(This is the second in a series of growing up in Lewisburg, West Virginia, perhaps the greatest town and in the best time to grow up that a young man could ever ask for.)
I had been uprooted at the tender age of 11 from my hometown of Beckley, WV to a place called Lewisburg, historic Lewisburg, they said. I couldn’t have cared less about the history part, all I knew is that my best friend Freddy Arnold was 50 miles away and I had no friends or prospects in this dinky little city in Greenbrier County.
After settling all the children in the various local schools and kindergartens, my parents went about the business of selecting a church. Being Presbyterians, we had one option – Old Stone Presbyterian Church.
The minister, who paid us a quick visit upon discovering our fondness for all things Calvin, was Dr. Phrangle, a tall man with silver hair, a deep baritone voice and a slight southern drawl.
The first Sunday found me on one of the hardest oak pews known to Christendom. I can imagine that if a felon was given the choice of twenty lashes or an hour on one of those pews, he would have gone for the lashes, no question.
But this Old Stone Church truly had some history behind it.
Built in 1796 of native limestone, the building is the oldest church still in continuous use west of the Allegheny Mountains. The cemetery was home to many early settlers of that region and had some most interesting epitaphs. There were also numerous stones on the smaller graves of children. Many, back then, died at an early age.
Inside the Old Stone Church – in addition to the rock-hard pews – was a wrap-around balcony where the slaves of that day worshipped. Later, many of the cadets at Greenbrier Military School would occupy those same balcony seats.
And there was history, as well, behind Greenbrier Military, founded in 1810. From the site of the school, Confederate Gen. Henry Heth had attacked northern forces across the valley on the morning of May 23, 1862. Union troops under Col. George Crook were camped on the hill behind the eventual site of Greenbrier College. Col. Crook’s Ohio Brigade advanced and ultimately Gen. Heth’s troops retreated all the way down the mountain and across the Greenbrier River at Caldwell. In an hour’s battle, some 180 Confederate soldiers were dead and wounded, with 157 taken prisoner. Union casualties of dead, wounded and missing amounted to 73 in the Battle of Lewisburg.
Lewisburg had been named after Gen. Andrew Lewis. A colonel of the militia during the French and Indian War, and a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War, Lewis is most famous for his 1774 victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant. Lewis surveyed much of the Greenbrier District of Augusta County, which later became Greenbrier County, WV. Lewis also served as county lieutenant and later captain in the Augusta County militia.
Okay, so there were Indians, slaves, generals, stone churches, famous battles in Lewisburg – lots of historical treasures, for sure. I would later discover many hidden treasures in this town called Lewisburg. Treasures that would remain with me throughout my life.