History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia

Chapter IV: Part 4

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--------+---------------+--------------+-------------+----------- | Value of farm | | | | implements | Increase | Per cent | Average Census | and | by | of | value per year. | machinery. | decade. | increase. | farm. --------+---------------+--------------+-------------+----------- 1900 | $295,910 00 | $103,000 00 | 53.4 | $151 90 1890 | 192,910 00 | 9,683 00 | 5.3 | 106 11 1880 | 183,227 00 | [#]23,473 00 | [#]11.4 | 99 53 1870[##]| 206,700 00 | [#]31,564 00 | [#]13.2 | 166 96 1860 | 238,264 00 | 42,470 00 | 21.7 | 197 40 1850 | 195,794 00 | | | 155 89 --------+---------------+--------------+-------------+-----------

[##: Values in gold.]

[#: Decrease.]

The percentage of increase was least for the decade 1880 to 1890. After 1870 the farmers did not, until 1900, report as large investments in machinery as they did prior to the war.

Only two other Virginia counties reported higher values of farming implements and machinery in 1900. They were Augusta, with $439,090, and Rockingham, with $436,340.

LIVE STOCK.

_Values_.

The total value of the live stock _on farms_ only, June 1, 1900, was $1,621,639, or 14.7 per cent of $11,056,109, the reported value of all farm property. Of the live stock value, domestic animals, worth $1,556,935, constituted 96 per cent; poultry, worth $58,276, 3.6 per cent; and bees, worth $6,428, .4 per cent.

TABLE I.--_Reported value of live stock on farms with increase and decrease and per cent of increase and decrease, by decades, and average values per farm and acre._

--------+---------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+---------- Census | Value. | Increase of | Per cent | Average | Average year. | | value. | of | value per | value | | | increase. | farm. | per Acre. --------+---------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+---------- 1900 | $1,621,639 00 | $349,629 00 | 27.5 | $832 46 | $5 17 1890 | 1,272,010 00 | 172,110 00 | 15.6 | 699 68 | 4 31 1880 | 1,099,900 00 |[#]68,411 00 | [#] 5.9 | 597 45 | 3 68 1870[##]| 1,168,311 00 |[#]14,044 00 | [#] 1.2 | 943 71 | 4 23 1860 | 1,182,355 00 | 244,763 00 | 26.1 | 979 58 | 3 99 1850 | 937,592 00 | - | - | 746 49 | 3.18 --------+---------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+---------- [##: Values in gold.]

[#: Decrease.]

_Animals Sold and Slaughtered._

The census enumerators and special agents secured reports of the amounts received from the sale of live animals in 1899, and of the value of animals slaughtered on farms. With reference to reports of sales, they were instructed to deduct from the amount received from sales the amount paid for animals purchased.

TABLE II.--_Receipts from sales of live animals and value of animals slaughtered on farms, in 1899, with averages and number of farms reporting._

Farms reporting domestic animals 1,911 Amount of sales $392,852 00 Average amount of sales per farm 205 57 Value of animals slaughtered 109,618 00 Average value of animals slaughtered per farm 57 36

_Neat Cattle._

The total number of neat cattle in Loudoun County reported June 1, 1900, was 30,277, of which 29,432 or 97.2 per cent were on farms, and 845 or 2.8 per cent in barns and inclosures elsewhere.

Fauquier, with 34,098, led all counties in the number of neat cattle, Loudoun ranking second, with 30,277. In the number of dairy cows, Loudoun headed the list of Virginia counties with 8,563, or 665 more than its nearest competitor, Augusta county.

Of calves, Augusta reported 5,476; Rockingham, 5,416; Washington, 4,177, and _Loudoun_, 4,090.

TABLE III.--_Number of Heifers and Cows on Farms, June 1, 1900, with Percentages._

Heifers 1 and under 2 years 1,917
Dairy cows 2 years and over 7,882
Other cows 2 years and over 588
------
Total 10,387
======
Per cent:
Heifers 18.5
Dairy cows 75.9
Other cows 5.6

_Dairy Products._

TABLE IV.--_Gallons of milk produced on farms in 1899, and gallons sold and estimated gallons consumed on the farm for specified purposes._

Produced 3,736,382 Sold 875,780 Utilized in the production of-- Butter 2,198,542 Cream sold 181,566 Consumed on farms: Total 2,380,108 Per farm reporting milk 1,321 Uses not reported 480,494

The reported quantity of butter produced on farms in 1899 was 628,155 pounds, an average of 349 pounds per farm reporting, and an increase of 12.4 per cent over the production in 1889. 330,785 pounds were sold during the year 1899.

The four counties of Virginia which produced the greatest quantity of butter on farms were, in the order named, Bedford, 727,680 pounds; Rockingham, 658,063; Augusta, 633,360, and _Loudoun_, 628,155.

_Steers._

Of the 26,187 neat cattle 1 year old and over in Loudoun June 1, 1900, 14,597, or 55.7 per cent, were steers. Of this number a few only were working oxen, as the great majority were kept exclusively for beef.

_Horses, Mules, Etc._

The number of horses reported on Loudoun farms in 1900 comprised 797 colts under 1 year old; 1,048 horses 1 and under 2 years, and 7,722 horses 2 years and over. The numbers not on farms were, for the three classes named, 22, 13, and 684, respectively. There was, therefore, a total for Loudoun County of 8,406 work horses, and 1,880 too young for work, making a grand total of 10,286 horses, of which 93 per cent were on farms and 7 per cent in barns and inclosures elsewhere.

Only two counties of Virginia, _i. e._, Augusta and Rockingham, reported more horses than Loudoun, and the last-named County led all in number of colts.

The total number of mules of all ages in the County in 1900 was 109.

_Sheep, Goats, and Swine._

There were reported in Loudoun June 1, 1900, 31,092 sheep, of which 15,319 were lambs under one year, 15,040 ewes one year and over, and 733 rams and wethers one year and over. All but 0.2 per cent of that number were on farms.

Loudoun headed the list of Virginia counties in number of lambs under one year and ranked second in number of ewes one year and over.

The total number of goats of all ages in Loudoun June 1, 1900, was 20.

The total number of swine of all ages June 1, 1900, was 17,351, of which 15,554, or 89.6 per cent, were on farms and 1,797, or 10.4 per cent, in barns and inclosures elsewhere.

_Domestic Wool._

Tazewell headed the list of Virginia counties in 1900 in both number and weight of fleeces shorn, and was followed by Loudoun with a total of 15,893 fleeces, weighing, unwashed, 87,410 pounds. Almost double this amount in pounds was sheared in the fall of 1879 and spring of 1880.

_Poultry and Bees._

The total value of all the poultry raised on Loudoun farms in 1899 was $114,313, an average value per farm of $58.68.

The number of chickens three months old and over, including guinea fowls, on farms in Loudoun County June 1, 1900, was 132,627; turkeys, 7,218; ducks, 2,171, and geese, 1,036.

The total value of all poultry on hand, including the value of all young chicks unreported, as well as that of the older fowls, was $58,276, an average of $29.92 per farm reporting.

Shenandoah was the banner county of Virginia in egg production, reporting 1,159,000 dozens; Rockingham ranked second, with 1,150,500 dozens, and _Loudoun_ third, with 771,780 dozens, the fourth highest competitor, Augusta county, lacking 60,580 dozens of this last number.

Of Virginia counties at the last census Loudoun ranked third in the number of chickens on farms, third in number of turkeys, third in value of poultry products in 1899, and second in value of poultry on hand June 1, 1900.

There were in the County June 1, 1900, 2,225 swarms of bees, valued at $6,428. They produced the same year 24,970 pounds of honey and 1,110 pounds of wax.

SOIL PRODUCTS.

The total and average values of Loudoun's farm products of 1899, with percentages, are set forth in the following table:

Value of products:
Fed to live stock $1,018,434 00
Not fed to live stock 1,817,414 00
--------------
Total $2,835,848 00
Per cent not fed to value of farm property 16.4
Average value per farm:
Fed to live stock $523 00
Not fed to live stock 933 00
---------
Total $1,456 00
Average value per acre:
Products fed $3 24
Products not fed 5 79
Average value per acre of improved land:
Products fed $4 04
Products not fed 7 22

_Corn and Wheat._

Of the 100 counties in Virginia, Loudoun ranked third in corn acreage in 1899, reporting 46,248 acres, and, the same year, headed the list in the production of corn with 1,538,860 bushels, an excess of 350,830 bushels over its nearest competitor, Fauquier county, which had planted in corn 981 more acres.

Loudoun ranked third in wheat area in 1899, Augusta taking the lead in area as well as in production. The next three counties in the order of production were Rockingham, Shenandoah, and _Loudoun_, the product of the last-named being 447,660 bushels. The same order prevailed in 1890.

_Oats, Rye, and Buckwheat._

The area reported under oats in 1900 was 765 acres and the product 13,070 bushels. In 1890, 4,504 acres were planted in this crop and produced 69,380 bushels. No barley was reported in 1899.

The reported area under rye in 1900 was 597 acres and the yield 5,560 bushels. The preceding census reported 1,830 acres and a product of 13,137 bushels.

Loudoun reported but two acres of buckwheat under cultivation in 1899, as against 232 acres in 1879. The yield at the last census was only 12 bushels, and in 1879, 2,338 bushels.

_Hay and Forage Crops._

The total area in clover in 1899 was 1,555 acres and the yield 1,598 tons. Loudoun reported only 2 acres planted in alfalfa or Lucern and a corresponding number of tons. The total area sown in millet and Hungarian grasses was 70 acres and the product 86 tons. Twelve thousand four hundred and ninety-five acres were planted in other tame and cultivated grasses in 1899, and 11,364 tons cut therefrom. The principal grass included under this designation is timothy. In grains cut green for hay Loudoun reported 1,342 acres under cultivation in 1899 and a product of 1,503 tons.

The reported acreage in forage crops in 1899 was 867 and the product 2,473 tons. The principal crops included under this head are corn and sorghum cane cut green for forage. The production of Loudoun exceeded the tonnage of every other county in the State. The report of the tonnage of the cornstalks cut where the crop had been allowed to mature for the grain was 21,614 tons.

_Miscellaneous Crops, Etc._

Four hundred and eighty-four acres planted in miscellaneous crops in 1900 produced 33,312 bushels.

Seven hundred and twenty-nine acres were devoted to miscellaneous vegetables (exclusive of Irish and sweet potatoes, and onions), and the product valued at $41,136.

From the 11 acres devoted to sorghum cane, 7 tons were sold and 789 gallons of syrup produced.

The number of square feet of land under glass used for agricultural purposes June 1, 1900, was 48,310.

_Orchard Fruits, Etc._

The reported value of the orchard products of 1899 was $51,363.

The following table shows the number of each class of orchard trees of bearing age, June 1, 1900, with products by bushels:

----------------------------+-----------+---------------- | Number of | Number of Trees. | trees. | bushels grown. ----------------------------+-----------+---------------- Apple | 83,027 | 195,406 Peach and Nectarine | 22,446 | 3,900 Pear | 4,983 | 2,828 Cherry | 4,179 | 3,930 Plum | 1,589 | 534 Apricot | 117 | 30 Unclassified orchard fruits | 42 | 20 ----------------------------+-----------+----------------

The farms of Loudoun produced in 1899 2,304 barrels of cider, 388 barrels of vinegar, and 13,530 pounds of dried and evaporated fruits.

_Small Fruits, Etc._

The total value of small fruits was $3,574, the number of acres under cultivation 40, and the product 62,280 quarts.

There were in Loudoun June 1, 1900, 9,742 grapevines of bearing age. They produced in 1899, 171,921 pounds of grapes, from part of which yield were made 766 gallons of wine.

The number of pecan, Persian or English walnut and other nut trees of bearing age reported was 35.

_Flowers, Ornamental Plants, Etc._

The total area devoted to flowers and ornamental plants for commercial purposes in 1899 was eight acres, the amount of sales therefrom $15,400, and the square feet of glass surface reported by florists' establishments 53,300. Of Virginia counties Loudoun ranked fourth in amount of sales and third in area of glass surface.

The total area devoted to nursery products in 1899 was 10-1/4 acres and the amount of sales therefrom $2,225.

FARM LABOR AND FERTILIZERS.

LABOR.

The scarcity of efficient labor is one of the most serious troubles with which the farmers of this County have to cope. In the northern portion the labor is principally white, while in the southern part there is a greater proportion of the negro race.

Some farmers employ men by the month, paying from $15 to $18 and board, but at a distance from centers of population this transient labor is hard to secure, and even fancy wages sometimes fail to attract a sufficient supply. In other cases a laborer and his family are allowed to live on the farm, and he is paid by the day for such work as is required of him, the usual wage being 75 cents or $1, with the opportunity of working throughout a considerable part of the year. The laborer usually pays a small rent for his cottage, but is allowed a piece of ground free for a garden. Where the farms are small the greater part of the work is done by the farmer and his family, and the situation is less difficult; but with the large farms it is often impossible to secure sufficient labor, especially during harvesting.

The total and average expenditures for labor on farms in 1899, including the value of the board furnished, was $292,150, an average of $149.97 per farm and 93 cents per acre.

FERTILIZERS.

Commercial fertilizers are used extensively throughout Loudoun. These consist chiefly of phosphatic fertilizers, although some nitrogenous mixtures are used. Barnyard and green manures are employed to a considerable extent. Lime is applied freely to many of the soils. It is brought into the area in cars, hauled from there to the farms by wagon, and thrown in small piles over the land, the usual application being twenty-five or thirty bushels to the acre. It is almost always put on the land in the fall, and after becoming thoroughly slaked by air and rain, is spread over the land as evenly as possible. Applications are made every fifth or sixth year. Where farms are situated at considerable distances from the railroads but little lime is used on account of the difficulty of transportation.

The total amount expended for fertilizers in 1900 was $107,490, an average of $55.18 per farm and 34 cents per acre and amounted to 3.8 per cent of the total value of the products. In 1879, only one other county in the State, i. e., Norfolk, spent as much for the enrichment of its soils. The amount expended for fertilizers in that year was $133,349.

EDUCATION AND RELIGION.

_Education_.

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. But for many years there were obstacles in addition to those incident to all new settlements, which prevented much being done for the cause of education. The controversies in which they were involved and the war of the Revolution employed nearly all their thoughts and all their energies previous to the State's admission into the Federal Union.

Of the real efficiency of the Colonial schools of Loudoun but little can be learned. Teachers, as a rule, were on a par with their surroundings. If they could read, write and cipher to the "single rule of three" their educational qualifications were deemed sufficient. They generally canvassed the neighborhood with a subscription paper, forming the schools themselves and furnishing the few necessary books. The rates were from $1 to $2.50 per scholar by the month, and lower when the schoolmaster "boarded around." But he was most likely to succeed in forming a school who contracted to take his pay in produce.

Few schools were taught by women in Colonial times and female teachers were still rare until a comparatively recent period.

The salaries of regularly appointed tutors varied according to the nature of the schools and the ability of the district to meet the expense.

After the Revolution, with increasing prosperity, came a spirit of general improvement and a new interest in the cause of education.

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.

With the improvement in the school system has come a better style of school-houses. The "little red school-house on the hill" has given place to buildings of tasteful architecture, with modern improvements conducive to the comfort and health of the scholars, and the refining influences of neat surroundings is beginning to be understood. Separate schools are maintained for colored pupils and graded schools sustained at populous places.

With free schools, able teachers consecrated to their calling, and fair courses of instruction; with a people generous in expenditures for educational purposes, and a cooperation of parents and teachers; with the many educational periodicals, the pedagogical books, and teachers' institutes to broaden and stimulate the teacher, the friends of education in Loudoun may labor on, assured that the new century will give abundant fruitage to the work which has so marvelously prospered in the old.

_Total Receipts of School Funds for the Year Ending July 31, 1908._ (From report of Division Superintendent of Schools.)

From State funds $13,968 92 " County school tax 12,355 38 " District school tax 14,640 82 " All other sources 322 30 " Balance on hand August 1, 1907 6,644 60 ---------- Total $47,931 97 _Total expenditures_ 42,788 58 ---------- _Balance on hand August 1, 1908_ $5,143 39

_School population, Number of Schools, Enrollment and Attendance by Races and Districts, 1906-1907._ (From report of State Superintendent of Schools.)

----------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+------ | School | No. of | Whole number | | Population. |Schools opened.| enrolled. | Districts. +------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+Total. |White.|Colored.|White.|Colored.|White.|Colored.| ----------------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------ Broad Run | 748 | 228 | 19 | 4 | 538 | 131 | 669 Jefferson | 619 | 216 | 15 | 4 | 446 | 196 | 642 Leesburg | 381 | 143 | 9 | 3 | 358 | 107 | 465 Lovettsville | 614 | 34 | 13 | 1 | 498 | 24 | 522 Mercer | 628 | 482 | 15 | 7 | 467 | 277 | 744 Mt. Gilead | 695 | 457 | 16 | 6 | 493 | 231 | 724 Town of Leesburg| 255 | 130 | 6 | 3 | 196 | 121 | 317 |------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------ Total |3,940 | 1,690 | 93 | 28 |2,996 | 1,087 |4,083 ----------------+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+------

_Religion._

The Church, with her faiths, her sacraments, and a part of her ministry, was an integral part of the colonization of the County from the beginning and continuously. Everywhere, with the spreading population, substantial edifices for public worship were erected and competent provision made for the maintenance of all the decencies and proprieties of Christian religion. The influence of these institutions, and of the faith which they embodied, was most benign and salutary. They gave to the age of the Revolution its noble character and its deep-seated principles, the force and momentum of which have come down, with gradually decreasing power, to our own day. But with these institutions and with their proper effect and influence was mingled the fatal leaven of secularity.

* * * * *

All the leading denominations are represented in Loudoun by churches and congregations to the extent shown by the following table of statistics, representing conditions as they existed at the close of the calendar year 1906, and based upon the returns of individual church organizations so far as received by the Census Office, through which Bureau they were obtained for initial publication in this work.

[Footnote 17: Leesburg had, until a year or so ago when it was razed, one of the oldest Methodist churches in America. The building, a large stone structure, long abandoned, with galleries around three sides, stood in the midst of an old Methodist graveyard in which are tombstones more than a century old. It was built, according to report, in 1780.

Leesburg is the oldest Methodist territory in the bounds of the Baltimore Conference in Virginia, and it was here that the first Methodist Conference held in the State convened May 19, 1778.]

Historical.

FORMATION.

In 1742, Prince William County, a part of the stupendous Culpeper grant, was divided and the county of Fairfax created and named in honor of its titled proprietor. Commencing at the confluence of the Potomac and Occoquan rivers, the line of demarcation followed the latter stream and its tributary, Bull Run, to its ultimate source in the mountain of that name, from which point it was continued to the summit of said mountain, pursuing thereafter a direct course to the thoroughfare in the Blue Ridge, known as "Ashby's Gap."

In 1757, Fairfax was divided and the territory west of its altered boundary christened "Loudoun County." The new line followed the stream called Difficult Run, from its junction with the Potomac to its highest spring-head, and from that point was continued in a direct line to the northeast border of Prince William County. This boundary was afterwards changed and the present line between Loudoun and Fairfax substituted (see "Boundaries," page 17).

The following are excerpts from the proceedings of the Virginia House of Burgesses that led to the creation of Loudoun County in May, 1757. The act authorizing the division of Fairfax and establishment of Loudoun is given intact:

On April 20, 1757, a "petition of sundry Inhabitants of
_Fairfax_ County, praying a Division of the said County, was
presented to the House and read, and referred to the
Consideration of the next Session of Assembly."

On Friday, April 22, 1757, "Mr. _Charles Carter_, from the
Committee on Propositions and Grievances, reported, that the
Committee had had under their Consideration divers
Propositions, from several Counties, to them referred, and
had come to several Resolutions thereupon, which he read in
in Place, and then delivered in at the Table, where the same
were again twice read, and agreed to by the House, as
follow:"

"_Resolved_, That the Petition of sundry Back-Inhabitants of
the said County of _Fairfax_, praying the same may be divided
into two distinct Counties, by a Line from the Mouth up the
main Branch of _Difficult_-Run to the Head thereof, and
thence by a streight Line to the Mouth of _Rocky_-Run, is
reasonable."

The following Monday the bill was again presented to the House by Charles Carter, of the Committee of Propositions and Grievances, and Friday, April 29, 1757, was ordered engrossed and read a third time.

Monday, May 2, 1757, the engrossed Bill, entitled, "An Act for dividing the county of Fairfax," was read a third time, passed by the House, and sent to the Council for their "concurrence." It received the assent of the governor Wednesday, June 8, 1757.

_An Act for Dividing the County of Fairfax._ (Passed May 2,
1757.)

I. WHEREAS, Many inconveniences attend the upper
inhabitants of the county of Fairfax, by reason of the large
extent of the said county, and their remote situation from
the court-house, and the said inhabitants have petitioned
this present general assembly that the said county may be
divided: Be it, therefore, enacted, by the
Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and Burgesses of this present
General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted, by the authority
of the same, That from and after the 1st day of July next
ensuing the said county of Fairfax be divided into two
counties, that is to say: All that part thereof, lying above
Difficult-run, which falls into Patowmack river, and by a
line to be run from the head of the same run, a straight
course, to the mouth of Rocky run, shall be one distinct
county, and called and known by the name of Loudoun: And all
that part thereof below the said run and course, shall be one
other distinct county, and retain the name of Fairfax.

II. And for the due administration of justice in the said
county of Loudoun, after the same shall take place: Be it
further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That after the
first day of July a court for the said county of Loudoun be
constantly held by the justices thereof, upon the second
Tuesday in every month, in such manner as by the laws of this
colony is provided, and shall be by their commission
directed.

III. Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall be
constructed to hinder the sheriff or collector of the said
county of Fairfax, as the same now stands entire and
undivided, from collecting and making distress for any public
dues, or officers fees, which shall remain unpaid by the
inhabitants of the said county of Loudoun at the time of its
taking place; but such sheriff or collector shall have the
same power to collect or distrain for such dues and fees, and
shall be answerable for them in the same manner as if this
act had never been made, any law, usage, or custom to the
contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

IV. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
That the court of the said county of Fairfax shall have
jurisdiction of all actions and suits, both in law and
equity, which shall be depending before them at the time the
said division shall take place; and shall and may try and
determine all such actions and suits, and issue process and
award execution in any such action or suit in the same manner
as if this act had never been made, any law, usage, or custom
to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

V. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
That out of every hundred pounds of tobacco, paid in
discharge of quit rents, secretary's, clerk's, sheriff's,
surveyor's, or other officers fees, and so proportionably for
a greater or lesser quantity, there shall be made the
following abatements or allowances to the payer, that is to
say: For tobacco due in the county of Fairfax ten pounds of
tobacco, and for tobacco due in the county of Loudoun twenty
pounds of tobacco; and that so much of the act of the
assembly, intituled, An Act for amending the Staple of
Tobacco, and preventing frauds in his Majesty's customs, as
relates to anything within the purview of this act, shall be,
and is hereby repealed and made void.

DERIVATION OF NAME.

Loudoun County was named in honor of Lord Loudoun, a representative peer of Scotland, who, the year before its establishment, and during the French and Indian war, had been appointed captain-general and governor-in-chief of the province of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of the British military forces in the Colonies.

His military avocations, however, prevented him from entering upon the duties of the gubernatorial office, and it is believed that he never visited the colony of Virginia. Dinwiddie continued in the control of its affairs, while Loudoun turned his attention to military matters, in which his indolence, indecision, and general inefficiency were most conspicuous and disastrous. Franklin said of him: "He is like little St. George on the sign-boards; always on horseback, but never goes forward."

Until his early recall to England, contemporaneous writers and brother officers mercilessly criticised Loudoun "whom a child might outwit, or terrify with a pop-gun."

Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia contains the following succinct account of the public services rendered by this noted Scotchman:

"John Campbell, son of Hugh, Earl of Loudoun, was born in
1705, and succeeded his father in the title in November,
1731. In July, 1756, he arrived in New York with the
appointment of governor-in-chief of Virginia, and also with
the commission of commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America, but, proving inefficient, returned to England in
1757. He was made Lieutenant-General in 1758, and General in
1770. He died April 27, 1782, and was succeeded by Norborne
Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, as governor of Virginia, in
1768."

SETTLEMENT AND PERSONNEL.

The permanent settlement of Loudoun began between the years 1725 and 1730 while the County was yet a part of Prince William and the property of Lord Fairfax, the immigrants securing ninety-nine-year leases on the land at the rate of two shillings sterling per 100 acres. 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. It is more to this noble and chivalric strain than to any other that Loudoun owes her present unrivalled social eminence.

[Footnote 18: This stock was the first to introduce and foster slavery in the County.--Goodhart's _History of the Loudoun Rangers_.]

John Esten Cooke's faithful and eloquent delineation of Virginia character is peculiarly applicable to this Cavalier element of Loudoun society. Some conception of that author's grandiose style and intimate knowledge of his subject may be gained from the following passage:

"The Virginian of the present time has ingrained in his
character the cordial instincts and spirit of courtesy and
hospitality which marked his ancestors. He has the English
preference for the life of the country to the life of the
city; is more at home among green fields and rural scenes
than in streets; loves horses and dogs, breeds of cattle, the
sport of fox-hunting, wood-fires, Christmas festivities, the
society of old neighbors, political discussions, traditions
of this or that local celebrity, and to entertain everybody
to the extent of, and even beyond, his limited means. Many of
these proclivities have been laughed at, and the people have
been criticised as provincial and narrow-minded; but after
all it is good to love one's native soil, and to cherish the
home traditions which give character to a race. Of the
Virginians it may be said that they have objected in all
times to being rubbed down to a uniformity with all the rest
of the world, and that they have generally retained the
traits which characterized their ancestors."

The northwestern part of the County, known as the "German Settlement," a section of about 125 square miles, extending from Catoctin Mountain westward to the Short Hill Mountains and from the Potomac River southward to near Wheatland, was originally settled by a sturdy and vigorous race of Germans,[19] principally from Pennsylvania, but a few from New York, in which two colonies they had settled on their arrival, only a few years before, from the Palatine states of Germany. They came to Loudoun between the years 1730 and 1735,[20] about the time of the Cavalier settlements.

These German settlers were a patient, God-fearing people, naturally rugged, and very tenacious in the preservation of their language, religion, customs and habits. Every stage in their development has been marked by a peaceable and orderly deportment--a perfect submission to the restraints of civil authority.

[Footnote 19: The first sheep were brought to the County by these settlers.--_History of the Loudoun Rangers._]

[Footnote 20: 1732 was most likely the year in which the earliest of these German settlers arrived in Loudoun.]

The earliest of these German arrivals, with native foresight and a proper appreciation of the dangers incident to border settlement in that day of bloody Indian atrocities, came to Loudoun in an organized body, embracing sixty or more families.

Many of the males were artisans of no mean ability, and plied their respective trades as conscientiously and assiduously as others, in the rude manner of the times, tilled their newly-acquired acres.

In this way, a congenial, stable, and self-sustaining colony, founded on considerations of common safety and economic expediency, was established amongst these storied hills of frontier Virginia.

Almost simultaneously with these settlements came other emigrants from Pennsylvania and the then neighboring colonies, among them many members of the Society of Friends or Quakers.[21] Not a few of this faith came direct from England and Ireland, attracted by the genial climate, fertile soils and bountiful harvests, accounts of which had early gained wide-spread circulation. They chose homes in the central portion of the County, southwest of Waterford and west of Lessburg, that section being generally known as the "Quaker Settlement."

Each summer brought them new accessions of prosperity and devout brethren to swell their numbers; and soon they had caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose. Here they found freedom of religious and moral thought, a temperate climate, and the wholesome society of earnest compatriots.

Then, as now, a plain, serious people, they have left the impress of their character--thrifty, industrious, and conspicuously honest--upon the whole of the surrounding district.

[Footnote 21: The term Quaker, originally given in reproach, has been so often used, by friend as well as foe, that it is no longer a term of derision, but is the generally accepted designation of a member of the Society of Friends.--_Loudoun Rangers._]

No concerted violence, it is believed, was offered these settlers by the Indians who seem to have accredited them with the same qualities of honesty, virtue, and benevolence, by the exercise of which William Penn, the founder of the faith in Pennsylvania, had won their lasting confidence and esteem.

The Quaker is a type with which all the world is familiar and needs no particular portrayal in this work. The Quakers of Loudoun have at all times remained faithful adherents of the creed, their peculiar character, manners, and tenets differing to no considerable extent from those of other like colonies, wherever implanted.

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.

EARLY HABITS, CUSTOMS, AND DRESS.

HABITS.

The earliest permanent settlements of Loudoun having been separately noted in the foregoing paragraphs a generalized description of the habits, customs, and dress of these settlers, as well as their unorganized pioneer predecessors and the steady promiscuous stream of home-seekers that poured into the County until long after the Revolution, will now be attempted.

The early settlers, with but one class exception, had no costly tastes to gratify, no expensive habits to indulge, and neither possessed nor cared for luxuries. Their subsistence, such as they required, cost but little of either time or labor. The corn from which they made their bread came forth from the prolific soil almost at the touch of their rude plows. Their cattle and hogs found abundant sustenance in the broad pastures which, in the summer, yielded the richest grass, and in the woods where, in the fall, the ground was strewn with acorns and other like provender.

The pioneer lived roughly; the German from the Palatinate kept house like the true peasant that he was; the planter lived somewhat more sumptuously and luxuriously; but, in nearly every case, the table was liberally supplied. Hominy, milk, corn-bread, and smoked or jerked meats seem to have been most popular with the humbler classes.

Ice was not stored for summer use, fruits were few and not choice, and the vegetables limited; our ancestors, at that time, having no acquaintance with the tomato, cauliflower, egg-plant, red-pepper, okra, and certain other staple vegetables of today. The Indians had schooled them in the preparation of succotash with the beans grown among the corn, and they raised melons, squashes, and pumpkins in abundance.

Corn for bread was broken in a mortar and ground in a grater or hand-mill. Mills, in the early days, were few and far apart, some of the back-settlers being compelled to travel many miles for their grist. This condition gave origin to the adage "first come first served," and frequently carried the late arrivals over night and, at times, prolonged the trip to procure a few bushels of meal three or four days. "Band-mills," run by horses, and small water mills, where the situation permitted, came into use to supply the demand of larger ones. The building of a good mill, it must be confessed, was hailed with greater satisfaction than the erection of a church.

The more primitive of these peoples ate from wooden trenchers and platters; sat upon three-legged stools or wooden blocks; used bear's grease in lieu of lard and butter, and cut their foods with the same sheath-knives used in disembowelling and skinning the deer killed by their rifles. They had no money and their scant furniture was essentially crude, sometimes including a few pewter dishes and plates and spoons, but usually nothing beyond wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins, with gourds and squashes daintily cut. The horse trough served as a wash-basin, and water buckets were seldom seen. The family owning an iron pot and a kitchen table were esteemed rich and extravagant, and china and crockery ware were at once practically unknown and uncraved. Feather-beds and bedsteads were equally eschewed, these hardy men who had conquered the wilderness not disdaining, when night came, to sleep upon a dirt floor with a bear-skin for covering.

With muscles of iron and hearts of oak, they united a tenderness for the weak and a capability for self-sacrifice worthy of an ideal knight of chivalry; and their indomitable will, which recognized no obstacle as insuperable, was equalled only by their rugged integrity which regarded dishonesty as an offense as contemptible as cowardice. For many years they dwelt beyond the pale of governmental restraint, nor did they need the presence of either courts or constables. Crimes against person, property, or public order were of so infrequent occurrence as to be practically unheard of. 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. Books, newspapers, and magazines were rare; men and women read less, but talked more, and wrote longer and more elaborate letters than now. "Cheap postage has spoiled letter writing." Much time was spent in social visits; tea parties, and supper parties were common. The gentlemen had their clubs and exclusive social gatherings, sometimes too convivial in their character, and occasionally a youth of promise fell a victim to the temptations of a mistaken hospitality. "Gaming was more common among respectable people than at the present day."

CUSTOMS.

Of leisure, all classes at all times had a superabundance, and it was cheerfully devoted to mutual assistance without thought of recompense, except in kind. If anyone fell behind through sickness or other misfortune, his neighbors would cheerfully proffer their services, often making of the occasion a frolic and mingling labor with amusement.

On days set apart for the pulling of flax and wheat-cutting, the neighbors and their children assembled in happy mood and as cheerfully applied themselves to their gratuitous tasks. While the men were pulling the flax or reaping and shocking the wheat, the women at the house were preparing the harvest-noon feast. The rough table, for which the side and bottom boards of a wagon were frequently used, was placed when practicable under the shade of a spreading tree in the yard. The visitors contributed from their meagre store such additional dishes, knives, forks, and spoons as were needed. Around the table, seated on benches, stools, or splint-bottom chairs, with such appetites as could only be gained from honest toil in the open field, the company partook of the bounties set before them. These consisted, in addition to the never-failing corn-bread and bacon, of bear and deer meat, turkey, or other game in season, and an abundance of vegetables which they called "roughness." The bread, styled "jonny-cake," was baked on journey or "jonny" boards, about two feet long and eight inches wide. The dough was spread over the boards which were then placed before the fire; after one side was browned, the cake was reversed and the unbaked side turned toward the flames.

However strictly it might be abstained from at other times, a harvest without whisky was like a dance without a fiddle. It was partaken of by all--each one, male and female, drinking from the bottle and passing it to his or her nearest neighbor. Drinking vessels were dispensed with as mere idle superfluities.

Dinner over, the company scattered, the elders withdrawing in a body and seating or stretching themselves upon the ground.

After the filling and lighting of the inevitable pipe, conversation would become general. The news of the day--not always, as may be imagined, very recent--was commented upon, and then, as now, political questions were sagely and earnestly discussed. Stories, mainly of adventure, were told; hairbreadth escapes from Indian massacre recounted and the battles of late wars fought again beneath the spreading branches of the trees. Meanwhile, the boys and girls wandered off in separate and smaller groups, singing and playing and making love much in the manner of today.

Another amusement of those days, and one that did not fall into disfavor for many years thereafter, was what was known as "shucking bees." To these gatherings were invited both old and young. Stacks of corn in the husk were piled upon the ground near the crib where the golden ears were finally to be stored. Upon the assemblage of the guests, those with proud records as corn-huskers were appointed leaders, they in turn filling the ranks of their respective parties by selection from the company present, the choice going to each in rotation. The corn was divided into approximately equal piles, one of which was assigned to each party. The contest was then begun with much gusto and the party first shucking its allotment declared the winner. The lucky finder of a red ear was entitled to a kiss from the girls.

Supper always followed this exciting contest and after supper came the dance. Stripped of dishes, the tables were quickly drawn aside and the room swept by eager hands. Then came the struggle for partners and the strife to be "first on the floor." Usually the violin furnished the only music and the figures most in favor were the reel and the jig, in which all participated with a zest and abandon unknown to the modern ballroom. "They danced all night till broad daylight and went home with the girls in the morning," some on foot and some on horseback, practically the only means of getting there.

"Dreadful prodigality" does not too extravagantly describe the drinking habits of the people of Virginia in the latter half of the eighteenth century. They consumed an enormous quantity of liquors in proportion to their numbers, and drank indiscriminately, at all hours of the day and night. West India rum was the favorite drink of the people, because the cheapest, and was bought by the puncheon. Most every cellar, especially in the Cavalier settlements, had its barrel of cider, Bordeaux and sherry and Madeira wines, French brandies, delicate Holland gins, cordials, syrups, and every sort of ale and beer. Drunkenness was so common as to excite no comment, and drinking after dinner and at parties was always hard, prolonged, and desperate, so that none but the most seasoned old topers--the judges, squires, and parsons of six-bottle capacity--ever escaped with their sea-legs in an insurable condition.

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. Many of them had served in the war of the Revolution and all of them in the border wars with the Indians. Though brave, hospitable and generous, they were more at ease beneath the forest bivouac than in the "living-room" of the log-cabin, and to swing a woodman's axe among the lofty trees of the primeval forest was a pursuit far more congenial to their rough nature and active temperament than to mingle with society in settled communities. Their habits and manners were plain, simple, and unostentatious. Their clothing was generally made of the dressed skins of the deer, wolf, or fox, while those of the buffalo and elk supplied them with covering for their feet and heads. Their log-cabins were destitute of glass, nails, hinges, or locks.

Education during the early settlements received but little attention in Loudoun, and school-houses, always of logs, were scarcely to be seen. Schools were sometimes opened at private houses or at the residence of the teacher; but "book larnin" was considered too impracticable to be of much value.

While the standard of morality, commercial as well as social, was of a high order, few of these settlers were members of any church. Many of them, however, had been reared in religious communities by Christian parents; had been taught to regard the Sabbath as a day of worship, and had been early impressed with a sense of the necessity of religious faith and practice. Some of the prominent citizens encouraged these views by occasionally holding meetings in their cabins, at which the scriptures and sometimes sermons were read and hymns sung, but no prayers were offered. The restraining and molding influence of these early Christian efforts upon the habits and morals of the people was in every respect wholesome and beneficial. The attention of the people was arrested and turned to the study and investigation of moral and religious questions, and direction was given to the contemplation of higher thoughts and the pursuit of a better life.

In the meantime, other elements were introduced which effected a radical change in the habits of the people for both good and evil. The first settlers lived in the country, in the woods and wilds, whose "clearings" were far apart. Not one in ten of them had dwelt in any town, or even visited one having as many as a thousand inhabitants. And now there came the merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, and the mechanic, who resided in the towns which began to grow and to take on new life. Most of these had enjoyed superior advantages, so far as related to education and that worldly wisdom which comes from experience in older communities. Some of them had come from across the ocean and others from the large American cities, bringing with them manners, customs, furniture, and wares, of which the like had never been seen by the oldest inhabitant.

And thus were gradually introduced the methods and appliances of a more advanced civilization. The pioneer and his wife, hearing of these things, would occasionally "go to town" to "see the sights," and would there discover that there were many useful and convenient articles for the farm and kitchen which might be procured in exchange for their corn, bacon, eggs, honey, and hides; and although the shrewd merchant was careful to exact his cent per cent, the prices asked were little heeded by the purchaser who was as ignorant of the value of the commodities offered as he was delighted with their novelty and apparent usefulness.

DRESS.

The subject of dress is approached with reluctance and its description diffidently essayed. But the task has seemed mandatory as the manners of a people can not otherwise be fully understood. The stately, ceremonious intercourse of the sexes, the stiff and elaborate walk of Loudoun men and women of Colonial and post-Revolutionary times is traceable almost solely to the costuming of that period. How could ladies dance anything but the stately minuet, when their heads were veritable pyramids of pasted hair surmounted by turbans, when their jeweled stomachers and tight-laced stays held their bodies as tightly as would a vise, when their high-heeled shoes were as unyielding as if made of wood, and their trails of taffeta, often as much as fifteen yards long, and great feathered head-dresses compelled them to turn round as slowly as strutting peacocks? How could the men, with their buckram-stiffened coat-shirts, execute any other dance, when their elaborate powdered wigs compelled them to carry their hats under their arms, and their swords concurrently required dexterous management for the avoidance of tripping and mortifying falls?

Children were laced in stays and made to wear chin supports, gaps, and pads so as to give them the graceful carriage necessary to the wearing of all this weight of stiff and elaborate costume, which was all of a piece with the character of the assemblies and other evening entertainments, the games of cards--basset, loo, piquet, and whist--with the dancing, the ceremonious public life of nearly every class of society, with even the elaborate funeral ceremonies, and the sedulousness with which "persons of quality" thought it incumbent upon themselves to maintain the distinctions of rank as symbolized in costume.

The tie-wig, bob-wig, bag-wig, night-cap-wig, and riding-wig were worn by the gentleman of quality as occasion required. At times he wore, also, a small three-cornered cocked hat, felt or beaver, elaborately laced with gold or silver galloon. If he walked, as to church or court, he carried, in addition to his sword, a gold or ivory-headed cane, at least five feet long, and wore square-toed, "low-quartered" shoes with paste or silver buckles. His stockings, no matter what the material, were tightly stretched over his calves and carefully gartered at the knee. If he rode, he wore boots instead of shoes and carried a stout riding whip. About his neck was a white cravat of great amplitude, with abundant hanging ends of lace. His waist-coat was made with great flaps extending nearly down to the knee and bound with gold or silver lace. His coat, of cloth or velvet, might be of any color, but was sure to be elaborately made, with flap-pockets, and great hanging cuffs, from beneath which appeared the gentleman's indispensable lace ruffles. His knee-breeches were of black satin, red plush, or blue cloth, according to his fancy. They were plainly made and fitted tightly, buckling at the knee. At home, a black velvet skull-cap sometimes usurped the place of the wig and a damask dressing-gown lined with silk supplanted the coat, the feet being made easy in fancy morocco slippers. Judges on the bench often wore robes of scarlet faced with black velvet in winter, and black silk gowns in summer.

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History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, VirginiaChapter IV: Part 4

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