(Continued from Note Nr. 1525, Page Nr. 61 .)
John Marshall and his partners purchased the 160,000 acre Leeds Manor from the Fairfax heirs. There were people living on the land who, generally, had been paying rent, first to Fairfax, and then to the heirs. Now these people were obligated to pay their lease money to the Marshall syndicate. Most of them did.
There were exceptions. In an area about 12 miles square, lying generally to the west of the present day town of Marshall, a recalcitrant and rebellious group of tenants claimed that their leases had long expired, that no demands had been made on them for a long time, and that they now owned the land free of any charges. This was the origin of the "free" in Free State. It came from the claim the residents made that they were free of any lease obligations. They said they owned the land.
They had cleared the land, developed the farms, built the barns, and improved the land. They were not inclined to surrender the fruit of their labor.
In part, the people had been living in isolation, in a small remote mountain community. Their "free" attitude extended to their approach to many problems. They tended to be independent, and, by some people's standards, less civilized.
This state of affairs went on for a quarter century until 1833, when the Marshall group brought suit to have their claims in this Free State recognized. The Marshall group was successful. If tenants elected to remain, new leases and agreements were written. Those who refused to sign the new leases were evicted.
Though there was nothing really "free" in the Free State, the name stuck. Their ways and customs set them apart. They kept their reputations as rough, tough, and rebellious. One local historian in 1923 wrote:
"Tradition has represented the early inhabitants of the Free State as wanting in wholesome respect for the laws, as being generally delinquent in the payment of taxes, as making but little or no effort to establish or attend schools, and as having customs among them at variance with the accepted rules of conduct in other parts of the county . . . "
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.