Rockbridge-Orange-Augusta County Virginia USGenWeb Archives News.....Cherokees Take Revenge April 16, 1766
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Francesca Henle Taylor henle@fmfproductions.com December 17, 2011, 10:42 am

Georgia Gazette / Google Books April 16, 1766
From the 1920 Book:

...The French and Indian war broke out in 1754, and continued, so far as the 
Indians were concerned, until 1760.  The advance line of settlement had passed 
the Alleghany divide, and the greatest havoc was in the valleys along the 
frontier.

A local cause for the outbreak was the outrage at Anderson's barn on Middle 
River.  The date is not exactly known, but seems to be the month of June, 
1753, or possibly 1754.

Twelve Indians were returning from a raid against the Cherokees, and lodged 
with John Lewis near Staunton.  Some men were present whose families or 
friends had suffered some loss at the hands of the natives.  A beef was killed 
and whiskey provided.  The guests were induced to stay till nightfall and give 
one of their dances.  After they left they were followed in the darkness to 
Anderson's barn, where all but one were murdered.  For this act of treachery 
in a time of at least nominal peace, a heavy toll of vengeance was exacted.  
The colonial government sought to punish the perpetrators, but the effort was 
ineffectual.  One of the faults of the Ulstermen was their propensity to make 
trouble with the "heathen”...

From the Georgia Gazette, dated July 16, 1766:

The South-Carolina Gazette of the 7th inst. says, That Mr. Boyd and Mr. 
Miller, two gentlemen from Virginia, with their servants, were inhumanly 
murdered about seven weeks ago, in the upper Cherokee country, on Broad River, 
about 30 miles from fort Loudon, upon the Virginia path, as pretended, by 
Northern Indians; but our informant, from several circumstances, believes, 
that Cherokees were the perpetrators, in revenge for the murder of nine of 
their people, at one Anderson's barn in Virginia, about August last year.

The Gazette article confirms the date of the Anderson Barn Murders to circa 
August 1765.

Additional Comments:
Names mentioned: Miller, Boyd, Anderson, Lewis.

Abstracted from: A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia By Oren F. Morton, 
[1920; pg. 66] & The Georgia Gazette July 16, 1766.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/rockbridge/newspapers/cherokee137gnw.txt

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