The Valley of Virginia

The Valley of Virginia

Philip Wendel of Framersheim traveled south on what would later be called the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, and bought land for his three sons from Jost Hite in the late 1730s.  Some documentation of these events was found in a lawsuit "Christopher Windle et. al vs. Jost Hite Descendants" in a Chancery Court decision in 1790. The first three graphics below, depicting the early European settlements of the Shenandoah Valley, and the North Mountain Tract properties, are used by permission and are subject to the following copyright notice:

"Hofstra, Warren R., The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley.  Figures 3.6, 3.7, 4.1, pp. 137, 141, 147.  ©2004 The Johns Hopkins University Press.  Reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press."

Shenandoah Valley Pioneer Settlements.

North Mountain Tract properties, as divided by the settlers.

North Mountain Tract properties, after the Lord Fairfax survey in the late 1740s.

Toms Brook -- the original three Wendel properties were here, and up the hill on the right, on the North Mountain tract of the old Lord Fairfax grant.

Mt. Olive, also close to the Wendel farms at Toms Brook.

1819 Estate Settlement, Rockbridge County, Virginia. Daniel Wendel was a son of Christophel and Catherina (Brombach) Wendel, born at Toms Brook and died at Lexington.

In the lower left corner is the only documentation found to date naming the wife of Philip Wendel (Christophel's son) as Elizabeth, daughter of Georg Dellinger.