1. CHARLES "CARL KAYSER"1 KEYSER was born 1702 in Rohraeker, near Stuttgart, Wurttemberg, Germany, and died 1778 on Hawksbill Creek, Page County, Virginia. He married ELIZABETH GROSSGLOSS.
In order to understand the lives of our forefathers we must have some knowledge of what things were like for them back in the mid 1700s in Virginia. Our Charles, progenitor of our line, purchased land in Frederick County, Virginia. This soon became Dunmore and then Shenandoah Counties. Later, after his death and burial, the area our ancestor forged out of the wilderness became Page County. Anyone researching Charles needs to check the records in Frederick and Shenandoah counties. The following information is provided to give the reader insight into what Virginia was like when Charles settled there.
The first settlement in the Shenandoah Valley was made at Massanutten in 1726 or 1727 in Page County long before Page County was established. The Massanutten patent extended for ten miles up and down both sides of the river from the mouth of the Hawksbill to the mouth of Stony Run, near Alma, the White House Bridge and the pioneer monument (erected in 1929) being near the center of the patent. Canada's Peak in the Massanutten Mountains marks the northern limits.
The Massanutten settlers had land troubles. Lord Fairfax (Scotchman) had a grant of all the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers the western line to be run from the head waters of the Potomac to the head waters of the Rappahannock. This line was supposed to begin at the head waters of the present Rappahannock River opposite Front Royal, crossing the valley in the neighborhood of Toms Brook. But Fairfax claimed the head waters to be at the head of the south branch, Rapidan. This would require the line to run twenty-five or more miles further south. If the northern line were accepted, then the Massanutten settlers would find their title good as their grant was from King George II, while if the southern line were established, as it finally was, they would find themselves living on the domain of Lord Fairfax from whom they had no grant. So these settlers had to obtain two deeds, one from King George II, and one from the legal owner, Lord Fairfax.
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) changed the way of life for the early Shenandoah Valley settlers. Until this time the settlers in the Massanutten (Shenandoah) Valley had lived in peace with the Indians. Many evidently had lived in close proximity with the whites. At the beginning of this war, western Indians induced the Valley tribes to join them in this war, so that in the Spring of 1754 the Indians suddenly and unexpectedly moved off, and entirely left the Valley. As a result of their strife many settlers in the Shenandoah Valley went east of the Ridge, others to Pennsylvania, but many remained and prepared forts. For ten years or more the frontier settlements were harassed by Indians often led by French officers. Bounties were offered for scalps. It was ten years of bloodshed, massacre, of plunder, violence and burning all along the frontier. There were two massacres on the Massanutten Patent: The Stone family in 1758 and the Roads Massacre in 1764. The Roads (Rhodes) had 13 children, 6 were massacred. Of the seven who survived, Joseph Roads married Mary Strickler and one of their grandchildren, Ann Roads, b. 1790, married in 1808 to Noah Keyser, born 1786. Noah Keyser was the son of Major Andrew Keyser who served in the American Revolution in the Virginia Troup. See Andrew Keyser, son of Charles.
Shenandoah County was organized on March 24, 1772, and called Dunmore in honor of John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, Governor-in-Chief, 1771-1776, who was a popular Governor until the approach of the Revolution, when he not only remained loyal to the King, but committed under-handed acts to cripple the Colony in the on-coming storm. He appeased the Indians in Dunmore's War, seized the gun powder at Williamsburg, aroused the slaves against their masters, and finally burned Norfolk before fleeing aboard ship. The people of Shenandoah County registered their indignation by changing the name of their county to Shenandoah.
The new county of Page was established by an Act of the General Assembly March 30, 1831, named for John Page, member of the first U. S. Congress in which position he continued until 1797 and Governor of Virginia, from 1802 to 1805, and Lieutenant Governor during the Revolution. The county seat was soon thereafter fixed at Luray which had been formed by an Act August 21, 1812, in Shenandoah County. Most of Page County was taken from Shenandoah County. It lies wholly between the Massanutten Mountain on the west and the Blue Ridge on the east.
Page County, while one of the younger counties, has the distinction of having within its borders a spot whereon the first settlement west of the Blue Ridge in Virginia was made. This settlement was made at Massanutten, an Indian Village, surrounded by Indian Old Fields, on the Shenandoah River, in 1726 or 1727, six miles west of Luray, by settlers from William Penn's Colony. A pioneer monument was erected by the Massanutten Society in 1927 in honor of these settlers on the hill at the famous White House Bridge.
From "A Short History of Page County, Virginia" by Harry M. Strickler, page 61: "In each bend of the river (Shenandoah River) on this original Massanutten patent is at least one combination fort and dwelling. Beginning on the west side of the river opposite the mouth of the Hawksbill where Raymond Strickler now (1952) lives; here we may visit an old log house once the home of Major Andrew Keyser, of the Revolution, and just a short distance farther up the river is the old home of Charles Keyser, now occupied by the venerable David A. Kibler (etc.). Proceeding farther up the river we come to Fort Rhodes where John Rhodes and members of his family were killed by the Indians. (See Andrew Keyser, Jr's wife - Ann Rhodes). This is a log house built over a fortified cellar from which flows a spring. In the next bend is Fort Egypt. In the next bend is Fort Massanutten, and in upper Massanutten is an old Long home built of stone which we will call Fort Paul Long to distinguish it from Fort Long on the right bank of the river. (Charles Keyser's son Joseph's son John married a Long). Crossing the river to the right bank we first come to Fort Long where the pioneers Paul and Philip Long located, now (1952) owned by Charles D. Price.
"All these old homesteads or forts have fortified cellars and are built in much the same manner, constructed of stone with arched ceilings. Some have an outer cellar also strongly constructed through which one must pass before entering the vault. Several of them have running water. These old homes are all built on the Massanutten patent and a number of them are still occupied as dwellings. They were all substantially built and together form the most interesting group of old homes in Northern Virginia, and in fact, in all Virginia. These homes were built, probably from 1750 to 1790."
References include but are not limited to: Shenandoah County Virginia Will Book E, page 160-62; Russell County, Virginia, Virginia Will Book 3, page 153; Page County, Virginia Will Book A, page 98; Forerunners by Strickler, page 120; and Some Descendants of John Counts of Glade Hollow (Southwest Virginia 1722-1977), by Elihu Jasper Sutherland."