A HISTORY OF THE VALLEY.

Chapter I.

INDIAN WARS.

From the best evidence the author has been able to obtain, and to this end he has devoted much time and research, the settlement of our fine and beautiful valley commenced in the year 1732, about one hundred and twenty-five years from the first settlement of Virginia. Before going into a detail of the first immigration and improvement of the Valley the author believes it will not be uninteresting to the general reader, to have a brief history of the long and bloody wars carried on between contending tribes of Indians. Tradition relates that the Delaware and Catawba tribes were engaged in war at the time the Valley was first known by the white people, and that war was continued for many years after our section of country became pretty numerously inhabited by the white settlers.

I shall commence with a narrative of Indian battles fought on the Cohongoruton.* At the mouth of the Antietam, a small creek on the Maryland side of the river, a most bloody affair took place between parties of the Catawba and Delaware tribes. This was probably about the year 1736. The Delawares had penetrated pretty