Fellow List Members:

This message is a follow-up to my recent comments on the 1772 
boundary of Fincastle County shown in the Virginia chapter of the 
"Atlas of Historical County Boundaries" in which I discussed the 
question of where ran that boundary line in present-day Montgomery County.

Mary Kegley pointed out in a private email message that "Culbertsons 
(also Crumps) Bottom as being presently located in Summers County, 
WV," is mentioned in David Johnston's "Middle New River Settlements," 
(1908: 12), where Johnston says that Christopher Gist crossed the New 
River at Culbertsons in 1750-51.

Likewise helpful was Karen Stuart's suggestion posted to this list to 
use the USGS Geographic Names Information System database at 
http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/. After some experimentation with 
input spelling, that site also yielded Crump's Bottom. The full USGS 
citation is copied to Wiki under the Crump's Bottom entry which says 
in part "Crumps Bottom was settled in 1753 by Andrew Culbertson, the 
first English settler in the present Summers County. He established a 
working plantation with a lavish home."

Crump's Bottom is on the New River about ten miles north of the 
present Glen Lyn power plant.

 From on-line maps I infer that what in 1772 was called "Culbertsons 
creek" is today known as "Indian Creek."

Drawing a straight line on a map from Crump's Bottom to Luster's Gate 
(where the Catawba Road crosses from the Roanoke to New River 
drainage, as Fincastle County was defined), places William Preston's 
Smithfield Plantation about 3.3 miles over the line into Fincastle 
County from Botetourt County.

Preston's influence in Williamsburg in 1772 was apparently sufficient 
to make as convenient as possible his move from Greenfield in 
Botetourt County to the new county where he was to take up offices 
with their concomitant emoluments.

Jim Glanville
Blacksburg


At 05:39 PM 7/19/2010, you wrote:
>In addition to googling US place names, may I suggest searching the USGS
>Geographic Names Information System database
>http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/ ?  Thanks for the interesting example of
>a difficult geographic research question.
>
>Karen Stuart
>
>On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 4:28 PM, Jim Glanville <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Fellow List Members:
> >
> > The Virginia chapter of the "Atlas of Historical County Boundaries" is a
> > welcome addition to our arsenal of on line resources for carrying out
> > Virginia history research. The Atlas will no doubt provide good 
> service when
> > used in conjunction with other Virginia County resources such as Martha
> > Hiden's "How Justice Grew" and the on-line county road order files provided
> > by the Virginia Transportation Research Council.
> >
><snip>
>
> > The location of the boundary-defining Culbertson's Creek is not well
> > settled. Mary Kegley (Kegley and Kegley 1980: 22) notes a land grant on
> > Culbertson's Creek that does not mention the Greenbrier River. The
> > Greenbrier River is near the Googlable Culbertson Creek in present-day
> > Greenbrier County, West Virginia. This Greenbrier County Culbertson's Creek
> > does not geographically fit the above language specifying the boundaries of
> > Fincastle County.

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