The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], August 26, 1914, Page (795) 3, Image 5

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
August 26, 1914] T 1
Sailly, one of the leaders of the first "convoy"
with Ue Muce, be compelled to disburse thirty
pounds sterling to build a manse for Mr. De Joux,
in the place chosen by him. On the other hand,
Olivier De La Muce, in a letter to Mr. Nicholson,
dated February 15, 1701, asks that the "scandalous
petition of Mr. De Joux be handed over to
him or burned to pacify all what is past."
We don't know whether these unpleasant relations
between brethren continued and filled with
bitterness the last days of our hero.
lie was dead already in 1704, as there is a deliberation
of Henrico county court, dated August
ha 1 r/(\A ?u:?i. i? t j i i- ' - - "?
*-r, nut, wmuu io iu ue iounu in uook i, page *to,
as follows: "It is ordered that John Stewart Jun.
give bond with good security for the administration
of Mr. Benjamin De Joux Estate."
This ruling of the court helps us to establish
Place Names in So
REV. W. 1
Grayson county was formed from that portion
of Montgomery which borders on North Carolina
(1792).
Senator William Grayson was born in Prince
William county, on the Potomac. He was educated
at Oxford but returned to America before
the Kevolution and became a member of General
Washington's staff. At the battle of Monmouth,
N. J., he distinguished himself. He served for
three years in the Continental Congress. He bitterly
opposed the adoption of the Constitution bv
Virginia as that famous document was drawn, in
which he followed the lead of Patrick Henry (an
effort almost successful). With the keen intuition
as almost of a Hebrew prophet, he foretold the
calamities that would befall Virginia from too
powerful a Federal union. The direful prophecies
were fulfilled with terrible literalness in the awful
years 1861-65. He was a senator in the first Congress
and died in that office. His son became a
distinguished statesman and poet in So. Carolina.
Grayson county reflects the spirit of the Revolution
by calling its courthouse town "Independence;
just as Bedford county for a century
called its seat "Liberty," from which it was changed
to the more pretentious name of Bedford City, a
change to be regretted.
T .An or*/I ' 11
jjtc uiiii uiapuu were iormeti tne same year
(1792). Lee was a subdivision of Russell and
forms the toe of Virginia. Henry Lee was our
Governor at the time and in bestowing his name
upon the new county the Legislature was following
the long habit of the ancient House of Burgesses.
Henry Lee was a native of Westmoreland. He
was educated at the good Presbyterian college of
Princeton. Well-known in the Revolution as
"Light Horse Harry/' he began his brilliant career
under Col. Theodore Bland. Later he was
one of Washington's scouts. Later still he was
with Mad Anthony Wayne at the capture of West
Point on the Hudson. And still later he took
I> 1 TT 1 /-r - -
i ttuius jiook (jersey thty) from the British and
received the thanks of Congress. In the South he
won fresh laurels as Gen. Green's rear guard.
He became a member of the Continental Congress
and sat in thac body when the Federal Constitution
was adopted. While Lee was serving his
term as Governor President Washington placed him
at the head of. 15,000 men to quell the whiskey
rebellion.
In delivering his funeral oration over Washington
it was Henry Lee who coined the renowned
phrase, "First in war, first in peace and first in
the hearts of his countrymen."
In the War of 1812 Governor Lee was mqde
major-general, but he was too feeble to serve. He
went to the West Indies to recuperate and died in
IE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU!
three facts: De Joux must have died suddenly as
he did not leave any will; his estate must have
been considerable as a strong security was asked
from the administrator; he left children minor or
in other lands in whose behalf the estate was to be
administered.
This is the meagre information that remains
to us about the life of a man whom persecutions
took away from his native valleys in the Alps and
threw in the wilds of the New World. What influence
his zeal and his activity of three years may
have had on the lives of these pioneers of this
firPflf PonuKlio if will
..vj/uwiiv, m >T ill ciu UC a lllJBlClJf Ul Ilibtory.
We are pleased to know that lie was the
first Waldensian pastor and represented his people
in this great country, and that he and his people
had some part in the liberties and prosperity
of the American people.
uth western Virginia
\ SQUIRE8.
Georgia, where he lay buried for many years. Only
recently has the move been made to restore his remains
to a resting place in Virginia. "Light Horse
Harry" was a famous man, but posterity will remember
him chiefly as the lather of a greater son?
Robert E. Lee.
Ambrose Powell, a long hunter and scout, traveled
the Southwest in the earliest days with Dr.
Thos. Walker. On April 12, 1750, he carved his
name and that date on a tree by the bank of a
fair river. Twenty years passed and the tree and
name were discovered by \ party on their way to
settle in Kentucky. And so it comes to pass that
the beautiful mountain stream that drains almost
the whole county of Lee and delivers its tribute
wave to the Clinch, far below in Tennessee, is
known as Powell's River. And by the same token
the lofty mountain range, from whose wooded
slopes the river takes its rise, is Powell's Moun
Hp m
The Tazewell Mansion, Norfolk, Va., occi
tain to this good day, and will be, no doubt, forever.
Tazewell was carved1 from the higher sections of
Wythe and Russell (1799). It received the name
of Henry Tazewell, at the time of his death United
States Senator from this State and the founder of
a distinguished family of Norfolk.
He was a young lawyer at the outbreak of the
Revolution. As a member of the House of Burgesses
he served on the committees that drafted the
Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the State.
Next, he was elevated to the Supreme bench of
the Virginia (1785). Nine years later he was
elected Senator and served until his death (1799),
the year that Tazewell was organized.
The delightful little town that gradually grew
about the courthouse was for a century called "Jeffersonville."
The name was given during the intense
political excitement of the campaign of 1800,
when John Adams and Thos. Jefferson contended
FH (795) 3
for the presidency.
Burke's Garden was settled by James Burke, one
of the first six pioneers who ventured into the
wilderness across New Kiver. This remarkable
tiact is an upland basin of some sixty square miles,
located just under the summit of Clinch Mountain,
but as level as a river bottom and considered
by expei ts the most fertile tract in the entire State.
At the outbreak of the French and Indian War
(1753) Burke and his family were murdered.
Abb's Valley was also the scene of many harrowing
Indian adventures. Its name is a contraction
from Absulom Looney, a long hunter who discovered
it.
Giles next takes its place on the atlas. It was
cut from sections of Tazewell. Montu-omprv nnrt
> 0 J **""
Monroe (1800). For the most part posterity is
ready to approve the names placed for us on the
map, not only in this splendid section of the Southwest,
but throughout the Stale. It must be confessed
that there are exceptions, and we have an
exception before us. The character of Governor
Giles is hard to appreciate, even when one tries to
judge him charitably after all these years; but the
more we examine his career the less to admire.
William Branch Giles was educated at Hampden-Sidney
and Princeton. Then he studied law
under Chancellor Wythe, all of which argues a fair
beginning, lie practiced law in Petersburg and
was sent to Congress time and again from 1791 to
1803. On the floor of ihe House he became a
partizan leader and made a memorably bitter attack
on Alexander Hamilton, lie opposed the
United States Bank, John Jay's treaty with Great
Britain, the French War. He was an intense
States' rights man. In 1804 he was made Senator,
but in another and a very exciting campaign he
was defeated for the Senate by John Randolph, of
Roanoke. Randolph declined Giles the most effective
debater he had ever met, and that is saying
much, for Randolph met a host of giants in his
P .{J L*f 1
3***^B^V1hHIHI \ j
ipied by the family more than a century. m
turbulent day. Late in life (182'6) Giles was
elected Governor. He was opposed to general education
; he was the enemy of Madison, Monroe,
Henry Clay; he had only the harshest words for
John Marshall, and even George Washington did
not escape his scathing tongue. He was also a pronounced
atheist.
Is it not an ironical coincidence that the beautiful
mountain rising in the midst of Giles County
is called "Ansel's Kest"?
At the foot of Angel's Rest clusters the little metropolis
of the county. Peurisburg keeps alive the
name, if not the memory, of Capt. Richard Pearis,
a pioneer, Indian trader and settler, who was the
most influential man on the borders with the Indians,
especially with the Southern Indians, the
Cherokees and Chikasaws. Capt. Richard proved
himself invaluable time and again in his efforts to
keep the savages quiet until the white settlers might
multiply and become firmly established in the land.