229 D17 opy 1 TKe Discovery of tKe Valley of Vir- ginia by Governor Spotswood j& j& j& & A I.K.N A N I >KK SP( )TSW( )< )I ). < .1 (\ l kmiK OF VIRGIN] A i ! The Discovery of the Valley of Virginia by Governor Spotswood. AN ADDRESS Delivered before The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Ohio, at Cincinnati, on Compact Day, November 21, 1903. BY NATHANIEL PENDLETON DANDRIDGE. Press of The Robert Clarke Company, cincinnati. :)^0 r$ ^Vtx-i^ ??».. i. A^ Ji. / 7 ' 4 The Discovery of the Valley of Virginia by Governor Spotswood. Mr. Governor, Members of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, in the State of Ohio: Ladies and Gentlemen : — When I began to appreciate that I had committed myself in response to the very gracious invitation to make an address before the Mayflower Society, I must confess that I found myself in a state of grave per- turbation. What theme could I select which would be worthy of the grim virtues of your great ancestors? What song of praise could I sing that had not been sung before? What story could I tell which was not a "thrice told tale"? And as I pondered, my confusion was not dimin- ished as I thought of the trials and dangers and famines of that first awful winter. I seemed to hear the exultant shouts of cruel red men, and my heart was rent with the piercing screams of their writhing victims; and then anon there came a whiff of scorching flesh as the flames lapped round the limbs of burning witches, and my ear grew dull and my eyelids drooped as I listened to dialectic sermons of intolerable length. This indecision was followed by " confusion worse confounded " when meeting by (4) chance a valued friend, whose ancestors had come across the ocean in the Mayflower, and generation after generation had spent their lives on the very shores hallowed by the footsteps of the Pilgrim Fathers. He told me of his summer pilgrimage, the " Home- coming week " in New England at the old home of his father, and of his own childhood, which, he said with evident pride and satisfaction, was in the very neigh- borhood — and as he paused I bent my ear to catch some echo of the sacred past — "near," he said, "where Cleveland has his summer home." "Ye gods and little fishes!" have the lengthening shadows so obscured the fires that burned on the old hearthstone that the shores almost within sound of the surf breaking on Plymouth Rock, and the sands that once felt the imprint of Miles Standish's foot, and where the lapping waves rippled their approval at the plight- ing of the troth of John Alden and Priscilla — are these shores, hallowed by so many sacred memories, now most notable in the eyes of Mayflower descendants as the summer home of the only living ex-President! Among such perturbing influences I sat me down to my task, and I trust you will not take it amiss if you find yourselves far afield as we meander together down one of the by-paths of history, which will lead us from Robert the Bruce, to Breathitt County, Kentucky, pass- ing on our way through the September haze in the valley of Virginia, and feeling at last the " vapory breath of the east wind " that once bent the sails of the Mayflower, and finding ourselves on the very waters which were furrowed by her keel. On this long and somewhat sinuous way we will excommunicate a bishop, and behead a judge, but will encounter no (5) greater danger than comes from the popping of many corks and some clouds of tobacco smoke. You may catch the flavor of good hot corn pone, but will not have dyspepsia from baked beans or pumpkin pie. On the 26th of August, 17 16, there came together at Germanna, on the Rapidan, a notable company of Virginian gentlemen. They had met at the invitation of Governor Spotswood to explore the Blue Ridge, to find, if possible, a passage through the great mountains, which had been until then inaccessible, and which were deemed impassable. This expedition, embellished as it has been by romance and tradition, forms one of the romantic incidents of Colonial Virginia. On the return of the party there was instituted the Tramontane Order, or " Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe." The emblem of the Order was a golden horse- shoe, to record the fact that the horses on this expe- dition were shod with iron shoes, which were quite unnecessary in the sandy soil of the Tide-water coun- ties, but which were deemed essential for the stony passages of the mountains. The motto adopted was, "Sic juvat transcendere monies." Those only were to be eligible to this Order of Knighthood in the future who could prove that they had drunk the health of George the First, the then King of England, on the top of Mount George, which marked the furthermost point reached by the expedi- tion, and which, like loyal subjects, they had named for their sovereign. The company of which we are now speaking all performed this act of fealty, and had shown equal loyalty to other members of the royal family by drinking their individual healths in different kinds of (6) wine. For this very proper evidence of their devotion on the part of this most loyal colony they had come well prepared. For the ancient chronicler tells us, in describing the meeting at Germanna, that " the whole company was about fifty persons. They had a large number of riding and pack horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors" — they were true Virginia gentlemen. The central figure of this group was a man of striking presence, and had already played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the world. He was known to both court and camp in the old country, and had ridden by the side of John Churchill in the overthrow of the French on the fate- ful day at Blenheim, and had again played his part in the wars of the Low Countries in the campaign of Ramillies, Malplaquet and Oudenarde, an experience which had left its mark, for the good Governor later, in his many contentions with his not too complacent House of Burgess, showed that he had not forgotten his early training, and " swore like our army in Flanders." Alexander Spotswood was of distinguished Scottish ancestry. The Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode were con- spicuous in the annals of Berwickshire in the days of Robert the Bruce. John Spotswood. in direct descent, the son of a noted divine, became a still more distin- guished churchman. First, Archbishop of Glasgow, he became in 1655 Primate of Scotland and Archbishop of St. Andrew's, and here (in addition to his care for the spiritual welfare of his people), doubtless as all good Christians should, took an interest in " ye ancient game of golf," and could, if occasion should require, even "lay a stymie in a struggling brother's way." Too great fidelity to his church and her liturgy led to his depo- (7) sition by the Glasgow Assembly. He was "charged with profaning the Sabbath, carding and dicing, riding through the country the whole day, tippling and drink- ing in taverns till midnight, falsifying the acts of the Aberdeen Assembly, lying and slandering the old As- sembly and covenant in his wicked book, adultery, incest, sacrilege and frequent simony. He was de- posed and decreed to be excommunicated." Allega- tions which, if sustained, would certainly show conduct not quite commendable in a bishop, and all of which may be characterized as " important, if true." It is pleasant, however, to read that the historian himself was in a doubting frame of mind, for he adds: " In the excitement of the period there was little delicacy shown in accusing an opponent." In spite of the decree made by Kirke and Synod, he was deemed worthy, on his death, of a place in Westminster Abbey, and he there lies buried. Robert Spotswood, second son of the Archbishop, was " eminent as lawyer and judge." Author of " The Practricks of the Law of Scotland." He recovered while at Rome " The Black Book of Paisley." He proved no more acceptable to the Scots than his father. He was made Secretary of State of Scotland by Charles the First, and carried the commission of Captain-General to Montrose, and was with him until his defeat at Phillipaugh, after which he was found guilty of high treason, namely, that he had " advised, docqueted, signed, carried and delivered to Montrose the commission appointing him Captain-General and Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland." His execution was most strenuously opposed, for " though many liked not his party, they liked his person." Still he was beheaded (8) at St. Andrew's, January 16, 1646, "the maiden being brought from Dundee for the purpose." The day before his death he wrote to Montrose, encouraging him " by fair and gentle carriage to gain the people's affection to their princes rather than imi- tate the barbarous inhumanity of their adversaries.'' This execution was the act of Scotch Puritans, but as there was constant going to and fro across the border to meet the frequent changes in the moral and religious atmosphere, it is not impossible that some of your ances- tors may have been engaged in showing this marked personal attention to one of mine. His grand-son, Alexander Spotswood, was born in Tangiers in 1676. He was literally brought up in the camp, and at the age of twenty-eight had reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was Quartermaster- General to Her Majesty's forces in Flanders. In 1710 he came to Virginia as Deputy Governor under Lord Orkney, and brought with him the right of Habeas Corpus. His portrait " in the State library in Rich- mond represents him in full dress, scarlet velvet, grace- ful and commanding in face and figure, antique type of the cavalier." In Virginia his energy and organizing ability stimulated development in all directions. He first conceived the idea of making tobacco notes a cir- culating medium. And here I may remind you, for the benefit of those who are disposed to sneer at a State dependent upon a single staple, and that, too, one which caters to self-indulgence merely, and who are always prating about the connection of nicotine, cigarettes and paresis, that a learned writer has remarked — and the remark is quoted with approval by John Fiske — that a (9) " true history of tobacco would be the history of English and American liberty." (Moncure Conway.) Governor Spotswood brought Germans into the country for the cultivation of grapes and the making of wine, and established at Germanna the first iron fur- nace on this continent, and thus had a monopoly in the manufacture of iron. He was, therefore the real father of the Steel Trust. His purpose in setting on foot the expedition across the mountains, which was so gaily carried out to the music of popping corks, was by no means a frivolous one. In one of his letters to the " Lords Commissioners of Trade " he says: " The chief aim of my expedition over the great mountains in 1716 was to satisfye myself whether it was practicable to come at the Lakes. Having on that occasion found an easy passage over that great Ridge of mountains which were before judged impassable, I also discovered, by the rela- tions of Indians who frequent those parts, that from the pass where I was at it is but three days' march to a great nation of Indians living on a river that discharges itself into Lake Erie. That from the western side of one of the small mountains which I saw that the Lake is very visible." It is to be remembered that, while the English had in all their settlements confined themselves to a narrow strip along the seacoast, and had penetrated inland but little beyond tide-water, the French, under their great chivalric and devout leaders, LaSalle, Pere Marquette, Frontenac and many others, had passed up the Great Lakes to the Sault Ste. Marie, and had descended the Illinois River and the Mississippi, and already at this time, 1 7 16, they had founded Kaskaskia, Cahokin, Detroit, Mobile and Vincennes, and two years later (10) Bienville founded New Orleans. (Fiske.) The Eng- lish settlements were thus completely surrounded. Gov- ernor Spotswood goes on to say that the purpose of his late expedition across the Blue Ridge was " to ascer- tain whether Lake Erie, occupying as it does a central position in the French line of communication between Canada and Louisiana, was accessible from Virginia." As a result of the present expedition he proposed to the authorities in England that he should be authorized to lead an expedition to determine whether or not it was feasible to found an English post on the lakes, and thus " drive a wedge between the extremities of the French position." To accompany him on the expedition he had invited a number of representative gentlemen. There was John Fontaine, ensign in the English army, from whose journal we shall quote; Robert Beverly, of Mid- dlesex, the historian; Colonel Robertson. Dr. Robin- son, Taylor, Todd, Mason, Captain Clouder, Smith, and Brooke. Besides these, as escort and guide, the party consisted of four Indians and two companies of rangers. The place of meeting was Germanna, on the Rapidan, named for the Germans who had been brought over to plant vineyards, and was also the seat of the first iron furnace, and later of the Governor's palace. This place will live in history, for here were enacted some of the bloodiest scenes of the war. For if the trumpet which so gaily sounded to horse on that August morning, 1 716, could have carried down the ages, it would have been answered back by the tramp of marching thou- sands; as Grant's army, a century and a half later, passed through this same Germanna ford, plunged into the Wilderness, there to begin that series of disastrous battles when skill and strategy baffled overwhelming •* (II) numbers and obstinate and dogged determination, until the murderous din sank into silence on the wooded hillsides of Appomattox. Our party were a self-respecting lot of men, who fully appreciated the fact that Virginia gentlemen, with a proper regard for their own dignity, should not be expected to forego their usual social habits, even in the presence of danger from savage nature or still more savage red men. Among their supplies we are told they had brought " several casks of Virginia wine, red and white, Irish Usqubaugh, brandy, stout, two kinds of rum, champagne, cherry punch, cider, et cetera." For the et cetera their historian naively asks, " In heaven's name, what else could there have been?" The record of their journey is taken from Fontaine's journal: "August 27th — Set our tent in order and had our horses shod. "August 29th — In the morning we got things in readiness, and about 1 we left Germantown. At 5 in the afternoon the Governor gave the order to encamp near a small stream. We made great fires, supped and drank good punch. By 10 of the clock I had taken all of my ounce of Jesuit bark, but my head was much out of order." Query: Was it the punch, malaria or quinine? " 30th — In the morning, about 7 of the clock, the trumpet sounded to awaken all the company, and we got up. One Austin Smith, one of the gentlemen with us, having a fever, returned home. We had lain on the ground under cover of our tents, and we found by the pains in our bones that we had not had good beds to He on. (12) "At 9 in the morning we sent our servants and bag- gage forward and we remained, because two of the Governor's horses had strayed. "At half-past 2 we got the horses, at 3 we mounted, and at half an hour after 4 we came up with our bag- gage at a small river, three miles away, which we call Mine River, because there was an appearance of a silver mine in it." [It was on this same Mine River that Lee baffled Meade in an attempted attack some weeks after the battle of Gettysburg.] " We had good pasturage for our horses, and venison in abundance for ourselves, which we roasted before the fire on wooden forks, and so went to bed in our tents." 31st — They shot bear and deer, and after making fourteen miles, " encamped upon the Rappahannock River. We made large fires, pitched our tents, and cut boughs to lie upon. Had good liquor, and at 10 we went to sleep. We always kept a sentry at the Governor's tent. " September 1st — Saw the largest timber, the finest and deepest mold and the best grass that I ever did see. We had some of our baggage put out of order and our company dismounted by hornets stinging the horses. This was some hindrance and did a little damage, but afforded a great deal of diversion. We killed three bear this day to exercise the horses. " September 2d — We had a rugged way; we passed over a great many small rivers, some of which were very deep and some miry. We saw a small bear running down a tree, but it being Sunday, we did not endeavor to kill anything." This observance of Sunday is worthy of a New England conscience. " 3d — Came to a thicket so tightly laced together (13) that we had a great deal of trouble in getting through. Our baggage was injured, our clothes torn all to rags, and the saddles and holsters also torn. At 5 we en- camped just below the great mountain." Some of the men now became sick with the measles and one of the horses was bitten by a rattlesnake, and so they left a guard with their heavy baggage in camp, which they called Rattlesnake Camp, for the huge rattler they roused by their fire. The following day they fol- lowed the windings of the James, killed rattlesnakes on the way up, and reached the top of the mountain at 1, at a spring from which the river flows. A subsequent writer lets loose a true southern imagination and fancy in describing the scene which was now opened up (Wayland, Virginia Magazine): "At 1 Governor Spotswood reached the brow of a declivity at the top of the mountain, and the whole glorious prospect burst at once upon his enraptured sight. For some moments, as the other members of our party came up, not a word or a sound broke the silence of the awe-inspiring scene; then two score of vigorous voices shouted in exultant chorus, and the blaring of trumpets woke the echoes of the surrounding hills and vales. The broad valley spread out before them; miles of tall grass gently waved and shimmered in the September sun. Huge patches of forests, whose foliage was just beginning to take on the mellow hues of autumn, lent beauty and variety to the scene; the Shenandoah River, called by the red men ' Daughter of the Stars,' wound in and out among the groves and grassy meadows like a broad thread of silver in a giant's cloth of green and gold, and off yonder, a dozen miles to the north, the bold extremity of the Massanutton CM) Mountains came jutting ' out into the valley like some rugged headland in a quiet sea.' ' To return to Fontaine's journal: " We drank King George's health, and that of all the Royal Family, at the very top of the Appalachian Mountains." About a mus- ket shot from the spring mentioned there is another, which runs down the other way. " It goes westward, and we thought we would go down that way, but met such prodigious precipices that we had fo return to the top." They finally found an Indian trail, and descended safely, finding wild cucum- bers, currants and grapes. They now reached the Shen- andoah and named it the Euphrates, which has called forth from Fiske a cry of holy horror at the vicious taste displayed, and he expresses his gratitude that the old Indian name, Shenandoah, the Daughter of the Stars, has been preserved. September 6th — They crossed the river and drank healths on the other side. They re-crossed, killed turkey, and deer, and caught some fish. Fontaine " graved his name on a tree by the river side, and the Governor buried a bottle (by this time they must have had a good many empty ones) with a paper inclosed, on which " he writ he took possession of this place in the name and for King George First of England." " We had a good dinner, and after it we got the men together and loaded all their arms; and we drank the King's health in champagne and fired a volley; the Princess' health in Burgundy and fired a volley, and all the rest of the Royal Family in claret, and a volley. We drank the Governor's health and fired another volley. We called the highest mountain Mount George, and the one we crossed over Mount Spotswood." It is evi- / (15) dent from the report of this day's doings that jugs and bottles and casks were not considered heavy baggage, and were not left behind in camp. After their return home the Order of Tramontaine, or the " Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe," was formed, and a gold horse shoe, probably in the form of a watch charm, was presented to each one by the Gpvernor, who subsequently complained that the Brit- ish government were too penurious to pay for them. So far as known, none of these emblems are now in existence. For the future, admission to this Order could only be obtained by those who could prove that they had drank the health of the King on the top of Mount George. History is silent on the point as to whether any one ever established a claim to admission. The two peaks which mark the farthermost point of this jolly jaunt can not at present be identified, though the general course through Swift's Gap into the valley at Port Republic, eighty miles below Winchester, has been pretty well determined. The return was without any special event. The very last entry into the journal records that they " arrived at a large spring, which they named Fontaine Spring, and then drank a bowl of punch." It is a comfort to think that these loyal and cheerful souls had still wherewith to quench their consuming thirst. Two hours later, at 4 o'clock, September 15th, they were back at Germanna. The philosophical historian who analyzes the succession of events must note one deficiency in these records, which marks indeed a decided gap. This party of chivalric gentlemen had indeed found (i6) themselves in a land of generous plenty. They had feasted on bear meat and venison and wild turkey. They had found growing wild cucumbers and currants and luscious grapes, and had the generous liquor where- withal to make the feast complete. One thing alone seems wanting, in the light of future experience. No mention is made, as they meander with many a merry quip and joke through the rich river valleys, of their having come across a bed of fragrant mint, and yet it is just in their track that it grows at present in the greatest profusion. Could they have made the fortu- nate discovery and conceived of that subtle combina- tion of sugar, brandy and a sprig of mint, their highly cultivated sense of taste would undoubtedly have most heartily approved of it, and doubtless their historian would have sung its praises, for surely the mint julep has been the delight and also the downfall of many a Virginia gentleman since. We may now ask, in the light of future history, what was the practical outcome and effect of the discovery of the valley of the Shenandoah, and the fact which it established, that the mountains did not present any very considerable obstacle to the entrance to it from the tide- water counties of Virginia? The valley of Virginia was not, in fact, populated from her olden settlements and by her own people, but its early settlers came from an entirely different and in many respects an antagonistic stock. First a few Ger- mans dribbled in from the North, the overflow of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Then came that great Scotch- Irish emigration, which equaled in importance, and actually outnumbered, the Puritan and Cavalier emi- gration of earlier times. It first came into Pennsyl- (17) vania and flowed over into the valley, and the strong character and rugged virtues of its members made Virginia largely Presbyterian. It may be well for us to pause for a moment to con- sider the origin of the Scotch-Irish emigration, " the pioneers of the American backwoods." In 1611 James the First began to people Ulster with a Protestant population from Scotland and the north of England. They were of course all Presbyterians. The colony grew, became cultured, prosperous and rich by the establishment of linen and woolen manufactories, which are even now famous throughout the world. " The antipathy of the Scotch-Irish as a group and the true Irish is perhaps unsurpassed for bitterness and inten- sity " — a bitterness which has by no means yet passed away, and an echo of which we have heard even in this community, for when a Mullen, a few years ago, was asked to support a Morrison, he swore by the Mother of God and all the Saints he would let him go hang first, for, said he, with deep feeling, the Morrisons fought against the Mullens in the battle of the Boyne. This animosity did not, however, prevent altogether the bright, quick-witted Irish lads from finding favor in the eyes of the Scotch lassies, with the usual change in their religion, for, as Fiske has pointed out, it is not unusual to find MacGinnises, McManuses and Murphys of the Presbyterian faith. English tariff laws closed the linen and woolen factories, and drove thousands of the unem- ployed across the ocean. The Scotch-Irish pressed on southward into North Carolina and South Carolina, and passed over the moun- tains into Eastern Tennessee and on up the western slope of the mountains into Eastern Kentucky. This (i8) Irish-Scotch strain has exercised a most important influ- ence on our development, and has produced some of the most progressive and most characteristic Americans in our history. The mountain population left by this emi- gration has remained little changed to the present time. Their descendants remained all through the war staunch friends of the Union, and to-day they present many unmistakable evidences of their ancestry. They came from the clans of old Scotland, and still preserve their clannish feelings. The blood feud of to-day has come down to them from the time when bloody claymores avenged a kinsman's death upon the Grampian Hills. The blood runs true, and it is this inheritance from their old Scotch ancestry that makes Breathitt County to-day so exciting, but a not altogether satisfactory place of residence. My story of the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe and their discovery of their way through the mountains to the fair valley of the Shenandoah is now finished. And now some may ask, What has this old tale to do with the Mayflower, and why should a picnic party of convivial Colonial Virginians interest a Mayflower Society, who manifest such merited admiration of the stern virtues of their great ancestors? Well, at this very time Massachusetts had become a royal colony, and was ruled by a royal Governor with the veto power over her Assembly, just as Virginia was, and, as John Fiske has pointed out, from this time on the political problems of the former were assimilated to the latter, later to make the two the chief exponents and com- patriots in a glorious struggle. Further, while the descendants of the Pilgrims of this day were certainly a God-fearing people, they were (19) also a rum-making people, and the excellence of thei: brew and distillation is evidenced by the popularity oi Pilgrim Gin to-day. New England schooners seldom failed to bring a liberal supply of fragrant rum to Colo- nial Virginia, and so the descendants of the Pilgrims contributed in no small degree to establish that repu- tation for generous convivial hospitality for which Vir- ginia has been noted. Some of this rum doubtless found its way into the punch-bowl of the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe, which was so often filled and emptied. And, furthermore, at this very period there was in active preparation that first important and successful secession movement in Boston, when part of the con- gregation, splitting off from the Old South Church, moved into the New South, in Sommers Street (171 7). This secession movement was not opposed and thwarted by any forceful coercion, but as the years went on and the old South beneath Mason and Dixon's line sough« to separate and set up a house of their own, the New England conscience impelled Puritan and Pilgrim alike to manifest their disapproval, and it must be confessed they brought to bear the most cogent arguments to sustain their views. And, finally, perhaps it may not be improper to remind you that not fifty years from the time of which we have written a young lad from one of the Tide-wate* counties of Virginia, one George Washington, who late became connected with the descendants of Governo- Spotswood by marriage, crossed these self-same moun tains, and began his work as surveyor at Greenwa 1 / Castle, the seat of Lord Fairfax, not many miles north of the spot from which Governor Spotswood first saw (20) the waters of the Shenandoah sparkling in the Septem- ber sun. His work led him westward through the unbroken forests until he came face to face with the very clanger that Spotswood had foreseen and predicted, tnd which he had proposed to forestall, namely, the irmed posts of the advancing French. The knowledge thus gained made him the leader of the Virginia forces md enabled him to save the wreck of Braddock's army. This success a little later made him Commander-in- Chief of the Revolutionary army, and two weeks after his appointment he stood beneath the historic elm at Cambridge, the leader of that motley crowd of half- armed men then besieging the British troops in Boston. With such ability and success did he press the siege that with his guns pointing from the top of Dorchester Heights he drove the foreign oppressor forever from the home of the Puritan and Pilgrim. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 001 929 402 A