Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-06-20
For the SPECTATOR.
History indicated.

A thousand miles at sea.
For the SPECTATOR.
History INDICATED.
MR., EDITOR with many of your
readers, I was much interested in the
Notification the sportsmen and their
friends of your town had recently in
fixing up "Grog Spring." Singular as
it may appear to you, and no doubt to
many of them, they have unwittlngly,
and perhaps unthoughtfully, encroach-
ed on spring just about the same dis.
lance southeast from your town that
this spring is northwest, to-wit, seven
teen miles, and that is situated Few
hundred yards from the historic cher
~ tree" on the top and beyond .ne
Mountain Top House in Rockfish Gap.
From the memorable occasion, when
our patriotic ancestors assembled there
to meet Tarleton to the present writing,
it has been known as the "Grog Spring."
and, of course, has priority of right,
because of its great antiquity. Your
correspondent was deeply interested
years ago In graphic history given to
him by prominent citizen of Augusta,
who died lately in Culpeper, and whose
remains were brought to his native
county and deposited in the cemetery at
Waynesboro', of which he was long an
esteemed resident. He had it from the
late VIM. Davis, grandfather of DR..
Thomas Davis, near Greenville. Mr..
Davis was boy of twelve years. on
whose mind the remembrance of the
"Blind Preachers" soul>stirring ad'
dress to the men of his congregation
after sermon, when at the roll of the
drum he met them outside the church
at Thinking Spring, and urged them to
meet the invader, was daguerrotyped
thereon. He carried provisions to them,
for the three days they camped at Grog
Spring. Then, in the long interval,
down to the years Of the trade Of the
Valley and mountain counties to Scots
vile, through which the staging from
Richmond via Charlottesville. Staun-
ton, &C., to White Sulphur, Charleston,
&C., was carried on, "Grog Spring"
was as conspicuous as any fountain from
Richmond to Guyandotte. And when
our fathers, with their fine four and
six-horse teams, and big white sheeted
wagons c'the prairie schooners of the
plains" in the days of the Sante Fe
trade) covered the road from Staunton
to Scottsville, and hung their religion
on the historic cherry tree, referred to,
(then believed to be corner to Angus
ia, Albemarle, and Nelson,) until their
return, Grog Spring was never passed,
going or returning, without dip into its
clear, cool depths to wash down the nip
at'Black Bette" filed with Engleman,
or Bumgardner, or Hanger, or the fa-
vorite brandy or whiskey of the many
counties then paying tribute to Scots
vile. With all the vigilance of Davis,
m 1olr al, CIT
perintendents of the StauntOn and
Scottsville pike, the piety of the wag-
oners was put to severe test. Armed,
as each company from a neighborhoOd
would be, with the indispensable
sjack-screw," it was in such stretches
of the road along the J. II. Timberlake
(now Baylor farm, in what the wagon
oners called "the DEVILS neck and hill, I"
that scenes such as this was of every
day occurrence. One or more of the
wagons dropping into q chuck the axle
rested on, if it was not altogether bu-
ried out of sight in the tenacious red
clay. Then with the jack-screw,"
and big lever or two in the hands OF
his companions, and free use of his
whip, accompanied with lot of sex
pletives" that are said to have made the
army in Flanders famous, the wagon
soon reached terra t,na0. Then calling
at the Grog Spring, if on the return,
the mud wa washed away and the last
libation taken preparatory to taking
down their coats from the cherry tree
aforesaid.
So also in Gen. Jackson's famous
march out of the Valley through Browns
Gap and into it again through Rockfish
Gap, did his foot-cavalry, on their way
to gobble up Millroy-referred to by
Capt. Doyle-quench their thirst for
the last time, alas! for many Of them,
at this famous spring.
And now, Mr.. Editor, when "Local
Optionn has startled the echoes in the
Blue Ridge from famous Little Tam
many, and the poor fellows who can't
go 6y it summoned up courage enough
to vote in favor OF restriction-some be-
cause they wanted temptation taken to
distance, and others to curry favor
with the influential advocates of the
new law-this famous spring has again
doomed up into its wonted notoriety
It SO happened that few years ago, a
bar-room was opened on the same side
spring. Now, as very much nearer to
Waynesboro' and inside the limits of
Nelson, the sable goddess, ''Septimia, I"
who presides over this temple of BAG
chus, has, within few weeks, expe-
rieneed in her own person an illustra-
ton of the truth of the adage, it is an
ill wind that blows no body good.
Many, very many of the denizens of
the village are seen vending their way
up the Blue Ridge as patrons of the bar.
To prolong the pleasure, we doubt not
they resort to the spring, and after a
libation, quaff this nectar of the gods