CHAPTER 37
The Tracy Family History
Borden Land Grant Today & 1740
 

    This is an old map showing the famous Borden Land Grant at the bottom and the equally famous Beverly Manor Grant, to the north. In the middle of the Rockbridge County tract is the city of Lexington, still to be founded some years later immediately after the famous Revolutionary War battle that start it all, and named Lexington in a moment of patriotic fervor.
    You will notice 10 miles to the north of Lexington is the village of Fairfield, and 10 miles south is the famous Natural Bridge, Rock Bridge.
    You will remember our cousin, Ken Prusso, standing by the spring at Donegal Church. Five years ago he made a trip to Lexington and took these photos. It cannot be proven that the Wallace School and Wallace Mill were built by our people, but it is strongly suspected.

Old Wallace School. The two families were not that far away, about 35 miles on the Indian trails of the time.

Wallace Mill, near school house, front view. Rear view with mill wheel.

                                                                                                 Thorn Hill

    Built by John Bowyer, third husband of Magdelene. Family tradition says that Peter Wallace Jr. is buried here. I suspect that his wife, Martha Woods, sister to Magdelene, is buried beside him. I have not been able to find out if the dwelling is still standing. I suspect that it is not. (From Ruth Petracek book)

                                                            Wallace Farm. This one is ours and comes back into our story.

 13 Sept 1784
    Signature of Peter Wallace Jr., my 6th great grandfather.

“Peter, Jr...who lived two miles southwest of Lexington, Virginia, died in September, 1784, and is buried at Thorn Hill.”
                                                                                                                                           --George Selden Wallace
    Before the days of great wealth our people led very simple lives in Augusta County:
    “Where now may be seen the beautiful farms and substantial houses in Bethel, her active memory recalled the log cabins, the linsey-wolsey, the short gowns, the hunting shirts, the moccasins, the pack-horses, the simple living, the shoes, the stockings for winter and uncommon occasions, the deer and the rifle, the fields of flax and the spinning wheel, and the wool, and looms, and, with them, the strict attention to religious concerns, the catechising of children, the regular going to church, the reading of the Bible, and keeping Sabbath from the beginning to the end, the singing of hymns and sacred songs.”

    In the previous chapter, Rev. Samuel Black refers to the old style calendar. An explanation: February 11th was George Washington's birthday according to the Julian (old Style) calendar, but in 1752, the corrections of the Gregorian (New Style) Calendar were adopted by England, Ireland, and the colonies, and George Washington's birthday became February 22nd.
    Under England's interpretation of the Julian Calendar the new year began on March 25th. Because the year under the Julian Calendar was 365 days 6 hours, by the sixteenth century a considerable surplus had accumulated, moving the vernal equinox from March 21 to March 11. The error was corrected in 1582 by the Gregorian Calendar (New Style), adopted by most European countries. By 1752, when Great Britain adopted the Gregorian Calendar, the displacement was 11 days. ( I hope someone understands because I don’t understand a word of it.)

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Home Page     www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net

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