OUR VIRGINIA ANCESTORS


    I shall not attempt to lay a background of Virginia history for this section
of my book.  The stories of their lives do that.  I am deeply moved when I visit
mother's home state and realize that our ancestors landed at Jamestown almost three
and a half centuries ago.  The records of intermittent wars with and peaceful rela-
tions with the Indians, of the "starving time", and of the devastating illnesses
that besieged the settlers has been told and retold.  The search for Virginia's
history is ever new, as the scholars find material which completes the records of
those early days.

    We can be proud of the leadership evidenced by some of these ancestors, from
those who served in the government under colonial rule to those who helped in the
establishment of an independent nation.  We can be proud that our ancestors parti-
cipated in every war in Virginia's history, from the massacre of Dr. John Woodson
in 1644 to the skilled surgeon of the Civil War who is the subject of this book.

    In the latter Eighteenth Century there seems to have developed among these
people an almost incredible respect for education.  Some of the same men who had
blazed the trails and fought in the French and Indian wars, planned, built and
maintained colleges for men and academies for women in Virginia.

    William Foote discussed some of these families in Sketches of Virginia, Second
Series.  He refers to some of the families in Luenenberg County, including the
Mortons, Watkins, and Michaux:  "Coming from different European stock, mingling in
society on the frontiers, amalgamating by marriage, molded by the religious teaching
of Robinson and Davies -- they formed a state of society in which the excellence
of the constituent parts has been preserved.  The courtly manners of Williamsburg,
the cheerfulness and ease of the Huguenots, the honest frankness and stern indepen-
dence of the English country gentleman, the activity and shrewdness of the merchant,
the simplicity of republican life - all have been preserved."
	
    Doctor Charles Silas Bigelow Morton combined those traits with those of his New
England father.
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