Samuel Kercheval

Samuel Kercheval (March 1767 in Frederick County, Virginia – 14 November 1845 in Middletown, Virginia) was a Virginia lawyer and author. His A History of the Valley of Virginia (1st edition, 1833) provides important primary information on the earliest white settlements of the Shenandoah Valley and South Branch Potomac River and their encounters with local Indians.

Biography

Kercheval married Susannah Chinn on 23 September 1787.

Kercheval corresponded with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. A letter from Jefferson to Kercheval contains an eloquent argument against fossilizing the constitution, arguing against treating, "constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched." The inscription carved on the wall at the Jefferson Memorial behind Jefferson's right hand used the metaphor of a boy child growing up and moving from short to long pants.

The Kerchevals were Huguenots and the name is interpreted as including an ancient or early French spelling of Heart hence it meant Horse-Hearted.

Jefferson wrote 3 letters to Sam. They were replies to Sam's concerns. One was about a political pamphlet. One was about a donation to the Kentucky Military Academy In which the reply, though in good spirit, indicated that if he gave to every request he would be destitute and that he preferred to give where he could oversee the results. The very long letter, considered to be one of Jeffersons' very best because it goes into his prejudices, and how the responsibilities of Civic affairs were subdivided and the interpretation of the Constitution.

As a member of the Order of the Cincinnati, he received title to properties in Maysville Kentucky on the Ohio River. Jefferson, in his tour of the "French Properties" stopped to visit with Sam and his son Ben. Ben later moved on to Detroit. Kercheval Avenue, which extends from Detroit into Grosse Pointe and is the main shopping area there is named in their honor. The grave in Detroit's Historic Elmwood Cemetery has disappeared.

They were Freemasons adhering to the teaching of the metaphors of geometry.

His Valley of Virginia was so popular that the first edition was soon exhausted. He died before the second edition came out. He lived at the time of his death at "Harmony Hall" between Strasburg and Middletown.

Editions of A History of the Valley of Virginia

• First edition, 1833: Winchester, Virginia: Samuel H. Davis; 486 pgs.
• Second edition, 1850 ("Revised and Extended by the Author"): Woodstock, Virginia: John Gatewood, Printer; 347 pgs.
• Third edition, 1902: W.N. Grabill, Power Press.
• Fourth edition, 1925; With notes by Oren F. Morton; 400 pgs.