A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory

Replete with vivid anecdotes of ages long past, this history of Virginia's New River villages from the earliest times to the post-Civil War period sheds light on events far-gone. David E. Johnston originally set out to chronicle a smaller area of his home state. However, the sheer amount of interesting material he unearthed from the wider New River region resulted in the broadening of this project. This lengthy history contains stories and incidents which are either absent in other works, or only referred to in passing. Examples include kidnappings and skirmishes between the Native American population and the white settlers, local heroes of the U.S. Civil War, and the evolution of the locality from untrammeled land to mature settlement. Pictures of community life emerge through tales of farmers, hunters and laborers, soldiers and adventure seekers. The Virginia of centuries past was a wild land fraught with perils, with survival a constant concern among colonists. It was a time characterized by occasional eruptions of violence and lawless misdeeds, with a formal legal system sparse or absent for generations. Yet the settler communities grew in strength with time, bound by their shared Christian beliefs and a constant need for cooperation.