Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town — John Shaqi
Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old TownGoolrick, John T. (John Tackett)
History
Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town
Goolrick, John T. (John Tackett)
Fredericksburg (Va.) -- History
Dr. Bagnall says in his diary that when near the mouth of the river, the
party encountered "our old friend, Mosco, a lusty savage of Wighconscio,
upon the Patawomeck," who accompanied them as guide and interpreter, and
upon reaching the falls did splendid service against the unfriendly
Indians, "making them pause upon the matter, thinking by his bruit and
skipping there were many savages." In the fighting Captain Smith's party
captured a wounded Indian and much to the disgust of the cheerful Mosco,
who wished to dispatch him forthwith, spared his life and bound his
wounds. This work of mercy resulted in a truce with the Redmen, which made
possible the final undisturbed settlement of the land by the whites, the
prisoner interceding for Smith and his party.
Captain Smith's first landing on the upper river probably was directly
opposite what now is the heart of Fredericksburg. Dr. Bagnall's diary
says:
[Sidenote: _About The Indian Villages_]
"Between Secobeck and Massawteck is a small isle or two, which causes the
river to be broader than ordinary; there it pleased God to take one of
our company, called Master Featherstone, that all the time he had been in
this country had behaved himself honestly, valiently and industriously,
where in a little bay, called Featherstone's bay, we buried him with a
volley of shot * * *
"The next day we sailed so high as our boat would float, there setting up
crosses and graving our names on trees."
Captain Quinn, in his excellent History of Fredericksburg, says that
Featherstone's bay "is in Stafford, opposite the upper end of Hunter's
island," but it is probable he did not closely examine facts before making
this statement, as his own location of other places mentioned in Dr.
Bagnall's diary serves to disprove his contention as to the whereabouts of
the bay.
"Seacobeck," Captain Quinn says, "was just west of the city almshouse."
The almshouse was then situated where the residence of the President of
the State Normal School now stands. Massawteck, Captain Quinn locates as
"just back of Chatham." If his location of these two places is correct, it
is clear that the "small isle or two," which the diary says was located
between them, must have been at a point where a line drawn from the
President's residence, at the Normal School, to "just back of Chatham"
would intersect the river, which would be just a little above the present
location of Scott's island, and that Featherstone's bay occupied what now
are the Stafford flats, extending along the river bank from nearly
opposite the silk mill to the high bank just above the railroad bridge and
followed the course of Claibourne's Run inland, to where the land again
rises. The contours of the land, if followed, here show a natural
depression that might easily have accommodated a body of water, forming a
bay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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