Volume 14 , Issue 47

History of Rockbridge County, Virginia

If you look at Chapter V of the History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, we learn of the "Early Pioneer Days" more about the distinctions, the virgin wilderness, houses, predatory animals, churches, Taverns, mills and the nature of the times.

Morton wrote that the eighteenth century was less democratic than the decade of the twentieth. And the English were less democratic than the Ulster people. More than a century after the settlement of Rockbridge, Alexander S. Paxton tells us that there was little or not social between the planter on the one hand ad the mechanic or the ordinary tradesman on the other. The land deeds showed social rank or occupation of one or both parties. The institution of nobility, universal in Europe in our colonial period, never took format root on our soil. The recognized gradations in social rank were fewer in the Valley of Virginia than in Tidewater.

In the Valley of Virginia district the number of those who were technically known as "gentlemen" was quite small. The gentleman was understood to be one of the upper middle class, coming between the nobility and the yeomen. He was descended form freemen, had a coat of arms, and had the privilege of wearing a sword. On the frontier, a prominent person, a member of the county court for instance, would be given the title as a matter of courtesy.

According to the British, the yeoman was a freeholder, qualified to vote and to serve on a jury. In old Augusta this class was numerously represented, and it was the backbone of its society. Below the yeoman was the freedman, who had emerged from servitude and was now in the full enjoyment of the ordinary civil rights. On a level with the freedmen were a considerable number of people who were penniless or nearly so. These were sometimes worthy members of society and sometimes very unworthy. At the bottom, still on the white side of the scale, was the indentured servant. The indentured servant, with the exception of his larger legal rights, was practically as much a serf as the negro. White servants were numerous in Augusta and require special mention.

Some of these were convicts, but the convict of those days were not necessarily a "hard case." The person who stole a coat or loaf of bread to fend off cold or starvation was marked for the gallows by the letter of the savage English law. The British judge would order him to be transported to America, where he had to undergo servitude a number of years. Other members of this class, especially boys, had been kidnapped from the British seaports. Still others were debtors, poor relations, and never-do-wells, sent away by their friends, so as to be out of sight if not out of mind.

Many a person sold himself to some shipmaster in order to reach America. Such a person was known as a "kid." On arrival at an American seaport the servants, whether voluntary or involuntary, were sold by the captain, the usual price being about $65. The average age at indenture was nineteen, and the average term of servitude was five years. They were better fed than in Europe and did not work so hard. They were entitled to free time, medical attention, commutation from punishment, the right to sue, and to complain by informal petition, and protection from service to colored persons. When the servant time was out, his freedom dues would help him to get a start in the world. If he ran away, as he often did, he was advertised, and if retaken he might be branded and whipped. The county court would also decree that he should serve his master a year or more of extra time, by way of indemnification for the cost of recovery. On the other hand, there were instances where the servant agreed to serve a year longer for being purchased from a disagreeable master.

In 1761, a servant to Sampson and George Mathews agreed to serve them three years extra time in return for their consent to her marrying the man of her choice. If in that time there were no issue the brothers were to pay her $10 a year, less the cost of her clothes.

The indenture system, with respect to immigrants, came to an end during the Revolution. It was anode of colonization and it promoted a democratic feeling. But with its decline negro slavery grew in favor. The moral influence was bad, and not a few of the women servants were of loose character. When one of these women had a child by another man than her master, she would be required to serve him extra time, as often occurred back then.

There were native apprentices as well as imported servants, and with respect to the general character of the servitude there seems to have been little difference between the two classes. The master was not infrequently summoned to answer the complaint of an apprentice. A petition of 1811 asks for a more efficient means of effecting recovery of the many apprentices that try to abscond.

This is a specimen of the colonial form of indenture, and the John Roseman mentioned therein was a settler of the Raphine neighborhood. The McBride name appears int he same locality.

This indenture made the twenty fourth day of ____ in the year of our lord christ one thousand seven hundred and fifty five Witnesseth that Daniel McBride of the county of Augusta in the colony of Virginia hath put himself app renting servant and by these presents doth voluntarily put himself and of his own free will and accord put himself app renting servant to Hohn Roseman Cordwainer or shoemaker of this said cpunty of Augusta in the colony aforesaid to learn his art and trade or mystery after the manner of an app renting servant to serve him or his assigns from the day of the date hereof for and during the full term and time of two full years next ensuing, during all what time the said apprentice his said master faithfully shall serve his secret keys his lawful commands very -- gladly obey he shall do no damage to his said master nor see it done by others with out letting or giving notice thereof to his said master he shall not wast his said master's goods nor lend them unlawfully to others he shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony within the said term at cards or dice or any other unlawful games he shall not play whereby his said master may be damaged with his own goods or the goods of others during the said term without the license of his said master he shall hither buy nor sell he shall not absent himself day nor night from his said master's service without his leave nor haunt ale houses still houses taverns or play houses but in all things behave himself as a faithful apprentice savant ought to do during the said term and time and the said Daniel McBride doth hereby covenant and declare himself now to be of the age of nineteen years a single person and no covenanted indented or contracted servant or apprentice to any persons or persons whatsoever and the sd master shall use the utmost of his endeavors to teach or cause to be taught and instructed the said prentice in the trade and mystery he now professes occupieth or followeth and procure and provide for him the said apprentice sufficient meat drink apparel washing and lodging fitting for an prentice during the said term and at the end and expiration thereof the said master shall pay unto the said prentice the sum of ten pounds current money of Virginia or the value thereof in goods or chattels and for the true performance of all and every this said covenant and agreement either of the said parties bonded them selves tot he other firmly by these presents in witness whereof they have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and affixed their seals the day and year first above written.

The newcomers spoke English of the Elizabethan type that was current in Ulster. Words peculiar tot he Scotch dialect were also heard. The old pronunciation vanished in the second or third generation, on American soil, yet there is abundant evidence of its everyday use in the colonial age. The broad sound of the first letter of the alphabet was much more often heard than it was back then. A number of conversational expressions, such as "cow-beast," have gone out of use, but when our ancestors committed their thoughts to paper, their meaning was perfectly clear; more so than their own breezy, snappy speech would be to them, if they were here to listen to it.

The settler was master of some handicraft. One man was a weaver, another a millwright, another a cooper, another a rope-maker, and still another a carpenter or cabinet-maker. A very important man was the blacksmith. The blacksmith did not limit himself to repair work, but was really a manufacturer. he made nails, horseshoes, edged tools, and cooper-glazed bells. He also made farm implements, except such as were wholly of wood.

When immigration began to flock into the Rockbridge area in the fall of 1737, it was not into an unknown land. Governor Gooch had given wide publicity to what had been seen by Spottswood and his companions. The prospectors who spied out the choicer portions of the Valley, wight he intention of covering them with orders of council or with patents of less ambitious size, were desirous of seeing people come in. John Lewis, who arrived at Lewis Creek in 1732, very soon had a hundred families of the Ulster folk around him, and when Augusta attained to separate county government in 1745, the population of its vast area was about 4,000.

coinciding with the line of the Valley Turnpike was an Indian warpath, which, like all the more conspicuous trails of its class, could be used by a wagon as well as by a pack-horse. This Pennsylvania Road was the one thoroughfare by which a stream of immigration poured into Augusta. The court of Orange adopted it as a county road. The said road continued from Beverly manor line to Gilbert Campbell's ford on the North branch of James River, and that Capt. Benjamin Borden, Capt. William Evins, and Capt. Joseph Culton be overseers of the same,a nd that the gang to clear the same be all the inhabitants above Beverly Manor line to Glibert Campbell's ford.

The settlers fond this county was covered with brush, or with "Indian meadows," in which the coarse grass and peavine is spoken of as quite luxuriant. A forest growth was confined largely to the mountains, as in the case of Timber Ridge, which derives its name from this circumstance. The settler had sometimes to go a mile to find logs for a cabin. The brushy barrens were considered poor, and were passed over in favor of the timbered localities. The early comers were particular in refusing all lands they thought to be poor, but afterward found their judgment had sometimes been at fault. Thus Timber Ridge was settled in preference to open ground that was actually better.

The very first dwelling houses were undoubtedly primitive. They were round-log cabins, and sometimes the floor was nothing better than the naked earth. There is no doubt that the bark hunting-lodge left here by the red man was occasionally used. But by all except the moneyless and the easy-going, the rough and ready shelter was intended only as a makeshift.

The Indian peril, which first manifested itself at the close of 1742, must have been a powerful incentive to build houses of strength and a fair degree of security. Several structures of this kind were still in existence, but with enlarged windows and some other alterations.

The tilled acreage was small. Grain could be marketed only in the form of flour, and then only to limited extent. The pioneer grew little more than the supplies consumed on his place. Indian corn, unknown in the British Isles, was the only staple he had to learn how to grow. Since only the well to do could afford clothes of imported cloth, there ws much weaving of linen and linsy-woolsey. The flax patch was consequently a feature of the frontier farm. Hemp was a staple crop, and it was the one most immediately a source of ready money. The cultivation of it was encouraged by the colonial government. The fiber brought $5 a hundredweight, and there was a bounty of $1. More hemp seems to have been grown in Rockbridge than in other parts of old Augusta. Orchards were begun with young apple and peach trees brought from Pennsylvania. Kitchen gardens were said to have been unknown before the Revolution. The hint was taken front he Hessian prisoners of war at Staunton, who were permitted to plant gardens in the vicinity of their camps. Wagons were at first scarce, but were rather common during the Revolution. The farming tools were few and simple. Almost the only implements drawn by horses were the brush harrow and the plow with wooden mouldboard.

Rockbridge was well suited to grazing, and the early farms were well stocked with horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. The immigrants were not slow to see the advantage of irrigating the level meadows along the large streams. Such artificial watering was practiced on Walker's and Kerr's creeks.

Prior to the organization of Rockbridge as a county, there was no town of village. The store, the ordinary and the mill were the weekday places where the male element was most likely to congregate. The ordinary, or tavern, had a name which was painted on a board placed near the front entrance. There were a few of these in Rockbridge, but they were usually styled houses of private entertainment. There was a fine of ten pounds for keeping a tavern without a license. The guest could not be made to pay unless there were an agreement in advance. "The White Horse" was the name of the McClenahan hostelry in Staunton.

The first mill was that of Charles Hays, probably built not later than 1740. It was soon followed by the mill of James Young at the mouth of Kerr's Creek.

Staunton was the seat of government for the Rockbridge area during two-score years, and therefore deserves a few lines of mention. Nine years after the coming of the McDowells there was nothing around the little log courthouse and prison except two cabins, one of these being tenanted by a woman of questionable character. The colonial capital was at the time a village of about thirty houses. "Stantown" was surveyed in 1750, and three years later contained about twenty houses. Two years later yet, a new courthouse, twenty-six by forty feet, was completed. In 1761, Staunton was designated as a town by legislative enactment, and wooden chimneys were no longer to be permitted. Fairs were authorized in June and November for the second Tuesday of the month. When the Revolution broke out, Staunton was one of the few important towns in Virginia and had several stores and taverns.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---