|
Rockingham
County, Virginia |
Chapter
XIII |
CHAPTER XIII.
RACE ELEMENTS AND POPULATION.
Five years ago the conclusion was reached, after an analytical study of numerous facts and figures, that at least 70 per cent. of the people of Rockingham County are of German descent, and bear German names.(1) This conclusion has had rather striking confirmation in an additional experiment just carried through. Lake’s Atlas of Rockingham County, published in 1885, contains the names of practically all the heads of families outside of the larger towns, then living in the county, geographically distributed on the large-scale maps of the five districts. By inspection of these names, and by actual count, the following tables have been prepared; and while no absolute accuracy can be claimed for the results, they are believed to be generally reliable. The striking coincidence is to be found in the fact that these figures show a German element in Rockingham of almost exactly 70 per cent. Moreover, if we may be certain of anything in the case it is this, that the number of people of German stock has not been put too high. One is constantly confronted with instances in which names originally German have been changed into forms that are not now recognized as German. For example, the county records contain entries in which Zimmerman is changed to Carpenter; Yager to Hunter; Swartz to Black; etc. In an inspection of names Carpenter, Hunter, and Black would not usually be counted as German; and many similar cases may be cited; hence the probability that one is apt to underestimate the number of German families, rather than overestimate it, from an inspection of the names in their present forms.
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(1)
See the “German Element of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia,” pp. 94, 95, etc.
TABLE OF NUMBERS
|
Races |
By Districts. |
Totals |
||||
|
|
Ashby |
Central |
Linville |
Plains |
Stonewall |
|
|
German |
560 |
360 |
363 |
510 |
256 |
2049 |
|
English |
113 |
80 |
60 |
88 |
116 |
457 |
|
Scotch |
61 |
42 |
41 |
34 |
59 |
237 |
|
Irish |
35 |
24 |
39 |
32 |
33 |
163 |
|
French |
19 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
8 |
34 |
|
Welsh |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
14 |
|
Dutch |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
|
Totals |
798 |
512 |
508 |
667 |
479 |
2964 |
TABLE OF PERCENTAGES.
|
Races |
By Districts. |
Totals |
||||
|
|
Ashby |
Central |
Linville |
Plains |
Stonewall |
|
|
German |
70+ |
70+ |
71+ |
76+ |
53+ |
69+ |
|
English |
14+ |
16- |
12- |
13+ |
24+ |
15+ |
|
Scotch |
8- |
8+ |
8 |
5 |
12+ |
8- |
|
Irish |
4+ |
5- |
8- |
5- |
7- |
5 1/2 |
|
French |
2+ |
4-5 |
2-5 |
1-6 |
2- |
1+ |
|
Welsh |
1/2 |
0 |
1-5 |
1/2- |
1 1/2 |
1/2 |
|
Dutch |
1 |
1/2+ |
1/2+ |
0 |
0 |
1/2- |
|
Totals |
|
|
|
|
|
100 |
Explanation: + indicates plus; - indicates minus.
The first table above shows the numbers
of names of the different races or nationalities found in the different
magisterial districts of the county; the second table shows a corresponding
distribution, stated in percentages.
It is probable that Shenandoah County is
even more largely of German stock than Rockingham; and it will be observed from
the tables that the largest percentage of German names in Rockingham has been
found in Plains District, the district adjacent to Shenandoah County. The strongest Irish element seems to be
resident in Linville District; while Stonewall District, lying next to Eastern
Virginia, has, as one would naturally expect, the largest infusion of English
names.
Practically all the families and family
names now found in Rockingham have been here for several generations, and most
of them since the 18th century. This is
particularly true of the German names and families. Most of these came up the Valley from Pennsylvania and Maryland
prior to 1800. Very few of the recent
immigrants from Germany have come to the Valley of Virginia. Most of the Germans that have located in
Rockingham in recent years have been the Jews, who now make up an important
class of tradesmen in Harrisonburg. So
far as known, all of these have come to the county since 1850.
Incidental references, from various
sources, show that most, if not all, the nationalities named in the above
tables have been represented in Rockingham from early times. In 1749 a Hollander was living in East
Rockingham (see page 47). Mrs. Carr
says that the Scherdlins, who had a vineyard on the hill east of Harrisonburg a
century ago, were natives of France; Valentine Sevier, who came to Rockingham
prior to 1750, was of French stock; and the Mauzys, who have been in the county
more than a hundred years, are also French.
In August, 1781, Evan Evans and Jona. Evans, with William Morriss, were
appointed to appraise the estate of Philip Conrod. The Evanses lived in East Rockingham, and evidently were Welsh. One of the earliest Scotch names preserved
is that of Hugh Douglas, who received a patent for 175 acres of
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land
just west of Round Hill, above Bridgewater, in 1750. In 1774-5 John Craig, Wm. McGill, John Eadie, Wm. Campbell, John
Murry, Saml. Curry, Alex. Curry, James Laird, and Lachlan Campbell were
residents of this section, and they were all evidently Scotch. The name Laird is preserved geographically
in Laird’s Knob, east of Harrisonburg, and in the village of Penn Laird. William Ewing, a native of Glasgow, father
of Henry Ewing, who was many years county clerk, came from Pennsylvania in 1742
and purchased 300 acres of land three miles northwest of Harrisonburg.(2)
As to the Irish, it might be sufficient to
call attention to the fact that two of the original justices of Rockingham,
John Grattan and John Fitzwater, were likely of Irish lineage. Captains Frazier and Ragan of Revolutionary
days were evidently Irish, as were James Gillilan, Thomas Doolin, Patrick Guin,
John Guin, Daniel Guin, Darby Ragon, and Hugh Dunahoe, of the same period. In Felix Gilbert’s old day-book of 1774-5,
“Irish” is written after the name of Robt. Hook.. A good many Irishmen came into the Valley about 1857 to 1869, as
workers on the railroads. In 1866 Michael
Flinn was living in Harrisonburg. The
schoolmaster, Hugh Tagart, had died there about 1840. Patrick Kelly, carder and fuller, was in the county in 1844. On July 12, 1894, died, at the age of 78,
Patrick Flahavan, who had been an employee of the Valley Railroad ever since
its construction, and had been watchman at the bluff south of Mt. Crawford
station for nearly 20 years. Main
Street of Harrisonburg used to be called Irish Alley. On February 11, 1879, Judge James Kenney wrote in his diary:
E. J. Sullivan,
Post Master at this place, died this morning in the 55th year of his age. He was born in Ireland.
He has been postmaster here ever since the close of the war in 1865.
Robert Gray, the famous lawyer, who
located at Harrisonburg in 1805, was a son of Erin, as were likely the Bryans,
or O’Brians, distinguished in both earlier and latter days.
No special catalogue of Englishmen and
Germans is
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(2) Memoirs of Virginia Clerk’s page 346.
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attempted
here. They must speak for themselves,
and are obviously numerous enough to make themselves heard. It may be a matter of interest in this
connection, however, to know that along in the later 60’s and early 70’s there
was a Turn-Verein at Harrisonburg. It
was organized about March 1, 1867, with Wm. Loeb president, Jonas Loewenback
treasurer, and Adolph Shickman secretary.
The qualifications for membership were good moral character and German
extraction. Meetings were held weekly,
and all proceedings were conducted in the German language.
A few people in Rockingham can still
speak traditional German - a dialect of the “Pennsylvania-Dutch”; but the
number is becoming smaller every year.
German has not been much used for the past fifty years, except in the
home talk of certain families.
In October, 1822, the Harrisonburg
postmaster advertised a list of letters for 82 persons named. Of these, 30 had names that were
unmistakably German; 14 were probably Scotch or Scotch-Irish; 3 were apparently
Irish; 5 or 6 were likely English; 2 or 3 were apparently Welsh; the rest were
of uncertain character.
The negro race is, of course, largely
represented in Rockingham County, though the proportion of negroes here is much
smaller than in the adjacent counties east of the Blue Ridge. For example, the number of slaves in
Rockingham in 1840 was 1899, in a total population of 17,344, or only about 11
per cent., while at the same time the number of slaves in the four counties of
Albemarle, Orange, Madison, and Culpeper made up about 57 per cent. of the
whole population. In 1880 the total
population of Rockingham was given as 29,567.
Of these, 29,368 were classed as natives, while only 199 were classed as
foreign-born. At the same time the
whites numbered 26,137; the blacks, only 3430.
At the November court for Rockingham
County, in 1880, James Cochran, colored, was a member of the grand jury. In 1874-5 Harrisonburg had a colored
policeman, Joseph T. Williams by name, who was also a barber. Williams had
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been
born free, but had served four years in the Confederate army, as a faithful
servant. He is said to be at present a
well-to-do property owner in Washington City.
Rockingham families are proverbially
large. Many of them number their
members by the hundred, and some by the thousand, if we extend the circle
beyond the county into the States and countries whither they have gone. Looking through the telephone directory of
the county, it appears that the Armentrouts, Bowmans, Clines (Klines), Garbers,
Goods, Heatwoles, Holsingers, Longs, Millers, Myerses, Rhodeses, and
Showalters, are most numerous. The
Millers seem to outnumber all the rest.
Family histories have been published by the Funks, the Kageys, the
Funkhousers, the Heatwoles, the Shueys, the Beerys, the Wengers, the Kempers,
the Koiners, and others; and genealogies of the Pences, Kaylors, and other
families are known to be in preparation.
In an old ledger of the Rockingham
Register, covering the years 1857-1868, there are under the M’s 118 names; and,
of these, 34 are Millers, 8 are Myerses or Moyerses, 6 are Martzes. Under the N’s are 20 names, 6 being
Niswander and 4 Nicholas. There are 138
names that begin with H, 9 being Huffman, 6 Heatwole, 6 Hopkins, and 5
Harnsberger. And there are 186 names
that begin with S, among which are 14 of the Smiths, 11 of the Showalters, 9 of
the Shavers, 7 of the Sengers, and 5 of the Stricklers.
John Detrick, who lived near Greenmount
in the early part of the last century, had 13 children. They all grew up, all married, and all had
grandchildren before they died.
Thirteen may be an unlucky number in some places, but not in Rockingham.
In conclusion, a few words about the
longevity of Rockingham people. In
February, 1841, died Henry Hammer, aged 88, who had been a soldier in the
Indian wars and in the Revolution. In
1868, at Fort Lynne near Harrisonburg, died Martin Burkholder, aged 91; at the
same place, in 1898, his son John Burkholder died, at the age of 89. In June, 1874, Mrs. Katie Shepp, living in
the Massanutten Mountain
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near
Keezletown, reached the age of 120. Her
husband had been a wagoner in the Revolutionary war. She, at the age of 20, had married him in 1774.(3) In 1885 Wm. G. Thompson died at Timberville,
age 86 years and 7 months. February 17,
1894, George Kiser died at Mt. Crawford, aged over 92. He had been born in Mt. Crawford in 1801,
and had been a merchant, a miller, and a tanner. June 8, 1895, Elizabeth Funk (nee Meliza), a native of
Rockingham, died in Harrison County, Mo., aged 92 years, 8 months, and 14
days. In 1897 John R. Funk died in
Harrison Co., Mo., aged nearly 89. He
had been born near Turleytown, Rockingham Co., Va., in 1808.
In June, 1898, Mrs. Margaret D. Effinger,
of Staunton, a daughter of Judge Daniel Smith, of Rockingham, revisited
Harrisonburg, at the age of 89. In 1898
Mr. John C. Wetzel, who was born in McGaheysville in 1802, was still living in
that village. One of the present hale
citizens of McGaheysville is Mr. Richard Mauzy, aged 88. He was a pupil in Joseph Salyards’
McGaheysville school in the later 30’s.
At Frankfort, Indiana, lives Capt. Wm. N. Jordan, a native of
Rockingham, at the age of 92. On July
25, 1912, at the reunion of the Funk family in Singers’ Glen, Messrs. Samuel
Funk of Tennessee and John Funk of Virginia, two hale sons of Rockingham, were
present; the latter aged 90, the former aged 93.
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(3)
The “Old Commonwealth”, July 16, 1874.