The plantation site was part of 120,000 acres originally granted to James Patton by the British Crown . Patton died in an Indian massacre in 1755 . The property passed to Patton 's nephew , Colonel William Preston who built the house from 1772 to 1774 . Preston was an important colonial political figure , and may have been the author of the Fincastle Resolutions . He remained on the property , despite frequent threats from nearby Tories and Loyalists and Native Americans and the disruptions of the American Revolutionary War until his death from a stroke at a 1783 local militia muster
Indian massacre
List of Indian massacres
Smithfield (Blacksburg, Virginia)