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Rolling Ridge Foundation History Loop

A self-guided walking tour of the history of the Rolling Ridge Foundation Property.

Introduction

Rolling Ridge has a long and fascinating history. This loop hike will lead you to the most interesting historical sites on the property in a roughly chronological order. The recommended beginning site is Niles Cabin, which is accessible by car. The hike is about 5.5 miles long, so three to five hours are recommended for a leisurely traverse. All historic sites are within sight of the trail but some may be difficult to see. Please consider future visitors and leave historical artifacts as you find them. The visitor should also be aware that most of the historical sites have not been restored and walking amid or climbing on them could be dangerous and is not recommended. A map of the route can be found in the center of this booklet.

1. Niles Cabin - The history of Niles Cabin will be considered at the end of the loop. But this is a good spot to stop and get your bearings. To your east, the very top of the Blue Ridge can often be seen above the trees. Rolling Ridge is located on the west side of the Blue Ridge and runs down to the Shenandoah River at the base of the mountain. Humans have inhabited this region since about 10,000 B.C. when nomadic hunters crossed from Siberia to Alaska and quickly spread across North America. There have been no signs of Native American artifacts on Rolling Ridge land, which is not surprising since most of the people focussed their activities on the river valleys though groups would make regular trips to the mountains to gather chestnuts and other plants and to hunt turkeys. Those interested in seeking signs of Native American habitation should explore the floodplain, where crops might have been grown starting about eleven hundred years ago, and the areas around springs and streams, where parties may have camped during forays into the mountains.

European settlement of North America did not initially affect this region. The Appalachian mountains were a formidable barrier to early settlers and explorers, and it was not until 1670 that the explorer John Lederer scaled the Blue Ridge and became the first European to sight the Shenandoah Valley. By this time, the Iroquois had driven the original inhabitants out of the Valley. The Iroquois used the land as a hunting ground and allowed no permanent settlements in the area. Settlers were scared away from the region by these transient Native Americans until the 1720s.

The majority of the first settlers to the Valley entered from Pennsylvania, though others came from Maryland and Virginia. Initially, hunting and ginseng gathering were important endeavors, but settlers soon began to settle down and farm. The Valley became known for its apple orchards and in the rich bottomland large landowners oversaw plantations worked by slaves.

2. Cemetery - This cemetery is the earliest dated artifact on the property with a hand-carved stone reading "J.T. - Born June 24, 1798, Deceist July 7, 1800." This child could have been one of the first born in the Rolling Ridge section of the Blue Ridge when it was first settled. An 1807 map shows a road just a bit north of the current boundary of Rolling Ridge but no other signs of life on this side of the river. In the isolated region south of the road, timber was the primary attraction and continued to support the inhabitants until the Depression. Note the several other field stones stood on end to mark unnamed graves.

3. Stone Pile - We are jumping ahead in time for this site and the next to the early twentieth century when, for a short time, the Rolling Ridge area supported a large farming community. As you walk on the property, you will see many stone walls and piles. The land here is very rocky and farmers spent many back-breaking hours clearing stone from their fields and piling them to the side. Some of the stone was used to build walls which could have marked boundaries or kept livestock in or out. Despite the use of slaves in the Valley, the small landowners who lived on the side of the mountain here were unlikely to have owned slaves and would have cleared the land themselves.

4. Ainsworth Home Place - Many of the trails which we will walk on today were old roads, some of which were used for logging the land and others of which were small farm roads connecting the households in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here at the junction of Grand Boulevard and Wedding Walk (which used to be called Ainsworth Road), there was once a house where the Ainsworth family lived. Also note the nearby stone walls.

5. Langdon Cemetery - Returning to the early nineteenth century, this cemetery was in use in the 1830s. Notice the two cut stones as well as several field stone markers.

In addition to the dominant industry of timbering, flour milling was another important industry in the early 1800s until the Old Dominion Railroad crossed the mountain in 1832 and provided a new market for the wheat. The railroad also affected the timber industry by creating a demand for railroad ties. Starting in 1839, an iron furnace at Shannondale (the community which you drove through on Mission Road a short distance north of Rolling Ridge) also consumed wood. We'll pass the site of a saw mill from this time period later in the loop. A legal distillery was also found on Rolling Ridge property until the temperance movement in the 1830s.

Records suggest that when John Hiskett died and was buried here in 1833, he was so deeply in debt that all of his possessions were inventoried, down to the last candlestick, and were immediately auctioned even though he had a surviving wife. His widow was probably not left destitute since the custom in such situations was for neighbors to buy as many of his belongings as possible and return them to his wife.

6. Possible location of Pine Grove School - Oral legend has it that this foundation is the site of the Pine Grove School, which was one of the first schools in the region. However, an 1852 map places the school just north of the road which ran (and still runs) from Rocks Ford on the Shenandoah River to Wilson Gap on the mountain. This road is not often traveled, but when the leaves are down and a vehicle is on the road, it can be seen from this foundation by looking north across the creek valley in front of you.

7. Christ Church complex - In 1888, Reverend John McGill began to hold Episcopalian Sunday school classes and services near the site of an old saw mill to minister to the lumber workers. Bishop Peterkin, in a contemporary history of West Virginia Episcopal Church, wrote "These people were, for the most part, Methodists of the most emotional type, and the enthusiasm would often reach a high pitch." Over one hundred attended the school and several hundred attended the service so McGill was spurred to build a chapel nearby in the summer of the next year. On donated land, with donated supplies and labor, Christ Church on the Mountain was completed for only $300. It was a simple structure with a clapboard finish (presumably white due to flakes of paint still present on boards in the area), a single hanging gas lamp, rough sawn wooden benches, and a stove. Its foundation can be seen on the south side of the road and some floor beams are still in place. Hammered square nails can also be found, attesting to the age of the structure.

Despite the initial enthusiasm, only one service was offered per month and attendance quickly dropped off. Bishop Peterkin noted another difficulty facing the church: "This work can only be pushed during the summer and fall, as the people will not come out in cold and wet weather."

Later, the area around Christ Church became a true community perhaps due to the "missionary lady", Mrs. Cambell, who was sponsored by the Episcopal Church to live in the log house across the road from Christ Church and teach local children. She had the only telephone in the community, with the route cleared and the poles erected by community members who had also built her house. There were regular services at the church and annual picnics drew not only the local residents but also folks from across the Shenandoah River. The foundation of Mrs. Cambell's house can be found on the north side of the road, along with some tumbled down sheds and an outhouse. In the spring, daffodils still bloom near the foundation.

The community included the Boyds, Cubbages, Grays, Popkins, and Bells, many of whom were buried in the cemetery adjacent to the church from 1903 to 1943. The cemetery includes quite a range of stones, from unmarked field stones to the elaborate cut stone beside the road.

During the first part of the twentieth century, logging was still an important industry but many families owned small scale Appalachian farms. The farms were too small and the ground on the side of the mountain was too rough to merit the purchase of automated machinery, so much of the farming was done by hand. Discarded plough heads from horse drawn ploughs can still be found on the property. The main crops were corn, wheat, and hay, and poultry was also raised. Cattle and hogs had free run of the mountains.

8. Mission Road extended - The road you are presently walking on runs south off the Rolling Ridge property into Virginia. Mission Road extended was present in the early twentieth century as a narrow dirt road, and the road mentioned earlier just beyond the north end of the property was also present. The area was very isolated from the more populous community on the west side of the Shenandoah River, access between the two being via a ford and later a ferry north of Rolling Ridge. Around 1927 or 1931, the bridge which now crosses the Shenandoah on Route 9 was built, lessening the isolation in the Rolling Ridge area.

9. Saw mill - On the east side of the road just before crossing the creek, you can see a channel which was associated with a saw mill operating in the mid nineteenth century. (So we've jumped back in time for this site.) The creek has worn its way down further into the ground since then, so the man-made channel no longer contains water, but when it was built it directed water to turn a wheel and run the mill. The large indentation in the hillside right beside the road is the probable location of the mill since a water wheel requires falling water to turn.

10. Popkins home place - You may remember that one of the stones in the Christ Church cemetery was marked "George Melvin Popkin, born and died July 17, 1931." This is the site of the Popkins home. The standing chimney faces north, away from the easily accessible foundation, suggesting that there may have been an older house on the north side of the chimney. A mixture of old and new building materials in the area of the foundation also supports the idea of a house which was continuously repaired and added to. The remains of several sheds and outbuildings can be seen around the house site. The large weeping willow and white pine were planted long ago by residents, probably as shade trees.

Beginning around the time of the Depression, many of the small farmers on Rolling Ridge property sold their farms and moved into nearby towns. Eventually, the structures were torn down and some building materials salvaged, leaving the foundations you see today.

11. Jones home place - The large chimney here was restored in 2002 to prevent cracks and a lean from destroying the structure. The house which used to sit here was a large, two-story building with a dug out "root cellar" under the room on the east side of the chimney. In addition to the rooms on either side of the chimney, a large porch was attached to the west side of the house. The most recent residents to this house were Mary and Bill Jones who moved to what is now the Study Retreat Community housing area when the Niles bought their land. (More about the Niles later.) Eventually, the Joneses moved off Rolling Ridge property entirely.

In the creek valley to the northwest of the chimney is a boxed in spring which would have provided the inhabitants with water. The spring has silted in since being used. When in use, it was probably dug out to be deep enough to dip in a bucket. A dipper, metal or made of a dried gourd, would typically hang near the spring for those dropping by and in need of a drink of water. (Please be aware that drinking from untested springs such as this one is not safe and can give you severe intestinal problems.)

Back along the trail a short way west of the chimney is another large foundation. This foundation may have been from a large shed. Due to its proximity to the chimney house, the foundation is unlikely to be the remains another house, though it might have been a house for another generation of the same family.

12. Niles Cabin - Henry and Mary Cushing Niles, a Quaker couple from Baltimore, began acquiring land on the side of the Blue Ridge Mountain in 1952 when they purchased 782 acres from Garland Cubbage, who was retiring to Pennsylvania. A farmhouse, part log cabin with two bedrooms, was in the location of the present Niles Cabin and was used by the Niles family as a vacation house until it burnt down in 1967 and the present Niles Cabin was built to replace it. Various sheds and a barn in the area were torn down soon after the property was bought by the Niles, though one shed remains on the southwest side of the yard. The road to the house, which ran right through the yard, was better than the county road and two ponds were built to block traffic on the road. The deeper pond was screened from view by trees and was used for swimming - often skinny dipping. Tulip-trees and Silver Maples in the yard of the Niles Cabin date from this time period and were planted for shade.

Rolling Ridge today - The Niles created the Niles Corporation which consisted of many family members and which oversaw the Rolling Ridge property. Rolling Ridge became larger over time as the Niles continued to buy small parcels until 1979. The Niles envisioned the property as economically self-sustaining based on tree farming but they were also protective of the land which they saw as a sacred spiritual place. To protect the land in perpetuity, the Rolling Ridge Foundation (RRF) was created in 1974 with a mission to preserve the native plants and animals as well as to provide a location for "religious and health-promoting purposes, to minister to the needs of people for the strengthening of spirit, mind, and body." At first, only about 600 acres of the Rolling Ridge property was transferred to the RRF and other sections were kept for the use of the family. But by 1993 all of the land had been transferred to the RRF.

Soon after formation, the RRF began soliciting proposals from not-for-profit parties interested in leasing portions of the property for educational or humanitarian work. There are now three user groups on RR property: the Friends Wilderness Meditation Center (FWMC) which provides Quakers with an area for meditative retreat in a natural setting; For Love of Children (FLOC) which provides teambuilding and leadership development events for groups of youth and their leaders; and Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community (RRSRC), an ecumenical organization which offers retreats on a variety of themes for churches and individuals. All three user groups have many participants from the Washington metropolitan area as well as from local regions.

Except for a few sales of land to the National Park Service which were added to the Appalachian Trail Corridor, Rolling Ridge has maintained its boundaries. In 1994, an agreement was negotiated with the ATC which provided for the construction of the Ridge to River Trail running near the southern boundary of the property from the Appalachian Trail to the Shenandoah River. A conservation easement which restricted development and protected rare plants and animals was also part of the agreement.

In the larger picture, the population of Jefferson County was 21,280 in 1970, only 6,000 more people than had been present in 1850. But by 1979, an influx of commuters from the Washington, D.C, region had expanded the county's population to 28,000. As the eastern panhandle of West Virginia continues to be developed, Rolling Ridge will become increasingly important as an ecological and spiritual refuge for its wild and human residents and visitors.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the history of Rolling Ridge. We welcome additions to our knowledge of the area. A somewhat fuller account of the area's history is also available upon request. Contact ....

I would like to thank all of the residents on the property who shared their files, their knowledge, and their ideas about the history of the land as well as to history hike attenders who gave me the benefit of their knowledge. Special thanks go to Verle Headings, Dave Vandiver and Sheila Bach.

This booklet was written and illustrated by Anna Hess who holds all rights to its contents. ©2002.