Chapter 6

The type, while low and flat, is generally well enough drained for cultivation, although this is somewhat hindered by overflows; consequently the land is chiefly used for grazing. The soil is alluvial in origin, being built up by successive overflows of the streams. Little of the type is forested. Where cultivated it is generally used for corn, which yields from 50 to 75 bushels an acre. Little wheat is grown, although the soil is capable of producing fair yields of this crop. It also produces from 2 to 3 tons of hay per acre, and affords excellent pasturage. The crops are somewhat uncertain, however, on account of overflows which sometimes occur after the planting season, though in the case of the River the danger from flood is usually past before the time for corn planting. Where the areas are in grass the floods usually do little damage. Productiveness is in a great measure maintained by the addition of the sediments left by the overflow waters.

FLORA AND FAUNA.

FLORA.--Records of the days of early settlement point to a scarcity and an inferiority of large timber in Loudoun (then Prince William) and contiguous counties. The responsibility for this condition has been traced to the hunters who frequented this region prior to its settlement and wantonly set fire to the forests in order to destroy underbrush, the better to secure their quarries. A comparatively dense and vigorous new growth followed the discontinuance of this pernicious practice.

At the present time, after the encroachment of field and pasture for nearly two centuries, a large portion of the county's area is still under forest cover. The stand, in the main, is somewhat above average size and quality.

The total value of forest products cut or produced on farms in 1899 was $51,351. This includes only the wood, lumber, railroad ties, etc., which the farmers cut in connection with their ordinary farming operations. The reports of persons making lumbering or wood cutting their principal business are not included.

The trees common to Loudoun are four varieties of the white oak, i. e., common, swamp, box, and chestnut-leaved, the latter, however, appearing only along the margin of the Potomac River; black, Spanish, and red oak, chestnut oak, peach or willow oak, pin oak; and in the eastern parts of the county, black jack, or barren oak, and dwarf oak, hickory, black and white walnut, white and yellow poplar, chestnut, locust, ash, sycamore, wild cherry, red flowering maple, gum, sassafras, persimmon, dogwood, red and slippery elm, black and white mulberry, aspin (rare), beech, birch, linn, honey-locust, sugar maple, sugar nut, yellow and white pine, hemlock, and red cedar.

Among the smaller trees and shrubs are the white thorn, maple-leaved or Virginia thorn (suitable for hedging), hawthorn, wild May cherry, or service berry, water beech, fringe tree, red bud, black alder, common alder, sumach, elder, laurel, witch-hazel, hazel-nut, papaw, chinkapin, burnish bush, nine bark, button-bush, honeysuckle, several varieties of the whortleberry or huckleberry, and wild gooseberry.

A few of the brambles met with are the greenbrier, high blackberry, dewberry, or low blackberry, and raspberry.

A list of the vines and creepers would comprise the fox grape, three varieties; pigeon, or raccoon grape, chicken grape, a wild bitter grape, sarsaparilla, yellow parilla, poison-vine, or poison-oak, clematis, trumpet-flower, and wild potato vine.

The medicinal herbs found in Loudoun are the rattlesnake root, Seneca snakeroot (also called Virginia snakeroot), many varieties of mint, liverwort, red-root, May apple, butterfly-weed, milk weed, thorough-stem, trumpet-weed, Indian-physic, _lobelia inflata_, and _lobelia cardinalis_, golden-rod, skunk-cabbage, frost-weed, hoar-hound, and catnip.

The injurious plants with which the careful farmer must contend are the wild garlic, tribby weed, dog fennel, two varieties of the common daisy, oxeye daisy, St. John's wort, blue thistle, common thistle, pigeon-weed, burdock, broad and narrow-leaved dock, poke-weed, clot-bur, three-thorned bur, supposed to have been introduced from Spain by the Merino sheep, Jamestown or "jimson" weed, sorrel, and, in favorable seasons, a heavy growth of lambs quarter and rag-weed.

Of introduced grasses, Loudoun has red clover, timothy, herd's-grass, orchard-grass, and Lucerne to which last little attention is now given. Native grasses are the white clover, spear grass, blue grass, fox-tail and crab grass, the two last-named being summer or annual grasses. Several varieties of swamp or marsh grass flourish under certain conditions, but soon disappear with proper drainage and tillage.

Although some of the wild flowers of Loudoun merit the attention of the florist, as a whole they have no commercial value or significance and, for this reason, an enumeration of the many varieties has not been thought expedient.

FAUNA.--Wild ducks, geese, and turkeys, pheasants (English and Mongolian), partridges and woodcock are among the game fowls of Loudoun, and eagles, crows, buzzards, owls, and hawks among the predatory. The usual list of songbirds frequent this region in great numbers and receive some protection under the stringent fish and game laws in force here.

Red and gray foxes, raccoons, opossums, woodchucks, squirrels, hares and smaller animals are quite general.

In pioneer days the county abounded in the larger species of game common to the forests of North America. Among these were the beaver and otter, buffalo, deer, wolf, wild-cat, panther, bear, fox, and elk or wapiti (_Cervus canadensis_), noble herds of which ranged the mountain sides and valleys of this section.

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.[13]

Good roads, always of immeasurable importance to the farmer, were early made necessary by the tremendous crops of marketable products harvested from Loudoun lands. Though this need, in time, became imperative the roads were never hastily and imperfectly constructed; they were built with an eye single to permanence and with due allowance for generations of unintermittent and augmentative traffic.

These roads yielded their promoters modest dividends, but with the completion in 1832 of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, bordering the county just across the Potomac, transportation to and from Washington (Georgetown) and Alexandria was materially cheapened and the earnings of the turnpike companies suffered a corresponding decrease, the income, in many cases, being barely sufficient to defray the expense of maintenance. Tolls are now collected at only two points, in the County.

[Footnote 13: No apology is offered for the omission of vital statistics that might and would have been included in this department had earnest appeals addressed to State officers and the State Corporation Commission met with more courteous and, I might add, dutiful consideration. Not the least assistance was vouchsafed by any of them.--THE AUTHOR.]

The turnpike craze spread to Loudoun not long after the War of Independence and culminated about forty years later. It wrought a revolution in public travel, relatively nearly as great as that brought about by the railway craze in more recent years. The corporate names of some of the roads constructed through Loudoun before its subsidence were, the Goose Creek and Little River Turnpike, Loudoun and Berlin (now Brunswick, Md.) Turnpike, Ashby's Gap Turnpike, Leesburg Turnpike, Leesburg and Snicker's Gap Turnpike, Little River Turnpike and Snicker's Gap Turnpike. Their combined authorized capital stock was $637,325, of which amount more than two-thirds was subscribed by individuals, the State assuming the balance.

The system did not originate solely in a local want or demand along the lines contemplated. Other causes were also at the bottom of the movement. The settlement of the County was necessarily by progressive though, at times, apparently simultaneous steps. First came the settlement and location of one or two towns, and the opening of communication between them; then the advent of the trapper, hunter, and scout into the unsettled portion; then came the land grants and the settlement in isolated localities; then the blazed trail to the parent towns and to the cabin of the pioneer or the outposts; then the drift-ways, cart-ways, and the local roads winding from cabin to cabin; then the town-ways and county roads, with here and there the "provincial" highways.

Today, the public roads and turnpikes of Loudoun are unquestionably better than those of most counties and, in obedience to a popular demand, are kept in a fair state of repair. One or two of the main-traveled thoroughfares would compare favorably with the best rural roads in the country.

Long before the Civil War, Little River was rendered navigable from its mouth to Aldie by means of a lock and dam system, this and more far-reaching improvements having been undertaken by the "Goose Creek and Little River Navigation Company" capitalized at $100,000. The dams were destroyed by Federal invaders and never reconstructed.

Loudoun is traversed by the Washington and Ohio Division of the Southern Railway, which penetrates the County centrally from east to west and furnishes an outlet for her immense shipments of cattle, grain and miscellaneous products. No less than twelve stopping points are recognized within her limits, at all but three of which commodious stations have been erected.

The original purpose of the promoters was to extend this road to the coal-fields of Hampshire County, West Virginia (then in Virginia). The name under which it was incorporated was the "Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad." During the Civil War its bridges and tracks were destroyed by order of General Lee and for some years afterward Loudoun was without adequate railway communication with the outside world.

The cost of construction between Alexandria and Leesburg, the first division of the work, was $1,538,744. The line, many years afterward, was extended to Round Hill and still later to Bluemont, at present the Westernmost terminal. Stages, affording communication with Winchester and intermediate towns of the Shenandoah Valley, are operated from this point and between Leesburg and Middleburg and Point of Rocks. Liveries are conducted in all the important towns.

The northern edge of the County is in easy communication with the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal just across the Potomac.

Large steel bridges, spanning the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, Brunswick and Point of Rocks, afford convenient ingress into West Virginia, Maryland and the not far-distant state of Pennsylvania.

Further communication with the north is made possible by a ferry (White's) in constant operation between Loudoun and the Maryland shore.

TOWNS AND VILLAGES.

_Leesburg._

Leesburg, a fine old town, the county-seat of Loudoun, lies at the eastern base of Catoctin Mountain, 2-1/2 miles from the Potomac River at Balls Bluff, and 3-7/8 miles west of Goose Creek. It is in the northern part of the County, 40 miles northwest of Washington, 153 miles in a like direction from Richmond, the State capital, within a few miles of the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains and the celebrated Valley of Virginia, 12 miles from Point of Rocks, Md., and about 22 miles from historic Harpers Ferry, W. Va. It occupies a high and healthy plain, the environs of which are waving and well cultivated and delightfully variegated by hill and dale.

The town derives its name from the Lees, who were among the early settlers of the County, and was established by act of the General Assembly, in September, 1758, in the thirty-second year of the reign of George II. Nicholas Minor, who owned sixty acres of land about the court-house, had subdivided this tract and some of the lots had been built upon prior to the passage of the act. This instrument constituted "the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Esq., Thomas Mason, Esq., Francis Lightfoot Lee (father of 'Light Horse Harry' of subsequent Revolutionary fame), James Hamilton, Nicholas Minor, Josias Clapham, Æneas Campbell, John Hugh, Francis Hague, and William West, gentlemen," trustees for the newly established town. Prior to its establishment it had borne the name Georgetown, bestowed in honor of the then reigning English monarch.

[14]"In its birth and infancy the town was destined to win renown, for it was first founded as a fort or outpost of the then struggling colony of Virginia, as its narrow streets and close, little red brick houses still testify, and for many years was the most westerly post of the colony. At one time the entire town was enclosed by stockades...."

"Following its establishment the little fort became the principal outfitting post for the British and colonial forces in the French and Indian war. Tradition still fondly points to the stone house, famous as the headquarters of General Braddock, who, it is claimed, passed through the place on his last fatal march to the wilderness; but in the light of thorough investigation this claim is found to be unsubstantiated. While a division of his army, under command of the eccentric old Sir Peter Halkett, did undoubtedly spend the night at the plantation of Nicholas Minor, the principal founder of the town, General Braddock is found to have gone in another direction."

[Footnote 14: Mrs. A. H. Throckmorton in the Richmond _Times_.]

Leesburg is governed by a mayor and common council and had at the time of the last government census (1900) a population of 1,513. An unusual percentage of its people are well educated, and all proverbially hospitable.

The houses, many of which are of brick and stone construction, are built in a compact and substantial manner. In the town and its environs are many of the most palatial residences to be seen in Virginia. There are several well-kept public roads leading from the town to the surrounding country seats and stock farms, nearly all of which are modernized reminders of the old plantation days.

With an elevation less than most points in the County, Leesburg, nevertheless, shares with them the distinction of being unsurpassed for healthfulness and picturesqueness of surroundings.

Crossing at right angles, its streets are regular and spacious and lighted by electricity. Many of its dwellings and business houses are also equipped with electric lighting facilities, power for which is generated at a plant located near Belmont, on Goose Creek, and controlled by Leesburg capitalists. In almost every quarter of the town are brick and granolithic sidewalks, fringed with the usual varieties of shade trees.

Some of the municipal advantages not already enumerated are a sewerage system, a fire department, a public library, police protection and a thoroughly modern system of water-works of a capacity sufficient to supply the entire corporation with absolutely pure water from a noted spring issuing near the base of Catoctin Mountain.

Some of the public buildings are a town hall, one of the largest brick edifices in Northern Virginia; a comparatively new court-house and a clerk's office,[15] both venerable structures with imposing façades lending them an exquisite air of Colonialism, the two liberally disposed over a fenced area with sloping lawns and umbrageous shade; a brick jail (County) containing eight steel cells, commodious residential quarters for the jailer and his family and having, as an humanitarian feature, a sunny court with towering walls; a remodelled brick academy and a colored school, both comprising primary, intermediate, and high school divisions, and provided with ample educational facilities and extensive playgrounds.

[Footnote 15: Prior to 1873, the Leesburg Academy.]

The town has 7 churches representing all the leading denominations, a Young Men's Christian Association branch, 5 fraternal orders and a weekly newspaper. Eight trains arrive at and depart from Leesburg daily.

Among the local enterprises are two handsome banking houses (the "Loudoun National Bank" and "Peoples National Bank"), 2 large hotels affording accommodations for 130 guests, several boarding houses, stores handling every class and grade of merchandise, an artificial ice plant with a daily capacity of 5 tons, a large race course on the outskirts of the town where are held annually a horse show, races and other like events, a confectionery and bakery, an ice cream factory, a pop factory, two harness factories, a lumber and planing mill, 2 private schools, 3 cobblers' establishments, 2 livery stables, 3 blacksmith shops, 2 furniture houses, 2 undertaking establishments, 2 grain elevators, a lime quarry, 3 wheelwright shops, 2 tinning establishments, a concrete construction plant, monument works, wood and coal yard, Standard Oil Company's branch and packing house.

Leesburg probably has more than the usual number of resident physicians, lawyers, and mechanics to be found in towns of a corresponding size.

_Round Hill._

Round Hill, a thriving railway town in the western part of the County, lies 3 miles east of Bluemont, 3 miles west of Purcellville, and 53 miles from the city of Washington. It is the second largest town in Loudoun, has an elevation of about 600 feet above mean tide and is in the midst of a rich farming region abounding with streams of pure water from mountain water-courses. The town's name is derived from a conical hill projecting from the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 2 miles away. It has a population of 450, 20 of which number are merchants and mechanics, and a newly established bank.

_Waterford._

Waterford, a thriving Quaker settlement, is situated on Catoctin Creek in the northern part of the County, 6 miles south of Taylorstown, 7 miles northwest of Leesburg, 47 miles in a like direction from Washington and 159 miles north of Richmond. It was named after the town of Waterford, in Ireland, where some of its founders had formerly resided. The first house within the town limits was built by one Asa Moore, and remains standing at the present day. In common with the other towns and villages of the famous Loudoun Valley, Waterford is noted for its numerous and inexhaustible wells of the purest and best water, bracing air and low mortality rate. It has 383 inhabitants, 14 of whom are merchants and mechanics.

_Hamilton._

Hamilton, one of the prettiest towns in the County, is spread over a considerable area and occupies one of the highest points in the beautiful Loudoun Valley. It is about 46 miles by rail from Washington, 3 miles from Purcellville and only a few miles from both the Catoctin and Blue Ridge mountains, walling the valley to the east and west, and is the center of a group of seven towns and villages within a radius of 5 miles. It has 364 inhabitants, of which number 18 are merchants and mechanics.

_Purcellville._

Purcellville, in the western part of the County with an approximate elevation of 500 feet, is about 50 miles from Washington, 3 miles from both Round Hill and Hamilton, and 2-1/2 miles from Lincoln. It is delightfully situated in the center of one of the finest agricultural districts in the Loudoun Valley and has a population of 300, 17 merchants and mechanics and a national bank.

_Middleburg._

Middleburg, situated on Goose Creek in the southwestern part of Loudoun, is 12 miles from the summit of the Blue Ridge at Ashby's Gap, 5 miles west of Aldie, 1/4 of a mile from the Fauquier line, and 16 miles by stage from Leesburg, the seat of government. It is a growing and prosperous community, elevated and airy and overlooking a broad expanse of rich territory. Fourteen of its 296 inhabitants are merchants and mechanics.

_Ashburn._

Ashburn, a railway town in lower Loudoun, formerly known as _Farmwell_, is 34 miles from Washington, 31 miles from Alexandria, 4 miles northwest of Sterling, and 6 miles from Leesburg. It is in the heart of one of the richest and most extensive dairying sections of the State, and has become somewhat famous as a resort for anglers, the bass fishing in Goose Creek, near by, being eminently satisfying and attracting many devotees of the sport from Washington and other more distant points.

_Bluemont._

Bluemont, formerly known as _Snickersville_, is an attractive village, snugly and advantageously situated at the southeastern base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 3 miles from Round Hill, 54 miles by rail from Washington, and 165 miles from Richmond. It is on the western edge of the most densely populated section of Loudoun, and boasts modern hotels and boarding houses, two liveries, a grain elevator, and many handsome dwellings. Two turnpikes, leading from Washington and Alexandria to Winchester, intersect at this point. Bluemont is a popular summer resort, and lies within a very short distance of both the "Bears' Den" and "Raven Rocks," jutting points on the western slope of the Blue Ridge, from which magnificent views may be had of the Shenandoah valley and river and the Alleghany and North mountains. The town has a population of 200, 14 of which number are merchants and mechanics.

_Smaller Towns._