Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia Part 12

Cedar Creek, the parent of the Bridge, has been busy for thousands of years cutting a bit deeper each year.

The answer to the second question, "How high is it?," is found on a Government bench which carries a bra.s.s plate, "1,150 feet above the sea." It is 245 feet high and is 90 feet wide.

Boys and men are especially interested in the exciting story of how Dr.

Chester Reeds actually measured the wonderful Bridge. He had a special basket built which was strong enough to hold him. Two hundred and fifty feet of rope was fastened to it and run through a pulley and one end of it was tied to a fence post. He was very dizzy at first and could not take pictures of the side walls of the bridge. Gradually he became accustomed to turning around and was able to get many fine ones at various angles and of the ma.s.sive supporting walls, the huge slabs of limestone and some of the foliage.

Natural Bridge is a monument to the patience of Old Mother Nature and her skill as an artist. Today, one wonders at the deep gorge--by night, with modern electrification, one is spellbound by its beauty--and when sweet music fills the glen with its symphonies one's soul is lifted to the Greatest Artist of all--to G.o.d in reverence and grat.i.tude.

Rockbridge

Rockbridge County takes its name from the celebrated Natural Bridge and was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties. A branch of the James River is called North River and this stream waters the county, flowing diagonally across it. Some of the richest soil in all the Valley is found in Rockbridge. Lexington, which is the county-seat, takes its name from the town of Lexington in Ma.s.sachusetts and was founded in 1778. The first buildings of the old town were mostly destroyed by fire in 1794 and were replaced with substantial brick buildings. An Englishman who was visiting America long ago described the little town in these words:

"The town as a settlement, has many attractions. It is surrounded by beauty, and stands at the head of a valley flowing with milk and honey. House rent is low, provisions are cheap, abundant and of the best quality."

The settlers were mostly the Scotch-Irish and of the Presbyterian faith.

As soon as they had cleared the lands and built their homes they planted orchards, built their barns and settled down. These were thoughtful men and women who kept their emotions under constant guard. Yet when occasion arose, they spoke simply and clearly and were unafraid. They detested civil tyranny and as they were far away from the seat of government, to a certain extent they made their own laws and rigidly adhered to them.

They were among the first in the Valley of Virginia to rally to the defense of their country during the War of the Revolution.

In their moral life, they were almost Puritanical. This was founded on religious principle and often they were considered austere and stern.

Yet those who knew them, felt the kindness and devotion to which they did not give expressions in words. To them, deeds meant more than promises. Though they reproved one without a smile, their eyes often expressed understanding and sympathy and the offending one felt the deep love which had moved the other to speak--always for the good of the offender. And while some other fault would rear its head, not often was the offense repeated which had called forth the reproach.

The men and women were deeply religious and family prayers were the first order of the day. As soon as homes were established provisions were made for religious services to be held. Tiny churches dotted the Valley wherever the Scotch-Irish settled. If the church was far away, as it was from some, on meeting day young and old mounted their horses and rode the intervening miles for the long services.

Many of these old Presbyterian churches are still standing today and they serve as monuments to that hardy race of men and women who braved all for religious freedom and for civic liberty. The building of these churches meant such labor as we of the present generation cannot know.

There were no roads and no sawmills. An old historian tells us how one church was built:

"The people of Providence Congregation packed all the sand used in building their church from a place six miles distant, sack and sack, on the backs of horses! And what is almost incredible, the fair wives and daughters of the congregation are said to have undertaken this part of the work, while the men labored at the stone and timber. Let not the great-granddaughters of these women blush for them however deeply they would blush themselves to be found in such employment. For ourselves, we admire the conduct of these females; it was not only excusable, but praiseworthy--it was almost heroic! It takes Spartan mothers to rear Spartan men.

These were among the women whose sons and grandsons sustained Washington in the most disastrous period of the Revolution."

There was little social life in those early days such as their eastern cousins knew along the James River. Except for their church festivals, they did little entertaining. Twice a year they held the Lord's Supper and this lasted for four days, with religious services each day. During these times families living nearest the church invited those who lived at great distances to stay with them. Often some young couple would be married, either just before or immediately after these services. Then there would be a little merriment, extra cakes and a few playful pranks.

THE FIRST ACADEMY IN THE VALLEY

Dr. Ruffner has left us a description of Timber Ridge, which was built near Fairfield in Rockbridge County in 1776. The school took its name from the fine oak trees which grew along its ridge. He writes:

"The schoolhouse was a log cabin. The fine oak forest, which had given Timber Ridge its name, cast its shade over it in summer and afforded convenient fuel in winter. A spring of pure water gushed from the rocks near the house. From amidst the trees the student had a fine view of the country below and the neighboring Blue Ridge. In short all the features of the place made it a fit habitation of the woodland muse and the hill deserved the name of Mount Pleasant. Hither about thirty youths of the mountains repaired to 'taste of the Pierian spring.' Of reading, writing and ciphering, the boys of the country had before acquired such knowledge as primary schools could afford; but with a few late exceptions, Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry and such like scholastic mysteries were things of which they had heard--which they knew perhaps to lie covered up in the learned heads of their pastors--but of the nature and uses they had no conception whatever.

"It was a log hut of one room. The students carried their dinner with them from the boarding-schools in the neighborhood.

They conned their lesson either in the schoolroom where the recitations were heard, or under the shade of the trees where breezes whispered and birds sang without disturbing their studies. A horn--perhaps a cow's horn--summoned the school from play and scattered cla.s.ses to recitations.

"Instead of broadcloth coats, the students generally wore a far more graceful garment, the hunting shirt, home-spun, home-woven, and home-made, by the industry of wives and daughters.

"Their amus.e.m.e.nts were not less remote from the modern taste of students--cards, backgammon, flutes, fiddles, and even marbles were scarcely known among these mountain boys. Firing pistols and ranging the field with shotguns to kill little birds for sport, they would have considered a waste of time and ammunition. As to frequenting tippling shops of any denomination, that was impossible because no such catchpenny lures for students existed in the country, or would have been tolerated. Had any huckster of liquors, knicknacks, and explosive crackers, hung out signs in those days, the old Puritan morality of the land was yet vigorous enough to abate the nuisance. The sports of the students were mostly gymnastic, both manly and healthful--such as leaping, running, wrestling, pitching quoits and playing ball. In this rustic seminary a considerable number of young men began their education, who afterwards bore a distinguished part in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country."

Valley Inventions

The Valley of Virginia has often been termed "the granary of the South."

It is no wonder that farmers from time to time have tried to shorten their labor in the wheat fields by inventing machines to do their work.

The name Robert McCormick means little or nothing to most of us, yet on his farm, Walnut Grove, near Lexington he made repeated attempts to invent a workable reaper. His son, Cyrus, had watched with growing interest each of his father's undertakings. His regrets must have been as keen as the elder McCormick's when they realized one May morning in 1831 that the clumsy machine could not replace the hand scythe and cradle.

Cyrus knew something of machinery and determined to improve his father's poor invention in time for the next harvesting. During the intervening six weeks he stayed in the workshop as much as the busy growing season would allow and secured the ready help of a slave boy, Joe Anderson.

In July when the wheat was ready to harvest Cyrus and his father moved the machine out to the field. There a crowd of neighbors gathered and watched with fascination as the reaper cut six acres of wheat during the day.

McCormick continued to improve his invention and other farmers risked their money in purchasing the first six he offered on the market.

Eventually the news spread to the grain fields of the Middle West and he opened factories to supply the farmers there.

For years the inventor strove to improve the reaper; he discovered that other labor saving devices were needed equally as badly, and he offered other types of farm machinery to the rich farm lands.

Inventive genius lay near Lexington along other lines, too. It was near here that James Gibbs invented his common sense st.i.tch sewing-machine which was a forerunner of our more modern models. And what a labor-saving machine that was to all the housewives!

WASHINGTON COLLEGE

The Scotch-Irish were determined to have the best schools and colleges for their children. The Hanover Presbytery, which in 1776 embraced all the Presbyterian churches in Virginia, established a school which they called Liberty Hall Academy. This was built in Lexington, Virginia, with the Reverend William Graham, a native of Pennsylvania, as its first president. George Washington, in 1796, gave the school a regular endowment, the first of its kind. This is how it was made:

The Legislature of Virginia "as a testimony of their grat.i.tude for his services," and as "a mark of their respect," presented to George Washington a certain number of shares in the Old James River Company, an industry then in progress. Unwilling to accept anything for his own benefit, he gave it to the Liberty Hall Academy.

In 1812, the Trustees of the school voted to ask the Virginia Legislature to change the name to Washington College. Many others decided to follow George Washington's fine example. A Mr. John Robinson left his whole estate to the college; the next to aid it, we are told, was the newly organized Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia.

Old records of the school throw an interesting light regarding the expenses of a student in those far-off days. The treasurer's bill for tuition, room rent, deposits and matriculation was $45 per year. Board was $7.50 a month. Laundry, fuel, candles and bed amounted to about three dollars per month. The cost of everything averaged about $140 a year.

Lexington

When he was beset and overwhelmed, and without supplies, Robert Edward Lee reached Appomattox in April, 1865, and surrendered to General Grant on April 9th. He realized that the people of the South needed courage and strength, and though he was offered many places of honor with splendid salaries, he decided to help rebuild Virginia. When the call came to become president of Washington College in Lexington he accepted and took up his duties there in October, 1865.

As he spoke to the students a.s.sembled in the new chapel he saw familiar faces. Many of them had followed him during the years of the War Between the States; they, too, had courage and hope. These boys and men loved the n.o.ble man and they were willing to follow him in rebuilding their homes and the Southland.

"All good citizens must unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They must not abandon their country, but go to work and build up its prosperity.

"The young men especially must stay at home, bearing themselves in such a manner as to gain the esteem of every one, at the same time that they maintain their own respect.

"It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay pa.s.sion, and to give scope to every kindly feeling."