Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-06-10
J0TTINGS-N0. 2.
IFor the SPECTATOR. ]

Mr.. EDIToR:-We found the Baltimore
and Ohio very popular on Court-day, to-
wards Greenville, putting foot on it the
first time. We halted at Mint Spring. The
village shows the impress made by the road
We slept for the first time under the roof
of the old Garner building, that is the old
est in the vicinage. We saw for the first
time neat church on the hill, locked up,
and had its most interesting history from
our host, and though perhaps the most lib
eral contributor to its erection, in common
with his neighbors, is compelled to worship
in small school-house.
We find much to carry us back into the
past, wherever we go in this old county.
On Capt. James Wilson's farm, 100 or
200 yards northeast of his house, marked
by the remains of chimney, was the site
of the fort of that locality. 1t was of
logs, eighteen inches to two feet wide,
dove-t tailed and dowel-pinned at the
corners, narrow door and perhaps
one small window ON the south side, and
portfolios On tne north to shoot out of. 1t
was pulled down some years ago, and put
up for a negro-quarter. 1t is almost GER
tain stockade included the spring only a
few yards away The tradition in the Nc
Pheeters' family is, it was several times re-
first time the old Brag farm, where DIR.
Stribling married. The family came from
Norfolk. After holding the farm four
years, he sold it to DR.. Mcfarland on his
return, as we think, from the "City of
Brotherly Love-" Prior to going there, he
lived near to Squire Blackwoods. His son
James, Treasurer of the county, now owns
it, and its appearance does him credit as a
farmer. Mrs. Wright's, nee McComb, is
part of it. We were astonished to see how
well preserved in faculties and person she
was. On telling her that her brother VIII
liam had for six or eight years been the
only survivor of Capt. Phillip Dold's ia
nous troop that volunteered to go to Nor
fork in 1912, she said that she remembered
that it rendezvoused at Tinkling Spring
church the morning it started.
Any one visiting that part of the county
must be struck with several hills, in range
with the Blue Ridge, with their lovely lit
tie valley, and watered with innumerable
springs of delightful water. An old citi-
zen, Mr.. Swartzel, deceased few months
ago, will soon be joined by his aged spouse,
and up the pretty valley above where they
saw the light, four daughters, beginning
with the one adjoining the paternal acres,
live on four consecutive farms, and if all
L
they do not suffer for creature-comforts
No part of Augusta has as little use for
lawyers, jails, and luxuries OF that ilk, as
all that region.
Mr.. VIM. A. McPheeters has the finest
field of corn we have seen in the county,
yet he will have to exchange for bread or
seed.
We called to see an old friend we hadn't
seen or heard from since the war, and in
truth thought he had transfer perhaps to
Abraham's bosom. He is q good man.
We refer to Capt. John W. Hogshead. He,
with the aid of his two sons, both under
twenty, has been writing up what he can
recall Of the Hogsett family-greatly to
their credit. suppose two quires of fools
cap are filled. Would that there was time
and space for notes. is great-great-g grand
father, John Hogsett, and Nancy Wallace
came from Ireland and settled on Elk run
(the Annie Karricoff place. in Union con-
gregation, Tradition taught him some of
his ancestors fled to Lewis's fort His
grandfather, John Hogsett, had four sons,
James, (his father, if we are correct, John,
Charles, and William. Charles was the
most remarkable man of his generation;
indeed, would have been man of mark
anywhere and in any age. In Jennings's
Gap, in the last quarter of the last century,
he manufactured surveyors compasses, and
one the Captain showed us, made in 1897,
is to day as good as it was then, and as ac-
curate and useful as those of modern make.
He was no doubt a genius, as the first he
made was out of bone.
He was beyond all peradventure of doubt
the first dentist, not alone in Virginia, but,
as we believe, in the South. He made his
own tools. He removed to Monroe, yet
practiced dentistry all over the adjoining
counties, and as the writer knows from
personal experience in Augusta.
county, Tenn, and became the first lawyer,
so far as our informant knows, of the
name. VIAToR.