Fort Harrison
The Daniel Harrison House
Settlers in the Shenandoah Valley: Expanding Virginia
The Shenandoah Valley is located the western region of Virginia, in the
"Valley and Ridge" region between the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountain ranges. The land in the Shenandoah Valley was rich in soil, allowed water access through the Shenandoah River, and vast forests. These resources were used long before European colonization in the eighteenth-century by Native Americans. Once British settlers colonized Virginia in 1607, they continued to expand their domain over the next century. Europeans made efforts to settle the Shenandoah Valley as early as 1704 or 1705, with continuing attempts by Governor Spotswood to encourage settlers to expand the Virginia Colony westward in 1710. [1] British leaders viewed the Valley as a means to benefit the colony in four ways:
1. The mountains served as a protective natural barrier from French settlements that stretched from Canada to Louisiana.
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2. The mountains protected the British domain, as it shields colonists against Native American attacks and French expansion.
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3. The mountains deterred runaway slaves from establishing communities in the mountains.
4. Virginia needed to claim the Valley before Maryland could settle its claim. [2]
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Settlement in western Virginia expanded slowly, until Governor William Gooch gave large land grants to Tidewater planters in the 1720s though the 1740s. They were encouraged to sell the lands to farming families from Pennsylvania, but they also attracted settlers from Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware. [3]
This map illustrates the five geographic regions of Virginia.
Source: Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture
This map illustrates the established towns and roads of eastern Virginia in 1719. The western area of Virginia, past Henrico and Stafford counties, is not depicted or labeled on this map. Source: Library of Congress
Making a New Home in the Valley
Virginia's land policy attracted diverse groups of settlers to the backcountry. The majority of the first-generation frontier settlers voyaged to Pennsylvania colonies in the 1600s and 1700s from Germany and Northern Ireland (Ulster). Although the backcountry was dominated by the Scots-Irish and German immigrants, other Europeans moved to the edge of the colony as well, such as English, Swiss, Swedes, and Dutch pioneers.[4] Many of these settlers were farmers and rural craftsmen in their homeland, who were influenced to leave their ancestral homes. These groups were largely escaping rising rents for tenant farms, heavy taxation, overbearing rulers, frequent
famines, and shortages of farmland in their home countries.[5]
This document is the deed that recorded the purchase of the plot of land between Daniel Harrison and Arthur Jolusson on February 8, 1749. Deeds are records of land ownership and transactions between two parties. The Harrison family would have gone to the Augusta County Courthouse to have the deed and land records recorded. This document also reveals the value of the land and a description of the property. Source:
Augusta County. “Indenture Land Deed,” Deed Book Two. Augusta County Circuit Court, 1749: 586.
Scots-Irish and German immigrant families sailed to Pennsylvania and remained there for an average of seven to ten years, with the desire to eventually obtain a freehold farm that would be capable of supporting their family. The land grants in the Valley with cheap land and abundant natural resources enticed the families to migrate further south. This new opportunity led many families to pack their few personal belongings, essential tools, and rations as they began their trek into the backcountry of Virginia.[6]
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The European settlers arrived in the Valley by foot, leading packhorses and essential animals with their possessions, following paths that were established by Native Americans. This path was referred to as the "Indian Road"; however, after more settlers traveled by wagon, the path was renamed the "Great Wagon Road." Most of the settlers intended to farm and they sought land that would feature a reliable fresh water supply, tree coverage, and open ground. Open ground in the Valley was preferred among the settlers, as Native Americans intermittently lived, traveled, and hunted on the land before European contact in the seventeenth century. The Native Americans had already cleared sections of land, by eliminating brush, trees, and large limestone rocks that were not suitable for planting crops. Settlers that were able to purchase this already cleared land would be one step further than settlers who had to clear their own land. [7]
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After selecting, purchasing, and securing land titles, the settlers built a shelter and cleared their land for crops. Their first house was a small cabin with one room. These houses were built by family members, neighbors, and possibly indentured servants or enslaved people. The next step was to plant crops that would sustain themselves and their families as they continued to grow and develop their farm. Once their life essentials, food, shelter, and water were secured, then over the first few years the settlers would build a larger and permanent house, along with growing fields of cash crops. Tobacco did not grow as well in the Shenandoah Valley as in the Tidewater climate, so they mainly grew fiber plants such as flax and hemp as a source of income.
Notes:
[1] Warren R. Hofstra and Robert D. Mitchell, "Town and Country in Backcountry Virginia: Winchester and the Shenandoah Valley, 1730-1800," The Journal of Southern History 59, no. 4 (November 1993): 623-7.​
[2] Warren R. Hofstra and Robert D. Mitchell, "Town and Country in Backcountry Virginia: Winchester and the Shenandoah Valley, 1730-1800," The Journal of Southern History 59, no. 4 (November 1993): 623.
[3] Robert D. Mitchell. “The Shenandoah Valley Frontier.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 62, no. 3 (1972): 467-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1972.tb00879.x.
[4] Warren R. Hofstra, Ulster to America : the Scots-Irish Migration Experience, 1680-1830. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2012) 12.
[5] J. Huston Harrison, Settlers by the Long Grey Trail: Some Pioneers to Old Augusta County, Virginia, and Their Descendants of the Family of Harrison and Allied Lines (Dayton, Virginia: Joseph K. Ruebush Company, 1935), 1-2. The trail has many other known names, such as the “Great Warrior Path”, “Athawominee”, “The Great Road” “Long Grey Trail”, and the “Great Wagon Road.” The road ran from New York all the way to the Carolinas.
[6] J. Huston Harrison, Settlers by the Long Grey Trail: Some Pioneers to Old Augusta County, Virginia, and Their Descendants of the Family of Harrison and Allied Lines (Dayton, Virginia: Joseph K. Ruebush Company, 1935), 1-2.
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