Rockingham
County, Virginia |
Chapter III |
A HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY
CHAPTER III.
1727 - 1738
From the best information at
hand, it appears that the settlement of Rockingham and adjacent sections of the Valley of
Virginia began in or about the year 1727. As in all similar cases, exploration preceded
permanent settlement. First, therefore, let us take a preliminary survey of the earliest
known explorations.
In 1669, the same year that La
Salle came down to the falls of the Ohio, John Lederer, a German of education, said to
have been once a Franciscan monk, came up from Jamestown and entered the Valley at or near
Waynesboro; in 1670 he crossed the Valley at or near Front Royal and Strasburg. Once
above, once below the present boundaries of Rockingham, this German thus seemed to be
marking out the district in which his fellow-countrymen should in the years to come build
their homes and till their fruitful fields. Lederer’s journal, giving an account of
his explorations, with accompanying map, was printed in an English translation at London
in 1672, and again at Rochester, N.Y., in 1902.
In 1705 the Governor, Council,
and Burgesses of Virginia offered a monopoly of trade to any person or persons who should
thereafter “at his or their own charge, make discovery of any town or nation of
Indians, situate or inhabiting to the westward of, or between the Appalatian
mountains.” (1) This was an act obviously intended to encourage pioneering west of
the Blue Ridge. What response it elicited we do not know, but it may well be imagined that
not many years passed before
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(1)
Hening’s Statutes, Vol. III, page 468.
some
adventurous trader fared westward upon the heels of the hope it engendered.
In 1716 Governor Spotswood made
his famous expedition into the Valley, coming across the Blue Ridge, as we judge, at Swift
Run Gap, and finding a land of “seek-no-farther” in the broad river plains about
or above Elkton. We generally look upon Spotswood as doing for the Virginians, in respect
to the Valley, what Caesar did for the Romans, in respect to Britain: as discovering it
for them: and even as it was a century before the Romans followed Caesar westward, so it
was at least a decade before the Virginians began to follow Spotswood. In the meantime
Germans occasionally came in from the northeast. More of Spotswood and his knights at
another place.
In 1722 Michael Wohlfarth, a
German sectarian, is reported to have passed down through the Valley of Virginia going
from Pennsylvania to North Carolina; (2) Dr. J. A. Waddell, after investigating various
sources of information, is satisfied that in or about the year 1726 John Salling and John
Mackey explored the Valley, both settling therein later; (3) and it is likely that other
white men, Germans, Scotch-Irish, and English, at other times before as well as after,
walked in this great highway of nature from north to south.
We are now coming to the time of
permanent settlement, which we are able to fix some five years earlier than 1732, the date
so long accepted as marking the beginnings in the Valley. In 1732 Jost Hite, with a number
of other Germans, settled in the section now marked by Winchester; and in the same year
John Lewis, with a number of other Scotch-Irish, located at or near the place where
Staunton now stands; but it appears that as early as 1727 Adam Miller, a German, perhaps
with a few others of his own nationality, was staking out claims on the south fork of the
Shenandoah River, on or near the line that now divides Rockingham County from Page.
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(2) Sachse’s German Sectarians, Vol. II, page 332
(3) Waddell’s Annals of Augusta, edition 1902,
page 24.
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On March 13, 1741-2, Adam Miller
received from Governor William Gooch a certificate of naturalization, which recites that
the said Miller had been a resident on the Shenandoah for the past fifteen years. This
fixes the date of his first settlement in 1726-27. (4) In 1733, eight men, Adam Miller
being one, addressed Governor Gooch in a petition, praying him to confirm their title to
5000 acres of land in Massanutting, purchased about four years past for more than 400
pounds from Jacob Stover, reciting that they had moved upon the said land from
Pennsylvania immediately after the purchase, and that they had located thereon at the time
of the petition nine plantations and 51 people. (5) This would fix the date of settlement
of the Massanutting colony in 1729 or 1730.
On June 17, 1730, Jacob Stover,
a native of Switzerland, was granted leave by the colonial council to take up 10,000 acres
of land on the south fork of the Shenandoah, for the settlement of himself and divers
Germans and Swiss whom he proposed to bring thither within the next two years, the said
land to be laid off in such tracts as he should judge fitting. (6) Stover selected his
grant in two tracts, of 5000 acres each, on along the river between the present Luray and
Elkton, the other along the same river, higher up, between
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(4) The certificate is in the possession of Adam
Miller’s great-great-granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth B. Miller, of Elkton, Va. It was printed in the William and Mary College
Quarterly, October, 1900, and in Wayland’s “German Element,” pages 37, 38,
in 1907.
(5) The full text of this petition may be found in
Palmer’s Calendar of State Papers, Vol. I, pp. 219, 220, and in Wayland’s
“German Element,” pp. 35, 36. It bears no date, but the date has been
conclusively determined, by various circumstances, to be 1733.
(6) From records of the proceedings of the Council.
These records, particularly such as refer to the settlement of the Valley of Virginia,
were published in 1905-6 in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Richmond, with
valuable supplementary notes by Mr. Chas. E. Kemper, of Washington, D.C.
Jacob Stover was an
interesting character - enterprising to a fault, it would seem. It is charged that some of
his representations in
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Elkton and
Port Republic. (7) The conditions upon which
Stover received his grant were that he should actually locate a family of settlers upon
each thousand acres within two years. These
were the conditions usually imposed upon those receiving large grants of land at that
time. Upon satisfactory proof that these
conditions had been discharged, a permanent title was given.
The names of the eight
petitioners of 1733, who had bought land in Massanutten of
Jacob Stover in 1729 or 1730, were as follows:
Adam Miller (8)
Philip Long
Hans Rood (10)
Abram Strickler
Paul Long
Michael Kaufman
Mathias Selzer (9) Michael
Rhinehart
The family names of all these
men, with perhaps one or two exceptions, are to-day familiar and widely distributed, not
only in the counties of Rockingham, Page, and Shenandoah, but also in many quarters beyond
the limits of Virginia.
It is quite probably that Adam
Miller at first pre-empted his claim on the Shenandoah by squatter right, later meeting
properly the requirements of advancing governmental authority. It is possible, moreover, that the enterprising
Stover sold him and his friends the Massanutten tract before the said Stover himself had a
grant for it, since, as we have seen, the latter did not receive his grant until June 17,
1730. The alarm of the eight petitioners of
1733 arose from fear
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securing
grants of land were worthy of Machiavelli. See
Kercheval’s History of the Valley of Virginia, reprint of 1902, page 46.
(7) Mr. Chas. E. Kemper fixes the location of
Stover’s lower tract of 5000 acres, likely the same purchashed [sic] by Adam Miller
and others in 1729, between Bear Lithia Spring, two miles below Elkton, in Rockingham
County, and Newport, a village 12 miles further down the river, in Page County. See Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
January, 1906, pp. 295-297. It should be
stated, however, that the little vale and the village that still retain the name of
Massanutten are a few miles farther northeast, beyond Newport.
(8) Adam Miller, who appears to have been the first
settler of Rockingham and adjacent sections of the Valley, was born probably at Schrei-
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that William
Beverly had an earlier or better claim than Stover. They
had learned that Beverly was bringing suit against Stover for the land in question.
On May 5, 1732, William Beverly,
son of Robert Beverly the historian of Virginia, had received a grant of 15,000 acres on
the Shenandoah River, including “a place called the Massanutting Town,” provided
the same did not interfere with any previous grants made in that section. Obviously
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sheim,
Germany, the native place of Alexander Mack,
about the year 1700. He came early in life to Lancaster County, Pa., with his wife and an
unmarried sister. Later, going to
Williamsburg, Va., he heard of the beautiful valley between the mountains from some
Spotswood knights, and followed their path westward, crossing the Blue Ridge at Swift Run
Gap. Having seen and desired the goodly land
in the river plain below, he brought his family thither.
He secured first the “uppermost of the Massanutten lots,” near the
present Page County line, but probably in Rockingham; in 1741 he purchased 820 acres,
including the great lithia spring near Elkton, and was living thereon in 1764 when he sold
280 acres thereof to his son-in-law, Jacob Bear. Here Adam Miller lived till he died about
1780, and here the Bear family still resides, the spring being known as Bear Lithia
Spring. He was a soldier in the French and
Indian War, as shown by the military schedule for 1758 in Hening’s Statutes. In religion he ws a Lutheran, and was probably
buried at St. Peter’s Church, four miles north of Elkton. Among his descendants are the Millers, Bears,
Kempers, Yanceys, Gibbons, Hopkins, Mauzys, Harnsbergers, and other prominent families of
East Rockingham. A descendant, Hon. Chas. E.
Kemper of Washington City, deserves special mention for his valuable publications
regarding the pioneer.
(9) Mathias Selzer of “Massinotty” is
referred to by Gottschalk, a Moravian missionary, in his journal of 1748 as “the
son-in-law of Jacob Beyerly, of Lancaster”; as rich, generous, and respected in the
whole region, but as bitter against the Moravians. He
was evidently a Lutheran. In 1751 he was one
of the justices of Augusta County (Summer’s History of Southwestern Virginia, p.
821), a fact which shows that he lived southwest of the Fairfax line.
(10) Hans Rood (John Rhodes) was doubtless the
Mennonite preacher visited at Massanutten by Gottschalk in 1748, and, with his family,
massacred by Indians in 1766. See Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography, July, 1904, page 69, and Kercheval’s History of
the Valley of Virginia, reprint of 1902, pp. 101, 102.
It is likely that Abram Strickler and Michael Kaufman were also Mennonites.
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there was an
interference of this grant with the one made to Stover in 1730. On December 12, 1733, Beverly entered a caveat
against Stover, but the latter was sustained in his title, and given deeds for his two
tracts of 5000 acres each on the 15th of December, 1733. (11) The fears of the eight petitioners, who held their
title from Stover, were thus evidently set at rest.
Recalling now the fact that
Stover’s upper tract of 5000 acres, as well as the lower one, was granted upon the
condition that at least one family should be located on each 1000 acres within two years,
and observing that he got full title for both tracts in December, 1733, we may safely
conclude that no less than five families were settled by that date along the river between
the points now marked by Elkton and Port Republic. Beginning, therefore, at or near the
Fairfax line, which marked the northeast boundary of Rockingham till 1831, and following
up the south fork of the Shenandoah River past the places now known as Shenandoah City,
Elkton, and Island Ford to Lynnwood and Port Republic, we may say that at least fifteen
families, all probably German or Swiss, were settled in that district by December, 1733. Counting five persons to a family, there were
likely no less than 75 individuals; and among these we know the names of nine: Adam Miller, Abram Strickler, Mathias Selzer,
Philip Long, Paul Long, Michael Rhinehart, Hans Rood, Michael Kaufman, and Jacob Stover -
all doubtless heads of families.
On April 23, 1734, the colonial
council received a petition from a number of the inhabitants living on the northwest side
of “the Blue Ridge of Mountains,” that is to say in the Valley, praying that
some persons in their section be appointed magistrates to determine differences and punish
offenders. These petitioners lived so far
away from Fredericksburg, the county-seat of Spotsylvania, and consequently so far from
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(11) See records of the colonial council; also extracts
therefrom printed in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, October, 1905, and
January, 1906.
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the regular
administration of justice, that the reasonableness of their request was obvious. Accordingly, Joost Hyte, Morgan Morgan, John
smith, Benjamin Bourden, and George Hobson were appointed justices within the limits
aforesaid - that is, in the Valley. Hite and
one or more of the others lived in the lower Valley, but it is likely that one or two of
the five either lived in the upper Valley, or were frequently prospecting in that section. Burden later had large holdings of land in what is
now Rockbridge County and adjacent sections.
Moreover, in August, 1734, just
a few months after the aforesaid petition was presented, the county of Orange was formed. This was an act likely intended to be a still more
satisfactory response to the request and desire of the Valley settlers for the efficient
administration of law and justice. It shows
the growth of political organization westward, and also indicates that the settlement of
the Valley had reached a somewhat general stage by 1734.
The rapid development from 1734 to 1738 is implied in the fact that in 1738 an Act
was passed providing for the organization of the Valley and the country westward therefrom
into the counties of Frederick and Augusta.
Let us now give attention to a
number of items that show the progress of settlement from 1734 to 1738 in more detail.
On October 28, 1734, John
Tayloe, Thomas Lee, and William Beverly obtained a grant of 60,000 acres of land on the
Shenandoah River, beginning on Stover’s upper tract.
This grant accordingly must have extended southwest from the vicinity of Port
Republic, up the river past Grottoes, and a considerable distance into the present limits
of Augusta County. It was bestowed upon the
usual conditions, that one family be located upon each thousand acres within two years.
(12)
From Deed Book No. 1, Orange
County, the following items have been selected:
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(12) See Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
April, 1906, pp. 360-362.
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September 17, 1735, Jacob Stover
sold 550 acres of land to Christian Clemon, the said land being on a small run, on the
south side of the Shenandoah River, adjoining the “upper corner of Stover’s
lower 5000-acre tract.” Two of the three
witnesses to this conveyance were Thomas Hill and W. Russell; the name of the third
witness appears to be G. Home.
November 11, 1735, Jacob Stover
sold two tracts of land to George Boone, the said tracts containing 500 and 1000 acres
respectively, and being situated “near the end of North Mountain, (13) so called, on
a small branch of Sherando River”; part of 5000 acres laid out for Stover by the
Virginia Council, June 17, 1730.(14) Mordecai
Simon and S. Hughes were witnesses. Boone is
put down as having come from Oley, Pa.
December 16, 1735, Jacob Stover
sold 1100 acres, in three tracts, on Gerundo River,(15) to Ludwick Stone. On the same date he sold three tracts, aggregating
500 acres, on the same river, to Mathias Selser.
At least three more men bought
land of Stover on this date: 1) John Prupecker, two tracts, of 300 acres and 200 acres,
respectively; both on Gerundo River, the larger adjoining the land of Selser; witnesses,
John Bramham, Gideon Marr,
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(13) The Massanutten at this time was commonly referred
to as the North Mountain, and the Blue Ridge as the South Mountain.
(14) Boone’s Run is probably the small branch
referred to, likely bearing its name from George Boone.
It flows southeastward out of Runkle’s Gap, in the Massanutten, directly
toward Elkton, then turns northeastward and enters the river two miles below Elkton. One can hardly determine whether Stover sold this
land from his upper or lower tract. One would
at once say, From the lower, were it not likely that he had sold the lower tract entire to
Adam Miller and his friends in 1729 or 1730.
(15) “Gerundo” is merely another form of
Shenandoah. This name has been found in no
less than twenty different spellings. See Wayland’s “German Element,” page
3. No attempt is made herein to reduce the
spelling of proper names, of either places or persons, to uniformity. The diverse forms in which they appear are part of
the material of history, and have a value.
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William
Ferrell; 2) Abraham Strickler, 1000 acres, at “Mesenutten on Gerundo”; 3) Henry
Sowter, 300 acres, on the south side of Gerundo, near the mouth of Mesenutten Creek.
Some of these tracts, sold by
Stover, in December, 1735, were possibly never within the limits of Rockingham County, but
all were evidently near the Fairfax line, on one side or the other.
We may place the following land
sales, made in 1736, in the same locality. The
complete records may be found in Orange County Deed Book No. 1.
February 24, 1736, Ludwig Stein
sold 517 acres, in three tracts, on Gerundo River, to Michael Cryter of Pennsylvania;
witnesses, Gideon Marr, John Newport. On the
same date Ludowick Stein sold 217 acres, on Gerundo River (part of land formerly granted
to Jacob Stover), to Michael Coffman.
September 21, 1736, Jacob Stover
sold 400 acres, on the west side of Sherundo River, to Peter Bowman; witnesses, G.
Lightfoot, Thomas Nichols.
September 26, 1736, Henry Sowter
sold about 300 acres, on Gerundo River, to Ludwig Stine.
In Orange County Deed Books 1
and 2 are to be found records of the following land sales on the South Shenandoah in 1737:
February 24, three tracts;
Ludwig Stein to Martin Coffman of Pennsylvania; 300 acres on the south side of the river;
217 on the north side; and 100 acres on the north side, at Elk Lick.
October 22, 400 acres; Peter
Bowman to Christian Redlicksberger. This was probably the same tract that Bowman had
purchased of Jacob Stover in September of the preceding year.
Several transactions of special
interest appear in the year 1738. On March 21 Jacob Stover sold to Christopher Franciski
3000 acres, with the mansion house, adjoining Peter Bowman on the river: part of 5000
acres patented to the said Stover. December
15, 1733. The same day Jacob Stover
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and his wife
Margaret gave a bond to Franciski for L700. At
another time within the year they gave him another bond for L1000. To secure the payment of these bonds, Stover and
his wife mortgaged 5000 acres on both sides of the Shenandoah River. (16)
How Stover could keep on selling
his 5000-acre tracts, and still have them seven or eight years after the first sale, is a
mystery. Possibly he took back some land on
default of payment; or he may have obtained more than two 5000-acre grants.
March 23, 1738, Ludwig Stein
sold two tracts of land aggregating 1005 acres, on the Shenandoah River, to Philip Long;
witnesses, John Newport and Christian Kleman.(17)
December 13, 1738, Jacob Stover
obtained a grant of 800 acres. This land was
on the Shenandoah River, below Port Republic, and was at least in part on the south side
of the river, opposite the “Great Island.”
This island, containing about 60 acres, was purchased of the Franciscos a tract of
470 acres, on the south side of the river, part of the 800-acre tract granted to Stover in
1738.(18)
Christopher Franciscus--
“the old Stopfel Franciscus,” as he was termed in 1749 by one of the Moravian
missionaries who passed through the Valley-- (19) had large holdings of land in what is
now East Rockingham. He appears to have
located in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1709.(20) It
is not certain that he ever located permanently in Virginia himself, but he evidently was
in the Valley frequently, and his sons, Christopher and Ludwig, were permanent
residents.(21)
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(16) See Orange County Deed Book No. 2, pp. 229-234.
(17) Idem, page 260.
(18) Augusta County Deed Book No. 4, pp. 58-65.
(19) Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
October, 1903.
(20) Rupp’s Thirty Thousand Names, page 436.
(21) For more particulars concerning Franciscus and his
sons, see Wayland’s “German Element,” pp. 54-56.
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It is evident, from the
foregoing particulars, that a considerable number of settlers had located within the
present boundaries of Rockingham within the decade following the first known settlement in
1727. The earliest settlements were in the
eastern side of the county, though it is quite likely that the tide of immigration that
was creeping up the north fork of the Shenandoah had also reached and passed the Fairfax
line, west of the Massanutten, by 1734 or 1735. As early as April 30, 1732, William
Beverly wrote that the “northern men” were fond of buying land on the upper
Shenandoah, because they could get it there six or seven pounds cheaper a hundred acres
than in Pennsylvania, and because they did not care to go as far as Williamsburg.(22) It should be remembered also that John Lewis
located at or near Staunton in 1732, and that a number of his fellow-countrymen came into
the upper Valley with him, or soon after he came. These
facts are recalled here in addition to what is definitely known concerning the first
settlers and settlements, to show that a large number of persons, Germans, Scotch-Irish,
and others, had located in and about the present limits of Rockingham by the year 1738. The majority of these settlers had come up the
Valley from Maryland and Pennsylvania, but a few had come across the Blue Ridge from East
Virginia.
The first grants of land were
sought and secured along the main watercourses, though it is said that in many cases the
settlers in a little while sought dwelling places on the higher lands toward the hills and
mountains, because of the malaria that infested the bottom-lands. It is not likely, however, that such conditions
caused any one to relinquish permanently his fertile holdings along the rivers; and with
the development of civilization - the clearing of lowland thickets, the draining of swamps
and marshes, the erection of better dwellings - the malaria gradually disappeared.
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(22) Waddell’s Annals of Augusta, 1902 edition,
page 21.