The Stronghold A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People

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Title: The Stronghold

A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People

Author: Miriam Haynie

Release Date: July 16, 2011 [EBook #36749]

Language: English

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The Stronghold

A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People

By MIRIAM HAYNIE

The Dietz Press, Incorporated

Richmond, Virginia

1959

Copyright by

MIRIAM HAYNIE

1959

Second Printing July, 1960

Third Printing September, 1964

Printed in the United States of America by

The Dietz Press, Incorporated

TO MY HUSBAND

William Harold Haynie

AND

TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER AND FATHER:

Olivia Frances Jett Williams, and

Thomas Jackson Williams, of

PLEASANT GROVE

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY,

VIRGINIA

Acknowledgements

References have been given for each chapter so that in this way the persons who so kindly gave personal interviews could be recognized specifically.

I wish to express my appreciation to the personnel of the Reference and Circulation Section, General Library Division, of the Virginia State Library, for their splendid service. Without the books from the Library it would have been impossible for me to have accumulated the material for this book.

I wish to thank the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star and Virginia and The Virginia County Magazine, for their kind permission to use any material which might be needed from articles written by myself and previously published in those publications.

M. H.

Reedville, Virginia,

June, 1959.

CONTENTS

Introduction

PART I—Seventeenth Century

PART II—Eighteenth Century

PART III—Nineteenth Century

PART IV—Conclusion

List of Illustrations

Introduction

I have read with a great deal of pleasure the book called The Stronghold, which relates the history of the Northern Neck of Virginia in story form and was written by my good friend, Miriam Haynie of Reedville, Virginia. Mrs. Haynie is a native of the Northern Neck of Virginia, her family on both sides having settled there in the seventeenth century, and her direct ancestors having remained there until this day. She is the author of a number of articles dealing with the history and traditions and customs of the peninsula between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers that have appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington papers and national publications. She is devoted to this section of Virginia and has spent a large part of her life in accumulating an enormous fund of historical data of the region.

The Stronghold is a most interesting book, especially to Virginians and to natives and descendants of natives of the Northern Neck of Virginia. It is divided into three sections, the seventeenth century, the eighteenth century and the nineteenth century. It tells a great deal about the early history of the Colony and more especially of that portion of the Colony of Virginia, of which she is a native, from the days when the white man first came to the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers down to the beginning of the twentieth century. She relates in a most pleasing language the first visits of Captain John Smith to the waters surrounding the Northern Neck, also the capture of Princess Pocahontas by the colonists, which occurred on the Potomac River or on one of its tributaries, and many other events connected with our early history that we are prone to overlook in the rush and whirl of these modern days. Her book will be particularly interesting to children as it is written in simple language and in story form so that a child in the fifth grade may read and understand it. It is a most entertaining and interesting work and will impress upon children the early history of our part of the Colony of Virginia and the hardships endured by our ancestors who came here to settle in the wilderness. In saying that it will be particularly interesting to children I do not mean to restrict interest in the book entirely to children for it will be both interesting and educational to all lovers of history regardless of age.

As is true in all works of this kind some of the historical statements she has made will be open to contention but in the main it is a true and correct history of the Northernmost Peninsula of the Old Dominion and pays proper attention to the distinguished men and women who first saw the light of day within its confines. It will be excellent parallel reading to be engaged in by every student of history in the high schools of the State. It is also interesting in that it discusses and makes a record of many traditions and customs peculiar to the region. It will be both interesting and valuable as a reference book for future historians of Virginia and will afford great pleasure to all of us who love to read about the history of our State.

Prior to the coming of good roads to Virginia and the building of the bridges across the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers what is known as the Northern Neck, although actually a peninsula, was to those living in the eastern portion almost an island and it was but natural that marked peculiarities of the people of this section distinguished them not only from those who lived in other sections of the country but to a less extent from those living in other parts of Virginia. These distinct peculiarities appeared in pronunciation, in folk-lore and traditions. With the exception of the colored people at least ninety-five per cent of the ancestors of the present population of this section came from Great Britain and preserved with little change the speech, the culture and the habits of the British people and it is these things that distinguished them to some extent from people living in other parts of the country. In Colonial days a very high state of culture was in existence among the great plantations of the Northern Neck and their contributions to the development of this country have included several of the great heroes of the nation. To a considerable extent all these attributes have been handed down from generation to generation and every one in the Northern Neck well knows and is proud of the fact that George Washington and Robert E. Lee were natives of the section.

All these things are emphasized by Miriam Haynie in her most excellent and readable book, which will be a real contribution to the history of Virginia.

Robert O. Norris, Jr.

Lively, Virginia,

May 16, 1959.

PART I

Seventeenth Century

TIDEWATER

The country surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, which is known as the Tidewater, has been compared to the Bible Lands, the Netherlands and Venice.

Captain John Smith, military leader of the expedition to Virginia in 1607, who explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Country, described it thus:

"There is but one entrance by sea into this country, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay, the widenesse whereof is 18 or 20 miles.

Within is a country ... heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation.... Here are ... hils, plaines, valleys, rivers and brookes all running most pleasantly into a faire Bay compassed but for the mouth with fruitfull and delightsome land....

YE NORTHERNE NECK

On the western shore of the Bay there are three peninsulas, or necks, carved out of Virginia's shoreline by the tidal rivers.

The third, and northernmost, of these peninsulas lies between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers. It was probably referred to orally by the first white men who settled at Jamestown as the northern neck. The name appeared in print certainly as early as 1677, when in an official document it was mentioned as ye Northerne Neck.

This third peninsula north lies aloof, and long, between its broad rivers, as they flow into the Chesapeake Bay on the east.

From the Bay the narrow strip of land, only fifteen or twenty miles wide, runs inland between the rivers for almost a hundred miles, until it narrows near Fredericksburg so that the rivers almost join—not quite an island but more cut-off than the usual peninsula. In the old days when there were almost no roads, and no bridges, the Neck was to those living in the eastern portion more like an island than a peninsula. Only from the west could one travel in or out by land and that exit was rarely used.

Its geographical position made the Northern Neck for many years almost as inaccessible as an ancient stronghold surrounded by a moat.

THE PEOPLE

The Northern Neck could be compared with ancient Mesopotamia—a land between two rivers where a new civilization started.

The early settlers came to the wilderness in satins and velvets, they surrounded themselves with the niceties of living, as near like those they had left in England as was possible. They shopped in London as they had before and traded with the world directly from their own habitations.

But the conditions of their new wilderness home changed and moulded them and made them into something different—a new breed of men.

By the time unusual men were needed to shape an unusual type of government, descendants from this stock were ready for the undertaking.

In the Northern Neck there are still so many reminders of these remarkable people that it is not hard to imagine them as they might have been in their habitat several centuries ago—John Mottrom sailing into the Coan in his brightly-colored shallop; the Mottrom children playing their medieval games in the shadow of the primeval woods; Ursula twirling the venison roast on its hempen string before the fire; Hanna Neale passing the witchcraft test; young Jack Lee dashing down the forest aisles on his spirited mount; George Mason pulling the arrows from the poor people; Moore Fauntleroy measuring off his thirty arm's lengths of rhoanoke for the waiting Accopatough; King Carter rumbling down his avenue in his coach and six; Mary Ball on her dapple gray; James Monroe and John Marshall walking down the Parson's Lane with school books and muskets; Nelly Madison singing to her new baby; young George Washington riding down to see Miss Betsy on a fruitless mission, and little Robert E. Lee saying good-bye to the cherubs in the nursery fireplace....

INDIANS AND EARLY EXPLORERS

What men first knew this land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers?

It is believed that Indians lived along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay's tributaries three thousand years ago.

The Vikings may have entered the Bay and explored the nearby streams and lands in the eleventh century.

Cabot, an Italian seaman under commission from King Henry VII of England, may have entered the Chesapeake at the end of the fifteenth century.

Spaniards sailed into the Bay and explored some of the region in the sixteenth century.

European traditions tell of adventurers of other nations who may have visited this region.

Late in the year 1607, Captain John Smith traveled from Jamestown as far north as the Potomac when, as a captive of Opechancanough, he was paraded before the Indian tribes of the Tidewater region. He may have been the first white man to make a comprehensive tour of the Northern Neck of Virginia.

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

When John Smith heard about the New World across the seas it sounded good to him—it was the sort of adventure that he had been waiting for all of his life.

He had been born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579. Even as a small lad John Smith had been set upon brave adventures. Tradition says that he sold his books and satchel and was preparing to run away to sea when he was stopped by the death of his father.

He was soon apprenticed to a merchant but he hated the counting-house. He longed to be free and go to sea. When he was about fifteen he could no longer stand being caged so he ran away. After a number of adventures he became a soldier in the Netherlands.

Some time later he went home on a visit to Lincolnshire, where he lived a great deal in society. He soon tired of this way of life and retired to a wooded pasture where he built himself a shelter of boughs and became a hermit.

In the peace and solitude of the pasture he studied Machiavelli's Arte of Warre and the writings of Marcus Aurelius. He exercised with a good horse, a lance and a ring, and lived mostly on venison, which he took without worrying too much over the game laws. His other wants were supplied by a servant, his only contact with the world.

Because of his unusual mode of life news of John Smith traveled around the countryside but it did not worry him because he provoked the wonder of the peasantry.

At length an Italian gentleman, who had become interested in what he had heard of John Smith, penetrated his forest hideout and persuaded him to come into society once more. After many more adventures and hairbreadth escapes in foreign lands he returned to England in 1604, in time for another adventure. He was still a young man, about twenty-five, but he was matured and hardened far beyond his years.

When the little band of colonists set sail for America from Blackwall, England in December 1606, John Smith was with them.

The voyage was a stormy one in more ways than one. By the time the little sea-wagons arrived in the West Indies Smith, who had been put in irons, came very near being hanged, according to tradition.

It was April when the ships with their bedraggled passengers entered the Chesapeake Bay. The fragrance of pyne reached them from the virgin forest that covered the face of the land. It was a New World in every sense of the meaning—new, fresh, untouched.

When the sealed orders of the King were opened it was found that John Smith had been named a member of the Council. He demanded trial for the charges preferred against him: that he plotted on arrival in Virginia to murder the Council and make himself the king there. He was tried and acquitted by the first jury to serve in America. Smith was released but was not yet admitted to the Council.

As it turned out John Smith was the only man among them who was prepared to build a new country. In the beginning he warned the colonists that no man is entitled to a place in America, he must make his own.

POWHATAN'S EMPIRE

When John Smith started exploring the region around the Chesapeake he found that it was inhabited by a number of small Indian tribes. These Indians were known as the Algonquians.

These tribes made up a confederation under the iron rule of a powerful king called Powhatan. At his command there were about twenty-five hundred warriors.

Smith made a map which shows a total of one hundred and sixty-one villages within Powhatan's 32 Kingdomes.

Indian villages were owned in common. The hunting grounds, and pieces of cleared land used for the cultivation of corn, tobacco and vegetables belonged to the tribe. A warrior owned nothing except his garments, tomahawks, bows and arrows.

The Algonquians had no written laws. Their customs were handed down through the old men around the campfires from generation to generation. These unwritten laws were well-defined and worked in a positive and forceful way.

The tribes between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers belonged to the Powhatan confederacy. Their language was a variety of the Delaware Indian language.

CAPTAIN SMITH VISITS THE NECK

It was bitterly cold, with frost and snow, when Captain John Smith first saw the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers.

Captain Smith's first visit to the Neck was not one of pleasure or exploration. He came as a captive of the Indian chief, Opechacanough.

It was in the winter of 1607-08. During that year Smith made 3. or 4. journies and discovered the people of Chickahamania. It was on the last of these journies that he was taken prisoner, and led about in triumph and exhibited to the tribes of the Tidewater region, from the James to the Potomac.

Smith was carried to Tophanocke, a kingdome upon a River northward. This river was the Rappahannock. Here they stopped at the village of the Nantaughtacunds.

Smith and his captors may have sped swiftly and silently through the forest but when they approached a village a triumphal procession was formed which was marked by a barbarous sort of pomp.

Captain Smith was guarded on either side by a savage who kept fast hold upon his wrist. Opechacanough moved in the middle of the column and the swords, guns and pistols which had been taken from Smith and his companions were borne before the Indian chief.

Their approach was heralded by the songs and shrieks and dances of the warriors. Their yells of death and victory brought out the women and children to behold their triumph over this strange-looking creature from another world, after which there was great feasting.

Smith was feasted, too. He was fed so well with bread and venison that would have served 20 men that he believed that he was being fattened to be eaten later on.

From the Rappahannock the procession pushed on across the Neck until it reached the village of the Nominies,[1] near the Potomac. Here the same procedure was again repeated.

After their stay near the Potomac the parade turned back from whence it had come. The destination, now, was Powhatan's favorite spot on the York River, where that great chief was waiting to settle the fate of Captain John Smith.

When at length Smith was brought before Powhatan, he was received with all the formal pomp and state known to the savage court. A long consultation was held by the council there assembled.

Captain Smith knew what the decision was when two large stones were brought in by the warriors. His end was not yet, however, for Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, according to Smith, saved the day by thrusting herself between him and the up-raised club.

By the time Captain Smith reached Jamestown again nearly seven weeks had elapsed since his capture. Though his tour of the Tidewater country had been under humiliating conditions he had gathered by observation and from the Indians a large amount of useful knowledge.

A PLAINE WILDERNES

How did the Northern Neck look to Captain John Smith on his first visit there?

Just like the rest of the Chesapeake Bay country—all over-growne with trees and ... being a plaine wildernes as God first made it.

The size of the trees impressed him most, and the lack of undergrowth beneath them.

So lofty and erect, he wrote, were many of these trees and so great their diameter that their trunks afforded plank twenty yards in length and two and a half feet square.

Freedom from undergrowth he found was due to the annual burnings of the Indians in their efforts to capture whole herds of deer by surrounding them with a belt of fire. These firings made no impressions upon the giant trees.

The trees were so far apart, Smith says, ... that a man may gallop a horse amongst these woods any waie, but where the creeks or Rivers shall hinder. (Other early writers say that a coach could have been driven through the trees, and a person could be seen in the forest at a mile and a half.)

It was winter when Captain Smith first saw the Neck therefore he had a view unobstructed by foliage of the great tree trunks and spacious forest aisles, bespred with brown pine needles and ornamented with green vines and scarlet turkey berries.

Since it is impossible to travel far in the Neck without coming upon some stream of water, many of John Smith's forest vistas must have ended with a glimpse of a river or frozen pond. He wrote of the many sweete and christall springs that flowed through the woods on their way to the sea.

Many of the forest trees were white oaks, and some may have been a thousand or more years old. These groves were revered by the Indians. Indians were fond of the mulberry tree. Smith notes: By the dwelling of the savages are some great Mulberry trees; and in some parts of the country, they are found growing naturally in prettie groves.

Besides pine, oak and mulberry, there were, Smith writes, ... goodliest Woods as Beech, Cedar, Cypresse, Walnuts, Sassfras, and other trees unknowne. Chinquapin was one of the trees unknowne.

Locust and tulip poplar were plentiful. Sweet gum, live oak, holly and cedar flourished in low grounds. Bayberry grew in the swamps and near the edge of the water.

When Captain Smith first saw the Neck it was bitterly cold, with frost and snow, so he may not have seen the pine needles and scarlet turkey berries. The forest aisles may have been deeply covered with snow.

WILD BEASTES

If the forest floor was covered with snow when Captain John Smith was led a captive across the Northern Neck in the winter of 1607, it is probable that he saw snowshoe rabbits scampering about between the big trees. Porcupines lived there too, and wild-cats, pole-cats and a marten known as black fox. The little animal he saw with the spotted coat, like the skin of a fawn, was a ground squirrel.

John Smith saw the flying squirrel and the opossum for he describes them: "A small beast they haue ... we call them flying squirrels, because spreading their legs, and so stretching the largeness of their skins, that they have bin seene to fly 30 or 40 yards.