The Virginia magazine of history and biography

the344 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.at the other end, and Augusta and Rockbridge joining in themiddle. It is worth while to notice, also, that the dividing linebetween Augusta and Rockbridge, running at right angles acrossthe Valley, is practically on the height of land that divides thehead-waters of the Shenandoah from the head-waters of theJames.*The whole Valley of Virginia was a part of Orange countyuntil the year 1738. In that year the country west of the BlueRidge was erected into the two counties of Frederick and Augusta.In the year 1769, Botetourt county was taken fromAugusta; in 1772, Berkeley and Dunmore (Shenandoah) weretaken from Frederick, and Fincastle was formed from a part ofBotetourt. In 1776, Fincastle was divided into the three countiesof Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery, and the nameof Fincastle, as a county name, became extinct;f in 1777, Rockbridgecounty was taken from Augusta and Botetourt; Rockinghamwas formed from a part of Augusta in about the same year;in 1789, Wythe county was taken from Montgomery, and a partof Botetourt was added to Montgomery; and in 1792, Graysoncounty was formed from a part of Wythe.The southwest half of the Valley was settled by people ofvarious nationalities, Germans, French Huguenots, etc., butchiefly by Scotch-Irish; the northwest half— -the ShenandoahValley—also numbered Scotch-Irish and Huguenots among itspioneers, but it was settled chiefly by Germans; \ so it is withthe Shenandoah Valley that we shall become most familiar in thisstudy.* Let it be understood that only some of the tributaries of the Jamesrise in the Valley chief tributaries;in this region have their headfountainsbeyond the first Alleghany ranges, in Alleghany, Bath, andHighland counties—these three counties of Virginia forming an offsetat this point beyond the Valley into West Virginia.t The county-seat of Botetourt is the town of Fincastle.X This statement is true only in a general sense, since there are particularsections of the whole district that were originally settled mainlyby people not Germans. For example, most of the first settlers inAugusta county (as bounded nowj were Scotch-Irish, and probably mostof the original settlers in what is now Clarke county were English, fromEastern Virginia.