Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1869-02-12

/ A wild and romantic region is that bor-
dering on the banks Of the Redstone, q
stream of considerable size, which, rising a.
mong the Alleghanies in the western part of
Pennsylvania, flows northwest through Fay
cite County and merges itself in the waters
Of the Monongahela at eye anciente boro' of
Brownsville. Between this stream and Dun
laps Creek lies historic grounds. 1t was here
that the Mononee Indians, who gave to the
Monongahe1a its name, and to poetry the
beautiful legend of Monawena, lived and
fourished. It was here that the Calvins,
the CRADLES, the Waggoners, the Lynns,
the Finleys, the Cooks, and other hardy
and daring spirits, formed the first success
full settlement in ''Old Fayette ;" and
here it was that the fair-famed and eyer me-
morab!e ''Redstone Old Fort was erected to
protect the frontier from the depredations of
the hostile Indians.
Legends without number gather around
this spot where has transpired 50 much that
is wild and poetic in its nature, and innu-
merable are the thrilling tales that the aged
settlers can rehearse, as gathered around the
family freside OIL winters night, the good
old fashioned wood fire CLOVIS and sparkles
cheerily upon the wellswept hearth, while
the youthful hearer listens eagerly to the
weird tale that the gray-haired grandfather
never grows weary of relating.
[ like these stories of the olden time. [
love passionately everything that is poetical
and beautiful and good in this great grand
world of ours. Everywhere around lis there
is so much beauty, and love, and poetry,
and romance, and song, and story, and the
sky is so brightly blue, and the sun shines
so softly golden, and the birds sing apd the
flowers bloom, and the earth is SO full Of all
that is bright, and fair, and joyous, and
sweet that T wonder that any can be pnhap-
py, and am,sure that none need be wretched
who have hearts to perceive and appreciate
the unwritten poetry that clusters around
the dim past and the wild dreams OF the
great future.
And then [ like old houses Hove to
wander through the quaint rooms where
others have trod SO long ago, picturing to
myself the scenes that have been enacted
within the time-eaten walls, and fancying
that I can hear upon the floors the faint foot
falls of those who are said to come back from
the spiritland to haunt their former homes
In short, I like old ballads, old books, pa
pers, old pictures, old trees, old graves, and
old people: but most of all I love these le-
gends ofthe olden time, like to hear a.
bout those shadowy, spectrallike people of
the past. love to be told of the hates and
loves and the trials and tri4mphs Of the men
and women who lived in the long ago, and
who have for many a year lain in their
graves side by side with their hopes and
fears,
1t is this, then, that has set me to rehears-
ing to you this strange tradition, this drea
my romance that has clustered around the
old gray rocks Of the Redstane for more
than hundred years, and which no one per-
haps until now has ever dreamed of weaving
into story and placing before you in print.
It was chilly October eve. We were
all gathered closely around the blazing hick-
DRY fire; the apples and nuts lay in a huge
dish upon the clean hearth, the cider sim
mered gently oyer the GOALS. The old far
mer GIFTED his pipe and began, and it was
then that first heard in substance, as I now
tell to you, this wild, Evolutionary tale.
X r y < 4 x
Among the first white men who came
here and settled down on this creek was one
newly married, named Caleb Crawford
Just down there by the crossing at Lynn's
he built him q cabin, cleared out a patch,
and began life. He was industrious and
thrifty, aud his wife was just like him, and
SO they soon began to do well. They both
possessed to remarkable extent the mack OF
pleasing the Indians, and SO won upon the
redskins that no matter what occurred, Caleb
Crawford was always safe.
By-and-by family grew up around him,
and the eldest of his children, a handsome,
blue-eyed girl of seventeen, began to attract
the rude beaux to her side. Such beauty as
hers was not common in the primitive COM
munity, and her suitors being many aH I, f.! aF,
dent, the question as to whose cabin should
she adorn did not seem far from solution when /