Adam Miller was not only a good neighbor to his German friends but we are told they did not have much trouble with the Indians during the first years he lived in the Valley. However, he was a brave fighter during the Indian Wars and his record is given in Henning's Statutes. He lived through most of the Revolutionary War and no doubt longed to fight in behalf of the country which had given him the opportunity to develop it.
"On Sunday evening, Dec. 3rd, 1749 a young Franciscan went with us (Diary of Leonard Schell, a Moravian Missionary) to show us the way to Mathias Schawb, who immediately on my offer to preach for them, sent messengers to announce my sermon. In a short time a considerable number of people assembled to whom I preached. After the sermon I baptised a child of Holland's. We stayed overnight with Mathias Schawb. His wife told us we were always welcome and we must come to them whenever we came into that district.
"Toward evening a man from another Dutch settlement, Adam Miller passed. I told him that I would like to come to his house and preach there. He asked if I were sent by God and I answered yes. He said if I were sent by God I should be welcome, but he said there are at present so many kinds of people that often one does not know where they come from. I requested him to notify his neighbors that I would preach which he did.
"On Dec. 4th we left Schawb's house commending the whole family to God. We travelled through the rain across the South Shenandoah to Adam Miller's house who received us with much love. We stayed over night.
"On Dec. 5th I preached at Adam Miller's house on 'Whosoever thirsteth let him come to the water and drink.' A number of thirsty souls were present. Especially Adam Miller took in every word and after the sermon declared himself well pleased. In the afternoon we travelled a short distance, staying overnight with a Swiss."
Joist Hite, the Pioneer
When Joist Hite arrived in Virginia he and his family were required to settle on the land bought from the VanMeters. His purchase was made in June 1731. In October of the same year, he and Robert McKay obtained a grant from the Colonial Government to have 100,000 acres of land surveyed on the west side of the mountain, with the agreement to bring in one hundred settlers within two years. During that year, Hite moved in and settled on that land, but he got an extension of time for bringing in other settlers. By Christmas of 1735 Hite had brought in fifty-four families.
All this land was in the County of Spotsylvania and Hite found that he and his brothers were too far away from the courts so he became interested in getting a new county organized in 1734. This was named Orange, in honor of the Duke of Orange. Later on, having acquired more land, he found himself again too far removed from a court house. And again he applied for a new county. In fact he needed two counties for all his lands and ever-increasing settlers. In 1738 Orange County was divided into three counties, namely: Orange, Frederick, and Augusta to the west of the mountain. With Joist Hite and his wife Anna Maria came their daughters, Mary, her husband George Bowman, Elizabeth and her husband Paul Froman, Magadelena and her husband Jacob Chrisman, and their sons John, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and Joseph. Hite, we are told, allowed his sons-in-law to choose their own homesteads.
His wife, Anna Maria, died in 1738 at Long Meadows and soon he married again. We read the following quaint marriage contracts between him and his second wife: