the mother of the greatest American. She received him in\nher garden, met all his fine phrases with dignity and gave him her\nblessing when he bade her goodbye.\n\nIt was here, March 12, 1789, that Washington came to receive his\nmother's blessing before he went on to New York to his inauguration.\nThis was his last farewell to his mother. She did not not live to see\nhim again. It was here she died Aug. 25, 1789. Town and country\nassembled to do honor at her burial. Her remains lie near the\n\"Meditation Rock\" where she requested to be buried and a stately\nmonument \"erected by her country-women\" marks her last resting place.\n\nExcept for a portion of the house at Epping Forest, where she was born,\nthe Mary Washington House in Fredericksburg is the only house now\nstanding in which Mary Washington lived.\n\nIt passed into various hands and finally in 1890 it was about to be sold\nto the Chicago Exposition but through Mrs. Robert C. Beale and Mrs.\nSpotswood W. Carmichael, the Association for the Preservation of\nVirginia Antiquities was appealed to. Mrs. Joseph Bryan of blessed\nmemory was at that time President and from her own means advanced the\nmoney to purchase it, $4,500, and the place was saved.\n\nIn 1929, through the generosity of Mr. George A. Ball of Muncie, Ind.,\nthe first work of restoration on the house was done. Mr. Ball also\npurchased for the A. P. V. A. the adjoining house and garden for a home\nfor the custodian.\n\nIn 1930 the house was redecorated and refurnished by Mr. and Mrs.\nFrancis P. Garvan. The original colors have been restored and\ncontemporary fabrics used for all draperies and coverings.\n\nThe furnishings, with the exception of a few pieces that belonged to\nMary Washington, are authentic antiques loaned from the Mabel Brady\nGarvan Institute of American Arts and Crafts at Yale University. The\noriginal mantels and paneling are interesting.\n\nThe old English-type garden is especially beautiful. The boxwood she\nplanted still grows there, as well as the flowers of her time. The\noriginal sun-dial still marks the sunny hours.\n\n\n\n\nRising Sun Tavern\n\n\nWas built about 1760 by Charles Washington, a brother of George\nWashington. It was first known as the Washington Tavern and later as the\nEagle Tavern. The following advertisement appeared in the _Virginia\nGazette_, published in Williamsburg in 1776:\n\n \"FALMOUTH, _March 25, 1776_.\n\n \"William Smith takes this method to acquaint his friends, and\n the publick in general, that he intends to open tavern, on\n Monday the 22nd day of April next, in the house lately occupied\n by Colonel George Weedon, in the town of Fredericksburg. He has\n laid in a good stock of liquors, and will use his utmost\n endeavors to give general satisfaction. N.B. 'A good cook wench\n wanted, on hire'.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"RISING SUN TAVERN\", FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA]\n\nIt was the favorite meeting place of such patriots as Thomas Jefferson,\nPatrick Henry, James Monroe, George Washington, General Hugh Mercer,\nGeorge Mason, John Marshall, the Lees, and other noted men, who gathered\nhere to protest against unjust treatment by the mother country and to\ndiscuss the proper steps to rid the country of tyranny. It was said to\nbe a hot-bed of sedition and that here much of the head work of the\nRevolution was done.\n\nWhen the news came to Fredericksburg that the governor, Lord Dunmore,\nhad secretly removed twenty barrels of gunpowder from the public\nmagazine in Williamsburg, also the news of the battle of Lexington,\nthere was great excitement and indignation. Immediately six hundred\narmed men from the town and surrounding country, at the call of Patrick\nHenry, assembled in Fredericksburg and offered their services to defend\ntheir country. More than one hundred men were dispatched to Richmond and\nWilliamsburg to ascertain the condition of affairs. They were advised\nthere by Washington, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton and other leaders\nto disband and delay action at least for a while or until general plans\nof resistance could be decided upon. Returning to Fredericksburg they\ncalled a meeting and reluctantly agreed to disperse, but before doing so\nadopted resolutions bitterly denouncing Dunmore's action, and without\nfear or evasion declared that the troops would preserve their liberty at\nthe hazard of their lives and fortune. They pledged themselves to\nre-assemble at a moment's warning and by force of arms defend the laws\nand rights of this or any other sister colony from unjust invasion, and\nconcluded with the significant words, \"God save the liberties of\nAmerica.\"\n\nThis was on April 29, 1775, twenty-one days prior to the celebrated\nMecklenburg declaration and more than one year before the great\nDeclaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.\n\nIt has always been said that this meeting was held at the Rising Sun\nTavern. (Reference: Quinn's _History of Fredericksburg_, Howison's\n_History of Virginia_, Forces' _Archives_, quoted in _William and Mary\nQuarterly_ in October, 1909.)\n\nBut in addition to giving their attention to the serious questions of\nthe day, could we but raise the curtain of Time we no doubt would\nwitness a gay scene typical of colonial days with courtly gentlemen in\npowdered wigs, knee breeches, ruffled blouses, and silver-buckled\nslippers, or perhaps in the rougher garb of the pioneer traveler playing\ncards and partaking of the various drinks served by a venerable old\nslave and his young negro assistants. It is recorded that George\nWashington played cards here and \"lost as usual,\" and that he was afraid\nthose Fredericksburg fellows were \"too smart for him.\"\n\nHere General Weedon kept the post office. This was a distributing point\nfor mails coming in from the far north and south on horse-back or\nstage-coach. Picture the eager crowd awaiting the arrival of the slow\ncourier.\n\nLaFayette and his staff of French and American officers visited the\nRising Sun Tavern Nov. 11, 1781, en route from Yorktown to\nPhiladelphia. In December, 1824, LaFayette again visited Fredericksburg,\nand was given a ball at the Rising Sun Tavern.\n\nIn 1907 the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities\nbought the property from Judge A. W. Wallace, whose family had owned it\nsince 1792. It was in a very bad state of dilapidation, and only the\nloving interest and hard work of a few patriotic ladies made possible\nthe necessary repairs and saved to posterity this historic old building\nwith its wealth of associations with the people and events which shaped\nour nation.\n\nThe Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities has\nrecently completed extensive repairs and the visitor will find it one of\nthe most interesting places in the city to visit. It is attractively\nfurnished with antique pieces of the Colonial period, many having great\nhistoric value.\n\nOne may see a desk owned and used by Thomas Jefferson, a chair which\nbelonged to James Monroe, a rare copy of an autographed letter from Mary\nWashington to her son George Washington, brass andirons, pewter-hooded\ncandles, Betty lamp, immense iron key for a wine cellar, brass\ncandle-sticks, iron candle snuffers, pewter ink-well, antique piano,\nhigh boy, needle-point sampler worked by a nine-year-old child, spinning\nwheel and reel, stage coach sign dated 1775, large early American desk,\nold iron cooking utensils used by slaves cooking by an open fireplace,\nand many other interesting things.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nRoanoke\n\nTHE GATEWAY TO THE GREAT SOUTHWESTERN EMPIRE\n\n\nRaw-re-noke is an Indian word for money. The city of Roanoke was\noriginally a land grant to Thomas Tosh, an old settler who came to \"Big\nLick\" and settled there after King George II and King George III had\ngranted him sixteen hundred acres of land along that fertile valley.\n\"Big Lick\" was a favorite spot for the wild game and for the Indians\ntoo, for there they found the salt so necessary to life itself. One of\nTosh's daughters married General Andrew Lewis and became the mother of\nMajor Andrew Lewis and Thomas Lewis.\n\nLater on, as more settlers came into the valley, quite a village grew up\naround \"Big Lick\" and in 1874 it was incorporated with John Trout as\nMayor. Then in 1881 the village woke up. Saws and hammers were heard\nfrom dawn 'til dusk. The Roanoke Machine Works were being built. Nearby,\nstores and houses were springing up, warehouses and boarding-houses.\nSurveyors were laying off lots and laying out streets. Contractors and\nengineers, artisans and mechanics were coming in every day. The men who\nsold supplies for all of these were indeed busy. The Norfolk and Western\nRailroad had come to Roanoke!\n\nOld folks can still remember when rabbits ran over the grounds where\nstands the Hotel Roanoke. Small boys picked up Indian arrow-heads where\nnow the beautiful grounds sweep down to the Station itself. They still\ntell how Salem Avenue was once a marsh and was later filled in for the\nfast growing town. Then came the union of the Norfolk and Western and\nthe Shenandoah Valley Railroads. From that day to this, Roanoke has been\nthe \"Magic City.\" It was as if some magic wand had been waved over the\none-time little village. But actually it was due to the industry and\nvision of the city planners who had built for the future. Commercial,\nmanufacturing and industrial activities kept a pace ahead of the fast\ngrowing town. Among the first of these were the American Bridge Works\nand the rolling mills, iron works, West End Furnaces and the Virginia\nBrewing Company.\n\nLong ago \"Big Lick\" was known to a few. It was situated in the Blue\nRidge Mountains, surrounded by rolling valleys and watered by springs of\ncrystal clear waters. Other streams made it an ideal place for the\nherds of buffalo and elk which roamed up and down the Valley of the\nGreat Spirit. Indians came, too, to hunt them and thousands of smaller\nfur-bearing animals and birds for their feasts.\n\nWhen the sturdy settlers from Ireland and Scotland came to seek a new\nhome in the wilderness, they chose to follow the Great Road which later\nwas known as the Wilderness Road. This led them along the beautiful\nvalleys and across the mountains; soon tiny cabins, churches and crude\ntaverns were being built.\n\nNear where Fincastle stands today, there came a man years ago from\nIreland, Thomas King. He had left behind his second wife, Easter, three\nchildren by his first wife, and several younger ones by Easter. He had\ncome to make a home for them in Fincastle County and ran a tavern near\nwhere Roanoke stands today.\n\nThen Easter wrote him that his oldest son, William, had arrived in\nPhiladelphia and was working for a merchant. He was peddling merchandise\nand liked the new country.\n\nThomas was delighted and eager to see his fourteen-year-old son. He\nsaddled his own horse and led a pony all the miles down the long Valley\ntrail. He passed such settlements as Staunton, Lexington, Winchester,\nHagerstown, camping out or, stopping at some settler's house over-night.\nIt took weeks for him to make the long trip.\n\nThe merchant in the meantime realized he had a smart salesman in William\nand he made a bargain with him a few days before his father arrived. He\nasked him not to work for anyone else and set a time limit for his\nemployment with him.\n\nWe can imagine how William felt when his father came, bringing a pony\nfor him to ride back to Virginia. But he kept his word. He continued to\ngo out with his peddler's pack on his back and his bright smile and\npolite manners helped him to sell his wares long before others sold\ntheirs. The merchant told him he could go peddling to Virginia and that\nhe could leave some of his articles in his father's tavern. William did\nthis, leaving them at other taverns along the Great Road, too. And thus\nbegan the early chain stores.\n\nWhen the pioneers began going on farther down the Southwestern part of\nVirginia, Thomas King went as far as where Abingdon stands today. He\nsent William back to Ireland for his step-mother and his brothers and\nsisters. William now had a little money and he inherited some from his\ngrandmother, so he not only brought his family over, but he paid for\nseveral other Scotch-Irish and charged a little extra as interest until\nthey could repay him.\n\nHe liked the people and the lovely country around Abingdon and bought\nland and built himself a home there. He went to see the salt marsh a few\nmiles away where Saltville is now. This land was owned by General\nRussell. William urged him to develop the marsh, for at one time Indians\nhad come there to get salt to preserve their game. But General Russell\ndid not think much of the plan, and agreed to sell it to William.\n\nThe story of how he laughed, along with others, at William King when he\ndug and dug and did not find the salt spring is often told. But when\nWilliam's men had dug for one hundred and ninety feet the \"bottom\ndropped out\" and the salt water gushed forth. William made thirty\nthousand dollars a year out of his salt business and left a fortune to\nhis many nieces and nephews.\n\nRoanoke is the gateway through which the visitor continues down the\nfamous Valley Pike, Route Eleven. From every curve in the road one sees\nthe beauty of nature. One learns bits of early history from the numerous\nhistoric signs along the route--for every footstep of the brave pioneers\nwas bitterly contested from here on.\n\nThese first settlers were \"a remarkable race of people for intelligence,\nenterprise and hardy adventure.\" They had come partly from Botetourt,\nAugusta and Frederick counties and from Maryland and Pennsylvania. They\nwanted liberty and freedom to worship God as a man's conscience\ndictated. They were a strong, stern people, simple in their habits of\nlife, God-fearing in their practices, freedom-loving and good neighbors,\nyet unmerciful in their dealing with their enemies. Who were the trail\nblazers for these Scotch-Irish and Germans?\n\nDr. Thomas Walker qualified as a surveyor of Augusta County in 1748. He\nlater set off with Colonel James Wood, Colonel James Patton, Colonel\nJohn Buchanan, and Major Charles Campbell, some hunters and John Finlay\nto explore southwest Virginia.\n\nThey were followed as far as New River by Thomas Ingles (or Engles) and\nhis three sons, a Mrs. Draper and her son George and her daughter Mary,\nAdam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke. They were pioneers in search\nof new homes in the wilderness. Lands were surveyed for all of them on\nWood's River and they made the first settlement west of the Alleghany\nDivide.\n\n\n\n\nDraper's Meadow\n\n\nIn 1748 Thomas Ingles and his three sons, Mrs. Draper, her children and\nJames Burke moved westward to find a new home for themselves beyond the\nBlue Ridge Mountains. They chose a lovely spot on a high level plateau\nin what is now Montgomery County. They called their new home, \"Draper's\nMeadow,\" and soon their new log cabins were built and their first crops\nwere planted and such a harvest as they reaped that first year! Other\nneighbors and relatives from their old homes came to join them and for\nsome time all went well in the little settlement. James Burke had been\nrestless and had pushed on down into the southwest and settled in a\nvalley enclosed for almost ten miles by the huge Clinch Mountain. This\nhe called \"Burke's Garden\" and in telling others about it the old\nsettler said \"I have indeed found the Garden of Eden.\"\n\nThe Indians were very friendly and passed and repassed the settlement\nwithout molesting them.\n\nThen came the trouble with the French which has been referred to before.\nThe Indians swooped down upon Draper's Meadow without warning and killed\nor wounded most of the settlers. Those whom they did not murder, they\ncarried off into captivity. Among the latter were Mrs. William Ingles\n(nee Mary Draper) some of her children and another woman. They were\nforced to march for days at a time until they finally reached the Indian\ntowns on the Ohio River. During the trying days, Mrs. Draper did her\nbest to keep in the good graces of the Indians. She tried to help them,\neven after they took her sons from her. When they reached Big Bone Lick\nshe helped to make salt for the Indians and made shirts for them from\ncloth which had been bought from the French traders.\n\nShe often thought of her home over seven hundred miles from the Indian\ntowns and determined to make her escape. She confided her resolves to\nthe other woman who at first objected to going. At last she convinced\nher the time was at hand, if ever, for them to leave. She left her\ninfant son one night, and with her friend, stole away from the camp.\nThey lived for days on berries and nuts. They finally killed small game\nand after many adventures reached the home of a settler forty long days\nlater.\n\nMrs. Draper's friend lost her mind, tried to kill her and then left her.\nMrs. Draper reached the homestead of Adam Harmon on New River. There he\nheard her crying in his cornfield and went out to see who it was in such\ndistress. He and his family cared for her and made her rest before she\nwas taken back to her family.\n\nThe Ingles families moved up higher on New River and built another fort\nnear the present city of Radford, Virginia. This was at Ingle's Ferry.\n\nBotetourt County was cut from Albemarle in 1770, and William Preston was\nmade surveyor of the lands. This was a well-paying position. He had\nfallen in love with Miss Susannah Smith who lived in Eastern Virginia in\nHanover County. He built a house for her and called it Smithfield in her\nhonor. Soon the Pattons, Peytons, Prestons, the Thompsons and many\nothers were coming to build homes near them.\n\nWhen the Prestons moved to Smithfield they took a young orphan boy with\nthem, Joseph Cloyd. His father had died when he was very little and his\nmother had been killed by the Indians. He grew up with the other pioneer\nboys and girls and later settled on Back Creek. This home is near where\nPulaski stands today and thus began another settlement. He was the\nfather of General Gordon Cloyd and they founded a long line of honorable\ncitizens in our country.\n\nAs one goes on he hears many strange tales of other explorers and\nsettlers. For instance there is the sad story of Colonel John Chiswell\nwho found rich lead mines near New River in what is now Wythe County.\nFor some unknown reason, he had killed a man in a personal encounter and\nwas put in jail to await trial.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_\n\nSCENIC HIGHWAY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA]\n\nIn the meantime, the Virginia Council decided to develop the mines and a\nfort was ordered to be built. Before the trial came off and before the\nfort was built, Colonel Chiswell died.\n\nColonel William Boyd was made supervisor of the building of the fort and\nhe named it for his friend, Colonel Chiswell. Soon settlers began\nbuilding homes around it, for the climate and rich grazing lands made it\nan ideal spot for homesteads.\n\nThe settlers pushing southwest from Roanoke built a fort and named it\nfor a Mr. Vass. The Indians attacked them and several were killed. This\nwas near where Christiansburg is now located. It was near Vass's Fort\nthat General Washington, Major Andrew Lewis and Captain William Preston\nhad a narrow escape from an attack by the Indians.\n\n\n\n\nWashington County\n\n\nIn 1754 only six families were living in the early settlement west of\nNew River. Two of these were in Pulaski, two on Cripple Creek in Wythe\nCounty, one in Smyth County and the Burke family in what is now Tazewell\nCounty. The Indians gave the settlers so much trouble that any further\nattempts to settle was given up until after the French and Indian War.\n\nA small fort, called Black's Fort, was built when the settlers moved\ninto the Valley around where Abingdon stands. Like most of its kind, it\nwas built of logs, and a few log cabins were built within the stockade.\nHere to these cabins within the fort came the settlers whenever the\nwarning reached them that the Indians were coming.\n\nNear the fort lived Parson Cummings, called the Fighting Parson. He was\nan Irishman who had come to the Valley from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He\nfought against the Cherokee Indians in 1776 with Colonel Christian. He\nfirst settled in Fincastle, but soon drifted farther south. It was he\nwho drafted the Fincastle Resolutions on January 20, 1775 and served on\nthe Committee of Safety for Washington County.\n\nOn one occasion, when the settlers were residing within the fort, food\nbecame very scarce. Someone had to go back into the clearing and bring\nin supplies. Parson Cummings and a few other men started off with a\nwagon to get them. They had not gone far when they reached Piper's Hill.\nA party of Indians surprised the little band and one of them was killed.\nEveryone made a dash for the bushes. The Parson was very stout and he\nwas wearing a large powdered wig which was considered in those days\nnecessary to the cloth. This made him more conspicuous and of course a\ntarget for the Indians.\n\nOne Indian ran after him, brandishing his tomahawk. The Parson dodged\nunder a bush and as he left it, his wig was caught by a low hanging\nlimb. The Indian took for granted that it was the Parson's head and made\na bound to get it. When he took it in his hands, he was surprised to\nfind no head there! He was disgusted and angry and threw it upon the\nground exclaiming, \"D--d lie,\" and doggedly gave up the chase. And thus\nthe Parson escaped. The man who was killed was later buried in Abingdon\nand one may read his name, \"William Creswell, July 4, 1776\" on the crude\nstone which marks his grave.\n\nDragon Canone was the name of the Cherokee Indian who led his warriors\nagainst the white militia. Both white and red men fought with tomahawks\nand both hid behind trees. Sometimes this brave militia went forth to\nbattle without any higher commanding officer than captain. Three such\nofficers were John Campbell, James Shelby and James Thompson.\n\nLet us look for a moment at what those settlers were denied. They did\nnot have flour or salt until an order was made:\n\n \"Jan. 29, 1777. Ordered that William Campbell, William\n Edmundson, John Anderson and George Blackburn be appointed\n commissioners to hire wagons to bring up the county salt,\n allotted by the Governor and council, and to receive and\n distribute the same agreeably to said order of the council.\"\n\nLater on Colonel Arthur Campbell rode with seven hundred mounted\nsoldiers against the Cherokees. History gives him the credit of being\nthe first to experiment in attacking Indians on horseback. He destroyed\nfourteen of their towns and burnt fifty thousand bushels of their corn\nafter giving his men enough for their own horses.\n\n\n\n\nHungry Mother State Park\n\n\nThe pathetic legend is told of the pioneer woman in Tazewell County who\nwas carried off by the Indians and was massacred some distance from\nhome. Her small child was left to die of exposure and starvation in the\nmountain wilds and was at last rescued by a hunting party. The child was\npulling at the mother's body, trying to rouse her and was muttering,\n\"Hungry, mother--hungry, mother\" when he was found.\n\nThat is the origin of the name of the mountain which is not far from\nMarion, and the peak of the mountain is called \"Molly's Knob\" in memory\nof the pioneer mother.\n\nThe State has created a beautiful park on Hungry Mother Mountain. Cabins\nhave been erected to house the visitors, a stream has been dammed up to\nprovide a lake--and most astonishing of all to the mountain folk who\nenjoy their park is the sandy beach. The sand was hauled 375 miles from\nVirginia Beach to its present location.\n\nSwimming, sailing and canoeing are popular water sports; saddle horses\nare available and hiking is a favorite occupation. Ample picnic grounds\nhave been provided. Crowds from nearby towns enjoy a day at the Park and\nthe cabins are in great demand from the vacationists in Virginia and\nsurrounding States.\n\n\n\n\nWhite Top\n\n\nIron Mountain has lost that name and today is known far and near as\nWhite Top. The visitor looks down five thousand feet below and can see\ninto Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. The top is\nbald, rocky and about three hundred of its sloping acres are covered\nwith a fine white grass. In summer one sees hundreds of wild flowers,\nsturdy evergreens, similar to Norway spruce, called Lashhorns, berries\nand many small animals.\n\n[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia Conservation Commission_\n\nHUNGRY MOTHER STATE PARK]\n\nWilbur Waters, the hermit, is one of the most colorful characters in the\ngreat Southwest and many adventures he had with wild animals. Wilbur's\nmother was an Indian who died when he was very small. His father, who\nlived in North Carolina at the time, apprenticed the boy to a shoemaker\nto learn that trade. The little boy, no doubt homesick, could not stand\nhis new home. He ran away and from that time on made his own living.\nWhen he heard how the wolves were making havoc for the settlers in and\naround Abingdon, he came to get the rewards offered for their heads. He\nbuilt himself a rude shack on White Top, and if one would read real\nadventure tales, let him read _Wilbur Waters_ which relates many\nstirring ones.\n\nEvery summer during August a festival is held at White Top where\nmountain music is played and folk dances are held. John Powell, the\nnoted Virginia composer, is especially active in the preservation of\nfolk music and he has been instrumental in attracting people of\ninfluence to the celebration.\n\nThe major highways lead to within a comparatively short distance of\nWhite Top and the State Highway Department assures the traveler of good\nsecondary roads which are passable in any kind of weather.\n\nAnother feature of the festival usually is the presentation of at least\none play by the group of Broadway players who summer at Abingdon and\nconduct the famous \"Barter Theatre.\"\n\nVisitors who include White Top and the Barter players in their itinerary\nwill be delighted with the diversified entertainments found there.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note.\n\n\nThe following typographical errors have been corrected:\n\n p. 2 a brace of deer ran familiarly [had 'familarly']\n p. 24 the Reverend Samuel Brown [had 'Reverened']\n p. 31 the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany [had 'Alleghaney']\n p. 47 been made into a poultice [had 'poultrice']\n p. 49 wagon makers? Of course there were none [had 'Af']\n p. 60 Luray is the Saltpetre Cave. [had 'Saltpeper']\n p. 61 no one anticipated the conspicuous role [had 'conspicious']\n p. 80 point: Rockfish and Shenandoah valleys. [Closing . added]\n p. 83 Bridge, and some are still in existence [had 'existance']\n p. 103 the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom [had 'Statue']\n p. 106 Captain Lewis was first in command and he [had 'commond']\n p. 108 of the Revolution had his apothecary shop [had 'Reevolution']\n p. 112 Colonel of the Spotsylvania County Militia [had 'Spottsylvania']\n\nInconsistent hyphenation of some words in the original has been\nretained.","title":"Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":45864}