The Surveyors -- George Washington and Hanchrist Carlock

From 1746 to 1750 my sixth great-grandfather, Hanchrist Carlock, was the road commissioner in Augusta County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. This meant he served as an advisory agent to local towns when they petitioned to have crude riding trails (or no trails at all) turned into official roads for overland travel by stagecoaches, private carriages and horses.

In 1749 George Washington was working as a surveyor in the same county. Only 17 years old and already a civil engineer, he had been hired by Lord Fairfax to be one of several surveyors of all of Fairfax's lands -- about a million acres -- west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Here is part of a plat map drawn and described by Washington in his own hand (click on the image to enlarge it). It's now in the Library of Congress.

Washington needed a crew and someone to lead it so he hired Hanchrist Carlock, who was 34 years old at the time, as the foreman.

Hanchrist Gerlach was born in the province of Noord-Brabant, Holland. As a teenager he immigrated with his German-born parents and his brothers to Pennsylvania, where he anglicized his last name to Carlock. They settled in Virginia.

Hanchrist brought his brothers Konrad and Frederick on board to assist with the surveying project and begin planning for roads, which was Hanchrist's specialty. 

Part of the survey included an area from the mouth of the Potomac River to Cedar Creek, a small tributary of the James River. 

At some time during the surveying work in this area, George Washington, Hanchrist Carlock and the crew came upon what became known as the Natural Bridge.

 

Over the course of many millennia Cedar Creek had carved a gorge in the mountainous limestone terrain, forming a natural arch 215 feet high with a span of 90 feet on the western slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

George Washington chiseled the official surveyor's mark and his initials, "G.W.," 23 feet up on the north side of the Natural Bridge; Hanchrist Carlock chiseled "H. Carlock" about 12 feet above that and 10 feet to the right.

This photo shows George Washington's marks:

It is unknown exactly how Washington and Carlock were able to scale the bridge and do this precarious carving.

A 1929 telegram in the Virginia historical archives reads:

J.N.O. CLOTHIER MANAGER OF BRIDGE SAYS HE HAS TRIED TO HAVE PHOTOGRAPHS MADE OF CARLOCK NAME BUT SEVERAL PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE REFUSED. I COULD MAKE IT ONLY PART WAY BUT WOULD NOT CARE TO UNDERTAKE SUCH WORK. H.M. MILEY

In 1774 Washington's original survey tract for the Natural Bridge area was granted to Thomas Jefferson by King George III. Jefferson had two cabins built nearby, one of which was kept open for the entertainment of visitors. Jefferson wrote about the Natural Bridge as "a famous place that will draw the attention of the world."

This is an 1801 portrait by Caleb Boyle titled "Thomas Jefferson at the Natural Bridge of Virginia." It hangs in the reading room of the Government & Law Department at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

 

Forty-five years before this portrait was painted, when the French and Indian War began in 1756, there was a call to arms throughout the colonies. Virginia had a militia that was very prepared to answer the call. One of the members of that militia was Hanchrist Carlock.

Years later, when the American Revolution began, Hanchrist served under Col. William Christian in the Cherokee Expedition. Cherokees had been recruited by British Redcoats and Loyalists to raid and kill pioneer settlers.

After that expedition was completed, Hanchrist received word that his old friend George -- now General George Washington -- wanted him to come serve the remainder of his duty directly under Washington's command. Hanchrist heeded this request and served even longer than required -- seven years. 

My sixth great-grandfather and George Washington remained friends until Washington's death in 1799.

Hanchrist Carlock passed away in 1803.


I could not have written this post without the help of Susan Fields, a researcher at the Augusta County Public Library. I could not find authenticated verification about the association between Hanchrist Carlock and George Washington on my own; I kept reaching dead ends and I could not trust uncited, conflicting stories on Ancestry.com. Ms. Fields took my call, was intrigued by what I told her and went to work tracking down leads in the library's local history collection and the Virginia historical archives, then cited every fact she provided me. God bless librarians!

Photo credits: National Archives, Library of Congress, WHY Magazine, Virginia's Natural Bridge Park & Historic Hotel, Lafayette College.