Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia

Cedar Creek, the parent of the Bridge, has been busy for thousands of years cutting a bit deeper each year.

The answer to the second question, "How high is it?," is found on a Government bench which carries a brass plate, "1,150 feet above the sea." It is 245 feet high and is 90 feet wide.

Boys and men are especially interested in the exciting story of how Dr. Chester Reeds actually measured the wonderful Bridge. He had a special basket built which was strong enough to hold him. Two hundred and fifty feet of rope was fastened to it and run through a pulley and one end of it was tied to a fence post. He was very dizzy at first and could not take pictures of the side walls of the bridge. Gradually he became accustomed to turning around and was able to get many fine ones at various angles and of the massive supporting walls, the huge slabs of limestone and some of the foliage.

Natural Bridge is a monument to the patience of Old Mother Nature and her skill as an artist. Today, one wonders at the deep gorge—by night, with modern electrification, one is spellbound by its beauty—and when sweet music fills the glen with its symphonies one's soul is lifted to the Greatest Artist of all—to God in reverence and gratitude.

Rockbridge

Rockbridge County takes its name from the celebrated Natural Bridge and was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties. A branch of the James River is called North River and this stream waters the county, flowing diagonally across it. Some of the richest soil in all the Valley is found in Rockbridge. Lexington, which is the county-seat, takes its name from the town of Lexington in Massachusetts and was founded in 1778. The first buildings of the old town were mostly destroyed by fire in 1794 and were replaced with substantial brick buildings. An Englishman who was visiting America long ago described the little town in these words:

"The town as a settlement, has many attractions. It is surrounded by beauty, and stands at the head of a valley flowing with milk and honey. House rent is low, provisions are cheap, abundant and of the best quality."

The settlers were mostly the Scotch-Irish and of the Presbyterian faith. As soon as they had cleared the lands and built their homes they planted orchards, built their barns and settled down. These were thoughtful men and women who kept their emotions under constant guard. Yet when occasion arose, they spoke simply and clearly and were unafraid. They detested civil tyranny and as they were far away from the seat of government, to a certain extent they made their own laws and rigidly adhered to them.

They were among the first in the Valley of Virginia to rally to the defense of their country during the War of the Revolution.

In their moral life, they were almost Puritanical. This was founded on religious principle and often they were considered austere and stern. Yet those who knew them, felt the kindness and devotion to which they did not give expressions in words. To them, deeds meant more than promises. Though they reproved one without a smile, their eyes often expressed understanding and sympathy and the offending one felt the deep love which had moved the other to speak—always for the good of the offender. And while some other fault would rear its head, not often was the offense repeated which had called forth the reproach.

The men and women were deeply religious and family prayers were the first order of the day. As soon as homes were established provisions were made for religious services to be held. Tiny churches dotted the Valley wherever the Scotch-Irish settled. If the church was far away, as it was from some, on meeting day young and old mounted their horses and rode the intervening miles for the long services.

Many of these old Presbyterian churches are still standing today and they serve as monuments to that hardy race of men and women who braved all for religious freedom and for civic liberty. The building of these churches meant such labor as we of the present generation cannot know. There were no roads and no sawmills. An old historian tells us how one church was built:

"The people of Providence Congregation packed all the sand used in building their church from a place six miles distant, sack and sack, on the backs of horses! And what is almost incredible, the fair wives and daughters of the congregation are said to have undertaken this part of the work, while the men labored at the stone and timber. Let not the great-granddaughters of these women blush for them however deeply they would blush themselves to be found in such employment. For ourselves, we admire the conduct of these females; it was not only excusable, but praiseworthy—it was almost heroic! It takes Spartan mothers to rear Spartan men. These were among the women whose sons and grandsons sustained Washington in the most disastrous period of the Revolution."

There was little social life in those early days such as their eastern cousins knew along the James River. Except for their church festivals, they did little entertaining. Twice a year they held the Lord's Supper and this lasted for four days, with religious services each day. During these times families living nearest the church invited those who lived at great distances to stay with them. Often some young couple would be married, either just before or immediately after these services. Then there would be a little merriment, extra cakes and a few playful pranks.

The First Academy in the Valley

Dr. Ruffner has left us a description of Timber Ridge, which was built near Fairfield in Rockbridge County in 1776. The school took its name from the fine oak trees which grew along its ridge. He writes:

"The schoolhouse was a log cabin. The fine oak forest, which had given Timber Ridge its name, cast its shade over it in summer and afforded convenient fuel in winter. A spring of pure water gushed from the rocks near the house. From amidst the trees the student had a fine view of the country below and the neighboring Blue Ridge. In short all the features of the place made it a fit habitation of the woodland muse and the hill deserved the name of Mount Pleasant. Hither about thirty youths of the mountains repaired to 'taste of the Pierian spring.' Of reading, writing and ciphering, the boys of the country had before acquired such knowledge as primary schools could afford; but with a few late exceptions, Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry and such like scholastic mysteries were things of which they had heard—which they knew perhaps to lie covered up in the learned heads of their pastors—but of the nature and uses they had no conception whatever.

"It was a log hut of one room. The students carried their dinner with them from the boarding-schools in the neighborhood. They conned their lesson either in the schoolroom where the recitations were heard, or under the shade of the trees where breezes whispered and birds sang without disturbing their studies. A horn—perhaps a cow's horn—summoned the school from play and scattered classes to recitations.

"Instead of broadcloth coats, the students generally wore a far more graceful garment, the hunting shirt, home-spun, home-woven, and home-made, by the industry of wives and daughters.

"Their amusements were not less remote from the modern taste of students—cards, backgammon, flutes, fiddles, and even marbles were scarcely known among these mountain boys. Firing pistols and ranging the field with shotguns to kill little birds for sport, they would have considered a waste of time and ammunition. As to frequenting tippling shops of any denomination, that was impossible because no such catchpenny lures for students existed in the country, or would have been tolerated. Had any huckster of liquors, knicknacks, and explosive crackers, hung out signs in those days, the old Puritan morality of the land was yet vigorous enough to abate the nuisance. The sports of the students were mostly gymnastic, both manly and healthful—such as leaping, running, wrestling, pitching quoits and playing ball. In this rustic seminary a considerable number of young men began their education, who afterwards bore a distinguished part in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country."

Valley Inventions

The Valley of Virginia has often been termed "the granary of the South." It is no wonder that farmers from time to time have tried to shorten their labor in the wheat fields by inventing machines to do their work.

The name Robert McCormick means little or nothing to most of us, yet on his farm, Walnut Grove, near Lexington he made repeated attempts to invent a workable reaper. His son, Cyrus, had watched with growing interest each of his father's undertakings. His regrets must have been as keen as the elder McCormick's when they realized one May morning in 1831 that the clumsy machine could not replace the hand scythe and cradle.

Cyrus knew something of machinery and determined to improve his father's poor invention in time for the next harvesting. During the intervening six weeks he stayed in the workshop as much as the busy growing season would allow and secured the ready help of a slave boy, Joe Anderson.

In July when the wheat was ready to harvest Cyrus and his father moved the machine out to the field. There a crowd of neighbors gathered and watched with fascination as the reaper cut six acres of wheat during the day.

McCormick continued to improve his invention and other farmers risked their money in purchasing the first six he offered on the market. Eventually the news spread to the grain fields of the Middle West and he opened factories to supply the farmers there.

For years the inventor strove to improve the reaper; he discovered that other labor saving devices were needed equally as badly, and he offered other types of farm machinery to the rich farm lands.

Inventive genius lay near Lexington along other lines, too. It was near here that James Gibbs invented his common sense stitch sewing-machine which was a forerunner of our more modern models. And what a labor-saving machine that was to all the housewives!

Washington College

The Scotch-Irish were determined to have the best schools and colleges for their children. The Hanover Presbytery, which in 1776 embraced all the Presbyterian churches in Virginia, established a school which they called Liberty Hall Academy. This was built in Lexington, Virginia, with the Reverend William Graham, a native of Pennsylvania, as its first president. George Washington, in 1796, gave the school a regular endowment, the first of its kind. This is how it was made:

The Legislature of Virginia "as a testimony of their gratitude for his services," and as "a mark of their respect," presented to George Washington a certain number of shares in the Old James River Company, an industry then in progress. Unwilling to accept anything for his own benefit, he gave it to the Liberty Hall Academy.

In 1812, the Trustees of the school voted to ask the Virginia Legislature to change the name to Washington College. Many others decided to follow George Washington's fine example. A Mr. John Robinson left his whole estate to the college; the next to aid it, we are told, was the newly organized Society of the Cincinnati of Virginia.

Old records of the school throw an interesting light regarding the expenses of a student in those far-off days. The treasurer's bill for tuition, room rent, deposits and matriculation was $45 per year. Board was $7.50 a month. Laundry, fuel, candles and bed amounted to about three dollars per month. The cost of everything averaged about $140 a year.

Lexington

When he was beset and overwhelmed, and without supplies, Robert Edward Lee reached Appomattox in April, 1865, and surrendered to General Grant on April 9th. He realized that the people of the South needed courage and strength, and though he was offered many places of honor with splendid salaries, he decided to help rebuild Virginia. When the call came to become president of Washington College in Lexington he accepted and took up his duties there in October, 1865.

As he spoke to the students assembled in the new chapel he saw familiar faces. Many of them had followed him during the years of the War Between the States; they, too, had courage and hope. These boys and men loved the noble man and they were willing to follow him in rebuilding their homes and the Southland.

"All good citizens must unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace. They must not abandon their country, but go to work and build up its prosperity.

"The young men especially must stay at home, bearing themselves in such a manner as to gain the esteem of every one, at the same time that they maintain their own respect.

"It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay passion, and to give scope to every kindly feeling."

In every respect he was prepared to be the president of a great school, for he himself had been a model student at West Point. He had already served as Superintendent there for three years.

He was very happy during the short years he lived in Lexington. He had the grounds improved, planted many trees, and repaired the much worn buildings. He studied and worked over the courses of study and enlarged the faculty.

A young girl who was visiting in the home of General Lee in Lexington, tells the following story. It was soon after the Surrender at Appomattox and his acceptance of the Presidency of Washington College.

General Lee, with his family, was living in one of the comfortable and large houses near the college. Their home at Arlington had been confiscated during the War Between the States, and they had no furniture except some which neighbors had lent them.

One day a letter came to General Lee, telling him good news. A lady who lived in New York wrote him that her husband had died, and having no children she had decided to give up housekeeping. She had been very happy and had loved her home. Now she wanted the furnishings to belong to someone who would appreciate and would care for them. She wrote she sympathized with them in not having their own furniture and that there was no one to whom she had rather give hers.

General Lee hated the thought of accepting, until he read on, that if he could not use the furniture himself, perhaps he could use it in his college. After some time he wrote the lady he would be very grateful and would appreciate it very much.

In the meantime Mrs. Lee was looking forward to its coming, for her large rooms were indeed very bare. At last the great boxes came. General Lee was busy, so Mrs. Lee waited until he could be present to have them opened.

After lunch one day, General Lee had men come to open them. Mrs. Lee's eyes shone as the first box revealed two huge red velvet carpets.

She looked at the General. His eyes were shining too.

"Look, my dear," he said, "The very thing we need! If we cut them carefully, we will have enough to carpet the platform and the aisles of the new chapel!"

"Of course," she smiled, never saying one word about how warm and lovely they would make the double parlors in their own home.

The next box was opened with intense interest. The men lifted out the upper part of a handsome bookcase. The next brought the lower half, a lovely desk, with many drawers.

"Oh," thought Mrs. Lee. "That will fill up that terrible space between the windows."

"This is the very thing we want," General Lee said, as the men took them to the walk. "We will put that in the basement of the new chapel. We will use it for our records and put our best books in the bookcase, and this will be the beginning of our college library."

And so it went. He used the best of everything for his college, and Mrs. Lee took only the odds and ends which did not fit anywhere else. Someone told her she should have taken a stand and insisted upon taking some of the best.

"Oh, no," she laughed, "it was worth giving all of it up to see the joy the General had in putting it to use in his college. The boys come first—both of us are so interested in them."

General Lee died in October, 1870, loved by men and women, boys and girls in both the North and South. His body rests under a beautiful white marble figure, which was sculptured by his friend, Edward Valentine. It is called the Recumbent Statue of General Lee and lies in the Chapel of Washington and Lee. This is now a shrine to which hundreds come daily from all over the world to pay their homage, love and respect to this great man.

The Virginia Military Institute

Virginia Military Institute was first an academy and was established in connection with Washington College by an act of the Legislature during the years 1838-9. A guard of soldiers had been maintained at the expense of the State for the purpose of affording protection to the arms deposited in the Lexington arsenal for the use of the militia in western Virginia. It was through the influence of Governor McDowell, who came from Rockbridge County, that this militia was made into an educational unit of Washington College.

One seldom thinks of the Virginia Military Institute without associating with it the noted Colonel Claudius Crozet—soldier, educator and engineer. He was the first president of the V.M.I. Board of Visitors. An imposing hall at the Institute is named in his honor.

In the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hall hangs the painting which depicts the charge of the corps of cadets at the Battle of New Market. "This great painting, not a mural, is one of the largest canvas paintings in the country"—according to authorities there.

Among other memorial buildings is the one erected in honor of Brigadier-General Scott Shipp, a former cadet, instructor and superintendent; Maury-Brooke Hall, dedicated to Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas and honoring Commander John Mercer Brooke, inventor of the deep-sea sounding apparatus and builder of the first successful iron-clad vessel, the "Merrimac."

During the War Between the States the greater part of the buildings were destroyed by Federal authority. When General Lee heard of this tragedy he wrote to General F. H. Smith, the superintendent there. We quote his letter because of its prophetic message:

 "Camp Petersburg, (Va.) July 4, 1864.

"I have grieved over the destruction of the Military Institute. But the good that has been done to the country cannot be destroyed, nor can its name or fame perish. It will rise stronger than before, and continue to diffuse its benefits to a grateful people. Under wise administration, there will be no suspension of its usefulness. The difficulties by which it is surrounded will call forth greater energies from its officers and increased diligence from its pupils. Its prosperity I consider certain.

"With great regards, yours very truly,

 "R. E. Lee."

There is a glamor attached to this Virginia school unique in the country. It comes not alone from the bright cadet uniforms, the parade grounds, the gray stone barracks and the esprit de corps evidenced there; part is kept alive by the hundreds of loyal alumni and friends whose devotion is unlimited. This "West Point of the South" maintains the traditions of the time of Stonewall Jackson and graduates young officers for the army and young men for every field of business. A current Broadway show of popular appeal and a cinema of note is that of "Brother Rat" which depicts the life at V.M.I.

Culpeper Minute Men

Who can resist a story about the Revolutionary War? There is a fascination surrounding the heroes and heroines of that era and most of us listen attentively to any legend depicting the action of our forefathers.

From a point along the Skyline Drive one may look toward Culpeper County. (In fact, in all probability you passed through a part of this old county if you took an east to west route to reach the drive.) Among other things Culpeper is justly famous for its Minute Men of the Revolutionary War.

The town was formed from Orange in 1748 and was named in honor of Lord Culpeper, Governor of Virginia from 1680 to 1683. This land was a part of the original land grant to Lord Fairfax. It was here in the old Courthouse that young George Washington produced his commission as surveyor. The record reads:

"20th July, 1749—George Washington Gent. produced a commission from the President and Master of William and Mary College, appointing him to be surveyor of this county, which was read, and thereupon he took the usual oaths to his majesty's person and government, and took and subscribed the abjuration oath and test, and then took the oath of surveyor, according to law."

Speaking years later in the Senate, John Randolph of Roanoke remarked that the Minute Men "were raised in a minute, armed in a minute, marched in a minute, fought in a minute, and vanquished in a minute." These soldiers chose as part of their uniform green hunting shirts with "Liberty or Death" stamped in large letters across the front. Buck tails hung from their old hats and from their belts swung tomahawks and scalping knives. Their wild appearance on reaching Williamsburg, the capital of the colony, set the inhabitants in as much fear as did the thought of invasion by the enemy! Lieutenant John Marshall who was later to become Chief Justice was among the number—as was his father.

The slogan of the Minute Men "Liberty or Death" brought forth humor from one wag who said the phrasing was too strong for him; he would enlist if it were changed to "Liberty or Be Crippled."

Almost upon their immediate arrival at Williamsburg they were marched to Norfolk County and were participants in the Battle of Great Bridge.

Blind Preacher

Not so far from Gordonsville there is a simple marker near the site of "Belle Grove," a little church made famous by a blind preacher. And back of the monument itself is a story well worth repeating. It is a tale told by William Wirt in his British Spy.

In that account Wirt said:

"It was one Sunday as I travelled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous old wooden house in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in travelling through these States, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religion."

He stated further that he was filled with curiosity as to the type of minister who would preach in such a wilderness as he was passing through and so he stopped and joined the worshippers. He described the preacher, a Presbyterian in faith, as having one of the most striking appearances he had ever seen and a most remarkable delivery.

"I have never seen, in any other orator, such a union of simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude, or an accent, to which he does not seem forced by the sentiment which he is expressing. His mind is too serious, too earnest, too solicitous, and, at the same time, too dignified, to stoop to artifice. Although as far removed from ostentation as a man can be, yet it is clear from the train, the style, and substance of his thoughts, that he is not only a very polite scholar, but a man of extensive and profound erudition."

James Waddel was the name of this remarkable old man of God. He was born in Ireland in 1739 and was brought to America as an infant.

Another interesting tale was told in the neighborhood. Waddel's fame as a preacher had spread through the vicinity. On one occasion a committee from a different faith prepared to wait on him and urge him to occupy their pulpit as well as his own. Upon nearing his dwelling they were shocked to hear sweet plaintive notes coming from a violin and resolved to learn who in his household would dare to play the devil's instrument. They crept softly to the window. Such amazement was theirs when they saw their potential minister himself drawing the bow—and with apparent enjoyment and satisfaction. More quickly than they had approached did they leave the yard and felt righteously thankful that they had seen the true nature of the man before it was too late!

Not only did the Blind Preacher serve as minister, but like others of his profession he conducted a school.

And what happened to the old church itself? Long abandoned as a meeting house for the Presbyterians, about 1850 it was sold and taken down by the "Sons of Temperance" and converted into a temperance hall at Gordonsville. Later it housed a school. Finally it was sold to a colored preacher as a church for his flock.