Jim Gulledge, Author

Dad's people mainly arrived in the South by ship in Jamestown and Charleston , but Mom's came the harder way winding their way down the spine of the Appalachians on foot and horse on the Great Wagon Road.

They were among the first European settlers of the Shenandoah Valley and many tired of conflict with Native Americans there and moved on to the Carolinas.

Little remains of them now, a few stone chimneys scattered among the hills and this monument at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church, Augusta County, Virginia.

Finleys, Kerrs, Fergusons, McClures... refugees from Scotland looking for a new home.

I hope to visit their monument this summer on our trip to Shenandoah National Park in July.