JACOB HUBER Chapter 2: A Journal of a Journey Over the Mountains

Chapter 2: A Journal of a Journey Over the Mountains          

Washington first ventured into the colonial frontier in March 1748, sixteen years of age, as part of a survey crew sent to the Shenandoah Valley.  The crew’s mission: to mark off Lord Fairfax’s extensive holdings into leasehold parcels.[1]  He kept a travel diary entitled “A Journal of My Journey over the Mountains.”[2] He records in that diary his first encounter with Indians on March 23 (JJM at 13/33) and the Pennsylvania Dutch (German speaking people) on April 4 (JJM at 14/45):

Monday 4^th this morning Mr. Faifax left us with Intent to go down to ye Mouth of ye Branch we did two Lots & was attended by a great Company of People Men Women & Children that attended us through ye Woods as we went showing there Antick tricks I really think they seem to be as Ignorant a Set of People as the Indians they would never speak English but when spoken to they speak Dutch [English language word for the German “Deutch”]

Between these two events, Washington’s party enjoyed the hospitality in Maryland of Colonel Cresap who also figured prominently in Braddock’s campaign in 1755 as well as border wars between Maryland and Pennsylvania.   By the time of the Braddock campaign, Washington had a much better opinion of German speaking settlers and by the time of the Revolutionary War, he fully appreciated the loyalty and fighting qualities of ethnic German-American soldiers.  As a result of his first foray as a surveyor into the frontier, Washington developed a keen sense of future land values and made his first acquisition of a tract of land in the Shenandoah Valley.

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[1] This and other surveys probably provided data for the map of Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, first published in 1751.  Two editions of the map appear in Maryland Historical Society, Mapping Maryland: The Willard Hackerman Collection at 24-25 and 38.  (Baltimore 1998) ISBN 0-938420-64-X. 

[2] Page cites are to un-annotated/annotated versions of the Journal. Un-annotated online:  http://archive.org/stream/journalofmajorge00wash#page/32/mode/2up.  Annotated online: http://archive.org/stream/journaljourney00washrich.