CHARLES MYNN THRUSTON, who was born in this county in 1738, was a descendant of the old English cavaliers; and his ancestors were among the first settlers of Gloucester. Mr. Thruston was educated at William and Mary. When 20 years of age, he acted as a lieutenant of provincials, in the campaign which resulted in the evacuation of Fort Duquesne. He afterwards studied for the ministry, and was chosen rector of a parish in his native county. In 1769 he removed to Frederick county, where he continued in the practice of his profession until the commencement of hostilities with the mother country. He had been among the most prominent in repelling the attempt to introduce the Stamp Act in Virginia, and he now embarked in the common cause with an unconquerable zeal. He exerted himself to procure arms and ammunition, and addressed the people at public gatherings by the most spirit-stirring and eloquent harangues. Not content with this, parson Thruston threw aside the gown, and seizing the sword, raised a volunteer company, composed of the élite of the young men of the county; and he being chosen captain, they marched to join Washington in New Jersey. He made a bold and vigorous attack on a strong Hessian picket near Amboy. In this action his arm was shattered by a musket-ball, and he was carried, fainting with the loss of blood, from the field. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of colonel; but as the regiment to which he was appointed could not be raised, he became a supernumerary, and was obliged to retire from the service. He never resumed his pastoral functions. He held various public offices, among which was that of presiding judge of the court of Frederick county, and member of the legislature. In 1809, the wants of a numerous family occasioned him to remove to the west, where he died in 1812, aged 73. The battle of New Orleans was fought upon the place of his burial. The ruthless invader perished upon the tomb of the soldier-parson, who had employed tongue, pen, and sword in the cause of American freedom, and perilled fortune and life under the starspangled banner. The venerable Judge Thruston, of Washington, over whose head the snows of 80 winters have passed, and left an intellect unscathed and vigorous, is a son of the warrior-parson of Gloucester.

GOOCHLAND.

GOOCHLAND was formed in 1727, from Henrico, and named from a colonial governor of Virginia. It lies on the north side of James River, and is 30 miles long, with an average width of 10 miles. The surface is undulating, and in some places broken; the soil is various, and much of it exhausted, though naturally good; that on the James is of great fertility. It is drained by several small streams, several of which afford water-power.

The county produces large crops of tobacco, corn, and oats. Bituminous coal of an excellent quality is extensively mined, and also small quantities of gold. Pop., whites 3,570, slaves 5,500, free colored 690; total 9,760.

There are no villages in the county of any note. The CourtHouse, which is 30 miles west of Richmond, and 1 mile N. of James River, contains a few dwellings only.

Gen. NATHANIEL MASSIE, one of the early pioneers of Kentucky, and a man of indefatigable energy, was a native of this county. He was at the head of a band of adventurous spirits who formed, in 1791, the earliest settlement in the Virginia military district, and the fourth in Ohio, at what is now the town of Manchester.

The late Gov. JAMES PLEASANTS, who died in this county in 1836, was a man highly valued both in public and private life.

GRAYSON.

GRAYSON was formed in 1793, from Wythe, and named after a distinguished member of the Virginia convention that ratified the federal constitution. This is a wild and thinly-settled mountainous tract, lying on the North Carolina line, at the southeastern corner of western Virginia. It is drained by the New River and its branches. Its limits were reduced in 1842 by the formation of Carrol county. Pop. in 1840, whites 8,542, slaves 492, free colored 53; total, 9,087.

Grayson C. H. lies 261 miles sw. of Richmond, and contains a few dwellings only.

GREENBRIER.

GREENBRIER was formed in 1777, from Botetourt and Montgomery, and named from its principal stream. Its mean length is 46 miles, mean breadth 32, and area 1409 square miles. The surface is broken, and part of it mountainous. The mountains are infested with reptiles, such as the rattlesnake, copperhead, blacksnake, &c.; there are some deer, wild turkeys, pheasants, wolves, wild-cats, panthers, bears, and a variety of small game. The horses raised in this region are distinguished for durability. The land on Greenbrier River, which runs centrally through the county, is very fertile; the mean elevation of the farms above the ocean is at least 1,500 feet. There was manufactured in this county in 1840, 114,932 pounds of maple sugar. Pop., whites 7,287, slaves 1,214, free colored 194; total, 8,695.

Frankfort, 10 miles NE. of Lewisburg, contains a Methodist church and about 50 dwellings. In March, 1669, Col. John Stuart, Robert McClenachan, Thomas Renick, and Wm. Hamilton, settled here. They, as well as all those that immediately followed, were from Augusta county. This was the first permanent settlement in the county.

Lewisburg, the seat of justice for the county, lies on the James River and Kanawha turnpike; 214 miles west of Richmond, 263 from Washington; about 150 from Guyandotte, on the Ohio River, 9 miles w. of the White Sulphur, and 13 from the Blue Sulphur Springs. This town was established by law in October, 1782, and the act appointed the following gentlemen trustees, viz.: Samuel Lewis, James Reid, Samuel Brown, Andrew Donnelly, John Stuart, Archer Mathews, Wm. Ward, and Thomas Edgar. It contains 6 mercantile stores, 1 newspaper printing office, 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Methodist church, 1 academy, and a population of about 800. It is a flourishing village, the most important in this whole region, and the place where the western branch of the court of appeals hold their sittings.

Lewisburg stands on the site of the old Savannah Fort, and is the place where the army of Gen. Lewis rendezvoused in 1774, previous to the battle of Point Pleasant. They constructed the first road ever made from here to Point Pleasant on the Ohio, distant about 160 miles. The old fort at this place stood about 100 yards SE. of the site of the present court-house, on land now (1843) belonging to Mr. Thomas B. Reynold, and the widow of Mr. Wm. Mathews. It was erected about the year 1770.

The first church-a Presbyterian-erected at Lewisburg, was about the year 1795. It is a stone edifice, and is now occupied by that denomination. Previously, the same society had a log church, about a mile and a half Nw. of the village, near the present residence of Mr. Chas. Rogers. Their first clergyman was the Rev John M'Cue. There were then some Baptists in the county; their clergyman was the Rev. John Alderson. Lewisburg derived its name from the Lewis family. In olden time it was called "the Savannah," being a kind of a prairie.

The following details respecting the early settlement of the county, the difficulties with the Indians, &c., are from Stuart's "Memoir of the Indian Wars and other Occurrences:"

About the year 1749, a person, who was a citizen of the county of Frederick, and subject to paroxysms of lunacy, when influenced by such fits, usually made excursions into the wilderness, and in his rambles westwardly, fell in on the waters of Greenbrier River. At that time, the country on the western waters was but little known to the English inhabitants of the then colonies of America, being claimed by the French, who had commenced settlements on the Ohio and its waters, west of the Alleghany mountains. The lunatic being surprised to find waters running a different course from any he had before known, returned with the intelligence of his discovery, which did abound with game. This soon excited the enterprise of others. Two men from New England, of the name of Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, took up a residence upon Greenbrier River; but soon disagreeing in sentiment, a quarrel occasioned their separation, and Sewell, for the sake of peace, quit their cabin, and made his abode in a large hollow tree. In this situation they were found by the late General Andrew Lewis, in the year 1751. Mr. Lewis was appointed agent for a company of grantees, who obtained from the governor and council of Virginia, an order for one hundred thousand acres of land lying on the waters of Greenbrier River; and did, this year, proceed to make surveys to complete the quantity of said granted lands; and finding Marlin and Sewell living in the neighborhood of each other, inquired what could induce them to live separate in a wilderness so distant from the habitations of any other human beings. They informed him that difference of opinion had occasioned their separation, and that they had since enjoyed more tranquillity and a better understanding; for Sewell said, that each morning when they arose and Marlin came out of the great house and he from his hollow tree, they sa luted each other, saying, Good-morning, Mr. Marlin, and Good-morning, Mr. Sewell, so that a good understanding then existed between them; but it did not last long, for Sewell removed about forty miles further west, to a creek that still bears his name. There the Indians found him and killed him.

Previous to the year 1755, Mr. Lewis had completed for the grantees, under the order of council, upwards of fifty thousand acres ;-and the war then commencing between England and France, nothing further was done in the business until the year 1761, when his majesty issued his proclamation commanding all his subjects within the bounds of the colony of Virginia, who were living, or who had made settlements on the western waters, to remove from them, as the lands were claimed by the Indians, and good policy required that a peaceable understanding should be preserved with them, to prevent hostilities on their part. The order of council was never afterwards carried into effect, or his majesty's consent obtained to confirm it.

At the commencement of the revolution, when the state of Virginia began to assume independence, and held a convention in 1776, some efforts were made to have the order of council established under the new order of things then beginning to take place. But it was not confirmed; and commissioners were appointed, in 1777, to grant certificates to each individual who had made settlements on the western waters, in the state of

Virginia, previous to the year 1768 and since, with preference according to the time of improvements; which certificates gave the holder a right to four hundred acres for his settlement claim, and the pre-emption of one thousand more, if so much were found clear of prior claims, and the holder chose to accept it. The following year, 1778, Greenbrier was separated from Botetourt county, and the county took its name from the river, which was so named by old Colonel John Lewis, father to the late General, and one of the grantees under the order of council, who, in company with his son Andrew, exploring the country in 1751, entangled himself in a bunch of green briers on the river, and declared he would ever after call the river Greenbrier River.

After peace was confirmed between England and France, in the year 1761, the Indians commenced hostilities, in 1763, when all the inhabitants in Greenbrier were totally cut off by a party of Indians, headed by the Cornstalk warrior. The chief settlements were on Muddy creek. These Indians, in number about sixty, introduced themselves into the people's houses under the mask of friendship, and every civility was offered them by the people, providing them victuals and accommodations for their entertainment, when, on a sudden, they killed the men, and made prisoners of the women and children. From thence they passed over into the Levels, where some families were collected at the house of Archibald Clendenin, (where the Hon. Balard Smith now lives.) There were between fifty and one hundred persons, men, women, and children. There the Indians were entertained, as at Muddy creek, in the most hospitable inanner. Clendenin having just arrived from a hunt, with three fat elks, they were plentifully feasted. In the mean time, an old woman, with a sore leg, was showing her distress to an Indian, and inquiring if he could administer to her relief; he said he thought he could; and drawing his tomahawk, instantly killed her and all the men almost, that were in the house. Conrad Yolkom only escaped, by being some distance from the house, when the outcries of the women and children alarmed him. He fled to Jackson's River and alarmed the people, who were unwilling to believe him, until the approach of the Indians convinced them. All fled before them; and they pursued on to Carr's creek, in Rockbridge county, where many families were killed and taken by them. At Clendenin's a scene of much cruelty was performed; and a negro woman, who was endeavoring to escape, killed her own child, who was pursuing her crying, lest she might be discovered by its cries. Mrs. Clendenin did not fail to abuse the Indians with terms of reproach, calling them cowards, &c., although the tomahawk was drawn over her head, with threats of instant death, and the scalp of her husband lashed about her jaws. The prisoners were all taken over to Muddy creek, and a party of Indians retained them there till the return of the others from Carr's creek, when the whole were taken off together. On the day they started from the foot of Keeney's Knob, going over the mountain, Mrs. Clendenin gave her infant child to a prisoner woman to carry, as the prisoners were in the centre of the line, with the Indians in front and rear, and she escaped into a thicket, and concealed herself until they all passed by. The cries of the child soon made the Indians inquire for the mother, who was missing; and one of them said he would soon bring the cow to her calf. Taking the child by the heels he beat its brains out against a tree, and throwing it down in the path, all marched over it, till its guts were all trampled out with the horses. She told me she returned that night, in the dark, to her own house, a distance of more than ten miles, and covered her husband's corpse with rails, which lay in the yard, where he was killed in endeavoring to escape over the fence, with one of his children in his arms; and then she went into a corn-field, where great fear came upon her, and she imagined she saw a man standing by her, within a few steps. The Indians continued the war till 1764, and with much depredation on the frontier inhabitants, making incursions as far as within a few miles of Staunton.

An end was put to the war in the fall of that year by the treaty which Col. Boquet held with the Indians, near Muskingum. In the spring of 1774, another Indian war-known as Dunmore's war -broke out. In the fall of that year, a portion of the army under Gen. Lewis, destined to act against the Indians, assembled at Camp Union, (now Lewisburg,) and from thence marched on through the wilderness to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, where they met and defeated the Indians under their famous leader, the brave and generous Cornstalk. For an account of this action, the battle of Point Pleasant, see Mason county.

In 1778, an attack was made by about 200 Indians, upon Donnally's Fort. This fort stood about 100 yards E. of the present residence of Mr. Anthony Rader, on Rader's run, 10 miles N. of Lewisburg. It was a double log-house, with a chimney in the centre, and was surrounded by a stockade of split logs. The house was destroyed about the year 1825, at which time many bullets were found in the timbers. Dick Pointer, the old negro who acted so gallantly in its defence, died only a few years since. The state had purchased his freedom in reward for his services. He was buried with the honors of war. The account of the attack on Donnally's Fort is here given from the memoir of Mr. Stuart:

Intelligence having been conveyed to Col. Donnally of the approach of the Indians, he lost no time to collect in all his nearest neighbors that night, and sent a servant to my house to inform me. Before day about twenty men, including Hammond and Prior, were collected at Donnally's, and they had the advantage of a stockade fort around and adjoining the house. There was a number of women and children, making in all about sixty persons in the house. On the next day they kept a good look-out, in momentary expectation of the enemy.

Colonel Samuel Lewis was at my house when Donnally's servant came with the intel. ligence; and we lost no time in alarming the people, and to collect as many men for defence as we could get at Camp Union all the next day. But all were busy; some flying with their families to the inward settlements, and others securing their property, so that in the course of the day, we had not collected near one hundred men. On the following day we sent out two scouts to Donnally's, very early in the morning, who soon returned with intelligence that the fort was attacked. The scouts had got within one mile, and heard the guns firing briskly. We determined to give all the aid we could to the besieged, and every man who was willing to go was paraded. They amounted to sixty-eight in all, including Colonel Lewis, Captain Arbuckle, and myself. We drew near Donnally's house about two o'clock, P. M., but heard no firing. For the sake of expedition we had left the road for a nearer way, which led to the back side of the house, and thus escaped falling into an ambuscade, placed on the road some distance from the house, which might have been fatal to us, being greatly inferior to the enemy in numbers. We soon discovered Indians, behind trees in a rye-field, looking earnestly at the house. Charles Gatliff and I fired upon them, when we saw others running in the rye, near where they stood. We all ran directly to the fort. The people, on hearing the guns on the back side of the house, supposed that it was another party of Indians, and all were at the port-holes ready to fire upon us; but some discovering that we were their friends, opened the gate, and we all got in safe. One man only was shot through his clothes.

When we got into the fort, we found that there were only four men killed. Two of them who were coming to the fort, fell into the midst of the Indians, and were killed. A servant of Donnally's was killed early in the morning on the first attack; and one man was killed in a bastion in the fort. The Indians had commenced their attack about daylight in the morning, when the people were all in bed, except Philip Hammond and an old negro. The house formed one part of the, fort, and was double, the kitchen making one end of the house, and there Hammond and the negro were. A hogshead of water was placed against the door. The enemy had laid down their guns at a sta. ble, about fifty yards from the house, and made their attacks with tomahawks and warclubs. Hammond and the negro held the door till they were splitting it with their tomahawks they suddenly let the door open, and Hammond killed the Indian on the threshold, who was splitting the door. The negro had a musket charged with swanshot, and was jumping about in the floor asking Hammond where he should shoot? Hammond bade him fire away among them; for the yard was crowded as thick as they could stand. Dick fired away, and I believe, with good effect; for a war-club lay in the yard with a swan-shot in it. Dick is now upwards of eighty years old, has long been abandoned by his master, as also his wife, as aged as himself, and they have made out to support their miserable existence, many years past, by their own endeavors. This is the negro, to whom our Assembly, at its last session, refused to grant a small pension to support the short remainder of his wretched days, which must soon end, although his humble petition was supported by certificates of the most respectable men in the

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