Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia Part 17

Roanoke

THE GATEWAY TO THE GREAT SOUTHWESTERN EMPIRE

Raw-re-noke is an Indian word for money. The city of Roanoke was originally a land grant to Thomas Tosh, an old settler who came to "Big Lick" and settled there after King George II and King George III had granted him sixteen hundred acres of land along that fertile valley.

"Big Lick" was a favorite spot for the wild game and for the Indians too, for there they found the salt so necessary to life itself. One of Tosh's daughters married General Andrew Lewis and became the mother of Major Andrew Lewis and Thomas Lewis.

Later on, as more settlers came into the valley, quite a village grew up around "Big Lick" and in 1874 it was incorporated with John Trout as Mayor. Then in 1881 the village woke up. Saws and hammers were heard from dawn 'til dusk. The Roanoke Machine Works were being built. Nearby, stores and houses were springing up, warehouses and boarding-houses.

Surveyors were laying off lots and laying out streets. Contractors and engineers, artisans and mechanics were coming in every day. The men who sold supplies for all of these were indeed busy. The Norfolk and Western Railroad had come to Roanoke!

Old folks can still remember when rabbits ran over the grounds where stands the Hotel Roanoke. Small boys picked up Indian arrow-heads where now the beautiful grounds sweep down to the Station itself. They still tell how Salem Avenue was once a marsh and was later filled in for the fast growing town. Then came the union of the Norfolk and Western and the Shenandoah Valley Railroads. From that day to this, Roanoke has been the "Magic City." It was as if some magic wand had been waved over the one-time little village. But actually it was due to the industry and vision of the city planners who had built for the future. Commercial, manufacturing and industrial activities kept a pace ahead of the fast growing town. Among the first of these were the American Bridge Works and the rolling mills, iron works, West End Furnaces and the Virginia Brewing Company.

Long ago "Big Lick" was known to a few. It was situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by rolling valleys and watered by springs of crystal clear waters. Other streams made it an ideal place for the herds of buffalo and elk which roamed up and down the Valley of the Great Spirit. Indians came, too, to hunt them and thousands of smaller fur-bearing animals and birds for their feasts.

When the st.u.r.dy settlers from Ireland and Scotland came to seek a new home in the wilderness, they chose to follow the Great Road which later was known as the Wilderness Road. This led them along the beautiful valleys and across the mountains; soon tiny cabins, churches and crude taverns were being built.

Near where Fincastle stands today, there came a man years ago from Ireland, Thomas King. He had left behind his second wife, Easter, three children by his first wife, and several younger ones by Easter. He had come to make a home for them in Fincastle County and ran a tavern near where Roanoke stands today.

Then Easter wrote him that his oldest son, William, had arrived in Philadelphia and was working for a merchant. He was peddling merchandise and liked the new country.

Thomas was delighted and eager to see his fourteen-year-old son. He saddled his own horse and led a pony all the miles down the long Valley trail. He pa.s.sed such settlements as Staunton, Lexington, Winchester, Hagerstown, camping out or, stopping at some settler's house over-night.

It took weeks for him to make the long trip.

The merchant in the meantime realized he had a smart salesman in William and he made a bargain with him a few days before his father arrived. He asked him not to work for anyone else and set a time limit for his employment with him.

We can imagine how William felt when his father came, bringing a pony for him to ride back to Virginia. But he kept his word. He continued to go out with his peddler's pack on his back and his bright smile and polite manners helped him to sell his wares long before others sold theirs. The merchant told him he could go peddling to Virginia and that he could leave some of his articles in his father's tavern. William did this, leaving them at other taverns along the Great Road, too. And thus began the early chain stores.

When the pioneers began going on farther down the Southwestern part of Virginia, Thomas King went as far as where Abingdon stands today. He sent William back to Ireland for his step-mother and his brothers and sisters. William now had a little money and he inherited some from his grandmother, so he not only brought his family over, but he paid for several other Scotch-Irish and charged a little extra as interest until they could repay him.

He liked the people and the lovely country around Abingdon and bought land and built himself a home there. He went to see the salt marsh a few miles away where Saltville is now. This land was owned by General Russell. William urged him to develop the marsh, for at one time Indians had come there to get salt to preserve their game. But General Russell did not think much of the plan, and agreed to sell it to William.

The story of how he laughed, along with others, at William King when he dug and dug and did not find the salt spring is often told. But when William's men had dug for one hundred and ninety feet the "bottom dropped out" and the salt water gushed forth. William made thirty thousand dollars a year out of his salt business and left a fortune to his many nieces and nephews.

Roanoke is the gateway through which the visitor continues down the famous Valley Pike, Route Eleven. From every curve in the road one sees the beauty of nature. One learns bits of early history from the numerous historic signs along the route--for every footstep of the brave pioneers was bitterly contested from here on.

These first settlers were "a remarkable race of people for intelligence, enterprise and hardy adventure." They had come partly from Botetourt, Augusta and Frederick counties and from Maryland and Pennsylvania. They wanted liberty and freedom to worship G.o.d as a man's conscience dictated. They were a strong, stern people, simple in their habits of life, G.o.d-fearing in their practices, freedom-loving and good neighbors, yet unmerciful in their dealing with their enemies. Who were the trail blazers for these Scotch-Irish and Germans?

Dr. Thomas Walker qualified as a surveyor of Augusta County in 1748. He later set off with Colonel James Wood, Colonel James Patton, Colonel John Buchanan, and Major Charles Campbell, some hunters and John Finlay to explore southwest Virginia.

They were followed as far as New River by Thomas Ingles (or Engles) and his three sons, a Mrs. Draper and her son George and her daughter Mary, Adam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke. They were pioneers in search of new homes in the wilderness. Lands were surveyed for all of them on Wood's River and they made the first settlement west of the Alleghany Divide.

Draper's Meadow

In 1748 Thomas Ingles and his three sons, Mrs. Draper, her children and James Burke moved westward to find a new home for themselves beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. They chose a lovely spot on a high level plateau in what is now Montgomery County. They called their new home, "Draper's Meadow," and soon their new log cabins were built and their first crops were planted and such a harvest as they reaped that first year! Other neighbors and relatives from their old homes came to join them and for some time all went well in the little settlement. James Burke had been restless and had pushed on down into the southwest and settled in a valley enclosed for almost ten miles by the huge Clinch Mountain. This he called "Burke's Garden" and in telling others about it the old settler said "I have indeed found the Garden of Eden."

The Indians were very friendly and pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed the settlement without molesting them.

Then came the trouble with the French which has been referred to before.

The Indians swooped down upon Draper's Meadow without warning and killed or wounded most of the settlers. Those whom they did not murder, they carried off into captivity. Among the latter were Mrs. William Ingles (nee Mary Draper) some of her children and another woman. They were forced to march for days at a time until they finally reached the Indian towns on the Ohio River. During the trying days, Mrs. Draper did her best to keep in the good graces of the Indians. She tried to help them, even after they took her sons from her. When they reached Big Bone Lick she helped to make salt for the Indians and made shirts for them from cloth which had been bought from the French traders.

She often thought of her home over seven hundred miles from the Indian towns and determined to make her escape. She confided her resolves to the other woman who at first objected to going. At last she convinced her the time was at hand, if ever, for them to leave. She left her infant son one night, and with her friend, stole away from the camp.

They lived for days on berries and nuts. They finally killed small game and after many adventures reached the home of a settler forty long days later.

Mrs. Draper's friend lost her mind, tried to kill her and then left her.

Mrs. Draper reached the homestead of Adam Harmon on New River. There he heard her crying in his cornfield and went out to see who it was in such distress. He and his family cared for her and made her rest before she was taken back to her family.

The Ingles families moved up higher on New River and built another fort near the present city of Radford, Virginia. This was at Ingle's Ferry.

Botetourt County was cut from Albemarle in 1770, and William Preston was made surveyor of the lands. This was a well-paying position. He had fallen in love with Miss Susannah Smith who lived in Eastern Virginia in Hanover County. He built a house for her and called it Smithfield in her honor. Soon the Pattons, Peytons, Prestons, the Thompsons and many others were coming to build homes near them.

When the Prestons moved to Smithfield they took a young orphan boy with them, Joseph Cloyd. His father had died when he was very little and his mother had been killed by the Indians. He grew up with the other pioneer boys and girls and later settled on Back Creek. This home is near where Pulaski stands today and thus began another settlement. He was the father of General Gordon Cloyd and they founded a long line of honorable citizens in our country.

As one goes on he hears many strange tales of other explorers and settlers. For instance there is the sad story of Colonel John Chiswell who found rich lead mines near New River in what is now Wythe County.

For some unknown reason, he had killed a man in a personal encounter and was put in jail to await trial.

[Ill.u.s.tration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_

SCENIC HIGHWAY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA]

In the meantime, the Virginia Council decided to develop the mines and a fort was ordered to be built. Before the trial came off and before the fort was built, Colonel Chiswell died.

Colonel William Boyd was made supervisor of the building of the fort and he named it for his friend, Colonel Chiswell. Soon settlers began building homes around it, for the climate and rich grazing lands made it an ideal spot for homesteads.

The settlers pushing southwest from Roanoke built a fort and named it for a Mr. Va.s.s. The Indians attacked them and several were killed. This was near where Christiansburg is now located. It was near Va.s.s's Fort that General Washington, Major Andrew Lewis and Captain William Preston had a narrow escape from an attack by the Indians.

Washington County

In 1754 only six families were living in the early settlement west of New River. Two of these were in Pulaski, two on Cripple Creek in Wythe County, one in Smyth County and the Burke family in what is now Tazewell County. The Indians gave the settlers so much trouble that any further attempts to settle was given up until after the French and Indian War.

A small fort, called Black's Fort, was built when the settlers moved into the Valley around where Abingdon stands. Like most of its kind, it was built of logs, and a few log cabins were built within the stockade.

Here to these cabins within the fort came the settlers whenever the warning reached them that the Indians were coming.

Near the fort lived Parson c.u.mmings, called the Fighting Parson. He was an Irishman who had come to the Valley from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He fought against the Cherokee Indians in 1776 with Colonel Christian. He first settled in Fincastle, but soon drifted farther south. It was he who drafted the Fincastle Resolutions on January 20, 1775 and served on the Committee of Safety for Washington County.

On one occasion, when the settlers were residing within the fort, food became very scarce. Someone had to go back into the clearing and bring in supplies. Parson c.u.mmings and a few other men started off with a wagon to get them. They had not gone far when they reached Piper's Hill.

A party of Indians surprised the little band and one of them was killed.

Everyone made a dash for the bushes. The Parson was very stout and he was wearing a large powdered wig which was considered in those days necessary to the cloth. This made him more conspicuous and of course a target for the Indians.

One Indian ran after him, brandishing his tomahawk. The Parson dodged under a bush and as he left it, his wig was caught by a low hanging limb. The Indian took for granted that it was the Parson's head and made a bound to get it. When he took it in his hands, he was surprised to find no head there! He was disgusted and angry and threw it upon the ground exclaiming, "D--d lie," and doggedly gave up the chase. And thus the Parson escaped. The man who was killed was later buried in Abingdon and one may read his name, "William Creswell, July 4, 1776" on the crude stone which marks his grave.