Volume 18 , Issue 30

NW Okie's Journey

As we continue our research into our emigrant European pioneers that settled in the Virginia area, we discover more interesting tidbits of what life was like for many of them. Our ancestry surnames settling in the Virginia area were: Warwick, Dunlap, Powell, Hull (Hohl), Keister, Roger Dyer and his wife Hannah Greene, Craig, Johnson, pray, Gwin (Guinn), Eckard, Dilley, Dever, Hamilton, Gilmore, Stephenson, Carlyle, Kincaid, etc...

There was an Alexander Hamilton, born 1615, Granshaw, Comber, County Down, Ireland, and died 26 January 1676, Killyleagh, Down, Ireland, that shows up as my 8th Great-grandfather. He married Jean (Hamilton) (1620-1699), and had a son Robert Hamilton (1665-1677). Robert's daughter Agnes Anderson Hamilton (1702-1759) shows up as my 6th great grandmother, married to John Gilmore, Sr. (1692-1759).

Knights of the Golden Horseshoe
The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition was also known as the Transmontane Expedition. It took place in 1716 in the British Colony of Virginia. The Royal governor and a number of prominent citizens traveled westward, across the Blue Ridge mountains on an exploratory expedition.

Alexander Spotswood, with about 50 other men and 74 horses, led a rea estate speculation expedition up the Rappahannock River valley during westward exploration of the interior of Virginia. The party included fourteen rangers and four Meherrin Indians, and departed Germanna on August 29, coming within sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains on August 31, 1716.

On September 6, 1716, they rode down into the Shenandoah Valley on the east side of Massanutten Mountain and reached the Shenandoah River, which they called the "Euphrates" near the current town of Elkton. There, they fired multiple volleys and drank special toasts of wine, brandy, and claret to the King and to Governor Spotswood, naming the two peaks after them. The taller summit they called "Mount George", and the lesser, "Mount Spotswood".

Let me leave you here with a poem called "Horse-shoe Knights," concerning the Virginia settlers of the Shenandoah and Virginia Valley:

Horse-shoe Knights
The knightliest of the knightly race,
Who since the days of old,
Have kept the lamps of chivalry
Alight in hearts of gold;
The kindliest of the kindly band,
Who early hating ease,
Yet rode with Spotswood round the land,
And Raleigh round the seas -
Who climbed the blue Virginia Hills,
And planted there, in Valleys fair,
The lilly and the rose,
Whose fragrance lives in many lands,
Whose beauty stars the earth,
And lights the hearts of many
Homes with loveliness and worth.
Without they slept, the sons who kept
The names of noble sires,
And slumbering while the darkness crept
Around their vigil fires.
But still the Golden Horseshoe Knights
Their Old Dominion keep,
Whose foes have found
Enchanted ground,
But not a Knight asleep.

Good Night! Good Luck! We are stronger together! "Love conquers Hate!"
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