e moulded and trained, civilizing the wilderness, and defending
themselves against the savages. In the month of December, 1743, Captain
John McDowell, surveyor of the lands in Burden's grant, falling into an
ambush, was slain, together with eight comrades, in a skirmish with a
party of Shawnee Indians. This occurred at the junction of the North
River with the James. The alarmed inhabitants of Timber-ridge[431:A]
hastened to the spot, and, removing the dead bodies, sorrowfully
performed the rites of burial, while the savages, frightened at their
own success, escaped beyond the mountains.

So rapid was the settlement of the valley about this time, that in this
year it was found necessary to lay off the whole country west of the
Blue Ridge into the two new counties, Frederick and Augusta. The
picturesque and verdant valleys embosomed among the mountains were
gradually dotted with farms. The fertile County of Frederick was first
settled by Germans, Quakers, and Irish Presbyterians, from the adjoining
province of Pennsylvania. A great part of the country lying between the
North Mountain and the Shenandoah River, for one hundred and fifty
miles, and embracing ten counties, now adorned with fine forest trees,
was then an extensive open prairie--a sea of herbage--the pasture ground
of buffalo, elk, and deer. It was a favorite hunting-ground, or middle
ground of the Indians.[431:B] The rich lands bordering the Shenandoah,
and its north and south branches, were settled by a German population
which long retained its language, its simplicity of manners and dress.
Augusta County was settled by Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania,
(descendants of the Covenanters,) a race respectable for intelligence,
energy, morality, and piety.

In compliance with the petition of John Caldwell and others, the synod
of Philadelphia (1738) addressed a letter to Governor Gooch, soliciting
his favor in behalf of such persons as should remove to Western
Virginia, in allowing them "the free enjoyment of their civil and
religious liberties;" and the governor gave a favorable answer. This
John Caldwell, who was grandfather of John Caldwell Calhoun, of South
Carolina, led the way in colonizing Prince Edward, Charlotte, and
Campbell Counties.

Colonel James Patton, of Donegal, a man of property, commander and owner
of a ship, emigrating to Virginia about this time, obtained from the
governor, for himself and his associates, a grant of one hundred and
twenty tho