In 1743, Isaac LaRue purchased his first 250-acre parcel of farm land along a little stream known as Long Marsh Run in the Shenandoah Valley, in what is now part of Clarke County, Virginia.

Future President George Washington, whose family lived nearby, surveyed the land for Isaac after the sale.

[1] Isaac built a log cabin to live in and, later, a two-story, coursed limestone house named Claremont, which was completed in 1778.

The three houses have survived and are now part of the Long Marsh Run Rural Historic District, near Berryville, Virginia.

According to LaRue family tradition, Mary Enlow assisted Nancy Hanks Lincoln in delivering her baby, who was mistakenly thought to be named after Mary's sixteen-year-old son, Abraham Enlow, because Abraham had helped Thomas Lincoln in finding assistance for his pregnant wife earlier that day.

[1][3] A few years later, the Lincoln family moved to a new home about five miles away, but Abraham often returned to visit Hodgen's grist mill, near his birthplace.

Helm was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter in the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, while leading his men into action against a well-fortified Union line.

Lincoln and Mary were greatly disturbed when they heard the news of the death of their old friend, and had to go into private mourning in the White House.

[5][6] Over the years, many LaRues went west, settling in Michigan, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, California, Texas, Oregon, and elsewhere.

The most successful was Hugh McElroy LaRue, who followed the Oregon Trail and eventually settled in California, becoming one of the founding pioneers of Sacramento.