Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1910-04-21

1--WE meet on the broad pathway OF good
faith and good will; no advantage shall
be taken on either side, but all shall be
openness and love" eve are all one
flesh and one blood" 1t was just fifty
years after Caterina Bierlin's death, when
the savage warwhoops of these same In
dianS that once were the peaceable neigh
bors were heard.
But we must turn our attention to others
who are buried in this sacred enclosure.
OF Caterina Bierlin we can but say, as
Laertes said of Ophelia:
Lay her i the earth
And from her fair and unponutedaesh
May violets spring.
There is something touching about this
multitude Of unknown and unmarked
graves. Even the ignorant crave some
memento when they are gone, and the
dread of being wholly forgotten is depict
ed in Gray's incompatible lines:
yet even these bones from insult 10 protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture
deckcd,
Implores the passing tribute OF sigh"
The splintered and wantonly defaced
stone; the old sandstone marked "H. M,
Died ILL.," the little stone in the corner
marked, "Margaret Lee" with the re-
mainder OF the inscription buried in the
eartt-all these and others tell us OF souls
robbed,of earthly glory and remembrance.
Who will tell us OF the generation that
preceded General Darke and his COM
peers; OF Melchor Engle; OF Robert Lu-
cas-. who married General Darke'S Aunt
Mary OF the father OF Captain Deleyea,
whose daughter, Sarah, became the wife
ofGeneral Darke and of General Darke'S
own father and mother, who came to set
tie on Elk Branch in the year l74l ? May
not some of these unmarked graves con-
tain the ashes OF these and other pioneer
settlers OF the Valley? Pioneers who
blazed the way for the civilization and
refinement of to-day; who felled the
trees, braved the dangers, reared their
cabins in the savage and uninviting forest
that we might live in peace, and enjoy the
fruits of their labor? 1t could have been
said OF them as of you, dear friend:
Yet in a few days, and thee
The all-beholdng sun shall see no more
In all his course nor yet in the cold ground
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, TO be resolved TO earth again
And lost each human trace, surendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensibe rock,
And the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon.
The counties of Orange and Augusta
were formed out OF SpottSylvania in 1874,
and their western limits stretched menac-
ingly across the Alleghanies into the
country claimed by the French moving
southwark from Canada. When the
Darkes, Lucases, Deleyeas, EngleS and
others settled in this Valley, the Indians
were still de facto owners of the soil; but
soon the English began to press through
the passes in the Blue Ridge and foment
ouarrels with the rightful poSseSsorS.
When the Darkes came in l74l, Orange
county had been divided, and out OF its
northern end Frederick county had been
formed, in November, 1873. 1t satisfied
the Englshman to know that Frederick
county had been established by legisla-
ton, and henceforward in his mind the
Indian inhabitant was but subject OF the
King and amenable to none other than
English law. Frederick county covered
the lower Valley, and was practically
bounded by the Fairfax lines west OF the
Blue Ridge. 1t was to this county that
the Darke family came in l74l, bringing
a boy of about years OF age, and a
daughter. Mary, who later married 1.-The
Founder Of the Engle Family" whose
tombstone is so marked in the corner OF
the Engle lot.
The Darke homestead was situated on
Elk Branch, about quarter OF mile be-
low the present village Of Duffelds. The
Oldest building was burned few rods
from the one now occupied by Mr.. J. Cal.
Tabler, the present owner OF the place
William Darke was about nine years OF
age when the boy surveyors, George
Washington and George Fairfax, laid of
lots for Lord Fairfax along the "South
Branch of the Potomac" They began
their survey from above the present town
of Petersburg, and extended il down the
river through the Trough" " The line OF
the new Hampshire Southern Railway
passes along the route OF this survey. We
have a picture OF the time in WaShington's
journal of this survey. There were set
Elements as far up as Petersburg, in Grant
county, and along what is now PatterSon's
Creek, in Mineral county. One OF the
justices Of the peace of Frederick county,
in Mineral county, Abram Johnson, an
ancestor of the present sheriff OF Hamp-
shire county, lived on Patterson's Creek.
The VanMetres lived at the Old Fields,
in Hardy county, and there was con-
siderable settlement of Dutch near the
home OF this old "patroon. The Shaw
nees "were yet in the land" In a few
wears, however, in the eventful year OF
1853; the year that George Washington
and Christopher Gist performed the deli
cate mission to the French commandant
at Fort LeBoeff; the year in which a COM
pany of men from the Hampshire Hill"
began the erection OF fort at the Forks
of the Ohio" and were driven away by
the Frenchman, Contracoeur, who COM
pleted il and called it Fort DuQuesne; the
wear in which the First Virginia Regiment