Page 108 and 111.

220.

When sold to his son in 1855, the Jacob D. Williamson estate embraced one thousand six hundred two acres. The stone house is said to have been built by William McDowell about 1782. Matthew Harrison, whose wife was a daughter of James and Mary Wood, became the possessor of this place by gift from Mary Wood, and doubtless lost it as security for others. The last conveyance, which is the old home part of the plantation, consists of five thousand six hundred thirty-nine acres, including the old home.

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Jacob D. Williamson whose homestead or plantation was known, and still is, as "Hardscrabble", on the Valley Pike or now Route #11 on the maps, was of Huguenot ancestry and the first of the name to settle in the Valley of Virginia. He was from New Jersey and was at first at Staunton, but arrived at New Market,

Virginia, July 20, 1808. He was a physician and surgeon and resided in new market, where he practiced his profession until his marriage in 1810 when he moved to the estate, which he afterwards named "Hardscrabble". Here he practiced, farmed and led the life of a country gentleman, adding other acres to an already large estate. He married the widow of Peter Higgins, who formerly owned the estate. Finding the estate heavily involved in debt, by the exercise of good judgement and business ability, he discharged this indebtedness, and no doubt this accounts for the name he gave it of "Hardscrabble".

The "Quarters" were at the rear and no doubt if one should listen closely enough, the echoes of the fiddle and the banjo could still be heard, for this plantation, like others, had a number of slaves, and their fondness for those instruments was proverbial.

None could out-do or excel the host and hostess in cordial and generous hospitality and social life. It was a time when these things prevailed in a vastly different way and to a larger degree than they do today. It was a time requiring work and attention to business affairs just as it does today and yet there was more time for leisurely social intercourse and the bridge tables did not figure to any great degree either, but music, literature and art had a larger share in the social circle.

Being located not much more than a hundred yards from the "pike", "Hardscrabble" heard the hoof-beats of the cavalry and the tramp, tramp of the soldiers on foot of both armies up and down the pike, each contending for the mastery, and saw and experienced much of the horrors of those trying days of 1861 to 1865. "Hardscrabble" was also the headquarters of Jackson, of Paxton and Gordon of the Confederate Army and of Shields of the Federal Army. Many were the warm discussions between General Shields and his host over the conflict and its causes, each maintaining his side with vigor, yet with courtesy and restraint, and General Shields’ order of protection of this place, issued to his officers, in its very wording shows the esteem in which he held his host. (This order is now in the possession of Mrs. Thomas L. Williamson and her daughter, Miss Katherine Williamson, who prize it highly).

Jacob D. Williamson was born July 19, 2024 and died in 1875, at the age of ninety-six years, loved, honored and respected by all who knew him. He himself was not a soldier, being past the age, but his sons and grandsons took an active part in the War Between the States on the Confederate side and were loyal and faithful to the cause, which they espoused.

Major J.D. Williamson, nephew and adopted son of Jacob Williamson, was in the Quartermaster’s department where he advanced to the rank of Major. He served throughout the four long years of bloody conflict, seeing much service and many hotly contested engagements, but never faltering in his duty, loyalty and courage until the 9^th of April 1865, when he laid down his arms in honorable surrender with his great captain, General Lee.

A good soldier does not exhaust all his good soldierly qualities in the conflict of arms, but continue to maintain in the peacetime conflicts as well, and this Major Williamson did in a marked degree, until the final "roll-call" came to him. He was a man of intellectual attainment and had read the best English classics with appreciation and with profit as well, thereby possessing a fund of information ever at his call when needed. He delivered numerous lectures and addresses on a variety of subjects, his moral and religious feelings prevailing over all others. His language was uniformly refined; his sentiments warm, patriotic and benevolent.

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Matthew White Williamson, eldest son of Major J.D. Williamson and wife Martha, nee White, was born April 24^th, 1845, at the old Williamson homestead. He married Minnie Lynn Harrison daughter of Dr. Peachy Rush Harrison and his wife Mary Rodes of Harrisonburg, Virginia. They resided in New Market, Virginia, in the residence formerly occupied by her mother, which stands immediately on the "Pike" or "Long Grey Trail", now Route #11.

Mr. White, or "squire Williamson" as he was affectionately called in his later life, was for many years Mayor of New Market, finally refusing longer to run for the office. He frequently served as an auctioneer and was a widely known and successful farmer. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia, from which he resigned in his second year, at the early age of seventeen, to enter the Confederate Army. He was a member of Company F, First Virginia Cavalry, Wickham’s Brigade, Fitzhugh Lee’s old Regiment, all under the command of J.E.B. Stuart. He was sounded in the leg from which he never fully recovered. He saw service with Lee at Gettysburg and at Appomattox, where, with him, he laid down his arms.

Following the war, he spent several years in Texas before settling in New Market. He was a confirmed member of the Episcopal Church. The last eight years of his life he was commander of the Neff-Rice Camp of Confederate Veterans. He died September 13, 1930, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

Four children were born to Matthew White Williamson and his wife, namely: Mary, Rush Harrison, Martha White and Isabel Hereford Williamson.

Mary Lynn Williamson, wife of M. White Williamson, above, was the daughter of Dr. Peachy Rush Harrison and his wife, Mary Rodes, and was descended from a line of men and women long distinguished as educators and physicians, as well as civil and military places of honor and responsibility. She therefore comes by her gifts as a teacher and writer, by inheritance as well as by native ability and industrious application.

Upon the death of Dr. Peachy Harrison, his widow took their two daughters to the home of her father, William Rodes, of Albemarle County, Virginia. Mary Lynn early showed marked intellectual gifts and peculiar circumstances gave to her educational advantages at the University of Virginia, enjoyed by few of that day, it being a school for men only. She came under the tutoring of Francis H. Smith and other instructors of equal note and ability, thus getting her Latin, French and mathematics under great teachers. She also attended the famous Powell School at Richmond, from which she returned to New Market and herself became a teacher of marked ability, especially as an instructor of youth, standing worthily in the line of teachers from which she came. Under her pen name of Mary L. Williamson, she published the Life of General Robert E. Lee, especially adapted to children, followed by the lives of Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and finally the life of George Washington. She made valuable contributions to education and was a great instructor of youth. She was a faithful leader in the "Women’s Memorial Society of the Lost Cause". Her death occurred February 6, 1923, at the age of forty-nine years.

Her daughter, Mary, followed in her footsteps as a teacher. Born at New Market, Virginia in 1876, and after preparatory training in good schools, she entered Hollins College, where in due time she graduated with B.A. degree. In 1913 she received the M.A. from Columbia University. She was made assistant professor of English composition at Hollins College in 1909; in 1915 she was advanced to the professorship of Psychology and Philosophy and in 1924 she was made Dean of the College.

Gilbert M. Williamson, son of Major Jacob D. Williamson, was born at the old homestead of "Hardscrabble"

and after the War Between the States, became a prominent citizen of New Market, and where he later married

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Miss Lucy Rutter. He died at New Market in the fifty-sixth year of his life, his wife, three sons and one daughter surviving.

When a mere youth, he too entered the Confederate service, serving with energy and enthusiasm until the end, in the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry, a regiment of the famous "Laurel Brigade" under the command of General Thomas L. Rosser.

After the readjuster regime after the war, he was elected Sheriff of Shenandoah County and served in that office with efficiency and fidelity. He was a member of the board of directors of the Valley Turnpike Company and a Mason of high degree, holding his Blue Lodge Chapter and commandery membership in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He was for some years a member of the Presbyterian Church at Broadway, Virginia. He was a man of strong personality, positive convictions and of unflinching courage, yet retaining the love, honor and respect of his family and of all who knew him.

Thomas Lemen Williamson was the second son of Major Jacob D. Williamson and was born at the old homestead "Hardscrabble", October 7, 2024 and died at Harrisonburg, Virginia, July 20, 1934, in his eighty-seventh year. He attended the New Market Academy under the instruction of the late Professor Joseph Salyards, and even before his seventeenth year, he joined the Confederate Army, enlisting in Company F, First Virginia Cavalry, a regiment originally organized by General J.E.B. Stuart. Almost immediately he saw active service; his first engagement being at Mt. Jackson. He was in the Battle of Cedar Creek and Fisher’s Hill and later was in service in Eastern Virginia, and was still in service at the time of the surrender in April, 1865.

Following the war he returned and assisted in rebuilding the farm, but in 1867 continued his education at Washington College, now Washington and Lee, at Lexington, Virginia, under General Lee, then its President. He was also a student at Roanoke College at Salem, Virginia.

In 1870 he went to Texas where he taught for several years. After four years he returned to Virginia and in 1881 he located in New Market where for seventeen years he engaged in the mercantile business. For four years under President Cleveland, he was Postmaster. While living at "Hardscrabble" he was a magistrate and commissioner of Revenue for the Plains District. In 1897 he moved to Harrisonburg where with his family he made his home until his death in 1934. For sixty years a Mason, he was for a longer time a devout member of the Presbyterian Church and from 1910 an elder in the Harrisonburg Church. In 1876 he married Miss Bettie K. Burnley of Albemarle County, Virginia, and she, with two sons and one daughter, Miss Katherine L. Williamson, survive and are living in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Mr. Williamson was a gentleman of the old school.

Photograph.

Informants: Mrs. Thomas L. Williamson and Harrisonburg Daily News Record

Settler by the Long Grey Trail, Houston J. Harrison.

A History of Rockingham County, John Wayland.

October 15, 1936 Geo. W. Fetzer

Harrisonburg, VA