Volume 14 , Issue 8

Highland County, Virginia - Early Days

As we continue reading Oren Frederic Morton's book, A History of Highland County, Virginia, Chapter 7, page 66, we learn about the early Bullpasture pioneers, later comers, Cowpasture pioneers, Jackson's River and South branch pioneers. It was not the practice for a pioneer to isolate themselves and that is one of the reasons we find the settlement of the "Valley of Virginia."


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In the early days of April 1746 we find Augusta county was known as "Beverly's Mill Place." The surveyor laid off several tracts within Highland area of Virginia and came back in July and September. The surveyor laid off 21 tracts on the Bullpasture and Cowpasture, but mostly on the Bullpasture.

The surveyor ran lines for 14 persons and reserved a tract for Andrew Lewis, his brother, and three more for the syndicate of which the two brothers were members. All theses surveys had come under the order of council of 1743. Andrew Lewis tract of 348-acre was patented by himself four years later. The farm of W. P. B. Lockridge was a portion of it back when Oren F. Morton compiled this history of Highland county, Virginia.

The Bullpasture Settlers:

1. Alexander Black - just above the mouth of the Bullpasture, where Major J. H. Byrd lived. Alexander died in 1764 and his son William sold to Thomas Houston and went to Greenbrier. Alexander Jr. moved to Kentucky about 1797. Samuel Black was another son and had a numerous family, taking land in 1774 close to where the county seat now is.
2. John & Robert Carlile - Carliles were in the broad bottom just below. The Carliles lived, died on their homestead, which remained in the family many years later.
3. Wallace Ashton - Ashton was on the McClung farm at Clover Creek. Carliles held two tracts near by on the run named for them. One of these tracts cornered on McCreary. Wallace AShton disappears from sight almost at once, and is followed by Wallace Estill, who inherited the farm and lived on it about 20 years. he sold to John Peebles and removed to Botetourt. Estill came from New Jersey with a family partially grown, and reared a second large family in Highland. He owned land at Vanderpool and was a man of ability and influence.
4. Loftus Pullin - was a mile above in another wide sweep of bottom. Pullin was a single man when he came, lived and died on his homestead. His wife was Ann Jane Usher. There is a romance story for the Usher family. It goes something like the following:
   
   "One Edward Usher eloped with the daughter of an English Nobleman named Perry and came to America. Their four children were daughters, one dying in infancy. Usher died while they were yet small, and the widow went to England, hoping for a reconciliation with her father. He recognized her on the road as he drove by in his carriage, but being still angry he tossed her a shilling, telling her that was all she would have from him and that she must mind her brats herself. She returned to America, her children, if not also herself, finding their way to the Augusta colony, probably to Fort Dickenson. James Knox become the guardian of Ann Jane, and with a portion, at least, of her inheritance he purchased for her a negro girl. Several years later she married Loftus Pullin. One sister married William Steuart, another Highland pioneer, the third (Martha?) marrying a son of Captain Adam Dickenson. The stern Nobleman parent finally relented and provided for his daughter by Will, but the search he instituted failed to discover her, and no knowledge thereof coming to her descendants for many years, the matter went by default."
5. Richard Bodkin - was higher up, lying where the present river road comes back to the bottom after its circuit over a bluff. Bodkin arrived with sons nearly grown. In 162 either he or Richard, Jr., sold the homestead and went higher up the valley. During the next 40 years the connection largely drifted out.
6. James Miller - Miller was between Bodkin and Harper. Miller appears to have come with sons nearly grown and bearing the names of John, William and Hugh. They appear in the Augusta records, but the family did not seem to have remained very long.
7. Matthew Harper - Harper was where W. T. Alexander lives. harper sold to Hugh Martin in 1764 and went to Christian's Creek near Staunton. It was in 1750 that Hans Harper purchased land adjoining Matthew Harper, but 6 years later moved north of Doe Hill, where in 1765 he again sold out and disappears from view. It was between 1754 and 1760 that Michael Harper was living on Carlile Run, but died on the South Branch in 1767. He had a son Michael in his latter years. Hans and Matthew were brothers, but there is no evidence that the Pendleton Harpers were derived from these Harper brothers on the Bullpasture. Matthew was a constable.
8. William Warwick - Warwick was at the mouth of Davis Run. Warwick was one of those settlers in Bath. Warwick was an enterprising pioneer and was not slow to seize an additional choice tract, even if it lay at some distance from his home.
9. James Largent - Largent appears to have been in the vicinity of McDowell.
10. William Holman - Holman adjoined McCreary, who was between McDowell and Doe Hill, as was Delamontony. Largent gave his name to a hill below Clover Creek.
11. John McCreary - McCreary sold to Bodkin in 1763, but a son of the same name appears to have wedded Margaret Black in 1786.
12. Samuel Delamontony
13. Archibald Elliott - Elliot was at the very head of the river, one of his corners being on the Blackthorn. Except as a member of the militia in 1760, Elliott seems to have been only a bird of passage.
14. Robert Armstrong - Armstrong was in this vicinity. Robert Armstrong also lived on Jackson's River below Warm Spring.

It was not affirmed that every on of the settlers was living on the tract he selected. Especially with respect to the surveys near the head of the river. The settlement received many accessions during the next 15 years, even in spite of the Indian peril during the latter half of that period.

We find that Thomas and Hugh Hicklin lived below the Carliles in 1756. Robert Graham settled a little below the Carliles and was here by 1755, although he did not buy out the Wilson patent until 1761. We also find that Samuel Given purchased the Bodkin homestead in 1762.

The Cowpasture

In 1754 Hackland Wilson at the head of the river, and William Price at "a big spring." Charles Gillam was a landholder in this section, but sold to James Bodkin and he to Robert Carlile. James Trimble was a deputy surveyor and land speculator, having three tracts on this river. George Wilson had several, one of which he sold in 1759 to William Steuart, and three years later another to James Clemens.

Steuart was a young Scotchman, having a thrilling experience in reaching the Highland mountains. Steuart was well educated, expected to follow a profession. The ship on which he took passage was captured by Spanish pirates, and the crew was killed. Steuart was the only passenger and was put on the South Atlantic shore with no clothing save a piece of canvas and without his chest full of books. He drifted northward to the Augusta colony, doing at first manual labor. Steuart's soft hands and intellectual air brought him a welcome invitation to teach school. He followed this calling the rest of his life, but downcast at the loss of his beloved library, he was content to spend his days in the frontier wilderness. Steuart settled just blow the mouth of Shaw's Fork., and married Margaret Usher to become the brother-in-law to Loftus Pullin.

On Shaw's Fork we find John Shaw in 1756. He had a son, James, which bought land of George Wilson in 1759. It is thought that the Shaw cabin stood on the hillside opposite and below Headwaters. He was a pioneer of this neighborhood. The Shaws gave their name to the stream and to a mountain. In 1766 Thomas Devericks became their neighbor across the run. As we proceed down the Cowpasture, we find James Anglen in 1751, living at the mouth of the tributary which bore his name for awhile, but afterward became known as Benson's Run. There is no record that Anglen had title to land. Sarah, Anglen's daughter, married William Knox in 1794.

We mentioned Ann Jane Usher earlier, finding her guardian, James Knox, was a neighbor to Black, living on the Floyd Kincaid farm. Knox died in 1772 and the farm passed to Patrick Miller, remaining with the Millers a long while. It is thought that James Knox, Jr. was jilted by Anne Montgomery, and that his hunting trip to Kentucky in 1769 was in consequence of this. As leader of a military force he built Fort Knox, which grew into the city of Knoxville, Tennessee. he was also a soldier of the Revolution, a member for 5 years of the Legislature of kentucky, and in that state was known as General Knox. James Knox, Jr. finally won the woman of his choice and married the wide of General William Logan, living until 1822.

We come to Jackson's River at the mouth of Bolar Run where the earliest settlers of whom were William and Stephen Wilson in 1753, and David Moore in 1759. William Wilson was married in Dublin, Ireland, and lived a long time on Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania. In 1747, he came to New Providence Church in Augusta, and then onto Jackson's River. The late William L. Wilson, of West Virginia and Washington and Lee universities, was a conspicuous member of Congress. Rev. William Wilson united several Highland couples. The Crabbottom

The first known settler in Crabbottom was Robert Cunningham, who in 1761 purchased a patent of James Trimble. Agnes, Trimble's wife and widow, entered a survey the same year. Trimble seized a large and choice portion of Crabbottom and selling the same he pocketed a tidy sum.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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