Valley Pike and its beginning.
The Long Grey Trail dates back to the period of earliest history of the Valley of Virginia. The pioneers followed it as an old Indian trail. According to tradition, it was first mearly a Buffalo path. The earliest settlers were mostly from the northern provinces and passed along this route to their pioneer homes. It crossed the Cohongoroota—now the Potomac—at what was first called Pack Horse Ford, later Hecklenburg and finally Shepardstown.
The old Indian Trail was used by the northern tribes of savages in passing through the Valley on their way to the Carolinas. For a long time prior to the first settlements, the northern tribes of Indians—Algonquins and others—had made incessant war on the Catawbas, but shortly before the first settlements of the white man these tribes had ceased warring and had established a truce which was observed for a number of years, and for some time the first settlers were unmolested.
Governor Spotswood was instrumental in bringing about the treaty of the five nations of Indians in 1722. The Valley region became a neutral hunting ground for the northern and southern tribes and the truce established, was followed by explorations, and then by the tide of settlers that began to rise with the coming of Lewis and Hite in 1732.
Prior to the organization of the County Courts of Frederick and Augusta very few public roads had been authorized west of the Blue Ridge, and these were generally connecting links with the territory of Orange east of the mountains. An instance of this was the Swift Run Gap road ordered opened in February 1741.
The Indian Road, 1745.
As the settlements grew the need for a road increased and became a very real necessity. The first order made for the opening up the Valley was made by the Orange Court, March 30th, 1745; the road might have been laid out before this date.
Both Winchester and Staunton were started with only a cabin or two in 1736. Colonel Wood, the founder of Winchester, by petition to do so, was permitted by the Orange court, March 9, 2024 to dedicate a number of lots of a half acre size to the use of the county for Five Shillings, thus starting the town of Winchester, the year following and before the establishment of Augusta Court, the route of the old Indian Road was "Blazed and laid off with Two Notches and a Cross". This was the first road authorized up the Valley, and the forerunner of the Valley Turnpike, "The Long Grey Trail".
Surveyors and overseers were appointed, James Patten and John Buchanon viewing the way from Frederick County line through that part of this county called Augusta, making their report the 24th of May 1745, pursuant to the courts order of Last March Court. Says the report: "Beginning at Thoms Brook at the Frederick County Line the way ran thence in sections to Benjamin Allen’s Ford and Robert Colnell’s Path cross Bear’s Ford on the North River and Alexander Thompson’s Ford on Middle River; thence to Tinkling Spring; thence to Beverly Manor; thence to Gilbert Campbell’s Ford on the north branch of the James River; thence to Cherry three Bottom, James River; thence to Adam Harmons on the New or Woods River. Overseers were named for the various sections in the report and also that a distinct order be given Every Gang to clear the same and that it be cleared as it is already Blazed and laid off with Two notches and a Cross. The report was received and accepted, whereupon it was ordered that the said way be from henceforth established a Public Road and that the Persons mentioned in said Report are hereby Appointed Surveyors of the Several Districts…that they cause the said to be cleared, etc.
The Orange Court Order Book for 1743 to 1746, page 441, September 28, 1745, ordered that the inhabitants of the county on south River from Frederick County Line to the Upper Hawksbill Mountain including John
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Maggot Between the Sherando Mountains and the Blue Ridge, be excepted from working on the road through Augusta called the Indian Road. (My note—remember Rockingham County wasn’t formed out of Augusta County until 1799.)
Fry and Jefferson’s map drawn in 1751, hereon it is described as the "Great Road" from the Yadkin River through Virginia to Philadelphia, distant 435 miles with a further notation along it’s route in the region west of Massanutten, "Indian Road by the Treaty of Lancaster".
The road began at a point near present Winston-Salem, crossing the North Carolina-Virginia state line near the junction of what are now Rockingham and Stokes counties, N.C., crossed the Blue Ridge Mountain where the Staunton, now Roanoke River, pierces it. Leaving the mountain the road skirted the courses of the river and Tinker Creek to the Lee highway. Following this, it crossed the river at "Looneys Ferry" bearing to the west of the highway at Natural Bridge, crossed the North River slightly west of Hays’ Mill Creek near present Rockbridge Baths. A few miles further north it crossed the Hays Mill Creek following it’s waters to today’s Middlebrook; thence to directly to "Staunton Court House: where it again joined the highway and on down the Valley, varying little at any point from the line of the Valley Pike to "Frederick Town" or Winchester" from which point it paralleled the waters of the Opequan to the Potomac River, crossing the Potomac at "William’s Ferry" now Williamsport, Maryland.
A second route from Winchester, styled Philadelphia Wagon Road, led via Shepherdstown. Crossing the river at that point, it turned northward along Auditum (Antietam) Creek to join the above route. From Hagerstown, Maryland, the road led over the Blue Ridge to York, Pennsylvania the Susquesahaneck (Susquehanna ?) at Wrightstown, thence through Lancaster to Philadelphia.
Such was the route of one of the most important early highways that contributed to the building of the nation; and over it traveled, from the days of Daniel Boone onward, a great host of pioneers to the south and west to "blaze and mark the trails" and to build other "Great Roads" for those that should follow them.
In the territory between Harrisonburg and Staunton, the Indian Road ran somewhat east of the Great Road. The Great Road crossed the North River between Muddy Creek and Naked Creek and the Middle River to the west of Lewis’ Creek, keeping about online of the present pike, while the Indian road traversed the Cross keys, Mount Meridian, New Hope, and Tinkling Spring neighborhoods of today, a few miles to the east of the pike.
Valley Pike—1838
After the Revolution the Great Road was referred to as the "Big Road". It had been the travel way for a great many years for the wagon line of commerce from Baltimore to Knoxville, and other points in Tennessee. Finally and there; the roadbed modernized the reduction of grades and a McAdam surface. This was done by the Valley Turnpike Company, authorized by the General Assembly, March 24th, 1838. It may be said then that the old highway received its new name of Valley Pike, and that it dates from 1838 as the Valley Pike, and by which name it has been known for nearly a hundred years.
It is indeed doubtful, if there is a highway in the United States as famous in many respects as the Valley Pike which had its beginning in 1745, certainly none more famous, nor one around which centers a more wonderful historical background, both locally and nationally, nor more far reaching in its influences and sometimes tragic results. Over its smooth surface have traveled Presidents beginning with Washington, Statesmen, soldiers and others prominent, besides the tramping feet of Stonewall Jackson’s battalions and
the horsemen of Ashby; the Legions of Fremont, Banks and Sheridan, each contending in honorable combat
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for the mastery, while the dear old road, ever neutral, could only look on in silence, except to echo its sorrow. The four years from 1861 to 1865 to which it was a silent witness except for the crash of arms and the rumbling of heavy artillery that seemed to shake its very foundation, is quite enough to make it immortal and to make secure its place in the annals of history as one of the outstanding highways of all time, to say nothing of all those eventful years preceding the tragic four mentioned above.
In recent years, other changes in the old road have been made, much to the comfort o the present generation and the visitor who travels over it. Only slight changes however, have been made in its general location since the taking it over by the State of Virginia in 1918. These changes consisted in the lowering and improvement of grades and the elimination of curves made so necessary by the present mode of travel.
While the name has been added to in order to accommodate our system of national highways, yet, the Valley Pike is unforgettable and will continue to be affectionately regarded by those who know it best. All honor to the fathers who "blazed the trail" of our early highways. It is to be wondered whether we of today CAN, indeed, sense the meaning and fully appreciate their efforts.
From Winchester to New Market, the Pike is known as the Stonewall Jackson Highway. At New Market the Lee highway connects with it, and from there on south, is known as the Lee-Jackson Highway, while on the Mobile maps it is known as Federal Route Number 11.
Mostly from Houston Harrison in his Long Grey Trail.
July 24th, 1937 Geo. W. Fetzer
Harrisonburg, VA