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High Resolution Map, tracts granted by Virginia, vicinity of Abraham Lefever property, Falling Spring Run, Augusta County, Virginia. Jeffrey La Favre - jlafavre@gmail.com After living in Washington County, Virginia, Abraham Lefever, Sr. moved to Augusta County, Virginia and purchased 280 acres from Phillip Barrick, as documented in Deed Book 26 (see abstract below). 18 Feb 1788 Augusta County, VA. Phillip Berrick gave bill of sale to Abraham Lefever, both of Augusta County, for 199 pounds for 280 acres in Augusta County. Recorded 19 Feb 1788. Mary, wife of Phillip Berrick, relinquished her right of Dower in these lands on 21 Oct 1788. (Deed Book 26, p. 99, at Staunton courthouse) Abraham and his wife, Elizabeth, sold the property to Samuel Huff, as documented in Deed Book 28 (see abstract below). The date of this deed was 21 June 1796. However, Samuel Huff apparently was in possession of this land several years before 1796. We learn this by examining a grant dated 11 July 1793, from Virginia to Lewis Mourey, 740 acres, which was surveyed March 1, 1791. The Mourey tract adjoined the tract originally granted to Phillip Barrick. However, the Mourey grant lists the name of Samuel Huff as owner of this adjoining tract. Therefore, Samuel Huff was in possession of the land before July 11, 1793 and probably before March 1, 1791, when the Mourey tract was surveyed. This could resolve a discrepancy between the death date of Abraham Lefever, Sr., said to be July 4, 1789 in Augusta Co., VA, and property sold with a deed date of June 21, 1796. I have found reference to a Samuel Huff who married Catherine Maurer/Mowry[Mourey] in Augusta Co., VA on 20 Sep 1788. I don't believe it is a stretch of the imagination to suggest that Samuel Huff acquired the property from Abraham Lefever, prior to Abraham's death on July 4, 1789. If so, the deed recording this transaction was delayed several years.
The tracts were plotted on a modern USGS topographic map (Staunton, VA 7.5 minute series) to reveal the approximate locations. The art and practice of surveying during the late 18th century was crude compared to modern surveying methods. Thus, one cannot expect to discover the exact location of these tracts and the map I have prepared should not be considered to indicate the exact locations of the tracts. I have made my best effort to place the tracts as accurately as possible. You will note that there is some overlap on adjoining tracts of Lewis Mourey and John Poage. This is due to the inaccuracies in the surveys. In placing each tract, I tried to reach the best compromise for positioning corners on or near a mentioned landmark. However, it is not possible to know for certain that corner placement is on or near the correct landmark. The proper procedure for surveys of the time period stipulated that the surveyor must mention each instance when a line crossed a creek or river. However, this was not always done in practice, as I discovered after plotting 67 surveys in the area of the headwaters of Beaver Creek, Washington Co., VA. For the tracts mapped here, there is only one mention of the crossing of a creek, Falling Spring branch [Run], in the survey of Lewis Mourey. Additionally, a corner of the survey for Thomas Poage is listed as "...by the plumb Tree draft..." [Plum Tree Draft]. I have added a label for the Plum Tree Draft on the map since this is an old name. These two key points along with a few other landmarks listed in the surveys were used to position the tracts.
Neighborhood map of Abraham and Elizabeth Lefever
Notes on properties The earlier grants to Thomas Poage and George King were incorporated into the 1200 acre grant to John Poage. The George King grant is mentioned in the John Poage grant, the Thomas Poage grant is not. However, the tract of William Lewis is mentioned in the Thomas Poage grant: "...south eight degrees west fifty poles to a white oak and black oak near a corner of William Lewis land..." The only corner match that works well in placing the T. Poage tract is this one for W. Lewis: "...north fifty seven degrees west one hundred and fifty poles to a white oak and black oak..." Note that the tree descriptions for these corners match. The William Lewis tract was granted by Virginia to Hugh McDowell on May 23, 1785. The survey data in the two grants match exactly and it is not clear to me why the second grant was issued for the exact same land. The Lewis Mourey grant incorporates an earlier grant of 550 acres to Robert Young on July 5, 1774. The survey data in the Robert Young grant does not add any important information for this investigation and I elected not to plot this earlier tract on my map. The grant to Phillip Barrick mentions land of John Poage. However, in the survey data, there is no mention of any shared lines with Poage. A grant to John Poage on August 3, 1796, for 46 acres, does adjoin the Barrick tract, but I don't think this later grant is the one mentioned in the Barrick grant. Rather, the 46 acre Poage grant mentions Poage's old survey, which must be the one referenced in the Barrick grant. I have not been able to locate this older John Poage grant (which should not be confused with his 1200 acre grant to the west - this older Poage grant resides to the east and possibly north of the Barrick grant). I did not plot the 46 acre tract on my map since it does not add any valuable information in my view. The tracts mapped here reside immediately to the north of the well-known Beverley Manor. This tract of approximately 120,000 acres was granted to William Beverley in 1736. The land was subsequently subdivided into a large number of tracts sold to settlers. The subdivided manor tracts were not granted by Virginia and I am not aware of an online source for these tracts. Therefore, the tracts on my map stop at the manor line, as you will note by my labels. Since I don't currently have access to tract descriptions inside the manor, I could not use them for assistance in positioning the tracts on my map. I should mention here that Staunton, VA is located inside the bounds of the former Beverley Manor. The center of Staunton is roughly 5 miles south of the Phillip Barrick tract.
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last updated September 16, 2008 |
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