>* .*^ ^V. V* •^•^^' o '*Tt^' .'If^^ ' / \ - .../ ^^''^ _ .•• «.^'"-^ x.^^." y\. .... - W •»- A^ mainly a family all'air, and it nn- avoidahly contains a s'ood deal of matter which must possess small interest for the i>;(*ueral reader. At the same time it is claimed that this liook has in it a jireat deal relatinsi' to the history of ^'irg•inia and Kentucky which is part and parcel of the story of these gxeat Commonwealths, and suited to interest all who love to study their pioneer records. Some of the matters referred to have never before appeared in print. A careful perusal of the Table of Contents will enable the reader to (htermime what chapters arc lilcely to deal with events which he would care to study. The author has devoted a large part of his spare time for the last fifteen years to gatherinsi' up the facts and traditions to be found recorded herein, and the la1>or involved in his researches will never be fully understood, even by those who shall find the greatest satisfaction in the reading of this book. Court records, family Bibles, church reg- isters, milit*a.i"y rosters, private papers anersons, and he is most grateful l\>r (he courtesv he has met with in PEEFACE. every quai'teT. His obligations to some individu- als, however, are too larsie to admit of bis debt being discliarged by a mere general aclcnowledg- ment A few of the gracious friends must be men- tioned by name. To the lion. Eeulicn T. DuiTett, of Louisville, President of the I-'ilson CMul), and the A\Titei' of the Introks or a word of infonnatiou and counst»l, as needed. Without his aid this volume would lack some of its most valuable chapters. To the late Dr. John P. Hale, long-tim'e President of the West Virginia Historical Society, who knew more, pei'haps, than any man of his day in regard to the streiims, mountains and trails of his native State (West Virginia), the author owes much. The A'oluiniuous coiTespondence which the author liad with Dr. Hale only a few years l>efore his death has greatly enriclien lK>en copied, and can l)e found in many o: th(^ great libraries on both sides of the sea. The journals sx^verally kept by James and Robert Mc- •Vfee, during the tour of the McAfee Company to Kentucky in 1773, are simply invaluable. They are given in full, Avith notes, in Ap])endix A of this volume. The two publications by the Rev. Edgar AA'oods, of Charlottesville, Va., to wit: History of Alb(^marl(> County, Virginia; and History of One Branch of the Woodses furnish a great luass of reliable information in regard t(» the earlier Wo()ds(^ and T^^allaces. That fascinating little monogTaph on The Wilderness Road, by the late lamented Capt. Thomas Speed, has been a great help and a delight to the present writer. Historic Families of Kentucky, by the late Col. Thomas M. Green, has afforded most A'aluable item's in regard to ilagdalen Woods, the McDoA\-ells and the Bordens and the Bowyers. The History of Ken- tucky by the tflo Collinses — father and son — re- nxains the grandest thesaurus of Keutiicky records an_A-^\'her(^ to be found, without which no man can Avrite of Kentucky to good purpose. A recent History of South-Westem Virginia, by the Hon. Lewis P. Summers, of the Abingdon Bar, has done for the region y\-\th which it deals what the Col- linses have done for Kentucky, and no man who would know the genesis of that interesting section of our counti-y can affoi'd to be Avithout it. We have deinved much assistance also from Old Vir- ginia and Her Neighbors, by the late Professor John Fiske; fi'om the histories of Kentucky by ^Marshall, Butler, Shaler and Smith, resi>ectively ; frcmi the histories of Tennessee, by Haywood and Ramsey, respectively ; from Wlw^ler's North Oaro- lima; from Foote's Shetches of Virginia, both series; from the local histories of Augusta County, Vir- ginia, by Waddell and Peyton, respectively; and, last, but not least, from Dr. Hale's Trans-Alle- gheny Pioneers, a book which possesses the chanu of 1>eing in large part the narrative of the actual experiences of its author. The Index appended hereto is full enough to enable the reader to find, without m'ucli difficulty, PIJEFAC'I-]. uoarly every person, place ami event of real ini- Imuu will think kiudly of him who made it possible portauce that is anywhere mentioned iii this for tiiem to know much ahont their worthy prt>- volumc. jieuilors, aiul that perhaps a hundred yeai*s hence The preparation of this wurk has been to the there may be found, here and thei'e in this broad author, from first to last, a la.l)or of love. That it laud, those who w ill fnudly cherish as one of their is much marrwl by blemishes and defects he doubts luost sacred fauiily heirlooms a well-worn copj' of not, and hence he has no hope thait it is yoiug to The W'ocxIs-MeAfee ^lenu>rial. This shall be our please even all of those for wh<»se benetit it has sutticient reward. been written; but the author ventures to cherish Nkandeu M. Woods. the hope that many AVoodses and McAfees yet un- Louisville, Ky., ^lay, 1905. TABLE OF CONTENTS Frontispiece— Portrait ok the Author .... Preface— Bv the Author List of Maps, with Explanations Introduction— BY R. T. Duerett, A. M., L.L- D. PART I THE WOODS FAMILY (Pages 1 to 150) CHAPTER FIRST— The Woodses in Great Britain 1 CHAPTER SECOND— Elizabeth Woods and the Wallaces 3 CHAPTER THIRD— Michael Woods of Blair Park 9 CHAPTER FOURTH— William Woods of North Carolina 132 PART II THE McAFEE FAMILY (Pages 151 to 218) CHAPTER FIRST— The McAfees in Great Britain 153 CHAPTER SECOND— James McAfee, Sr., in America 157 CHAPTER THIRD— Tour of McAfee Company to Kentucky in 1773 163 CHAPTER FOURTH— The Migration to Kentucky in 1779 175 CHAPTER FIFTH— The Salt River Settlement to 1811 185 CHAPTER SIXTH— The Pioneer McAfees and Their Children 195 PART III THE PATRONS OF THIS WORK (Pages 219 to 421) THERE WERE NINETY-THREE ORIGINAL PATRONS. THESE ARE DIVIDED INTO FOUR GROUPS, AND A SKETCH OF EACH PATRON IS GIVEN. GROUP ONE— Patrons not Related to either Woodses or McAfees. Six Sketches, i to 6, inclusive 221 GROUP TWO— Patrons Descended from the McAfees only. Twenty-sevejj Sketches, 7 to 33, inclusive . . 234 GROUP THREE— Patrons De.scended from Woodses only. Forty-seven Sketches, 34 to 80, inclusive . . 278 GROUP FOUR — Patrons Descended from both the Woodses and the McAfees. Thirteen Sketches, 81 to 93, inclusive 367 PART IV THE APPENDICES (Pages 423 to 486) APPENDIX A— The McAfee Journals— 1773, with Notes 424 APPENDIX B— Three Great Pioneer Roads 454 i'l) The Wilderness Road 456 (d) Long Hunters' Road 459 (c) Boone's Trace 473 APPENDIX C — Some Ancient Documents of Interest to the Woodses, more Especially . . . 479 INDEX 489 MAPS IN THIS VOLUME (ID i;k. lofMi A r iin: i;mj ui- 'i iiKiiooK.] MAP No, I— ALBEMARLE COUNTY, \'IRGINIA— Siiowinc, the Locations ok thk Woodsks and Waixaces, 1 734-1 800. MAP No. 2— SOUTH-WEST, VA., and SOUTH-EAST, KY.-SHOwiNr., Mainly, thk Route of the McAfee Company in 1773. MAP No. 3— MERCER COUNTY, KY., and ADJACENT REGION— Mainly Illustrating the Tour of the McAfees in 1773. MAP No. 4— VICINITY OF IRVINE ON KENTUCKY RIVER— Mainly Illustrating the McAfee Tour of 1773. MAP No. 5— PARTING OF THE WAYS— Showing the Numerous Trails Centering at Drapers Meadows on New River, Va. MAP No. 6— CENTRAL KENTUCKY. MAP No. 7— THREE GREAT POINEER ROADS. INTRODUCTION. BY REUBEN T. DURRETT, A. M., LL. D., OF LOUISVIl PRESIDENT OF THE FILSON CI.UB. -E, KV. The iit'iiraloiiy nf tlic W(hm1s ;iu(1 McAfee fami- lies, which follows this lutrodnctioii, has ample ]n'eci"(l('nts hoth in ancient and modern times. It is tlio work of the Rev. Neander M. 'SA^xxls, D. D., a (listiniiuished mem1>er of both of \ho families whoso pedigrees are traced in the hook, and is an example of that lore of ancestry ^^'hi(•ll has i>ive'n to the livinsi' of to-day the most accejitahle knowl- ee of their jyrogenitors who lived hundreds of years before their time. Genealogy, Avhich has become so popular of late, * is a term derived from the Greek words f/ciiea and Ifif/os, and nu'ans the arranging of a. pedigree, or the tracing of a family history. It Wcas one of the first exercises that engaged the human mind, and is therefore as old as the human race. Primeval man, before civilization gave him' the use of let- ters, cfnild hardly have scratched upon the liark of trees or stamped upon clay the births and marri- ages and deaths of his progenitors and descend- ants, but lu^ could have stored them in meuioiy and held them in tradition until the scribes of the future transferred them to their record. Pedigrees may be oral or written, and those we have in our Bibles of the patriarchs of the infant world orig- inated in tradition and ended in Avriting. To sup- pose that the patriarchs of the elder world re- corded the pedigrees of those who lived in the ten generations from Adam to Noah, and the ten from Noah to Abraham at the time, and in the order, in which they occurred is to attribute to them a knowledge of the art of writing which tliey could not have possessed at that time. Their lineage records were presented in tradition until stami>ed upon clay or inscribed upon papyrus or some otlier early writing material. Tliose jiadiarchs of (lie infant world were suflSci- ently imbued wilh Ihe (l(iedigree of a single ancestor. Had they undertaken to remember (vr to record the names of all members of (heii- families in the twenty genera- tions from Adam to Abraham, they would have had much to remem1)er and a bulky record. In the ascending line ancestors d(mble in each genera- tion so that at the end of the twentieth generation they would have had something like a million of names; and if the descending line were followefl there is no telling how many they would innnber at the end of twenty genei'ations. The final enu- meration would depend upon the number of chil- dren each successor had, and would yvrobably rise too high up in the millicms to be remembered or recorded as the art of writing then existed. We are greatly indebted to the Jews for the knowledge they have given us of the elder world. The pedigrc»es they kept in their temple give in- fonnatiion of peoi)le and events farther back in the past than we can get as full and reliable from any other source. The inxpi-ession has long prevailed that inspiration had something to do with these Bible pedigrees and that they were, thei-efore, re- liable on that account Whether this be true or not we would not on any account be without what they teach us of the first of our race and the first of all things that happened in the infant world. The Jews, however, were not the only ancient people who paid attention to genealogy. Late dis- coveries aanong the ruins of buried cities, in the Easit, indicate that tliere were genealogists in other countries contemporaneous with the Jews, if not of earlier date. They had not the advantages INTRODUCTION. which supposed inspiration ^^ixxe to the pedicrees of the Ohl Tcstaniont and the New, extendinon their own merits they show thaifc genealosrv was an art in use among EgT]>tians, Bahylonians. Assyrians nnd other an- cient x>eoph'S liefore the Jewisli records wei-e made. So far as discoveries liave been ma(h>, Egypt stands oldest in uninspired genealogy. Recently there has been exhumed from the ruins of the ancient city of Abydos the golden bracelets of the Queen or King Zer which had been worn something like five thousand yeai*s before the Christian era. This discovc^iy takes us back be- yond the beginning of the world as once under- stood to he indicated by the pedigrees given in the Bible. The Egyptians were known to keep in their temples the pedigrees of their kings and priests and the records of important events. When Solon, one of the Avise men of Greece, was in Egypt five hundred years before the Christian era in search of knoAvledge he was told by a priest that there was a record in his temple of the destruction of the island of Atlantis nine thousand years be- fore that time. With this statement of the temple records it can not be suri)rising that i>edigTees of Egyptian kings and (jueeus have been found in the ruins of long-buried cities which date back to a period anterior to those of the Bible chronology. Other ancient nations, and especially the Greeks and Komaus, paid early attention to genealogy. Acusilaus, a Greek historian, wrote a book on genealogy .about eight hundred years Iwfore the Christian era. Only fragments of this work have come down to our times, but these are sufficient to show how early the Greek mind was devoted to this subject. In such old histories as that of Herodotus, and sudi antieiit pi.inis as those of Homer, genealogical sketches are of freijuent oc- currence although genealogy was not the subject undei' consideration. The pride of ancestry nmde the Eom'an gene- alogists date their origin from the time when ^Tineas wandered from Trov to Latium. Roman liatricians vied Avith one another in the effort to trace their lineage back to one or the other of the thr(-<" tribes of Ramnes, Titienses or Luceres whose consolidation formefl the nation. Yirgil in trac- ing C;esar back to .Eneas wrote one of the finest ]>oeius in the Latin language, and prominent fam- ilies like the Cornelii, Gracchi, IMarcelli, etc., had pedigrees dating back as near to the origin of Rome as possible, which were known and Inmored by plebeians jis well as patricians. Leaving the field of ancient genealogy and also passing by its early dev(doimient in England, which probably ccuicerns us more th;in any other country, l)ut can not be noticed here for want of space, we find that when the Dark Ages were lift- ing their shadows from Europe, during the reign of Richard III, a college of heraldry was esitab- lished in London for the puii>ose of taking charge of the whole subject of genealogy. Heralds were appoint«l to go over the countiy and collect such facts and records as could be had for preservation in the g'enealogical books of the college. By this means it A\-as hop«l that such fabulous pedigrees as had been traced from gods and demigods, w(;uld be discrediteeai"ance at this time of this book, embracing the Woods and JIcAfee genealogy. It is in line with precetlents reaching back to the r-emotest times. Such I'ecords began before letters were invente«l, ^^'hen barbarcnis man scratcheil hieroglyphics on the bark and leaA'Cs of trees or stamped them upon plastic clay. A practice thus reaching l»ack to the twilight of the world's beginning and continuing through all changes and conditions to the present time is the best evidence of the high regard in which genealogy has always been held and should continue to be held. When Dr. Woods, in behalf of himself and his family, undertook to i-ecoi'd the pevligrees of the Woods and McAfee families, he simply followed in the footsteps of others who desired to preserve the histories of their families. He thought the Woods and McAfe«! families had a histoiy worthy of preservation and undertook to record it. He has done his work thoroughly and well. He has inserted in his book nothing that should have been omitted, and the m'any families meutione^l owe him a debt of gratitude which it will not be easy to pay. The stoiy, moreover, as he has told it not INTEODUCTION. only embraces family liistnry, 1»nt inohules his- torical facts in the pioneer period which will be fonnd nowhere else. In Chaptei-s III and IV of Tart Second will be fonnd a better acconnt of tlie first set- tlement of Kentncky than can be obtained from most of onr histories. Members of the family are there shown ahont Harrodslmrg clearinsj land and bnildinc; honses for perma- nent occnpanc^' ^\-hile they heard the howl of ferocions animals and saw tlie gleam of the toma- ha^^•k and scalping-knife in the wild forest aronnd. But dangers did not deter them and they kept right on with their work until a settlement was established in the country. There has always been a doubt about the I'oute by which the jMcAfees left Kentucky and returned to their homes in Virginia in 1773. Dr. Woods studied this route until he had a clear idea of it and then made a map of it which shows it plainly from' beginning to end. The nmp of this route is not the only one that adorns the work. There are others which throw much light upon early times and there are splendid landscapes which beautify the work and make us familiar with the country when it was new. These landscapes are fine specimens of the engraver's art and illustrate the historic text as finely as the superb half-tone likenesses, of which there are many, do the biographic sketches of the members of the families represented. The IMcAfees were in Kentucky in 1773 before the white man had cleared an acre of ground or built a cabin upon it. The original forest with its infinite variety of noble trees covered the whole land excei>t ^A'here the rivers and smaller streams severcd it and cane-brakes and baiTens usurped portions of it. There was nothing like a human habitation on all the land. Even the Indian, if ever he built his wigwam in the dai'k shadows of the dense forest, had long since abandoned it and sought another home. There were everywhere to be seen upon the river terraces and othei" places mounds which had been erected by human hands, but the bnildei's had been gone so long that not even a tradition of them' remained. The panther and the bear roajned in the dark forests and the buffalo and the deer fattened upon the cane. Herds having a thousand animals were sometimes seen at one of the Salt Springs. The McAfees, therefore, saw Kentucky Avhen it was one of the grandest natural parks that ever existed. It was called by Boone and others the hunt(^r"s paradise, but the McAfees came not here to hunt. They came in search of homes for their families. And hei*e, ^^•here the richest of land could be had for tlie asking, they selected their farms and built their houses and became citizens of the country they had thus practically discovered. Dr. Woods, however, does not rest the claim of the Woodses and McAfees to genealogical notice upon their early migration from the old country to the new. They perfonned good deeds in the Colonial period, and ^\■hen the Eevolutionary War came on they shouldered their muskets and buckled on their broadswoitls and fought like hei'oes for the independence of their country. And A\'hen the victory of the Kevolution left the country free of the original enemy but Iieset on its bordea^ by ldoodtliir.sty and merciless savages they fought these savages for the freedom' of their adopted new State, until none of them were left to fight. Our counti-j^ has had no war in which the progenitors and the descendants of the Woodses and McAfees did not take part. x\s soldiers, as statesmen, as physicians, as lawyers, as scholar's, as clergymen, as mechanics, as manufacturers, as farmers, as merchants and as citizens of almost every class they performed well their part in the great drama of progress in the new State while it. was a wilder- ness, and continued their good work after it be- came the home of civilization and the arts and sciences. By marriage they extended their rela- tions to a host of families, most of whom appear in this book, and some of whom present the m'ost dis- tinguished names in the land. Gen. Lew Wallace, a soldier, a statesman and an author, who gave to the world Ben Hur, one of the most famous books ever written, was a Woods on the maternal side. INTllODUCTION. Gen. Kobt. B. McAfee, another soldier, statesman and anther, was in the Battle of the Thames and hel])e(l the Kentnckians to win their ji-lorions victory there. ^Vhen the war was over he wrote a history of it Avhich was pnhlislu'd in I.e.xinnton in ISlfi, and has always been accei>tcHl as authority. Other distiujinished names mijiht lie mentioned l)oth ajuoug the Woodses and ^IcAfees, bnt any necessity for d(>sijinatin,verv important name is mentioned, with a refer- ence to the page where it is to be found. Dr. Woods's work, besides being known as the m'ost elaborate and most thorongli on family his- tory yet produced in Kentucky, will also be re- gardetl as the most vahialile contribulion to gene- alogy. And the printer, who sometimes gels his share of faint ])raise when In; brings out a new work, will meet with nothing (if this kind here. The beautiful ]ia])er, tlie clear tyjiography, the tasteful arrangement, and t.he suiK'i'b illustrations entitle the Courier-Journal Job Printing Co. to the highest praise. K. T. DtTUUKTT. WOODS COAT OF ARMS. THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL PART FIRST THE WOODS FAMILY. CHAPTER I. THE WOODSES IN GREAT BRITAIN. Wliilst till' iiiinic Woods is iiiKloiilitcdly Eiiii- I'Miiallv, llicrc ;n-e llic imincroiis Irish Woodses, lisli, dL'rived fi-oiu Ani^lo-Saxou (Wiidu), not all wlio.se aiici-stois ronncil.v were known liy tlie Gaelic of the ix'()])li' who bear it have oonie of pnro English name of O'Coilltc, hut wiio exehunycd it for the stock, r.esides tliosc families wiiiiii have for Enij;lish e(|uivaleiit, \\'oods. These Woodses are, centuries nmde their lumics in Eni;Iand, and are as a rule, pure Irish, and, ahnost without exception, descended from the true English, there are at least Komau Catholics. Thousands of tlieni are to four other races of men, some of wliose rejiresenta- he found in liie Enitcd States at the present time, rives are now called hy this name. First, there are The particular hranch of the Woods family with the Woodses wiiom we tind to-day in Scotland, which this volume is nu)re especially concerned is whose ancestors .yeuerations hack were English, of pure English, or else of Anglo-Scotch, blood, but who crossed the border to dwell among the AVhether the individual who was the founder of this Scotch, and became so thoroughly identified with branch niigratedses be positively atlirmed, but the preponderance of in after times migrated, along with the unmixed evidence seems to be in favor of the flrst-uanied Scotch, to the North of Ii'eland; and then, later on, supposition.^ That the Woodses were Protestants, to America; and they would naturally come to be and mainly I'rcsbyterians, seems reasonably regarded as Scotch-Irish, their English blood being certain. And it seems to be e([ually certain that almost entirely lost sight of, even by themselves, tiie ^\'allaces and Campbells, with whom the Secondly, among the unhappy Huguenots who lied A\'oodses intermarried, were not only Presbyteri- from France during the period of Catholic persecu- ans, but people of pure Scotch blood. Prior to 1G50 tion, tliere were not a few families by the name of the Woodses seem to have been connected with the Du Bols (I)nbose), some of whom, after their set- English Established Church. tlement in England, signalized tlieir complete ex- The persecutions visited uiion the Dissenters of patriation from the land of tlieir birth by a,'ortli AuiLTioa iu 1724, aud had attaiiiL'd to their uiajorit}- by that time, and several of them had considei-able famil- ies. AN'hen and where John Woods aud his wife died we have no nieaus of kuowiug, but the proba- bility is that both liad passed away before 1724. When Ave seek for the reasons compelling al- most au entire family of people to forsake their uative laud aud seek a home iu a distaut aud sparsely settled colony, we are left to mere con- jecture. The eldest one of the party (Elizabeth >\'allacej was, as above stated, not far from forty- two years old Avhen the migration was undertaken. The Woodses and AA'al laces were probably people of culture aud some little worldly goods, but they were Disseuters aud Presbyterians, who had had to endure many disabilities aud sutler mauy i^etty tyrannies at the hands of bigoted English ecclesi- astics. The tide of population from Ireland to the American colonies was just then of tremendous vol- ume, aud thousands of the very best people of Ire- laud were seeking homes beyond the sea. It was ?, vast, popular movement, for which there existed tlie twofold motive of escape from persecution, and the making of a start iu the new Land of Promise across the Atlantic. In America good hind was aimndanl and i'lii'a|i. and the jiroinise of freedom aud protection to all was inviting. So, in the year 1724, the A\'oodses aud Wallaces set sail foi- Amci'ica, and in a few weeks their destina- tion was reacbed, and the colony of I'ennsylxania becanu' theii- home. Tliey were done with (Jreat I'ritaiu forever. The John \\'oo(ls ( "oat of .Vrms is thus described liy .Mr. O'llart : "Arms Sa. three garbs or. Crest — out of clouds a hand erect, lioldiug a crowu be- tween two swords in bend aud bend sinister, points upward, all i)pr. The sliield is black, with three gold sheaves of wheat t)n it; out of gray donds a llesh-colored band, perpendicular, holding a gold crown, and all between two steel colored swords. The sheaAes of a\ heat indicate that the bearer came from a wheat producing country; the crest implies a combat, a \ictory, and an unexi)ected reward." The .Mrs. I'.arrett rei'errcd to in Note 5 is per- sonally ac([uaint('d with (piitea number of Woodses now living in Ireland, who are descendants of John ^Voods aud Elizabeth A\'orsop and who occupy positions of prominence and lunutr iu the various walks of life. From this circumstance it is infer- red that John aiul Elizabeth had one or more sous who did not migrate to America with the Woods- \Vallace colonv of 1724. CHAPTER 11. ELIZABETH WOODS AND THE WALLACES. Elizabeth, as was stated in the previous chapter, w ho came with her to America. She resided in the was probably the first child of Johu Woods and his colouv' of I'eunsylvauia for about ten or fifteeu wife Elizabeth A\'orsop. We know that her years. Xo less than four of her children — three brother Michael t who came to be known iu after sons and a daughter — married children of her times as Michael Woods of Blair Park) was born brother ^lichael, their first cousins. When, in iu Ireland in l(iS4, and there is good reason for be- 1734, her brother Michael moved down into Yir- lieviug that she was the elder of the two. We may ginia, at least two of her sons had married, each, a assume, therefore, that she was boi-u yipt later than daughter of their uncle, aud moved with him to about the year 1082. She was tthrried to Peter what is now Albemai-le county, Virginia. Eliza- Wallace probably about the y«irv 170."). In 1724 beth i)robab]y did not leave Pennsylvania for sev- she migrated to America Avith her lirother ^Michael eral years after her bnitlicr, possibly nitt till 1739, and his family, at which date she had been a widow and when she did go she chose a home iu the Val- for .some time, and had at least six children living, ley of Virginia, Rockbridge county, just across the THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. Blue Kiiljic from wlicrc lici' hrotlicr :niil iwo of lu-r sous resided. For tliosi' days llie ride across tlie mouutaius was liut a small uiatler. and the inter- course hetween the families was no douht fre(|neut aud intimate. Whetlier she left any relatives in Pennsylvania — ^V(i(idses. or AValhiees — we can not say, hut there is jiood reason for l)elievino; that not all the ties wliich hound these two families to their old Tennsylvaina home were severed when the mi- gration to Vir.iiinia occurred. It is next to certain that at least one of Elizabeth's lirandsons left Vir- 17<>7. He had a son, William Brown Wallace, born in King (ieorge county. \'a.. in IT.iT. who moved to Kentucky, aud there died in lS3o. Eliza Brown Wallace ^born in 171H), and died 18-13) was a daugliter of the befly sure that her dust reposes in some one of the old Presbyterian church-yards of Kock- bridge county, Virginia. 1305) was their ancestcu'; and the name Elderslie (or EUerslie, as it is often spelled i which belonged to the old Wallace lumiestead in Beufrewshire, Scotland, seven centuries ago, is still revered and clainu'd by them. All of this, however, is only con- The Peter Wallace wIkuu Elizabeth AVoods mar- jecture, based upon family traditions, aud is given ried about 1705 Avas, according to the traditions of his desceudants, a Scotch Highlander, who speur the latter part of his life in Ireland.' Very lit- tle is positively known concerning him. It is sup- jjosed that he was born about 1(580, and it is con- fidently believed he die.d some years i)rior to the migration of the Woodses and AA'allaces to America. Concerning his descendants, however, a great deal is known. They are scattered by thousands all over this Union, aud a more reput- able family can not be found in America. In Vir- ginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, California and other states the Wallaces are numerous. The most distinguished persons who have borne this name are Judge Caleb Wallace, one of the first three judges of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ap- pointed in 171)2, and Major-Geueral Lew Wallace, the noted soldier, diidonuit and author, who is now easih" the first citizen of Indiana. There was an- other prominent family of this name in Virginia only for what it may be wcu'th. The six children known to have been born to Peter Wallace and his wife Elizabeth Woods will now be mentioned in what is believed to be their i)roper chronological order, so far as can now be known. A— WILLIAM WALLACE, son of Peter Wii\- lace, Sr., by his wife Elizabeth Woods, was prob- ably born in Ireland about the year 1706. In 1724 he came, with his widowed mother and his uncle Michael Woods, to America, and settled in Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania. About the year 1730 he nmrried his cimsiu Hannah ^^'oods, who was his uncle Michael's daughter. The intermarriage of cousins was a common occurrence with the Woodses aud Wallaces. When ^lichael Woods migrated to Virginia in 1734, William Wallace and his wife accompanied liim and settled very close to him at the eastern foot of the Blue Eidge. The stations called (Jreenwood and Crozet, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, are in the midst of and Kentucky,* the American head of which was the charming region of Albeu\arle couuty which Michael Wallace, ^1. 1»., who was the son of a the ^^'oodses and Wallaces settled. It was in early William Wallace, and was born in Scotland in days known as Henderson's Quarter, aud Mountain 1719. This Dr. Michael Wallace migrated to Vir- I'lains. Dr. Foote informs us of the fornuition of ginia, and spent the last years of his life at Elder- this settlement in 1734" by Michael Woods, and slie. in King (Jeorge cimnty, Va., where he died in adds this statement: "Three sons and three sons- HISTORY OF TIIK WOODSES. o iii-l;i\\ ciiiii.- Willi him and sctilcil nrar. One of the sciicd liy iTlialilc |.cisoiis wliu arc (Icsccndcd from sons-ill law. ^^'illialll ^^■a 1 lace, took liis rcsidonee on her, and wlio arc in a position to know the facts. M('clniin"s livcr. in Allicniarlc." There he spent She was jirohahly horn in Ireland alxnit tlie year the rcinaiii.l<'v ..f his life, lie seems to have l)een a IKIS. and in 17l'4 came to .Xmerica with her inr)tlier o;reat favorite with liis father-in-law. His name and iier iiiiele .Mieliael W Is. After a residence is signed as a witness to a deed executed liy his of ahont ten years in Pennsylvania, she removed wife's father in 174:!. a facsimile of whicii ai)pears (in 17:'.4) to Viriiinia. hein-i then (he wife of in one of tlie illustrations contained in this vol- William Woods, her tirst cousin, whom she had lime. In 17lil. when .MichaeM\'oods came to make ])roliahly niairied in !7;'iL'. I'^iirtlier particulars his last will, he named William Wallace as one of concernin<>- her life will he given in the sucreedinf his executors. His descendants have lived in Alhe- chapters, where her husband's career will be con- marle for more than a hundred and fifty years, and sidered. are among the most ])roiiiineiit and luuiored citi- <' — !^-VirT'EL WALLACE was the son of Peter zens of the county. Tie and his father-in-hiw, ^^I'lhice, Sr., by his wife Elizabeth Woods, ami was Michael ^^'oods, wei-e Scotch Presbyterians, and probabl\ born in Ireland in the \ear 170!). He mi- were the i)rinci](al founders of the ^Fountain Plains grated with the Wallaces and Woodses to Pennsvl- Presbyterian Church, organized near their home vauia in 17l'4, wliere he seems to have lived about about the middle of the eighteenth century, but fifteen years. A\'hen the family migrated to Kork- long since dissidved. AA'illiam Wallace and his bridge counts-, \'irgiuia. about 17:>0. he \veii( with \vife Ilanuah Woods had born to them at least them, but he could not have resided but a short seven children, as follows: 1, ^Iich.vel, who com- time in Kockbridge, for he married a Miss Esther inanded a military <-omi)any in the Kevolutionary Baker, of Cub Treek Settlement, in what is now army, who married .\nn Allen, who in the year 1786 Charlotte County, ^'irginia, in 1741. There he pears from wlieu he removed to Kentucky, where he died about the Wallace cliart found in this v(dume; 2, John, *'!" '''^-' "*^'''^* nioved to Kentucky in 17S2. who Virginia, and jiossibly a little later, to Kentucky; ^^'^^ '^ ruling elder of the Presbyt(n'ian Church and 3. .T.\NK or .Ti:.VN. win. married IJoliert Poage; 4, " "lii^^'ii.iiiii^l"''' lawyer, who was chosen to be one Wii.i.iAM I the L'.n. who married ^lary Pillsou, re- ^'^ ^''^^ ^^'^^ ^'"■^'^' j"''"^^*^ "f ^^'^ Kentucky Court of sid.'d near (Jivenw 1. and theiv died in 1809; 5, ^^PP'^'^il^ ^^ its creation in 1702, and was one of S.vitAH. uf whom th. ...litor .-ould h.ani nothing; G, ^''"' ='''^^'"^ ^"'"^ '"""^ ^unun..} jurists Kentucky ever Hannah, who mani.-d a Micha.d Woods; and 7, '"'•^' ''"'' ^^■'"' '^''''^ '" l'^'^' ''•"' f"" Particulars as Josi.Mi. who mairied a Miss Wallace, not related to his family, whose Christian name Dr. Edgar Woods states was Hannah, but which is thought bv to Judge Wallace and his ])arents the reader is re ferred to the volume devoted to the Wallace family of which the Kev. Dr. AVilliam II. Whitsitt is the author." 2. Elizaiiiotii. who was born in 1745, a Miss Wallace now living in California, and who ^^.,,„ ,„:„-ried C.d..n.d Henry Pawling, and who is a descendant of hers, to have been Susan.'" ,];,,] j,, ,si4; :!, Asunv.w . who was born in 1748, P— SrS.VNX.MI WALLACE is believed to married Catharine Parks, move, rennsylvania was, of all i>laccs in America, Virginia, according to l>r. Foote's acconnt Ix-fore the one which we wonld ('.KjuMt him to choose. It referred to. Andrew Wallace's plantation, as is is certainly known that there was a family of Wal- shown on the maj) of Albemarle county, Virginia, laces living in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the year in this volume, was located at what is now Ivy 1778, and that town is only about fifty miles from Depot, and there he seems to have spent his days, the Virginia border, and less than thirty miles from his death occurring in 17S5. ^Margaret, his wife, the edge of the Pennsylvania county (Lancaster) died at least twenty-six years, and possil)ly thirty, in which the Wallaces had lived for fifteen years before Andrew; for her father Michael, in his will, prior to their migration to Virginia, iloreover, written in 1761, refers to her as being then dead, when this Andrew Wallace, of Carlisle, began to There is reason to believe she died about 1750, at think of marrying he left I'ennsylvania, and went which date Andrew was about forty-four years old. down into old Virginia and sought the hand of a \\liclh('r he married again, nv continued a widower niece of the famous John Paul (Jones), who in her for the remaining twenty-nine years of his life is y(mng girlhood days was a special favorite of (Jen- not known, but it is probable he remarried. If he eral Washington. This couple were the grand- did seek another wife it was when his older chil- parents of Major-General Lew Wallace, of national dren were of the age at which the children of a fame. That ilichael Wallace, who was the eldest family are most apt to resent a second marriage by son of Andi'inv. of Albemarle, and his wife Mar- either parent. His eldest son, Michael, was about garet Woods, was the father of Andrew, of Carlisle, twenty-two years old in ll'A't, and his second son, and luimed his son for Andrew,of Albemarle,fits so vSamuel, about twenty, as may be reasonably sup- exactly into all the known facts of the case, and posed. If Andrew did remarry, and the step- agrees so fully with all the persistent traditions of mother he brought into his family was not accept- the Wallaces and AYoodses, that until some positive able to his eight childi'cn, it may be that such a adverse testimony can be produced to overturn it, state of domestic affairs was brought about as helps we are warranted in accepting it as substantially to account for the rather unusual circumstance correct, and yet without asserting positively that which l)i'. l-:dgar Woods certifies to in his History all the deductions and inferences above presented of Albemarle County, ^'irginia, namely, that all of are, in every particular, based on facts, his eight cliildrcn, but one, emigrated from Albe- Andrew Wallace and Margaret Woods left the marie county, scattering to various distant regions, following children, to wit: 1, Mich.vel, who was The most of them went to Kentucky, and sonu- to jirobably born not far from the year 1734, who may the regions now included in West Virginia, which, have emigrated from Virginia to Pennsylvania let it be noted, boi-ders on Pennsylvania in part. The about 17(>r), and who probably was the father of the French and Indian War was concluded by the end Andrew Wallace that was born in Carlisle, Penn- of 17G2; and if any one of the children of Andrew sylvania, in 177S; 2, .S.vmuel, who was the second niSTOKY OF TIIK WOODSES. 7 cliild of his ]i;ircn(s. iiiid ])r(>l);ihlv lini-n alidul 1T:'.<;. Ilic notice nf Aihiiii \\ail;ii'c. Saiiiiicl Wallace was ami wiio may pussihly have iiiiniccr in llic itcvuini ionary Army, ami coni- vania with his oldci- brother Michael; 3, Ki.t/a- manded al I'mt Vonnii on (he \'ir<;iiiia frontier iirni, who nian-ied \\"illiam I'.riscoe; 4, .Mai;v, who dniinii Ihe I'lcnch and Indian War. 3, J.VMES, mari'ied Alexandei- Henderson; ."), Ua.n.nah, ot w lin was an ensiiin in ihe Tliiid \'iri;inia Ivciiiment, whom nothinii is Jcnowii; (1, Stsan, who married and died of smailimx in I'liiiadelpliia in ITTd; 4, Thomas Collins; 7, .MAi:(;Ai:i"r. who married \Vil- Aham. the caiitain of a l{ocUhrid!.;e Tompaiiy in the liam Kamsey, and was the only one of the children Tenth N'irninia l{ei;iment, who was killed by Tarle- who A.M WALLACE was probably born in of Lexington, \'a., already allnded to. a few years Ireland about the year 1715, bnt almost nothing ago ;."), Andkkw, who was the captain of a comiiany is known of him. He may have died early in life, in the Eighth N'irginia Regiment, and was killed or he may have migrated to the Carolinas, or back at Guildford Court House in 17N1.'- He, like to Pennsylvania. By some writers of the history his brothers, James and Adam, seems never to have of the Wallaces he has been confounded with Adam been married, and all three were young men at the Wallace, his gallant ne])hew, son of I'eter Wallace, time they died; (i. Joiix; 7, Eli/.aiu:tii, who mar- Jr., who perished while bravely tight iug the Uritish ried Col. .lolin (iilmore, of Kockbridge county; 8, troopers at AVaxhaw, 8. C, in 1780. .Iaxict; ami !», Sisannaii. The home of Teter Wal- p — rETEK W.VLLACE, JUNIOR, was the lace was only two miles southwest of Lexington, last child of I'eter ^^'allace, tSr., and his wife, Eliza- Va. He died in 1784, and his wife Martha in b( th AA'oods, and was almost certainly born in li-e- 1700. Two of his brothers-iudaw were adjoining land. The late J. A. 11. Varner, of Lexington, Va., neighbors, namely: (ieneral John Bowyer, the one of his lineal descendants and a gentleman well third husband of .Magdalen Woods; and Joseph informed about the Wallaces and Wooilses, and the Lapsley, the husband of 8arali Woods, source of much of the information contained in this The sword which the above-mentioned Adam volume, wrote the editor of this work in 1895 that Wallace wielded with telling effect upon th.' IVter Wallace, Jr., was born in 1710, and that his British dragoons at AVaxhaw, S. C, in 1780, de- wife, :\lartha Woods, was born in 1720. Peter, Jr., serves a moment's notice here. Adam was the cap- came from Ireland to Pennsylvania with his tain of one of Ihe companies of the Tenth Virginia mother in 1724, and it is ccmtidently believed he Kegiment of Ihe Continental Line (regulars), com- came with her to Kockbridge cotmty, Va., alxmt manded by Lietit. -Col. Abraham Biiford. Wallace's the year 1730. Like two of his brothers and one of c(nnpauy was comiiosed ■iniaIls could i(re])are for the attack, the Uritisli cavalry were upou them from frout and rear, and both flanks. The Virginians delivered their fire, but before they could reload Tarleton's cavalrymen were on them with their pistols and swords. Out of 400 men of Buford's cou)niand 300 were killed or \\(>un(l<'(]. The wounded were hacked to pieces in tlic most inhuman manner. It was in this ter- rible enctmnter that Captain Adam Wallace fell. He was a young man of twenty-five years, and stood six feet, two inches, in his stockings — the very ])icture of vigorous manhood. Col. Buford, seeing his men in confusion, tied early in the tight, but young Wallace disdained to fly; and, standing his ground, met steel with steel — his trusty sword was wielded with ti-emendous vigor, and he managed to kill a nundier of Tarlton's dragoons before he received the fatal blow which ended his noble young life. That very sword was, a few years ago, in the jKissession of Major J. A. IJ. Varner, of Lex- ington, Ya., himself a descendant of the young hero's brother, Samuel Wallace. It was an in- fantry captain's sword, with a Imck-horn handle, heavily mounted in silver. On the clasp nearest the handle is engraved, in clear letters, his name — "Adam Wallace." Four brothers, Malcolm, Adam, Andrew and James, sous of Peter Wallace, Jr., and :\Iartha AYoods, were sacrificed upon the altar of their country. This interest- ing story, which was publi.shcd in the Lex- ington (^'a.) paper. The Bocl-bridf/c Xcirs,'^'' found its way to Scotland, and a :Mr. William Cum- niing, of Shetlestown, Glasgow, Scotland, was moved to pen some stanzas in which the sword of Sir William Wallace, the great Scottish l)atriot, is joined with that of his su])posed descend- ant, Adam AVallace, of Virginia. Sinne of these stanzas are given in the belief that they will prove of deep interest to many of the Wallaces and Woodses of America, in whose veins flows some of the same blood as that which this young hero pour- ed out on the fatal field of '\^'axhaw in the year UNO. Adam Wallace was only twenty-eiglit at I lie time of his death. "When Scotland's ]»atriot hero led The Scottish hosts at Stirling's figlit, I-'ierce gleamed among the English foe Ills ])ondercc(li siiid to li;i\c liccii (IclixiTcd in tlii- Of all tlic uiciiilicrs nl' ilic Wallacc-Wnnds clan ^'i]■^inia House of 1 >('lcjiat('S, hv the late (ioxcniov none liad a noldcr iciord in liic livciit stnijisilc for .Tallies .McDowell, occurs this senlence concerninii Ainorican inde])eiidence than did Peter Wallace, the lirave vonnji soldier who owned that sword: Jr., and his wife, .Martha Woods. To that sacred "That dark and disinnl jcmc in the history of the cause they iia\e live hrave sons : Samuel, .Malcolm, Uexolntion — ilial carni\al of cruel and unjustifi- .\ndrew, .lames and .\dam, all Init one of whom ahle slauiihter — stainjied with tiie name of NVax- offered up his life upon the altar of freedom. These haw, is illuminated only hy the s])]endid heroism Scotch-Irish I'reshyterians were of the class of of a s(ddier I'roni the \ailey of ^'il■ii■illia, whom I men on whom \\'ashinL;lon said he couhl rely in the am iiroud to claim as my kinsman,'^ Cajitain dark hour of disaster. .Vdam Wallace, of Kockhridiie." CHAPTER III. MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. In the (dd family hiirial-iiround of .Michael true heyond all dispute, hut that they seem to rest \\'oods, (Ml the planlation which he owned and oc- ujioii good evidence, and that nothing inconsistent cupied for ahout twenty-eight years in .Mhemarle with any one of them is known to the writer, county. \'irgiiiia, lliere is to he seen tlie grave in It is certainly known that the lady wlnun which .Michael's liody was laid to rest in the year .Micliael AVoods married, jtossihly nineteen years 17()ll. I'p to about the year ISO! this grave was ]>rior to his migration to .\iiieriea, was named .Mary marked hy a rather rudely formed honidstoue, on Caniiihell. It has been asserted hy trustworthy which was an inscription showing that he was horn writers, anter of Part I, of this volume.'' It would have l)eeii no difticult or unnatural thing It is not claimed ih.it each and all of the for .lolin \\'oods"s father to ha\'e connected himself statenients included in the foregoing sentence are with Cromwcirs arm\- alter it reached Ireland, if 10 THE WOODS-M.AFKK MK.MOlJl AI.. liis svnipntliics were witli tlic invaders, and lie was iKciipii-d \ty tliat industrious, lirave and God-ft>ar- tlicn a cilizcn of that cnnntry. inii raic. He was ulatl. also, to havf the hardy (icr- ('i to make any invest- the colony; but he was now more than willing to ] ments iu real estate, for we know he did not remain make concessi(ms anr. Edgar A\'oods. assured all new settlers of ami)le protection and Ami we happen to Isave a twofold explanation of welcome, provided they were law-abiding, and will- this southward move of the AVoodses and Wallaces, ing to uphold the Act of Toleration. Whilst the For one tiling, by 1732, the original settlers of Scotch-Irish never had much use for that Act, Pennsylvania, having grown jeabms of the i^cotcli- despising, in their souls, the very idea that any Irish who had come into the colony by thousands, decent, upright citizen should need to be "tol- and by their frugality, industry and skill had erated" instead of being left free to worship God grown prosperotis, liegan to urge the Proprietary as he saw best, and m>t compelled to pay taxes to Government to enact restrictive measures aimed at supjiort a form of religion which he disapproved, these new-comers, and intended to harass them and they were willing to accept the Governor's offer, discourage fnrtlier additions of their kind to the So it came to pass that a vast tide of these brave population of the colony. Thus did the men who ]>eople poured into the Great Valley, and through succeeded the lil>erty-loving and benevolent Wil- the gaps of the lUue Kidge over to the fertile and liam Penn rei>udiate the very principles which at charming region which lay at its eastern base, first had dominated the policy of that ccdony and Gov. Gooch was truly a shrewd statesman, but he rendered it attractive to the people of rister. The Imilded much wiser than he knew; for that new result of this ungenerous legislation, no doubt, was element, which he thus helped to introduce into that many of the Scotch-Irish settlers were ren- Virginia's life, tiltimately effected a complete revo- dered uncomfortable and made ready to improve, lution in the whole spirit and character of her with alacrity, any favorable openings for bettering p(H)ple and her laws. There were, indeed, some their condition. The shrewd governor of the colony ]>ainful struggles, and no little friction as the years of Virginia, Sir William (Jooch, was not slow to passed; but before the eighteenth century bad run give special encouragement to settlers from Penn- its course, the democratic ideas, which had their sylvania. Himself a Scotchman, he wrU knew the chief nursery in the ^'alley and I'iedmont sections sturdy character of the Scotch-Irish, and was only of Virginia, had come to dominate tlie whole of the to,) glad to see the Great Valley and all the as-yet- State.''* The common can.se which all Virginians unsettled regions on both sides of the Pine Kidge had to make against the tyrannies of the ^lother MICHAEL WOOD8 OF ULAIK I'AKK. 11 Country in tlic Itcvoliit i«inary iicriod InoiiiilM them down into tlic sidcmliil \'iillcy iiml ci-ccl limiics. ;it last to si'c eve lo eye. and to stand slionldcr to The i'ifdniont Kcnion. tlioniili closer to the olilcr slionldci-; and wlicn tliey t'lncriicd from tliat trc- scttlcincnfs of tlic colony, and lyin^- on the eastern niendiins strii,u.t;lc. llic old antaii]de, liviiii; toyellier in tile most cordial friend- wood's time ilTHt to ITl'l'i the v<'ry outposts of sliij) and nmttial esieem. The hearing which these lOniilish civilizaticm iiad not creiil inland ( west- rellections have upon our narrative will he ap- wardi heyond tlie ]M»ints at which the ocean tides ](arent as we jiroceed. elihed and llowcd. "A strip of forest lifty miles or That famous iani;c of the Ajipalacliiaii system, more in hreadth still inlervenetl iietweeu the Vir- (iilled the IJltie KidiiC enters \'iriiinia from Mary- jiinia frontier and those hiiie ]ieaks visiiile ai^ainst land at Harper's I'erry on the Totomac, and ex- the western sky.""' This same state of thiiijis tends ch^ar across the State in a sonthwesterl\- seems to have continued almost u]i to the time at direction, a distance of iTiO miles, and jiasses on which .Michael \\i>o(ls sei i led at t he eastern hase of into North Carolina. ( >n the western side of this the Blui' Ividiic in what is now .Mhemarle county, ranii'e lies the (ireal N'alley, which avera!.i('s about ^'irlI,inia, just at the iiaj) which thereafter look his thirty miles in width, and extends to the jiarallel luime.-- The western half of what is now AUie- ranjie of the Alleiihanics on the west. On the east marie ootinty seems to have had no settlers prior to side of the Blue liidiie lies a tier of counties com- the date at which ^lichael Woods ti.xed his hahita- posin^ what is known as the Piedmont IJe^ion of t ion at the eastern base of the I'diie Kidiic. On the Virjiinia — the foot-of-the-mountain country, as its western side of the mountain, in the Valley, prob- uame imjilies. It was this riedmoiit Kejiion which ably the only settlement then in existence, as far ^lichael Woods chose as his home in 17:U; and, so south as that of Woods, was the one made two far as known, he was the first white man to settle years before il73lM by John Lewis, near wliere in that part of the colony. It is usual to say that Staunton now is.-' The territory iu)w included the romantic, not to say hilarious, expedition of in the cotiuty of Aujiusta was then a part of Oransie (iovernor Spotswitod. in 171(1, marks the bejiinninu county, and what is now Albemarh' was then a part of the exploration of the ^'alley, thotinh several <>f CJoochland. The frontier of the colony then ex- earlier totirs to portions of its area are contended tended aloni;- the eastern base of the lihie Kidjie at for by various writers.'' The actual occupation h-ast twenty miles back from it, and tlie whole of of the \'alley by iiermaneiit settlers, however, did the A'alley was a viri^in wihlerness, with a sin.ule not take place till 17o-, abotit fourteen years after settler in the whole of the territory now included (iov. Spotswood's famous Knijiilits of the Ooldeii iu the connlies of l{ockini;liam. Tajie, Augusta, Horseshoe had uncorked and merrily emptied their Kockbridge, and beyond, and the little colony of inimerous brandy and cliainiiaiiiie bottles on the -Toist llite near the site of AVinchester, about eighty lianks of the lovely Shenandoah.-" A man from miles to the north. It was into this practically nu- I'ennsylvania named Joist Ilite made, in 17:'>L'. inhabited wilderness that Michael Woods ]>ene- what is gein-rally considered the tirst i)ermanent t rated in the year 17o4,-* there to live out tlie re- white settlement in the A'alley about live miles maining days of his life. He was then Hfty years of sotith of where Winchester now stands. Ilite had age, and had a large family of children —not less a warrant for 40,(1(1(1 acres of land which -Tohn and than eleven, as w ill be shown farther on — all of Isaac A'anmeter had gotten from (to\". (looch only whom but one seem to have accom]ianied him in this two yc^ars before, and he jiroceeded to offer induce- niigr;ttion. ( >f course, we are obliged lo assume - meats to enterprising men at the North to come though we have no positive evidence of the course 12 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMOKIAL. ]nii-su(Ml in this ])iirticiil;ir case — that iin scnsildc man would set out iu tliat early day. upon a journey of more tluiii two hundred miles, from T>aiicaster county, reuusylvauia, to the wilds of \'iriiinia. with a lot of women and children and household efl'ects. unless he had previously made a tour of investijiation to tlie rcfjion iu Avhioli lie pro- known that the Indiaus at the north-west were con- stantly at war witli tttlier tril)es at the South, and hands of warriors were fre(|ueutly passin, we can only con- jecture; but we can well believe that he felt he would be somewhat better shielded from Indian attacks on that side. John Lewis, the first settler in that portion of the Vall(>y contiguous to the ^^'oods settleuKMit, had only been there two years; and whilst, as AVaddell informs us,-" the Valley be- gan to till up i-a]»idly soon after Lewis canu>, it is Shenandoah A'alley. Whilst there were no roads then in existence in the Valley, there were Indian and Huffalo trails fairly well suited to pack- horses.-' According to I'eyton, the war-i)ath trav- elled by the Indians on their hostile ex]K'ditions against each other crossed the Fdue Kidge at ^^'oods's Gap (Jarman's) and K(»cktish Gap, passed by the site of Staunton, and on down the Valley to the northward.-'' It was directly on this war-path that ^lichael ^^'oods umde his settlement. There is now a road leading through ^^'oods's Gap from Albemarle over to the Valley, which reaches the South Fork of the Shenandoah river at Doom's, a small station on the Norfolk ^S: ^^'estern K. K., and not likely that many families had settled in tliat there can scarcely be a doubt that this was the pre- vicinity by the time .Michael >Voods had made up cise rcmte which ^lichael Woods came in 173J. The liis mind to migi-ate. No move could be made, by any prudent man, into the N'irginia wilderness without taking ac- count of the Indians. Whilst it seems reasonably old Wilderness Koad, which ran from Philadelphia to the Potonmc ri\'er. and tlience uj) the Valley to New Kiver, and on down through Southwestern Virginia to CunUierland (Jap and Kentucky, had. certain that about this time (1732-5) the whites of course, not yet come into being for more than a and savages were not at war with each other, it is small ]iart of the distance; but no doubt the same MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 15 lii(li;u! .-iiiil IiuITmIo li-;iils, wliicli it iiiiiiiily fnllnwcd, liardiv lunc liccii llircc, ;is I >r. I'nnic iisscrls, Inil had pi-olialdy hccii already inarlccd out I'or cciilur- only t w n. < hir of llicsc was William Wallace ies. That I'ltad passed Ihioiii^h I.aiicasler, I'eiiii- ( iiieiit ioiied hy |ir. I'nuiei. wimhad iiiai-ried llaii- sylvaiiia, and Slauiildii, \'ii-i;inia. The distance nali W Is; and annlher, most jtnilialdy, was An- hy that lonle li-dni Lancaster to Woods's ( lap was drew ^^'allace, liroijier of Williani. who niai-ried alioiit 21.'.'') miles ; and in t i-aveisini; it wilhamiscel- .Marjiai'el \\'oods. Tin- only olhei- dan^hlev of laneons company of wdiueii, childi-en, cattle, and .Michael who was old enoiij;h lo lia\c lieeii niaffied the nsnal array of honsehold ^oods and sni)|)lies. hy 17."?4 was .Maudalen, his eldesi child, wliose first the time occni)ied conld hardly he less llian two hnshand was .I(din Mel >o\\ ell, and many who have weeks, or Ioniser. written ahout her have positively asserted, or as- Of the persons, chatlels, etc., coiuposint; the lit- snnied, that she cauM' to Anu-rica with her father, tie caravan of .Michael Woods, we know somet hi ni;-, and married .Tolm .Mcl>owcll in Pennsylvania, and lint not a ^reat deal. Still, the little we do know was livinji' in NMr^inia as early as lT;;ti. I'.ul each fni-nishes a hasis for some most reasonahle con- and all of these assiimptions as to .Maiidaleii are jectures which it can do ns no harm to consider for proved hy the conrt records of Orange connty, \'ir- a monn-nt. I'rom k'oote and others we learn that i;inia, to luu'e lieen entirely mistaken. She mar- .Michael had with him on this memorahle journey ried John .McHowell in (!reat I'.ritain, and did not several sous and sons-in-law. Dr. Foote does not c(mie to AnuMica till 17:*>T. Of this we shall have <;ive the nami'S of any of the i>arty, e.xceiit that of more to say when considerinii the nnmliei' of JHchael himself, and A\'illiam Wallace, oiu' of his MicliaeFs children, further on. Dr. Foote had sons-in-law. And he does not cite any authority prohahly adopted the current belief that Ma.udalen for his assertion; hut it is likely he knew, and had came to America in 1724 with her parents, and he conversed with, some of old .MichaeFs descendants may have concluded, also, that she and her hus- in Albemarle, Augusta, or Rockbridge, between band accompanied her father to Virginia in 1784, 1840 and 1 8r)(), who preserved the traditions of the as they were known to have been in that colony family. As we know what children .Michaid had, shortly afterwar( so coiisidcralilc a com- liy tlie Aiiiericaiis to remove tbe Hritisb prisoners pany as tbat a yood many liorscs Cnrnislicd witli over into the \allcy and np to Winchester, this pack-saddU'S would be recpiired — not less tlian tif- .Major Anbury, wlio was evidently a gentleman of teen or twenty — the grand aggregate constituting culture, wrote to his friends in England an account a somewliat pretentious caravan. The able-bodied of tbe trip from Charlottesville, through Woods's men and older boys would walk, and each had, we Vhat sorrow, consternation and dread other, yet they were constantly passing to and fro tilled the hearts of the men and women of whom we through the country, and now and then committed now write, we can only imagine, for they have left the most terrible deeds of blood. For instance, iu us only the briefest records to inform us of their December, 1742, only about eight j'ears after fearful experiences; but we know that the Woodses, yiichael ^^'oo(ls settled at AVoods's Gap, a baud of ^^'allaces, McDowells, Lai)sleys, etc., were there Shawnees from north of the Ohio invaded the Val- with their wives, their helpless little children and ley, and .lolin McDowell, the son-in-law of Michael all their worldly possessions, and were in sore peril Woods, with eight of his companions, was killed by and distress, such as but few of their descendants them on James river, near Balcony Falls, iu what have ever known. Michael AV'oods, therefore, spent is now Rockbridge county, where Noi'th river enters the whole of the twenty-eight years which he lived the James.-"' In 17").") — Sunday, July S — 'the very iu "N'irginia iu the midst of the hardships and stren- day before Braddock's defeat in Pennsylvania, oc- uous conditions of a frontier life, and iu all our curred the noted massacre at Drajiers Meadows, on estimates of them we must keep these facts in mind New river, in \\hat is now Montgomery county, Vir- if we would undcn-stand what manner of folk our ginia. The next day — July 9, 17r)5^the defeat of ancestors were. the British and Virginians by the French and Indi- Whether Michael Woods purchased any laud in ans at Fort Duquesne, and the death of General Virginia at the time he migrated thither, we now Braddock, their commander, soon sent a thrill of have no means of determining; but Dr. Edgar horror all through Virginia, and esjiecially through Woods, who has given this ipiestiou much careful the sparsely settled region in which the Woodses study, seems to have concluded that Michael's first and Wallaces then lived. Thackeray, in "The Vir- investment in Goochland county (now Albemarle) ginians,'' (juoted by Waddell,''" gives a graphic was made in 1737, three years after he settled in description of the speed with which the news of this that region." Certain it is, as ofiicial records show, fearful disaster reached all parts of the colony, and Michael recei\ed three Crown Grants aggregating of the terror which seemed then to seize every 1337 acres that year from King George II. The heart. Of the 300 Virginia militia iu the battle 90 original patent for one of them, which is dated June per cent, weiv killed, only thirty escaping alive. 4, 1737 — fourth year of (icorge II — ami signed The consternati(m of the inhabitants throughout by Sir William Gooch, the then Lieutenant- 20 THE WOODS-McAFEE .AIEIMORIAL. Governor of the "Colony and Dominion of Virf^inia." is no^^■ in the possession of Hon. Micajali ^^■oo(ls, of ( "liarlottesville, Yirjiinia, and a copy of the same is in rlie hands of the writer.^" This 4((0-a(re tract lay on J^ickinnhole creek and .Mechnms river. That same year he hon.iiht a tract of 2,000 acres on Ivy creek, not far away, from one (Miarles Ilndson, which said II nd- son had ])atented in IToo. .Michael's son Archi- bald and his son-iu-Iaw, William Wallace, pro- cnred patents for Crown (irants the same year that Michael did, for about the same nnudier of acres, each, and in the same ueighborliood. Archibald bad probably just reached liis majority, having been born, as is supposed, in ITKi. It is also as- serted — ujion what authority we know not — that, on that day. June 4. 1737, Michael received other grants of land aggi-egating 0,674 acres, and that three of his sons received grants for about 5,400 acres. Land was ridiculously cheap in that part of the country at that early ijioueer period, the colonial authorities being only too glad to have sturdy settlers occupy the frontier and bear the brunt of developing the conutry in the face of the tremendous difficulties uecessary to be encountered. Brawn, brain and nerve counted for more than cash at that particular time, and in that particular part of the colony; and it is very probable that our titi'cestors of that i)eriod had more of the former than of the last-named commodity. On no other theory can we explain their willingness to settle and live in that part of the world. By frugality and industry, however, tliey bettered their condi- tion, and some of the children of Michael seem to have accumulated a considerable amount of prop- erty before passing away. We do not know whether or not ^lichael Woods ever gave his nuiin farm or plantation any distinct- ive name, but it has had at least two names since his death. In his will, dated in 17G1, he makes no reference to his old home place whatever. Tin- only land referred to in that docunnnit was a cer- tain tract of G80 acres, lying on Ivy creek, which stream was, at its nearest point, six or seven miles to the east of the [jlace on wliich Michael resided. It seems neaily certain that he had conveyed his Inmie place, or at least that portion of it on which stood his dwelling house, to his sou William, years liefore he died. .Michael was seventy-eight years old at the time of his death, and he had i)robably been a widower for at least nineteen years; for in numer- ous conveyances he executed in 1743, his wife's name does not appear. But we kno\\' that William Woods sold part of the old place to one Thomas Adams about 1773; and that Adams, in making his will in 17SS, left it to a Judge Blair, and spoke of it as "Mimntaiu Plains." That was evidently the name the plantation had bmg been known by. After Judge Blair came into possession of it, howevei", it came to be called "Blair Park,'' a name it holds to this day. And because thei'e were so nmny Woodses named ilichael, in honor of the head of the fanuly, one of whom was his own son, in order to distinguish the old patriarch from all the other Michaels he came to be knf>wn by all as "Michael Woods of Blair Park." The comparatively level stretch of country included within his plantation, and lying just at the foot of the Blue Kidge, and in close proximity to several cousidei'able outlying l)eaks, made the name of Mountain Plains very ap- propriate, and it is to be regretted that this historic and suggestive appellation was ever dropped. The first church of any faith, except that of the English Established Church, in Goochland county, belonged to Presbyterians, and was erected on or close to Michael Woods's place, and owed its exist- ence mainly to the Woodses and Wallaces. This church was called the Mountain Plains Church, in honor of Michael AVoods; and though the Presby- terians finally became so scarce in that vicinity in after years as to indiu-e them to sell their house of worship to a sister denomination of Christians (the Baptists), the name of ilountain Plains still ad- heres to it, thereby affording another reason why irichael's old home place should never have been called liy any other name than that which con- nected it so appropriately with the first nmn that exer came into that neighborhood to make a home. MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 21 Anotlier chanjtc of names, fully as rciiTcttahlo as this, is here siiii-icstcd to the wvitci-'s iiiiiid. and that is, tlu* (inc whicli was made in the name nf iln' jjap in the lUnc Ikidyc wliirh loidcs down iijion the sjiot where ^Michael Woods lived, and whieh was for so many years known as Woods's (Jaj). In all the earlier ]>nhlislied voluiaes lliis was llie recoi;'- nized name loi' iliat mountain pass. In 1T."»7 the ^'ir^inia ('(doinal Assemldy designated it in that way.'' If ever there was a sjx)! whieji had an a])- l»ro](riate name it was that liaii. when railed for .Michael ^^■oods. He was not only the hrst white nnin that settled anywhere within fweidy miles of it. lint he made his home riiiiit hy it for tweiity- eint this small honor the State of Virs>inia has allowed him to he de- ])riA-ed of. Ahont eiiihty or ninety years ago, one Thomas -Tarman ]»ur<-hased land on the erest of the I]lue Kidjie at that pass, and from that time on the name of Woods has heen displaced hy that of Jar- man, and now all the maps have it "Jarnian's Gap." To he sure, it is not a vital matter, or worth any contention; and yet it nth century; they were painfully meagre for Hlc tirst ten or fifteen years of the Mountain Plains sell lenient. It is not likeh" there was anywhere within a reasonahle distance of ^^'oods's (!a]( a regular church of any kind prior to the year 1740. It was aliout that year, or a lit- tle later, that I'reshyterian churches hegau to be organized throughout the \'alley, and in the year 1745 the first ste[)s weie taken hy the inhahitaJtits at Woods's Gap to secure the regular ministrations of (JosihI ])r(achers. A travelling e\ang(dist lia make and ordain this my last will and testament, that is to "^ *'" ''•^' ""■^•' 1"'''^'''"« const itnle and a].p..int say, principally and first ..f all f -ive an.l r.'com- ^"" -^'•'•'il'^'l"' ^V"«">^< -'"I". W.mmIs :,nd William mend my s.ml into the hands of Almighty God that ^^■''"""■'' '" I"' '"^ ^"1'' <'-V''«-<>lors, ms witness my gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth to ''=""' ""' >'"''"' '""' '^''>' "'•"^""' ^^■'■'*'''"- be buried in decent Christian burial, and as touch- ".Mi(ii.\i:i. ,,,, Woons, { L. S.) ing such worldly estate wherewith it hatli pleased ".Miciiaiol Woons, .Minor, God to bless me in this life, I give, devise and dis- "ilii'iiAiCL Wai.iaci:." pose of in the following nmunei' and form (ami first) let all my debts be paid, (secondly) I give and bequeath to son Archibald Woods ten pounds. (Thirdly) 1 give and be(ineath to son John Woods ten pounds. Fourthly, I give and bequeath to daughter Sarah ten pounds. Fifthly, I give and be- (|ueath to daughter Hannah ten pounds. Sixthly, I give and be(iueath my deceased daughter ^largar- et's children ten jionnds. Seventhly, I give and be- ([ueath to son Archibald and son John my GSO acres of land lying on Ivy Greek, and that the said land shall be sold and the money divided among son Archibald, John, and William Wallace's families, and that each grandchild now in being shall have an equal share. Eighthly, I give and bequeath to son William Woods twenty shillings, which shall be paid out of said land. Ninthly, I give to Wil- liam's son -Michael twenty shillings, which shall b(> paid out of said land. Tenthly, I give and be- (lueath to daughter Sarah one pistole which shall be of the ready money no\\" by nie. Eleventhly, I give and bequeath to son Archibald's son .Michacd my great coat. And I do hereby utterly revi.ke and < >f ^1><' f'iii''i'al exercises held over the r<-mains of disallow all and every other former testaments, :Michael W Is we have no record. We only know wills, legacies, be(|ueaths and executions by me in ^I'^it his family burial-gnmnd was situated alnrnt any ways before named, willed and be(iueathe(l,rati- three to live hundred yards south ..f his dw.dling, tying and c(mtirming this and no other to be my "'"^ *'"'!••' '"' ^^-'^ l=>i'l >" ''"■^t- "'>^ beloved wife, last will and testament. In witness whereof I have ^f'>iT Gami-licll, had ju-obably been dead alxmt hereunto set my han.l and seal the day and year twenty years, as her name does not appear in ;d)ove written deeds he executed in 1743. In conveying to his son "Mi('iiAi:i, ,, Woons, (L. S.) William a tract of 21)4 acres many years before his The following cei-tilicate from the clerk of the County Court of Albemarle is apjiendcd to the will, as follows : "At a court held for Albemarle cuunty the 11th day of June, ]7(>l', this last will and testament of ^lichael A\'oods, deceased, was jii-oduced in court, ^Michael \\(PO(ls, minor, and .Michael ^^'allace, two of the devisees and legatees in the saiil will, re- limpiish all benefit they might claim by the said ^^■ill, whereupon the same \\as ])roved by tlu- oaths of the said Michael Wood.s, minor, and Michael AA'allace, the witnesses thereto and ord<»red to be recorded. .Vml on the motion of John ^\'()(lds and William Wallace, two of the executors therein named, made oath according to law, certiticate is granted them f'oi- obtaining a ])roiiate in due form giving security, whereupon they, with .\rlhur Hop- kins and William Cabell Gent, their securities, entered into and acknowledged their bond acciu'd- ingly. "Test. Joitx Xiciior.AS, Clk." 24 THE WOODSOrcAFEE INfEMOKIAL. (leutb, Avliicli iiicludt^d tht' old liomestead aud the satisfartory account of the miinei-ous branches of family hnrial-iiTound. ^fichael expressly reserved to Woodses clainiinin- kinship with ^richael. of Blair himself and lici IS forever the rjiiht to enter and care Park. Afler iiiakinu a pretty tlioronjih investijia- for said burial-iironnd, and prohibited any and all tion of the subject, aud consultinii- every available persons from cultivating or disturbing Ihe same. Tu sdui-ce nf inforinatinii, lie lias readied the ]iositive 1895, the date at which the ])lioto was taken of this coiu-lnsion that ilichael of Blair Park had a nuni- little "(lod's Acre," w hich was used in producing her of children in addition to the si.x mentioned in the engraving herewitli given, there was a rail fence tlie will. That he had at least eleven children, around the spot, and the entire enclosure Avas which is five more than are named in his will, it thickly set in cherry tr(>es. ^lichael's grave is still shall now be ours to prove. visible, and is located in the extreme north-western In the first place, a family of ten or a dozen corner of the plot, but the rude head and foot children in those bi'ave old days was not consid- stones which were originally set there have fallen ered a specially large one. It is not unheard of down, and the portion of the stone which con- even in (mr own times. The writer is himself the tained the inscription was broken off about ISGO, youngest of an even dozen children, all having the and its whereabouts are no longer known. The same father and mother. Tertain it is that a fam- neglected and ragged condition of this burial- ily of only six children was, a hundred years ago, ground, in which many of the Woodses were inter- considered a small one. red, is a reproach to tln^r descendants. Their liv- The only reason the writer has ever hearive the six children a little family marry forlnnes, oi- Ity some nihcr means ac- more than the others, and so char}"-ed his <;eneral quire much larger estates flian either their parents estate with these particular he((uests, intending or their hrolhers and sisters ever possessed, in that the residue of liis ])roi)erty, remaining after which cases the fatlu-r would naturally want to pro- satisfying these spccitic demands, should he equally vide for the less fortunate ones, and miglit give no divided, as the common law directed, lietwccn ail part of Lis small estate to the wealthier children. the children. In this way the \innamed children And once in a great while we hud a father who has w(ml(l get all that Michael pnrixtsed they should children, who in some way have excited his sore dis- have as certainly as if he had ex])ressly mentioned pleasure and from whom he has become alienated, them by name. And in favor of this supposition in In all such cases it were nothing very surprising to this case is the almost demonstrated fact that find no mention of one or more of his children in Jlichael Woods was possessed of a good many items his will. of property to which no allusion is made in his will. But there is another class of cases, which are to He speaks, in the will, of "the ready money now by be met with everywhere now and then, in which the me," in making his devise of "one pistole" to his testator not only omits all reference to one or more daughter Sarah, to whom he had already given ten of his children, but likewise says not a word in his pounds without hinting what sliajH' these pounds will concerning the larger part of his estate. lie were then in, and who knows how many hundreds, may oAvn a dozen farms or city lots, and have hun- or thousands of pounds, he nmy have had loaned dreds of bonds and other investments, worth, in the out over the county to which he makes no allusion, aggregate, a million dollars; and, besides a wife, and Avhich he fully intended should be divided, ac- he may have several children for whom he cherishes cording to law, among his various heirs? ITis the ^\•armest natural atTection. Such a num might, own son-in-law, Josei)h Lapsley, the husband of his Avithout the slightest irregularity, make a will con- daughter Sarah, above mentioned, did precisely sisting of a single provision only, to this eft'ect : "I this thing in writing his will. He mentioned only hereby be(]ueath to my Avife, Mary, one hundred two of his children, Joseph, Jr., aiul John, when it thousand dollars." What objection could anybody is known he had another son and several daughters, fairly make to his not mentioning his children and Samuel Dedman, of Albemarle, who died a century his various items of property? Noiu' at all. Such ago, and Avho was the writei''s great-grandfather, a will Avould simply mean that he wanted his wife, made no mention, in his will, of the son who bore first of all, to be given the one hundred thousand his own name — Samuel Dedman, Jr., — and yet the dollars, and the residue of his estate to be distrib- court records show that that son was alive when uted to his heirs, whoever they be, according to the his father died. In view of these considerations, law of the State in which he resided. This sort of which we feel sure no good lawyer will set aside as a will can be nu4 with in almost every State in the mere baseless reasoning, we ought to dismiss from Union. It would not in the slightest degree imply our minds the idea that a nmn can not have any that he had no children, nor that he had only the children whom he omits to mention in his will. Of amount of money given to his wife. For all we course we have not yet proved that Michael aotu- know, Michael Woods nuiy have had, when he made ally had children who \\-ere not referred to in the his will, several plantations, and a lai-ge number of will, but we have at least, as we hope, removed slaves, and nuiny horses, cattle, sheep, farming im- some purely imaginary obstacles out of the way. 28 THE WOODS MfA FEE :\rE:N[ORIAL. and we arc now pivpaird for sncli positive proof of the justice of the writer's contentions as may be adduced. The writer is of the opinion tliat Michael Woods of Bhiir I'arlc had, in achlition to the six chihlreu mentioned in his will, certainly four, and very probably live more. They are the followiag, to- wit : 1, iliciiael. whose wife was Anne, who re- sided for many years in Albemarle, and wlio late in life moved to Botetourt, and there died in 1777; 2, ilaotelonrt ^lichael, whom we feel certain was just as much the son of I'dair Tark Michael as AVilliam and John AVoods were, and nearer to him than A\'illiam \Vallace. In 1743 Blair Park ^lichael was fifty nine years old, and a widower; AVilliam was prohahly ahout thirty-six, ^Michael of Ilotetourt about thirty-tive, and John thirty-one. AA'illiam AA'allace was prohahlv the same age as AA'illiam Woods. How natural and proper that at this time .Alichael of Blair Park should give his sons each a good farm? It is true that in each conveyance a money consideration is mentioned, but that does not signify that a single pound actually changed hands. The sums stated may have lieen put tliere merely to indicate the value of the i)orti(m given to each as a guide in de- termining, in after years, Avhat would be an equit- able arrangement for the respective heirs. But we are not yet done with this deed of 1743, made to 3Iichael of Botetourt. A certified copy of it lies before the writer, and its preamble will now be cited, just as it is: "This indenture made the third day of August, in the seventeenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord (Jeorge II by the Grace of God, of (Jreat Britain, France and Ire- land, King Defender of the I'aith, etc., and in the year of Our Lord Christ MDCCXLIIL, between Michael Woods, Si*., of the parish of Saint James and county of Goochland, farmer, of the one, and Michael AVoods, Jun'r, of the same i)arish and county, of the other ])art, witnesseth," etc. The point we want noted here is that in this con- veyance alone, of all the four executed in 1743, Blair Park Michael designates himself as Michael AVoods "Senior." In sjieaking of the grantee he designates him as .Alichael "Junior." This grantee coidd not possibly have been one of the numerous grandsons of ohl Michael bearing his name, for not one of them was then (d' sutlicient age to take the title to real estate. And in none of the instru- ments executed prior to old .Alichael's death in which the grandsons named .Alichael AVoods are referred to, or siyn their names, docs the suffix "Junior" occur so far as we have been able to discover. AA'hy did Blair Park Alichael describe the other ^Michael, the grantee, as "Junior?"' Is that the likely way in which he would have dis- criminated a distant kinsman, or a man outside his family who happened to have that name and reside in Goochland? That explanatory appendix to a name is almost always the mark of sonship, and not of mere sameness of name. If any one should ob- ject that had the grantee been the elder Michael's son the relationshi]> would have been recognizeil in that deed, it may be rei)lied that in the deeds of that same year to two sons and a son-in-law there is no allusion whatever to the relationship of the parties to each other. A facsimile reproduction of a part of the deed to John AA'oods of 1743 is given in Appendi.x F. and it will s])eak for itself. The reference to the grantee in this jiart of the deed is the same as that in the body (d' the instrument. That word "Junior" is ceitainly very suggestive. Whilst admitting that il could, without im])ro- priety, be apjdied to the younger of two ](ersons in the same community bearing the same name, it is but fair to contend that in nearly all cases it is used to discriminate a son fnnn his father. Some other e.\planatoi-y a])pendix isusually em]>loye ;ind died in ls:!(l; she was a nnirried thought by sonu' who have written on the subject wonuiu when I'eter and .Martha Wallace died, and that the author of that popular novcd, "]>en llnr," she never visited a hou.se that she did not recount is descended from .Vndrew AVallace and his wife the deeds and the death of the Wallace IJevolntion- Margaret A\'oods. In fact General A\'allace, in a ary soldier brothers. She was a young lady when letter about the old sword, wrote nu' that such was they went to the wars. It would seem strange, his belief, he being descended from an .Vndrew after all that has been stat<'d, with such favorable Wallace. * * * j ;|j,i fully satisfied that opportunities for ac<|uiring family history, that .Michael A\'oods, of Botetourt, was a brother of Mrs. Onld and .Mrs. ("ummings did not know all Martha Woods, wife of Peter Wallac<', and that he about their father's peo]tle. was a sou of Michael Woods, who died in 17(52, and "Two or three years ago I wrote to Mrs. Cum- I am also fully satisfied that Magdalen Woods, who niings, of lmliana,for information in regard to fani- married McDowell — Bordeu — Bowyer, was both ily history, for reply to a letter from a distant rela- the daughter of Michael Woods, of Albemarle, and five in Kentucky. Cmler date of August 20, ISOO, sister of Michael Woods of Botetourt. she Avrote me; and from her letter I take the fol- ".Vnd now for my reasons for the above state- lowing extracts: nu'uts : .My mother's uncle, James Wallace — "'Our great-grandmother was named .Martha brother of .Vndrew Wallace, her father — was Ixu'u Woods. She had six sons and three daughters — in 1774 and died in 1816. He left a widow and a ilalcond), Samuel, James, Adam, Andrew, John, large family of children, among the latter, two Elizabeth, Janet and Susannah.* * * Our daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Wallace Onld, of Camp- great-grandmother had two sisters, they all lived Itell county. Virginia (born in 1806), and .Mrs. on adjoining farms near Lexington — Magdalen and ^Magdalen Campbell Wallace Cummiugs (born in Sarah, ilagdalen married General Bowyer and 1812), wife of Rev. Parry Cummiugs, a Methodist Sarah married Joseph Lapsley. Your nH)ther minister of the State of Indiana. Both of these (Sarah Lapsley AVallace) and sister Sally were ladies are now dead, having reached the ages of named for her. * * * ^)\^\ aunt ilagdalen eighty-seven and eighty-one, respectively. They Campbell, as all us children who were kin to her were both very intelligent women, had wonderful called her, was a niece of great-grandmother.' memories, ami were in possession of their mental "The above exti-acts, I think, are conclusive, ami faculties to the last. At the death of their parents prove everything: 1. .Michael Woods, in his will, both had reached middle life, and that time of life mentions his daughter Sarah ( Lapsley) ; 2. Jlrs. when people of resiiectalile parentage and intelli- Cummiugs says that Sarah Lapsley was a sister gence take great interest in matters genealogical, of Magdalen .McDowell — Bordeu — Bowyer, and especially when they know they come from good, Martha Wallace; and 3, that ilrs. Magdalen 32 THE WOODSMcAFEE MEMORIAL. Caiuphcll, who was the dauiihtcr of Aficliacl AVoods of liotelouit, was a uicco of Mis. Martlui Walhux', i. ( .. that she was her hi-otli('i-"s chihl anroughly satisfied of the soundness of the evidence adduced by Major N'arner he Axrote him to express his satisfaction. In reply to his letter Major Varuer wrote back, under date of ?ilay 2."), 1895, as follows: "I assure yt)u I am glad to know that you are now fully convinced that the two Michael Woodses were father and son. I never entertained a doubt of that relationship from the time the matter was first brought to my attention, and I had investigated the question." This was the conviction, also, of the late Mich- ael Woods Wallace, who died at a ripe old age some years ago in Albemarle county, Virginia. This gentleman was a descendant of ^lichael Woods of Blair Park, through his daughter Hannah, who married William Wallace. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and spent his life, as the writer understands, within three miles of the old Blair Park homestead. He was a man of great in- telligence and high character, and could have no motive for attributing to his ancestor any children he did not really have. He inf(n'med (leiieral Micajah AVoods, of Charlottesville, that he was satisfied ^Michael of Botetourt was a son of lUair Park Michael. It was the privilege of the writer to call on Mr. AVallace at his lutme near Blair I'ark in 1803, and to converse with him concerning the ancient AX'oodses and Wallaces, with the view of gathering information for this work. It may not lie amiss to mention here. also, the opinions and convictions of the late H. P. Cochran, of Charlottesville, Virginia. Concerning this gen- thiiian, the late Major ^'arner. mentioned and (pioted from on the foregoing i)ages of this volume, wrole to the present writer May 25, 1895. It ap- pears that Mr. Cochran and the late Judge AVilliam ilcLaughlin, of Lexington. Virginia, had both been making investigations relative to the question now under consideration, and after considerable re- search they had both reached the conclusion that .Micliai'l AX'oods of Blair Park had a numlier of chil- dren who were not referred to in his will. In a let- ter dated .March 1, 1892, 'Slv. Cochran wrote Judge ^icLaughlin as follows: "I thank you for your favor of 21st nlto., with enclosure. I think you are correct in what yon say in regard to Magdalene Woods and her sisters. I believe Michael Woods, Senior, had three daughters to marry Wallaces. .Michael A\'oods, Senior's, wife was named ilary Campl)ell, and it is remarkable how often in all the \\ills of his sons, sons-in-law and grandsons \\liich I have been able to come across, we find the family names, William, 3Iichael, Hannah, Sarah, etc. "I have gotten ^Ir. AA'oods to confess that .Michael AVoods of Botetourt and .Magdalene Woods were lirother and sister. There is no doubt in my mind as to Micliael of Botetourt being son of .Michael of .Vlbemarle. I still think Bichard AA'oods, of Augusta, sheriff circa 1757, was Mag- \'(i()(ls of I'.otctourt. saiiK' iiiiiiics as Hvc of the cliildrcii of [Michai'l May not [Michael, [Martha and .Majidalene have heen \\do(ls. of Allieniarle. the oldest children and Ihc first (o inan-y and move "I \\ ill add here in addition to a statement away? I enclose yon some mems. in ])cncil, which lieretofore made. lo-wil : Tliat .Magdalene AVoods' nniy i)rolialdy interest yon. three da niihters. Sarah .McDowell. .Marllia P.oro, after very careful seem to have been proven beyond all reasonable investigation of the whole sul)Ject, have reached the doubt ; and unless some one shall hereafter be able conclusion tliat Andrew Woods was a s(m of to })r()duce some very convincing proof to the con- Michael of P.lair Park. These gentlemen are the trary, it would seem to be but just that the conten- late H. P. Cochran, whose letter to Judge Mc- tion of :^lajor Varner, Mr. Michael W. Wallace, Laughlin is given on a preceding page; aud the Mr. II. P. Cochran, the present writer, and various Pev. Edgar Woods, of Charlottesville, Virginia. other persons who could be mentioned, has been Mr. Cochran, as quoted above, says : "Did ilichael fully established, certainly so far, at least, as con- Woods have other children than those mentioned cerns Michael Woods, Jr., JIagdalen Woods, and in his will? I think he had several more, viz.: jMartha Woods. Michael, aud prol)ably, Andrew," etc. Let it be The three pers(ms just mentioned, however, are I)orne in mind that this is the opinion of a descend- not the only ones not referred to in the last will of ant of 31ichael ^Voods of Blair Park, a very intel- ligent and trustworthy gentleman, who was auxi- ious to know the truth, and who, so far as ai»pears, c(mld not have had the remotest interest in misstat- ing the relationship of Andrew to ^Michael Woods. The Rev. Edgar Woods, above mentioned, is a lineal descendant of Andrew Woods, aud he prob- ably knows more of the history and connections of the Virginia AVoodses than any man living. He or less force upon the cases of the other two. It is has spent, probably, more time searching the c(mrt records for items about the family, and correspond- ing with the scattered descendants of the Virginia AA'oodses, than any other person of this generarion. He is known to be a conscientious and impartial man, of judicial temperament, and one wlio meas- ures his words with care, lie is the author of a booklet giving the names and genealogical connec- tions of hundreds of the Woodses. aud of a history of the county of Albemarle, containing much re- liable infornuition in regai'd to all the AVoodses in ilicliael of Blair Park who are, with good reason, believed to liave been his children. The like claim is made for at least two more sons, namely: Andrew Woods and Richard ^Voods. The cases of the three children we have just consid- ered Avere so intimately related to each other that the arguments adduced for any one of them being a child of old Michael of Blair Park bore with more somewhat otherwise as respects Andrew and Rich- ard Woods. Now that it has l)een proven that the mere failure of ilichael's will to mention individ- uals does not in the slightest degree militate against their claim to be his children, we may feel the more confident that any reasonable evidence which can be presented in behalf of Andrew aud Richard will at once command full and unpreju- diced consideration. Concerning Andrew A\dods it may be affirmed, i MICHAEL WOODS OF. BLAIU I'AltK. 35 Viri!;inia and luauy otlu'V States. It is not liclicvcd wlieu llic father, as in this case, is a man of im- (liat Dr. AVoods ronld reap tlu' sliji'litcst advantaf;e, portancc and considcvalilo estate. So far as the pecuniarv m- otlici-wisc, innw \\i\\\\\ix pnivcd that records j;(i it appears llial not one of old .Micliaers Aiulrew Woods was a son of .Mirliael of JJiair I'ariv. sons renioNcd from Alheniarie during- tlieir fatiier's And vet this geiith'nian. after nmcli weijihinji' of lifetime. John ii\c(i all his life there; Andrew did all the facts at his comnuind, has reached the con- not mo\'e, as we ha\'e seen, till ITti."), or ]7(j(i; Micli- clnsion tliat, beyond reasonable donlit, Andrew was ael, dr., went alioiit 1770; Arcliibald and William a son of Michael of Blair Park. left abont 1771. If Andrew was not a son of old In the case (d' Andrew Woods, as in that of IMichael he certainly liad a way (d"acfin^ wonder- Micliael AVoods, Jr., there is tin- sijiiuticant fact fnlly liice a son. that for many years of his life lie made his home Then, when we come to consider the i)articnlar within a very fcAV miles of [Michael, his alleettinf> away from within three miles of the I'dair I'ark homestead, Albenmrle after their parents had died, but we see nearer to ^lichael than any other of his cluldren, them settlim; near to each other. First, Andrew, with ]terhaps a single exception. His farm was in nti.l (then a man of abont forty-five years of within sight of what is now (Jreenwood Station, ou age), goes down across the James river into what the Chesapeake & Ohio K. K., just sotith of the old was, a few years later, Botetourt county, and brick mansion long owned by Michael AVallace, pitches his tent, so to speak, nine miles south of the wlio was a grandson of Michael Woods of Blair site of the present town of Buchanan. Then, only Park. This fact, it is conceded, would not, of it- a few years thereafter, Michael, Jr., pulls u]) his self, settle this question, but it is highly signilicaut; stakes and locates right (m the south bank of the and, takeu in connection with other known circuni- James, in P>otetonrt c(mnty, about five miles north- stances of the case, goes a long way towards a con- east of Buchanan, or about twelve miles, ou an air- elusive demonstration. Men do not choose a home line, fvom Andrew. About the same time Archi- next door to other people merely because they hap- bald (1771 i btiys a farm from the ^McAfees down l)en to bear the same name. Michael Woods had a on Catawba Creek, abimt twenty miles south-west nnndier of known sons and sons-in-law living of Andrew's jdace. William, we know, was in around him in tliat community, and there was this 1773 living somewhere in that region. Thus we see nmn Andrew Woods living closer to his plantation two sons whom Michael mentioned in his will than almost any of them. We insist that this is a (\Villiam and Archibald!, and two whom he omit- very signiticaid fact, tlnmgh not necessarily con- ted to mention (.Michael, Jr., ami Andrew ), wliilst elusive. yielding to the adveidnrous sj^irit which prompts Then, again, it is w(U-th noting that Andrew sturdy men to seek new homes in a frontier portion AVoods did not remove from Albemarle county of the c(mntry, managing to keep within a few until some time after old Michael had passed away, hours' ride of each other by choosing locations near :\Iic]iael died in 17(12 and Andrew removed to together. If Andrew and Michael, Jr., had not P.otetourt county in 1703 or 17()(). Of course the been brothers to Archibald and William, as well as sons in a family often move to a distance before the brothers to each other, we would have expected to death of the father, lint tliis is not the rule. The lind at least one i)air of brothers going farther sons generally remain within reasonable distance down into Southwestern Virginia, which was be- of the head of the family till he is dead, especially ginning to settle up rapidly by 1770, and which 36 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. presented many inducements to men of enterprise, tilings Avhicli a son of that worthy old gentleman I'lirthermore, when we in(inire as to the names would be expected to do. Andrew Woods gave to his children there is a very But we have yet one or two additional reasons strong suggestion ot his close kinship to old Mich- to present in support of our contention, and they ael. It is r(>garded as certain that Andrew had sev- are not mere coincidences or of the nature of cir- eral children whose names are not known to us. cunistantial evidence, hut reliable family tradition and did we but know all of their names, we might — testimony of a kind which usually convinces the be able to make (uit a stronger case than is now average fair-minded person. Professor A. W. Wil- possible. Still, the names actually known to us are liamson, of Rock Island, Illinois, is a descendant verv significant. For instance, Andrew named one of Andrew Woods, and a gentleman of intelligence of his sons Archibald, which was the name of that and high charact(>r, whose statements are entitled son of old :^Iichael who was mentioned in his to great weight. This gentleman has (or recently father's will, and who moved down to Catawba had | an aunt ninety-odd years of age, who was per- Treek about 1771, a day's journey to the south-west fectly familiar with the history of her family. She of Andrew's last home. One of his daughters bore was born very early in the last century, probably the name of ^lartha, as did one of the daughters in 1805. This lady distinctly recalled the fact that of each of the ;Michaels. We know that :Michae] of it was well understood in the family that Andrew Blair Park had a sister named Elizabeth, who mar Woods, whose home was for years in Botetcmrt ried Peter Wallace, Sr. Three of her sons married county, Virginia, niiu' miles south of the town of daughters of her brother :\li(hael, and one of her Buchanan, had an own brother living near him. It daughters nmrried [Michael's eldest son. She lived over in the (Ireat Valley, near where the town of Lexington now stands — less than two days' ride on horseback from Blair Park — and the intercourse between the families of ilichael and Elizabeth was very intimate. Now Andrew Woods named one of his girls Elizabeth — in honor of his worthy aunt, as we can hardly keep from believing. Then An- drew named a daughter [Mary, and was not that the very name of his dear old Scotch mother, the wife of old [Michael? Some may say all these little mat- ters are only coincideuces; but there must not be too many striking coincidences, lest they come to constitute tliat circumstantial evidence which noAV is a fact that Michael Woods, Jr.. Avhom we have proved to be a son of the Blair Park ^[ichael. lived for some years only fifteen miles from Andrew, and Archibald Woods lived twenty miles from him. And we know of no other pers(m in all that region at that period (17()fi to 1781), besides [Michael Woods, Jr., and Archibald "Woods, who can fairly be regarded as ineeting the re(|nirenients of the case. In line with this fact is the testimony of an- other lady, Mrs. Snidow, who is also a descendant of Andrew Woods. [Mrs. Snidow resides at Pem- broke. Giles county. West Virginia, and she com- municated to the Rev. Edgar Woods, of Charlottes- ville, Virginia, the information about to be given. [Mrs. Snidow (whose maiden nauu^ was Walker), and then avails with courts and juries to secure .Ustlnctly recalled a journey she made in 183(1 with verdicts of the most momentous kind. In other ],,,j. father, Mr. Henry Walker, through the region words, coincidences, when they become too numer- ^.ontiguous to Catawba Creek in what are uoav the ons and striking in a particular case, only prove ,-,,nnties of Botetourt and Roanoke. They spent themselves to be no accidents at all but the natural the night with Josei)h Woods on Catawba Creek. and inevitable accomx)aninients of actual fact. If This Joseph AYoods, long since deceased, was a son Andrew Woods was not, in deed and truth, a sou of i.f Archibald Woods, one of the children of Mich- Michael of Blair Park, he certainly has displayed ael of Blair Park referred to in his will. [Mr. a most abnornuil aptitude for doing exactly the ^^'alker's mother was a daughter of Andrew MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 37 Wddds, iuid Joseph was a son of Arcliiliald. Aud, cliildrcu whom lie expressly named in his hist will, of course, if Aiidr( w and Arcliihald were lirotli- Tlie only remainin5»' pei-son to he considered as ers tlieir children would he tirsi cousins lo each heinii' one of Ihe cliihli-cn of .Michael of Hlair Park, otliei'. .Mrs. Suidow says she reuieuihers that in though not refei-red to in his will, is one Richard all their conversations to,i;vtlici' they addressed Woods, Avho was once the sheriff of Augusta countj', each other always as "cousin." The impression Virginia. Whilst we have not the same amount nuule upon ^Irs. Sni(h>w, then a young wonuui or kind of evidence in support of his claim that we ])ast thirty years of age, was that her great-grand- have adduced in the case of several other iudivid- father, Andrew AVoods, was the hrother of Archi- uals, there is enough to warrant us in helieving l)ald A\'oods. There does not seem ever to have that he was prohal)ly a son of Blair Park Michael, heen any doubt of this in .Mrs. Snidow's mind. For him, as for the others, it can he affirmed that That an intelligent lady above thirty years old no adverse testinuiny has been ottered, so far as we could sit and listen to the conversations between have heard. The only thing unfavorable to his her father and Joseph Woods, and then be all her claim is the silence of the will respecting him; life in utter ignorance of the relationship existing aud this, as we have seen, is a kind of evidence between these two men seems incredible. The fact which yields to almost any positive proof what- th.at she was at a distance from her own home, and ever. on a visit to her father's "cousin Josei)h," renders The .Major J. A. R. ^'arner, late of Lexington, it far more likely that she would clearly under- Virginia, from whose letters copious quotations stand exactly what kin she was to Joseph Woods's have already been made, has this to say about Rich- family than if she had simply overheard a discus- ard Woods, writing unth'r date of August 10, 1893, sion in her own home about kinfolks at a distance, to-wit : "That Richard Woods was a son of old The very purpose to visit the distant home of a Michael Woods of Albemarle I verily heliev(^ — ■ blood relation would sharpen all her thoughts everything that I can hear or find of him goes to about that family; and as they drew near to the prove this as certain. The farm of Richard Woods home of Joseph Woods, and finally were ushered adjoined the plantations of General Bowyer [the into his house aud welcomed to its hospitality, and third husband of Mag(hileu AVoods],aud Peter Wal- the usual salutations were exchanged, and the con- lace [the husband of Martha Woods] ; the farm of versation turned upon the question of kinship, she Joseph Lapsley [the husband of Sarah Woods], would have had to be one of the most stupid of adjoined that of General Bowyer. Here we have listeners not to have understood the situation fully, a little colony consisting of a brother and three The impressions she received at that home in 1836, sisters almost in siglit of each other. The will of which have lingered in her memory through life, Richard Woods is dated June 2, 1777; he died sev- and which she communicated to Dr. Edgar ^^'oods eral years later and was well-to-do, having a good about ten years ago, constitute the nutst valuable farm, negroes and a couple of thousand pounds in of all items of family history next to written doc- Virginia money (|3.33 1-3 x 2,000), to give, de- uments, and to deny their accuracy is to he uu- vise and becpieath to his wife Jenny (Janet or reasonable, aud to cast doubts upon the larger part Jean), and his sons Benjamin and Samuel. Samuel of all the family records now in existence in the is named as executor in the will. When he quali- world. The conclusion, therefore, seems irre- tied, General Bowyer, his uncle by nuirriage, and sistilile that the Andrew M'oods who lived in Albe- Colonel Samuel Wallace, his first cousin, were his nuirle many years, and later on moved to Botetourt, bondsmen. The court appointed his two brothers- aud there died in 1781, was jiist as really a child of in-law, Joseph Lapsley aud Peter Wallace, ap- ]Michael Woods of Blair Park as any of the six praisers of the estate of Richard Woods. These 38 THE AVOODS-McAFEE :\[EMORIAL. facts im.vc kiiishi]) beyond a doubt. Blood-kinship himself in the letter he wrote Judge McLaushlin •told' in those times. It was more than a jiossa- :March 1, lSil2. mer scarh t (hrea). Dr. Edgar Woods says a Kichard other. If anv of them re(|uired to give bond as Woods lived in Alliemarle, north of Taylor's (Jap, administrators, executors, guardian, or as an and speaks as if there he died in 1801. If the two official, you will find the mimes of Bowyer, Mc- are one and the sanu", then he must have been Uowell, AVoods, Lapsley or Wallace as bondsmeu eighty to eighty-tive at death. The Bichard to the instrument. Y(m will lind the same names AVoods of Kockbridge County of wlnnn ^lajor attached to deeds and wills as witnesses. All this Varner speaks nuule his will in 1777, and died there shows a survival of the ohl (dan touch and feeling, about two years thereafter. These two sets of ilv nearest neighbor, iliss Betty Alexander, is a statements could scarcely refer to oik' and the same descendant of John McDowell, the first husband of man. Both Dr. Edgar Woods, in his History of Magdalen Woods (the fourth remove from her), Albemarle (page 35(5), and Mr. Waddell, in his and a niece of that great preacher and theologian, Annals of Augusta County (page 117), speak of Archibald Alexander, of I'rinceton College. Her this Albemarle Kichard Woods as having married a mother died since the close of our Civil War, and Miss Stuart, a sister of Col. John Stuart, of Greeu- she says that her mother remembered her ()'. v.. brier. Mr. A\'addell gives her Christian name as 3h"s. Alexander's) grandmother, .Magdalene Bow- "Betsy," whilst Dr. Edgar Woods gives it as "Eliza yer, well. Miss Alexander has this to say, that Ann." The "Eliza," however, may have been only .she heard her mother say that her ( /. <:, Mrs. Alex- an abbreviation of Elizabeth for which "Betsy" was ander's) grandmother (IMagdalene Bowyer), was a common alternative or pet-name. The children witli her brother, who lived l)ut a short distance— of Kichard Woods, of Albemarle, as given by Dr. a siiort- walk — from her house, when he died. Edgar Woods, were AVilliam, " Kichard, George, * * * Now, the brother could have been none Matthew and Elizabeth, whereas Major Yaruer other than Kichard Woods, as his house was less speaks of but two children of the Kockbridge Kich- than half a mile from the houu- of .Magdalene Bow- ard, the one being Benjamin, and the other Samuel. yer. No other AVoods lived within less than twenty The Albemarle Kichard is designated by Waddell miles of her. This, 1 think, settles the (luestion as as Ccdonel Kichard Woods, whilst :Maj(U- Varner to the degree of relati(mship of Kichard >V()ods to omits all title in referring to the Kockbridge Kich- JNUchael Woods, Sr." ard. Then still further complications arise from The :Mr. Cochran who has, like Major Varner, the fact that the IJockbridge Richard was sheriff of been so frecdy (pioted on foregoing pages, was of Augusta about 1757 (Rockbridge county was not the same opinion as Major Varner in regard to carved out of Augusta and Botetourt until Richard Woods being a son of old Michael of Blair 1778), and from the further fact that, according to Park. He had no knowledge, doubtless, of the con- AVaddell (page 132), a Richard AVoods was made vincing evidence of that fact which has just been the tirst sheriff of Botetcmrt at its erection in 1770. quoted from .Major A'arner's letter. Even without The writer ctmfesses that he is unable to disen- it, however, he considered it extremely probable tangle these various Richards, and contents him- that Richard was, along with Andrew and Michael, s(df with saying that it is reasonable to believe that Jr., a son of lUairPark .Alichael,and he so expressed the one referred to by :Major A'arner was a sou of MICHAEL m)<^DS OF BLAIR TARK. 39 .^licliiU'l \\'()()(ls of r.lair Park. As, acc(mliii!K4jT_iui (>])iiii(in. We iiiiisL tlaTi-forc limit the uuiuber Dr. p](liiar Woods, tlic Allpcinarlc Kiclianl liaen confounded Vith either his Tiie foUowinj;- exhibit of the cliiidren of .Michael father or with still another nnin of the same name. Woods and his wife Mary I )irc Camphell), is pre- Anotlier fact to he borne in mind is llial the wife of sented as the result of the writer's researches ex- the Rockbridjie Richard Woods, acco^din^ to Major tending- throniih the last ten years. The one aim Varner, was not I>etsy or Elizabeth, but Jenny has been to net at the truth, and then to state it (Janet or Jeau). But Betsy nmy have died and fairly, regardless of the predilections and prefer- he may have married later a lady l>y the name of ences of himself or others. Tlie exact date of the Jenny. These confusing details, however, do not birth and death of the several children is not in anywise atfect the argument intended to prove known with any certainty in many instances, that old Michael of Blair I*ark had a son Richard Where there exist doubts, and mere coD-jecture and \\ho lived for many years in Augusta (later on, inference have had to be resorted to, that fact is Rockbridge). We feel pretty sure as to where this indicated by interrogation mai'ks enclosed in pa- one came from, tlumgh we are unable to locate him rentheses. Unly those dates which the ^-riter con- throughout his entire career or to distinguish him si(hn"s to have been satisfactorily proved are left from one or two other men of the same name, without such signs of doubt. That some errors Hence, it is but fair to set down a Richard among should l)e f'oods name who lived very close more accurate exhibit than that which is here pre- to old ^lichael in .Vlliemarle, and Axiio were, no sented, it is a thousand pities that the writer could doubt, in some way related to him by blood, Init so not have had the privilege of availing himself of far as the writer has been able to learn nothing such information; but he does not now know of jiositive is known ujion which we could fairly base such a i)erson. EXHIBIT. Children of ^Michael and Mary Campbell Woods. A.— MAC.DALEX 15. 1700 ( ?) M. McDOWELL-BORDEX-BOWYER D. 1810 ( ?) B._.WILLIA:\1 B. 1707 ( ?) .M. SISANNAH WALLACE I). C— MICHAEL, JR B. 1708 ( ?) M. ANNE — I). 1777 I).— HANNAH B. 1710 ( ? ) .M. WILLIA.M AVALLACE U. E.— JOHN B. 1712 .M. SUSANNAH ANDERSON D. 1791 F.— :\IARCrARET B. 1714 (?) M. ANDREW WALLACE I). (l.—KiniARD B. 171;") ( ?) 'SI. JENNY D. 1779 II.— ARCHIBALD B. 1710 ( ?) M. ISABELLA D. 178:5 J. —MARTHA B. 1720 M. I'ETER WALLACE, JR D. 1790 K.— ANDREW B. 1722 ( ?) M. MARTHA POAtH'] D. 1781 L.— SARAH B. 1724 (?) M. JOSEPH LAPSLEY D. 1792 (?) 40 THE WOODSMcAFEE MEMOPJAL. Conceruiug each aud all of the eleveu cLiklren of Michael and Mary there is a great multitude of details we would gladly kuow if we could, but which it is uow impossible to recover, and yet from various printed books, and court records, and ec- clesiastical registers, and State papers, aud ancient tomb-stones, and family traditions we are able to gather quite a number of interesting items of a trustworthy character. Such of these as the au- thor has had the opportunity to discover will now be presented, many of which have never before been in print : A— MAGDALEN WOODS. AND THE MCDOW- ELLS, AXD BOEDEXS, AND BOWYEKS. Of her early life next to nothing is positively known. That she was a child of :Michael Woods by his wife 3Iary. m r Campbell, has been, as we believe, satisfactorily demonstrated. That she was born in Ireland about the year 170(5. is the convic- tion of the author, based upon various well-ascer- tuined facts. It seems equally probable that she was the first child of her parents. Her father, as is known, was born in 1<)S4. and it is extremely likely he did not marry till he was twenty-one years old (say in 1705), and was not a father until 1706. It is also reasonably certain that her pa- rents migrated to America in 172-f, at which time she was about eighteen years of age; aud it is cer- tainly known that she did not leave Great Britain when her parents removed to the New World. It is positively certain — from the best of evidence, soon to be given — that she came to Virginia from Great Britain in 1737. at which time she Avas the wife of John McDowell, and the mother of at least one child, Samuel. When she came to Virginia she was about thirty-one years old. and there she si)ent I in Bockbridge county ). the whole of the re- mainder of her extraordinarily long life, dying, as is believed, in 1810. at the great age of 104 years. She was a Presbyterian, and was probably a mem- ber of Timber Eidge Church from its first organ- ization, not hmg after her arrival in the neighbor- hood, until her ileath — a period of at least seventy years. She must have been a woman of remark- able physical vigor, and of great strength of char- acter. She was three times married, and at the death of her second Imsliand (Borden), became the wealthiest lady west of the Blue Kidge, Borden having fallen heir to a part of his father's vast landed estate of .^OO.OOO acres in the Great Valley before his jnarriage with INIagdalen. She was widely known througluait a wide circle of connec- tions, and was fretpiently honored by having the children of relatives named for her. The correct spelling of her name is a matter of no great moment, and yet it is one worthy of at least a passing notice. The author has adopted the orthography employed herein i Magdalen) be- cause it seems that was the preference of the good lady herself, aud is the one followed by some of her best informed kinsfolk. It is one of those names which is certain to l)e variously si)elled even by the different members of the family connections to which the wearer of it belongs. We find ilagda- lena. Magdalene. Magdaline, besides Magdalen, used by different writers; but in the year 1753, during her second widowhood, we find her name signed to a call which the Tindter Bidge Church extended to a Rev. John Brown, and she spelled her Christian name Magdalen, if Ave are to accept what Ave find in Dr. Foote's alleged copy of that document. ■■' This ought to settle the matter, though even a lady may not be invariably consistent with herself, and this one may in some instances, or at dift'erent i)eriods of her long life. liaA'c varied the orthography of her name. * Skction Oxe — The McDowells. The earliest authentic account of John Mc- Dowell. Magdalen's first husband, consists of a brief record in the court house of Orange county, Virginia. It bears date February 28. 1739. and reads as folloAvs: "John McDowell made oath that he imported himself. Magdalen his wife, Samuel McDoAvell his son. and John Butter his servant, at his charge from Great Britain, in the MICIIAKL WOODS OF P.LAIR PAUK. 41 voar 1737 to dwell in this cojdiiy." Ja-I it he home ill iiiind that whilst tlie act (if the Colonial Legis- lature for the creation of tlie county of Augusta by dividing Orange county was passed in 17:?S — one year before John McDowell took the oalh j\ist re- f<'iTed to — the county was not fully organized until 174."). This explains why the record aliove (pioted was made at ( trange court liouse. Fnrtherniore, the records (;f the land ofitice at Kichnuuid sho\\- that on the lOtli of November, 1742, ^loDowell secured a grant of 40(» acres of land on account of the imi)oi'- tation of himself and family into the colony at his own clsarges tive years before.^' This one sworn statement, recorded in Orange county, fni-nishes us a very detiniti* and iin-ontrovertible basis for a re- liable account of lioth John ^FcDowell and .Mag- dalen ^^■oolls. It clears up scA'eral disputed (pies- tions, and it rtain of liic militia com]iany of which he was in command when kiJIeil by the Indians. \\licllier Ephraiin McDowell, J(din"s father, came lo America prior to 1737 is a nuitter which the records within reach of the present writer do not satisfactorily determine. If what we find in most of the books ccuicerning the date of the mi- gration of the father be as unreliable as some of the statements which are here seen touching that of the son, not nuich dependence can be placed upon it. P>ut there are some reasons for believing that Ephraim and most of his family iireceded John and family by at least a few years. Gol. Green surmises that the McDowells and a goodly comi)any of their kinsmen and co-religionists mi- grated from Ireland at one and the same time, and he inclines to the view that it may have been the year 1721).*" This is certainly inexact so far as re- lates to .Tohii and family, but is probably true as to his father and the other members of the .Mc- Dowell colony. Ephraim and his party seem to have settled first in Pennsylvania, and then later on to have nuived on down into the Valley of Vir- ginia. If this southward move occurred in 1737 John and family may have been in the company. The wife of Ephraim, who was his full first cousin, was ^largaret Irvine. Col. Green infers that she was dead when the family left Ireland, be- cause her daughter, ^Irs. Greenlee, in her famous deposition, taken in 1800, when she Avas ninety- five years (dd, sjieaks as if her mother was not with the family at the time of the migration to America.*' I The reader will please turn to note 41, and read it before going further.) Ephraim and wife were genuine Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, like the itarents of the lady their son John mai"- ried, and we may rest assured that John could re- cite the Shorter Catechism, proofs and all, before he was sixteen years old, and was familiar with his Bible and I'salm Book. One reason for surmising that Ejdiraim came (o America some yeai'S prior 42 TOE ^yOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. to 1737 is his known intimacy in Ireland with John Lewis, tlic man wlio. in 1732, settled what after- wards became Augusta county. LeAvis had mi- grattxl to PennsylA-ania, and then in 1732 settled in the (ireat Valley near where Staunton was after- wards built. Col. Green believes that Ephraim ilcDowell and John Lewis came to America to- gether in the year 172!». and tliis seems quite likely, though it seems quite strange that Ephraim, who was then a man of fifty-seven, should umke so seri- ous a move as was involved in his migration to an- other continent beyond the sea, leaving behind him his eldest son, John, then a young man of about twenty-six years, who did not follow till eight years later. This certainly calls for some unusual ex- planation. The children of Ephraim McDowell and his wife ilargaret, iicc Irvine, were the follow- ing: 1, John, who married Magdalen Woods; 2, James, who is thought to have been the first mem- ber of the family to go to Virginia, having raised a crop of corn in Beverly Manor in the spring of 1737, who was a gallant soldier of the "S'irginia militia during the French and Indian Wars, who married a lady near ^^'illiamsburg, and who died without nuile issue; 3, Mary E., who was born in 1711, who married James Greenlee, who came into Borden's Grant in the fall of 1737, and who gave her famous dejjosition in the case of Borden vs. Cueton et al., in 1800 when ninety-five years old; and 4, ]MAU(;AitKTTA, who married James Mitchell, who moved to North Carolina and later to South Carolina, with her husband, and from whom was descended the late ^Ir. Thomas Mitchell, an hon- ored banker of Danville, Kentucky, whose only daughter, Louisa, is the wife of the Ifev. Thomas Cleland, of Springfield, JMo. What was known as Borden's Grant in- chided a large ])art of the present counties of Augusta and Bockbridge. John Lewis, the old friend and kinsman of Ephraim McDowell, Imd settled in Augusta ( or what afterwards came to be Augusta) in 1732, and about five years thereafter (1737) we find Ephraim ilcDowell and the Green- lees and John jMcDowell and family coming up the Valley from Pennsylvania (John and family hav- ing just arrived from Irelandj with the intention of settling close to John Lewis. When nearly at their destination the party accidentally fell in with one Ben Borden. Sr., of New Jersey, who had recently secured from (io\\ G(»och a large grant of r)00,()00 acres on the Shenandoah and James rivers in parts of the territory now included in the counties of Augusta and Kockbridge. Producing his patents, he soon satisfied the McDowells that his claim was lawful and sound. He told the Mc- Dowells that he had located 10,000 acres in the Fork of James river, but was not able to make his way to the place, and he ottered to give 1,000 acres to anyone who would direct him to the spot. John McDowell, \\ho was an educated man and a prac- tical surveyor, accepted the otter, and a written agreement was entered into between the parties. The next day the \\liole party reached the home of John Lewis. McDowell piloted Borden to the de- sired locality and the whole colony concluded to settle in Borden's Grant. When and how John acijuired his knowledge of that region Ave can not even guess. Cabins AAere soon erected for Ephraim ilcDowell, the Greeulees, and John iMcDowell, near where Lexington, Virginia, now stands, and the men of the colony — one of the first in all that sec- tion of country after that of John Lewis — at once began writing to friends in Ireland and perhaps in Pennsylvania, to come and make homes in the beau- tiful Valley. The result was that in a few years the Woodses, AVallaces, Walkers, ^IcClungs, Saw- yerses, McCues, McCowus, Hayses, McElroys, McKees, McCauslands, McCampbells, iMcPheet- erses, Campbells, Stuarts, Paxtous, Lyles, Irviues, Caldwells, Cloyds, etc., were induced to settle in that charming Avilderness and ))ecome the pioneers in establishing one of the most prosperous and en- lightened agricultural communities eA'er founded in the New A\'orld. Presbyterian churches soon be- gan to be established in all that region, and for a long period they were the only churches of any kind in the Valley; and now, after the lapse of a centurv and a half, they are among the most pow- MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 43 ci'ful and beiipfieent ap,enci('s for tlic intcllcctnal miivrs dnwii in tlic twentieth century considerable and spiritual traiuinii' <>f tli(> inhaliitanis of tlie i)erplcxit,v if he shuiild in some Avay manage to liave (ireat \'alley. Epliraini Mel )owell li\'ed to be that petit i(Hi i-ecast. It any one feels enough inter- more tlian a Inindred years of aiic onlliving his est in the matter to want to read it for himself, he son John more than a whole generation, and dying can find it in fnll in NNaddelJ's Annals (page 482). at the ontbreak of the American Kevohition, in It wonld have made Josh Billings, Artemus Ward which so many of his descendants were destined to and Kill Nye feel very small. We can rest assured, play a prominent and honorable ]»art. however, that John .McDowell was in no way re- lohn -McDowell's career in Virginia was a brief sponsible for the wording and spelling of the peti- one, and had a terrible ending. He lived but a tion, for lie was an educated man, and must have little more than five years after settling in the felt a little (Mnbarrassed by its make-up if he ever Valley. In July, 1742, a jietition was gotten up by did read it, which is doubtful. It accomplished his many friends and admirers, and addressed to its purpose, lutwever; it secured him his commis- (iov. (iooch, asking that he be apixiinted cajdain sion from the (iovernor, and he was made captain of the colonial militia for .Vugusta county, as a of the .Vugusta militia. defence against the Indians who fre(|uently visited Rut, alas, liow lirief was the period for which the Valley, their main war-path from the north to he was to wear his honors and continue to serve his the south passing right by the site of Staunton, and comnninity ! Late in I)ecend)er, 1742, tidings came crossing the Blue Ridge at AVoods"s (iap. That pe- to the settlement (on Christmas eve) that a baud tition, by the way, which is given in full by ^^'ad- f>f Idood-thirsty Shawnee Indians from beyond the dell,^- is one of the most remarkable examples of Ohio were already i>rowliug in the neighborhood, "stunning" orthography to be found in all litera- inti'ut u\nm deeds of plunder and blood. At his ture. The wonder is that the educated men of the call the men of his company quickly assendiled at community, of whom there were not a few, should his home on Tind)er Ridge, and a council of war have allowed such a ridiculously illiterate docu- was held. Captain ^IcDowell was a comparatively ment to be sent to Governor (iooch. The only way young man, and almost without experience in in which we can account for the presentation of Indian warfare, lie was not very .familiar with such a paper to the c(donial government is that it the cunning tactics of his foe. But he was fearless was written and mainly gotten up by some warm and enterprising, and soon the company of militia admirer of John .McDowell, who, though destitute under his lead started in pursuit of the savages. It of education, may have been a nuin of excellent was on Christmas day. AVhen they had reached the character and influence in the community, as point where the North i-iver comes into the James wi' sometimes tind illustrated in our own day; at Balcony Falls, not nuicli m(U"e than twenty miles and for fear of giving him offence, the peti- from their homes, they marched all unconsciously tion was allowed to go for,.'ard to Williams- into a deadly aud)uscade, skilfully laid for biirg as it was originally jirepared. Perhaps them by the wily and murderous Shawnees; and (uly a few of the signers ever read it. But the first intiuuition the whites had of the presence if we could have been near eninigh to the gallant of the foe was a sudden volley from the ritles of the captain-to-be we would have been tempted to sug- Indians which instantly laid Ca])tain .McDowell gest to him that as that pa])er w(.uld be read and and eight of his men low in the dust. The savages discussed generations after, when he would not be at once l)roke and ran, as if themselves astonished at hand to make the necessary explanations, he .^t the fearful execution they had wrought, and would doubtless save some of his kinsmen and ad- ,ireadiug the wrath of the whites. The men of the 44 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. militiii were so completely takeu by surprise, and so shocked to see their brave leader and eight of their ((niipany prostrate upon the earth in the agonies of death, that they did not attempt to pur- sue the rapidly retreating foe, but tenderly gath- ered up the dead bodies of their comrades, placed them upon horses, aiid in sorrow and gloom began their march back ti» Timber Ridge, twenty miles distant, there to be compelled to Avitness the grief and distress now to fall upon so many stricken families. Magdalen :McDowell had doubtless that Christmas morning kissetl her beloved husband a tender farewell, and in prayer commended him and his companions to the care of God's gracious Provi- dence only a few hours before. But what a fear- ful spectacle for Magdalen it must have been — that doleful company, slowly returning with nine bloody corpses dangling across the saddles of their horses, and one of them her own dear husband, whom she had seen go forth with such a brave heart only one day, or perhaps a few hours, before ! [Magdalen was now a widow, and her house the house of mourning, and her three little children fatherless. To her broken heart it must have been no small comfort to have near her many of the near kin of both herself and her departed husband. Her father's home was just across the Blue Ridge, about thirty-fiAe miles to the northeastAvard. Nine graves, side by side, Avere dug near Mag- dalen's uoAV desolated home, and the Ijodies Avere prepared for burial. It Avas indeed a strange Christmas season. The dead Avere laid aAvay Avith the solemnity of Christian rites, and their murder- ers escaped beyond the mountains towards their far northern homes beyond the Ohio. The burial- place of these nine men, Avhom Dr. Foote supposed to have been the first of the Saxon race ever com- mitted to the dust in Rockbridge county, can be seen to-day near the Red House, or Maryland Tav- ern, on the west side of the road leading from Staunton to Lexington. As (me enters the iron gate and turns a little to the left he Avill observe a low, unhcAvu limestone slab about tAvo feet high, on wliich is a rude inscription reading thus:*^ HEER LYES THE BODY OF J O H N :\I A C K D O W' ELL DECED DECEMBE 1743 ^lagdalen Woods is known to have bad at least three children by her first husltand, John ilcDow- ell, namely; tAvo sons, and a tlaughter. (I) The first-born of their children, so far as existing records shoAv, Avas named SAMUEL, and it is certainly knoAvn tlmt he came over Avith his parents from Great Britain to Virginia in the year 1737. His age at the time of the migration is not referred to in the SAVorn statement of his father, previously mentioned as being on record at Orange Court House, Virginia; but Col. Green giAes 1735 as the year of Samuel's birth. If he Avas the first child of his parents, then Magdalen and John had been nmrried more than ten years Ijefore they had issue. Tliey may, however, have had several chil- dren prior to Samuel's birth avIio died in infancy. His death occurred in Kentucky, in 1817; and if he Avas born in 1735, he Avas eighty-tAvo years old when he died. Samuel McDowell (Avhomwe shall presently begin to refer to as Judge Samuel McDowell, in order to distinguish him from other persons of his name) was educated in Avliat is now Rockbridge Coiinty, and in part by Archibald Alexander, the head of one of the most distinguislied and scholarly families this country has ever produced. For companions he had the McClungs, Paxtons, Woodses, "Wallaces, Lapsleys, Stuarts, Lyles, Reids, Moores, Campbells, etc. Left fatherless AA'hen perhaps only scA-en or eight years of age (December 25, 1742), his boy- hood and much of his manhood were spent on the Virginia frontier, AAliere Indian raids had con- stantly to be guarded against, and Avliere the condi- tiims of life AAcre such as to train him to endure many hardships and play the part of a sturdy and adventurous man. Reared by a Scotch-Irish mother, and in the midst of a community almost ^MICHAEL AVOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 45 wlioUy (if tlic PrcsUytcriiui faitli, lie oarly learned to tear years of a^'e, he was a siildier of the colony against the French and Indians; ami in ITT.') a lariic tract of land was iiranted to him in I'ayettc Connty, Kentucky, for his military services, lie commanded a comjiany of the Augusta militia at the lireat battle with the Indians at Point Pleasant, A'iryinia, in October, 1774, and renars old, he removed his family to what was afterwards .M(rcer County, K( iitucky. In 178<>, he was chosen to be one of the presiding justices of the first Ccninty Court held in the District of Kentucky, and from that time on he was known as Judge McDowell. In the discussions and gather- ings which tinally paved the way for the separa- tion of Kentucky from A'irginia and its erection into a se])arate State in 17!)!', Judge ilcDowell took a leading part. He ju'esided over all of the nine Conventicms which met to discuss the separation of Kentucky from the parent State, and also over that of 17!)!', which framed Kentucky's first con- stituti(m. He was distinguished for his incorrupt- ible integrity, strong common sense, and coura- geous adherence to what he deemed to be right. He died near Danville, Kentucky, in 1817. at the advanced age of eighty-two. Judge McDowell liad married, when scarcely nineteen years of age, :Miss .Mary McClung, of Vir- ginia — January 17, 1754. The fruit of tiiis union was a family of eleven children, as follows: (a I Joii.x. who was born in N'iiginia, in 1757, took an active part in the Revolutionary struggle; nuirried Sarah McDowell, his first cousin, a daughter of bis uncle James ilcDowell; after the death of his wife, Sarah .McDowell, lu' married Lucy Le (Jrand; removed to Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1784; and was a major in the war (»f 1812. The children of Major John McDowell by his first wife Sarah, were the f(dlowing: 1, James, who nmrried Susan Shelby; 2, John (3d), who married Sarah JIcAlpine; 3, Samuel 1 2d ) who nmrried IJetsy Chrisman; 4, Betsy, who married AA'illiani Mc- Pheeters; and, 5, Mary, who married Major Thomas Hart Shelby. The children of Majtu- John McDowell by his second wife, Lucy Le (xrand, were the following: 1, Joseph Naslie, who married a Miss Drake; 2, Charles, who married a .Miss Redd; 3, Betsy, who married Henderson Bell; 4. Sallie, who marrieast the age for enduring the usual hardships of military life, but his patriotic spirit was not to be hampered by that circumstance. He was at the time in com- mand of a company of cavalry raised at Lexington, and this body soon developed into a battalion. He was made a major, and his command consolidated with that of <"(>1. Simrall. He saw service umler (ieneral Harrison, and distinguished himself in tlie hotly contested battle of tlie iNfississinewa. Wlien the war ch)sed he held the rank of colonel. He re- moved to ilason County. Kentucky, where he spent the evening of his life, dying at a ripe old age. He was a man of splendid physique, and great force of character, and left a tine estate and an honoral)le name to his children. Col. James ^IcDowell and his wife, .Afary Paxton Lyle, had seven children, as follows: 1. Isabelhi, who married Dr. Jolm Poage Campbell; 2, Sallie. who married ( )li\-er Keene, of Fayette County, Ken- tucky; 3, Samuel, who was a sergeant in Ca])tain Trotter's comjiany in the war of 1812. and nmrried Polly Chrisman. of Jessamine County, Kentucky; 4, Juliet, Avho married a Dr. Dorsey, of Fleming County, Kentucky ; o, Hettie, who married John Andrews; G, Captain .lohn Lyle, who was a soldier in the war of 1812 along with his father, nmrried Nancy Vance Scott, died in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1878, at the age of eighty-four, and one of whose sous was the late ^[ajor Ilervey McDowell, of Cyn- thiana, Kentucky, who raised and commanded in the late ('ivil War one of the companies composing Col. Poger W. Hanson's Second Kentucky Kegi- ment of the Confi'derate Army; and, 7, Ephraim. of Mason County, Kentucky, who married, first, .Vnn I'oage, and, secondly, Lucretia C. Feemster. This Ephraim .MiDowell was a physician and a nei)hew of the world-famed surgeon of the same name. (c) The third sim of Judge Samuel McDowell and Jiis ^\•ife, Mary ^[cClung, was named WiL- I.I.VM, who came to be known as Judge William McDowell. He was born in Rockbridge County, Mrginia, ^Farch 9, 17(12. He was quite young when the Revolution opened, but he was in the Vir- ginia militia for a time during the war. He is said to have been the most highly educated of all his father's children, and was an able lawyer. He came to Kentucky with his father in 1784, and set- tled near Danville. There he soon rose to promi- nence at the liar, and was tlie intimate associate of the ablest and most distinguished men of Ken- tucky. And let it be borne in mind that despite the distance of Danville from the cultured centers of influence in the older sections of the country at the East, there were, even at that early day, a c, Joseph, who married Anne Bush, and settled in Alabama, one of their daughters ( ilary ) marrying a Judge Clarke, of ^lississipjii, and the other (Bettie) marrying a Dr. Welch, who moved to (Jalveston, Texas; 0, Alexan- der Keith ilarshall, who married, first, I'riscilla ;\fcAfee, a daughter of (Jeneral Roliert B. ^Ic.Vfee, of fiercer County, Kentucky, and, later on, Anna llaupt ; 7, ilary, who was born in Mercer County in 1787, and married William Starling; 8, Sallie, born in 1801, who married Jeremiah Minter. (el The fifth son of Judge Samuel McDowell and his wife, ^lary .McClung, was named Joseph, who was 1)orn September 13, 17(58, and was but six- teen years old when his parents migrated to Ken- tucky. He was known in his mature years as Col- onel Joseph McDowell. In Kentucky, after reach- ing a suitable age. he took an active part in the campaigns against the Indians. lie was in Brown's company with Scott's expedition in 1791, and in both of the expeditious under Geu'l Hop- kins in 1812. He attracted the favorable notice of (Jovernor Shelby, who made him a member of his staff as adjutant-general, and he was with him at the battle of the Thames, in the fall of 1813, and for his services received special complimentary men- tion from Geu'l Harrison. Col. .MiDowidl devoted his energies to farming. He was a devout Chris- tian and an elder of the Presbyterian Church in Danville. Kentucky, wliere he died, June 27, 185fi, at the ripe age of eighty-eight years. Col. ^loDowelFs wife was Sarah Irvine, a sister 48 THE AYOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. of the wife of his brother, Samuel. Their childreu were as follows: 1. 8aiiuiel. who married, first. Aiiiand;! liall, and, later on. Martha Hawkins; 2, Anna, who married Ahram I. ("aldweil; :J. Sarah, who married [Michael Sullivaut, of Columbus, Ohio; 4, [Margaret Iniue, who nmrried Joseph Sul- livaut, of Columbus, Ohio, a younger brother of her sister Sarah's husband; and, 5, Magdalen, who married Caleb Wallace, of Danville, Ky. (f) Ei'iiHAi.M — the famous surgeon, and the most widely known member of his family — was the sixth sou of Judge Samuel [McDowell and his wife Jlary McClung, and was born in what is now Rock- bridge County, Virginia, Xovendier 11, 1771. In 178-1, when only thirteen years old, he came with his parents through the great wilderness to Dan- ville, Kentucky, wliere his early life was spent. He was educated there, and at Bardstown, Ky., and Lexington, Va. He studied medicine at Staunton, Virginia, under a Dr. Humphreys, a graduate of Edinburg Fniversity. Later, he spent two years studying medicine ( 1703-1704 ) at Edinburg, where he had as i)receptor and friend the great surgeon, John Bell. On his return to America Dr. Mc- Dowell began jyractice at Danville, Ky. He rose to prominence and fame rapidly, patieuts seeking his services from all ]iarts of the South and West. It was in the year 1800, when Dr. [McDowell had been i)ractising only twelve years, that he per- formed an operation upon the person of a Mrs. Crawford wh'uh marks a new epoch in surgery — the successful removal of iin ovarian tumor. In this operation he blazed tlie way for the profession of all after years, for he was virtually without a guide or a precedent in this difficult and delicate undertaking. He employed no amp.sthetics, and had no assistance, and yet his ]>atient made a complete recovery, and lived nearly a third of a century there- after. The British Cyclojiiedia (Xintli Edinburgli Edition, Volume XXII, page (500 I , which never dis- plays any excess of zeal in praising the achieve- ments of workers in the New World, in discussing abdominal surgery and the results gained by ova- riotomy, has this to say : "lu 1800, Ephraim Mc- ])<;\vell, of Kentucky, inspired by the lectures of John Bell, his teacher in Edinburgh, performed o\ari(:t(.niy. and ciiutinuing In n])crare with suc- cess established the possibility of surgical inter- ference, and was followed in the T'nited States by many others." Dr. [McDowell opi i-;iicd thirteen times, and was successful eight limes, as Johnston's Cyclo])a*dia states. When, after some years' silence, he finally nuide a public report of his suc- cesses, the great surgeons of both America and Europe discredited his statenu'uts, considering such results impossible. He was assailed vigor- ously l>y Dr. James Johnson, the learned editor of tlie Ijondon [Medico-Chirurgical Review, but Dr. Johnson 'dived to ask i)ardon of Cod and Dr. Mc- Do^^'(dl for his uncharitableness," and in 1827 con- fessed that he was wrong. Of course, the subsecpient discoveries in medicine and surgery, and the multi- ]dication of all manner of facilities in handling such cases have greatly developed and improveo\\(dl and his \\if< .Mary .McCluiig, and was horn .\|iril 17. 1774. He married a relative, .Miss Elizal)etli, the daugh- ter of Colonel Joe ileDowell, of North Carolina, by his wife, :\[argaret iloffett. 1. The only daughter of Caleb Wallar-e McDowell and his wife, Eliza- beth (her nanu' unknown to the writer), married a kinsman, Joseph Chrisman, Jr., of Jessamine County. Kentucky. The McDowtdls and Chris- mans se( nied to have intermarried fm- several gen- erati(ms after the first alliance was effected about the middle of the seventeenth eentury, and the re- sult is an unnstial combination of connections and relationships wliicii might well confound anv but the professional genealogist. (hi and (j) Sai;a!I and .MA(a>Ai.i:x. twin chil- dren of Judge Samiud iIcl)ow(dl by his wife, 3fary ^rcClung, were born October 9, 17"). Sarah became the (first) wife of the Caleb Wallace, who, in after years became one of the first three justices of the Kentucky Court of App.'als. Dr. \\'liitsit( believes that Caleb and Sarah were married in ^Farch, 1774. He was 13 years her senior. Caleb AX'allace was then a candidate for the Presbyterian nuuistry, ami in Octobei- of that year was ordained, and installed i)astor of two churches in S(mth Side. Virginia, one of which (Ctdt Creek) was in Char- lotte County, and the other ( Falling IJiver) only a few miles distant. Sarah died in tlie early l)b)om of womanhood, and left no child. Her twin sister, ^lagdalen, married .Vndrew Beid, ^larch 4, 177('). and remained in A'irgiina \\hen her ]iarents and the rest of the children movi^d to Kentucky some yeai's later. Andi-ew Tfeid was of Scotch-Irish descent, and was born Febrtiarv 13. 11~>\. He di;'d Octo- lier. 1S37. He was nnule clerk of Rockbridge <'oiiiity at the dale of its organization in 1778, and held the posit icm continuously for fifty years. His home was known as .Alulberry Hill, an attractive idace west of Lexington. Eleven children were born to Andrew and .Magdalen. Two of the sous died in infancy. The eldest daughter, Sarah, mar- ried .\ndre\\ .Moore. .Vnotlier daughter married a -Mr. .McCampbell. Two other daughteis married Venables. Yet another married Judge .Vbraham Smith. .V tiftii daughter id" Andrew ainl .Magdalen married Major John Alexander, of Lexington, Vir- ginia, and their daughter. Agnes, married the late Lev. Dr. Beverly Tinker Lacey. The only .son of .Vndrew and .Magdabqi who grew to manhood was Samuel -M( Dowell Held. He was the last to bear the name of his family owing to the early death of all three of his sons as well as both of his brothers. :\Ir. Beid was adjutant of the Fifth Virginia Mili- tia in the war of 1812, commanded by Col. James McDowell. He succeeded his father as clerk of Bockbridge County and hidd the jyosition for 25 years. He was also the clerk of the Circuit Court, colonel of the Virginia militia, and a member of the A'irginia Legislature. February 22, 1821, he married SaraV. Elizabeth Hare, l)uilt him a home ill Lexington, which is still the treasured posses- sion of his grandchildren, and died September 15, 18()0, honored and respected by all who knew him.^' Samuel ^fcDowtdl Beid was of Scotch-Irish blood, but ^liss Hare, whom he married, was of Cavalier stock. Thus was brought about, in their offs])ring, that commingling of (|iialities \\hich, ac- cording to ilr. John Fiske, the historian, produces such welbbalanced characters. She was the daughter of Dr. William Bordley Hare, of King and (iiieen ("(uinty, ^\■ho served his State in botli branches of (he A'irginia Legislature, in turn, and also ill the Council of State. Dr. Hare's wife was .Miss Elizabeth Cabell, daughter of Co\. Nicholas Cabell and Hannah Carrington, of Nelson County. "Sallie Hare," as Jlrs. Beid was called, was a wo- man of deeji piety, and rare beauty and refinement; and she inherited all the musical talent of the 50 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. Cabells. It was when she came, a little motherless girl, to the Ann Smith Academy at Lexington, that she won the heart of young "McDowell Keid." She was born August 5, 1800, and died on her thirty- ninth birthday, August 5, 1839. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Eeid only two reached uuiture years, viz. : 1, Mary Louisa, who married James Jones White; and 2, Agues. (k) Martha was the third daughter of Judge Samuel IMcDowell and Mary jMcCluug. She was born Juue 20, 17(56, seventeen or eighteen years before her parents migrated to Kentucky. In October, 1788, several years after the migration, she was married to Colonel Abraham Buford, who was at the Battle of Point Pleasant, in October, 1774, as a lieutenant in the company of militia from Bedford Couuty. Duriug the Revolution he was the Lieut.-Colouel of the Tenth Regimeut of Vir- ginia ^lilitia, and took part in the affair at Wax- haw, South Carolina, in May, 1780, where he lost three hundred of the four hundred men of his com- mand at the hands of the British Dragoons under the blood-thirsty Tarleton. Col. Buford and his wife IMartha McDowell had issue, as folloAVs: 1, Charles S. Buford, who married, first, a daughter of Gov. John Adair, and, secondly, Liicy Duke, daughter of Dr. Basil Duke and Charlotte Mar- shall ; 2, William S., who married a daughter of TTon. ( icorge Robertson ; and, 3. Mary:, Avho married James K. Duke, a brother to the second wife of her brother, Charles S. Buford. (1) Mary or Polly was the youngi^t daugh- ter of Judge Samuel jMcDowell and ^lary Mc- Clung, and was born in Rockbridge Couuty Vir- ginia, January 11. 1772. In 1784, she came through the wilderness to Kentucky with her parents. She was a woman of deep piety, marked amiability, and uncommon loveliness of person. In October, 1794, she married Alexander Keith ]\Iarshall, who was the sixth son of Colonel Thonms Marshall, of Revo- lutionary fame, and a nephew of Chief Justice Marshall. Col. Thomas Marshall's wife, by whom he had fifteen children, was Mary Randolph Keith. Tlie children of Alexander Keith Marshall and Mary (Polly) IMcDowell were the following: 1, Charles Thomas Marshall, who was born July 14, 1800, and who lived and died on his handsome patrimonial estate in Mason County, Kentucky, whose wife was Jane Lidce, l)y whom he had four sons; 2, James K. Marshall, who married Catherine Calloway Hickman, daughter of John L. Hickman, of Bourbon County; 3, Maria ^larshall, who was born in ^lason Couuty, Kentucky, July 20, 1795, and when only sixteen married her kinsnmn, James Alexander Paxton ; 4, Lucy Marshall, a\ ho was born iu 1790, and in 1818, married her cousiu John ^lar- shall, sou of Captain Thomas Marshall ; and 5, Jane Marshall, who was born in 1808, and in 1824 married William Starling Sullivant, of Columbus, Ohio. (IT) JAMES MCDOWELL was the second child of Captain John IMcDowell and Magdalen Woods, and was Itorn at the Red House, near Fair- field, Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1739. He was the sheriff of his county ; and in 1771, the year he died, he was on his way to Richmond on business connected with his office. Hence he lived to be only about thirty-two years old. He married Miss Elizabeth Cloyd, by whom he had six children. His wife lived until 1810. Their children were the following: (a) Sarah, who married her cousin. Major John ^IcDowell, a son of her uncle. Judge Samuel ilcDowell. This couple had five children, who are mentioned where Major John McDowell's liistory is given, in brief, in its proper place. (See under the children of Judge Samuel McDowell and IMary ^IcClung. ) (b) Eliz.vbeth. who married David ■McGavock, and with him moved to Nash- ville, Tennessee. She became the maternal ancestor of a most extensive and influential family, whose representatives are to be found in Tennessee to this day occupying high social positions, (c) James (2d) was the youngest son of James Mc- Dowell and Elizabeth Cloyd. He inherited the fine estate left by his father (1771) and there spent his whole life. He was a colonel in the American Army in 1812, and won honor and fame as might be expected of a JMcDowell. He married MiniAEL WOODS OF P.LAIR PARK. 51 Sarah rrcston, the dauiililcr <>f Colonel William Preston, who was (he surveyor of l''iiicas(le Coiintv, and who had as his assistants and deimlies John Floyd, John Tod. Colonel James McDowell and Sarah I'reston had three cliildren: 1, Susan, who mar- ried Col. William Taylor, a lawyer of Alexandria, Virginia; 2, Elizaheth, who became the wife of the lion. Thomas II. l>entoii, so long known as the V. S. Senator from ^lissouri. Thomas IF. Kenton and Elizabeth ilcDowell had one daughter who nmrried (Jen'l John C. h^remont, and another, who married Col. Richard T. Jacob, of Kentucky. 3, James (3rd), (h(> only son itf James ^IcDowell (2d I and Sarah Prestromineiic<' in Virginia. Col. Green regards it as ]>robable that this gentleman was a son of the Cap- tain John ;Moffett Avho was among the Scotch-Irish settlers who at a very early day came into the Great Valley. Col. George ^lotTett's mother hav- ing become a widow married John Trindde, the grandfather of Allen Trimble, Governor of Ohio, (leorge Moffett took an active part in the French and Indian Avars and in many border encounters with the savages. In one of these conflicts his step- fat lier was slain, and several members of his family were cai-ried olT \>y the Indians. George MolTett promptly organized a com|)any of men and pursued the sa\ages; and having overtaken them at Kerr's Ci-eek, lie attacked and defeated them, and rescued the captives. Among the men thus released was .lames Trindde, the half brother of Moffett, and the falhei' of (iov. Trindile of Ohio. The mother of <'ol. Moffett was ilary Christian, daughter of Rob- ert Christian and Mary Richardson, of Ireland. Col. iloffett was an active participant in the Revo- lutionary struggle, and saw service as a colonel at King's Mountain, the Cowpens, and Guildford Court House. He was a friend and ]tromoter of education, and was one of the founders of the acad- emy at Lexington, which has grown to be AVash- ington and Lee University. Col. George Moff(>tt and Sarah JIcDowell had eleven children, as follows: (a) ^Lvucjauiotta, who married her cousin. Col. .Joseph ^IcDowell, of North Carolina, who was a younger brother of the Gen'l Charles ^McDowell who was the second hus- band of Grizelle (or Grace) Greenlee. The father of Col. .Joseph and Gen'l Charles McDowell was -Joseph JMcDowell (senior), who was born in Ire- land in 1715, and whose wife was Margaret O'Neil. The ^IcDowells wei'e Presbyterians, and the O'Neils wei'e Catholics. .Joseph McDowell, Sr., and his wife, Margaret O'Neil, migrated to Amer- ica and settled in the ^'alley of Virginia, near Win- chester, where .Joist Hite had just made the first settlement west of the Blue Ridge. Here Col. Joe and Gen'l Charles JMcDowell were born, the former in 1743, and the latter in 17.50. -Joseph McDowell, Sr., had a bi'other known as "Hunting .John" Mc- Dowell, who came with him to Virginia, but who later moved on down into North Carolina (after 1758) and settled on the Catawba, in a lovely spot which he named "Pleasant Garden." Not long after, .Joseph ^IcDowell Sr., followed him, and settled at a place called "Quaker Meadows." There his sons grew to manhood. The exact relationshi]) existing between these two brothers and the Eph- raim ^FcDowell whose son -John was slain at Bal- 52 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. cony Falls by ludiaus, iu 1742, is uot certainly as- oertaiuable. It seems very likely they were close kiu. These North Carolina McDowells were men of courage and patriotism, and bore an honorable part in the IJevolutionary AVar. Joseph, Jr., ( wlio later married Sarah McDowell) when only twenty years of age, Avas major of his brother Charles's rfigiment on the expedition against the Scotch Tories. Besides this campaign, he was iu many others. At King's ilouutain he commanded the regiment from Burke and Rutherford counties, North Carolina. Later on, he was prominent in civil attairs iu his State, and also was a member (if the r. S. Congress. He died at his home at Quaker Meadows in 1801. Among the children of Col. Joseph and Mar- garetta the following may be uuMiti(med, viz. : 1, Hugh Harvey, who moved to Missouri, and there died in 1859; 2, Joseph Jefferson, who moved to Ohio, and there became a member of the F. S. Con- gress, and whose wife was Sarah Allen McCue, daughter of the Rev. John :McCue, an eminent Pres- byterian minister ouce pastor of Tinkling Spring Church, Virginia; 3, Sarah, who married John Matthews and moved with him to Fayette County, Kentucky; 1, ^Margaret, wlio Itccamc the wife of her distant kinsman. Gov. Allen Trimble, of Ohio; 5 and 6, Celia, and Clarissa, both of whom married distant relatives, Chrismans, some of whose de- scendants are to be found to-day in Jessamine C(uinty, Kentucky. After the death of Col. Joseph JIcDowell at his home ("Quaker Meadows") his wife, Margaretta, removed to Virginia, and then, later, to Woodford County, Kentucky, where she died in 1815. (li) r^lAUY. second daughter of Sarah McDow- ell, by her husband Col. George ^Moffett, who — like so many of her relatives — married her distant kins- man, a Major Joseph McDowell, son of "Hunting John ^FcDowell," of Pleasant Garden, North Caro- lina. This "Joe'' was a first cousin of the other Joe who married Margaretta ^loffett. The Joe who married Mary Moffett was born at Pleasant Garden, February 25, 1758, and, like all his kins- men, took an active part iu the conflicts of his day with the Indians and the British. He also became prominent in civil atlfairs. He died in 1795, leav- ing the following children: 1, Col. James Mc- Dowell, of Vancey Cimnty; 2, John McDowell, of Rutherford Ccmnty; 3, a daughter, who married her cousin, Capt. Charles McDowell, of Burke County; 4, another daughter, who married her cousin Caleb ilcDowell, sum of Samuel McDowell and Mary McClung. After the death of ilajor Jo- seph ^IcDowell his widow ( Mary Moffett) married Captain John Carson, the noted Indian fighter, by whom she had a number of childreu : 1, Hon. Sam- uel P. Carson, of Burke County, North Carolina, wlio, in a duel at Saluda Gap, in 1827, with a Dr. Robert P. Vance, inflicted upon the latter a w(mnd from the effects of which Dr. Vance soon after died. (c) M.V(;n.\LKN. the third daughter of Sarah ilcDowell by her husbaud Col. George Jlolfett, who married Jauu's Cochran. George ^I. Cochran, of Staunton, and James Cochran, of Cliarlottes- ville, were their sous. (d) il.vuTHA. who married Captain Robert Kirk, of the T". S. Army. (el Elizaketii, who nmrried James Miller, the owner of a large iron works in Virginia. (f) (tEORGE, Ju.. who married a ^liss Gilker- son, and movwl to Kentucky. (g) James, who married Hannah sillier, a sister of the gentknnan whom Elizabeth Molfett nmrried. Col. Henry McD(»well Moffett was a son of this c(mple. Section Two — The BoniiExs. It is not certainly known how long ilagdalen Woods McDowell remained a Avidow after the tragic death of lier tirst husband (Captain John ^IcDowell I, iu December. 1742. but it was probably al)out six or seven years. It is known that her second husband. Benjamin Borden, Jr., died in 1753, leaving two daughters \Ahom ^lagdalen had borne to him. Concerning this second husband of MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 53 llapdalen we liavc considerable iiifonnatiou/" the mure ])ertinent itenisi of Avhich will here be pre- sented, without attemptius' lo indicate separately- the precise authority for each. The reader will find anij>Ie warrant for what is given by consulting the authorities referred to in Note 47. There is some difference of oi)inion as to the jtroper spelling of .Magdalen's second husband's surname. AVaddell thinks the correct spelling is Horden. The town in Xew Jersey which was named for a mendier of tlu' family is siielled Bor- dentowu. The Central rresl)yterian for May 16, lllOO, contained an interesting historical sketch of Tind.er Kidge Church 1 1740-11)00) by the Rev. Dr. Henry Alexander White; and we know enmigh of that scholarly divine to feel sure that he used great cai'c. in the preparation of his sketch, to give proper names exactly as the official records had them. In 1753, Timber Ridge made out a call for a pastor, and to that call, as it would seem, all the nuMubers of the church signed their names. Among the signatures we find this one: "Magdalen Bor- den ( widow )." The t)rthography of that signature would seem to settle what that lady considered the proper spelling of her own Christian name, as well as that of her second husl)and's surname. She was, beyond all reasonable doubt, a communicant of Tind)er Kidge Church from its organization in 1740, to her death in 1810 — a period of about sixty- six years — and even if some officer of the church made the co])y lno Ridge. }'y her second Inisliand .Miigenjaniin Hawkins, hy wlioni she had a nnmher of children, (a) A (huighter was born to Martha and Benjamin who married the -lohu Todd who fell at the Battle of the Bine Licks in Kentucky. ( li | A danghter, ^Lvgd.vlexa, was born to them who married Matthew Harvey, and had Maria Hawkins Harvey, who married William A. McDowell. After the death of her tirst hus- band (Ben Hawkins) ilartha Borden married Rob- ert Hitrvey, an older l)rother of the Matthew Har- vey who married her daughter iNlagdalena. (II) Magdalen had a second daughter by her secoud husband, Benjamin Borden, Jr., whose nanu' was HANNAH. This daughter seems to have died in childhood, and she was ijrobablj' the last child her nutther ever had. She was probably born about 17.52. It is known her father died of the smallpox in 1753. Si;('Ti(ix TiiuicE — The Bowyeus. Concerning the third marriage of Magdalen. (?(cc Woods) not much is known. How long she re- mained a widow after the death of Benjamin Bor- den, her second husband, is not known. It is known that Col. John Bowyer, who was her third husband, was a man of priuninence in the Valley of Virginia. He was, as Col. ( Jreeu asserts, twenty years younger than Magdalen. This last matri- monial venture of ^lagdalen's was prol)ably not in- vested with a great deal of sentiment on either side, and may not have had much to recommend it. She was, for that day and community, a rich woman, and blessed with the most remarkable vitality, and with decided force of character. Col. Green men- tions a "tradition," which may have only a slender foundation, to the effect that Magdalen had pru- dently made a marital settlement with Col. Bowyer befoic tjicir marriage, liut that he, bj- some means, managed to destroy it. ilrs. (jreenlee, in her fa- mous deijosition, says that Bowyer settled Borden's business after the latter died in 1753. Bowyer, she states, laid claim to all the lands Borden had owned, and .sold and gave away a great deal of it. ]iut we nuist bear in mind that ilrs. tlreenlee was the sister of Magdalen's deceased liusl)and. Among the subscriijtions to the salary of Rev. John Brown, pastor of Timber Ridge, in 1751, was that of a "Mr. Boyer" who gave twice as much as any other per- son named. It is extremely likely this subscriber was Col. John Bowyer. In 17G3, we find him a cap- tain of one of the companies of Col. Wm. Preston's regiment, raised to resist the Indians, some of whom had just devastated the Kerr's Creek neigh- borhood, and tilled the whole Valley with alarm. In January, 17S1, we find him leading a regiment of Rockbridge men to Richmond to resist the in- vasion which was led by Beneilict Arnold. When Augusta County was divided, by cutting off from it the greater part of its territory to create the county of Botetourt (in 17(it) ), we find him constituted one of its justices, ^^'addell, Annals of Augusta, Page 66, recites an entry from the Diaiy of Rev. Hugh McAden, dated July 13, 1755, which sets Col. Bow- yer before us in most enviable and agTeeable light. That he was not only an active and prominent citizen, and a Christian, but also a man who conunanded the respect and good-will of the brothers and other relatives of ^lagdalen, his wife, .seems practically certain, because he and the A>'oodses and Lapsleys were constantly associated together in going on each others' l)onds, and in those acts of intimacy and good neighborhood which do not obtain where there is alienation and dislike, ilagdalen's brother Richai-d was with Col. Bowyer on the first bench of gentlemen justices ap- pointtnl for Botetourt County, and when his wife's bri^ther, Michael Woods, Jr., nxmc to write his last will in 1776, he names this brother-in-law one of his executors in terms which imply not only affec- 56 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. tiouate regard, but perfect confidence. In view of \\'()ods's descendants, who has i)roliably expended all these facts it would seem hnt reasoualile and more labor in elVorts to olitain full inFoniiation cou- charitable lo wilbliold damaiiino- criticism of Col. cerniii- iiis W is aiiccslors than any other per- Bowyer's character and condnct and be willing to sun. In iiis sketch i t(, be fiMind in Part 11! of this believe that any ditl'erences which may have arisen volume i the reader will hnd a number of interest- between him and his wile were only such as often ing details which Col. Woods informs the writer he exist between high spirited but honorable partners, and which do not argue either heartlessness or dis- Iionesty. In truth, tliere is nothing certainly known concerning their relations to re(|uire us to believe that there ever was any dilTereiice or tin- pleasantness between Jlagdaleii ami her third hus- band."* They evidently had no children as the fruit of their union. has gathered from vari(Uis sources, and foi' the accu- racy of which he \(Uiches. AVilliam Woods was a youth of about seventeen when his i)arents migrated to Aiaerica, jtrovided the author's calculations and conclusions relative to the dates of the more important events in the history of the remoter Woodses are sid)Stantially correct. It is assumed that lie spent ten years of .Magdalen AVoods, the first child of .Michael of his life in the colony of Pennsylvania — 1724 to I'dair I'arU and Mary (^imi)bell, lived till 1810, it 1734— and tlien came to Virginia. Before migrat- is said, attaining the remarkable age of 104 years. ing to the latter colony, however, it is conjectured She was one of the pioneers of the Valley of Vir- that he had married Susannah Wallace, his first <>inia, and one of the founders of Tind)er Kidge cousin lids iallHi's ni( ce I say, ab(Uit 17;?li, when Church. There are probably now living several he was about twenty-five, and she was about one thousand jiersons in whose veins her blood is cours- year younger than himself. It would be nu)st rea- iuii'. Ili'r ashes reiiose, almost certainly, in the s(Uial)le to sui)])ose that William and his wife ac- Tiiidier Uidge Church-Yard waiting for that last com](ani((l his i)arcnts when, in 1734, they came to (ail which will summon the dead to rise to die no Virginia, but sonu' of his descendants believe that more. The S(mrces of informal ion concerning her he did not leave Pennsylvania till IMarch, 1744. character and life are so meager that only the AA'hen he did migrate he settled at the eastern base dimmest (mtline of her picture can be discerned, of the Blue Bidge near Woods's Cap, in what is Itut she has left her imju'ess on soiue of the worthi- now .Vll)emarle County. est characters that have adorned the history of our William Woods ilMl, the first son of .Michael conunon country, and we have good reasons for be- and .Mary, succeeded his father as the owner of the lievinu that she was a child of Cod, and that, as old "Woods homestead, "^lountaiu Plains," after- such, she has inherited the life everlasting. wards called Blair Park.'" The date of this change of 'ownershii) is unknown to the present writer. B— WILLLV.AI WOODS I 2d). William I 2d ) was not very successful in the man- AVe have good reasons for believing that the sec- agement of his estate, it would seem, as we find (Hid child I and first sou 1 of .Michael Woods by his him mortgaging his lu-operty, first, to Thonuxs wife, Mary Campbell, was their soil A\'illiani, who Walker, and again, to some nu-n over in the Valley, Avas probably born in Ireland in the year 1707. aiuong them being his brother-in-law Col. John Concerning hitu the author has not been able to Bowyer, and his nephew Samuel .McDowell, obtain nuiny items of positive inf(U'nKVtiou. The The oflicial records of the c(dony for the few details which he has gathered together from year 175S show that he had been a lieu- sources deemed reliable will here be presented, but tenant of the .\lbemarle Militia."" At least the reader is respectfully referred to the sketch of there was in .Mbemarle a William Woods who, in Colonel Charles A. R. Woods, one of William that year, received pay as a commissioned officer. MICIIAKL WOODS OF J51.A1K I'AKK. 57 and we know of no otlicr person (if tliat iiiiiiic wlio I i \' ) -lOlIX (;?(li, who iiiai-ried Abigail Es- at that (late was old en(Hij;li to l)e a soldier. W'il- lill ; liaui Woods CJdI. often called "I'.eaver Creek [V \ AXDKIOW (.'idi, who married Hannah Hilly," was liis son, lint in IToS he was onlv four- Keid ; teen years old. In 1773 ((irl771| we find William (\'I| AK(Mlir.AlJ> I I'd ), who married Mouru- >\'oods (2d) niakinii sale of the old homestead innShelton; ( .Alonntain riains I . he lieiiiii at that time a citizen I \'li I WILUAAI (."Ml, known as "Reaver of I'Mncastle County. In old .Micliaers last will, ( "i-eek I'.illy Woods"; written in 17til, \\'illiam is expressly mentioned, (VllI) SAIfAII, who maii'ied a Mr. Shirkey; lint we know of no ceitain means of determininju' (IX) SUSAN, of whom nothing- is known ; and wluthev or not he r(inain((l in Alliemarle inilil (X) ilAlJV, who manied (icoriic Davidson, after the death of (dd ^Michael, which occurred in Dr. Kdinar Woods states that all of the liefore- 17(il*. The fac-siniile of Ills receipt, fiiveu July 15, mentioned children of William (I'd) and Susan- 17(17, to lie found in this volume, seems to jirove he nah, with the exceiilion of William ( 8(1 ), emigrated was then livinji in AUk niarle. Win n AVilliam dis- to Kentucky; ami that from thence some of them jiosed of tlie old liomestead in 177:> (or went to Tennessee, and others to Missouri. Dr. 1774) to Thomas Adams, of Anj;nsta Ccniidy, he AVoods is also of the opinion tliat three of the sons took care to reserve the ri,nht of ingress and egress were Haptist ]ireachers, luimely; Adam, Peter and as to the old family liurial-ground, and to jmihibit Andrew (3d|, though there nmy be .some (piestiou any one from ever cultivating tlie ground within as to whetlun' this is correct as respects Adam.^''' that enclosure. This se(iuvs the preservation of (I) ADAM WOODS, the first named of the ten this sacred plot of grcmnd, to some extent; hut un- children of ^Villiam (I'd ) and his wife Susannah, less it shall, in the near future, he enclosed with a was probably horn in Albemarle County, and possi- snhstantial iron fence and otherwise cared for, the hly aliout the year 1742. If he were the first horn jn'obabilities are that the graves of the older (3d I, who married his cousin, Mary Wallace; (d), Mk'H.vkl (1th), who served in Col. Slaughter's regiment of Kentucky mounted men in the war of 1812, and was never married; (e), Petcu, who moved from Kentucky to Clay by all who know of his life and labors there. He left a large family, but unfortunately the author has not been able to procure their names. (IV) JOHN WOODS (3d) was a son of Wil- liani3A'oods (2d) and Susannah Wallace, and was probably born in All)emarle County, Virginia, County, ilissouri, in 1815, and here reared a large about ITol. There he resided till the migration of family; (f), John (3d), who migrated to Cali- fornia after the Mexican AVar, lieiug a physician; (g), n.\XNAii. who married (Colonel Barbe J. Collins, she being his second wife ; and a cousin to bis first wife; (h), Ann.v. who married a Mr. Browne in Kentucky prior to the removal of the family to ^Missouri in 1815; (j), SusAX. who mar- ried Colonel ;Mullins and moved to California; and, (k), Sali.ie. who married Judge Austin Waldeu, of Missouri. Adam Woods died in Howard County, Missouri, in 182(), at the age of eighty-four, while on a visit to his relatives, and Avas there buried. His wife had died many years before he passed away. (II) MICHAEL WOODS (4th) was a son of William Wocsds (2d) and Susannah Wallace. He is stipposed to have been born in All)emarle County, Virginia, in 1T4G. It is thought he was a Revolu- tionary soldier, and that he migrated to Kentucky towards the close of the eighteenth centnrA-, and died there. Little seems to be known of him. (III) PETER WOODS was a son of William (2d) and Susannah Wallace, and it is said he was born in Virginia in 17(i2. and died in Cooper County. ^Missouri, in 1S25. In 1782, when the family to ^ladison County, Kentucky. He married Abigail Estill, the daughter of Captain James Estill who built the fort in Madison County, Kentucky, which bore bis name, and who was slain by the Indians. John Woods had taken an active part in the Rev(dutionarv War prior to leaving Vir- ginia, and had rendered gallant service against the Indians. In 1808, he, in company with three of his brothers (Archibald, Peter and Andrew AA'oods) moved to Tennessee. In that State he die9 Archiliiild, iiiovcd to Tciiiicsscc wlicrc lie died in wliicli rolilicd liiiii of the fruits of liis labor, dis- 181."). iiiistcd liini witli KcntucJcy for the tinic, aud he (\'I) AiJCUir.ALl) WoohS (I'd I was ilic tlicicupoii iiiii;ratcd, in lS(l!t, to Williamson sou of William Woods (lid) and Susanuali Wal- County, Tcnncssci'. There his wife die'ir,iiiiiia, .Tanuary ill), ITl'.K This uiem- lieuilerson, and lived for a linie in I'i-aidro\in>j,' a most lives, and was for many years ])rominent in Ihe unha|)i)y one, a se])aration occni-i-ed, and in 1S20 early ])eriod of the history of .Madison County, he i-elurned to Madison County, Kentucky. In Kentucky. He was, it would seem, of a sonu'what IS.".:!, when eiiihty-four years old, feeble ami about restless temiierameni, judiiinii by the several moves strii)])ed of all his proju-rty, he sou.nht a pension he made. In ITTi, he moved to Monroe County, from the Cnited States Ciovernment on acc(mnt Virsiinia. In the fall of 177(1, we find him a cap- of his valuable services in the devolution, and he tain of Vir,!.;inia militia in an exjiedition against was ])romptly jiensioned at the rate of $480.00 a the Indians for the relief of Fort Watauga, in Ten- year, beginniui; with March, ls:jl. The affidavits nessee. Col. Kussell commanded this expedition. he made in securing this pension furnish nuiny of Captain Woods was constantly in service against the facts now presented herein. lie died Decem- the Indians and I>ritish till the surrender of Corn- her 13, 1830, in his eighty-eighth year, at the home wallis in October, 17S1. In Decendier of that year of his sou Archibald, aud was buried in ^Madison he visited Kentucky, and in 178:.' he brought his County. Cohmel Charles A. K. Woods, of Xor- family to Madison County. In 17S4, he jmrchased borne, Missouri, who is a descendant of Archihahrs a farm on Dreaming Creek, and there he built brother Adam, paid a visit to Madison County last Woods's Fort or Station, and made his home there year (1903), aud nuide diligent search for Archi- for about twenty-five years. His first farm was on bald's grave. Several old burial-grounds A\-(M"e ex- Pumpkin l{un, a tract of (uie thousand acres of ex- amined without success, but finally liis grave was cellent land, for which he i)aid Captain Estill "one found at the old Goodloe place, about three and a rifle gnu,'' as he testified, in after years, under oath, (piarter miles from Riclnnond. The tombstone was It is needless to renmrk that there are no bargains lying under six or eight inches of grass and soil, exactly like that one now to be had near Kichmond, but the inscription was clear and comjdete. The Kentucky. When ^ladisou County was organized County of ^ladison, with whose early history Arch- in 1785 Captain Woods and nine other men were ibald Woods was so intinmtely connected, and his commissioned "(lentlemen Justices of the Peace" numer(uis descendants, should see to it that his last liy (tov. I'atrick Henry. He was a magistrate in resting ])lace is properly marked and duly cared 1708, when the removal td' the counly seat of ^ladi- for. for he was one of Kentucky's worthiest son from .Milfoi'd to Kichmond was decided. He pioneers. I"'rom him ami ^fourning Shelton has ju'esided over the coui't when Kichmond was named descended a long line of judges. statesnu'U. soldiers, ami made the county seat, was made one of its first lawyers, and fiimiuMers. trustees, and in 1801 was chosen to be the sheriff Hy his wife Mourning Shelton Captain Archibald o£ his county. His life was greatly (Mubittered l)y Woods had a, family of ten children. His wife a long and vexatious law-suit which resulted in died Septend)er 7, 1817. By his second marriage depriving him of his farm on Dreaming Creek he seems to have had no issue.''' where he had lived about a quarter of a century. (a) Lfcv. their eldest daughtei-, was Ixu'ii "his decision, which seems to have turned upon a October 2."», 1774, and nmrried Colonel William 're technicality of the Kentucky Laud Law, aud Caperton December 13, 1700. She had by him the 60 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. followiiijj; childivii. to wit : 1, Archibald ; 2, Hugh ; Arciiihald Woods {2d) and ^lonrninii Sliflton, 3, Tlioiiias Sliflron; 4, William II., who married was horn Fchruary 10, ITSo. and married Elizabeth Eliza Estill; .">. (ircen; G, John, the father of Dr. Shackleford October 1(1, ISIO. lie resided on a A. C. Cai)erton, a Baptist minister of Louisville, tine blnijirass farm two miles east of IJichmond, Kentucky; 7, Andrew; 8, Ilulda, who married An- Kentucky, and was one of the earliest practitioners drew Woods, her cousin; !), t>usan, wlio married ctf law at the Kichiuond bar. The only issue of this Wallace Wilson. an\"illiaiii AVoods." The result was that .Tilly 2!t, 180(1. the indi\idiial now under considcratioii, (who was (hi TiKiM.vs. the eighth child of .Vrchiliald tli( snn of William I'd and Susannah Wallace ), be- \\'(;ods (I'd) and his wife .Mournin;Li Shellon, was cause his home was on I'.eaver ("reek, came To lie horn .Ma.v .1, ITS!), and died Oclolier I'lt, ISCKi. kmiwn as '•lU-avei- ("reek I?ill.v." The relief, liow- (jl Ax.N, the ninth child of Aichihald \\"oods ever, was hut temjiorary and jiai'tial, for ''Beaver (2d) and .Mourniiiu Shelton, was horn and died ("reek William Woods" was so uufortunate as to May 1."), IT'.ll. have named one (d' his own sons William; and as (ki .MoiitMNc. the tenth an.l last child of this son lived on lieaver ( "reek with his fadier he Archihald \\'(^(:.ls (2d) and Mournini; Sludton, in the coui'se of tiiue, had to he duhlied "IJeaver was horn April 2, 17'.I2. married (larland .Miller ("i-eek William The Secoml." Then anotlu^r January IS, ISIO, and die(l Se])tendier 7, 1S17. jirandson of old .Michael, named William, came into (VII) WILLIA.M WOODS (;!d), son id' Wil- iirominence, thereliy imreasiui;- the comiilications liam Woods (2d) and Susannah Walhice — known which already were enouiili to try tlu' jiatienee of for many of the later years of his life as "ISeaver the community. This last mentioned i^-entleman ("r(ek William Woods The l'"irst"" — was horn ) ac- hecame a jironnnenl minister of (he liaptist cording to ("ol. ("liarles A. Iv. ^^■oods ) in Alhemarh' ("hurcli, and a man d) to these (luestions, positivtdy states that AVilliani was a zcahuis IMrsbyterian, and a leading Wo(!ds (3d ), long known as "Beaver ("reek I'.illy,"' mendi( r of the .Mountain I'lains ("hurch. He died in 1S3(!, at the age of ninety-two, making the was a man of tine sense, natural leader- year of his birtli 1744; Imt he gives no opinion as shiji, and excellent charact( r. He disjilayed to the i)lace of his birtli, or the date of his coming some little eccentricities of mind and manner which to Virginia. The present writer lias no (hicu- caused him to be w(41 known in all the region menfary evidence at hand to warrant ]iositive as- round about. He took a sp(M-ial interest in his sertious on this ])oint, but he decidedly inclines to ("hurch, and exercised over it a sort of paternal the view that Beaver Creek William Woods was guardianship. He would not liesitate to utter his born in Albemarle, and that his jiai'ents came there disapproval of what he conceived to be a ])ei'nicious in 1734, with Blair I'ark 3Iichael. sentiment from the lips of the pi'eaclun* in the pul- Tlie AVilliam W(iods(>s came to be so numerous in pit by giving audible dissent from his place in his Albemarle that sonu-thing had to be done to con- pe\\'. Many a tinu', when he thought the preacher \('niently distinguish tlieni fr(MH one another. The was luissing the nnirk in sonie of his statenu'uts lie- A\'illi;im A\dods, who was the son of William 2d fore the assembled congregation, he W(Uild shake and Susannah Wallace, gradually develo])ed into a his head, and say, aloud,— "Not so, sir; not so." conspicuous personage in his county; and then 'Tis said he Mas very tall and handsome, and of several other \\'illiam Woodses — grandsons and gi'aceful manner; and in his latter years, he wore 62 THE WOODS-McAFEE MEMORIAL. his uray hair lony, and <(»mi)eil straight back from tlie iiiecc of the Jarniau whose uauu* supphmteil liis tine forehead. All in all. he must have been a that of Woods for the ga}) in (juestion became a Mrs. most intcresliuji and niiii|ii(' charaeter in his day, AVoods.'" We loicw nothinjiof tlie date of the birth and it seems a great ])ity tliat we have no portrait (d' this \\illiaiii WimkIs I 4th), but we know of him. To be able to gaze ujion a good like- ness of his faie would earry us baek to th;- Yir- giuia of a eentury ago, with its charming social life long prior to the days of railroads and other mod- ern inventions. He was, according to Dr. Edgar Woods, the (mly one of all the children of William Woods (2d) and Susannah Wallace that re- mained in Albenmrle, all the others having mi- grat(Hl to the West at the close of the Iievolution. His home was on Beaver Creek, about a mile north he died in 182!), leaving the f(dlo\ving chil- dren: 1, James, who married iUldred Jones, lived on Beaver Creek, and died in 1S68; •_'. \\'illiam, who married Nancy Jones, lived near Crozet, and died in 1850; 3, Peter A., who was a nu'rchant in Charlottesville, and in IJiclimond. married Twymonia AN'ayt, anil afterwards Mrs. Mary IViage Hourland, and died in ISTO; 5, Thomas Dabney, who married ^liss Ilagan, lived near I'ed- lar :Mills in Amherst County, and died in 1894; and of the ])ri'sent railway station called Crozet, and 0, Sarah T., who married Jesse P. Key. The said some of his descendants are living in that imme- diate vicinity to this day, and are among the best people of Albemarle. William Woods (:;5dl was tliree times married. II is first wife was his cousin, Sarah Wallace; his second was his cousin, Ann Keid ; and his third was Mrs. Xancy Jones, ucc Pichardson. He took part in the IJevolutionary struggle,and in ITKJ was com- missioned an ensign, and almost immediately there- after a lieutenant, in tlu' A'irginia Line. It seems to be generally agreed that he had but one son. and to him he gave that extremely poimlar name AA'il- iA\M. who was known in Albermarle as "Beaver Creek Billy the Second." The writer is not in- formed as to which of the three wives of William AVoods (3d) was the mother of William Woods (4th ). Nor does the writer know whether the lat- ter bad any sisters or half sisters. It seems likely that his father's first wife, Sarah Wallace, Avas his mother, and that he was the only child his father ever had born to him. (a I WiLLi.VM Woods ("Beaver Creek Second") the only son of William Woods (3d) nmrried ^lary Jarmau, a daughter of William Jarman. Said Wil- liam Jarnian was a brother of the Tbonnis Jarman James Woods, first child of Wilham WoikIs (4th), who married Mildred Jones, a daughter of Captain William P. Jones, had several children, the eldest of which was AVilliam Price Woods, who married Sarah Ellen Jones, his cimsiu. ilr. William Price Woods lived at Crozet, Va.. and there died August 8, 1900. :\[rs. Goodall. who has a sketch of her family in Part III of this volume, is his grand- daughter. ( See her sketch.)'' (VIII) SARAH WOODS was a daughter of William Woods f2d) and his wife Susannah Wal- lace. Sarah (or Sallie, as some prefer to call her,) married a Col. Nicholas Shirky, of Bote- tourt County, as Col. Chas. A. R. Woods states in his sketch in Part III of this work. Col. Woods says she was born in ITril, and died in 1851. If she had any children the author has been unable to ascertain the fact. (IX) SrSAX is mentioned by Dr. Edgar Woods in his history of Albemarle as one of the daughters of William Woods (2d) and Susannah Wallace, but no details of her life are furnished. (X) ]MARY is referred to by Dr. Edgar Woods as if she wer(> tli(> last of the childx'en of William Woods (2d) and Susannah Wallace, but the only whii ]mrchased laud on the crest of Woods's (Jap, piece of informal ion he gives concerning her is that and f(U' whom the name of that jtass was trans- she married one fJeoi-ge Davidson, fcrred, from the man who first settled at its base Col. Charles A. R. Woods ('see his sketch) makes (.Michael Woods) and called Jarnian's (iaji. Thus no reference to either Susan or Mary in his list of MICHAEL WOOIIS OF F.LAIK TAKK. 63 llu' chiltlivu (if Williaiii AVoods (iM), ami Susan- nah Wallace; Imt he does iiu>ntii)ii a Ilaiinah \\'(i()(ls, \\1ki is said by some jk'I'soiis to have heeii one of tlieir childven. anrstan(l how ex- tremely vague is the statement that in 1773 tliis AX'illiam Woods ( 2d 1 was "living in Fincastle County." In what part of it he resided we have no idea, except that it was prohahly near New Kiver. Xor have we any means of knowing when, or where, or how either he or his wife died. We know that hefore the IJevolntion began he had left Albemarle, and that at the close of that great strug- gle all of his children except A>'il!i;!iii had migrated to Kentucky. Ih'Vond this liis his- tory is veiled from our view, and it is likely we can never know what the closing years of life were for him. Born in 1707. he is abcmt sixty-six when he vanishes from our sight. Fortunately he has left many worthy descendants who have ])erpetuatetl his nanu' among nn'u. and not a few of them have made sucli names for themselves as reflect credit upon the whole Woods Clan, and reveal the excel- lence of the stock whence they sprang. C— MICHAEL WOODS, .irXIOU. The third child of Michafd Woods of I'.lair Park and his wife ^fary Camjibell was named for his father, ^fichael ; and, as was shown on a previous jiage, he was ])robably born in Ireland about the year 170S. We feel next to certain that he mi- grated to America witli his {larents and kinsfolk in 1724, tarrying ten years in the colony of I'enusyl- vania. and then going with the Woodses and some of the Wallaces to Virginia in 1734. As he was a man of twenty-six when he settled in Virginia, and only a yoiith of sixteen when lie left Ireland, we might snit])ose that he man-ied his wife, Anne, in IVnnsylvania. We have no nutans of knowing what his wife's surname was. as the only UH'ntion we have of her is in the deeds of her hnsi)and and in his last will, in all which he calls her Anne. Hence the strain of which she was a representative must ])robably remain forever hidden from her descend- ants. Knowing what we do of the man she mar- ried, however, we may safely indulge the confident hope that she was a good Christian woman, and most probalily a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian as was :\nchael. Junior, himself, (ieneral :Micajah Woods thinks she was a cousin to Michael. AVe shall de- signate this nuMuber of the family as "^Micliael, Jnnior." because his father bore the nanu- Mich- ael, and described him as ":Michael Junior" in a deed he executed in 1743. He is often referred to as .Micluud Woods of Ilotetourt, but his honu' was in Albemarle, at least thirty-five years, whilst in Botetourt he lived scarcely seven years. Besides, the name ":Michael Junior" describes him Avith snfticient accuracy. The first allusion to this son of :Michael of Blair Park seems to be that which we find in the deetl which his father execut<'d to him August 3. 1743, years of his life (which is i)racticaliy certain I. he veside) shoAAS hoAV it appears to one standing on the ncn'th bank of the river at Indian Rock, a station of the Chesapeake & Ohio RailAvay. At that point the James sweeps around the farm iu a graceful curve, forming an almost perfwt letter F one or two miles in extent, the opening of the semi-circle being toward the South. The north bank of the riAer here is croAvned Avith beautiful hills, coming close down to the waters edge, Avhilst the farm, which is on the opposite side, consists mainly of Aery gently un- dulating loAvlands or meadoAv. Just here a little mountain stream, known as Jennings Creek, puts into the river from the south, its head springs be- ing right at the northern base of the fauunis Peaks of Otter, a few miles south of the farm. Xow and then, after heavy rains, A\hen both river and creek are high, the swollen waters back up and overflow the low grouuds, so as to make the place look like an island ; and as a gentleman by the name of Shep- herd long owned the place after the death of Mich- ael, Jr., it came to be called "She])herd's Island Farm." It also had the name of "Hollow Ford I'^arm," suggested, no doubt, bv scmie peculiaritv of the ford of the James on the north line of the place. The Peaks of Otter, eight miles to the south ; the marvellous Natural Bridge, only seven miles to the northeast, and the grand Avater-gap of the James at Balcony Falls, tAvelve miles below; constitute a combination of attractions not often (■([ualled in any ])arr of the land. In Michael's day none of tlie noises and commotions of our modern life disturbed the peaceful valley in Avhich he re- sided ; but now either bank of the noble James l)oasts a great trunk-line — the Clie.sapeake c& Ohio on one side, and the Norfolk & Western on the other — and the Avhistle of the loccmiotiA^e and the roar of trains are constantly Avaking the echoes iu the grand mountains and chaniiing hills of that bciutiful region. The farm cresent dwell- ing — a comfortabl(» brick house' — staurls, as Mr. Robinson stated, on the exact site of the old AVoods homestead of (uu' hundred and thirty yeai-s ago. A few Jnindnd yards to the east of the house is tlH> private burial-ground of the farm covering a little knoll. The only graAcs there in 1895, marked Avith headstones liaving inscriptions were of recent date. .-^.^. • /«i»a. --V T .^./£ry.^ T FAC-SIMILE OF LAST WILL OF MICHAEL WOODS, JR.. WHO DIED IN FARM OF MICHAEL WOODS, JR . ON JAMES RIVER, BOTETOURT CO , VA.. WHERE HE DIED IN MICHAEL WOODS OF BLAIR PARK. 67 but there were many iiuniarke