Editor’s Note: taken from the remaining pages of A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE REVELATION OF VINE by L. James Richardson, published 1804, archived 1805
They built upon the land, and the land was generous. In Vine, rivers flowed agreeably and the rapids were not harsh. Rolling hills offered grazing pastures, while fields stretched richly soiled farmland as far as God had given man eyes to perceive. Honeysuckle blinked its sweet aroma into summer air. The lake was teeming with fish, surrounded by thickly forested mountains with lumber and game.
Thus were erected buildings for a town square: The General Store / Gentleman Jim’s Tavern / Ruth’s Stables / Vance’s Blacksmithing / The Bank of Vine / ClearView Eating House/ and on and on. Men built their farms and settled their families into mountain-cottages. Crops were planted and livestock added to the existing game and docile animals left behind by the Indigenous. Some farms were built around pre-existing maize crops in soil so fertile some workers came to believe the field was planted over a sleeping angel whose elongated, sonorous breathing pushed crops to surface faster and gave root vegetables warm, loose soil to expand in. The Lord was generous to the land of Vine.
Some crude homes half-complete with pottery and deerskin blankets remained from the time before the settling of Vine. Brush, insects, and debris had accumulated, but with restoration, the homes were found to be quite usable. Some of the women found they preferred the pottery and cookware to what had been used in the original colonies and adapted to their use. Preachers discouraged this, so that the women would not be tempted to uncivilization. It was rumored that the witches collected these pre-existing tools for their rituals in the caves that could be found in the forests on the mountains.
The Founding Charter of The Revelation of Vine was signed by all 12 members of the settlers’ leadership:
We the undersigned hereby consecrate and incorporate into legal status as an independent settlement the township of Vine. Hereafter, generations unending until such a time as the Almighty God shall see fit to bring about the Revelation of Jesus and the world’s end, shall this town be a bastion of Holy Christendom, its residents striving and living in servitude of the Almighty and for the glory of God. Under no crown or country, the township of Vine shall not be domain of any but THE LORD.
Jefferson Smith
Lysander Adams
Franklin Davies
George Polk
Alyosius Wilkinson
James Sherman
Jonathan Sevier
Robert MacHenry
Seth Ruth
John Franklin
James Davidson
Adam Vance