Augusta County, Virginia

“ Thare was two murders committed in Scott County this winter. Money is very scarce in this Country. I find it very hard getting along, give my Respects to Mr. Fulton & Aunt Betsy and your wife and Family. No more at present.
JAMES McCLURE. Mr. John McClure, Augusta County, Virginia:
The post office at Greenville."
"Lebanon, Russell County, Va., Sept., 10, 1830. Dear Brother, I received your letter on yesterday informing me of your well fare. We are all in good Health at present hoping this may find you in the same state of health. ”

“ The first Presbyterian minister settled west of the Blue Ridge was the Rev. John Craig, a native of the north of Ireland. His congregation was that of the church then known as the Stone Meeting House, since Augusta Church, near Staunton, in the County of Augusta. He became pastor there in the year 1740. Augusta was then a wilderness with a handful of Christian settlers in it; the Indians travelling through the country among them in small parties, unless supplied with whatever victuals they called for, became their own purveyors and cooks, and spared nothing that they chose to eat or drink. ”

“ The limits of Virginia were; “westward to the Mississippi and so much further as the Colony had a mind to claim.”
From Orange County, Augusta County was formed in 1738, extending beyond the Alleghanies to the “uttermost limits of Virginia.” Botetourt was carved from Augusta in 1769 and Fincastle from Botetourt in 1772. Kentucky County was carved by a partition of Fincastle in 1776, under one of the earliest acts of the new Commonwealth of Virginia; and Kentucky County, known as the District of Kentucky, was, in 1780, subdivided into Lincoln, Fayette and Jefferson Counties. ”

“ But our Annals are designed to exhibit the contentions of men, rather than the charities of life. We come now to a curious episode in the history of the county. Lord Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Virginia, and his Lieutenant, Connoly, figure therein somewhat as comic actors, it seems to us, although at the time the business was considered serious enough. Viirginia. claimed, by virtue of her charter, all the territory between certain parallels of latitude, which included a part of western Pennsylvania about Pittsburg. ”

“ On Patowmac River, in Berkeley county, above the North Mountain, are Medicinal Springs, much more frequented than those of Augusta. Their powers, however, are less, the waters weakly mineralized, and scarcely warm. They are more visited, because situated in a fertile, plentiful, and populous country, better provided with accommodations, always safe from the Indians, and nearest to the more populous States. ”

“ Know all men by these presents that I, John McClure of Augusta County, and State of Virginia, lease unto George Harmon of the aforesaid County, and State of Virgini, a tract of land lying on Deer Creek, Madison County and State of Ohio, for the term of one year, in consideration of which the said George Harmon obligates himself to make all the outside fencing, good staked and riders for the true performance of which we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, or administrators in the penal sum of one hundred dollars. ”

“ Harrisonburg is called the Friendly City and its people are noted for their hospitality. It is near famous caverns and historic battlefields. It was named in honor of Thomas Harrison who had fifty acres of his land surveyed and laid out into lots and streets. It might also be called the center of a large German element whose forefathers settled much of the surrounding country. Harrisonburg is the county-seat of Rockingham county, which was formed from Augusta in 1778. This is the third largest county in Virginia.
These people have always been among the sturdiest and bravest in the Valley. ”

“ The department of the Middle and Southern Colonies was entrusted to General Forbes, and he was ordered to undertake an expedition against Fort Du Quesne. Washington rejoined the army. Forbes having deferred the campaign too late, the French and Indians renewed their merciless warfare. In the County of Augusta sixty persons were murdered. The Virginia troops were augmented to two thousand men, divided into two regiments: one under Washington, who was still commander-in-chief; the other, the new regiment, under Colonel William Byrd, of Westover. ”

“ In 1776, when the colonists rebelled against the crown, and West Augusta was divided into the counties of Ohio, Youghiogheny, and Monongahela, the name was changed to Fort Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia.
The organization of Ohio County at this time was essentially military, every able-bodied man being enrolled; and this enrollment was a list of taxables, and formed the basis of the county revenue. David Shepherd, the colonel commanding the county militia, was also the presiding justice of the county court. ”

“ In the counties of Accomac, Augusta, Bedford, Campbell, Elizabeth City, Fairfax, Lee, Loudoun, Hanover, Henrico, Rockingham, Nansemond, Southampton, Pittsylvania, Nelson and Fauquier, in which there are now separate clerks for the county and circuit courts thereof, there shall be elected on Tuesday after the first Monday in November nineteen hundred and three, county clerks for such counties. ”

“ He was licensed to preach in 1761, and ordained in the following year, when he settled as pastor in Lancaster County. Here, about the year 1768, he married Mary, daughter of Colonel James Gordon, of that county, [484:A] a wealthy and influential man. In the division of the Presbyterian Church Mr. Waddell was of the "New Side," as it was termed. The Rev. Samuel Davies often preached to Mr. Waddell's congregation; as also did Whitefield several times.
In the year 1776 Mr. Waddell removed from Lower Virginia, in very feeble health, to Augusta County. ”

“ VIRGINIA, Staunton (Independent City) , Stuart Addition Historic District, Roughly bounded by Augusta, Sunnyside, Market, and New Sts. (05/03/84)
VIRGINIA, Albemarle County, Charlottesville vicinity, Faulkner House, 2201 Old Ivy Rd. (05/03/84)
VIRGINIA, Bath County, Hot Springs, Homestead, The, U.S. 220 (05/03/84)
Multiple Resource Areas are identified by MRA
Thematic Resources are identified by TR
NHL designates a National Historic Landmark
Additional documentation has been accepted for the following property previously listed in the National Register of Historic Places. ”

“ NORTH CAROLINA, New Hanover County, Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck Discontiguous District (12/23/85)
TEXAS, Val Verde County, Seminole Canyon District (Boundary Increase) (12/21/85)
VIRGINIA, Augusta County, Archeological Site No. ”

“ Thomas Lewis and Captain Samuel McDowell.—The committee of Augusta county, pursuant to the trust reposed in them by the freeholders of the same, have chosen you to represent them in Colony Convention, proposed to be held in Richmond on the 20th of March instant. They desire that you may consider the people of Augusta county as impressed with just sentiments of loyalty and allegiance to his Majesty King George, whose title to the imperial crown of Great Britain rests on no other foundation than the liberty, and whose glory is inseparable from the happiness, of all his subjects. ”

“ It is impossible to obtain any list or particular account of troops furnished by Augusta county during the Revolutionary war, and the names of only a few comparatively of the soldiers have escaped oblivion. As a general fact, we know that most of the younger men of the county were in the military service. ”

“ Teste: John Stuart, Hugh Allen, Andrew McClure. April 16, 1793, William and Elizabeth McClure sold 198 acres on Middle River. In 1818 William McClure, in Richmond, Va., sold for $3,500, one-third of 500 acres in Augusta County . There are McClures now living in Richmond, probably his descendants.
McCLURES IN ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY.
This county being set off in 1777 from Augusta and Botetourt, information prior to that date is found in the records of those counties. There is nothing to show that the family is closely related to that of Augusta. ”

“ In our state government, so much admired by the worthy gentleman over the way, though there are 1700 militia in some counties, and but 150 in others, yet every county sends two members, to assist in legislating for the whole community. There is disproportion between the respectable county of Augusta, which I have the honor to represent, and the circumscribed, narrow county of Warwick. Will any gentleman tell us that this is a more equal representation than is fixed in the Constitution, whereby 30,000 are to send one representative, in whatever place they may reside? ”

“ Gentlemen,—We have it in command from the freeholders of Augusta county, by their committee, held on the 22d February, to present you with the grateful acknowledgment of thanks for the prudent, virtuous, and noble exertions of the faculties with which heaven has endowed you in the cause of liberty, and of everything that man ought to hold sacred at the late General Congress—a conduct so nobly interesting that it must command the applause, not only from this, but succeeding ages. ”

“ The town itself is small, has about one thousand six hundred inhabitants, and consists, properly speaking, of but two principal streets, intersecting each other at right angles. The greatest part of the houses are of wood, covered with shingles. Staunton is the chief place of Augusta county ”

“ In recent years, most boundary changes for counties have been minor and have not involved substantial shifts of population or land area. The independent cities in Virginia constitute an exception because they occasionally annex territory, as do the incorporated places in many States. Because the territory annexed by a Virginia city no longer is part of the county in which it had been located, changes in the boundaries of these independent cities also affect the boundaries of the adjacent county or counties. In other States, changes to counties occur on a piecemeal basis. ”

“ From Gainesville, in Hall county, by Gailley’s, to Clarksville. From Forsyth, by Zebulon, Greenville, to Lagrange, in Georgia. From Wrightsborough, Columbia county, by Crawfordville, to Greenborough, Green county. From Augusta in Richmond county, by Richmond, Bath, Dye’s store and Hudson’s store, to Louisville, in Jefferson county. From Thomasville, in Georgia, to Monticello, in Florida. From Burke courthouse to Robinson’s store. From Centreville, in Talbot county, to Talbotton. From Monticello, by McDonough, Fayetteville, and Campbellton, to Villa Rica, in Carroll county. ”

“ Popes Creek, running along the east side of the tract, was approximately one-half mile wide, and joined the Potomac half-a-mile away. From Augustine’s land the river could be seen clearly, as it was over 5 miles wide from the Virginia side to the distant Maryland shore. Augustine’s historic piece of property is described in Westmoreland Deeds and Wills:
All that one hundred and fifty acres of lands scituate in the said County of Westmoreland aforesd and bounded Viz. ”

“ If there were no counties most of the people would have to go long distances to the State capital in order to have important business attended to. County organization brings the advantages of government and the administration of justice nearer the homes of all the people. ”

“ The War of Independence caused little change in Virginia's system of county government. The county court system was carried over into the state constitution of 1776 with only the oath of office changed to call for support and defense of the constitution and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. [74] The General Assembly became the successor to most of the functions of the colonial House of Burgesses and Governor in Council, but significantly the principle of the separation of powers established for the commonwealth was not extended to the counties. ”

“ If the majority do not vote approval of consolidation, such consolidation cannot take place.
Virginia had eight counties originally, dating from 1634: Accawmack (now known as Accomack and Northampton) , Charles City (now known as Prince George County) , Charles River (now known as York County) , Elizabeth City (ceased as a county in 1952) , Henrico, James City (now known as Surry County) , Wamosquyoake (no longer in existence—existed only from 1634-1637) and Warwick River (known as Warwick but ceased as a county in 1952) . ”

“ The President of the Pennsylvania court informed Governor Penn of the arrest of his associates. He stated that Connoly, having at Staunton quahfied as a justice of the peace for Augusta county, "in which it is pretended that the country about Pittsburg is included," was constantly surrounded by an armed body of about one hundred and eighty militia, and obstructed every process emanating from the court. ”

“ From Franklin, in Macon county, down Valley river, to Huntingdon, thence to Clarksville, Habersham county, Georgia. From New Castle, by Trap Hill, in Wilkes county, to Grayson court house, Virginia. From Greenville, in Pitt county, by Johnson’s mills, Scuffletown, in Green county, to Kinston in Lenoir county. From Elizabethtown, by Lennon’s Cross roads, to Fair Bluff, thence by Whiteville and the Prong, at Wooten’s back, to Elizabethtown. From Winton, by Gates court-house and Sunbury, to Edenton. From Tomlinson’s store to Ashe court-house. ”