Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/61

 old-fashioned, "exhaustive method," contains fifty-five divisions and sub-divisions. He was once sent by Hanover Presbytery to organize churches among the settlements on New River and Holston, and on his return reported a surprising number of elders whom he had ordained. Being questioned how he found suitable materials for so many, he replied in his rich idiom: "Where I cudna get hewn stanes, I tuk dornacks." He was regarded as very orthodox, but somewhat lax as to church discipline.—[Davidson's History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, page 24.]

Withers, in "Border Warfare" [page 48], gives the following account of the discovery and first occupancy of the Greenbrier country:

About the year 1749 there was in Frederick county a man subject to lunacy, who was in the habit of rambling into the wilderness. In one of his wanderings he came to some of the waters of Greenbrier river. Surprised to see them flowing westwardly, he made report of it on his return to Winchester, and also the fact that the country abounded in game. Thereupon, two men, named Sewel and Martin, recently arrived from New England, visited the Greenbrier country, and took up their abode there. They erected a cabin and made other improvements, but an altercation arising Sewel went off a short distance and lived for some time in a hollow tree. Thus they were found in 1751—Martin in the cabin and Sewel in the tree—by John Lewis and his son, Andrew, who were exploring the country. They were, however, by that time on friendly terms. Sewel soon afterwards moved forty miles west, and fell a prey to the Indians, and Martin returned to the settlement.

After this brief excursion beyond the frontier, let us return to the county seat. We have several times alluded to the twenty-five acres of land conveyed by Beverley to the county, April 24, 1746. In 1750, the County Court employed Andrew Lewis as surveyor, to lay off the tract in town lots, extending several existing streets, and opening new ones. The first street opened by Lewis, east of and parallel with Augusta, was called New street. The four main squares, constituting the heart of Staunton, were fixed by this survey, each square containing two acres, and being divided into four lots of half an acre each. Three lots, of forty-eight poles each, were laid off between