Showing posts with label Augusta County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Augusta County. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Captain John “Indian Wars” McDowell

John McDowell (born 1714), youngest son of American McDowell patriarch Ephraim and surveyor of Borden’s Grant in Virginia, married Magdalen Woods in 1734 while the family was still in Pennsylvania. Like so many of the McDowells, she had made the crossing to America from Ireland with her parents and siblings. John and “Magdalena” had three children together before John’s untimely death at age 28 on 14 December 1742. 
John received his Captain’s commission in the Virginia militia after numerous Augusta County landholders made a direct plea (in desperate need of spellcheck):
"To the Honorable, William Gooch Esqr His Majestys’ Lieut: Governor &c &c—
Sr
We your pittionours humbly sheweth that we your Honours Loly and Dutifull Subganckes hath ventred our Lives & all that we have In settling ye back parts of Virginia which was a veri Great Hassirt & Dengrous, for it is the Hathins [heathens] Road to ware, which has proved hortfull to severil of ous that were ye first settlers of these back woods & wee your Honibill pittionors some time a goo pittioned your Honnour for to have Commissioned men amungst ous which we your Honnours most Duttifull subjects thought properist men & men that had Hart and Curidg to hed us yn mind of — & to defend your Contray and your poor Sobgacks Intrist from ye voilince of ye Haithen—But yet agine we Humbly perfume to poot your Honnour yn mind of our Great want of them in hopes that your Honner will Grant a Captins’ Commission to John McDowell, with follring ofishers, and your Honnours’ Complyence in this will be Great settisfiction to your most Duttifull and Humbil pittioners—and we as in Duty bond shall Ever pray—
Andrew Moore, David Moore, James Eikins, Geroge Marfit, John Goof, James Sutherland, James Milo, James McDowell, John Anderson, Joabe Anderson, James Anderson, Mathew Lyel, John Gray and many others."*
Captain McDowell assembled a Company of thirty-three men, including his father Ephraim and brother James. In early December 1742, a similar number of Delaware Indians entered the McDowell settlement in Borden’s Grant, “saying that they were on their way to assail the Catawba tribe with which they were at war.” John McDowell met with the Indians, who professed their friendship for the whites. He, in turn, entertained them for a day and “treated them with whiskey.” The Delawares then traveled down the south branch of the North River and camped for about a week. Besides hunting, they proceeded to terrorize local settlers and shoot loose horses at random. In response to grievous complaints, Captain McDowell’s Company was ordered by Colonel James Patton of the Virginia militia to conduct the Delaware Indians beyond the white settlements. On 14 December 1742 they caught up with the suspect Indians at the junction of the James and North rivers. The Company proceeded to gather the group together and initiate the escort. About half of the Indians were on horseback, the rest on foot. One was said to have been lame, not keeping pace with the company, and had walked off into the woods. A soldier at the back of the line fired into the trees at him, and the Indians immediately began a full-fledged attack upon McDowell’s entire Company.** John and eight of his men were killed. At least seventeen Indians also died. In the battle’s aftermath, to avoid all-out war with the multiple nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, Lieutenant Governor George Thomas of Pennsylvania negotiated the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. Agreement was reached that Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor William Gooch would pay the Iroquois a reparation of 100 pounds sterling. 
After what came to be called the “Massacre at Balcony Downs,” many referred to the Captain as John “Indian Wars” McDowell. By this time there were numerous McDowells up and down the Great Wagon Road, so it became a way to distinguish him from others in the retelling. 
*Petition to Lt. Governor William Gooch of Virginia, dated 30 July 1742, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, i, p. 235
**Joseph Addison Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871, 1902, C.R. Caldwell, Augusta County, Virginia. Specifics of the account are from an 1808 letter sent from Judge Samuel McDowell, son of Captain John McDowell, to Colonel Arthur Campbell.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Virginia's Westward Expansion

from A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren Frederic Morton, published 1920, The McClure Co., Virginia:

    The house that John Lewis built near the site of Staunton in the summer of 1732 was not within the recognized limits of any county. Until 1744 the Blue Ridge was the treaty line between paleface and redskin. The first county organization to cross that barrier was Spottsylvania, which became effective in 1721. Yet it came only to the South Fork of the Shenandoah, one extremity of the line touching the river in the vicinity of Elkton, the other about midway between Front Royal and Bentonville. Orange was created in 1734, and organized in 1735. It was defined as extending westward to the uttermost limit claimed by Virginia. Four years later, the portion of Orange west of the Blue Ridge was divided into the counties of Frederick and Augusta by a line running from the source of the Rapidan to the Fairfax Stone at the source of the North Branch of the Potomac. The present boundary between Rockingham and Shenandoah is a portion of this line.
    During the westward march of population in Virginia, the practical area of a county has always been co-extensive with its settled portion. The fact that Augusta once extended potentially to the Mississippi, did not mean that a juryman might have to travel hundreds of miles to attend court. When the first division of Augusta took place in 1769, probably not less than three-fourths of the inhabitants were living within a radius of fifty miles around Staunton. Of the other fourth, nearly all were within a few miles of a trail leading from Buchanan to Abingdon.
    The first county to be set off from Augusta was Botetourt, which became effective January 31, 1770. ...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Borden's Grant settlers request a "Captin"

from a petition to Governor Gooch of Virginia, dated July 30, 1742, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, i, p. 235:

    "We your pettionours humbly sheweth that we your Honours Loly and Dutifull Subganckes hath ventred our Lives & all that we have In settling ye back parts of Virginia which was a veri Great Hassirt & Dengrous, for it is the Hathins [heathens] Road to ware, which has proved hortfull to severil of ous that were ye first settlers of these back woods & wee your Honibill pettionors some time a goo petitioned your Honnour for to have Commisioned men amungst ous which we your Honnours most Duttifull subjects thought properist men & men that had Hart and Curidg to hed us yn time of [war] & to defend your Contray & your poor Sogbacks Intrist from ye voilince of ye Haithen-But yet agine we Humbly persume to poot your Honnour yn mind of our Great want of them in hopes that your Honner will Grant a Captins' Commission to John McDowell, with follring ofishers, and your Honnours' Complyence in this will be Great settisfiction to your most Duttifull and Humbil pettioners-and we as in Duty bond shall Ever pray...."

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Col. John Lewis of Augusta County

From Chronicles of Border Warfare, by Alexander Scott Withers, William Powers, William Hacker, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Lyman Copeland Draper; pub. 1895, R. Clarke Company:

    John Lewis, the father of Gen. Andrew Lewis, was probably of Welsh descent, and born in 1678 in County Donegal, Ireland. About 1716 he married Margaret Lynn, of the famous Lynns of Loch Lynn, Scotland. In a dispute over his tenancy (1729), he killed a man of high station,—some say, his Catholic landlord,—and fled to Portugal, whence in 1731, after strange adventures, he emigrated to America, and was joined there by his family. Fearing to live near a sea-port he established himself on the frontier, in the Valley of Virginia, two miles east of the present site of Staunton. His house was of stone, built for defense, and in 1754 it successfully stood an Indian siege. Lewis was colonel of the Augusta county militia as early as 1743, presiding justice in 1745, and high sheriff in 1748. In 1751, then 73 years of age, he assisted his son Andrew, then agent of the Loyal Company, to explore and survey the latter's grant on Greenbrier River. It was because the old man became entangled in the thicket of greenbriers, that he gave this name to the stream. He died at his old fort homestead, February 1, 1762, aged 84.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Mary McDowell Greenlee, re: "Borden's tract"

From Annals of Augusta County by Joseph Addison Waddell, pub. 1902,
C.R. Caldwell, page 31:

    Borden's tract was South of Beverley's Manor, and in the present county of Rockbridge. The first settlers on the tract were Ephraim McDowell and his family. His daughter, Mary Greenlee, related in a deposition taken in 1806 [at age 94], and still extant, the circumstances under which her father went there. Her brother, James McDowell, had come into Beverley's Manor during the spring of 1737, and planted a crop of corn, near Woods' Gap; and in the fall her father, her brother John, and her husband [James Greenlee] and herself came to occupy the settlement. Before they reached their destination, and after they had arranged their camp on a certain evening at Linnville Creek, (now Rockingham,) [Benjamin] Borden arrived and asked permission to spend the night with them, being doubtless on his way to his tract from his home in the lower Valley. He informed them of his grant, and offered them inducements to go there. The next day they came on to the house of John Lewis, and there it was finally arranged that the party should settle in Borden's tract. Ephraim McDowell was then a very aged man, and lived to be over one hundred years old. When a youth of 16 he was one of the defenders of Londonderry. He and his family located on Timber Ridge, originally called "Timber Grove," being attracted by the forest trees on the ridge, which were scarce elsewhere in the region. Borden offered a tract of one hundred acres to any one who should build a cabin on it, with the privilege of purchasing more at fifty shillings per hundred acres. Each cabin secured to him one thousand acres. Mrs. Mary Greenlee related in her deposition, referred to, that an Irish girl, named Peggy Millhollan, a servant of James Bell, dressed herself in men's clothes and secured five or six cabin rights. John Patterson, who was employed to count the cabins, was surprised to find so many people named Millhollan, but the trick was not discovered till after the return was made. Among the settlers in "Borden's grant" were William McCausland, William Sawyers, Robert Campbell, Samuel Woods, John Mathews (father of Sampson and George), Richard Woods, John Hays and his son, Charles and Samuel Walker. Borden obtained his patent November 8, 1739.*
    *[Benjamin Borden, Sr] died in the latter part of 1743, in Frederick, leaving three sons, Benjamin, John and Joseph, and several daughters. The next spring his son Benjamin appeared in Rockbridge (as it is now) with authority under his father's will to adjust all matters with the settlers on the grant. He had, however, been in the settlement before his father's death.
    Mrs. Greenlee says Benjamin Borden, Jr., was "altogether illiterate," and did not make a good impression on his first arrival, but he proved to be an upright man, and won the confidence of the people. The saying: "As good as Ben. Burden's bill," passed into a proverb. He married Mrs. Magdalene McDowell, (originally a Miss Woods, of Rock fish), widow of John McDowell, who was killed by Indians in December, 1742, and by her had two daughters, Martha and Hannah. The former became the wife of Robert Harvey, the latter never married. Benjamin Borden, Jr., died of small-pox in 1753. His will was admitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, November 21, 1758. The executors appointed were John Lyle, Archibald Alexander and testator's wife, but the first named declined to serve. His personal estate was large for the time. During her second widowhood Mrs. Magdalene Borden contracted a third marriage with Colonel John Bowyer.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

John Lewis, First Settler of Augusta County

From History of Augusta County, Virginia, by John Lewis Peyton, pub. 1882, Samuel M. Yost & Son:

    Among those whose attention was now directed to our Valley was John Lewis, who had been for some time in Pennsylvania, quietly awaiting the arrival from Europe of his wife and children. This remarkable man was born in the north of Ireland, descended from a French-Protestant family, and was educated in Scotland. In Ulster, where he resided until fifty years of age, he commanded the confidence, respect and esteem of the people, and occupied that position of influence, and took that leading part in society and county affairs, which had been traditionally the role of the O'Donnells, Chichesters and O'Doghertys. In youth he was of impetuous temper, but the varied experience of an active life had taught him to control his spirit. He was endowed with a high order of intellect, a valorous soul, and soon became noted for his virtuous principles. A deplorable affair, but one alike honorable to his spirit and manhood, terminated his career in Ireland. He had been sometime in America, when, in 1732, Joist Hite and a party of pioneers set out to settle upon a grant of forty thousand acres of land in the [Shenandoah] Valley, which had been obtained, in 1730, by Isaac Vanmeter and his brother, by warrant from the Governor of Virginia. Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta....John Lewis' settlement was a few miles below the site of the town of Staunton, on the banks of the stream which still bears his name. It may be proper to remark here, that when the circumstances of the affray [in Ireland] became known, after due investigation, a pardon was granted to John Lewis, and patents are still extant, by which his Majesty granted to him a large portion of the fair domain of Western Virginia.
    For many years after the settlement of Fort Lewis, great amity and good will existed between the neighboring Indians and the white settlers, whose numbers increased apace, until they became quite a formidable colony.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

John Lewis (1678-1782)

John Lewis was descended from Huguenots who emigrated from France to Ireland in 1685 (at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.) He left Ireland in 1729, a fugitive, after his oppressive landlord Charles of Clonmithgairn launched a brutal attack to evict Lewis’ family from premises of which he held a freehold lease. During the attack, Lewis’ wife was wounded and his invalid brother Edward was killed. John Lewis defended his family, slaying the landlord and one of his henchmen in the process.
In Virginia, shortly after William Beverley received his grant of 118,000+ acres in 1736, a grant of 100,000 acres was made to John Lewis and his associates, under the name of the “Greenbrier Company.” (John Lewis had been occupying previously unsettled land, afterwards granted to Beverley, which in the interim made Lewis a "squatter" after Beverley took possession.) Much of this land was located on the Greenbrier River, a name given to the stream by Col. Lewis. John Lewis, along with his son Thomas, were of the first magistrates of Augusta County, Virginia at the formation of the county in 1738. In 1751, John Lewis and his son Andrew would survey the Greenbrier tract.
In 1900 Joseph L. Crowder, a Staunton, Virginia citizen, realised that the grave of John Lewis was in a dilapidated state, and the inscription on the monument was even then very hard to read. On 18 November 1900, Mr. Crowder, with great effort, copied this inscription:

Here Lie the Remains of
John Lewis
Who Slew the Irish Lord
Settled Augusta County,
Located the City of Staunton
And furnished five sons to
Fight the Battles of the
American Revolution.
He was the son of
Andrew Lewis and Mary Calhoun
Was born in Donegal County
Ireland 1678 and
Died February 1, 1762 aged
84 years.
He was a brave man
A true patriot and a Friend of
Liberty
Throughout the World.
“Morta litate Relicta Vivit”

Friday, October 26, 2007

Benjamin Borden's Agents & Settlers

When Benjamin Borden came to Augusta he made different men his agents and lodged at their houses using the houses as places to see persons wanting land. Aside from John McDowell with whom he first met he had John Patterson, through whom he sold many tracts of land. McDowell first made entries of one hundred acres each for James Bell, Alexander Breckenridge, George, James, Robert and Adam Breckenridge, John Moore, Quentin Moore, John Walters, William McCanless, Robert Poage, Seth Poage, Daniel McAnaire and John Gwinn, the land to be given them if they would build and improve on it by the next April. This agreement was dated Feb. 21, 1738-39. The settlers got no deeds and brought suit against Borden's executor for titles. Benjamin Borden, Jr. charged in answer that James Bell caused a servant wench of his to be dressed in man's clothes and made an entry in her name as a man, and also caused another woman, the wife of William McCanless, to appear in her proper person on a different part of the land as the wife of another settler and thereby obtained another entry.
Among other purchasers were David Moore, Isaac Anderson, Andrew Moore, William Evans, John Downing, William Sawyers, John Paul, Robert Campbell, Samuel Wood, John Mathews, John Edmiston, Richard Woods, John Hays, Charles Hays, Samuel Walker, John McCraskey. Alexander Miller was the first Blacksmith and John Hays the first owner of a mill. James Greenlee came in 1737.

(Sourced verbatim from Kegley's Virginia Frontier: The Beginning of the Southwest : the Roanoke of Colonial Days, 1740-1783, by Frederick Bittle Kegley, The Stone Press. Roanoke, VA. 1938)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Judge McCue to Lyman Draper,
re: Daniel Boone & the McDowells

Staunton, July 23d/83

Hon. Lyman C. Draper,

My Dear Sir,

I was engaged in the midst of an important criminal case as counsel for the defense when yr letter of the 7th inst. came to hand which occupied me about twelve days. This will account for my not replying to your letter at an earlier date. I am descended from Henry Miller of the Iron Works– the first established west of the Blue Ridge--& second I suppose to that of G__ Spottswood in America. I know little of the Miller, Boone & Winter families. My mothers maiden name was Hannah Winters Moffett, daughter of James McDowell Moffett, who was the son of Col. Geo. Moffett of Indian warfare & revolutionary memory –and Sarah or Mary Marg McDowell daughter of Jno. & Magdalen McDowell– Jno. The son of Ephraim McDowell. Magdalene his John’s wife was a Woods. Jno McDowell my great great grandfather was killed by the Indians near Balcony Falls in Rockbridge Co.
I know that Col D. Boone was related to my maternal ancestor – the grandfather of my mother– Henry Miller –founder of Millers Iron Works on Mossy Creek in the southwestern part of Augusta Co. He accumulated a vast fortune in lands & left descendants innumerable. Henry Miller was the founder of many great families as I have been told--& know, that all or nearly all have held respectable positions in society. Henry of the Iron Works died at his residence, a splendid hewn stone mansion on his furnace property –when about 37 years of age. The late Jno Howe Peyton –that great lawyer father of J. Lewis Peyton said of him –he had brains enough to fill the Office of
President of the United States.
I know that Miller of the I Works & Dan’l Boon were related and visited this Co. trading with the Indians--& were fast friends. How related I know not. I have written to several persons in reference to the subjects of yr letter, who are believed to be better informed than any others, and so soon as I hear from them – you shall hear from me.
Have you seen Hale’s pamphlet on Boon? If not, will loan you the only copy I have –sent me by the authors. Mr. Hale is of Charleston Kanawha Co. Va. His given name I do not recall. ___by postal whether or not you have the pamphlet. Maj J.M. McCue, my first cousin, knows more of Dan’l Boon & Miller than any man living– also of the Winter family. Write to him my care Staunton Va. A letter from you will bring out his knowledge. To me he says “Oh– Mr. Draper knows all I
do.” He is very much engage in historic research just now in another line.
I trust yr History of King’s Mountain will do justice to my kindred, the North Carolina McDowells whose names do not appear on the monument. Are you not related to or connected with the McDowell’s in some way. Let me know & how.
Court day & no time to read over for correction.

Most truly,
Yr fnd & obt servt

Jno H McCue

[note in margin]
Thanks for Wisconsin Collection. JH McCue

(J.H. McCue to Lyman C. Draper, July 23, 1883; Draper Manuscripts, 20C63; transcribed from microfilm copy of the original document from the Draper Manuscripts Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; spelling and punctuation are as they appear in the original text)

Capt. John McDowell (1714-1742)

From Waddell’s Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, page 37:

    “On the 28th of February 1739, John McDowell, who settled in Borden’s Grant, made oath at Orange Court that ‘he imported himself, Magdaline, his wife, and Samuel McDowell, his son, and John Rutter, his servant, at his own charge from Great Britain in the year 1737, to dwell in this colony, and that this is the first time of proving their rights in order to obtain land pursuant to the royal instructions’”.
Waddell further says, “Captain John McDowell, was a prominent Captain of a military force of Augusta County in 1742. Ephraim McDowell, then an old man, was a member of his son John’s company. All grown men were enrolled without respect to age.”

Augusta County, Virginia

The area that became Augusta County was settled primarily by the Scots-Irish in the early 1730s. Formed from Orange County, Augusta County was created in 1738 by an Act of the General Assembly which provided that its territory should remain a part of Orange County until there were sufficient inhabitants to support a local government. The first Court was held in 1745.

Borden's Grant, 1734

Benjamin Borden,* a native of New Jersey, and agent of Lord [Thomas] Fairfax in the lower Valley, obtained from Governor [William] Gooch a patent dated October 3, 1734, for a tract of land in Frederick county, which was called "Borden's Manor." At the same time he was promised 100,000 acres on the waters of James River, west of the Blue Ridge, as soon as he should locate a hundred settlers on the tract.

*His surname is sometimes found spelled "Burden" in early texts. Bordentown, New Jersey, was named for one of the extended family, James Borden.

(Source: Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871, by Joseph Addison Waddell, pub. 1902, C.R. Caldwell)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

A Koger Marries a Porter,
GrandDaughter of the Western Waters

On November 26, 1818, in Floyd County, Kentucky, my great-great-great-grandfather James Koger married Sarah Walker Porter, aka "Sally". Tracing the Walker name in Sally's name led me to her paternal grandmother Susanna Walker (1739-1795), who married Sgt. Patrick Porter (1737-1805) around 1756 at Walker's Creek, Augusta County, Virginia.
Sgt. Patrick Porter and his father-in-law, John Walker, my 6x great-grandfather, relocated to southwest Virginia about 1770-1772, settling on the Clinch River in what became Russell County. Western lands in North Carolina had been closed to settlement by Colonial government policy until 1778. In Virginia, however, Indian Treaties of 1768 and 1770 opened the "western waters" for settlement. While there had been settlers in the area before these treaties, emigration into the area did not begin in earnest until 1769-70. The Walker and Porter families were likely part of this immigration.
In 1772, the Porters, along with others, moved from Castle's Woods, where they had first settled, to Patrick Porter's land survey at Falling Creek, near present day Dungannon, Virginia. They quickly set to building a fort, called Porter's Fort, nearby. In 1774 Porter added a mill, the first on the Clinch River, and gradually a settlement began to grow.
Daniel Boone lived in the Castle's Woods, Virginia area from 1773-1775. The Porters were friends with the pioneer. Patrick's son (my 5x great-uncle) Samuel Walker Porter travelled with Daniel Boone to Kentucky in 1773, and in 1778 answered Boone's request for assistance defending Boonesborough during the Shawnee siege.
At various times, Patrick Porter commanded part or all of the forts along the Clinch River and was in charge of monitoring and responding to hostile Indian activity over a wide area.

Counties of Virginia

  • 1721: Spotsylvania County was established from Essex, King and Queen, and King William counties.
  • 1734: Orange County was established from Spotsylvania.
  • 1738: Formed from Orange County, Augusta County was created in 1738 by an Act of the General Assembly which provided that its territory should remain a part of Orange County until there were sufficient inhabitants to support a local government.
  • 1744: The Virginia General Assembly created Albemarle County by taking the northern portion of Goochland County.
  • 1761: Albemarle County was divided, forming Buckingham and Amherst counties, at which time the county seat was moved from the formerly-central Scottsville to a piece of newly-central land, christened Charlottesville.
  • 1770: Botetourt County was formed from Augusta County.
  • 1778: Rockbridge County was formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt Counties. (The settlement within the bounds of present day Rockbridge, however, began in 1737 in Borden's Grant. The area was then a part of Orange County, Virginia. Augusta County began keeping records in 1745, and covered what is now many states.)
  • 1786: Russell County was formed from Washington County.
  • 1793: Lee County was formed from Russell County.
  • 1799: Tazewell County was formed from parts of Wythe and Russell Counties.
  • 1815: Scott County was formed from parts of of Russell and Lee Counties.
  • 1855: Wise County was formed from parts of Lee, Scott, and Russell Counties.
  • 1858: Buchanan County was formed from parts of Russell and Tazewell Counties.
  • 1880: Dickenson County was formed from parts of Wise and Buchanan Counties.
  • John Walker III (1705-1778)

    John Walker, the son of an immigrant of the same name came first to Augusta County [Virginia] and later to Rockbridge, where they settled and lived on a creek named for them and which still carries the name of Walker's Creek.
    Leaving Rockbridge County, this John Walker arrived on the Clinch in the year 1773, and settled on a 300 acre tract of land at the "sink" of Sinking Creek between Castlewood [Castle's Woods] and Dungannon. This tract of land he named "Broad Meadows." He was born in 1705 in Ireland and had married, about 1734, Ann Houston, who may have been a sister of William who built Houston's Fort on Big Moccasin Creek in Scott County. Upon arrival on the Virginia frontier, John Walker was some 68 years old and had undoubtedly followed his children in their westward wanderings. Despite his advanced age, when he arrived on the Clinch he lived to see his son and daughter-in-law slain by the Indians, and his daughter and grandson carried into captivity and who had not returned at the time of his death. He died sometime between Sept 23rd and Nov. 17, 1778. His will bearing date of Sept 23rd, (no year given, but presumed) was probated Nov. 17, 1778.
    The known children of John and Ann Houston Walker were: Susanna, Mary, Jane, Hetty, Ann, Martha, Margaret, John, and Samuel.

    (Source: Pioneer Settlers of The Clinch, by Emory L. Hamilton, Clinch Valley Times, St. Paul, Virginia, Oct. 10, 1967)

    John Walker II (1677-1734)

    John Walker and his wife, Katherine Rutherford, first lived at Wigton, Scotland, later moving to Newry, Ireland, from whence they sailed from Strangford Bay in May 1726, landing in Maryland in August of that year. Soon he was settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1734. His wife, Katherine, died the same year. Most of the family of John Walker, the immigrant, moved from Pennsylvania and settled in Augusta and Rockbridge Counties in Virginia, and from there they scattered westward.

    (Source: Indian Tragedies Against The Walker Family, by Emory L. Hamilton, unpublished manuscript)