The Second Vaught Homestead

By October of 1744, the Vaught family had split for the first time.  John Paul Vaught, his wife,  Mary Catherine, and his two sons had successfully moved from Orange County to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a distance of close to fifty  miles.  They had left behind their first homestead in the New World, and more importantly, their youngest daughter, Mary.  Mary was wed to Christopher Moyer, a descendant of the Germanna colonists, in the summer of 1744 before the big move.  She and her new husband had stayed in Orange County. 

Catherine Margaret, the eldest Vaught daughter and her husband Christian Clements, sold their land adjacent to the Vaught's and moved out west with their neighbors.  It was a common practice in the mid 1700s that when one neighbor moves, their friends and neighbors follow, sometimes having the effect of moving whole neighborhoods around the country.

The Vaughts and Clements moved to an area just southeast of Massanutten Mountain, outside present day Harrisonburg, Virginia.  The tract of land that John Paul Vaught had surveyed rolled south towards the wildly looping and swift flowing North River (itself a branch of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River), between two not insignificant ridges which in a way channeled the land into a valley that ran towards the river. 

The land today is farmland still, trees cleared about half a mile wide all the way down to the river.   As noted in the above satellite image of the original Vaught homestead, the tree lines appeared to match the boundary lines, even more than 200 years later.  If that is the case with the land near Massanutten Mountain, then any visitor can drive through our ancestors lands and imagine what it looked like in 1744 quite easily.  I should point out that there is no known map that I'm aware of that specifically shows the location of the Vaught homestead.  I've made my best guess on the information I have.  If anyone has a more exact map, I'd love to hear from you!

Aerial map showing the location John Paul Vaught's land in 1744, neighboring Hans Bumgardner to the south.  Due southwest about a mile is the North River.  A few miles northeast is Massanutten Mountain.  Note: Friedens Church Road and Faught's Road are in existence today and can be found on most maps.

This new land was important to the entire Colony of Virginia, not just our ancestors.  The local Indians, namely the Cherokee, were attempting to block the movement of English colonials further west.  As the 13 Colonies expanded in size and the number of inhabitants quickly outpaced the native population, resistance all along the frontier in the middle 18th century began to stiffen. 

As happened in Pennsylvania in the early part of the century, the Indians came to respect and befriend the German immigrants.  Where the predominantly English colonists of New England consistently broke promises and ignored treaties, the Germans of Pennsylvania kept their word.  Where there was war and strife between settlers and Indians in the north, there was relative peace, if not mutual respect between the Germans (both in Pennsylvania and Virginia) and the various Indian tribes.

           

It is no surprise then, that sometime in 1744, the Cherokee and Shawnee resistance to further encroachment by Europeans crumbled and was sealed with a treaty on the lands of a German immigrant.  That immigrant was our ancestor, John Paul Vaught.  A gathering occurred, most likely in the spring or summer of 1744 (John Paul Vaught would not likely move his family into harms way were on the frontier before a treaty was signed and we know the family was near Massanutten Mountain in October of 1744), where John Paul Vaught, Christian Clements and other Germaaun settlers---perhaps even a representative of the Governor----met with representatives of the Cherokee Nation to discuss terms for settlement of the area by the Germans.

The Germans had the experience of the Pennsylvania immigrants to their credit, with a history of relatively peaceful relations with northern cousins of the Cherokee in Virginia.   We do not know the details of the gathering, what was discussed or promised or traded.  All we know is that peace was brokered, the Cherokee retreated further west and south and the Cumberland Gap was opened to the white settlers for the first time in peace.  A great flood of migration into the Valley could now proceed unhindered by the threat of Indian raids.  This critical treaty was ratified at a small spring in northwest corner of John Paul Vaught's land.

           



Friedens Church



Soon after the treaty gathering, John Paul Vaught constructed a simple log house next to the fateful spring that so gently gurgled into a small creek.  This log house was thereafter used as a meeting house for the Germans of the area.  It became a church for the two dominant religious sects of the area: The Lutherans and the Congregationalists.  It was called Friedens Kirke, the Church of Peace (sometimes referred to as the Church of Friends).  It still stands on our ancestral land.



The graveyard behind the church



The church as it exists today is a brick building.  Sometime after the wooden chruch was built it burned down.  Our ancestors built it again and replaced it with a brick building.  Today, Friedens Church is comprised of the original 1762 structure, with additional wings to the southwest and northeast.  There is a graveyard that wraps around the back of the church, up the hill.  The oldest part of the graveyard is in the corner furthest from the church and has numerous German headstones,  but no Vaughts.



Treaty Springs as it is today, capped in concrete.



To the south, just across the parking lot from the church and within easy viewing from the front door is the spring where John Paul Vaught brokered peace with the Cherokee.  Today, it is encapsulated in a slab of unceremonious concrete and capped, but there is still the small creek called Faught's Run that trickles along the church property and runs the length of our ancestral homeland on its lazy way towards the North River.



Faught's Run

 An interesting aspect of this land is a result of what happened after John Paul Vaught died in 1761.  His family split again.  His elder son, Andrew, along with John Paul's wife, moved to what is now Wythe County, Virginia, far along the southwest tip of the state.  His younger son, Gasper, remained near Harrisonburg and eventually his name changed to Faught.  That is why, if you go there today, there are so many "Faught" markers.  There is Faught's Road, which I believe creates the southern boundary of John Paul's original patent.  There is also a small creek that runs from the Treaty Springs area down to the North River.  It is listed on the more detailed local maps as "Faught's Run" (terminology that many people would konw as a creek).  Faught's Road crosses Faught's Run.  It is possible that the run (creek) marked the western boundary of the Vaught's land, but I have not been able to view the original patents yet. 

Unfortunately, for John Paul Vaught, he would not live to see the peace he helped create open up the Western frontier to settlers.  At the age of 81, John Paul Vaught died in his home 10 miles southeast of what is today Harrisonburg, Virginia.  The year was 1761---the French and Indian War was already raging throughout the frontiers of the British colonies from Maine to Georgia.  Luckily for the Vaught's, most of the fighting was taking place well north of Virginia in Canada and New England.             

 We don't have records on the exact reason for John Paul Vaught's death, but in the 18th Century, living to the ripe age of 81 was remarkable, if not rare for life was harsh on the frontier of the colonies.  It can reasonably be assumed that he died a natural death, after having lived a remarkably productive and adventure-filled life.  Born in the Old World, he crossed an ocean, settled a New World, carved peace out of the wilderness and opened the path to the expansion of America.

           

When John Paul and his family moved to Augusta County, it was still considered part of Orange County.  When he died there, the county had been carved out as Augusta.  Today, Harrisonburg and the old plot of land that once belonged to John Paul are in Rockingham County, Virginia.

John Paul's estate sale and appraisal was dated 10 September, 1761.  Besides his sons Andrew and Casper (Gasper Faught), only one daughter, Catherine Margret (who married Christian Clements) is mentioned in the will.  It has been assumed in past decades that the other daughter, Mary Catherine, died prior to John Paul's will since she is not mentioned.  However, Mary Catherine did not die, but remained with her husband Christopher Moyer near the first Vaught homestead.  She and her husband were long time communicants at the Hebron Lutheran Church, which will be the subject of another post.           

The tragedy of death in the family is as much a traumatic event today as it was in 1761 and for the Vaught's in the Shenandoah Valley it was no different.  However the year 1761 was not without its share of joy and happiness, for John Paul's eldest son Andrew had his seventh and last son, Henry.  We do not know if John Paul Vaught was there to welcome his 24th grandchild into the world or not, but it is comforting to know that our ancestor did welcome at least 20 babies to his family before he died.