Linville Creek was one of the most important centers of Colonial Virginia during the eighteenth century. Its name is derived from William Linvell (various spellings: Linvel, Linwell), who was granted 15,000 acres in the area prior to 1739. Located along the Great Wagon Road in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Linville quickly became a civilized outpost on the frontier. Its earliest settlers were English Quakers, and few Scotch-Irish who were later joined by Swiss Germans many of whom moved south from Pennsylvania.[3]
President Abraham Lincoln's great-grandparents, "Virginia John" and Rebecca Flowers Lincoln also moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1768 and settled on a 600-acre tract of land along Linville Creek. The President's father, Thomas Lincoln, was born on this property in 1778 before his family moved west to what is now Kentucky, which was then part of Virginia but across the mountains from the settled areas. The two-story brick home on the property known as the Lincoln Homestead and Cemetery was built circa 1800 by the President's great-uncle Jacob Lincoln. The property, a registered Virginia Historic Landmark, includes a family cemetery where five generations of Lincolns are buried along with two slaves, identified as Queenie and Uncle Ned.[6]
United States
