Castlewoods

“Down”Into Kentucky

Of primary importance to our family, of course, is Fugate’s station and the founding of Castlewood, Virginia, which was named Why did our ancestors move “down into Kentucky” as the saying went (You had to descend from the peaks of the Appalachians after early settler Jacob Cassell, who came down The Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania and settled there in the 1770s.

into the rolling hills, bottoms, and grasslands which were best for settlement)? The standard answers are that land could be had for The Fugates got to Castlewood in approximately 1771, when the Shawnees and Cherokees were harassing the settlers. One almost nothing; the population of the Southwestern Virginia counties had increased to frontier-levels of bursting, and there was of the most famous of the Fugates in family genealogists is “Castlewood John” - our direct ancestor.

adventure to be had in this newly opened land which had been only used as a hunting ground for the Indians.

Indian uprisings were the reason for the string of “forts” set up on the border of what was to become the point of intersection The more significant and specific answer was that the newly formed United States was encouraging its Revolutionary War of four states. Most of these forts were little more than two or three story reinforced cabins, although some had rude turrets for veterans to be paid in land, if not in currency. That all the land in Kentucky must trace its ownership back to the government, is improved defense. Settlers had farmhouses within running distance, and, when trouble threatened, they retreated to their local in this day surpising, but it was true, nevertheless:

“Fort.” The Fugate Fort was also known as Brown’s or Richand’s.

The men of the settlement were often referred to as “Long Hunters”; they went off hunting for months, and even years, leav-

“All land in Kentucky should follow a pedigree back to a governmental grant, generally Kentucky or Virginia. This

ing young boys and their mothers to defend the family farm from the Indians by holing up in the family forts.

process is called land patenting. Once a part of the commonwealth of Virginia, the land of Kentucky began to be granted The story is told of a younger Daniel Boone who returned from one of his long hunts to find his wife nursing a baby. Old after the King’s Proclamation of 1763 stating that land would be granted in lieu of cash to the veterans of the French & Dan’l had been gone at least a year, and so the first thing he asked his wife was, “Who’s is it?” She said, “It’s your brother’s,” and Indian War. The Land Law of 1779 expanded the granting of land to the state’s Revolutionary War veterans. John Filson Dan’l shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, at least you kept it in the family.”

discussed the land grant process in his 1784 publication.”

True or not, the story is illustrative (Old Dan’l went on to tell his wife he had made an “Indian Marriage” in his absence).

http://kytnstories.blogspot.com/2011/07/kentuckys-revolutionary-land-grants.html

Like David Crockett, “King of the Wild Frontier,” little could come between a long hunter and his long hunting.

Here is how it was done, as it was explained at the time to prospective settlers:

Just after the Fugates got to Castlewoods, an Indian uprising was so threatening that the settlers actually abandoned their

“The proprietors of the Kentucke lands obtain their patents from Virginia, and their rights are of three kinds, viz. Those

forts, and fled down The Great Wagon Road to North Carolina while others fled up the same road toward the Shenandoah. They

which arise from military service, from settlement and pre-emption, or from warrants from the treasury. The military rights

returned a year later.

are held by officers, or their representatives, as a reward for services done in one of the two last wars. The Settlement and pre-

The history of Castle’s Woods is summed up on the Internet:

emption rights arise from occupation. Every man who, before March, 1780, had remained in the country one year, or raised

It was originally named Castle’s Wood’s, as the land in the immediate area had once belonged to Jacob Castle, a fron-

a crop of corn, was allowed to have a settlement of four hundred acres, and a pre-emption adjoining it of one thousand acres.

tiersman in the likes of Daniel Boone. Castle purchased the land from the Shawnee Indians, for very little in trade. It is

Every man who had only built a cabbin, or made any improvement by himself or others, was entitled to a pre-emption of one

reported that the purchase was made with the Shawnee Indians for a “hound dog, a knife, and a shot of whiskey. As a “Long

thousand acres where such improvement was made.

Hunter”, he spent long periods of time in the wilderness on hunting expeditions. There he befriended the Indians that inhab-

In March, 1780, the settlement and pre-emption rights ceased, and treasury warrants were afterwards issued, authorizing

ited the land in the Castlewood area. He married a Shawnee maiden by the name of Gliding Swan and they produced many

their possessor to locate the quantity of land mentioned in them, wherever it could be found vacant in Virginia.

children. It has been said that Castle himself showed Daniel Boone the Cumberland Gap and areas west, which led to Boone’s expedition and settlement of said lands. Many descendants of Castle reside in Russell County, Virginia and the surrounding

The mode of procedure in these affairs may be instructive to the reader. After the entry is made in the land-office, there

area. Castle’s father, Peter Cassell was a German immigrant to Pennsylvania who was influential in the Dutch movement to

being one in each county, the person making the entry takes out a copy of the location, and proceeds to survey when he pleases.

America. The name was modified to Castlewood by the United States Postal Service in the late 1800s, as a simplification of

The plot and certificate of such survey must be returned to the office within three months after the survey is made, there to be

the original spelling and pronunciation which was common during this time period.

recorded; and a copy of the record must be taken out in twelve months, after the return of the survey, and produced to the assis-

Castlewood today is 7.2 square miles and supports a population of 2,000. There is a small sign on the side of the highway by

tant register of the land-office in Kentucke, where it must lie six months, that prior locators may have time and opportunity to

which it is identified. Probably no local resident remembers all that happened there.

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