oneer
boys and girls and later settled on Back Creek. This home is near where
Pulaski stands today and thus began another settlement. He was the
father of General Gordon Cloyd and they founded a long line of honorable
citizens in our country.

As one goes on he hears many strange tales of other explorers and
settlers. For instance there is the sad story of Colonel John Chiswell
who found rich lead mines near New River in what is now Wythe County.
For some unknown reason, he had killed a man in a personal encounter and
was put in jail to await trial.

[Illustration:--_Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce_

SCENIC HIGHWAY IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA]

In the meantime, the Virginia Council decided to develop the mines and a
fort was ordered to be built. Before the trial came off and before the
fort was built, Colonel Chiswell died.

Colonel William Boyd was made supervisor of the building of the fort and
he named it for his friend, Colonel Chiswell. Soon settlers began
building homes around it, for the climate and rich grazing lands made it
an ideal spot for homesteads.

The settlers pushing southwest from Roanoke built a fort and named it
for a Mr. Vass. The Indians attacked them and several were killed. This
was near where Christiansburg is now located. It was near Vass's Fort
that General Washington, Major Andrew Lewis and Captain William Preston
had a narrow escape from an attack by the Indians.

Washington County

In 1754 only six families were living in the early settlement west of
New River. Two of these were in Pulaski, two on Cripple Creek in Wythe
County, one in Smyth County and the Burke family in what is now Tazewell
County. The Indians gave the settlers so much trouble that any further
attempts to settle was given up until after the French and Indian War.

A small fort, called Black's Fort, was built when the settlers moved
into the Valley around where Abingdon stands. Like most of its kind, it
was built of logs, and a few log cabins were built within the stockade.
Here to these cabins within the fort came the settlers whenever the
warning reached them that the Indians were coming.

Near the fort lived Parson Cummings, called the Fighting Parson. He was
an Irishman who had come to the Valley from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He
fought against the Cherokee Indians in 1776 with Colonel Christian. He
first settled in Fincastle, but soon drifted farther south. It was he
who drafted the Fincastle R