Close Under the

Blue Ridge Mountains

 

Looking for the Explorer

Johan Peter Saling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compiled by

Dan Kegley

©2005

 

 

 

 

Foreword 5

 

Down the River to Rotterdam 7

 

Latter Day Explorations 9

 

A Brief Account of the Travels 13

 

The Letter from Prison 23

 

At Home in the Shenandoah 26

 

State Histories 28

 

Epilogue 32

 

References 33

 

Appendix 37

 

Acknowledgements 38

 

 

 

 

Two views of the Salling House in Glasgow, Virginia.

Photos: Dan Kegley

 

Foreword

 

 

There is properly no history, only biography.
--Emerson

 

 

By the inclusion here of the poet’s words I do not mean to suggest this work belongs in either genre, as I hold no credentials in history or in biography. Yet Emerson’s view that history, with its increasing catalogue of dates and places and events, is actually about people is at the heart of this project.

Countless individuals’ stories comprise the history of this country since the 15th century. However, the stories are only as durable and accessible as the records that contain them or the oral traditions that pass them through the generations. Many of these stories of people, even those stories that played large on the stages of their times, were simultaneously or subsequently overshadowed by figures whose lives and deeds earned them greater audiences, or by the later estimations by historians of the value of their stories.

Mention Virginia history, and names like Mason, Jefferson and Henry spring to mind like synonyms, and rightly so, for these Virginians through their deeds lay the groundwork for the establishment of a nation. Their stories are inseparable from the greater story of the final and successful stand of the 13 colonies against the English throne. By the time these figures rose to lasting prominence by charting the course of a new nation, others had done much of the early work in charting the country that young nation would call home.

In 1669-70, John Lederer traveled from the tidewater to the top of the Blue Ridge and gave the colonists the understanding the coastal region gave way to the piedmont that, in turn, became mountains as one traveled farther inland. Christopher Gist traveled, in 1750-51, in what is now West Virginia and Ohio. But these and other stories are largely unknown outside circles of learned historians.

Another of these rather fascinating stories in the dim corner of the Virginia experience is that of the Johan Peter Saling/John Howard expedition of 1742. It has been suggested that while Saling and Howard’s adventures as early explorers of Virginia and Kentucky were well known during their lifetime and after, they were upstaged by a later pair of Virginians, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. After all, they had the blessing and directive of the president, Thomas Jefferson, to find the best route to the Pacific Ocean from the Mississippi River. But before Lewis and Clark were born, Saling and Howard had explored lands east of the Mississippi when it still formed Virginia’s western boundary, and made, or at least Saling documented, a notable "discovery" almost at the journey’s start: Natural Bridge near Glasgow.

Today, the Lewis and Clark story is found in any U.S. history textbook, but not Howard and Saling’s. Accounts of their story are found in scattered mentions in studies of early Virginia, and the memory of them is likewise fragmentary. This is partly because in their time there was likely more doing of deeds than writing about them, at least in the English language. News was

 

Foreword

largely shared orally and, in the sparsely populated and mostly foot-traveled country, sometimes arrived weeks after the newsworthy event itself had transpired. Where memory of details lapsed, the news was subject to creative gap filling, if not embellishment. Multiply this process by the number of bearers of the news and it’s a wonder we know the truth of anything that happened before printing was common in this country.

The Howard/Saling story deserves preservation and restoration to some level of popular recognition. It has been heartening to learn in the course of researching this expedition that the story is recalled and taught in West Virginia schools, where Saling is credited with a true discovery that set the course for that state’s development and industrialization.

More than the story of two men’s explorations, Howard and Saling’s is the story of early immigration to and settling of this country, self-reliance, political intrigue, and what can only be called adventure.

There is also a more personal reason for the present compilation that concerns itself mainly with Johan Peter’s story: he is my fifth-great grandfather, an easier way of saying my great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

In these pages I attempt not an academic establishment of new historical or biographical knowledge about Johan Peter Saling, but rather a compilation of the scattered references to him that I have collected in what has been by no means exhaustive research. Scholarly research would require untold miles in travels and hours in archives in a search for original source material that may or may not exist. Where there are conflicting accounts, I have noted their differences, but can offer no original documentation of any. My goal here is to bring Johan Peter Saling out of the shadows. My hope is that someone will bring the light of historical and biographical scholarship to further illuminate this intriguing figure of early colonial history.

Dan Kegley

 

 

  

Down the Rhine to Rotterdam

The English colonies in America represented

the beginning of an era of self-determination, freedom

from oppression, and abundance of opportunity.

In the first half of the 18th century, during that time of relative quiet in the American colonies between their establishment and their fight to become independent from England, the colonies and the uncharted lands west of them still seemed a vast, inexhaustible land full of opportunity and fortune. The land was free for the settling, but free only in the economic sense, for it would take incalculable investments of labor by settlers to homestead in the wilderness, let alone profit from it. Additionally, there was the preliminary and often prohibitive cost of getting across an ocean to even set foot in the New World.

Colonial entrepreneurs saw opportunity in the desire of a growing number of Europeans to own a piece of the New World. Archibald Henderson wrote that these potential immigrants were "lured on by the highly colored stories of the commercial agents for promoting immigration--the ‘newlanders,’ who were thoroughly unscrupulous in their methods and extravagant in their representation… ."

These capitalists, including those whose ships could breach the chief barrier to immigration from Europe, found a market for their services in many places, including the Palatinate in the Prussian Empire, the region now known as the state of Rhineland-Pfalz in Germany. The Palatinate had been in turmoil and hardship since the late 1600s when Henry XIV ransacked the parts of the region France could not win during the War of the Grand Alliance. The region was still recovering from the starvation and disease of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) that killed perhaps two-thirds of the region’s population.

Perhaps life had never been as pleasant in the Palatinate as in other places. Its name refers to the region on the Rhine controlled by Roman counts palatine or princes until Roman occupation ended early in the 5th century. The region was defined during their rule and later by a boundary often shifted by wars and other influences. By the 18th century, immigrants called palatines were those Germans who left not from a specific place, but from this amorphous and vaguely defined region in what is now southwestern central Germany. For them, the English colonies in America perhaps represented the beginning of an era of self-determination, freedom from oppression, and abundance of opportunity.

The palatines’ future in the colonies was far from certain, but certain, they believed, to be better than their past. Their parents and grandparents remembered William Penn’s exhortations about the freedoms of the colonials when he returned from his 1677 visit to Pennsylvania. With hope in their hearts the first westward-looking palatines left home in 1708 in boats floating down the Rhine to Rotterdam, where they boarded ships, paid the ships’ masters, and settled in for the long trans-Atlantic voyage.

The tide of immigration to the colonies crested 10 years before the American Revolution, but continued through the settling of the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s. Not all of the palatines who left home came to the American colonies. Some went by invitation to Russia, while others settled in Ireland. Those who came to the colonies arrived principally in the ports of New York and Philadelphia. Not all of the immigrants were from the Palatinate but

Down the Rhine to Rotterdam

from other areas in what is now Germany, but for simplicity in record keeping at the time, the immigrants’ origin was noted as the Palatinate.

Soon after the emigration from the Palatine region began, the seas were busy with the crossings of immigrant ships bound for the colonies. One of these ships, the brigantine (a two-masted ship) Pennsylvania Merchant of London, under the command of John Stedman, arrived in the port of Philadelphia on September 18, 1733, bearing 187 palatines. These were presented to the Lt. Governor and a number of magistrates as having satisfactorily pledged loyalty to Great Britain. The ship’s list included the name Johan Peter Saling.

His name, like all others on his and all early ships bearing immigrants, and like names written for any purpose, was subject to the interpretation of the writer. Differing languages and dialects on the part of the speakers, differing levels of education on the part of the writers, and the lack of standardization of spelling of proper names until relatively late in history, all account for the variances found in the spellings of names in the records that survive.

He signed an oath of allegiance to King George II as Johan Peter Saling, but the name appears elsewhere as Johan Peter Sayling, John Peter Salling, Sallings, and Sallee. His father (according to one genealogy) may have spelled their name Sallin. For the present purpose, and on the basis of his own signature, we shall call him Johan Peter Saling.

 

 

  

Latter Day Explorations

 

The information on J.P. Salling was very detailed

and had come from church registers in Germany.

--Jana Shea

 

There are many disagreeing accounts of Johan Peter Saling’s birthplace and year, even about who his parents were.

Genealogies on the World Wide Web put his birth in 1697 and 1719, and one specifically reports the day as April 2. And a history text has the year as 1719 but the date as March 31.

If he was born in 1697, then he was 36 years old when he arrived in Philadelphia. If the year was 1719, he was 14.

The genealogy with the earlier birth year reports the birth of Johan Peter’s first daughter in North Carolina. According to other accounts, that is where she lived as an adult and died and there is no evidence Saling ever more than passed through that colony, and that was in 1745.

The second genealogy names Johan Peter’s father and mother, Niclaus Sallin and Salome Johanna, of Kaiserslautern, Germany. According to it, Johan Peter had a sister, Maria Clara Salling. (Johan Peter’s surname here is also Salling, and the children’s spellings may, if this account is accurate, suggest a shift in the spelling in the first generation.)

The genealogy says Johan Peter married Anna Maria Sallin, daughter of Peter Sallin and Anna Schuchrin, inciting speculation about whether the name Sallin shared by his father and Peter indicates that they were brothers and Johan Peter’s bride was his cousin, not an unheard of pairing in that era. And it reports Johan Peter and Anna had four children, two girls who came with the couple to Philadelphia in 1733, and two boys born after. The first daughter was Catherine Salling and the second was Mary Elizabeth Salling, both born before 1733. George Adam Salling and then John Salling were born after 1733.

But a fascinating entry in one of the World Wide Web’s genealogy forums presents a different picture bearing some similarities to the other genealogies, and some important differences as well. Jana Shea introduced herself as "a descendant of Johann Peter Salling [her spelling], through his daughter, Catharina Salling, who married Henry Fuller," and then revealed her own finding about her ancestor.

"I have that Johann Peter Salling was born in 1700 in Reipertsweiler [near Struth], Alsace-Lorraine. He was the son of Franz Salling of Struth. He married Anna Maria Vollmer on November 9, 1728 in Teiffenbach, Alsace-Lorraine [now part of France]. She was the daughter of George Michael Vollmer and his wife Anna Sabina Barbara. Johann Peter Salling died in 1755 in Augusta Co.,VA.

 

 

 

Latter Day Explorations

"Johann Peter Salling and Anna Maria Vollmer had the following children:
1.Anna Katherina, b.Aug.29,1729 Struth,GER
m.Apr.15,1751 Henry Fuller
d. aft 1790 Caswell,Co.,NC
2.Margaretha Magdalena, b.Oct.21,1731 Struth
d.Nov.3,1731 Struth
3.Maria Elisabeth, b.1733 Struth,GER
m. Richard Burton
4.George Adam, b.Feb.9,1736 Lancaster Co.,PA
m. Hannah
d.1788 Rockbridge, VA
5.John, b.1738 Lancaster Co.,PA."

Notable here, among many things, is the spelling of Salling, consistent through the three generations, and the death of the second child 13 days after her birth, explaining her absence in other accounts.

Shea’s entry continued with information we’ve seen before, along with some new.

"Johann Peter Salling, his wife and daughters, Catherine and Elisabeth came to America on board the ‘Pennsylvania Merchant,’ landing in Philadelphia, PA on Sept.18,1733. Also on board was a Adam Vollmer, who was probably the brother of Johann Peter Salling’s wife."

The ships list does indeed include Adam Vollmer. And then Shea provides her information with a large measure of credibility.

"The above information was found in the book, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol I. by R.B. Strassburger. The information on J.P. Salling was very detailed and had come from church registers in Germany."

Laura Brooks traces her line through French-Canadian, Native American, and German ancestors. Her research has found that her "grandfather was born in Germany, and my grandmother"s family came from Canada. My paternal side is primarily English, Irish, German, and Swiss. There are rumors of Native American ancestry in my father's family, though I have been unable to verify any. My mother's family lived in Michigan in the Detroit Downriver area, while my father's lived in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachians."

Brooks created a website to publish her work that turned up perhaps the same records Strassburger used that have Johann (John) Peter Salling as the son of Franz Salling, born in 1700 in Reipertswiller, Alsace-Lorraine, and died in March 1755 in Augusta Co., Va., and having immigrated in 1733 on "Pennsylvania Merchant."

But at this point she seems to depart from the German church records in her mention only of Anna Maria Vollmar, born in 1704 in Struth, Alsace-Lorraine and died in 1754 Augusta Co., Va., as immigrating "with Johann and daughters." There is no mention of Adam, but he may be implied in the note that Anna married November 9, 1728 in Tieffenbach, France.

Brooks’ information about the Sallings children is consistent with Strassburger’s.

The genealogy forum to which Shea posted her data had this to offer, a different "back story" from a descendant named Dean Salling.

"Here's some information my brother just received out of the blue. It's the first I've ever read of our Huguenot roots in France. I've included the full document, with the story of Johann Peter's exploits in the Mississippi region for anyone who might be interested:

Latter Day Explorations

"Johann Peter Saling - the 'White Indian' from Kaiserslautern

"The Salins were a Huguenot family, who had settled at Kaiserslautern in the Electoral Palatinate after the Thirty Years' War. Here, in any case, the tanner Pierre Sallin from Metz after having been granted citizenship and married to Johanna Römer, the daughter of the town pharmacist Franz Konrad Römer, is finally to be found in the town council records - since 1653 as chairman of that council and Palatinate burgomaster.

"The civic career of this Huguenot clearly indicated that his family could not have been without means, but brought capital to the impoverished country-town, which even in 1656 sheltered within its walls hardly a tenth of the population it had had before the war. In the 1683 register Sallin's possessions were estimated 810 fl. in ready money and 510 fl. in real-estate and taxed accordingly. At the time of his death the burgomaster was considered one of Kaiserslautern's wealthiest citizens.

"His son, Johann Nikolaus, too, went into the services of the town, here around 1718 he is repeatedly mentioned in the records as sergeant, major and then lieutenant of the town-guards. In 1731 he sold the Slinsmühle, a flour-, bark-, and saw-mill, his father had built outside the town and for which he had had to pay a 'water-tax' of a certain amount of flour and 1 fl. This sale probably was undertaken in connexion with the emigration of his son, Johann Peter Saling, who went to Northamerica in 1733 with his wife Maria and his two daughters Catharina and Elizabeth.

"On 18 September of the same year this family together with a group of 70 men, 55 women and 62 children mainly from the Electoral Palatinate and Zweibrücken territory arrived in Philadelphia Harbour on board of the 'Pennsylvania Merchant' commanded by captain John Stedman. They first settled in Conestoga Valley in Lancaster County, where for twenty years many Palatinates, specially Mennonites of Swiss extraction, had settled. Here 250 acres of lands were registered in 1735 under the name of Johann Peter Saling.

"However, the mobile 'Palatine' did not stay for long in this area of well established settlements, he moved on to the frontier. In 1740 he built a log-cabin on the banks of the James River in Virginia, which became a much frequented restplace for frontiermen, trappers, missionaries, and tradesmen, who were pushing further southwest and beyond the

border. Saling, too, was attracted by the wide range of the Indian country. Therefore, it was not very difficult for John Howard to persuade our 'Palatine' and three other colonists to join him for a canoe-expedition into the unknown, when in 1741/2 Governor Spotswood of Virginia asked him to explore the lakes and rivers of the Mississippi region. The political background to this daring enterprise was the beginning of the struggles for predominance on the continent between England and France. In this situation the British with all their energy tried to prevent their coastal colonies from being cut off from the free Indian territory in the west by the French expansion closing in from two sides, i.e. from Louisiana and from Canada down the Mississippi Valley." Dean Salling sites as his source Karl Scherer in Three Hundred Years of German Immigrants in North America 1683 - 1983.

Larry Woods responded in the forum with an obvious and concerning discrepancy between Saling and Shea’s accounts.

 

Latter Day Explorations

"The information from Karl Scherer is interesting, but it also raises serious questions. The postings I have seen for the Johann Peter Salling who was the son of Johann Nicolaus Salling show a birth of 31 Mar 1719, and christening in the Kaiserslautern Reformed Church. This

would make it unlikely that Johann Peter would have two daughters born before 1733, when he brought his family to the United States. Nevertheless, the Kaiserslautern location seems likely as the refuge for Alsatian Protestants, and raises the question whether Johann Nicolaus was a relative (perhaps brother) of Franz, the other likely father for Johann Peter Salling."

Many of the new immigrants who arrived in the New World brought a measure of wealth with them. Others found themselves in debt to their ships’ masters, and became indentured servants.

Archibald Henderson wrote, "Although certain of the emigrants were well-to-do, a very great number were redemptioners (indentured servants), who in order to pay for their transportation were compelled to pledge themselves to several years of servitude. This economic condition caused the German immigrant, wherever he went, to become a settler of the back country, necessity compelling him to pass by the more expensive lands near the coast."

Once in Virginia, Saling became involved with the local militia. He appears on the roster of Captain John McDowell’s Company of Militia in 1742. This unit was involved in Rockbridge County’s first battle with Native Americans. Angela M. Ruley compiled this account of the events:

"The first clash with the settlers and the natives in Rockbridge occurred 18 December 1742, near the mouth of North River, (now called Maury River).
"Thirty-nine Iroquois came into Borden’s Grant on their way to fight the Catawbas. Captain John McDowell entertained them for a day and gave them whiskey. They then moved on to South River where they camped for about a week. They hunted game and took food from the settlers. The women were scared, some people complained the Natives had shot horses and hogs.
"Colonel William Patton ordered Captain John McDowell to call out his militia company and escort the natives out of the settlement.
"Captain McDowell gathered up thirty-four men and went in search of the natives. The Iroquois had moved southward. McDowell and his men caught up with them and escorted them beyond Salling’s plantation, (present-day Glasgow).
"As the Indians headed into the forest, one of the militia-men shot at the last native heading into the woods. A war-cry was raised and the battle was on.
"Muskets, tomahawks, and knives were used. Forty-five minutes after it started, the battle was over. Eleven militiamen were killed, among the dead was Captain John McDowell. Eight or ten Indians were also killed. The natives who escaped were followed over the mountains and as far as the Potomac River by militiamen…."

 

 

A Brief Account of the Travels

On the 16th of March, 1742, we set off from my house…

-- Johan Peter Saling

 

"THE FIRST WHITE man to cast his wondering gaze upon the arch of Natural Bridge, as far as can be ascertained by existing records, was John Peter Sallings."

With these words begins the first chapter of The Natural Bridge and Its Historical Surroundings, and with them we turn from considering Johan Peter Saling the immigrant, during the early Palatine exodus, to Johan Peter Saling the explorer of rivers and lakes from the Valley of Virginia to Mississippi.

But the text continues into questionable assertions penned by Dr. John Peter Hale, who in "Trans-Allegheny Pioneers," has Saling exploring the valley "as early as 1730." This is three years before the records show him and his wife and two daughters arriving in Philadelphia, and a decade before they, now with two sons, move to what would become Glasgow, Va.

Whether Saling was the first European to see the bridge is less certain than the possibility that it was he who first made written note of it. He kept notes of his travels, and although later confiscated by both French and British officials, these he recreated at the end of the trip for which he is best known.

It was at the beginning of this journey that Saling recorded his impression and measurements of the bridge. In his reconstructed journal (later transcribed by Col. John Buchanan), we read: "On the 16th of March, 1742, we set off from my house and went to Cedar Creek, about five miles where there is Natural Bridge over said Creek, reaching from the Hill on the one side to the Hill on the other. It is a solid Rock and is two hundred and three feet high, having a very Spacious arch, where the Water runs thro’… ."

Dr. Richard Batman has raised the question about whether it is reasonable to think Saling, who lived for two years within six miles of the stone bridge, was seeing it then for only the first time. Other questions, too, surround the journey – questions rising from differences between the accounts found in histories, the family tradition, and in Saling’s own journal.

Robert J. Smith cites a 1927 reference supporting Saling as the bridge’s first documentarian. "Research on the early history of the bridge carried out by the corporate owners in the 1930s suggest that one of the earliest to see it was a John Peter Sallings, who arrived in the area around 1730. His diaries mention the bridge in 1742, the earliest documentation of Natural Bridge, and he may have seen the bridge as early as 1734. Chester A. Reeds in his 1927 book Natural Bridge and Its Environs wrote that the first recorded mention of the bridge was by Andrew Burnaby in 1759 who noted that it was ‘a natural arch or bridge joining two high mountains, with a considerable river underneath.’ However, Burnaby merely recorded it as a natural curiosity and did not visit it on his travels for fear of raiding Cherokees."

Fairfax Harrison, whose "The Virginians on the Ohio and the Mississippi in 1742" in the April 1922 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography is perhaps the most scholarly treatment of the subject (and is a reference frequently cited in subsequent histories) wrote in a footnote to Saling’s journal that his description of Natural Bridge "seems to be the earliest description of the Natural Bridge."

A Brief Account of the Travels

Perhaps the best place to begin our exploration is with the journal of Saling’s explorations, and a word of preface to explain the document as we know it.

In the journal’s first paragraph Saling tells of his original diary and other papers being taken by the French during his captivity by them, and never given back. In Charles Town, Saling gave the British governor a copy of his journal, and the governor refused to return it. After he returned home in 1745, Saling rewrote the journal once again and from memory.

Shenandoah Valley historian William Couper wrote that "it was popular in times past to discredit Salling’s journal, but, with the passage of the years and the discovery in far places of corroborating evidence, it has become a revealing document."

Colonel John Buchanan thought so at the time, stopping at Saling’s home and

spending a day in 1745 copying it for his own use with the Woods River Company. Joshua Fry, who with Peter Jefferson drew the famous Fry and Jefferson map of 1751, was next, giving his copy the title "A Brief Account of the Travels of John Peter Salley A German who Lives in the County of Augusta in Virginia." Fry’s copy was sent to the Lords of Trade in England, according to Couper (Dr. Batman wrote that it accompanied a copy of Fry’s map) and it is his transcription that we know today.

Harrison wrote in a footnote about Fry’s transcribing the journal, "Salley permitted others to copy his journal," and quotes R. G Thwaites’ writing about Buchanan’s diary, containing his copy of the journal, now residing in the Wisconsin Historical Society library. Harrison also wrote that Virginia botanist Dr. John Mitchell "made use of it in drawing that great map of 1755 on which the British government subsequently placed so much reliance."

Although later explorations would uphold the veracity of Saling’s observations on the westward trek, "Salley’s distances to not bear critical analysis. One can understand that they seemed greater to him than they do to a traveller in a Pullman car."

Dr. Batman and Harrison set the stage for the travels with an account of John Howard, whose idea the expedition was. Howard had "appeared before the governor’s Council and requested a commission ‘to go Upon Discoveries on the Lakes and River Mississippi.’ The Council, anxious to reaffirm its claim to the land west of the Shenandoah Valley, granted Howard the commission ‘to Command men as shall be willing to Accompany him upon such Discoveries.’"

But Howard (sometimes seen as Hayward) had second thoughts about the enormity of his proposed undertaking and put the matter off until 1742 when he asked Saling, John Poteet, and Charles Sinclair to accept the Council’s offer of 10,000 acres of land to be divided among them and join Howard and his son Josiah, on the journey, chronicled in Saling’s journal:

It may be necessary before I enter upon the particular passage of my Travels, to inform my Reader that what they are to meet with in the following Narrative, is only what I retained in my Memory; For when we were taken by the French we were robbed of all our papers, that contained any writings that were relative to our Travels.

1740. In the year 1740, I came from Pennsylvania to the part of Orange County now called Augusta; and settled in a fork of James River close under the Blue Ridge of Mountains of the West Side, where I now live.

A Brief Account of the Travels

1741/1742 In the month of March, 1741/2, One John Howard came to my house, and told me, that he had received a commission from our Governor to travel to the westward Colony as far as the River Mississippi, in order to make discovery of the Country, and that as a reward for his Labour, he had the promise

of an Order of the Council for Ten Thousand Acres of Land; and at the same time obliged himself to give equal shares of said Land to as such men as would go in

Company with him to search the Country as above. Whereupon I and other two men, Vizt [John Poteet] and Charles Sinclair (his own son Josiah Howard having already joined with him) entered into a Covenant with him, binding ourselves to

each other in a certain writing, and accordingly prepared for our Journey in an unlucky hour to me and my poor Family.

1741/2 On the 16th of March, 1742, we set off from my house and went to Cedar Creek, about five miles where there is Natural Bridge over said Creek, reaching from the Hill on the one side to the Hill on the other. It is a solid Rock and is two hundred and three feet high, having a very Spacious arch, where the Water runs thro’, we then proceeded as far as Mondongachate, now called Woods River, which is eighty-five Miles, where we killed five Buffaloes, and with their hides covered the Frame of a Boat which was so large as to carry all of our Company, and our provisions and Utensils, with which we passed down the said River two hundred and fifty-two miles as we supposed, and found it very Rocky, having a great many Falls therein, one of which we computed to be thirty feet perpendicular and all along surrounded with inaccessible Mountains, high precipices, which obliged us to leave said River.

We went then a southwest course by land eighty five Miles, where we came to a small River, and there we made a little Boat, which carried only two men and our provisions. The rest traveled by Land for two Days and then we came to a large River, where we enlarged our Barge, so as she carried all our company and whatever loading we had to put into her.

We supposed that we went down this river Two Hundred and Twenty Miles, and had a tolerable good passage; there being only two places, that were difficult by reason of Falls. Where we came to this River the Country is mountainous, but the further down the plainer in those mountains, we found great plenty of Coals, for which we named it Coal River. Where this River and Woods river meets the North Mountains end, and the Country appears very plain and is well water'd, there are plenty of Rivulets, clear Fountains and running Streams and very fertile Soil.

From the mouth of Coal River, to the River Allegany we computed to be ninety two miles, and on the sixth day of May we came to Allegany which we

 

A Brief Account of the Travels

supposed to be three Quarters of a mile (broad) and from here to the great Falls of this River is reckoned four hundred and forty four Miles, there being a large Spacious open Country on each side of the River, and is well watered abounding

with plenty of Fountains small streams and large Rivers; and is very high and fertile Soil.

At this Time we found the Clover to be as high as the middle of a man's leg. In general all the Woods over the Land is Ridgey, but plain, well timbered and

hath plenty of all kind of Wood, that grows in Common with us in this Colony (excepting pine). The Falls mentioned above are three miles long in which is a

small Island, the body of the Stream running on the North side, through which is no passing by reason of great Rocks and large Whirlpools, by which we went down the south side of said Island without much Danger or Difficulty and in time of a Fresh in the River, men may pass either up or down, they being active or

careful. About twenty miles below the Falls the Land appeared to be somewhat Hilly the Ridges being higher, and continued so for the Space of fifty Miles down the River, but neither Rocky nor Stony, but a rich Soil as is above mentioned. Joyning this high Land below is a very level flat Country on both sides of the River, and is so for an Hundred and fifty Miles, abounding with all the advantages mentioned above, and a much richer Soil; we then met with a kind of Ridge that seemed to Extend across the Country as far as we could view and bore North and South. In Seven Mile we passed it, when we found the Country level (as is mentioned before), but not having such plenty of running Streams, yet a richer Soil. On the seventh day of June we entered into the River Mississippi, which we computed to be five miles wide, and yet in some places it is not above one mile over, having most places very high Banks, and in other places it overflows. The current is not swift but easy to pass either up or down, and in all our passage we found great plenty of Fish, and wild foul in abundance. In the River Mississippi above the mouth of the Allegany is a large island where are three Towns inhabited by the French, who maintain Commerce and Trade both with the French of Canada and those French on the mouth of said River. In the fork between Allegany and Mississippi are certain Salt Springs, where the Inhabitants of the Towns mentioned above make their Salt. Also they have a very rich Lead Mine which they have opened and it affords them a Considerable gain.

From the Falls mentioned above in the River Allegany to the mouth of said River is four Hundred fifty Miles, from thence to the Town of New Orleans is One Thousand four Hundred and ten Miles, and is Uninhabited excepting fifty Leagues above New Orleans It is a large spacious plain Country endowed with all the natural Advantages, that is a moderate healthy Climate, Sweet water, rich Soil, and a pure fresh Air, which contribute to the Benefit of Mankind.

We held on our passage down the River Mississippi, the second day of July, and about the nine o' the Clock in the Morning, we went on Shore to cook our

A Brief Account of the Travels

Breakfast. But we were suddenly surprised by a Company of Men, viz. to the Number of Ninety, Consisting of French men Negroes, & Indians, who took us

prisoners and carried us to the Town of New Orleans, which was about one Hundred Leagues from us when we were taken, and after being examined upon Oath by the Governor, first separately one by One, and then All together, we were committed to close Prison, we not knowing then (nor even yet) how long they intended to confine us there. During our stay in Prison we had allowed us a pound and a half of Bread each Day, and Ten pound of pork p Month for each man. Which allowance was duly given to us for a space of Eighteen Months, and after that we had only one pound of Rice Bread and one pound of Rice for each man

p Day, and one Quart of Bear's Oil for each man p Month, which allowance was continued untill I made my escape. Whilst I was confined in Prison I had many Visits made to me by the French and Dutch who lived there, and grew intimate and familiar with some of them, by whom I was informed of the Manner of

Government, Laws, Strength and Wealth of the Kingdom of Louisiana as they call it, and from the whole we learned that the Government is Tyrannical, The Common People groan under the Load of Oppression, and Sigh for Deliverance. The governor is the Chief Merchant and inhances all the trade into his own hands, depriving the Planters of selling their Commodities to another, but himself, and allowing them only such prices as he pleases. And with respect to Religion, there's so little to be found amongst them, but those who profess Religion at all, it's the Church of Rome. In the town are nine Clergymen four Jesuits and five Capuchin Friers.

They have likewise one Nunnery in which are nine Nuns. Notwithstanding the Fertility and Richness of the Soil, the Inhabitants are generally poor as a Consequence of the Oppression they meet with from their Rulers, neither is the Settling of the Country, or Agriculture in any Measure encouraged by the Legislature. -- One thing I had almost forgot, Vix. We were told by some of the French who first settled there, that about forty years ago, when the French first discovered the place, and made attempt to settle therein, there were then pretty many English settled on both sides of the River Mississippi, and one Twenty Gun Ship lay in the River, what became of the Ship we did not hear, but we were informed that the English Inhabitants were all destroyed by the Natives at the Instigation of the French.

I now begin to speak of the strength of the Country, and by the best Account I cou'd gather I did not find, that there are above four Hundred and fifty effective Men of the Militia in all that country, and not above one Hundred and fifty Soldiers under pay in and about the Town of New Orleans, ‘tis true they have Sundry Forts in which they have some men, but they are so weak and despicable as not worth taking notice of, with regard to the Strengthening of the Country, having them only six men, in others Ten men, the strongest of all these places is at

 

A Brief Account of the Travels

the Mouth of the Mississippi In which are thirty men, and Fifty Leagues from thence is a Town called Mumvelle nine Leagues from the Mouth of a River of the same Name in which is a Garrison, that consists of Seventy soldiers. After I had

been confined in Prison above Two years, and all Expectation of being set at Liberty failing, I begun to think of making my Escape out of Prison, one of which I put into Practice, which Succeeded in the following Manner. There was a certain French Man, who was born in that Country, and had some time before sold his Rice to the Spaniards for which he was put in Prison, and it Cost him six Hundred Pieces of Eight before he got clear. He being tired with the Misery and Oppression under which the poor Country People Labour, formed a Design of removing his Family to South Carolina. Which Design was discovered, and he was again put into Prison in the Dungeon and made fast in Irons, after a formal Tryal, he was condemned to be a Slave for Ten years, besides the expense of seven Hundred pieces of Eight. With this Miserable French Man, I became intimate & familiar, and as he was an active man, and knew the Country he promised, if I could help him off with his Irons, and we all got clear of the Prison, he could conduct us safe untill we were out of Danger, We got a small file from a Soldier wherewith to cut the Irons and on the 25th day of October, 1744, we put our Design in Practice. While the French man was very busie in the Dungeon in cutting the Irons, we were as industrious without in breaking the Door of the Dungeon, and Each of us finished our Jobb at one Instant of time, which had held us for about six hours; by three of the Clock in the Morning with the help of a Rope which I had provided beforehand, we let our Selves down over the Prison Walls, and made our Escape Two Miles from the town that night, we lay close for two days. When then removed from the place two miles from the Town that night, where we lay close for two days. We then removed to a place three miles from the Town, where one of the good old Fryers of which I spoke before, nourished us four Days. On the Eighth Day after we made the Escape, we came to a Lake seven Leagues from the Town but by this Time we had got a Gun and some Ammunition, the next Day we shot two large Bulls, and with their Hides made us a boat, in which we passed the Lake in the Night. We tied the Shoulder Blades of the Bulls to small sticks, which served us for paddles and passed a point, where there were thirteen men lay in wait for us, but Thro' Mercy we escaped from them undiscovered. After we had gone by Water sixty miles we went on Shore, we left our Boat as a Witness of our Escaped to the French. We travelled thirty miles by Land to the River Skoktare, where our French man’s father lived. In this Journey we passed thro’ a Nation of Indians, who were very kind to us, and Carried over two large Bays. In this place we Tarried Two Months and ten Days in a very great Danger, for search was made for us everywhere by Land and Water and Orders to Shoot us when found. Great Rewards were promised by the Governor to the King of the Indians (mentioned above) to take us, which he refused, and in the meantime was very kind by giving provisions and informing us of our danger from time to time. After they had given over Searching for us, and we having got a large Periaugue and other necessary things for our voyage, and on the 25th of

A Brief Account of the Travels

January our French man and one Negro boy (which he took to wait on him) and another French man and we being all armed and well provided for our Voyage, we set off at a place called the belle Fountain (or in English fine Spring) and

Sailed fifty Leagues to the head of St. Rose's Bay, and there left our Vessel and travelled by Land thirty Leagues to the Fork Indians, where the English trade. Then there were three with them, and there we stayed five Days. The Natives were kind to us and generous, there we left the two French men and Negro boy, on the tenth of February we set off and travelled by Land up the River Giscaculfufa or Biscaculfufa, one Hundred and thirty five Miles, passing several Indian Towns the Natives being very hospitable and kind, and came to one Finlas an Indian Trader, who lives among the Ugu Nation. On the first of March we left Mr. Finlas, and on the sixteenth we arrived at fort Augustus in the Province of

Georgia. On the nineteenth instant we left Fort Augustus and on the first of April we arrived at Charles Town, and waited on the Governor, who examined us

Concerning our travels &c. and he detained us in Charles Town eighteen Days, and made us a present of eighteen pounds of their Money, which did no more than defray our Expences whilst in that Town.

I had delivered to the Governor a Copy of my Journal, which when I asked again he refused to give me, but having obtained from him a Pass we went on board a small Vessel bound for Virginia. On the Thirteenth of April, the same Day about two of the Clock we were taken by the French in Cape Roman and kept Prisoners till 11 of the Clock the next Day, at which time the French after having robbed us of all the Provisions we had for our Voyage or Journey, put us into a Boat we being 12 men in Number, and so left us to the Mercy of the Seas and Winds. On the fifteenth instant we arrived again at Charles Town and were examined before the Governor concerning our being taken by the French. We were now detained three Days before we could get another Pass from the Governor, we having destroyed the former, when we were taken by the French, and then were dismissed, being in a strange Place, far from Home, destitute of Friends, Cloathing, Money and Arms and in that deplorable Condition had been obliged to undertake a Journey of five Hundred Miles, but a Gentleman, who was Commander of a Privateer, and then lay at Charles Town with whom we had discoursed several times, gave to each of us a Gun and a Sword, and would have given us Ammunition, but that he had but little.

On the Eighteenth Day of April, we left Charles Town, the second time, and traveled by Land, and on the seventeenth day of May, 1745 we arrived at my House, having been absent three years, Two Months and one Day, from my family, having in that time by the nicest Calculation I am able to make, travelled by land and water four thousand six hundred and six Miles since I left my House till I returned Home again.

p JOHN PETER SALLEY

A Brief Account of the Travels

Salley is Fry’s spelling of the name and it appears so on the Fry-Jefferson map denoting Salling’s home. The "p" is short for "per."

The journal would not only serve as an account of the Howard-Saling expedition, but as such, it would play a role in the development of a treaty. According to the Virginia Center for Digital History:

"Joshua Fry had a keen interest in Western adventures. Like Rev. James Maury, Fry was an active reader of exploration literature and the two read many of the same books. He transcribed the accounts of John Peter Salley, a German immigrant who traveled along the New River and Mississippi River, and read the journal of Henri Joutel, a companion of La Salle's during his expedition up the Mississippi River. These personal accounts of danger and excitement could spark a colonist's interest in the possibilities the west beheld. Fry also owned more academic books about the trans-Allegheny west, such as Cadwallader Colden's History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada….

"Fry could finally apply his reading once he was selected to represent Virginia at the Logstown Treaty in 1752 along with Lunsford Lomax and James Patton. This small town near present day Pittsburgh became the focal point for contention between English and French expansionist interests. … The object was to reconfirm the sanctions of the Lancaster Treaty of 1744 which placed Virginia's boundary at the banks of the Ohio River. The English were nervous about the French who had recently started building forts along the Ohio River. … In the end, the colonists got what they wanted. Virginia's territory stretched to the Ohio River, and the British were granted permission to build a fort along the river…."

The journal of Johan Peter Saling makes no mention of the time he is said in some accounts to have lived with Native Americans, even becoming adopted by "a squaw of Kaskaskias" as Oren Morton wrote. It mentions only passing through Indian country whose residents were "kind" and "hospitable."

Two versions of his adventures, other than the one in which he and his party are held in a French prison in New Orleans, are found in the Couper history of the Shenandoah Valley. Couper, whose book contains a chapter titled "John Peter Salling and Expansion Westward," wrote that Saling and John Morlin or Marlin were on the Roanoke River when "they were met by a roving party of Cherokees, who considered them to be spying upon the Indian territory." Marlin escaped, but Saling was taken captive and went with the band into Tennessee, then Kentucky, where they hunted buffalo. Kentucky, according to Couper, was a "middleground of contention between the northern and southern tribes." The party to which Saling was bound "was attacked and defeated by some Indians from Illinois, and Salling was again captured and carried to Kaskaskia, where an old squaw adopted him for a son." Couper wrote that with these Indians, Saling travelled as far as the Gulf of Mexico. "After two years an exploring party of Spaniards, who wanted him for an interpreter, bought him from his Indian mother," and with the Spaniards Saling went to Canada where the French Governor "redeemed him" and sent him to New York [then New Amsterdam], and "after a period (some say six, some three years) of strange and eventful wanderings, he found his way back to Williamsburg."

 

 

 

A Brief Account of the Travels

The mention of Williamsburg raises questions, as does the period of time in which these captivities, relative to the New Orleans trip, took place. If Don Silvius is right in the account on his website, Williamsburg was where Saling came ashore after being set to Virginia by boat from New Amsterdam. Silvius presents another version of Saling’s story, one that is said to have deeply impressed Captain John Lewis, an exile from Ireland. The story goes that Lewis fell out with his landlord over the rent he was expected to pay for the castle in which he lived. The landlord lost the legal case, but took matters in his own hands, raised a band of men and attacked Lewis. But Lewis had warning and his own men fought against the landlord’s men and the landlord was killed. Since the landlord was of royal blood, Lewis was sent out of the country.

To the colonies he came, with his family and others, and "[w]hile awaiting a royal pardon sought in their behalf by Lady Gooch, Captain Lewis met John Peter Salling. Salling was an explorer and adventurer who had just returned from a fascinating voyage. While trapping for muskrat and beaver along the river of the Senedoes, he was ambushed and carried off by a party of raiding Ohio Choctaws. The warriors had led Salling across the Alleghenies to the "River of the Spaniards," as the Mississippi was then called. There he was sold into slavery to a Spaniard, who had taken him north to the French Great Lakes in Canada as a servant and translator. Somewhere near the Great Lakes, probably Detroit, the tables were turned on the Spaniard, as the French imprisoned him, setting Salling free.

"At his own request, Salling was put aboard a ‘freight canoe’ for the return trip across the lakes to Montreal. From here, Salling continued south, by way of Lake Champlain and the Indian River, to New Amsterdam (New York City). At New Amsterdam, he was paid by his rescuers and employers, and put aboard a coasting vessel headed for Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay by the mayor, Peter Stuyvesant. The entire trip, from capture to safe arrival at Williamsburg, took less than three months."

But this account doesn’t agree with Saling’s documented arrival in the port of Philadelphia.

"Captain Lewis was still excited about Salling's story when his pardon arrived. Instead of heading back to Ireland, Captain Lewis gathered his small group of Scots-Irish followers and set out for the mountain pass through the Blue Ridge at Swift Run Gap. He arrived at Middle River near present-day Staunton in 1734."

Saling was still in Pennsylvania, having arrived in the colonies the year before. He would register land in the Conestoga Valley the following year, in 1735.

Another account, that doesn’t cite its author, on the World Wide Web has this version: "Leaving Margaret to settle up his affairs in Ireland, John escaped to Portugal to the home of his brother-in-law. He arrived in Oporto in 1729. Shortly afterwards, he fled to America, landing in Philadelphia, PA. His family joined him a year later. He removed to Lancaster Co, PA where he spent the winter of 1730-1731, moving to Williamsburg, VA the following summer where he lived with the family of Governor Gooch, a friend of the Lynn family. There he met Peter Salling who had recently explored the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Intrigued with the glowing accounts of the beauties of this country, John Lewis obtained a grant of land from Governor Gooch and crossed the mountains."

 

 

A Brief Account of the Travels

Does this suggest that Saling had ventured forth into Virginia before settling there? That explanation is bothered by the report of Lewis’ encounter with Saling in the summer of 1731, since we know Saling was still on the eastern side of the Atlantic.

As a favor to Lewis, whose own story is most interesting, we return to him here in a kind of epilogue, again from the website.

"John Lewis and Joist Hite, a German immigrant from PA were the first white settlers west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hite settled the lower part of the valley near present Winchester, then called Mecklenburg. John made his home near the present town of Staunton. He built a substantial stone house on a small stream which he named Lewis' Creek. This community was called Fort Lewis. He prospered and accumulated a large estate, reared a family of four sons, all of whom are noted in their country's service both civil & military. He lived on his estate until his death in 1762. His gravestone reads: ‘Here lies the remains of JOHN LEWIS, who slew the Irish Lord, settled Augusta County, located the town of Staunton and furnished five sons to fight the battles of The American Revolution. He was the son of Andrew Lewis Esq. and Mary Calhoun and was born in Donegal County, Ireland 1678 and died in Virginia, February 1, 1762. He was a brave man, a true patriot and a firm friend of Liberty throughout the World.’

"John was pardoned by the King for the killing of the Irish Lord, after a year of exile, but he never returned to Ulster. He is described as more than 6 feet tall, very powerful and active."

According to Couper again, the family tradition held that "Salling and a son, after being captured near the present town of Salem, were taken to the Ohio River via Tennessee or via the New River (there are two versions). They escaped and while descending the Mississippi fell into the hands of Spaniards. The son died and Salling was put aboard a ship bound for Spain, where he was to be tried as a British spy. The Spanish ship was captured by an English vessel; Salling was landed at Charleston; and he reached home after an absence of three years."

So, it is little wonder that "A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia," begins a biographical piece on Saling thus: "A mist of romance attaches itself to the name of John Peter Salling."

That romance may have had something to do with the fact that Saling and his adventure are

little known.

"The early historians of western explorations generally ignored this story, though some of them mentioned it only to scout it," Fairfax Harrison wrote. " Standing alone, stripped of the official reports which testified to its provenance, this paper was not convincing."

Additionally, acceptance of Saling’s journal wasn’t helped by the differing versions of stories of his westward travels.

Historian Justin Winsor "hesitated to accept it," Harrison wrote. "Mr. Winsor’s caution was justified also by the confusion in the Virginia folk traditions of the adventures of one called John Salling, on the inconsistencies of which the most judicious of the historians of the Valley of Virginia, Mr. J.A. Waddell has already animadverted."

 

 

 

 

 

The Letter From Prison

And I verily believe that

we will not be released

until death has pity on us.

-- John Howard

In the French National Archives exists a copy of John Howard’s letter from prison to England’s King George II, whose intercession on their behalf as prisoners of the French he hoped to secure. According to historian William Couper, the Marquis Vaudreuil, successor to governor Bienville on whose orders the English subjects were imprisoned on suspicion of spying against the French in advance of an English attack, took possession of the letter and sent it to France. Couper writes that Howard’s "original appeal is now lost, but in time it may come to light, among the undigested records of the French regime in Louisiana."

The urgency of the five explorers’ situation is clear in Howard’s letter, but if the prisoners knew the fate Bienville had in mind for them, he’s didn’t communicate that knowledge. Howard wrote of the lack of evidence for the "weak suspicions" on which the French sentenced them to jail for three years. Guilty or not, Bienville wanted them prevented from going home, and planned to send them into slavery.

Harrison, using "French transcripts recently acquired by the Library of Congress," wrote, "Finally, there is now confirmation from the French side" of Saling’s account of imprisonment in New Orleans and the tension between the French and British over the interior of the continent. They show, according to Harrison, "In 1742, Le Moyne be Bienville, the ‘father’ of Louisiana, was at the end of his forty years of service on behalf of that colony…and was awaiting the arrival of a successor." The colony had been engaged in diplomatic talks with the Chocktaws and "a convoy returning down stream from Illinois, captured Howard, Salley and their companions on the Mississippi, about one hundred and twenty miles above Natchez. In a dispatch of 30 July, 1742, Bienville reports that his examination of the prisoners indicated that ‘they had been sent on their perilous journey for the purpose of exploring the rivers flowing from Virginia into the Mississippi, and to reconnoiter the terrain looking to establishing a settlement, for the English pretend that their boundaries extend as far as the bank of the Mississippi. I have thought fit to have this affair investigated by a mixed council of military and civil officers to obviate misunderstandings among our own people and to allay the alarm excited by an enterprise which, though bold, after all was foolhardy."

Bienville wrote than an official believed "that these five men were not alone, and that they had a rendezvous with the Indians. If they had been from Carolina, I would agree with him, but the Virginians have no such knowledge of the country or of the tribes which dwell here as to have made such a rendezvous. Whatever may be the fact in this respect it is important that these rash men shall not return home to bear witness of what they have learned among us. I shall send them to the fort at Natchitoches, whence I shall have them escorted to the mines of New Mexico."

But Bienville wanted Vaudreuil to handle the matter, and when the Marquis arrived, he agreed with Bienville’s idea that, sent out from Virginia as spies or not, the five travelers could take information about the French back to the British.

The Letter From Prison

Howard’s letter, transcribed from French back to English:

To his Royal Majesty, George II, by the Grace of God,

King of Great Britain, of all the lands thereon depending,

including America, and Defender of the Faith.

May it please your Royal Majesty:

I, John Hayward, your very humble subject, have been an inhabitant in the most western part of Virginia, where we were continually exposed to the fury of unknown savages, who more than a hundred times and in different places have murdered the subjects of your Majesty. Deeming for this reason that neither I nor my neighbors were safe, I considered that the best means of remedying this our condition was to go to visit these natives and to make a treaty with them. I went accordingly to consult with our Governor and, having laid before him my reasons, he commissioned me to enlist a small company of volunteers to go into the back parts of Virginia, as far as the River Mississipy, there to visit the indians who lived in those parts to make peace with them and to establish a durable treaty. A commission was made out accordingly. This enterprise having been abandoned for reasons which it would be tiresome to relate, I returned to my home. But the savages continuing their inhuman murders and having killed six of my neighbors in one day in a meeting house, I informed the Governor of this accident, whereupon he gave me a new commission and sent me after the murderers in the direction of the highest branches of the river Mississippy. There I found several indian nations by whom I was informed that those who had struck the blow were of their people (I saw the scalps of those they had killed) , and that the murderers, fearing we would take vengeance, had fled towards the lakes. Some of them were taken and punished.

Not trusting in the safety either of myself or my neighbours, I determined

then to carry out the journey originally planned, and, our Governor being called

away by reason of the war with Spain, I made use accordingly of my original commission, which was still in force, and set out on March 8, 1742. I continued my Journey until July the fourth, when we were arrested by seventy Frenchmen, who conducted us to a town called New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississipy. There we were closely examined by the Governor and were grievously accused that our purpose had been to spy out the way for an army to come to destroy them and their country. Nothing appearing against us to support this charge, except weak suspicions, we hoped to be put at liberty, but on the contrary were condemned to three years in prison. And I verily believe that we will not be released until death has pity on us. To that fate we have indeed already been very near, partly by reason of the darkness of our dungeons and partly by reason of the bad food given us. But God having pity has restored our strength. And yet up to this moment we have no hope for our deliverance except in the Wisdom and Charity of your Majesty, our lives being as a sacrifice in the hands of cruel men.

The Letter From Prison

That your Royal Majesty and your blessed family may continue to enjoy the

love of God, our Celestial father, by the merit of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and

the Consolation of the Holy Ghost, is and continually shall be the prayers of your

humble subjects whose names are subscribed.

JOHN HAYWARD ( sic )

JOSIAS HAYWARD, my Son

JOHN PATTEET

JOHN PETER SALLING

CHARLES CINEKLER

New Orleans, June 21, 1743.

In consideration of our deplorable condition, we ask pardon for our bad writing.

Vaudreuil wanted to send them to France but on December 29 of 1744, reported the escape of two prisoners. Saling was one, and a Creole named Baudran was the other.

Howard "and one or two of them were shipped for France, but in the Voyage were taken by an English ship and carryed to London," wrote Harrison who noted "no evidence that Howard made any report in London nor of what became of him."

 

 

 

 

At Home In The Shenandoah

Legend has it that he was just in time to keep his wife

from marrying another man, but if so Salley did not

note this in his journal.

--Dr. Richard Batman

 

Whether the legend is true or not, Saling was gone from home long enough that Anna, or Ann as she sometimes appears, apparently came into her own in running the affairs of her family in the community. Couper wrote that "his long absence had evidently thrown his wife, Ann, on her own resources to such an extent that sales of adjacent property are described as being ‘opposite Ann Sally’s land’ or by ‘Ann Sally’s Mill,’ and she probably died before her husband, as she is not mentioned in his will."

Dr. Batman wrote that after he rewrote his journal, Saling "settled back into the routine life of the Shenandoah Valley. He rapidly began to accumulate western land, receiving a grant of 400 acres in 1746, and an additional 170 acres in 1748."

Rockbridge County records show that in 1746, "Joseph Lapsley and John Peter Salling sworn in as captains, Robert Renick as first lieutenant. Statements of losses by Indians certified to in case of Richard Woods, John Mathews, Henry Kirkham, Francis McCown, Joseph Lapsley, Isaac Anderson, John and James Walker.-Feb 19th James Huston and three other men presented for being vagrants, and hunting and burning the woods; on information given by John Peter Salling, James Young, and John McCown. Huston fined three pounds for illegally killing three deer."

Noted Morton, "That he was a man of force and consequence is manifest from his being commissioned an officer of militia."

Couper’s writing provides further insight into Saling’s life at home, noting his and his son George’s involvement in building a road from "Edmondston’s Mill to the Fork Meeting House. These are interesting road terminals because roads of the period were at times described as ‘our course to meeting, mill and market.’"

The following year, 1754, finds the father and son "among the workers on the road from Campbell’s School House (one of the early schools) to Renix’s (Renick’s) Road," in Couper’s writing.

A history of the James River Batteaux Festival gives a feel for the settlers’ life in the time of Johan Peter Saling:

"In 1750, Reverend Rose visited John Sallings, who lived at the junction of the Maury and James Rivers near Balcony Falls. Land was rich and furtile and had all the advantages of the lower James property except for water carriage. To claim land you only had to mark some trees at the four corners of your claimed property. These new land owners were leaving a civilized culture and moving into a wilderness. A hidden land frought with all kinds of danger, where the

 

 

 

At Home In The Shenandoah

unexpected happened. They built crude cabins, sometimes only 10' square, just enough to house their families to keep them relatively safe and warm. They existed with the very barest of necessities. It was a very hard, rough and difficult life. A settler wrote, "My mind has been severly tried under the great fatigue endured by myself and my horse. This country will require

much to make it tolerable. The people are the boldest cast of adventurers." After a few years had passed, the Rose type of "tobacco canoes" were traveling down from the valley of central Virginia, over Balcony Falls. The Rose invention encouraged tobacco planters to place large areas under tobacco and further opened the Piedmont to other tobacco planters. Doing away with the long hogshead roll to Richmond enabling planters to keep at home his teams and hands during the vital spring months or alternately not having to hire teams and rollers to get their crops to market. A crew of two or three men could take a double dugout of goods replacing nine men and nine teams. Also the broad platforms of the dugouts, scotched in place with wooden chocks, could be sold at the destination port for lumber and two canoes could be taken back upstream with needed supplies. Thus was initiated the first multiple freight transportation of the James River and its tributaries. It was far reaching."

Saling wrote his will on Christmas Day, 1754 and died early the next year. Couper wrote that the will "was proved in Staunton on March 19, 1755 (Augusta Co., WB. 2-92)," and Morton lists "four horses, four sheep, and twenty-two hogs’ in the will in which "the personality was appraised at $194.64."

Perhaps no better close to this telling of Johan Peter Salings’ story (and some of its variances) can be found than the last paragraph of Dr. Batman’s writing.

"Salley’s account of the rich lands to the west and the assistance that he gave Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson in enabling them to draw an accurate map of the area west of the Shenandoah Valley proved invaluable to further expansion. Although Salley and the other members of the expedition did not receive the rewards they had envisioned when they set out on that March day in 1742, the five Virginians provided the first English exploration of the area that is now West Virginia and Kentucky, and their stories of the rich lands increased the pressure for expansion into the land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains."

 

 

 

 

State Histories

"John Peter Salling is taught

in WV History classes…."

- - Carol Rose

Searches for Johan Peter Saling on the World Wide Web are most fruitful when those searches are carried out in context of his passage through what is now West Virginia. Numerous websites relating to history and industry of that state credit Saling and companion John Howard with the discovery of coal there. A sampling:

A West Virginia University site carries these references in articles about the histories of Boone and Raleigh counties: "John Peter Salley was the first European to set foot in present-day Boone County. In 1742, he explored the county and is credited for discovering coal along the Coal River." And "John Peter Salley was the first Englishman to set foot in present Raleigh County. He explored the area in 1742."

A Boone County site localizes the discovery: "Although Boone County was named for the great American frontiersman, it was another explorer, John Peter Salley, who had a more significant impact on what was to become Boone County. In 1742, while on an exploring trip, Salley and companions discovered coal near the present day community of Peytona. The discovery of coal has played a vital role in fueling the steel mills and power plants of the United States, and remains the backbone of Boone County's economy."

Coal is the focus of a Geocities website with this note: "In 1742, the explorer John Peter Sally discovered coal near present day Racine in Boone County on his now infamous expedition. When he realized what large deposits of coal were to be found in the area, he named the river Coal River. It was several years before the industrialists would discover the value of coal, and initially settlement in the county was slow."

From West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey’s website: "In 1742, John Peter Salley took an exploratory trip across the Allegheny Mountains and reported an outcropping of coal along a tributary of the Kanawha River. He and his companions named this tributary the Coal River, and his report became the first reference to coal in what is today West Virginia."

References are also found on websites of West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and at some histories of other families.

The St. Albans, W. Va., website lists on its home page the former names of the community, including "Coalsmouth," and the explanation in parentheses: (First white person to go through Coalsmouth was John Peter Salley as he traveled down the Coal River in 1742).

A roadside historical landmark sign near Peytona reads: "COAL DISCOVERED – John Peter Salley (Salling) and companions discovered coal near here in 1742 on their exploring trip from the Greenbrier River. They followed the Coal River to its junction with The Great Kanawha River at St. Albans." In personal correspondence, Larry Lodato said, "The marker is located on WV-3 at Peytona.  17 miles W. of Madison and 20 miles S. of Marmet."  In fact, the marker was found in December, 2002, to stand adjacent to the Coal Miners’ Memorial Bridge.

 

 

 

 

State Histories

Dan Kegley

Carol Rose prescribed the following homework assignment for her eighth- grade West Virginia Studies class at Elkview Middle School, northeast of Charleston, and posted it on the school’s website:

HOMEWORK QUESTION FOR MONDAY NIGHT:::::::::::::
READ ABOUT JOHN HOWARD AND JOHN PETER SALLING.

MARK ON AN OUTLINE MAP THE ROUTES OF JOHN HOWARD AND JOHN PETER SALLING'S VOYAGE TO EXPLORE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.  REMEMBER, THEY BEGAN IN (W)VIRGINIA.
WRITE WHETHER YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD ROUTE...EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.

An inquiry to Rose about Salling resources in the West Virginia history curriculum and produced this response and citation of references: "John Peter Salling is taught in WV History classes, perhaps more so in this area (Kanawha/Boone Counties) because of his travels and interest in coal. … Most of these pages state that Salling discovered coal in WV, now Boone County, but some sources gives a few more details."

"Jim Comstock's  WV Heritage Encyclopedia Set- Sup. Vol.  10-11, pages 144, 461; Sup. Vol. 14, page 143.

"Phil Conley   History of the West Va. Coal Industry pages 5 and 9.

"John P. Hale   History of the Great Kanawha Valley page 155, stating that Salling was captured on the James River, crossed the New River on his way to the Cherokee towns.  He was probably the first white man to cross the New River.

 

State Histories

"St. Albans History, Walsworth Publishing Co., pages 180 and 182, stating that Salling (Salley) made a 6-year trip across the Allegheny Mts. and down the Coal River to New Orleans.  He discovered the first coal in WV and thus named the river Coal River.

"Stan Cohen   King Coal   page 5. 

"Vicki Wood    WV The History of an American State, pages 69-70 and 324.  These pages give a bit of info abt. the Howard-Salling Expedition."  

Kentucky, too, counts Saling among its historical figures, but one account has him arriving 12 years before Howard. Knox County Kentucky History, by Elmer Decker, says, "The first English settlers, captured by the Indians, to enter Kentucky were Gabriel Authur, 1674, John Salling, 1730, John Howard, 1742, and Mary Draper Ingles, 1755, who was the first white woman in Kentucky."

In information about Charles Lee Dibrell, Mary Nan Crowther includes this: "In 1742 John Peter Salley with a party of Virginians entered the region, where he was captured by the French; after his release his account aroused interest in Kentucky. In 1750 the Loyal Land Company of Virginia sent out an expedition under Dr. Thomas Walker; this party passed through Cumberland Gap, and erected a log house on the Cumberland River near the site of present-day Barbourville, but abandoned it after an Indian attack. The next year the Ohio Company sent Christopher Gist, but settlement awaited termination of the struggle by the French and the English for control."

In Chronicles of Oklahoma is found an especially intriguing passage that reveals the gravity of the expedition as the French saw it. Dr. Norman W. Caldwell, a history professor at the College of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, wrote, "… two incidents which occurred at this time served to confirm French fears of an Indian uprising and to increase their apprehension that the English were contemplating founding settlements in the Ohio valley. One of these was the mistreatment of two Frenchmen by the Miami and Wea, and the other was the capture of four Englishmen and a German on the Mississippi.

"… The other affair was even more serious. As the Illinois convoy was returning to New Orleans in the spring of 1742, it overtook, some thirty leagues above the Natchez, four Englishmen and a German in two canoes. Having been conducted to New Orleans, these men were tried by both the civil and the military authorities, and found guilty of having set out to explore the rivers and to reconnoiter the country for the extension of English settlements. First condemned to be sent to the Spanish mines, they were nevertheless held in prison for over two years at New Orleans. In 1744 two of them escaped, shortly after which the others were put on board one of the King's vessels bound for France. This vessel fell in with an English cruiser at sea and was taken, so that the prisoners again came into English hands. This affair greatly increased French apprehension that the English were intending to make settlements in the Ohio Valley, this expedition being viewed as the preliminary step to such an undertaking. Here too, the French saw the cooperation of the dissatisfied Indians with the English.

"Convinced by all these things of an impending revolt, the Sieur Benoist made plans to check the movement. He informed the commanders at the Wea, the Wabash, and River St. Joseph as well as at Detroit of the state of affairs, and asked that they send their war parties going against the Chickasaw by way of the Illinois, so as to intimidate the Illinois tribes. Benoist also held the Illinois convoy for some time, fearing it would be attacked on the way."

State Histories

The footnote for this section points to sources that would be of interest to further research, but likely to only those who read French.

"For an account of this affair, see Bienville to Minister, New Orleans, July 30, 1742, Ibid., C13A, 27: 83-84; Loubois to Minister, Mobile, Aug. 2, 1743, Ibid., C13A, 28: 158v-159. The petition of Heyward, the leader of the party, to the English king asking for their release, dated June 21, 1743, is printed in the Louisiana Hist. Quart., V, 3, 321-322. The journal of John Peter Salling, the German who was with Heyward, is also printed in the same, 323-332. Historians have doubted somewhat the authenticity of this document. Bienville and Salmon hardly knew what to do with these men. Sending them to the Mexican mines would have involved a strong escort. For this reason they were left in prison. Bienville and Salmon to Minister, Feb. 6, 1743, Arch. Nat., Col., C13A, 28: 6-6v. Vaudreuil who became governor in 1743 inherited the problem. He was afraid to send them back to their homes for fear their knowledge of the secrets of the French colony would be a great asset to the English in time of war. Vaudreuil to Minister, New Orleans, July 28, 1743, Ibid., 71-72. The problem was finally solved by the escape of the two prisoners in 1744, and the loss of the others as they were on the Elephant on their way to France in 1746. Vaudreuil and LeNormand to Minister, Jan. 4, 1745, Ibid., 29: 5v; Vaudreuil to Minister, New Orleans, April 8, 1747, Ibid., 31: 52."

 

 

 

 

 

Epilogue

I "discovered" Johan Peter Saling in January, 2001, inquiring among family members about ancestors who may have fought in the Civil War. Little did I know that question would lead me much farther back in history, to well before the Revolutionary War, and teach me something about the history of Europe and of the country that would become the United States of America, as well as about my ancestor and his adventures.

I’ve wondered many times if a drawing or painting of Johan Peter exists anywhere. How meaningful it would be to look at the man, at least his image. In a way I did just that at a reunion two summers ago with family I’d not seen in 30 years, a reunion of Saling descendants, a reunion I attended because 30 years was far too long and because of my work on Saling. That afternoon maybe I glimpsed him in the facial features common in the family, or the way we walk, or speak, perhaps.

The work I’ve done, as I said at the beginning, is only a start of work that needs to be done to bring Saling and his fellow explorers out of the darkened corners of history. My hope is that someone will take the strands I’ve gathered and find others and with them weave a full tapestry that tells his story completely. That task lies beyond my resources.

I suspect I’ll always watch for possible references among the dusty books in old collections. I’ll scan the Internet to see what others may have found. But the real work remains in the search for original sources in Virginia, Louisiana as Couper suggested, points in between, Pennsylvania and the Old Country.

This fall, during a late Sunday-night session of exploring the Internet mine for new nuggets, I found this book review on a website featuring a bibliography of books pertaining to Illinois:

Wilderness Adventure, by Elizabeth Page. New York [and] Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1946.] 309p.

Evidence that a young girl, Lisel Salling, has been captured by Indians leads five men to brave the uncharted wilderness of mid-America in search of her. Departing from Williamsburg in 1742, the party ventures west to Kaskaskia, down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and across the ocean to Europe before she is found.

Amazon didn’t list the title, but a little work led me to the Website of a bookstore in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama, and they had the book. Email correspondence with the bookseller the next day revealed the book’s plot was more than a coincidence. "The dust-jacket flap says this book is based on the actual diary of John Peter Salling," the bookseller wrote back to me.

I ordered the book and it came in that Thursday’s mail.

The author’s note at the front of the book reads: "Unbelievably enough, only the character of Lisel Salling and the romantic motive of which she is the center has been entirely invented….A complete discussion of the adventure as so recorded has been written by Fairfax Harrison and published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography volume 30, pages 203-222."

This project ends here. But I will always be looking for Johan Peter Saling.

Dan Kegley

December, 2003

References

Books

Kercheval, Samuel. A History of the Valley of Virginia. W.N. Grabill. Woodstock, Va. 1902.

Mentions John Howard, but not Saling in its treatment of early European history of the valley.

Batman, Dr. Richard. The Odyssey of John Peter Salley. Virginia Cavalcade. Library of Virginia. Summer, Volume 31, No. 31, Summer 1981.

The historian retells Saling’s adventure with the benefit of modern perspective.

Couper, William. History of the Shenandoah Valley, Vol. 1. Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc. New York. 1952. Chapter XIX is devoted to and titled, "John Peter Salling and Expansion Westward."

Harrison, Fairfax. "The Virginians on the Ohio and the Mississippi in 1742." In Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 30. April, 1922.

Goetzmann,William H. New Lands, New Men. Viking. New York. 1986.

Briefly mentions Saling in its examination of exploration as a cultural process.

Kegley, F.B. Kegley’s Virginia Frontier: The Beginning of the Southwest, The Roanoke of Colonial Days 1740-1783. Southwest Virginia Historical Society. Roanoke, Va. 1938

Kegley, Mary B. and F.B. Kegley. Early Adventures on the Western Waters, Volume 1: The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days 1745-1800. Green Publishers. Orange, Va. 1980.

Kegley, Mary B. Wythe County, Virginia: A Bicentennial History.Walsworth Publishing Co., Inc. Marceline, Mo. 1989.

Morton, Oren F.. A History of Rockbridge County Virginia. The McClure Co., Inc. Staunton, Va. 1920. Presents a biographical sketch of Saling from his settlement in Virginia through his adventures and return home and his death there a decade later.

Claudine Pierson. Personal correspondence and translation of the French transcript of Howard’s letter from prison. Saltville, Va. 2002.

Sayers, Elizabeth Lemmon. Joan Tracy Armstrong, ed. Smyth County, Virginia, Volume 1: Pathfinders and Patriots, Prehistory to 1832. Walsworth Publishing Co., Inc. Marceline, Mo. 1983.

Summers, Lewis Preston. History of Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870. Regional Publishing Co., Baltimore 1971. Originally printed Richmond, 1903.

Thompkins, Ed and J. Lee Davis. The Natural Bridge and its Historical Surroundings. Natural Bridge of Virginia, Inc. Natural Bridge, Va. 1939.

A discussion of the bridge as discovery, commercial opportunity and source of inspiration.

Wilson, Goodridge. Smyth County History and Traditions. Commonwealth Press, Inc., Radford. Va. Reprinted by Frank Detweiler, 1976.

 

Websites with identified authors/compilers

Crowther, Mary Nan. Charles Lee Dibrell. 1997. Online: http://home.southwind.net/~crowther/Dibrell/CLD.html

R.K. Elliott. Samples - 1801 1919 - Russell, VA, USA > Ballard Co., KY. Online. http://users.aol.com/RKElliott/salling.htm

Elmer Decker. Knox County Kentucky History. Online: http://www.tcnet.net/ky/knox/decker.html

Headley, Marilyn Rockbridge County VA --Some Court Orders prior to 1778, the creation date of the county. From History of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Oren F. Morton, B. Lit. Staunton, Virginia. 1920. Online: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/rockbridge/courts/earord.txt

Henderson, Archibald. Ph.D., D.C.L. The Conquest of the Old Southwest: The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers into Virginia, The Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky 1740-1790. The Century Co. New York. 1920. Online. http://sailor.gutenberg.org/etext00/cnqsw10.txt

Sweeping account of the settling of lands west of the eastern seaboard, including discussion of Daniel Boone and the proposed State of Franklin.

Horlacher, Gary. 18th Century German Emigration Research. Online.

http://www.horlacher.org/germany/articles/ger1700sem.htm

Leo B. McDowell http://members.tripod.com/leomcdowell/id37.htm

Angela M. Ruley. First Native American Clash in Rockbridge. Online: http://personal.rockbridge.net/historian/files/history/indianraid1.html

Smith, Robert J. Natural Bridge of Virginia. Center for Private Conservation . 1988. Competitive Enterprise Institute. 1998. Online. http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,01355.cfm

Don Silvius. White Dove and the Virginia Caverns. Online. http://www.rootsweb.com/~vashenan/cem/whitdov.html.

Websites with unidentified authors/compilers

Boone County. Online. http://www.geocities.com/coalminermem/DGE.htm

Boone County history. Online. http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Boone/boohistory.html

Bird Genealogy. Online. http://members.aol.com/yoda348846/thebirds.html

Boone County, West Virginia. http://www.boonecountywv.org/history.php3

Chronicles of Oklahoma.Volume 16, No. 4. December, 1938
The Chickasaw Threat to French Control of the Mississippi in the 1740's http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v016/v016p465.html

Early German Immigration. Online. http://schools.guilford.k12.nc.us/tpages/haupt/academics/page4.html

Genealogy Sallings Family Genealogy Forum. Online. http://genforum.genealogy.com/salling/

Generation IV. Online. http://appalachian_home.tripod.com/maj_john.htm

James River Batteau Festival, a division of The Virginia Canals & Navigations Society Inc. Online: http://www.batteau.org/history5.html

Palatines to America. Online. http://www.palam.org/

Raleigh County History. Online. http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Raleigh/ralhistory.html

St. Albans, West Virginia. Online. http://www.stalbanswv.com/businesses/St_Albans_Historical_Society/localhistory.asp

Salling: Descendants of Niclaus Sallin. Online: http://home.earthlink.net/~oregongirl/genealogy/salling.htm

Genealogy of Saling asserting his father was Nicklaus Sallin.

Ship Lists. Online. http://www.centralschwenkfelder.com/exile/ship_lists.htm

Has photo of the oath to Great Britain that includes Johan Peter Saling’s signature.

The Palatines. Online. http://www.kingwoodcable.com/khelmer/Palatine.html.

Introductory explanation the geopolitical history of the palatinate.

West Virginia geology. Online. http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/geology/geoldvco.htm

Why Did They Migrate? Online. http://www.gamber.net/gamber/why.html.

Discussion of the internal pressures resulting in the emigration of central-Germans to other countries in the early 1700s.

 

 

Viewed but not cited:

http://www.callwva.com/facts/dates.cfm

http://diarysearch.com/default.htm

Note: Lists Saling’s journal and literature in which it is found, describing it as "Journal and recollections (scattered entries and dates); exploration on the Ohio and Mississippi; with John Howard; capture by French, imprisonment in New Orleans; and escape." 1. In  The Journals of Christopher Gist  edited by W.M. Darlington. Pittsburgh, 1893, pp 253-260. 2. "The Virginians on the Ohio and the Mississippi" in  Louisiana Hist. Quar.  V, 1922, pp 323-332.

http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/archives/dockett_317/d317toc7.html

http://members.aol.com/jeff560/wv-hist.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~varockin/wayland/CHAP3.htm

http://home.southwind.net/~crowther/Dibrell/CLD.html

http://www.state.wv.us/mhst/History.htm

http://www.state.wv.us/mhst/wvcoalfacts.htm

http://www.wvchamber.com/About%20WV/fun_facts.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix

My particular descent from Johan Peter Saling passes first through George Adam, the fourth child and first of two sons of Johan Peter and Ann.

George married Hanna.

Son Henry married Lucy Woodard Darst.

Son Benjamine married Virginia Lindsey.

Daughter Bettie Lou married William David Aker.

Daughter Bessie Margaret married James Henry Armbrister.

Son Randolph Hillman was my father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to:

Nancy Earp for proofreading a late draft of this manuscript;

Valerie Evans and the other Armbrister cousins for their interest in this project.

George A. Kegley for suggesting references;

Sara Kegley, my wife, who applauded my discoveries, even late at night;

John Sauers for his enthusiastic support and interest;

Shirley Yoder for the references that started this project;

Town of Marion, Va., for use of binding equipment;

Elizabeth Ann Walker for her interest and encouragement and review of an early version of the manuscript.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Index