Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-09-04

case went to the General Court. This, | sup
pose, was the origin Of Fackler mill. But the
old mill is gone now, after grinding grist for al
most century. 1t made me feel sad when 1
was In town last, to miss an object that was fa-
mlllar to me in former times and was like a
friend OF my youth.
Another institution of Staunton in my day.
was the whipping post. Rogues got their de-
serts then. The Court lashed all alike. white
and black, male and female. One man received
thlrty-nine stripes for stealing "a comb and
comb case, shirt, and some other articles of
small value;" and women were not unfrequent-
ly. punished IN the same way, for being mothers
when they ought not The stocks, also, were
highly esteemed in days of yore. Some youth
ful spectators who honor me with reading,
will, very likely, suppose that [ am alluding
to the sort OF things they trade in. / hear
good deal said in these times about k-bro-
kers, stockjobbing, public stocks &C., but the
stocks speak of were different from those
Andrew McCord disturbed the Court one day,
and the Sheriff was ordered to ''put him into
the stocks, there to continue one hour" An
other time, Edward Boyle, ''for damning the
Court and swearing four oaths in their pres
ence, was put In the stocks for two hours and
fined twenty shillings to boot. That sort of
stock-jobbing would not be SO agreeable to some
Of our fancy gentlemen, and it is we'll for them
they are not in the hands of an old-fashioned
Augusta County Court, Or they would soon be
made tired enough of dealing in stocks.
And what shall | say of the Ducking Stool
the Court had made in ISL? 1t had pretty
well srotted away when my father came to
Staunton in '62: and not a bit of it remained in
my time. well remember the man who had
it made by order of the Court-it was Squire
Robert McClanahan, then Sheriff of the coun-
ty. | never heard that the stool was used for
ducklng purposes. Why it was not used that
way, can't exactly explain. 1t certainly was
not because there were no 'scolding women"
IN the country at that time | was told that
only three years after the stool was built and
when the timbers were new and in good work
ing order, Anne Brown, wife of James Brown,
went into Court and abused William Wilson,
Gentleman, one of the justices for this county,
by calling him rogue, and that on his coming
off the bench she would give it to him with the
devil Mrs. Brown was ordered into custody,
but she was not ducked, so far as ever heard.
| am equally sure that the failure to use the
stool, was not because the Court were afraid or
too tender-hearted to duck women if they de-
served it. They punished Jacob Coger for a
breach of the peace by driving hogs over the
Blue Ridge on the Sabbath day." they
whipped women as well as men at the public
whipping post; and was told that, at May
term, l749, they even took lawyer Gabriel Jones
IN hand for swearing an OATH" Why then
did the Court never use the Ducking Stool ac-
cording to law? l have often thought about
the matter, and have finally come to the con-
clusion that the making of the Stool was an
Irish blunder. 1t must be borne in mind that
most of the first Justices were from the old
country, and after providing Jail, whipping
post stocks, "shackles, bolts, handouts &C. -
all the public improvements and implements
necessary in a well regulated community-they
ordered a Ducking Stool to complete the list,
without once thinking that there was no deep
water near Staunton.
At the time when | can first remember things
there was a great deal said about COL Bouquet S
expedition, as well as the fight with the Indians
at Point Pleasant. In the year 1779, the men
who served with COL Bouquet were still getting
certificates from the County Court for the
bounty land they were entitled to- | alluded
In my last publication to the time, in 1863
when COrnstalk and the Shawnees came raidng
round Staunton, like Sheridan at more recent
date, only the Indians were not so severe upon
the people. The next year COL Bouquet was
sent with some troops to the Muskingum, now
in Ohio, but then in Virginia, to try and make
peace with the Indians. He did the thing in
good style, and received from the Indians two
hundred and six white prisoners they had held.
more than half of them were females and chill
dren. A good many Augusta and Staunton
men were in the expedition. Charles Lewis,
afterwards killed at Point Pleasant, commanded
company Of Independents, and John Nc
Clanahan, son of Robert, was one of his Lieu
tenants. As have said the men were still ap-
plying for their bounty land in 1779. and in that
year the orphan and heir-at-law of John Nc
Clanahan was allowed two thousand acres for
his fathers services Another Indian war
broke out in few years. [ was four years old
in IVA, when the Augusta men mustered at
Staunton to go to the Ohio, and remember
something about that Charles Lewis was Col.
of the regiment, and among the Captains were
George Mathews, Alexander McClanahan, Jno
Lewis, and John Dickerson. Capt Mathews
rose to be Colonel in the Revolutionary war,
and fought at Brandywine. He was afterwards
Governor of Georgia. Gen. Samuel Black burn,
the great lawyer, was his son-in-law Alexan-
der McClanahan was a son of the old Sheriff
and Justice. He also was Colonel in the Rev.
olution, and at one time, [ believe d member of
Congress. His brother Robert, who had gone
to Botetourt to live, was Captain of a company
from that county. The men, as | have said,
assembled in Staunton before they set out
against the Indians. One of the Augusta com
panies was composed of very tall men, Not one
of them was less than six feet high, and most
of them were at least six feet and two inches in
their stockings. They all stood ND in Sampson
Mathews s bar room, 1.-THE old Ordinary and
each man. height was marked upon the WALL
The marks were visible there for many long
year afterwards. The men went off across the
mountains, and in course of time news came of
battle with the Indians at Point Pleasant
There was both joy and grief in Staunton then
The Indians were routed, but Col. Lewis, Capt
Robert McClanahah, and many others had been
killed.
If the people are not tired reading my pieces,
l am tired writing them, and may or may not;
according to circumstances, hereafter tell some
things which occurred during the Revolution
and afterwards. will only add here that COL
Sampson Mathews, of whom [ have spoken
several times, was the father-in-law of the late
Mr.. Samuel Clarke.
OLDEST INHABITANT.
A Louisiana paper declares that the town of
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