Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/40

 The supposition was, that some of the Germans of Germanna followed on the track of Governor Spotswood, crossed the Blue Ridge at Swift Run Gap, and settled on the Shenandoah river at Elkton soon after the Governor's expedition of 1716. An account of Virginia, by the Rev. Hugh Jones, published about 1724, says: "Beyond Col. Spotswood's furnace, above the Falls of Rappahannock River, within view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from some Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now moved up further." Colonel Byrd, in his "Progress to the Mines," in 1732, refers to these Germans as "now removed ten miles higher, in the forks of Rappahannock, to land of their own." The first colony of Germans came in 1714, and consisted of twelve families. In 1717 twenty additional Protestant German families arrived and settled near their countrymen. The names of some of these people were Spillman, Hoffman, Kemper, Fishback, Wayman, Marten, Hitt, Holtzclaw and Weaver. Finding Governor Spotswood a hard task-master, a portion of the people went off in 1718, and founded Germantown, in Fauquier. Others, previous to 1724, it would seem, moved up to the present county of Madison. There is no historical account, however, of the settlement of any of these colonists in the Valley.

The inscription on the old tombstone plainly exhibits the year 1724; but the question was, whether that was the date of death or of birth. The work was done by an illiterate stonecutter, or one who did not understand the German language. Some of the words are misspelled, others are compounded of several words, and others still are divided into several parts, so that the inscription is unintelligible to most scholars. But Professor Scheie De Vere, of the University of Virginia, has kindly deciphered the hieroglyphics, and furnished translations in German and English. The German, he says, was intended to be—

Den ers: Novom: ist der Jacob B I geboren, aber der Gerechte ob er gleich zur Zeit auch stirbt, ist er dock in der Ruhe, dem seine Seele gefallt Gott da.

A literal English translation is as follows:

"The first November is the Jacob B I born, but the righteous although he at the time also dies, is (he) still in (the) rest, for his soul pleases God there."

The figures 1724 are at the top of the inscription, and appear to indicate the year of birth. Nothing, therefore, is proved by the inscription in regard to the date of settlement in the Valley. It is strange that the name of the deceased is not given in full, but it is supposed to be Jacob Bear.

Another proof, however, is said to exist of a settlement in the Valley earlier than 1732. Adam Miller resided at and owned the place now known as Bear's Lithia Spring, near Elkton, and the certificate of his naturalization, issued under the hand of Governor