“Nestled in the foot-hills about one hundred miles west of the Alleghany Mountains in the Valley of the Holston, a tributary of the Mississippi, the exit of the gate-way through the mountains from the east to the west, this is the one locality that, by reason of its location and natural beauty, has always attracted the attention, first of the buffalo, then the Indian, and finally the white man. Before the coming of the white man, the buffalo and Indian trails from the north and south and from the east and west crossed at Abingdon.” (L.P. Summers, p.29)
“A representative Irish Protestant progress might have taken a family from Pennsylvania in the 1730s, to Virginia in the 1740s, to the Carolinas in the 1750s and 60s, joined at each place by other Ulster emigrants fresh off the boat.” (Williams, p. 45)
“The Scotch-Irish who came early obtained large tracts of land, even before the British officially ended Indian claims, and added much more over the years through purchase, as a result of official positions, or as rewards for military service. Two families dominated, the Campbells and the Prestons… . They created a unique class reinforced by marriages among themselves and with a few other families. They controlled the political, social, economic, and military affairs of the region for at least a century.” (Hagy, p. 9)
“James Patton having been given tremendous acreage in the colony of Virginia if he could settle theron worthy British citizens, proved himself a fine land agent; and in a few years he had brought to Virginia a ‘great army’ of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who came to find a home in the vast wilderness, to establish their families and build a nation. [Gray, p.9]
“Thomas Walker refered to Abingdon as Wolf Hills long before Daniel Boone was in the area. Walker surveyed the land in 1750 and named it the Wolf Hills Tract in 1752. Daniel Boone was 16 years old in 1850, the year his father, Squire Boone, moved the family to the Yadkin settlement in North Carolina.” (Hagy, “Errata”)
“Of all the stereotypes that haunt Appalachia, perhaps the most deceptive is that Appalachians are a homogenous people with a single cultural heritage. Contrary to popular thought Appalachia was not settled by wild Celts from Scotland and Ireland or outlaws exiled to the mountains of Appalachia from England. Appalachia in the 1700s and beyond was settled not only by people of Ulster Scot descent but also by people from a host of other cultural backgrounds. And of course the Native Americans had been in Appalachia for centuries before white settlers of any heritage began moving into the region.” (Jackson, p. 27)
- “100 Years of the History of Abingdon,” Address delivered before the Washington County Historical Society by Honorable L.P. Summers. HSWCVa Bulletin, Series II, No. 33 (1996)
- “General Francis Preston: A Sketch,” Elizabeth C. Preston Gray. HSWCVa Bulletin, Series I, No. 2 (Spring, 1938)
- Appalachia: a History, John Alexander Williams. Univ. of North Carolina Press (2002)
- History of Washington County, Virginia to 1865, James William Hagy. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. (2013)
- “Peoples of Appalachia: Cultural Diversity Within the Mountain Region,” Steven R. Jackson. From: A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region, Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, Ricky L. Cox, eds. University of Tennessee Press (2006)
Walk Softly
I have to admit that when it comes to historical aspects of the early years of Abingdon and Southwest Virginia, when speculators vied with the vested interests of Native American tribes, Loyalists (Tories), and early settlers. I found it necessary to defer to various sources to supply the history behind my narrative excursion through the area. In general, the narrative is based on my own observations and experience and I’ve tried not to rely too much on outside sources. That being said, I must acknowledge that without the guidance I have received from these knowledgable experts–many of whom I have had the pleasure and distinction of working with (or at least corresponded with) personally, this project would bever have gotten off the ground. Listed below are the main contributors; see the attached bibliography for a complete list.
- L.P. (Lewis Preston) Summers; he lived well before my time. His obituary, dated Dec. 12, 1943, states “he is noted for having done more to preserve the history of Southwest Virginia than any other person…” (Bristol Herald Courier).
- Nanci King. Her “Places in Time” trilogy about the historic homes in and around Abingdon was an indispensible guide in the Virginia room at the Washington County PL when I was a Reference Librarian there.
- Louise Fortune Hall. Daughter of the first mayor of Damascus and the town’s unofficial historian. When she passed away her son Jack and daughter Eleanor donated her papers and effects to the library. Classifying and indexing her papers awakened my interest in the history of the entire region, taking in links east and west by way of the Virginia Creeper and north and south by way of the Appalachian Trail.
- Dr. Ted Olson, ETSU Appalachian Studies and Old-Time and Country Music Professor. I audited his class on Appalachian Folk Music one summer and it inspired me to write a paper about the White Top Folk Festival. Local historian David Winship provided much needed background (and some amazing photos) related to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the Festival in 1933.
- James William Hagy, Editor of the Historical Society of Washington County, Va. when I contributed an article (based on the term paper I wrote for Dr. Olson’s class) on the WTFF for publication in 2016. The story of his family’s connection to Southwest Virginia in the Forward to his history of Washington County broadened my appreciation for and deepened my understanding of the region’s multi-faceted heritage.
- Doug Ogle, who literally wrote the book on Whitetop (“The Great Meadow Mountain of Virginia”)
- Stephen Fisher, writer and social justice activist who taught at Emory and Henry, and Helen Matthews Lewis, also an educator and activist, considered the “grandmother of Appalachian Studies. Both were part of our library’s Appalachian Homecoming program series.
Dedicated to the memory of Helen Matthews Lewis, Oct. 2, 1922-Sept. 4, 2022