History of Alleghany County, Virginia

Alleghany County, Virginia
A Proud Member of the Genealogy Trails Group

A Centennial History of Alleghany County, Virginia
By Oren F. Morton, B., Lit.
Dayton, Virginia, J. K. Reubush Company 1923
Transcribed by Nancy Piper for Genealogy Trails

Contents

I. The Geography of Alleghany … 1-4
II. In the Day of the Pathfinder …. 5-8
III. Early Land Patents ….. 9-18
IV. Life in the Pioneer Days ….. 19-29
V. Twenty Years of Indian Trouble …. 30
VI. Before 1822 ………38
VII. From 1822 to 1861 ……… 43
VIII. Alleghany in the War of 1861 …….49
IX. Highways and Railways ………..57
X. Churches, Schools and Journalism …….64
XI. The Industries of Alleghany ……69
XII. The County Seat ………73
XIII. Clifton Forge …………81
XIV. Alleghany as Seen in a Tour ….85
XV. Ann Royall and Ann Bailey …..97
XVI. Alleghany in the World War …..105
XVII. The Present and the Future ……120
XVIII. The Families of Alleghany ……….125
XIX. Legislators and County Officials …..148
XX. Soldiers of 1861 and Earlier Wars …..155
XXI. Soldiers of the World War ………..173

Appendix
Paragraphs from the West ……………193
Addenda ………….222
Suggestive Questions …………..228
Index …………..230

Foreword

This volume is based upon the documentary records of Alleghany, and its parent counties, Augusta, Botetourt, Bath, and Monroe; on archives in the capitol and the state library of Virginia; on a history in manuscript by Mrs. E. C. Means; on various books relating more or less to the Alleghany area; on questionnaires kindly filled out by several citizens; and upon personal interviews with residents of the county. Acknowledgment is gladly given to the Board of Supervisors and the School Board for their substantial support; to H. M. and J. T. McAllister, R. B. Stephenson, Mrs. A. M. Evans, Mrs. T. M. Gathright, and Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Jones, Jr., for source material furnished; and to all other persons who have given assistance to the enterprise, including those families who so hospitably entertained the author during his field tour.

This volume has not been carried into minute detail in every phase of local history. The financial resources for such a long and comprehensive task were not at the command of the author. If the book had been compiled on such a plan, its bulk would make necessary a price that many persons would consider prohibitive. What has been attempted is to put as much local history as possible into a book that could be offered at a reasonable price, and thus circulate generally among the families of the county.

At the request of several citizens a list of suggestive questions will be found near the end of the volume. These are intended for those teachers who may use the book as a supplementary reader.

The section entitled "Paragraphs from the West" is from notes supplied by Boutwell Dunlap of San Francisco, a historian of Virginia parentage who has furnished this information without charge, and has taken a very keen interest in the present undertaking. This section broadens the value of the book and makes it of service to the readers interested in genealogic inquiry. The material now contributed by Mr. Dunlap has never hitherto been published.

Oren F. Morton

Chapter I

The Geography of Alleghany

Out of nearly three thousand counties in the American Union, the only ones bearing the name of its best known mountain system are in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. The first of these three lies in the midst of the Appalachian ridges. In outline it is irregular. From the northeast corner to the southwestern, Alleghany county extends forty-three miles. The extreme breadth is eighteen miles. The area is 458 square miles, or 293,120 acres. The bordering counties in Virginia are Bath, Botetout, Craig, and Rockbridge. Those in West Virginia are Greenbrier and Monroe. From the county seat it is 205 miles by rail to the capital of Virginia, 164 miles to the capital of West Virginia, and 221 miles to the capital of the United States.

The magisterial districts are Boiling Spring in the south, Covington in the northwest, and Clifton in the northeast. The city of Clifton Forge is politically independent of Alleghany county, but is geographically a part of Clifton district.

The western limit of the county is the Alleghany Front, the central ridge of the Appalachian system. It is a natural boundary, since it divides the waters flowing into the Atlantic from those feeding the Mississippi River. In the extreme east in North Mountain, the western limit to the Valley of Virginia. As far north as the vicinity of Covington, the uplift between Dunlap and Potts creeks is called Peter's Mountain. Potts Mountain separates the upper valley of Potts Creek from Craig county. The other ridges within the county or on the eastern border bear a variety of local names.

The lowest altitude - almost precisely 1,000 feet, occurs on Jackson's River at Iron Gate. The valley levels vary from 1,000 to more than 2,000. Clifton Forge is 1,047 feet above sea level, and Covington is 1,225 feet. Lick Mountain, just west of Covington, rises to a height of 2,980 feet. The greatest elevations are Adcock's Knob in North Mountain, 3,573 feet, Hickory Knob in the Alleghany Front, 3,381 feet high, and an unnamed prominence, four miles north of Hickory Knob, with an altitude of 3,451 feet.

The entire county is watered by the James, known as Jackson's River above its junction with the Cowpasture. Within Alleghany county this stream has a course of thirty-four miles. After holding for a long distance the same general direction as the Alleghany Front, Jackson's River makes a sharp bend, two miles below Covington, and flows northeastwardly to the Iron Gate, where it turns to the southeast. At Covington it is joined by Dunlap Creek, and at the point of its great bend by Potts Creek. These two affluents are large enough to be known as rivers. They are parallel streams and flow to the northeast. Two miles below Iron Gate, Jackson's River meets the Cowpasture, which has a very crooked course of ten miles in the east of Alleghany county. It is almost as long and large as its companion, but its only important tributaries in this county are Padd's and Simpson's creeks. Other tributaries of Jackson's River are Falling Springs Run, Smith Creek and Wilson's Creek.

Nearly always the steams of Alleghany county are rapid. Except for the influence of industrial operations, they are as generally clear. Springs, sometimes of freestone water and sometimes of limestone, are numerous. But in the limestone belts, much of the rainfall sinks into underground channels, reappearing in powerful springs at the base level of the valleys. A spring at Low Moor is said to have a flow of 500 gallons a minute.
The sandstones, limestones, and shales belong to some of the oldest formations known to American geology. They are too old to contain coal, petroleum or natural gas, yet they include iron ores, porcelain, and brick clays, blue and magnesium limestones, cement rock, pyrites, marl, commercial slate, and even a deposit that resembles marble.

This county is very mountainous, and not one-fourth of its surface is even fairly adapted to tillage. Foremost in fertility but least is extent is the dark rich loam of the very limited river and creek bottoms. The benches and more level tracts of upland are thinner and often stony, and where a limestone base is not present they are less fertile. Good soil sometimes occurs on the higher slopes, but in general the proper use of the mountain surface is as pasture ground or forest reserve.

The mountain ranges by which Alleghany is enclosed protect his county from the great atmospheric disturbances that use the immense basin of the Mississippi as a playground. They also shield it from the east winds that are so unpleasant on the Atlantic coast. Therefore the local climate is not one of extremes. It is of mountain quality with respect to a pleasant, tonic air. Yet it cannot be defined as a cold climate, since the river bottoms lie at the lower level than portions of the Shenandoah Valley. The temperatures at Clifton Forge and Covington are about the same as at Staunton, where the mean in thirty-five degrees for the winter, seventy-five for the summer, and fifty-five for the year. Alleghany is a healthful region, although the industrial operations impart a somewhat unpleasant quality to the morning fogs along Jackson's River.

When this county was a wilderness, there was much more animal life than there is now. The buffalo and the elk were gone when the Declaration of American Independence was written. The wolf, once a great scourge to the young livestock, held his ground until within the recollection of people now living. The puma, or panther, a larger but less troublesome beast of prey is also locally extinct. The wildcat, the fox, and an occasional black bear still linger, and now and then an eagle disports himself in the sky. Neither have the deer utterly vanished. Small mammals are the raccoon, the opossum, the ground hog, the muskrat, the mink, the cottontail, the gray squirrel, the chipmunk, and the bat. Turkeys, pheasants, quail, and other game birds have declined in numbers. Buzzards and hawks are perhaps as numerous as ever, but the small migratory birds that visit us during the warm season are not so plentiful as a keeping down of the insect life requires. Rattlesnakes and copperheads are few, except in the localities they habitually haunt. In the streams which remain clear are fish in some variety.

As is everywhere the case among the Alleghanies, nature covers every hill and valley with forest when left to herself. Small pines grown on thin land and in the dry, thirsty soil of the slate ridges, but the trees which usually predominate are those that shed their leaves on the approach of winter. A varied undergrowth of small trees, shrubs, and vines is more in evidence now than when white settlement began. Among the wild fruits are the pawpaw, the grape, the blackberry, the huckleberry, the raspberry, the strawberry, and the teaberry, or wintergreen.

The best grass is found in the bottoms and on the limestone uplands. These soils, especially the bottoms, are likewise best adapted to tillage; and it is here that the largest fields of corn and grain are to be seen.

The scenic beauty of Appalachian America is well known to the observant tourist. The landscape is never monotonous, because there is a change with each new point of observation. When the woodlands of this county are in summer foliage, the contour of the many ridges assumes a most pleasing appearance.

Chapter II

In the Day of the Pathfinder

Fort Henry, built where the city of Petersburg now stands, lay in 1671 on the inland line of white settlement in Virginia. The commandant knew there was money in trading with the Indians, and the exploring party he sent out in that year penetrated to the falls of New River. But for almost fifty years later, our knowledge of the country west of the Blue Ridge is almost limited to the journal kept by the party just mentioned, and to a narrative of disputed trustworthiness written about the same time by John Lederer, a German visitor. From the east the Blue Ridge looks rather rugged and lofty, and was thought almost impossible to cross. The country on the west was believes to be a good place to let alone.

In 1716 Alexander Spottswood, governor of Virginia, headed a party of exploration. He set out from Williamsburg, then the capital of the colony. After leaving Fredericksburg there was no road. The Blue Ridge was almost certainly crossed by way of Swift Run Gap, and near where Elkton now stands the west bank of the South Branch of the Shenandoah was reached. The governor and his gay companions now uncorked the large variety of liquors they had brought with them. Probably not enough firewater remained for another big drunk, and the aristocrats of the party seem to have had enough of the wilderness. Further exploration was left to the rangers attached to the expedition.

But the Valley of Virginia was now officially discovered, for it had been penetrated by men in authority. "New Virginia", as the land beyond the mountains was first called, was explored with same rapidity, and was found to be an attractive region. It was stocked with game, the lowlands were a prairie, and no Indians were seen except hunting parties. Yet very few of the early settlers came from the east of the Blue Ridge. The Tidewater was a land of tobacco plantations. Every estate lay on or near some river that was always navigable for sea-going vessels. The planter did not like the idea of moving 150 miles beyond the heads of navigation. Immigration from England had grown small, and the broad belt between the Blue Ridge and navigable water was slow to fill up.

Within a dozen years after the visit by Spottswood there was a very considerable movement into the Valley of Virginia. The larger share of the settlers came from the north of Ireland. A smaller share came from Switzerland and other regions along the upper coarse of the river Rhine. Nearly all these people landed at Philadelphia, then the largest city of the colonies.

A little more than a century earlier, the Irish province of Ulster was almost emptied of tis native population by the English. The choicest lands were confiscated, and were then colonized from the other side of the Irish Sea. The larger portion of the newcomers were from the southwest of Scotland, but there were many from the north of England. In this immigration were some French Protestants and a few Welch. No inconsiderable number of the native Irish became identified with the new people by reason of their acceptance of the Presbyterian faith. The mixture became known to history as the Scotch-Irish stock. It was a plain, hardy, industrious element, and Ulster became prosperous.

Yet there was a nagging persecution, partly religious and partly industrial, of the Scotch-Irish people. The immigrants were Presbyterians and the native Irish were Catholics. The former as well as the latter felt the heavy hand of a government which placed under heavy disabilities those who did not adhere to the Church of England. The Presbyterian ministers were not permitted to perform the marriage ceremony, and there were times when their congregations could not safely met in public. The industrial persecution was because the thrift and industry of the Ulster people made them competitors of the English. One result was the ruin of their linen industry. The persecution did not wholly cease till 1782, and then only because of the success of the American Revolution.

To get away from this harsh and inconsiderate treatment, the people of Ulster flocked to America by thousands. But in the settled southeast corner of Pennsylvania there was little room for the strangers and little real welcome. They moved inland, until they were beyond the first range of mountains, and by doing so they pushed westward the American frontier. They took kindly to the mountains, because they came from a country of hills. They took naturally to pioneering, because they were used to a simple life. They were overcomers by nature, and in Appalachian America they proceeded to subdue the forest, the beasts of prey, the Indians, the French and the British. The Blue Ridge is nearer the seaboard in Pennsylvania than in Virginia. The Valley of Virginia is but a continuation of the broad Cumberland Valley. Nature, aided by Indian paths used for centuries, had thus provided an easy line of travel to the South. Advertisements extolling New Virginia caused many of the immigrants from Europe to pour into the uninhabited region. These people thus reached Virginia by a side entrance, and without coming into direct touch with the English element forming almost wholly the white population of Tidewater. Thus it is easy to understand why there has always been a very perceptible difference between the two sections of Virginia separated by the Blue Ridge. Nevertheless, the laws and institutions of the colony began at once to exert an assimilating influence.

Only eleven years after Spottswood's revel on the bank of South River, five planters of Tidewater petitioned the Governor and his Council to be granted 50,000 acres on "the head branches of James River to the west and northwestward of the Cowpasture."
It seems somewhat curios to read of an attempt to colonize the valley of the James above Iron Gate five years before there was any settlement at Staunton or within thirty miles of that point. However, the Ulstermen did not know what to think of wild land that was not covered with forest. The grassy plains of the Shenandoah were not so attractive to them as we might suppose. They preferred bottom land along a creek. Here they were sure of water, and the hills on either side were certain to supply wood. The petition of the five planters does not seem to have been acted upon. They had engaged other men to do the exploring.

In the summer of 1732 John Lewis settled a miles north from where Staunton soon arose. He was a man of means and leadership, and was accompanied by some thirty of his Ulster friends. The tide in this direction became rapid. Within twelve years several hundred families of the Scotch-Irish were scattered over the present counties of Augusta, Rockingham, and Rockbridge, and others were pressing toward Roanoke and the Holston.

For two years after Lewis and his companions came to Lewis Creek they were living in a "no man's land." Until 1720 no organized county included any part of the region behind the Blue Ridge. Spottsyvania was then established, but of the Valley of Virginia it took in only that small strip lying wholly east of South River and between lines meeting it a little below Port Republic and a little above Front Royal. In 1734 Spttsyvania was reduced to tis present dimensions, the remaining and much larger portion receiving the name of Orange. Yet the Act of Assembly creating Orange county made it cover the entire region west of the Blue Ridge, so far as it lay within the boundaries claimed by Virginia. In 1738 the summit of the Blue Ridge was made the western line of Orange. The vast remainder of its territory was now erected into the counties of Frederick and Augusta, the line dividing them running from the Fairfax Stone at the southern extremity to the western end of Maryland to the source of the stream rising in the northwest corner of Greene county. The present boundary between Rockingham and Shanandoah is a part of this line. But until there should be a larger population west of the mountains, the new counties were styled the districts of Frederick and Augusta, and were left under the jurisdiction of Orange. It was not until the last month of 1745 that separate county government was organized in Augusts. The new county contained about 4,000 people scattered over a wide area.

The first curtailment of Augusta took place in 1769, when Botetourt came into existence. The line between the old county and the new ran through the middle of the present county of Rockbridge. From the source of Kerr's Creek it ran northwestwardly to the Ohio River, crossing Warm Springs valley in Bath in the vicinity of Dunn's Gap. Rockbridge, Rockingham and Greenbrier were set apart in 1777, Bath in 1790, and Monroe in 1799.
From the beginning of settlement until the end of 1769, what is now Alleghany county lay in Augusta. During the next twenty years it lay wholly in Botetourt. From 1790 until 1822 the greater part lay in Bath. From 1802 to 1822 the northern line of Monroe crossed the basin of Dunlap Creek eight miles below the present line. That portion of the Alleghany area not lying in Bath or in Monroe continued to be a part of Botetourt.

By "Alleghany are" is meant the region enclosed by the boundary of Alleghany county, and just as though that boundary were in existence at the time of white settlement.

Chapter III

Early Land Patents

The Headright Law of Virginia in the colonial period rested on the same principle as the present homestead law of the national government. If the immigrant was of age and could prove he had paid the cost of his passage from Europe, he was entitled to fifty acres of the public domain. He was entitled to fifty acres more for each adult male member of his household. To perfect his title, he was expected to settle on the land, to improve at least six per cent of the acreage, and to pay each year a quitrent of ten shillings ($1.67) on each fifty acres. Fifty acres was also the amount of public land which might be taken up by a private soldier of the Indian wars, if he availed himself of a certain proclamation issued in 1763.

There was another way of disposing of the public domain. The royal governor, with the concurrence of his Council, might grant a block of land to an individual, or to a group of men acting as a company. There was supposed to be a limit to the price per acre which the grantee might charge to buyers. Deeds were issued in the name of the grantee, but in theory the object of this method was to settle a definite number of families on the grant within a stated time. In practice there was created a non-resident proprietorship, enabling infuential citizens to corner huge blocks of the most desirable land, and to exact from the people settling thereon sums of money altogether out of proportion to the services rendered. The minimum price limit was often violated. Furthermore, the colonial government was very lenient toward its favorites in enforcing forfeiture where there was a failure to comply with the conditions named in the order of council.

The headright method was equitable. It assumed that the settler was capable of choosing land for himself. Its tendency was to fill Virginia was a substantial class of citizens. The other method thrust a needless intermediary between the public land and the settler, and compelled the latter to pay tribute to this intermediary. It was also monopolistic, because it practically withdrew the choice land from free settlement. The homeseeker had to pay the price demanded or plunge farther into the wilderness. In many an instance he made the latter choice, and in consequence a thin fringe of settlement was pushed forward too rapidly for convenience or safety.

In Alleghany the headright law had scarcely a chance to cut any figure. As for the corn right, or tomahawk right, which we sometimes read of, it did not acquire a recognized status until 1766, and it had little bearing on the settlement of this county.

The following paragraph occurs in a petition presented to the Virginia Legislature by some citizens of Botetourt in 1779. The Alleghany area was then included in Botetourt. There is no doubt that the petition voiced a very prevalent feeling:
"A few artful monopolizers, possessed of immense sums of money, which they have accumulated by taking advantage of the necessities of individuals, have it in their power to engross the greatest part of the public lands on this side of the Ohio, whilst the brave soldier is limited to a small portion, and the virtuous citizen is implicitly debarred from getting any at all."

An order of council, dated October 19, 1743, placed 30,000 acres of public land in the control of James and Henry Robinson, James Wood, and Thomas and Andrew Lewis. The Robinsons were aritstocratic planters of Tidewater Virginia. Colonel Wood was the surveyor of Frederick county and a prominent land monopolist. These names occur among the grantees because it was very important to secure the aid of influential men who stood in with those in places of authority, and could therefore put the project "across." Thomas and Andrew Lewis, then twenty-five and twenty-three years old, respectively, were sons of Colonel John Lewis, the leader in the settlement of Augusta. They seem to have been the only active members of the syndicate, and they did the surveying.

The order of council authorized the Lewis brothers and their partners to survey the 30,000 acres in an indefinite number of tracts, all lying in the basin of the James above the mouth of the Cowpasture. The territory drained by the waters passing the confluence covers the whole of Alleghany, nearly all of Bath, half of Highland, and a small part of Monroe. Of the ninety-one separate tracts surveyed by the Lewises in 1745-46 only about fifteen lie in Alleghany. With the others we are not concerned in the present volume.

These original surveys average about 300 acres. Without exception they are choice tracts of river bottom. Little prime land in the entire basin is not included in the patents based upon them. Consequently the holdings under the Lewis order of council constitute the key to the early history of the upper basin of the James. The men taking up these parcels were persons of enterprise and resource. They were capable of carrying on a plantation rather than a farm. The various holdings may indeed be classed as plantations, and in nearly or quite every instance the proprietors became the owners of slaves and the masters of indentured servants. As a mater of course these early comers were relatively well-to-do. They were influential, socially and politically, and their names frequently appear among the men holding civil office or commanding the militia.

The further progress of private ownership in this district may be read in the in the patents for the remaining fragments of river-bottom and the more desirable tracts of upland. Much of the later patenting went to the enlargement of the original estates. And since the subsequent surveys were not always made into new farms, their history is of farless interest than that of the primary surveys.

We have mentioned that the surveying of the ninety-one tracts took place in 1745-46. The county surveyor did not return to the upper James until four years had elapsed. In 1750 and 1751 he surveyed thirty-seven more tracts, which aggregate not quite 2,000 acres. Those of above 100 acres number only four. Twelve were taken by settlers already here. Some others were seemingly taken by junior members of the pioneer families. During the next four years, which interval brings us to the outbreak of the French and Indian war, the new surveys are still fewer. This marked falling off in the amount of land surveyed tells a very plain story. Nearly all the best lands were taken at the outset. The later surveys, so far as associated with the names of later comers, appear to indicate men of less stability and more limited means.

It is not to be assumed that any stated acreage, as put down in the surveyor's book, is a close approximation to the actual amount. The Lewises knew how to survey, but the wilderness was broad and an acre meant little unless it were a deficient acre. If the size of a piece were understated, more tracts could be squeezed into the grant. So the length of a course was sometimes paced off or guessed at. An open line was occasionally drawn, although in violation of the instructions given to surveyors. It is significant that in nearly or quite every case the true area, as determined by subsequent survey, overruns the area first reported, sometimes to a very considerable extent. The loose way in which the courses were often run appears in the frequency with which the phrase, "containing by estimation," is found in the deeds based on the primary surveys.

In the surveys not held until a purchaser should appear, the surveyor entered this form: "Now in the possession of _______." This does not necessarily imply that the person named was already living on the land, or indeed that he ever lived on it. Some of the claimants lived in the settlements east of Shenandoah Mountain. They look additional land in the newer settlements for the purpose of speculation or to provide for their sons.

When did the very earliest settlers come into the Alleghany area? It is possible to give a very close answer. Alexander Dunlap located near the site of Goshen about 1742. We are told he was the earliest settler on the Great Calfpasture, and that no one had yet located any father west. A few men had cabins on the Cowpasture in 1745. These settlers came in 1744, possibly in 1743. Joseph Carpenter came with Peter Wright from New York in the spring of 1746. We have no knowledge of any earlier permanent settlers on the lower course of Jackson's River. A number of homeseekers came in 1746, or very shortly afterward, and when the Indian war of 1754 broke out, there was quite a settlement on Jackson's River within the Alleghany area and on the lower course of Dunlap Creek.

Meanwhile several families seem to have settled on the Cowpasture below Griffith's Knob, but our knowledge of their locations is very unsatisfactory. Indeed, so early as 1741, John Grome had patented 400 acres at the mouth of this river. But Grome was a non-resident, being an influential planter of Tuckahoe Virginia. In the suit of James Simpson against Margaret Campbell, 1756, a number of persons are named as inhabitants of the lower Cowpasture, and some of them undoubtedly belong to the Alleghany area. The names are as follows: Hugh and William Martin, William, Agnes and Samuel McMurry; Edward Edwards; William, Mary and Robert Gillespie; Patrick Carrigan; James Beard; James Scott; Margaret Coherin; Thomas Simpson; James Arbuckle and his wife Margaret; and Thomas Fitzpatrick.

It is significant that the muster rolls of the Augusta militia for 1742 do not include the names that soon afterward appear in the long valleys above Iron Gate. The first official recognition of any settlers in this region was in February, 1745, when the court of Orange appointed James Mayse a constable for the lower Cowpasture and the neighboring districts. The same court, May 23, 1745, instructed John Lewis to list "all the Inhabitants of the Cow and Calf pastures and the Settlers back of the same."

Peter Wright's survey of 286 acres covered the bottom on which the principal part of Covington in built. In 1792 he divided the land between his sons, John and William. Not many years afterward the Wrights went West. We are told that one of them sold his land to George Sibley for $500 in cash, a wagon and two horses, and a barrel of whiskey, using the wagon and team to move to the vicinity of Indianapolis. The Peter Wright of 1782 was seemingly the most wealthy man in the valley.

The long survey of 782 acres taken by Joseph Carpenter began very near the railroad bridge at the south border of Covington, and extended down the river so as to include the ben beginning near the mouth of Potts Creek. The Carpenter holdings also took in the fine bottom on the south side of the railroad at Mallow Station. In 1764 the pioneer divided 464 acres equally between his sons, Joseph, Jr., and Solomon, each paying a consideration of ten pounds. But in 1773 Solomon sold 160 acres to his brother-in-law, John Mann, for 130 pounds. A year earlier this piece had been purchased at public sale by William Hughart for ninety pounds ($300). John Mann had already bought 230 in 1762 for seventy pounds. Jeremiah Seeley, another son-in-law, took a survey of 100 acres at the mouth of Dry Run in 1754. But Seeley left the neighborhood during the Indian war and the land was patented by Peter Wright.

A Lewis survey of 270 acres at the mouth of Dunlap Creek was taken by Arthur (Alexander?) Dunlap, but patented by William Jackson, and in 1772 sold to Richard Morris for 100 pounds. A neighboring tract of 100 acres was patented by William Dunlap in 1750. In the same year Adam Dickenson patented 875 acres lying around Callaghan Station. Another Lewis survey on Dunlap Creek was patented by his son, John Dickenson, but passed to Andrew and Thomas Lewis. It was not until 1760 that anyone settled at the head of this stream.

The Lewis surveys on Jackson's River above the site of Covington and below the vicinity of the line of Bath county aggregate about 2,000 acres. The original owners were Robert Armstrong, Robert Crockett, David Davis, James Ewing, William Jameson, James Montgomery, and George Wilson. With the exception of Armstrong and possibly Montgomery, these men had their homes on the Calfpasture or elsewhere. Armstrong lived in the bend just below the Bath line. The Armstrong holdings became extensive and the family prosperous. James Montgomery appears to be the man of that name who was killed by Indians.

Of the two surveys by Crockett, one was at the mouth of Cedar Creek, the other above the mouth of Falling Spring Run. The former was acquired by James Fitzpatrick in 1762. The latter passed into the hands of Hamiltons and Kincaids. The Davis land was on the east side of the river at the mouth of Falling Spring Run. It passed to William Mann in 1761, and was sold by him to John Robinson in 1784 for only $200. The Ewing survey was patented by Archibald Armstrong. The Jameson land cornered on Ewing's. It was purchased in 1765 by Archibald Armstrong, Sr., and sold by him in 1767 to Robert Armstrong, Sr. The Montgomery tract was patented in 1750 by Charles Walker. The Wilson land was finally bought in 1791 my Moses Mann, who paid 250 pounds for it.
In 1769 Colonel William Preston, a non-resident, took out five patents on Potts Creek, these amounting to 995 acres.
The following particulars are from some of the early deeds recorded in Botetourt.

Dennis Callaghan bought of Hugh McDonald and Mary, his wife, seventy acres on Ugly, surveyed 1773. Price, 100 pounds.

Michael Cairns from Bedford bought of Jeremiah Seeley and Hannah, his wife, for 350 pounds, fourteen acres of the homestead adjoining Robert Shanklin, 1771. The high price is because of depreciated paper money.

Jeremiah Carpenter of Greenbrier, for 300 pounds, bought of Moses Mann, son of John, deceased, and Fanny, wife of Moses, 160 acres, 1779.

Thomas Carpenter bought of William P. Martin of Halifax county 115 acres on Potts Creek, 1787 for 100 pounds.

In 1787 John Craig gave power of attorney to Moses Mann to sell his half interest in a place on Brush Creek, a branch of Dunlap. The other half interest belonged to Joseph Hunter, a tory.

John Dickenson of Augusta bought of Jeremiah and Hannah Seeley, 1772, 200 acres on Falling Spring Run for 100 pounds.

James Elliott bought of William Mann and Jean his wife, 1773, for fifty-five pounds, forty-nine acres on Jackson's River below the mouth of Back Creek.

David Glassburn bought of Thomas Carpenter, 1784, fifty acres on Jackson's River for 100 pounds.

William Griffith bought of James Milligan and Elizabeth his wife, 1776, for 103 pounds, forty-four acres on the Cowpasture, patented 1767.

Aron Hughes bought of William Gillespie and Mary his wife, 1780, for 10,000 pounds (depreciated money), 320 acres on the Cowpasture.

Andrew Kincade bought of William Hamilton of Grenbrier, 1780, for 400 pounds, 283 acres on Jackson's River.

William Kincade bought of Andrew Kincade and Mary his wife, 1785, for 200 pounds, 110 acres of Jackson's River.

William Larence bought of James Robison and Elizabeth his wife, 1775, ninety-five acres on west side Camp Mountain for ninety-five pounds.

Michael Mallow bought of Zopher Carpenter and Mary his wife and David Glassburn and Elizabeth his wife, 1789, 130 acres on north side Jackson's River for 275 pounds.

William Mann bought of Jacob Persinger and Catherine his wife, 1772, for twenty-four pounds, 115 acres on Indian Draft of James River.

Moses Mann bought of James Boggs and Margaret his wife, of Greenbrier, 1784, for 100 pounds, a tract on Jackson's River adjoining Richard Morris and Andrew Kinkead. The acreage is not stated.

John McCalister bought of James Robinson, 1775, for fifty-five pounds, 177 acres on Dunlap.

Edward McMullin bought of Andrew Lewis, 1772, 325 acres on Dunlap for thirty pounds ($100).

John Neel brought of Edward McMullin and Sarah his wife, 1780, fifty-two acres on Dunlap for fourty pounds.

Jacob Persinger bought of William McMurray, 1770, twenty acres on McMurray's Creek, a branch of the Cowpasture. Consideration unnamed.

Jacob Persinger bought of William Thompson, executor of James Patton, 1771, for twenty-five pounds, forty-four acres on Willson's Creek of James River.

Jacob Persinger, Sr., sold land on Nelson's (Wilson's) Creek, a branch of James, 1775, to John Hansberger.

Jacob Persinger, Jr., bought of James Williams of Montomery county, 1777, 110 acres on Potts Creek for thirty-five pounds.

James Robinson bought of Alexander Dunlap and Agnes his wife, of Clover Lick, Augusta county, 1773, for fifty pounds, 100 acres at mouth of Dunlap.

John Robinson bought of Moses Mann and Fanny his wife, 1784, 230 acres on Jackson's Rive for sixty pounds.

William Scott bought of William Whooley and Barbara his wife, 1782, ninety-three acres on Potts for 1,400 pounds.

George Stout bought of William Gillespie and Mary his wife, 1780, fifty acres on Jackson's River for 1000 pounds.

We next mention the land patents in the Alleghany area granted prior to 1770.

Names of patentee, position, acreage, and date of patent are given in consecutive order.

Abercromby, Robert - East side Jackson's River at mouth Falling Spring - 320 - 1760.
Armstrong, Archibald - Jackson's River - 254 - 1760
Armstrong, Robert - Jackson's River - 270 - 1760.
Beard, James - NW side lower Pasture river - 24 - 1763.
Carpenter, Joseph - Jackson's River - 782 - 1750.
Carpenter, Zopher - NW side Jackson's River - 135 - 1763
Clendennin, Thomas - Jackson's River - 68 - 1757
Dickenson, Adam - meadow (Dunlap) Creek - 875 - 1750
Dickenson, John - great meadows on Meadow Creek - 490 - 1760.
Dickenson, John - Peters (Dunlap) Creek - 16 - 1763
Dickenson, John - Peter's Creek - 33 - 1763
Hughart, Thomas - SE side Jackson's River - 65 - 1760
Jameson, John - Jackson's River - 280 - 1760
Mann, William - Jackson's River below Back Creek - 49 - 1765
McCallister, James - Jackson's River - 100 - 1760
McCutchen, William - mouth of Cedar - 169 - 1760?
McMurry, William - McMury Creek of Cowpasture - 20 - 1761
Montgomery, James - NW side Jackson's River - 54 - 1757
Morris, Richard - Jackson's River below Armstrong - 93 - 1769
Patton, James - branch of Peter's Creek - 190- 1750
Preston, William - Potts Creek - 250 - 1769
Preston, William - Potts below Laurel Gap - 150 - 1769
Preston, William - Potts - 200 - 1769
Preston, William - Potts at Walnut Bottom - 300 - 1769
Preston, William - Potts - 95 - 1769
Scott, James - S side Jackson's River - 24 - 1765
Scott, James - SE side Cowpasture - 18 - 1765
Scott, James - both sides Cowpasture - 490 - 1751
Simpson, James - SE side Cowpasture - 300 - 1761
Walker, Charles - Jackson's River - 220 - 1750
Wright, Peter - Jackson's River - 286 - 1750
Wright, Peter - W side Jackson's River - 64 - 1761.
Wright, Peter - Potts Creek - 100 - 1767.

Some later patents are these:

William Hunter - Dunlap - 60 - 1781.
Samuel Dew - Potts Creek (Michael Aritt land) - 2272- 1789
James McAllister - Dunlap - 200 - 1793
Christopher McPerson - Potts - (?) - 1793
Eve Johnson - Potts (George Wolf land) - 60 - 1793
Samuel Logner - Dunlap - 60- 1793
John Johnson - Karnes Run (formerly Whooley's Run) - 1,000- 1795
Jacob Persinger - Rich Patch - 924 - 1798

Chapter IV
LIFE IN THE PIONEER DAYS

IN NEARLY every instance, the place of birth of the parents of the pioneer or the pioneer himself was on the other side of the ocean. The landing was at Philadelphia, and occasionally there was a sojourn of some years in Pennsylvania. The route to "New Vir-ginia" led through the towns of Lancaster and Frederick, across the Potomac at Shepard's Ferry, and up the Shenandoah Valley to Staunton. This side the Potomac it followed what was sometimes called the "Indian road" and sometimes the "Pennsylvania road." This trail rather closely followed the course of the present Valley Turnpike, and was adopted as a county thoroughfare by the court of Orange in 1745. From Staunton the newcomers continued as best they could over rough paths to the Cowpasture and Jackson's rivers.

Men are slow to adopt a radical change in their manner of living. The pioneer sought to feed, clothe, and house himself as he had done in his native land. Europe was an old country but much less densely peopled than it is now. It fed itself and there was no lack of building material. To the newcomer the frontier looked as though it had never been peopled at all. It was very much as though he had simply moved into an uninhabited annex to his home-land. His standard of Jiving was plain and he proceeded to make himself at home. However, the American environment compelled some departure from the old ways. For example, the immigrants had been living in stone dwellings. It was now more convenient to build a log cabin. Indian corn was a new food and fodder plant, yet was accepted at once. The potato, however, was not well known in Scotland before 1760.
The climate was found to be more sunny than that of the European home, and the summer season considerably warmer. The soil was of virgin fertility. Yet the seaports of America were 200 miles away, and the few towns on the route to them were mere villages. On the frontier nearly every man was a producer and not a consumer. There was little market for farm produce, and he had to Jive within his own resources as far as possible. Some of the immigrants brought a considerable stock of hard cash. But in the wilderness itself there was no money and few commodities that would bring money. Certain manufactured goods, as well as salt and ammunition, were necessities. All these things had to be brought from the seacoast and were expensive. Yet after the settlement had once been made living was easier in the new home than in the old. The supply of fish and game was more ample and varied. And, after all, what great difference did it make if there were wolves and wild men in the American wilderness? There were wolves in Ulster and it was necessary to pay a bounty on their heads. And when the native Irish rose in rebellion even women and children were put to death, just the same as by American Indians.

It is an error to assume that deerskin hunting shirts and coonskin caps were universally worn, or that the home of the settler was scarcely any improvement over the Indian hut. The dress suit of the person who by the usage of the time was styled a gentleman or a yoeman was more elaborate than in our day. The colors were brighter and more diversified. A man's suit might be green, bright red, or plum color. William Jackson, for whom Jackson's River is named, lived on the verge of settlement, and yet he wore a wig and a stock and buckle. Robert Armstrong was a hunter, but wore silver buckles. James Byrnside, who was reared near Griffith Knob, was charged $10 for three beaver hats, and it would have taken two of his best cows to pay for them. The statue of Andrew Lewis at Richmond presents that general in hunting shirt and leggings. Such was not his ordinary apparel, for he is known to have been particular in the matter of dress. His brother Charles, who lived on the Cowpasture, was equally particular, and his brown suit, inventoried at $50. was worth much more than an average horse.

Yet it is true that some of the immigrants almost literally took to the woods. Slumbering instincts, inherited from remote ancestors, began at once to assert themselves. Such men neglected the soil and made hunting a business. The skins they did not need for clothing could be sent to the sea-ports. The bounty on the destructive wolf put some additional coin into their pockets. In fact, nearly every pioneer seems to have yielded in some degree to this "call of the wild."

The person acquiring 100 or more acres in the Augusta colony was usually a yoeman, his class constituting the backbone of British society. The gentleman, according to the aristocratic meaning of the word, was a person whose ancestors had never been serfs. He had a coat of arms and had the privilege of wearing a sword. There were very few of this class in Augusta, although prominent men were given the title by courtesy. Yet there was less democracy then than now. In deeds and other documents it was customary to state whether grantor or grantee were a yoeman, or to mention his occupation. This was a means of defining the social standing of a person.

Negro slaves were very few until after the Indian war of 1754. Bound white servants, however, were numerous. Some of these were orphans or of illegitimate parentage. Others were young persons brought from Europe under indenture. To pay the cost of passage across the Atlantic they were sold into servitude, the average term of which was five years. Until his time expired, the servant was virtually a slave. If he ran away and was retaken, he was made to serve his master until after his term had regularly expired, so as to make good the cost of recovery, Some of the servants, after becoming free, made as good citizens as any other people. Some others had a record as petty criminals, or were of loose moral character. If, as frequently occurred, the woman servant had bastard children by another man than her master, her term was lengthened. But immoral behavior was not confined to the servant class.

The first dwelling houses were small round-log cabins. The roof was of long riven shingles held down by weight-poles. The floor was of puncheons, or even the natural earth. But among the more well-to-do settlers larger and better houses of hewn logs soon made their appearance. That of Captain William Jameson of the Calfpasture, built in 1752, was eighteen feet by twenty-four in the clear, one and one-half stories high, and the contract price was $22.50.

In many an instance the settler was master of some trade, which he could now make a side-line support. One man was a weaver, another a mill-wright, another a cooper, and still another a carpenter or cabinet-maker. A very important man was the blacksmith. He did not limit himself to repair work, but was really an iron-worker. He manufactured nails, horseshoes, edged tools, and copper-glazed bells. He also made farm implements, except such as were wholly of wood.

The tilled acreage was small, because the pioneer grew little more than the supplies consumed on his place. The farming tools were few and simple. The plow with wooden mouldboard and the brush harrow were almost the only ones to which a horse' was attached. Wagons were scarce for a while, but were fairly common at the time of the Revolution. Indian corn, unknown in the British Isles, was the only staple the pioneer had to learn how to grow. The Ulster people were proficient in the weaving of linen, and the flax patch was on every farm. Only the people of means could afford to wear clothes made of imported cloth. Others wore homespun made of flax fiber or wool, or a mixture of the two, and skin garments were also used. Hemp was peculiarly a money crop, and was encouraged by the colonial government. It was suited to the deep black soil of the river bot-toms. The price was $5 a hundredweight, and there was also a bounty of one dollar for the same amount. Few planters produced so much as 1,000 pounds. And yet we do not identify any Alleghany pioneer as presenting any claim to the bounty. The remoteness of this locality is the probable reason.

The pioneer farm was well stocked with horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, but the grown animals were not so large as those of the present day. The smaller ones needed protection from the bears, panthers, and wolves.
Profanity was very prevalent, and conversation was coarser than it is now. Gambling was also common. And yet very many of the pioneers were either genuinely or nominally communicants of the Presbyterian Church, this being the religious profession of nearly all the Ulstermen. The opportunity to attend religious services did not keep pace with the march of settlement, and there was much falling away in matters of conduct. For some years there was no house of worship any nearer the settlers in Alleghany than Windy Cove near Millboro, built about 1752. We have no information as to the first appearance of a church building within the limits of this county.

The ability to read and write was very general among the Scotch-Irish immigrants. Owing to frontier conditions this was not so much the case with the generation following. But although schools were fairly common in the settlements, they were not public schools. The ruling element in colonial Virginia held that education "was a private and not a public interest, and schooling had to be purchased in the same manner as clothing or groceries. This is why a school-house is never mentioned in the public records, except in an incidental way. The nearest school we hear of in this manner was one on the Calfpasture in 1760. Charles Knight was to have $60 for teaching one year, every half-Saturday or every other Saturday to be free time. In case of a foray because Indians, Knight was to be sheltered in the neighborhood stockade without charge.

It was customary to begin a will with a long preamble of a pious tone. And yet the settlers of Augusta were very much given to litigation. Some persons seemed to be almost constantly in court. Most of the suits were for debt. Not a few were for assault and battery. Many others were for slander. It was a common thing for a person to claim damages for being called a thief. It was even more common for both men and women to complain of being accused of immoral behavior. Some of these charges are gross in the extreme, and are set forth in the bills of complaint with an explicitness that is astonishing. A number of lawsuits, of all the kinds mentioned, were brought by the early settlers of the Alleghany area.

The Scotch-Irish believed themselves entitled to a high degree of 'personal liberty. They were not meek in submitting to either legal or military authority. The justices of Augusta were sometimes "damned" or otherwise insulted while sitting on the bench. They were repeatedly disturbed by rioting in the courtyard or by ball playing. Sheriffs or constables were sometimes interferred with. One constable says he was "kept off by force of arms." Another says "the fellow gave me 'heel play.''' A third says his writ was "not executed case of by a hay fork."
And because the frontiersman was little amenable to restraint, only the militia officer who possessed a high degree of tact and an inborn sense of leadership could exercise much control over his men. The private was inclined to obey his officer only when' it suited him to do so. He was individually brave and likely to be a good shot, but sadly deficient in the discipline that makes a reliable soldier. The white male adults were enrolled in militia companies, and these mustered four times a year. The day of general muster was the fourth Tuesday in September.

Previous to the French and Indian war small printed forms were used for writs. From then until the Revolution, legal papers were made out in pen and ink, usually in a neat, legible manner. Because of the high cost of paper, very small pieces were used, and the lines of writing are near together. The ink used by officers and professional men was of a very durable sort. Quill pens were the only ones known. Fine sand took the place of blotting paper.

By 1770 the mines of Wythe county had become an important source of bullets and shot. The manufacture of powder was begun at an early day, and small powder mills were in existence as late as 1850. The first powder mill we hear of in the Alleghany area was at Mann's fort. Saltpeter could be made on the very spot. Sulphur, called brimstone, was the only ingredient that had to be imported. In 1819 there was a powder mill on Blue Ridge Run in Rich Patch Mountain.

The thinness of population, the few and very small towns, the slowness of travel, and the comparative absence of newspapers caused the life of the community to move at a slow pace. So late as 1775, there were but two newspapers and fifteen post offices in all Virginia. Postage was so high that many letters were sent by private persons, although this was contrary to an English law. There were no envelopes, and postmasters read the letters that passed through their hands. Letters left on the bar of a tavern until the right claimant should appear were likewise read by anyone who cared to look at them. Until 1755, there was no regular postal service with the British Isles, and if a letter did not weigh less than one ounce it cost one dollar to have it delivered there.
Money was computed, as in England, in pounds, shillings, and pence. But on this side of the Atlantic, these words applied to values and not to coins. In Virginia currency, the pound was $3.33, the shilling 16 2/3 cents, and the penny 1 7/18 cents. It was because of the lower value that English money did not circulate in the colony. The hard money in actual use was Spanish, French, or Portuguese, and came from the West Indies. Thus we find frequent mention of the pistole, the doubloon, and the louis d'or, or "loodore." These were gold coins, worth, respectively, $3.9Z, $7.84, and $3.96. The largest silver coin was the Mexican dollar. It was also called the "piece of eight," because divided into eight reals, the real being equivalent to the Virginia ninepence. The earliest mention of the dollar in the Augusta records is in 1752, when Adam Dickenson of the Cowpasture thus ac-knowledges a payment on a note: "Rec'd of the within 28 dollars." It is because the dollar was so well known in the colonies that it was adopted as the basis of the Federal coinage of 1784. And as six shillings made one dollar, the dollar divided very readily into terms of Virginia currency.

But with respect to the gold coins, computation was by weight, and this is why money scales are often named in inventories of personal property. Paper money of colonial issue began to appear in 1755. The ten-pound bill was only 2 ½ by 3 inches in size. Warehouse certificates for tobacco were also used as money and did not need indorsement.

When a nominal money consideration is written into a legal document of the colonial time, the sum mentioned is usually five shillings. The legal rate of interest was five per cent. There were no banks, and to safeguard money it was hidden. Peter Wright hid some money on Peter's Mountain in so secure a manner that it was not found until a comparatively recent day.

Since the early settlers arrived by way of Philadelphia, and also because their merchants often purchased goods in that city, there is frequent mention of Pennsylvania money, in which the pound was $2.50.
'Under the names of' "levy" and "fip" the real and half-real of Mexico continued to be legal tender in the United States until about 1850.

The purchasing power of the dollar was very much greater in the colonial period than it is now. This accounts for the seemingly low prices of land and livestock. On the other hand, some articles were relatively more expensive than they are now. Whether, on the whole the pioneer had any advantage over ourselves in-the problem .of living may be fairly well determined by a study of the remaining paragraphs of this chapter. Nearly all the prices named are taken from the law documents of Augusta for the period before, the Revolution.
A farm of 517 acres on Back Creek rented three years for $6.46. For 149 acres on the Calfpasture, a man was to pay $13.33 yearly for three years. Wheat varied little from fifty cents a bushel. The average price for rye, oats, or corn was about thirty three cents. Potatoes are quoted at twenty cents. Flour by the barrel ran all the way from $3.25 to $8.33. Butter was worth five to eight cents, while beef and mutton averaged hardly more than two cents. Half of a bear carcass is mentioned at eighty-three cents and a whole deer at thirty-six cents. In 1749 a "haf buflar" was sold for $1.25.

Condiments nearly always came from the seaports and were very expensive. As late as 1763 salt was $2 a bushel at Richmond, and it cost eighty-three cents to bring it as far as Staunton. In 1745 it is mentioned at sixty-seven cents a quart. 'Coffee was $1 a pound and tea $1.56. Pepper was seventy-five cents a pound and allspice fifty-four cents. Nutmeg was seventeen cents an ounce and cinnamon fifty-eight cents. White loaf sugar from the West Indies was usually twenty-five cents. Brown cane sugar was much cheaper. Bottled honey is named at thirty-one cents a quart.

A mare could be had for $15, although an extra good horse might come as higl: as $40. The average price of a cow was about $5, although a young woman, perhaps through sheer necessity, sold two cows and a yearling for $10. A hog or a sheep could ordinarily be had for $1. The -one mention of a goose is at forty-two cents, and nothing is said as to other poultry. A board bill for one month could be satisfied for $3.00. Common labor ran from thirty-three to fifty cents a day, although twenty-five cents would pay for one day's corn husking, and thirty-three cents command the services of a person who could tend store and post books. The price for a man with his wagon and two horses ran from fifty cents to $1 a day. Rails could be split for 37 cents a thousand. A blacksmith would make a mattock for sixty-seven cents. A carpenter charged William Dean eighty-three cents for making his churn, $2.50 for laying his barn floor, and $6.67 for covering his house. A bedstead could be made for $1.25, a loom for $5.00, and a coffin for $2.17. Two pounds - $6.67 - would build one of the big stone chimneys of that day, and four pounds built a log dwelling, although David Kinkaid paid in 1752 $30 for his new house. A year's schooling cost $10. Aminta Usher, servant to Loftus Pullin of the Bullpasture, worked for $20 a year.

A weaver would come to a person's house and weave cloth at six cents a yard, but Irish linen cost $1.08 a yard, velvet $3.33, sheeting $1.25, flannel forty-one cents, and ribbon seventeen cents. A handkerchief of cotton cost twenty-five to thirty-three cents, while one of linen cost seventy-five cents. Men's stockings, which came above the knee and were there secured under the ends of the trowsers with a buckle, cost eighty to ninety cents. Headgear was high, or low, according to the means of the wearer. A woman's hat is mentioned at $5, but a cheap felt hat could be purchased for thirty-three cents. Leggings were $1.04, pumps $2, and men's fine shoes $1.40. Gloves are listed at fifty-eight cents, a necklace at thirty-three cents, and a woman's fan at twenty-five cents. James Carlile's blue broadcloth coat cost him $5.42. A pair of steel buckles for shoes or knees cost twenty-five cents, but the man of fashion insisted on silver for both buttons and buckles, and had his name engraved on the buttons. Common buttons were forty-two cents a dozen, silk-garters were forty two cents a pair, and thread was half a shilling to a shilling an ounce. Leather breeches, very generally worn by laboring men, are priced at $3.17 a pair.

In 1762 the Carpenter brothers were credited four shillings (sixty-seven cents) a pound for their beaver skins. To make and nail 100 clapboards cost $1.46 in our money in 1767.

The doctor was charged thirty-three cents a pound for his casteel soap, sixty-seven cents an ounce for his calomel and thirty-three cents for a roll of court plaster. Nails were sometimes sold by count, ten-penny nails coming as high as $1.50 a thousand. Ginseng brought sixty-seven cents to $1 a pound. The hunter had to be a good marksman, when he paid twenty one cents a pound for lead and fifty-six for powder. His gunflints and fishhooks cost about one cent each.

The pioneers had little of our modern hurry, but were alert as to what was taking place in their own neighborhoods. On matters relating to the colony in general, they were slow to move unless aroused by their better informed leaders. As to anything like a national feeling between the populations of the several colonies, there was nothing worthy of the name.

A journal kept in 1749 by two Moravian missionaries gives us a glimpse into the lower vally of Jackson's River after three years of settlement. Coming up the South Fork in what is now Pendleton county, they reached the head of that stream on the night of November 13th. Here they found what they call an "English cabin," because occupied by an English-speaking family. They slept on bearskins spread on the floor in front of the fireplace. Like all the settlers the family had bear meat, and like some of them it had no bread. But on the morning of that day, a German woman had given the missionaries some bread and cheese. These eatables they shared with their entertainers.

Next day they went down the Cowpasture to where Williamsville now stands. This time their host was suspicious and not very cordial, but in the morning he put them across the swollen Bullpasture. They soon fell in with George Lewis, who was traveling on horseback in the same direction they were going. This man set them across the river at twelve fords. They seem to have parted with him when they left the vicinity of the river to begin the ascent of Warm Springs Mountain. A rain began falling and it was dark when they reached an empty hut in the valley beyond. They had nothing to eat, but made n fire and dried their clothes. In the morning they hurried to the nearest cabin, and had a breakfast of hominy and buttermilk. They speak of their host as a good Presbyterian, but do not give his name. He was probably James Ward, who took out the first tavern license at Warm Springs. The missionaries do not say a word about the thermal waters. They were in a hurry to get on. They did not speak English fluently, and along this part of the way there were no German settlers. Jackson's River was crossed by swimming and with some difficulty. At the close of this day, after crossing Dunlap Creek, they reached a house, perhaps that of Peter Wright. Here they slept on bearskins, the same as the members of the family. While crossing a mountain on their way to Craig's Creek, they heard an "awful howling of wolves."
These Moravians relate that the people along their route were living like savages, wearing deerskin clothes, and making hunting their leading pursuit. The style of living is spoken of as poor in the extreme. Pounded corn was separated into meal and hominy. Bear oil was a substitute for butter. However, these men came in the very infancy of the settlement of this region, and during the "wild and woolly" stage of its evolution.

We have devoted some space to an account of pioneer life in this region, because until within the recollection of our elderly people the impress of pioneer conditions was still very visible. When the war of 1861 began, labor-saving machinery was little in use, and the railway locomotive had but just entered our confines. Men were still wearing, homespun and firing flintlock guns. In no small degree, the customs of the pioneer day had not been superseded.

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