Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1903-03-12
Written for the RegisIer.l
Early Settlements in the Valley.
LIBRARY OF CoYGREss,
WASHINGTON, March 6, 1908.

From a rare old history, which the IL
brary messenger asks me to return to
the Librarians special or private al
cove, l read that in the year 1872
Yost Hite with sixteen families crossed
the Potomac two miles above Harpers
Ferry gap and went up on the Ope-
ouon creek six miles south Of Win
chester and settled on a tract Of land
Vanmeter and Hite had bought.
Tradition says there was no timber
large enough to build log houses in
the fine soil of Jefferson county at this
time, so they went on up to the Ope-
quon, but this is disputed.
These families came from PennsyI-
vania southwards, and many other
Germans soon followed, because the
counties around Philadelphia, the port
of entry, was being crowded, so to
speak, from the immense number OF
people from the Palatinate, a province
in Germany on the Rhine, which by
religious persecution and war with the
French left their homes for the land
of liberty and peace. Rupp's History
OF Pennsylvania gives names OF thirty
thousand early settlers, fully one
third of whom are Palatinates who,
spread over Pennsylvania and south
ward in the valley of Virginia from
1927 to 1850. Among them | find
the familiar names of Hoffman, Eich-
leberger, Engle, Moler, Hess, Hauk,
Schneider, etc.
1t seems the Indians did not object
to these Pennsylvanians settling on
their land on account of William Penns
honest dealing with them, and there
was peace fol- % years, so that the
colonists got we'll fixed by the year
1854. In this year the Indians quiet
" withdrew west of the mountains,
which aroused the suspicious of the
settlers, who found that enissaries of
the French had persuaded them to 60,
preparing for the French and Indian
war, which broke out soon.
The land obtained by these first set
tiers was part of tract Of forty thou
sand acres granted to an Indian ira
der named Vanmeter and by him sold
to Yost Hite, whose name is on many
old deeds in our county. This land
was claimed also by Lord Fairfax as
part of his grant and law suit fol-
lowed which lasted fifty years, in
which the Hite heirs won after all the
original parties were dead. 4hls
doubtful ownership is thought to have
retarded settlement some, as colonies
in Frederick and Augusta counties
outgrew those on the Potomac, though
Jefferson was far better land, as seen
by the census report Of 1860, the last
report before the State was divided.
a tract of thirteen thousand acres
at Castleman's ferry and extending
down in Jefferson county wac put up
at auction and knocked down to
man at Is! cents an acre, while he
was in liquor. Next day he regretted
his purchase, but George Washington
advised him to hold it and it made
him rich. a 2OO-acre farm at Uvilla
was bought for a wagon load Of iron.
In 1874 Robert Harper settled at
the gap in the mountains and estab-
lished a ferry, thus giving name to
Harper's Ferry.
The great tide Of emigrants seemed
to have crossed the Potomac one mile
east of Shepher istown, known as the
old pack-horse ford. Here also the
Indian warriors met and fought as
they passed north and south in the eI-
cursions of the Delawares Of the north
against the Catawbas Of the south.
Many darts and stone hatchets are
still found near the ford.
History says a party Of Delawares
and Catawbas fought great battle at
the mouth of Antietam creek and ev-
cry Catawba, was killed except one,
who fed. Every Delaware warrior
held up scalp but one, who was go
chagrined that he pursued the one
Catawba south of Winchester, overlook
and killed him and returned to his
party exulting with his scalp.
These war parties passed north and
south through the white settlements
in peace, until the Delawares were
nearly exterminated.
In later years the white man strug-
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