xt7d251fjn3q https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7d251fjn3q/data/mets.xml Ranck, George Washington, 1841-1900. 1891  books b92-88-27380652 English Press of Baptist Book Concern, : Louisville, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Baptists Virginia History. Baptists Kentucky History. Traveling church  : an account of the Baptist exodus from Virginia to Kentucky in 1781 under the leadership of Rev. Lewis Craig and Capt. William Ellis / by George W. Ranck. text Traveling church  : an account of the Baptist exodus from Virginia to Kentucky in 1781 under the leadership of Rev. Lewis Craig and Capt. William Ellis / by George W. Ranck. 1891 2002 true xt7d251fjn3q section xt7d251fjn3q 







"THE TRAVELLING CHURCH"




AN ACCOUNT OF THE BAPTIST EXODUS FROM

    VIRGINIA TO KENTUCKY IN 1781 UNDER

             THE LEADERSHIP OF

  REv. LEWIS CRAIG AND CAPT. WILLIA-M ELLIS.












                     BY
             GEORGE W. RANCK,
Author of OIHara and His Elegies History of Lexington, Ky.; Girty
     the White Indian: Sketches of Kentucky History, etc.



       LOUISVILLE, KY.:
PRESS OF BAPTIST BOOK CONCERN.
          1891.

 
This page in the original text is blank.

 

































   THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO


              THE FILSON CLUB


OF LOUISVILLE, KY., BEFORE WHICH THEY WERE FIRST'


   PUBLICLY READ AND FROM WHICH THEY HAD A


       RECEPTION SO KIND AS TO DETERMINE


               THEIR PUBLICATION.

 
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  "THE TRAVELLING CHURCH."


  It was plain that something very unusual was transpiring at
an isolated building in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, one
Sunday morning in September, 1781. - The house, which
stood on the old Catharpin road leading to the then little
village of Fredericksburg, and which was located about four
miles south of the spot since known as Parker's Station, was.
surrounded by such a gathering of men, women and children,
slaves, pack horses, catttle, dogs, and loaded wagons as had
never been seen in the county before, but there was no un-
seemly disorder and but little noise except such as came from,
fretful infants and from the bells on the grazing stock. The
crowd was too great for the house and most of the people were
assembled under the trees in front of it where the women had
been provided with seats. It could not be a camp-meeting-
there were no signs of either cheerfulness or enjoyment. It
was not a funeral though all were sad and many were deeply
dejected. It was "farewell Sunday" at Upper Spottsylvania
(Baptist) Church t--the next morning the congregation was to,
start in a body for Kentucky. Such an exodus,-one so strange
and so complete,-created a profound sensation, even though
occurring as it did so near the exciting close of an eventful
Revolution. Numerous squads of adventurers it is true had
already followed Boone into the blood stained depths of that
magnificent wilderness "beyond the mountains", but here was.
 Semple's "Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Va." p. 153, and
James B. Taylor's "Lives Va. Baptist Ministers." First Series.
I Population in 1781 about 1000.
t Now known as "Craig's" and located 22 miles S. W. of Fredericks-
burg, in Livingston township, and 4 miles from Parker's Station on "the
Narrow Gauge" or Piedmont, Fi edericksburg and Potomac Rail Road.

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



a whole flourishing church about to journey to it, pastor,
officers, members and all even as that greater church bad jour-
neyed from Egypt to the rich but ensanguined plains of
'Canaan. How this singular unanimity happened to come
about nobody knows but the fact remains and these stout-
hearted Baptists, once resolved, turned not back. Even the
places of settlement were selected. Most of them were to
locate in the neighborhood of Logan's Fort in the Dick's River
region of Kentucky, while others would seek the centre of what
is now called "The Blue Grass Region" and establish new
homes a few miles east of Lexington.
  They set the day for their departure and their own familiar
meeting-house was chosen as the place of final rendezvous.
Then came weeks of energetic, hopeful and regretful prepara-
tion. All kinds of property were disposed of, all kinds of
arrangements were made and the Farewell Sunday found them
heavy-hearted but ready for the start with packing completed,
homes abandoned and surrounded by friends who had gathered
from far and near to bid them a last and long good bye. Of
these not a few were Baptist preachers of Spottsylvania and
the neighboring counties. Among them according to tradi-
tion, was Elijah Craig, the bold exhorter of the Blue Run
church who had lunched in jail more than once on rye bread
and water for conscience sake; Ambrose Dudley who had
often labored with him; William E. Waller, pastor of County
Line and William Ellis the aged shepherd of the Nottaway
flock who had realized what "buffetings" meant long before the
Revolution brought its blessed heritage of religious freedom.
They had many relatives among the departing throng and all
of them but the venerable Ellis soon followed them to the land
of Boone. John Waller, pastor of Lower Spottsylvania
   The writer is indebted to Col. R. T. Durrett and Dr. Wm. Pratt for
aid in securing data pertaining to the early Baptists of Virginia.
 W. E. Waller removed to Ky. in 1783-Family Sketch by Henry
Wailer.
Elijah Craig came to Ky. in 1785. John Taylor calls him the greatest



16

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



Church, and the most picturesque of the early Baptist min-
isters of Virginia was also there. He was the "Devil's Adju-
tant" no longer. The former persecutor, whole-souled in
everything he undertook, had for years been one of the staunch-
est defenders of the people he had once so energetically reviled.
One familiar figure was missing from the crowd. John Clay,
the struggling preacher for the struggling church in the flat
and desolate "slashes" t of Hanover was not there. Only a
few weeks before the father of the eloquent "Harry of the
West" had ceased from is labors forever.  Preachers were not
lacking in the expedition itself. Joseph Bledsoe of the Wil-
derness Church and father of the afterwards noted Senator
Jesse Bledsoe of Kentucky; Joseph Craig, "the man who laid
down in the road" ; William Cave, a connection of the Craig's,
and Simeon Walton, pastor for a season of Nottaway Church,
were four of probably a dozen preachers who accompanied it.
Many more came after them, so many in fact that an early
chronicler of the church in Virginia calls Kentucky "the vortex
of the three brothers. See Ten Churches.
  Ambrose Dudley came in 1786.
   The Upper and the Lower Baptist Churches of this county, though
entirely separate and distinct, are often confused by writers, some of
whom have incorrectly mentioned Lewis Craig as pastor of "Lower"
Spottsylvania Church.
 John Waller, so profane and reckless in early life as to gain the
names of "swearing Jack" and "Devil's Adjutant", was one of the grand
jury that in 17636 indicted Lewis Craig and other Baptists "for preaching
the Gospel contrary to law." Semple.
  t "The Slashes," a tract of piney woods with clay soil, near Hanover
Court House. The mother of Henry Clay subsequently became a mem-
ber of Clear Creek Baptist Church in Woodford Co., Ky.
+ Joseph Craig. brother of Lewis Craig, when arrested on one occasion
for preaching without having taken out a license said, "A good man
ought not to be put in prison, I won't have any hand in it," and forthwith
laid down in the road and would neither walk nor ride. They let him go.
It was this same original Joseph Craig who said to a niece who was
supposed to be at the point of death, "Think of your husband and all
the children you have to raise. If you die now it will be the meanest
thing you ever did in your life." She recovered.-Hist. Ten Churches.



7

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



of Baptist preachers." Mingling with the crowd in front of
the church was a young man noticeable for his fine physique,
soldierly bearing and earnest air of watchfulness and respon-
sibility. It was Capt. William Ellis, son of the patriotic
Ellis imprisoned in 1775 for denouncing British tyrannyt
kinsman of the aged pastor of Nottaway Church and the
military leader of the expedition. Experienced as an officer
of the Continental army, and having already aided in the
planting of one of the earliest outposts + in the wilds of central
Kentucky, he was especially fitted both as a soldier and a
woodsman for the position to which he had been called. But
the attention of the assembly was soon turned to the little
temporary pulpit which had been hastily erected in the open
air and all eyes were fixed upon the master spirit of this
unique movement-its religious leader so to speak-Lewis
Craig,  the magnetic pastor of Upper Spottsylvania Church

   R. B. Semple. He adds in this connection-"It is questionable with
some whether half the Baptist ministers raised in Virginia have not
emigrated to the western country."
   Grandfather of the late Mrs. John Carty, of Lexington, Ky. Hist.
Lexington. Ky.. p. 29.
  t 'Hezekiah Ellis. father of the pioneer here named. is the historic
character who was imprisoned in the Fredericksburg jail in 1775 by Lord
Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, for publicly denouncing the
tyrannical course of the English government. The Ellis family, accord-
ing to Henning and Bishop Meade. is of English descent, and is listed
among the first settlers of the Colony of Virginia. The name first
appears in the second charter granted to the London Company in 1609."
Hist. of Fayette County, Ky.. p. 496.                    1
+ Col. John Grant, of North Carolina, and Capt. William Ellis, of Vir-
ginia, with other settlers, established Grant's Itation, five miles from
Bryant's, in Fayette County, Ky., in September, 1779.  They were
driven away by the Indians in 1780, when Capt. Ellis returned to Vir-
ginia and re-entered the Continental army. Hist. Lexington, Ky., p. 29.
 Lewis Craig, son of Toliver Craig, was born in Orange County, Va.,
about the year 1740. according to James B. Taylor, who says (in Lives of
of Va. Bap. Ministers) that 'he was baptized in 1767, when about 27
years old."



8

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



which to this day bears his name. The man who arose
to address them was then about forty-one years of age.
He was not an Apollo in figure for he was barely of ordinary
stature and was stoop shouldered, but his eye was expressive,
his voice musical' and strong and his manner earnest and im-
passioned. They all knew him. Many of them had partici-
pated with him in "the gireat awakening" which followed the
efforts of the zealous Samuel Harris in 1765, and well remem-
bered the day when he so boldly arraigned the famous grand
jury of which "Swearing Jack" was a member. Some of
them had been arrested with him on that memorable 4th of
June, 1768,t when he was siezed by the Sheriff while conducting
public worship in the very building they now surrounded and
had sung with him "Broad is the road that leads to death," as
they moved toward the Fredericksburg jail, while others in
the crowd had not only witnessed this first case in Virginia of
actual imprisonment for preaching contrary to the laws for the
maintainance of the church establishment of England, but

   Has been called "Craig's Church" for more than a century and is so
named on the Va. Campaign maps of the late war. It was constituted
Nov. 20, 1T76, and was the first Baptist church organized between the
James and the Rappahannock.
   See note on page 5. Craig's earnest words at this time deeply im-
pressed John Waller and resulted in his conversion.
  t It was on this occasion that the prosecuting attorney said, "May it
please your worship they (the Baptists) cannot meet a man on the road
but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat." Refusing to
give security to preach no more in the county for twelve months they
were sent to jail where they remained about six weeks when they were
discharged without conditions. While in the jail "Elder Craig preached
through the grates to large crowds and was the means of doing much
good." Semple and J. B. Taylor.
1 Before the Revolution only ministers of the State Church (Episcopal)
were free to preach in Virginia. Dissenters who did so without first
securing license were liable to fine and imprisonment. Craig and his
followers were "Separate Baptists," who, according to Foote (Sketches
of Va., p. 318, of 1st Series). "did not for various reasons obtain license
for their houses of worship as the Regular Baptists generally did." In



9

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



had heard the eloquent denunciations of Patrick Henry, even
then the acknowledged champion of popular rights in the
colony-who had journeyed fifty miles on horseback to defend
them. Many of them had heard the unflinching Craig preach
through the grated win(low at Fredericksburg, others had
ministered to him during his subsequent imprisonment in
Caroline, and all had rejoiced in the prosperity of Upper
Spottsylvania Church which had continued to grow from the
time he became its regular pastor in 1770 until this autumnal
Sunday of 1781.
  After the usual preliminary services he spoke. Only echoes
of that farewell sermon have reached us. Tradition says that
he recalled the sudden rise of the Baptists in Virginia ten
years before the Revolution; their persistent struggle for
religious liberty  and their rapid increase t in spite of
oppressive laws, royal power, and a "roaring dragon."t That

1776 the Virginia legislature, during its first session under the new Con-
stitution, passed Mr. Jefferson's bill repealing all penal laws against
Dissenters and exempted them from contributions for the support of the
Established Church. In 1779- 80 the State Church was shorn of most of
her remaining means of support and virtually dis-established. On the
17th of December, 1784, Jefferson's immortal bill "For Establishing
Religious Freedom" was adopted, and in 1801 the glebe, or church
lands, which had been declared public property, were ordered to be sold.
   He was arrested in the County of Caroline in 1771, and imprisoned
for three months.
 The Baptists were among the earliest friends of freedom in Virginia
and their brave struggle for liberty of conscience had much to do with
the birth and growth of revolutionary sentiment. Washington spoke of
them as "Firm friends of civil liberty and the persevering promoters of
our glorious revolution." Sparks' Washington, p. 155, vol. xii.
t They had many accessions from "the Establishment, a patriotic fel-
low-feeling" being the fore-runner of closer relations as the laity of the
State Church warmly espoused the cause of liberty. The Colonial fam-
ilies of Wallers, Dupuys and Ellis mentioned in this sketch were Episco-
palian until the period of agitation which resulted in the Revolution.
See Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia."
 This season of tribulation never became tragic. John Leland, the
Baptist minister and writer, who lived in Virginia during this very



10

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



he claimed for his people that though the opening of the Revolu-
tion had found them already worn and weary from the long
campaign for conscience sake they had fought as gallantly for
their civil rights as they had battled before for their religious
freedom.   That he reminded them of the encouraging fact that
now, when the country was scorched and wasted and impover-
ished by the war, the rich and illimitable acres of a western
Canaan were offered to them almost "without money and with-
out price" and declared in earnest and impressive words that
it was a higher power that had pointed out the way and that
the same far-seeing Providence that had ruled all the events of
their past was leading them forth to the "wilderness" and

period, and who was personally acquainted with Craig and Ellis, says,
"The dragon roared in Virginia but he was not red. No blood for relig-
ious opinion ever. stained our soil." Doubtless much of the "roaring"
even would never have occurred but for the clergymen of the Establish-
ment who were mainly supplied from England and were not in harmony
with the spirit of the times in the Colony. To them the success of the
Dissenters meant loss of consequence and of salaries, fees, rectories, and
glebe lands. That the laity were far in advance of the clergy is shown
by their glorious record from the first mutterings of the Revolution of
which Washington, an Episcopalian, was the military leader. The
great Declaration of Rights which was adopted by the Constitutional
Convention of Virginia June 12, 1776, and in which is expressed that
sublime truth "that all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of
religion according to the dictates of conscience" was drafted by an
Episcopal delegate, Col. George Mason, and Jefferson tells us that a
majority of the first legislature of Virginia, which passed laws to make
that truth effective, were churchmen. It is pleasant in this connection
to mention also the broad and honest treatment of the "Dissent
troubles" (above alluded to) by Episcopal writers we have consulted and
especially those of Virginia, their condemnation of the short-comings of
the Establishment, the credit given Baptists and other Dissenters, and
their delight at the separation of the church from the corrupting influ-
ences of a State connection. Referring to the sale of the glebe (or
church) lands Bishop Meade says, "I have always rejoiced in the act of
the Assembly so far as the church was concerned. Such has also been
the feelings of almost all our clergy and laity with whom I have ever
conversed. "



11

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



would lead them to the end. He is said to have closed with
one of his characteristic exhortations and with farewell words
of solemnity and feeling as only such an occasion could
inspire. The eyes and hearts of all were full indeed. How
deeply they were moved we may faintly imagine when we
remember -that they believed as he believed and that they had
passed as he had through the days and the scenes he had
depicted.
  Unfortunately but one other feature of these last touching
services has survived-the farewell tribute offered by John
Waller beginning with the stanza-
           Great sorrow of late has filled my poor heart,
           To think that the dearest of friends soon must part;
           A few left behind. while many will go
           To settle the desert down the Ohio.-
  Mr. Waller's powers as a poet were not Miltonic, but he had
been to the people who heard him much more than a poet, and
his sympathetic words brought many an answering sob.
  The remainder of the day, after the dinner that the neighbors
had provided, was spent in tearful communings, agonizing
embraces and heart-rending scenes for the emigrants knew
what this separation meant. Some of them were aged, some
were feeble, many were helpless women and not a few were
poor. A weary journey of nearly six hundred miles stretched
out before them. Even "the mountains" they so much dreaded
were far away, and beyond the mountains extended a long and
blood-stained path which ended at last only where the toma-
hawk and scalping knife seemed never at rest. No wonder
their hearts were breaking. They knew that for them there
would be no return; that they were leaving home and old
Virginia forever. They felt as the tenants of the Mayflower
felt when they gazed for the last time upon the shores of Eng-
land. The crowd slowly dispersed. The sun went down upon
a strangely silent camp. For the first time the emigrants slept
in their wagons-slept after many a prayer and many a tear.
 From Joseph Craig's "Sketch of a Journal."



12

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



  Before daybreak the next morning Capt. Ellis was astir and
giving orders, and the repeated blasts of a horn completely
changed the scene. In a few moments all was noise and bustle
and excitement. There was no time now for anything but a
"campaign" breakfast, the gathering of horses and cattle,
a general hitching up and the stowing away of pots and
skillets and eating utensils and at the rising of the sun a
mighty sound of tramping feet, clattering hoofs, creaking
wagons and barking dogs announced that the start was made
and the memorable journey commenced.
  This modern exodus was no small affair for its day and gen-
eration. The moving train included with church members,
their children, negro slaves and other emigrants (who, for
better protection, had attached themselves to an organized
expedition,) between five and six hundred souls  and was the
largest body of Virginians that ever set out for Kentucky at
one time. And not only the members but nearly everything
else pertaining to Craig's Church was going. Its official books
and records, its simple communion service, the treasured old
bible from the pulpit-nearly everything in fact but the build-
ing itself was moving away together-an exodus so complete
that for several years Upper Spottsylvania Church was without
either congregation or constitution."- There were few in that
long procession as it moved out upon the old Catharpin road
who did not turn to give a last lingering look at that silent,
sun-lit, sanctuary.t How little the sad gazers dreamed that
 John Taylor says there were 200 church members alone in the expe-.
dition.
 According to Semple it was subsequently "reinforced by some new
recruits and resumed its constitution." Its 124th anniversary (from its
first establishment) occurs November 20, 1891.
t It was afterwards improved but Craig's Church of to-day occupies
the same site as in 17,81, and includes much of the original hand-made
material that existed in Colonial and Revolutionary times. It was in-
jured but not destroyed during the late war.
The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to Rev. M. S. Chancellor,
formerly pastor of this church- Rev. T. S. Dunnaway; Robt. T. Knox,



13

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



days would ever come when that quiet, unpretentious building
would echo with the thunders of one of the most tremendous
struggles that modern times was destined to know.
   But the lengthening distance soon cut off the dear, familiar
view as the emigrants journeyed on past one great tobacco
farm after another on the way up to Orange Court House and
when they camped that night they had left behind them old
Spottsylvania County about which the life-time recollections
of so many of them clustered. Their route now led them
Southward by "the mountain road" past the hamlet of Gor-
donsville and thence to the cluster of houses known as Char-
lottesville which they viewed with no little curiosity Us Wash-
ington had been quartering some of his captured Hessians there
and Tarleton had "raided" the place only a few weeks before.
Here they found themselves in the midst of the noted Piedmont
country and passing under the shadow of Monticello, so famous
now through the greatness of its immortal master, their road
extended from Albemarle to the James through the broken but
fertile area, since divided, but then entirely embraced in the
County of Amherst. By this long established route the now
dusty travellers soon reached the river James and after they
had slowly forded it to the little knot of dwellings on its
southern bank, where Lynchburg was to be, they camped and
cooked and rested. Even here, though many miles away, the
Blue Ridge could be traced along the horizon by a waving line
of misty azure which grew and deepened and became more real
as the emigrants advanced and when the old red road through
the rolling tobacco lands of Bedford had brought them to the
village of Liberty they saw in all their majesty anti beauty
those "everlasting hills" of blue from which uprose in tower-
Esq., and W. D. Foster, Esq., all of Fredericksburg, for information
pertaining to the subject of this sketch.
 The church was located in the region in which occurred the battles
of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness.



14

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



ing splendor the cloud-capped Peaks of Otter. The emigrants
were impressed but troubled. They knew that though "distance
lent enchantment to the view" this was hut the beginning of that
great succession of mountain barriers which was to cut them off
forever from home and old Virginia. They felt this more and
more as they toiled over the Blue Ridge at Buford's Gap and
realized it to the full when they reached the crest of the wind-
ing way and beheld the mighty and illimitable mountains that
rose before them in solemn grandeur as far as the eye could
reach. Some of the women were already in tears when Capt.
Ellis quietly spoke to one of his negro men whose willing
hands began at once to make a well-worn banjo "talk."
Like magic the signal passed along the dusky lines of chatter-
ing slaves who trudged beside the wagons with their bundles
on their backs and soon one of the jolliest of the old plantation
songs resounded from one end of the train to the other. The
merry negroes sang as only the old time "darkies" could sing,
the children screamed with delight and the emigrants descended
the mountain road with lighter hearts.
  The Blue Ridge was crossed. But how silent and how solemn
everything appeared and how few the signs of human life.
Here and there was a cabin but it was deserted. The scattered
settlers threatened by the Indian allies of the British and by
marauding Tories of the Revolution had sought the protection
of the block houses and the forts. The emigrants had travelled
far already but they had never felt so desolate as now. They
had left behind them the open towns and comfortable villages.
They had seen the last of the old colonial farm house, the
lumbering stage coach and the cheerful wayside inn. No
cottage window gleamed at night, no anvil rung by day. The
soul-depressing solitude of the wilderness was upon them.
 It was the sublime scenery of this part of the Blue Ridge which so
deeply impressed John Randolph as to cause him, while regarding it, to
adjure his servant "never to doubt the existence of God."
 This terrible solitude-a loneliness almost palpable-was afterwards
referred to by the pioneers as one of the most discouraging, misery-



115

 





THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



They had passed the boundary of civilization. Through a
region strange and wild andl over a route which promised no
brighter feature than a lonely post or a picketed station, the
emigrants commenced their march for old Fort Chiswell, more
than eighty miles away. No danger threatened them as yet
and the (dry weather which kept passable the roads enabled
them to still retain their wagons which became more and more
precious in their sight as they realized that soon they would
have to give them up. How they watched over them as they
forded the Roanoke; as they heard them   creak and groan up
the rugged ascent of the Alleghany "divide;" and as they
went down the mountain road and crossed New River through
its craggy lines of curious rocks. A "long halt," as the Sun-
day rest was called, occurred upon the way but so complete
was the organization of the church that no feature of the
regular services was omitted. But the thought that they were
cut off from the world and the awe inspired by the over-
shadowing mountains affected every heart and the deep feeling
which pervaded the congregation made tremulous the voice of
the pastor and lent a touching eloquence to every hymn and
prayer.
producing features of the wilderness. It was an ever-present enemy to
cheerfulness and to the end of their journey hung over them like a pall.
"Even the dog partook of the silence of the desert" says Doddridge, the
pioneer author. in his highflown attempt to convey some idea of the
loneliness of the route.
 The name sometimes appears as "Chissel" but it was evidently named
after Col. Chiswell. an English gentleman, who, according to Howe's
Virginia (p. 515), first opened lead mines there. "The fort was built,"
says Speed in the Wilderness Road, "in 1758, by Col. Bird, immediately
after the British and Americans captured Fort Duquesne from the
French." Ramsey says of it-"In 1758, Col. Bird, in pursuit of the
French and Indians who had recently taken Vaux's Fort on Roanoke,
marched his regiment and built Fort Chissel and stationed a garrison in
it. It stood a few miles from New River near the road leading from
what is since known as Ingle's Ferry," p. 53, Annals of Tennessee.
- Taylor in his Ten Churches says his information was that "they
were constituted when they started and was an organized-church on the
road. "



16

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



  The trip from  New River to Fort Chiswell, which was
located about nine miles east of the present Wytheville, was
soon made and the weary Baptists gathered with thankfulness
about the rude stockade. They found it occupied by State
militia q(uartere(d there to protect the lead mines to which the
war had given increased importance and by traders who sold
supplies to the settlers who continually sought the protection
of the station while on their way to the western country. The
stay at Fort Chiswell was short. The emigrants camped only
long enough to barter with the traders and prepare for the
changes and the difficulties which they knew must come with
blazed paths and narrow traces for they were eager to push on
while the weather was good. And now came the greatest trial
they had yet encountered-they gave up their wagons. They
might have retained them for a little while longer but at a
heavy loss and as the trouble must be met this the most im-
portant station on the border was the place to dispose of them
to the best advantage. So here they parted with their wagons,
the only homes that had been left to the women, the little
children and the sick. They had yet to realize how much the
sacrifice involved. Most of the wagon horses retained were
provided with pack saddles either bought from the traders or
made on the route by the emigrants themselves and the bulk
of the "plunder" from the wagons was placed on these. Not
a few pieces of furniture were found at once to be entirely too
inconvenient for horseback transportation and had to be dis-
posed of; the renewed supply of bacon, meal and flour was
distributed among the regular packhorses whose burdens had
by this time been somewhat reduced and a number of the small
articles constantly in use were distributed among the pedes-

 It was the great rendezvous of the emigrants, being only twelve miles
from "The Forks of the Road," near New River, where the route of
travel from the north through the Shenandoah Valley and the other
through the Blue Ridge converged. Here small parties of travelers
would wait for others sure to arrive and for mutual protection would
unite forces and go as one body to Kentucky.



17

 




THE TRAVELLING CHURCH.



trians both black and white to be "toted" as each saw fit. The
necessary changes and arrangements were soon made and at
the blast of the horn the travelers broke camp at Fort Chiswell
and filed along the road leading through the central portion of
what is now the county of Wythe. This was a very different
scene from the one presented at the departure from Craig's
Church. Nearly all the men and some of the women were on
foot, the riders being composed in the main of the aged,, the
delicate and the little children-these last occupying hickory
baskets swung to the sides of horses. Such of the sick as
were unable to ride were carried along oil litters. The men
and larger boys, each equipped with a flint-lock rifle, a powder
horn, a hatchet, a hunting knife and a cup, and with a wallet
containing bullets and bullet moulds, wadding, tow, a tinder
box and all manner of hunting tools and conveniences, guarded
the train, drove the live stock and as far as possible provided
wild game for the company. The women carried the young
babies or bags or baskets filled with lint, bandages, medicine
and such other things as might be needed by the sick, the
children or in case of accident. The negroes were variously
engaged either in "toting" household "plunder," clearing
obstructions from the miserable road, or leading the pack-
horses, many of which carried well protected and well bal-
anced bundles and packs while many others were loaded with
farming. implements, hand mills, parts of spinning wheels,
skillets, kettles, and the more substantial, domestic articles all
of which had to "take their luck" with wind and weather.
Not a few treasured heirlooms had to share all the chances
and accidents of this haza