History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia | Page 2

not a half dozen important facts. I would charge no one with
discourtesy in this particular, and mention the circumstance only
because it will serve to emphasize what I shall presently say anent the
scarcity of available material.
Likewise, a painstaking perusal of more than two hundred volumes
yielded only meagre results, and in most of these illusory references I
found not a single fact worth recording. This comparatively prodigious
number included gazeteers, encyclopedias, geographies, military
histories, general histories, State and National reports, journals of
legislative proceedings, biographies, genealogies, reminiscences,
travels, romances--in short, any and all books that I had thought
calculated to shed even the faintest glimmer of light on the County's
history, topographical features, etc.
But, contrary to my expectations, in many there appeared no manner of
allusion to Loudoun County. By this it will be seen that much time that
might have been more advantageously employed was necessarily given
to this form of fruitless research.
That works of history and geography can be prepared in no other way,
no person at all acquainted with the nature of such writings need be
told. "As well might a traveler presume to claim the fee-simple of all

the country which he has surveyed, as a historian and geographer
expect to preclude those who come after him from making a proper use
of his labors. If the former writers have seen accurately and related
faithfully, the latter ought to have the resemblance of declaring the
same facts, with that variety only which nature has enstamped upon the
distinct elaborations of every individual mind.... As works of this sort
become multiplied, voluminous, and detailed, it becomes a duty to
literature to abstract, abridge, and give, in synoptical views, the
information that is spread through numerous volumes."
Touching the matter gleaned from other books, I claim the sole merit of
being a laborious and faithful compiler. In some instances, where the
thoughts could not be better or more briefly expressed, the words of the
original authors may have been used.
Where this has been done I have, whenever possible, made, in my
footnotes or text, frank and ample avowal of the sources from which I
have obtained the particular information presented. This has not always
been possible for the reason that I could not name, if disposed, all the
sources from which I have sought and obtained information. Many of
the references thus secured have undergone a process of sifting and, if I
may coin the couplet, confirmatory handling which, at the last,
rendered some unrecognizable and their origin untraceable.
The only publication of a strictly local color unearthed during my
research was Taylor's Memoir of Loudoun, a small book, or more
properly a pamphlet, of only 29 pages, dealing principally with the
County's geology, geography, and climate. It was written to accompany
the map of Loudoun County, drawn by Yardley Taylor, surveyor; and
was published by Thomas Reynolds, of Leesburg, in 1853.
I wish to refer specially to the grateful acknowledgment that is due
Arthur Keith's Geology of the Catoctin Belt and Carter's and Lyman's
Soil Survey of the Leesburg Area, two Government publications,
published respectively by the United States Geological Survey and
Department of Agriculture, and containing a fund of useful information
relating to the geology, soils, and geography of about two-thirds of the
area of Loudoun. Of course these works have been the sources to which

I have chiefly repaired for information relating to the two first-named
subjects. Without them the cost of this publication would have been
considerably augmented. As it is I have been spared the expense and
labor that would have attended an enforced personal investigation of
the County's soils and geology.
And now a tardy and, perhaps, needless word or two in revealment of
the purpose of this volume.
To rescue a valuable miscellany of facts and occurrences from an
impending oblivion; to gather and fix certain ephemeral incidents
before they had passed out of remembrance; to render some account of
the County's vast resources and capabilities; to trace its geography and
analyze its soils and geology; to follow the tortuous windings of its
numerous streams; to chronicle the multitudinous deeds of sacrifice and
daring performed by her citizens and soldiery--such has been the
purpose of this work, such its object and design.
But the idea as originally evolved contemplated only a chronology of
events from the establishment of the County to the present day. Not
until the work was well under way was the matter appearing under the
several descriptive heads supplemented.
From start to finish this self-appointed task has been prosecuted with
conscientious zeal and persistency of purpose, although with frequent
interruptions, and more often than not amid circumstances least
favorable to literary composition. At the same time my hands have
been filled with laborious avocations