Volume 15 , Issue 14

Summary of Rockbridge County, Virginia

There is an Indian legend to the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley, that it so awed the heavens that each star cast the brightest jewel from its own crown into the valley's limpid waters, to sparkle and shine ever after in a gesture of celestial benediction.

This is just a summary of what we have learned about this beautiful Shenandoah valley, also known as: "Shenandoah - Clear-Eyed Daughter of the Stars." We know that the valley was first viewed by the English settlers in 1716 by the Governor of Virginia, Spottswood and a company of explorers known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, as they viewed the valley from the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We know that the Scotch-Irish and German immigrants came from pennsylvania and began to settle the valley in the 1730's, establishing themselves along well-worn Indian paths, known as the Great Wagon Road, which traversed the center of the valley. Some might remember this road later known as "The Valley Pike, US Rt. 11.

And let us not forget Benjamin Borden, who received a royal grant that included what is now Rockbridge county. The stipulation that he would settle a hundred families there. Borden made protons of this land available to settlers for the establishment of farms. And the name of the county was derived from the "Rocky Bridge," and early reference to the "Natural Bridge of Virginia. This bridge was located in the southern portion of the county and one of the natural wonders of the world. Have you ever run across a county with the same name of "Rockbridge?"

Rockbridge county is an irregular rectangle stretching 32 miles down the Great Valley of Virginia, with the Blue Ridge mountains bounding it on the east, and the Allegheny mountains forming the boundary on the west. Most of the county, as seen by early settlers, was comprised largely by meadows and savannas surrounded by rolling hills bordered by two large mountain ranges. There were farmsteads along the bottomlands and in the foothills that produced surplus grains and beef. The Mills processed the wheat, barley, rye and corn, serving as community business centers. Hunting and trapping supplemented farm production with bounties for wolves and other predators that helped to produce cash.

Did you know that among the great men who had been born in Rockbridge county was Cyrus McCormick, who invented the reaper which revolutionized farming. Then there is Sam Houston, Senator of two states, and trailblazer, governor and president of Texas. Let us not forget "Big Foot" Wallace, a well mown frontiersman, and James A. Gibbs. Others that lived in Rockbridge county were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. And Thomas Jefferson owned a tract of land in Rockbridge that included the Natural Bridge, and was reported to have played a part in the naming the county as well as the town of Lexington (incorporated in 1841).   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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