Page 44 - History of Rockingham Co
P. 44
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.
1727-1738.
From the best information at hand, it appears that the
settlement of Rockingham and adjacent sections of the Valley
of Virginia began in or about the year 1727. As in all similar
cases, exploration preceded permanent settlement. First,
therefore, let us take a preliminary survey of the earliest
known explorations.
In 1669, the same year that La Salle came down to the
falls of the Ohio, John Lederer, a German of education, said
to have been once a Franciscan monk, came up from James-
town and entered the Valley at or near Waynesboro; in 1670
he crossed the Valley at or near Front Royal and Strasburg.
Once above, once below the present boundaries of Rocking-
ham, this German thus seemed to be marking out the district
in which his fellow-countrymen should in the years to come
build their homes and till their fruitful fields. Lederer's
journal, giving an account of his explorations, with accom-
panying map, was printed in an English translation at London
in 1672, and again at Rochester, N. Y., in 1902.
In 1705 the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of Virginia
offered a monopoly of trade to any person or persons who
should thereafter ' 'at his or their own charge, make discovery
of any town or nation of Indians, situate or inhabiting to the
westward of, or between the Appalatian mountains. "^ This
was an act obviously intended to encourage pioneering west of
the Blue Ridge. What response it elicited we do not know, but
it may well be imagined that not many years passed before
1. Hening's Statutes, Vol. Ill, page 468.
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS.
1727-1738.
From the best information at hand, it appears that the
settlement of Rockingham and adjacent sections of the Valley
of Virginia began in or about the year 1727. As in all similar
cases, exploration preceded permanent settlement. First,
therefore, let us take a preliminary survey of the earliest
known explorations.
In 1669, the same year that La Salle came down to the
falls of the Ohio, John Lederer, a German of education, said
to have been once a Franciscan monk, came up from James-
town and entered the Valley at or near Waynesboro; in 1670
he crossed the Valley at or near Front Royal and Strasburg.
Once above, once below the present boundaries of Rocking-
ham, this German thus seemed to be marking out the district
in which his fellow-countrymen should in the years to come
build their homes and till their fruitful fields. Lederer's
journal, giving an account of his explorations, with accom-
panying map, was printed in an English translation at London
in 1672, and again at Rochester, N. Y., in 1902.
In 1705 the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of Virginia
offered a monopoly of trade to any person or persons who
should thereafter ' 'at his or their own charge, make discovery
of any town or nation of Indians, situate or inhabiting to the
westward of, or between the Appalatian mountains. "^ This
was an act obviously intended to encourage pioneering west of
the Blue Ridge. What response it elicited we do not know, but
it may well be imagined that not many years passed before
1. Hening's Statutes, Vol. Ill, page 468.
