Loudoun County, Virginia

“ The county of Loudoun, as now constituted, is an area of 525 square miles, lying in the extreme northwesterly corner of Virginia, in that part of the Old Dominion known as the Piedmont and of very irregular shape, its upper apex formed by the Potomac River on the northeast and the Blue Ridge Mountains on the northwest, pointing northerly. ”

“ In moral endowments—even if not in mental attainments—these sturdy pioneers of Loudoun were, it must be admitted, vastly superior to many of those who followed them when better facilities for transportation rendered the County more accessible.
Society before and for many years after the Revolution was easy, agreeable, and somewhat refined. Traveling was slow, difficult, and expensive. For society, the inhabitants were mainly dependent upon themselves; the ties of social life were closely drawn. ”

“ Round Hill, a thriving railway town in the western part of the County, lies 3 miles east of Bluemont, 3 miles west of Purcellville, and 53 miles from the city of Washington. It [75] is the second largest town in Loudoun, has an elevation of about 600 feet above mean tide and is in the midst of a rich farming region abounding with streams of pure water from mountain water-courses. The town's name is derived from a conical hill projecting from the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 2 miles away. ”

“ As another contributing cause, it can be positively stated that the disfavor in which agriculture is held by the young men of Loudoun, who seek less arduous and more lucrative employment in the great cities of the East, is, in part, responsible, if not for the depletion, certainly for the stagnation of the county's population. ”

“ There is a huge belt of red land, known as "the red sandstone formation," extending from the Potomac through a part of each of the counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, Culpeper, and Orange, which, with judicious cultivation, might be rendered liberally productive. ”

“ It is the plea of a Loudoun man for conservative action boldly put forth at a time when men's passions were inflamed almost beyond human credulity, and while he himself was the presiding officer of a body which had met to decide the destiny of the Old Dominion and whose deliberations were to be watched with breathless interest by the people of both hemispheres. ”

“ As he never married, his title upon his death at Loudoun Castle on the 27th April, 1782, passed to his cousin, James Mure Campbell, a grandson of the second Earl.
Of the first officials of Loudoun County, the following men by commission of the Virginia Council, dated the 24th May, 1757, became its first court or governing body: Anthony Russell, Fielding Turner, James Hamilton, Aeneas Campbell, Nicholas Minor, William West, of the Quorum, Richard Coleman, Josias Clapham, George West, Charles Tyler, John Moss, Francis Peyton and John Mucklehany. These men may be taken as outstanding residents. ”

“ Loudoun, at the time of the Revolution, was one of the most densely populated counties in the State. Her militia, according to the returns of 1780 and 1781, numbered 1,746, [132] which number was far in excess of that reported by any other Virginia county.
It is probable that a few Loudoun patriots served in Captain Daniel Morgan's celebrated "Company of Virgina Riflemen," thus described by a line officer of the Continental Army: "They are remarkably stout and hardy men; many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks, or rifle shirts, and round hats. ”

“ Hamilton, one of the prettiest towns in the County, is spread over a considerable area and occupies one of the highest points in the beautiful Loudoun Valley. It is about 46 miles by rail from Washington, 3 miles from Purcellville and only a few miles from both the Catoctin and Blue Ridge mountains, walling the valley to the east and west, and is the center of a group of seven towns and villages within a radius of 5 miles. It has 364 inhabitants, of which number 18 are merchants and mechanics. ”

“ They are remarkable for their parallelism, regularity, rectilineal direction and evenness of outline, and constitute what is by far the most conspicuous feature in the topography of Loudoun. Neither snow-capped nor barren, they are clothed with vegetation from base to summit and afford fine range and pasturage for sheep and cattle. ”

“ While a large proportion of the home-seekers that had settled in the County immediately after the Revolution had received a rudimentary education, and had lived among communities which may be said to have been comparatively cultured, most of them were hardy, rough, uncultivated back-woodsmen, accustomed only to the ways of the frontier and camp. ”

“ Sugarland Run, a still smaller stream, rises partly in Loudoun, though its course is chiefly through Fairfax County, and empties into the Potomac at the northeastern angle of the County.
In its southeastern angle several streams rise and pursue a southern and southeastern course, and constitute some of the upper branches of Occoquan River.
Perhaps no county in the State is better watered for all purposes, except manufacturing in times of drought. Many of the farms might be divided into fields of ten acres each and, in ordinary seasons, would have water in each of them. ”

“ Table III.—Farms Classified by Area—1900.
Table IV.—Number of Farms of Specified Tenures, June 1, 1900.
POPULATION.
The persistent high price of Loudoun lands has discouraged increase of population by immigration. Indeed, in more than eighty-five years, except for the slight fluctuations of [84] certain decades, there has been no increase through any medium.
The last census (1900) fixed Loudoun's population at 21,948, of which number 16,079 were whites, 5,869 negroes, and the remaining 101 foreign born. ”

“ The seasons are somewhat earlier even than in the Shenandoah Valley, just over the western border of Loudoun, and the farmers here plant and harvest their crops from one week to ten days earlier than the farmers of that region.
Loudoun summers, as a rule, are long and agreeably cool, while occasional periods of extreme heat are not more oppressive than in many portions of the North. The mountains of Loudoun have a delightful summer climate coupled with inspiring scenery, and are well known as the resort of hundreds seeking rest, recreation, or the restoration of health. ”

“ The present condition of education in Loudoun is hopeful, public instruction being now popular with all classes. Intelligence is more generally diffused than at any previous period of the County's history, and happily, the progress of moral education has, on the whole, fully kept pace with intellectual culture. Our boys and girls are reared in a home atmosphere of purity, of active thought, and intelligent cultivation; all their powers are keenly stimulated by local and national prosperity and unrestricted freedom in all honest endeavor. ”

“ It is doubtful if any race has done more to stimulate and direct real progress, and to develop the vast resources of Loudoun, than that portion of our earlier population known as the Scotch-Irish. Their remarkable energy, thrift, staidness, and fixed religious views made their settlements the centers of civilization and improvement in Colonial times; that their descendants proved sturdy props of the great cause that culminated in the independence of the United States is a matter of history. ”

“ First let me say a few words about how the use of history can be directly relevant to Loudoun County. Before going further I should explain to you that, even though I am not a resident, I am no stranger to the County or to Leesburg. For about twenty years the Dupuys have been property-owners in Loudoun County. As my father used to comment, we are thus modern recruits of the Army of Northern Virginia. My wife and I even have plans for a house which we someday expect to build on our property on the banks of Goose Creek. ”

“ That part of the County lying east of a line drawn from the Potomac River near Leesburg, by Aldie to the Fauquier line, is much more unproductive than the western portion, partly on account of an inferior soil, and partly in consequence of an exhausting system of cultivation, once so common in eastern Virginia, i. e., cropping with corn and tobacco without attempting to improve the quality of the soil. When impoverished, the lands were thrown out to the commons. ”

“ It occupies a high and healthy plain, the environs of which are waving and well cultivated and delightfully variegated by hill and dale.
The town derives its name from the Lees, who were among the early settlers of the County, and was established by act of the General Assembly, in September, 1758, in the thirty-second year of the reign of George II. Nicholas Minor, who owned sixty acres of land about the court-house, had subdivided this tract and some of the lots had been built upon prior to the passage of the act. ”

“ The land here is in a high state of cultivation and, according to its peculiarly varying and unalterable adaptability, produces enormous crops of all the staple grains of the County.
The soil in the vicinity of Oatlands, included in this zone, is stiff and stony, except such as is adjacent to water courses, or the base of hills, where it is enriched by liberal supplies of decayed matter, which render it loamy and inexhaustible. ”

“ The above-noted interim saw a steady influx of the fine old English Cavalier [18] stock, the settlers occupying large tracts of land in the eastern and southern portions of the County or most of the territory extending from the Potomac River southward to Middleburg and from the Catoctin and Bull Run mountains eastward to the eastern border of the County. ”

“ A third range, called "Catoctin Mountain," has its inception in Pennsylvania, traverses Maryland, is interrupted by the Potomac, reappears in Virginia at the river margin, opposite Point of Rocks, and extends through Loudoun County for a distance of twenty or more miles, when it is again interrupted. ”

“ Agriculture, in many of its important branches, is by far Loudoun's leading industry, and is being annually benefited by the application of new methods in cultivation and harvesting. The farmers are thrifty and happy and many of them prosperous.
During the Civil War agriculture received a serious setback, as the County was devastated by the contending armies, but by hard work and intelligent management of the people the section has again been put upon a prosperous footing. ”

“ Apples do well on most of the soils of Loudoun. The best are sold to buyers who ship to large markets. The poorer qualities are kept for home consumption, used for cider and fed to hogs. Pears are grown in small quantities throughout the County. Peaches do well on most of the soils, but yield irregularly on account of frosts. All indigenous vegetables succeed well, but are mostly grown for home consumption, market gardens being conspicuously scarce. ”

“ In 1918, in the midst of the war, a new State Administration assumed the reins of government under the leadership of Westmoreland Davis of Loudoun who became Governor of Virginia in that year and whose administration was accepted by the people as efficient, sound and well balanced.
[231] In culture the county is recovering the position it proudly held one hundred years ago before ground down by war and poverty. ”

“ The type is locally termed "white land," and is closely related to the Penn loam and the Iredell clay loam, these types surrounding and grading gradually into it. In some areas the soil is quite free from stones, while in others from 10 to 30 per cent of the soil mass is composed of small rock fragments.
The type occupies several small areas in the Piedmont region, in the southeastern part of the County. The largest of these areas lies about 2 miles east of Leesburg, and a considerable part of the type is adjacent to the Potomac River. ”

“ These reiterated and, at times, disastrous failures having demonstrated the futility of all covert attempts, General Grant, and later, General Sheridan, felt driven to the adoption of measures that were destined to entail much suffering and loss on the guiltless and non-combatant element of Loudoun's population. ”

“ Few of the early settlers of Loudoun enjoyed any other advantages of education than a few months' attendance at primary schools as they existed in Virginia previous to the Revolution. But these advantages had been so well improved that nearly all of them were able to read and write a legible hand, and had acquired sufficient knowledge of arithmetic for the transaction of ordinary business. They were, in general, men of strong and penetrating minds and, clearly perceiving the numerous advantages which education confers, they early directed their attention to the establishment of schools. ”

“ Loudoun's gently sweeping hills and broad valleys support great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and yield immense crops of corn, wheat, oats, and other cereals. More corn is produced and probably more live stock marketed by Loudoun than by any other of the 100 counties of Virginia.
The wheat is either sold for shipment or ground into flour by the many mills of the County, which mainly supply the home demand. The surplus is shipped chiefly to Washington and Baltimore. The major portion of the corn is used locally for feeding beef cattle, dairy stock, and work animals. ”