Robert Evans reports in his book "History of The Jacob Gochenour Descendants" that the Gochenour family is of swiss ancestry.  On the shores of Lake Zurich is a small village named Gruningen and here was the ancestral home of the Gochenours.  He has found that two Jacob Gochenours arrived in Philadelphia in different years, 1732 and 1736.  A Jacob Gochnauer, Christian Gochnauer and Kathrina Gochnourin appear as passengers on the ship "Samuels", with Hugh Percy as Commander and landed at Philadelphia on August 11, 1732.  Their ages are given as 20, 17, and 18 respectively and the ship sailed from Rotterdam, Holland.  Another Jacob Kochenauer arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Harle" with "Ralph Harle, as master" from Rotterdam, Holland on Sept 1, 1736.  One of the above Jacob Gochenours are our ancestor who settled in Shenandoah County before June 15, 1754.

It is not known who Jacob's wife's family is but his will gives her first name as Mary.  They were married prior to 1743 when their first child was born.  Their children are:

The names and dates of birth are from a bible written in German and in the possession of David T. Gochenour of Grinnell, Iowa.

Jacob obtained two land grants in the Shenandoah Valley, one of 400 acres in 1754 and another of 150 acres in 1766 and was located about 9 miles NW of Woodstock, Va.  It stretched for over a mile on the Back Road around Fairview, Va.  It is not known where the original homesite was located on this property but it is felt from research that it was on the property now owned by S.B. Hepmer as evidenced from a mark shown on the Survey in the Va. State Library at Richmond.  This survey was completed Oct 2, 1750 though the land grant was dated June 15, 1754.  An old house that may have been the original Gochenour homestead is about an eighth of a mile west of the intersection of Back Road and Fairview roads toward the mountain.  The original part of the house is thirty-eight feet by twenty-one feet six inches and is formed of huge logs, most of which are fourteen inches high and eight feet long.  The logs were hand hewed by adze and until recently the cracks were filled with mud and straw mixture (replaced in 1972 with concrete).  Fourteen logs high with notched corners, the log house has two floors.  The floor joists for the second floor are logs resting in notches in opposite walls.  A vertical row of logs divides the upper floor into two rooms.  The first floor though now divided by partitions, apparently was originally a one large room.  The floor boards of the upper story are wide and pegged by wooden pins to the floor joists.  The log house was probably built before 1782.  The house is on land that Jacobs son Abraham possessed and the house would appear to have been built by our immigrant Jacob Gochenour..

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Jacob Gochenour was a Mennonite as evidenced by a petiton which he and Jacob Strickler presented to the House of Burgess in 1769 which states:  "A petition of Jacob Stricktor and Jacob Coughenour on Behalf of themselves and their Protestant Brethren of Sect called Mennonists was presented to the House and read setting forth that the Petitioners have retired to this colony, in the hopes of enjoying the free excersize of their Religion and are willing to contribute a proportionable part of their Estates whenever the Exigencies of Government may require it, and desirious in every other respect as far as they are able to promote the Public Good; but that they are forbidden by the Dictates of Conscience to bear Arms; and therefor praying that they mey be exempt from the Penalties they are subject to for declining military duty."  This shows that Jacob Gochenour was a leader in early Mennonite activity in Virginia.  He was probably a minister of the denomination since during this period they worshipped in each other's houses and had no full time ministers.  Moreover his son Jacob Gochenour Jr. married Elizabeth Roads (Rhodes) who was the daughter of a Mennonite preacher, John Roads (Rhodes).  Another petition to the General Assembly of Virginia asking the Mennonites be exempted from military duties has seventy-four signatures including the four sons of Jacob Gochenour Sr.

One of the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was John Roads, a Mennonite preacher, who emigrated to America from Switzerland.  He arrived in Philadelphia 28 August 1728 on the ship Mortonhouse.  He settled, with a small group of German pioneers from Lancastrer County, Pa at Massanutten on the Shenandoah River in what is now Page County, Va.

John Roads, like Jacob Gochenour also voted for George Washington in 1758 when he ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses and was elected.

Rev. John Roads married Eva (Albrecht) Albright about 1740 and they had thirteen children.  Rev. Roads, his wife and six of their children were killed by the Indians in August 1764.  It is believed the Indians were lead by Simon Girty, "The White Savage" who rode with the Indians robbing and torturing white settlers.  The "Roads Massacre" is well documented in various histories of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  Rev. Roads was shot while standing in the doorway of the home; Mrs. Roads and a son were killed in the yard. Another son  was shot about 150 feet from the house where he climbed a pear tree after hearing the shots; A third son attempted to flee by crossing the river but was killed in the river; The Roads' eldest daughter, Elizabeth, grabbed up her baby sister and ran to the barn securing the door.  An Indian attempted to gain entry while Elizabeth, with her sister in her arms crept through a hole on the opposite side of the barn, ran through field of hemp, crossed the river and got safely to a neighboring house.  By evening of the same day, she had walked about 8 miles with her sister to the home of her eldest brother, Joseph, who lived in Ida.

After pilfering through the house, the Indians set fire to all the buildings and the body of John Roads was consumed in the fire.  When the Indians left, they took with them two sons and two daughters of John Roads as prisoners.  The youngest boy, 8 or 9 years of age and the two young girls were killed when they were unable to travel any farther.  The other boy, Michael, was held captive about 3 years, going from Indian town to Indian town in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.  The money and title papers of John Roads were found after the fire in a niche in the cellar wall.  It is believed the house was rebuilt about 1766 by John Roads II, a grandson of Rev. John Roads and son of Joseph Roads.  John Roads II lived in the house until 1814 when he sold the property.  The George Bauserman family now owns the property and is known as "Fort Roads" or "Hope Farm".  Gary Bauserman now lives on the property, is a distant cousin and was kind enough to give Sally and Donald Clark and Ken Sallinger a guided tour of the premises.  The seven children who survived the massacre are:

On August 31, 1924, a memorial service and an unveiling of a monument to the Roads family was held at the site of the "Roads Massacre".  The memorial is shown as follows:

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The monument is located about a hundred yards from the West Bank of the Shenandoah River and almost at the foot of the Massanutten mountain.  The location is secluded, being four miles North of the Lee Highway.  On the River is the graveyard where Rev. John Roads and a number of his family and descendants are buried.
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