Book Purge - Capon Valley, Vol. II, Part 1

Capon Bridge, West Virginia

Pugh, Maud. Capon Valley: Its Pioneers & Their Descendants 1698 to 1940, Vol. II, Baltimore, MD: Clearfield Company, Inc., 2000.  Originally printed in 1946.

p. 20 Fort Edwards: This fort was built by Joseph Edwards on his 400-acre ract, lying on both sides of Capon River, where Capon Bridge now [p. 21] stands. It was completed in or before the year 1748. It stood about one-half mile below where the old North Western Turnpike at a later date crossed Capon near a ferryboat crossing.

This Fort, located on the west side of the river, enclosed a never-failing spring of water, the same spring used by the family of Mr. Fenton Riley at this time, who lives north of and near Capon Bridge High School.

Fort Edwards must have been large, considering that it was for some years the only safe shelter from the Indians nearer than Wincheser and, it is thought, saved nearly all the families then in the whole Capon Valley from slaughter during the early Indian warfare. 

The 400 acres was willed by Edwards to Samuel and Jesse Pugh, his grandson, the latter being the great grandfather of Mr. Amos L. Pugh, and he former the reputed founder of Capon Bridge, Settlement "the Ferry" - Mary Edwards, daughter of Joseph Edwards, married Robert Pugh, father of Samuel and Jessie. They, Robert and Mary, were later parents of ten other children, twelve in all. 

Book Purge - Capon Valley Vol. I

Pugh, Maud. Capon Valley: Its Pioneers & Their Descendants, 1698 to 1940, Baltimore, MD: Clearfield Company, 1995.  Originally published in 1948. 

p. 21 Hampshire County, Now, West Virginia, This division of the Old Dominion was first Spottsylvania County, 1720 to 1734, then Orange County, 1734 to 1738. In the year 1738 the portion of Orange County, Virginia, west of the Blue Ridge, was made into two counties, Augusta and Frederick, since there were already many settlements there.  Frederick county embraced the lower, or northern part of Shenandoah Valley with Winchester as the county seat, and Augusta, the southern or pper, with Staunton as the county seat.  This division embraced the whole Northwest Territory which extended to the Mississippi River and from this Hampshire, the oldest county in West Virginia, was chiefly formed in 1754, in pursuance of an Article passed by the General Assembly on December 13, 1753, and then included Hardy, Mineral, Grant counties, parts of Morgan and Pendleton, Hardy, being cut off from it in 1785, and Mineral soon after the Civil War, and Grant from that fourteen days later, 1866.

Hampshire is now a part of the Eastern Pan Handle of West Virginia. It contains 640 square miles and

Book Purge - The Story of Winchester in Virginia

Morton, Frederic. The Story of Winchester in Virginia: The Oldest Town in the Shenandoah Valley, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2001.  First published in 1925.

p. 22 The business quarter of Winchester lies in the basin of the little stream known as Town Run. It is therefore depressed, but the gradual improvement of the streets and lots has made it almost level throughout. In every direction is slightly rising ground; For Hill in the north, Church Hill in the east, Potato Hill in the south and Academy Hil and Powell's Ridge in the west. But these elevations are gentle in ascent, and are broadtopped belts of tableland rather than tre hills. Even the tower of the Handley schol does not rise high enough to permit a quite satisfactory examination of the field of view. . . . 

Running twenty miles southward, a little more than twenty miles northward, and a similar distance east and west, lies the Lower Shenandoah Valley, as distinguished from the Middle Valley between Strasburg and Harrisonburg.  To speak accurately, it is not a true valley, but a long and relatively narrow plain, separated by the narrow rampart of the Blue Ridge from the plain of Piedmont Virginia. The watercourses around Winchester are not tributaries of the Shenandoah, bu turn directly to the Potomac.

[Shenandoah River flows from southwest to northeast entering the Potomac River at Harper's Ferry, WV.  The "upper river" is in the south, the "lower river" is in the north.]

p. 31 [Lord Fairfax owned land around Winchester and gave out 99 year leases which allowed him to

Book Purge - They Called Stafford Home

Eby, Jerrilyn. They Called Stafford Home: The Development of Stafford County, Virginia, from 1600 until 1865, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997.

p. xiv Stafford County Timeline [abstracted]

• 1608 John Smith explores and maps river and creeks of Stafford
• 1620 Indians destroy English trading post at Marlborough
• 1646-47 Giles & Margaret Brent settle at mouth of Aquia Creek
• 1650 Sandstone quarries open on Aquia Creek, 50 acres set aside for Aquia town
• 1662 Potomac Parish formed from Washington Parish (Westmoreland County)
• 1662-63 Assembly orders road built from Aquia to Passapatanzy
• 1662-64 Potomac Church built
• Potomac Parish divided into Upper Parish and Lower Parish
• 1664 first court meets in Stafford
• 1668 John Waugh becomes rector of parish
• Brent's Mill built
• 1676 Nathanile Bacon led planters against Gov. Berkeley and burned Jamestown
• 1680 Upper Parish becomes known as Stafford Parrish
• Act of Parliament establishes Marlborough as official port town
• 1686-87 George Brent, Nicholas Hayward, Richard Foote & William Bristow purchase land for

Book Purge - The Land that is Pulaski County, Virginia - Part II

Smith, Conway. The Land that is Pulaski County, 2nd edition, Pulaski, VA: Pulaski County Library Board, 1981.

p. 144 In 1790 Wythe County was formed from a part of Montgomery. The land that was to become Pulaski County now lay in both Montgomery and Wythe. 

Montgomery's county seat was moved from Fort Chiswell to Hans Meadows. Some two years later the village was renamed Christiansburg. The conty seat of Wythe County, shortly after its establishment, became known as Evansham - now Wytheville. . . . 

The line between Montgomery and Wythe was run by Gordon Cloyd, son of Joseph Cloyd of Back Creek. Montgomery court records show that on 6 June 1792 he was allowed 20 pounds for running the line. . . .

p. 148 The most lucrative occupations in southwestern Virginia during the late 1700s were land speculation, farming, surveying and merchandising. Joseph Cloyd's family on Back Creek became involved in all these pursuits. The Cloyds were rapidly becoming the largest landowners in the area. And, as we have seen, Joseph's son Gordon became county surveyor of Montgomery County. In 1792 Joseph Cloyd, with his three sons, Gordon, Thomas and David, launched a new venture - merchandising. 

Book Purge - The Land that is Pulaski County, Virginia - Part I

Smith, Conway. The Land that is Pulaski County, 2nd edition, Pulaski, VA: Pulaski County Library Board, 1981.

p. 1 1738-1769 - Pulaski County Area a Part of Augusta County:

Augusta County was taken from Orange County in 1738; but due to the unsettled state of the territory the first county court did not convene until 9 December 1745. When the first settlers came into the New River Valley, the territory was a part of the County of Augusta. The boundaries of this huge county were ill defined. Based on the original British claim to the western empire, then being challenged by the French, Augusta County might have been considered as extending from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Pacific. The county seat of this vast area was Stuanton - and Staunton remains the county seat of present-day Augusta.

1770-1772 - Pulaski County Area a Part of Botetourt County: 

The Botetour County Court was organized 13 February 1770. Botetourt, carved out of Augusta County, was also a sizeable county. The western border of the county was the Mississippi River.

Book Purge - History of Scott County, Virginia

Locataion of Scott County

Addington, Robert. History of Scott County, Virginia, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2002. 

Originally published in 1932.

p. 1 Some Important Dates in Scott County History

• 1749-50 - Dr. Thomas Walker and companions visit Cumberland Gap and adjacent regions.
• 1763 - Treaty in which France gave up to England all claim to the mainland east of the Mississippi River. 
• 1769 - Danile Boone passes through Big Moccasin Gap on his way to Kentucky.
• Uriah Stone, Casper Mansker, John Rains, and Abraham & Isaac Bledsoe pass through Big Moccasin Gap to Kentucky. 
• Thomas McCulloch made the first settlement within the territory of Scott County near Fort Houston, on Big Moccasin Creek.
• 1770 - The Long Hunters pass through Big Moccasin Gap on hunting expeditions.
• Peter Livingston settled on the North Fork of the Holston at the mouth of Livingston Creek.
• 1771 - Silas Enyart settled on Little Moccasin Creek.
• 1772 - James Green settled near the mouth of Stony Creek.
• Patrick Porter settled on the west side of Fall Creek, near Osborne's Ford.