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John Stuart (Virginia)
Colonel John Stuart (17 March 1749 in Augusta County, Virginia – 18 August 1823 in Greenbrier County, Virginia ow West Virginia was a Revolutionary War commander and pioneering western Virginia settler. A veteran of the Battle of Point Pleasant (1774), he surveyed and settled the Greenbrier Valley and is known locally as the "Father of Greenbrier County". Owing to his ''Memoir of Indian Wars and Other Occurrences'', written in 1799, he has been called "the most important chronicler of pioneer history in southern West Virginia". Biography Stuart's father, the Scotsman David Stuart, was among the supporters of Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") as king of Great Britain. Soon after the failure of the Prince's cause at Culloden (1746) David found it necessary to immigrate to America. He settled in Augusta County, Virginia on the Shenandoah River, some distance from the town of Staunton. At the age of twenty, John Stuart was a member of the 1769 survey by citizen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augusta County, Virginia
Augusta County is a county in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The second-largest county of Virginia by total area, it completely surrounds the independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro. Its county seat is Staunton, but most of the administrative services have offices in neighboring Verona. The county was created in 1738 from part of Orange County and was named after Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. It was originally a huge area, but many of its parts were carved out to form other counties and several states until the current borders were finalized in 1790. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 77,487. Along with Staunton and Waynesboro, it forms the Staunton–Waynesboro, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Augusta County was formed in 1738 from Orange County, although, because few people lived there, the county government was not organized until 1745. It was named for Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Randolph (West Virginia)
Fort Randolph was an American Revolutionary War fort which stood at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, on the site of present-day Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. Built in 1776 on the site of an earlier fort from Dunmore's War, Fort Randolph is best remembered as the place where the famous Shawnee Chief Cornstalk was murdered in 1777. The fort withstood attack by American Indians in 1778 but was abandoned the next year. It was rebuilt in the 1780s after the renewal of hostilities between the United States and American Indians, but saw little action and was eventually abandoned once again. Two centuries later, a replica of the fort has been built about a mile away. History Background The site where Fort Randolph was built emerged as a strategic location in the years before the American Revolution. In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768, the British Crown acquired the title to present-day West Virginia from the Iroquois. Thereafter, American colonists and land spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. Considered the first learned society in the United States, it has about 1,000 elected members, and by April 2020 had had only 5,710 members since its creation. Through research grants, published journals, the American Philosophical Society Museum, an extensive library, and regular meetings, the society supports a variety of disciplines in the humanities and the sciences. Philosophical Hall, now a museum, is just east of Independence Hall in Independence National Historical Park; it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. History The Philosophical Society, as it was originally called, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, James Alexander (lawyer), James Alexander, Francis Hopkinson, John Bartram, Philip Syn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertebrate Paleontology
Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct animals with vertebrae or a notochord. It also tries to connect, by using the evolutionary timeline of evolution, timeline, the animals of the past and their modern-day relatives. The fossil record shows aspects of the meandering evolutionary path from early aquatic vertebrates to mammals, with a host of transitional fossils, though there are still large blank areas. The earliest known fossil vertebrates were heavily armored fish discovered in rocks from the Ordovician Period about 500 to 430 Ma (annum, megaannum, million years ago). The Devonian Period (395 to 345 Ma) brought in the changes that allowed primitive air-breathing fish to remain on land as long as they wished, thus becoming the first terrestrial vertebrates, the amphibians. Amphibians developed forms of reproduction and locomotion and a metabo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalonyx Jeffersonii
''Megalonyx'' (Greek, "large claw") is an extinct genus of ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae, native to North America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event at the end of the Rancholabrean of the Pleistocene, living from ~5 million to 11,000 years ago. The type species, ''M. jeffersonii'', measured about and weighed up to . ''Megalonyx'' is descended from ''Pliometanastes,'' a genus of ground sloth that had arrived in North America during the Late Miocene, prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange. ''Megalonyx'' had the widest distribution of any North American ground sloth, having a range encompassing most of the contiguous United States, extending as far north as Alaska during warm periods. Taxonomy In 1796, Colonel John Stuart sent Thomas Jefferson, shortly before he took office as Vice President of the United States, some fossil bones: a femur fragment, ulna, radius, and foot bones including three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salt Petre
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−, and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate. It occurs in nature as a mineral, niter (or ''nitre'' in the UK). It is a source of nitrogen, and nitrogen was named after niter. Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as saltpeter (or ''saltpetre'' in the UK). Major uses of potassium nitrate are in fertilizers, tree stump removal, rocket propellants and fireworks. It is one of the major constituents of gunpowder (black powder). In processed meats, potassium nitrate reacts with hemoglobin and myoglobin generating a red color. Etymology Potassium nitrate, because of its early and global use and production, has many names. Hebrew and Egyptian words for it had the consonants n-t-r, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nation's second vice president of the United States, vice president under John Adams and the first United States Secretary of State, United States secretary of state under George Washington. The principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating Thirteen Colonies, American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at state, national, and international levels. During the American Revolution, Jefferson represented Virginia in the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration of Independence. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Spring
Fort Spring is an unincorporated community and town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. It is situated along the Greenbrier River within the Greenbrier River Watershed. It was once a substantial portion of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway by way of the Gravel Girtie route from Hinton in Summers County to Clifton Forge, Virginia. The name is derived from its main export; Mississippian limestone from Snowflake Quarry sent to Clifton Forge. The main road going through the small town was once the original rail line, but was moved. Fort Spring was originally called "Mann's Ferry" and the community's current name refers to the old settler fort that has been lost to history. The rock cliff, or bluff, seen just prior to the primary two train tunnels when traveling eastward, was named 'Wilson's Bluff' due to a family settled there. Colonel John Stuart, who shipped Ice Age sloth bones (''Megalonyx jeffersonii'') to Thomas Jefferson, noted the presence of saltpetre caves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Ratifying Convention
The Virginia Ratifying Convention (also historically referred to as the "Virginia Federal Convention") was a convention of 168 delegates from Virginia who met in 1788 to ratify or reject the United States Constitution, which had been drafted at the Philadelphia Convention the previous year. The Convention met and deliberated from June 2 through June 27 in Richmond at the Richmond Theatre, presently the site of Monumental Church. Judge Edmund Pendleton, Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention, served as the convention's president by unanimous consent. Background and composition The Convention convened "in the temporary capital at Cary and Fourteenth streets" on June 2, 1788, and elected Edmund Pendleton its presiding officer. The next day the Convention relocated to the Richmond Academy (later the site of the Richmond Theatre and now the site of Monumental Church where it continued to meet until June 27.) The Virginia Ratifying Convention narrowly approved joining ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Lewis (soldier)
Andrew Lewis (October 9, 1720 – September 26, 1781) was an Irish-born American pioneer, Surveying, surveyor, military officer and politician in Colonial Virginia and during the American Revolutionary War. A colonel of militia during the French and Indian War, and Brigadier general (United States), brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War, his most famous victory was the Battle of Point Pleasant in Dunmore's War in 1774, although he also drove Lord Dunmore's forces from Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk and Gwynn's Island in 1776. He also helped found Liberty Hall (later Washington and Lee University) in 1776. Early and family life Lewis was born in County Donegal, Ireland, to Col. John Lewis (d. 1762) and his wife Margaret Lynn. In 1732 John Lewis, having killed his landlord in an altercation, fled to Virginia with his sons Andrew and Thomas Lewis (Virginia politician), Thomas. They became among the first settlers in then vast western Augusta County, Virginia, Augusta C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Donnally
Fort Donnally is an unincorporated community in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. It is located along Rader Run Road in Rader Valley, just off US 60, approximately west of Lewisburg. It is also about southwest of Falling Spring. History The frontier fort that became the settlement was built in 1767 by Andrew Donnally. Fort Donnally was the site of an attack by a large group of Indians in May 1778. The settlements were warned by two scouts from Point Pleasant named John Pryor and Philip Hammond (Hamman) who had volunteered to give warning to the Greenbriar settlements. The two scouts went from Point Pleasant to Fort Donnally on foot, being dressed to look like Indians by Nonhelema Nonhelema Hokolesqua (–1786) was an 18th century Shawnee leader and sister of Cornstalk. She was a participant in Pontiac's War and advocated Shawnee neutrality during the American Revolutionary War. Following the war, and despite her support ..., the sister of Chief Cornstalk. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and, at the time, was also used to refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced under the Constitution of the United States. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 1774 and 1789. The First Continental Congress was called in 1774 in response to growing tensions between the colonies culminating in the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. It met for about six weeks and sought to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
